Rat Infestation

Daren spent the next few days practically glued to his grandfather. He pleaded and begged to go on the mission to Halcyon while he worked. Stallesso refused. At first, the refusals were resounding 'No's. Slowly they got weaker and weaker as Daren wore him down.

Ultimately, Stallesso couldn't refuse his cute little grandson when he had finally grown up and begged for something for the first time ever. He still didn't want his grandson to be too far away. So, Stallesso agreed to let him travel to Odala City.

If Daren could handle the situation there, then he could go to Halcyon. The only condition was that his friends and the best of the Halcyon Guards accompanied him. Daren gleefully began packing his bags until Stallesso told him that the mission to Odala City would begin after Dor City had stabilized.

The situation at Dor City improved each day. The hidden enemies were dug up and resources were stabilized. All of the non-essential comforts remained broken or scarce, but the essentials like the water and sewer systems had been mostly fixed.

After a week, Dor was barely livable. A few potential heirs to inherit the City Lord position were found. None of them were suitable. Something was always lacking, whether it was age, morals, personality or education.

Stallesso still had a lot of work to do. The city was just too huge to clean up in a short period of time, even with magic. Just over seven million residents resided at Dor. The city was comparable to the size of Hong Kong on Terra, though without sky scrapers and compact residences the city spread out over a larger area.

Then, the situation changed at Odala. The insurgents there grew bolder as news of the victory at Dor spread throughout the land. Securing Odala became much more important. If Odala fell, then the support at Dor would fall.

Unease spread throughout the Odalan forces. They demanded to immediately return to their home city. Stallesso was forced to compromise. The next missions began early, and only half of the Odalan army would return with them.

Daren was allowed to follow along with the Odalan support team. The scouts for the Halcyon mission followed along. There was a fairy ring near Odala. They would help clean up the city then use the fairy ring to arrive near Halcyon.

Before she knew what was happening, Aayla found herself in another wagon heading towards another city on the verge of collapse. At least she wasn't walking the entire way this time.

"I really need to stop getting involved with these types of things." She mumbled.

"What do you need to stop getting involved with?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just worried about everything that's going on right now."

She rode with Jacki, Daren and Chris. They all studied a map of the city laid out before them. With almost five million people, Odala City ranked among the largest cities in Chinebar. Though not as large as Dor, it still dwarfed Cuoq.

When the city was first built, the builders set up the streets and buildings like a maze. The newer portions on the edge of the city were a bit easier to navigate, but the inner city hardly changed over the past millennia. One could easily get lost for days amid its twists and turns.

Even residents who lived in the city all of their lives could get lost with a map if they didn't pay attention. Aayla continued to study the map carefully. Several areas were marked in blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Black x's marked several locations on the map.

Safe areas were marked in green. They typically surrounded the blue areas, which were tightly protected by the government. Areas in yellow were somewhat safe, but had a higher crime rate than normal. Orange areas were somewhat dangerous. Women shouldn't walk around alone there, especially at night.

Finally, the red areas were hotspots of insurgent activity. Here, people tried to stay in what was left of their homes. Many were now homeless and children disappeared daily. Most of the black x's were in those zones. Typically, those marks indicated that a building was destroyed or unsafe.

This map was at least three weeks old. The officer who delivered the map said that the dangerous zones had grown while the green areas shrunk. Only the blue areas remained unchanged. Their escorts repeated that they should never go into the orange or red zones.

Daren and Chris nodded obediently as they promised to behave. Somehow, Aayla got the feeling that they weren't sincere. Those two always seemed to get into trouble.

By the time that they arrived at Odala, the situation had gotten much worse. True Order scouts must have informed their leader about the impending reinforcements. The green zones were reduced to slivers just outside of the blue zones. Most of the city was now orange and red.

Police and other emergency services busily ran about at all hours of the day. Hospitals were overrun and the prisons were overcapacity. City officials didn't dare to build extra outside of the city's walls or in the more dangerous areas because the True Order would simply break the criminals out.

Deep in the largest blue zone, an officer escorted the Cuoq team to their new living quarters. Daren and Chris got a room inside the City Lord's manor, while Jacki and Aayla stayed with the few female guards that accompanied them.

The ladies were guided to a small apartment near the barracks. The three-story building was seized by the military to house more troops after the original residents were moved to another location. The apartment had two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room. For five people, it was a tight fit.

The guards reported to their stations to begin the mission after dropping off their luggage. They didn't even bother to put things away or put on a clean uniform. Faint booms could be heard off in the distance. The True Order had been resorting to more deadly tactics against civilians recently.

Jacki and Aayla quickly followed behind the guards to the main command post. Daren and Chris were already there with the military commander. The City Lord had just left to handle the latest violent incidents. The commander waved to shut the door after everyone arrived.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice. There's not much time. The insurgents have stepped up their attacks while somehow continuing to slip through our fingers. This is their leader. We don't have a name because his minions call him 'Boss' or 'Team Leader', but we call him 'The Rat' since he loves to slink around so much."

Several pictures were placed on the table. Most of them were blurry or taken from too far away to make out any distinct details. Only a couple were of any use. They showed a hooded figure with dirty grey hair. In one of the pictures, a hooded, slightly fat figure stood next to the leader.

"Who's that one standing next to him?" Chris pointed to the other figure, who felt strangely familiar.

"We're not sure. He's only appeared a couple of times. He came to the city two to three months ago and whenever he goes out, he slinks around with the Rat. So, we call him the 'Young Rat'. He's young, a wizard most likely specializing in enchanting and acts as an advisor of some sort."

"Two to three months ago… That's around the time when the True Order started this entire mess."

"It should be a coincidence. There's no way that someone so young and without any reputation could just take over the True Order cell here. The Rat has been scurrying about the city for years. We always thought of him as the more cowardly sort, but he was probably just biding his time until the insurgency started."

The commander continued to brief the commanders of the Cuoq reinforcements of the city's situation. It had been deteriorating for months now, but the latest couple of weeks had the largest change. Now that help was here, it was time to squash the insurgents so Odala could be peaceful again.

**********

A scruffy looking man crept throughout the streets. The boss was expecting an update. At a ruined building on the edge of the city, the man stealthy knocked on a bricked wall.

"May magic reign supreme." He whispered.

A few seconds later, the wall opened up in front of him. The scruffy man entered and hurriedly ran to his boss's office. The Rat was receiving reports from other spies when the scruffy man arrived. A portly figure stood behind the Rat.

"Boss, the reinforcements are here!"

"From where? How many?" The Rat nervously bit his fingernails as he thought of the next part of the plan.

"Cuoq City, with some from North Beti Town. A few looked special, and called themselves the 'Halcyon Guars'. It's a small, elite team Boss. There are at most a couple hundred."

A sinister smile formed on the portly figure's face.

"Eh~? The Halcyon Guards came. How interesting. I wonder if they came as well. Let's change plans, Boss."

"We'll do as you say, advisor. I'll leave everything to you."

The Rat hastily nodded. The City Lord and military were scary, but his advisor was even scarier. He felt no shame just doing whatever the advisor said. The others shuddered as the portly figure smiled.

"Thank you, boss. I'll repay your trust in me."