act7mini

Careful. Walk slowly.

I'm alright... no need to prop me up.

Save your strength. We're still not clear until we're over that mountain.

How far are we now... from Ursus?

Not that far. We aren't deep in the barrens yet... not deep enough.

Let me just breathe for a moment...

Go ahead. I'll wait.

...Huff...

What's past the mountain, to the northeast?

Kazimierz people's land, I think.

But we're not going that way.

This is the first time I've left Ursus.

You'll get used to it.

There's nothing left for us in Ursus.

Phew... this place looks good enough.

It's almost night. Let's set up camp here.

Um... how much do we have left in rations?

We've gone through more than half the haul from the warehouse. Plus what we traded for from the wandering settlement, we still have about four day's worth... not a whole lot.

Watch our bags. I'll look for some firewood.

This place is... so quiet.

That's not a bad thing. We should be wary of anyone passing by, though.

Call it a stroke of good luck that we came through without any trouble.

Bandit groups and outlaws, packs of wild beasts...

Most would say the barrens are a fatally dangerous place to be.

Can we really find our way to these 'Rusthammer' people?

There's no reason the vagabonds would trick us. There'd be no sense in tricking us.

Rusthammer's people are operating nearby, that much plenty know.

Will they accept us?

We can't be sure, but we have to try.

Long before, in the village... the soldiers all said the 'Rusthammers' were a vicious, barbarous lot, thugs who killed for pleasure on the wastes.

They all said that, and afterwards there were people in the team who told of them too...

Rumors aren't sure to be truth. Have you forgotten how those bastard noblemen spoke of us?

'Insatiable, ruthless Reunion bandits.'

All the old patriarchs of Ursus need to do is make a bag of rumors up, and they can turn anything they don't like into maneating monsters for the commoners.

It's a customary trick of theirs. This definitely isn't like that, as far as I can see.

Have you met them before?

I have. It was even while I was serving.

That year was the year they said the borderland armies went into Kazimierz territory, plundering villages.

Ah... I heard about that from someone in my own village.

The captain mentioned it too. They all died after, apparently?

The captain told you all that?

They were Ursus regulars. A whole army platoon, armed to the teeth, bringing full sets of combat equipment past the border. There's no hope of completely fooling us about what was happening.

The looting was just an excuse by the brass to shift the blame. Maybe the soldiers really did want to stir up a battle, you know.

Sadly, things didn't go how they wanted. I don't know what took place in Kazimierz's hilled forests... but not a single one of them came back. A total annihilation, more or less.

As for the truth behind why they crossed the border... they're all dead, and who cares anymore.

But their death isn't solely down to the Kazimierz people... that I know for sure.

So what happened?

It was the fourth day the soldiers had crossed into Kazimierz... a sentinel reported that a great group of wastelanders entered Ursus' own borders.

Wastelanders?

Back then, I was stationed right at the border garrison's resupply station, and when the sentinel announced invaders, nobody in the barracks took it seriously.

Though you don't often see a whole crowd of barrenland vagabonds on their last hopes, it's not new, either. Especially not at the Ursus border.

They sent out a little squad, ready to intercept the poor saps and boost manpower a little in the jurisdiction's mines. Nothing too strange compared to their usual business.

...But...

Let me guess. That squad didn't come back?

The next morning, a guard with his face coated in blood scrambled into our camp. It wasn't just the squad who got wiped out. Three neighboring checkpoints had completely fallen too, and only he made it back out alive.

The station officer at that time wasn't as stupid as now. He determined it was Kazimierz soldiers disguising as barrenland wanderers and springing attacks on checkpoints, so he immediately reported a need for reinforcements to the higher-ups.

It took until then for us to realize, our Originium communicators had lost all signals from allies within range, and we were sitting fowlbeasts on our own. After that, that night...

After the sun set, a sound of metal beating traveled all throughout the valley, fearsome and ear-piercing, like the primitive drums of war.

And then there were people. So many people... more than a hundred... maybe more than a thousand, carrying countless rough works of weaponry, shouting rallying cries we had no hope of understanding, charging madly into our camp.

They looked like humans, yet you couldn't sense the 'human' part of them. I thought they'd gone crazy, because even if the comrades by their sides were blown away by artillery, the pace of their assault didn't slow one bit.

I'd say that's the most terrifying attack I've ever experienced. Forget Reunion's countless battles afterwards, none of them could compare to that evening of insanity.

They only retreated once first light finally came over the valley.

Innumerous corpses piled all around the camp, bloodstains and marks from Originium Arts bombardment everywhere... the whole day through, the air was filled with a smell of rust so thick you could vomit.

...That's just too excessive.

Why?

Why attack the Ursus Army with no regard for the cost? What was their goal?

That's the crucial bit.

After a few days, a backup unit finally made it. It was only then we learned that two Infected mines nearby had been totally plundered, they'd set everyone in the mines free, and burnt down five whole military supply warehouses in the area.

They hacked up the officers and mine overseers they caught, and tore every Ursus flag and landmark they found to shreds...

Rusthammer washed off the traces of Ursus, and left behind not a single mark in the ruins.

What was most important was, the unlucky lot who gallivanted into Kazimierz land had practically lost all of their rear reinforcements. Once the Ursus Army had reacted, it was already too late.

Even now, I still can't comprehend their lunatic conduct.

But 'wasteland scum who slaughter for pleasure' wouldn't raid the Ursus Army in order to free the poor people in the mines.

They're not normal thugs, I'm certain of that.

...That story really is...

Hard to believe, right.

I still have no way to tell... if it would be a correct choice to join them.

Even someone of Mr. Patriot's caliber got...

Don't think about it. Let's just go to sleep.

There'll always be a way.

Maybe...

We're here...

This is where... we were looking for...?

'Straight north from the second peak, on top of a massive, upright boulder.'

I didn't imagine it would actually be here.

A rust-speckled iron hammer is stuck upside-down in a boulder on a peak, the black rag tied to the handle like a flag fluttering wild in the wind.

'If you wish to join us, then search for the rusthammer in the rent-apart rock.'

This group likes a bit of dramatic delivery, huh.

This isn't dramatics, this is a symbol.

If you want to live on the barrens, you must be like this hammer.

You don't need to be sharp, but you do need to be tenacious.

You don't resemble... 'ordinary passers-by.'

I recognize the symbol on your clothes.

'Reunion.'

Speak. Tell us why you sought us.

You... you don't look like you're Infected.

I thought...

We-We want to join the Rusthammers!

Join?

Weak, timid, fearful, helpless...