Chapter 229: New Changes

The best way to handle the problem of bandits would be to do so with a small elite force, the reason why Rezar didn't really need anyone finding out he was alive and back would be because he knew there would be a frantic squabble to stake a claim in his territory before he got properly acclimated to the way his kingdom had changed in his absence. So rather than cause a frantic scramble for a piece of the pie that was Morte Bianca, it would be better to take them out one strike at a time, and now in this case they would be the pie, and he would eat them up one small nibble at a time.

The single moon of Elysium was up in its fullest and brightest form, not that it had any other form, but Rezar just felt as if the moon was just a little bit brighter than normal. Never the less it wasn't as if they needed the light of the moon to move, this particular team was completely comprised of vampires with nothing other than blood on their minds. There were two teams arranged, Kitagawa, Screet and Tristian were in charge of the day team, strictly speaking they were going after targets of their own. While Rezar and three of the best Daughters of the Eclipse along with their leader and Rezar's subordinate, the Night Mother Samira would be going after the orc brigands that were closer.

Samira paused under a rather thick tree that had its branches spread out in a canopy like way, facing all directions it, served as a shelter from the fierce light of the moon. She raised a small round disk and a holographic image popped up, Rezar blinked his eyes in surprise, sure he knew Necron had experienced a quantitative leap in technology and, magic thanks to the help of Alistair and the Muriel elves, but he did not think it was to the point where intractable holographic images were a thing, like where's the fucking steampunk age before they made the bloody jump into a fucking space opera!

The guns where one thing, but the way Samira interacted with the hologram, made Rezar realize something. It was a suspicion, and inkling of an idea, but he wasn't exactly sure. Because if it was what he thought it was, then it would explain how Lenore had been able to handle all of the skirmishes at the borders without spreading herself and her soldiers too thin. He turned to Samira and asked the question that was right at the tip of his tongue.

"Alistair Built the Oculus satellite?" his question startled Samira a bit, her red eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness as she shook her head in response before opening her mouthy to talk.

"No Sire, the materials required for a full version of the satellite is almost impossible to obtain as some of them as we've found out are elements and ores that do not exist anywhere on Elysium. It would have to harvested from suitable meteorites or other planets. So he found a way to walk around that and instead created a team of small satellite drones that travel the atmosphere around Morte Bianca in twenty-four hour cycles.

There's a bit of detail to it, but from what I was told there are 12 of the drones, moving one hour apart from each other and covering one half of Elysium at any given time. So there's always a blind spot to it, and somehow the orcs are always ahead of it. In about an hour we should outside the drone's observation circle, I believe we should head to their last known recorded location, a report just came in and said they made routine drop on a village an hour from here. We can try to track them and their activities from there."

It was a sound plan, and while he wouldn't be remiss in saying it, it seems Samira had grown well into her position over the last three months he's been away. It wouldn't be too farfetched to say that Rezar felt like a proud parent, at first she was a prisoner, and then she was a hostage, and then she was set free and she chose to stay, and on a whim Rezar decided to make her the night mother [after careful consideration and screening on Lenore's and Gynaika's part. They had no intention of taking chances on his safety, which would have been touching if Rezar didn't know he couldn't trust Gynaika for her schemes and Lenore for her emotion clouded judgement.

"If we have to move Samira I guess we should be doing it now, it's almost midnight and I would very much like to be done with this as soon as possible." Rezar said to Samira who gave a curt nod of her head, before turning around and heading swiftly in a particular direction.

Rezar followed behind her barely able to keep up as Samira and her fellow daughters of eclipse moved like shadows within the trees, at first Rezar wondered if perhaps they had unlocked a new skill of sorts, but then he remembered that most of them were bonded to wraith wolves, like the wraith wolves themselves were familiars for them, just as Varka was for him and the seven wolf kings he's not seen yet…. Those guys should be a bit bigger by now.

They made their way outside the forest and onto and open plain, there was river that cut across the horizon, almost like a giant had taken a huge sword and carve out the land. The plain was a series of low rising hills that went up and down in the distance, and cutting a sharp swath forwards was the road that had progressed quite nicely. The road continued onwards before becoming a bridge that went over the six-meter-wide river, and then went forwards a bit before disappearing a bit into another patch of forest ahead.

There were brightly lit lights on the road, and a toll booth at the beginning of the bridge, but one other thing that Rezar could notice was blood, not the sight of it, but rather the stench of it... something was wrong.