2-3: A Forever War

There's nothing else for the gang in Sinkuun or Darkfinger right now. The gang hits the road, once again southward bound.

Until recently, this place was United Cities territory and would thus have been a no-go for Jam and the crew. Even an entity as powerful as the UC isn't unshakeable, though.

Ells is most likely right about the noble, but children definitely didn't deserve to get carted off to Rebirth, a massive slave labour mine at the heart of the Holy Nation's economy. Don't get it twisted—the Holy Nation are no more righteous actors than the United Cities are.

This region is known as Bast, after the erstwhile city Jam and Ells were just discussing. What was once the northwesternmost UC holding is now the frontline in the war between the United Cities and the Holy Nation, one of the other big three factions. The Holy Nation is a whole different beast from the UC—human supremacist religious zealots—and their presence in the region means the gang is going to have to move somewhat differently.

Careful to keep their distance, the gang spots a detachment of Holy Nation troops led by a paladin. It's best for nonhumans to keep away from these guys in general, but if there is anywhere to survive crossing paths with a paladin, it's here in Bast. They're too far away from home and too focused on fighting the United Cities to spend time hauling the first nonhuman they see off to Rebirth. If that seems like an awfully specific statement, it's because that's what Jam's heard happens to nonhumans who venture into the Holy Nation's actual territory.

While these particular soldiers may not choose to attack shek or hivers on sight, the Holy Nation does hold a special enmity for skeletons. It's severe enough that they consider anyone with a prosthetic limb to be basically a skeleton. To avoid getting attacked on sight and cut to bits by an entire platoon of paranoid skelephobes, Jam reluctantly detaches their shiny new arm and stows it in their backpack.

From a vantage point atop a nearby hill, the gang watches the Holy Nation platoon fall upon first a band of cannibals, then an elite squad of Boss Simion's rebel farmers. Neither puts up much of a fight. Heading toward them, though, is a United Cities platoon.

The UC soldiers aren't as numerous as the Holy Nation ones but they make up for it by being better armed. Even the lowly samurai conscripts have actual armour, unlike the orange-shirted Holy Servants that make up the bulk of the Holy Nation force. Sure enough, the UC samurai spot their foes and fall upon them.

The fighting is fierce but it quickly becomes clear who will ultimately win. The samurai cut through the unarmoured holy servants like grass. The holy sentinels don't last much longer. The high paladin makes an impressive last stand, crumpling a few samurai conscripts with the mighty swings of his blade, but it's to no one's surprise when he eventually falls too.

The gang watches the whole thing from their vantage point, snacking on skimmer jerky. Neither faction objects to spectators but people tend to take a dim view of someone looting their fellows. Once the Holy Nation force is completely defeated, though, Outlaw Farmer swoops in and steals the high paladin's chainmail shirt.

While the samurai patch their wounds, the gang notices another Holy Nation platoon marching through the valley toward them. Like as not they'll overcome the wounded samurai, then more samurai will find them, then more paladins will find them. Neither faction has any shortage of troops to throw at the other. The gang moves on.

The Holy Nation left very little behind when they razed Bast. The gang reaches the remains of the city itself but there's little to find here. Picking through the rubble, they do find a couple odds and ends they could theoretically sell—a barrel of fuel here, a scrap of building material there—but nothing worth weighing themselves down with. Anything valuable must have been either looted during the sack or spirited away by the survivors, wherever they went.

The gang travels through the night searching the Bast region for anything intact or interesting. A couple UC guard towers still stand but everywhere people lived, including the nearby town of Endin, is gone.

From Bast, the gang continues west, roughly following the coast. They spot a lone skimmer and decide to kill it for food—a dangerous fight to pick but one that pays off. Surrounding the massive bug to keep it from hitting more than one person at a time, the gang takes it down without anyone even falling unconscious. Soon after, they spot another group of Holy Nation soldiers emerging from a stretch of desert between two mountain ranges. These guys aren't heading for Bast. Seeing paladins this far away from the frontline means the gang has strayed too close to Holy Nation lands.

Each member of the gang has a reason to avoid the Holy Nation—only a human man can travel there and not be discriminated against. Not that the gang needed any more reasons not to go there. Heeding Riddly's warning, they give the paladins a wide berth and head right down to the northern coast, a strip of land free from Holy Nation control.