While they had been working, the team had known that the commander and a few elites had gone on a dangerous mission, but no one knew the specifics. In war, this was to be expected for some missions were too sensitive to be told to everyone. They trusted in the power of their commander and the team she was with to go and come back alive.
Nada knew both Phoenix and Lady Ellen for a long time. He had been like their bodyguard most times, watching over them. In most times they never were without each other, but given they all held important positions in the team, they couldn't afford to be together all the time.
Seeing her that battered did a number on this musclehead. He seemed ready to bang everything and make a real mess, but there was no target for his rage. He could only seeth in anger as he looked at the direction she had come from.
"I'll go," Barda said.
"No way in hell, I will go!" Nada exclaimed rising.
"Listen, with the others gone you are the one everyone will be looking up to. You and miss Phoenix here," Barda said as he grabbed Nada, calming him down. Nada was shocked how easily Barda had subdued him, and for an instant, he grew scared of what power the teammate held. "Besides, I have better tracking skills, I am a ranger."
Barda's statements made sense. Nada knew his abilities and his limitations, and where he was limited in tracking, a ranger as good as Barda would be like a fish in the water. "I will find them."
These were the last words Barda said before he disappeared into the darkness, going off to look for Lady Ellen and where Phoenix had come from. Nada picked Phoenix and took her to get some medication.
Barda didn't know that the next morning, a delegation from Tristan would show up with Lady Maara leading them. They would come to negotiate on how to get the blueprint of the new steel design, but there would be no one there to negotiate with, save for musclebrain Nada and wounded Phoenix.
He didn't concern himself with all that, for his mind was now focused on one thing only, following the tracks left behind. To any human tracker, trying to follow hoof marks across the forest in the dead of the night was a herculean task, if not an impossibility, but not for Barda. Being a machine had its privileges.
As living organisms move, they release chemicals into the air all around them. These chemicals are picked up by the olfactory nerves in our noses and interpreted as body odors. Dogs are known to have the ability to pick up the specific body odors no matter how faint.
Those were dogs. If humans were going to come up with something similar, they were going to make it an improvement, which they did. Standard body armor and HUD came with the OND
(Olfactory Nerve Display).
Humanity had invented a BO scanner known as Olfactory scanner, named after the nerve itself. For soldiers, the scanners would pick up body odor left in the environment. It would them display its reading in the HUD, enabling one to 'see' rather than smell these distinct scents. It was all very innovative and had been developed over several generations.
Barda's model was a special design that could recreate the moment the person left the BO based on its dispersion on the environment. It had a 73.123% accuracy plus or minus 4.224% depending on winds and planes of dispersion. This was something.
As Barda ran, he followed the phantom image created in this mind by the OND. It was like he was chasing Phoenix's silhouette but in reverse. He could anticipate the environs based on her movement.
4 miles in, Barda picked up other scents. These were the men that had been chasing Phoenix, and they were 3 of them. They were on horseback as well, and they were very skilled in their movements.
As Barda watched the replay of what happened that night, he was thoroughly impressed by Phoenix's horse skills. The woman and the horse could weave through tiny spaces and jump great ditches. The men were having a hard time trying to catch up, and while Barda didn't see it happen, he guessed that was how she had lost them in the first place. Now he got to follow the chase to where they had come from.
As Barda walked, his scans told him that he was close to some large fortress of sorts. There were a lot of human heat signatures moving around the area, and he could easily run into one. Using the guiding system, Barda was able to carve a path across the patrols until he realized where Phoenix had come from.
As he continued his pursuit, he grew even more worried. Based on his readings, Phoenix had escaped from the heart of the enemy's camp while she was wounded. Knowing her, even on her best day Barda wouldn't expect her, or anyone else at purple-rank to escape such a place, such a thing should not have been doable.
That could only mean one thing, they let Phoenix escape, but why?
Snaking across the field to the various tents, Barda entered one of the tents where soldiers were sleeping. It was still dead of the night. He didn't want to make a ruckus, so he quickly changed into one of the soldiers' uniforms, the same ones he had seen the patrols wearing. If he was seen, he'd claim to be on patrol.
Reacquiring the scent, Barda followed the direction Phoenix had come from, knowing that that was where he would find Lady Ellen and the others, or what was left of them. Barda prepared himself for the worst, hoping he was wrong.
The scent led to a large structure that seemed like a prison. There were people locked inside steel bars, and among them, Barda spotted Lady Ellen. She looked filthy from head to toe, unlike the dignified look she maintained. Her clothes were mostly tatters and barely doing the job of keeping her warm, much less concealing her nakedness.
Contrary to her surroundings, her face wore the confidence of a warrior, Undefeated even while captured. Looking at her, Barda was quite proud of what he saw. She looked gorgeous, like a candlelight in a murky night.
'That's my commander,' thought Barda as he made his way forward.
First things first, he needed raised ground. He saw a watchtower but ruled it out. It was too eye-catching and too raised. He would be an open target once discovered, and there was no easy way to get off. He needed a roof, but where would he get one since all these were tents? This would take a while.
***
'I hope Phoenix makes it back okay,' she thought. She wondered if that thought would give her peace but she knew the answer to that. How could it when she had led her team to nigh destruction. She had been captured, her! The prestige of the adventurer team had such miles deep due to this. An adventurer team's commander being captured was akin to insulting the entire team.
Her team may have been small, but it was for this reason that prestige was important. How else would they compete with those who have the numbers if they couldn't claim to have the elites? Theirs was a small team, and aside from a few invites from the higher-ups, everyone else was an elite.
She berated herself at the fact that her greed had made her fly too close to the sun. She had taken a dangerous mission and now her team had been captured for it. Why they hadn't died yet was beyond her, but she had found hope.
As adventurers, they could be ruled as neutral, to a point. Perhaps they would get traded or maybe even freed at a cost. Wishful thinking was a bad thing, but Lady Ellen was clutching on straws. There was still hope of salvaging something out of this yet.
Looking around, she spotted her people. 2 had died when they were under siege, and the rest were pretty banged up due to the ensuing fight. It had been tough, once they were surrounded. Her people didn't disappoint, giving everything they had over and over again before finally falling.
Now they looked haggard, captured but not yet defeated. As she mulled over these thoughts, an arrow struck the ground right in front of her.