The night raids of the month have been extremely successful. The Kirugang bandits have manage to rob and pillage many villages of its gold and people for slaves that they could sell in the black markets of many cities, making thousands of gold coins. However, there was still one thing bugging everyone out, they haven't heard from one of their teams in a month. It was at the beginning of the month, when the bandits spit up into different teams to capture any peasants dumb enough to travel through the night. However, one of them haven't returned. They searched for them, but gave up a few days later. They couldn't afford to waste their time to search for deflectors. Right now, the bandits are living the dream, buying booze, banging broads and all that.
As the new month had arrived, they once again spit up, to cover a broader area, robbing any poor fucker that would be unlucky to cross paths. Due to the lower amount of people, this time, they all spit into groups of 4. One band, all with full grown beards, and a scar somewhere on their face, decided to patrol the forests.
The group were on lookout for more opportunities. It was when they were scouting, using the trees as protection, one saw a cute little girl about 10 to 12 years old, with dirty cloths, a bit torn, walking along the dirt road, given shade by the trees. She looked tired, weak and hungry with nobody around to escort her, yet her cute beauty and her gorgeous aqua blue hair and eyes were all features they knew their boss wouldn't dare resist.
"Hey, what is that little girl doing there?" asked one of the bandits.
"Hmm?" the other bandit notices her.
"She looks to have blue hair. You know the chiefs like them natural blue." said the bandit.
"Yea, we could get a handsome reward from the boss if we present her up. Easily make about 56 gold coins."
"What what if it's a trap?" the third bandit asked, cautious about the situation.
"Good question. You think it's a trap?" said the second bandit looking at the first and forth.
"Maybe. But there doesn't seem to be nobody else around." replied the original bandit.
"Go check then." proposed the forth bandit. The first one was chosen for the job. He was the sneakiest of them all. After carefully analyzing the surroundings, and making sure nobody was around, he came back to the group.
"There doesn't seem to be anybody there."
"If so, then what are we waiting for? Let's pounce and get her!"
Before they put a bag over her head, covering her face, she suddenly fell unconscious. Thinking nothing of it, they picked up long wooden stick would be used with rope to tie both her hands and legs to the natural pole, making it easier for the savages to bring them back to the chief.
...
On the dirt path, a party of 4 were walking along the road. They have began their journey 3 years ago, though they did have trained for combat from before. The party consisted of Milo Sampson, the muscular swordsman wearing a large plate of armor, as it's leader, Mark Wu from the mage a city far far away, wearing a weird red robe with a skirt, with sun patterns all over. Coline Hurst the healer wore blue robes with yellow lining and Leroy Cameron, known for being athletic and quiet, who only one who wielded a bow and wore a nearly black outfit, with his face being covered with a cloth.
A distant scream could be heard from the other side of the forest. The group went on high alert. They all looked at each other, and nodded. Leroy Cameron, with his excellent physique, swiftly went from tree to tree, at the direction of the sound. There, he spotted four bandits, tied up a little girl to a pole. Though they all seemed to have a confused face, he chose to ignore it.
Leroy attached a small black pouch to his arrow, and aimed at the ground. He released the string, and the arrow swooshed fast to the ground. As the pouch collided to the ground, it popped, releasing a large amount of black smoke. The coughing bandits raised their swords, now high on alert. As the smoke cleared, they turned to run away with their prize, only for her to disappear.
"HALT THIEVES!" Milo, with his incredibly deep voice shouted. The bandits find themselves surrounded on both ways. The bandits instinctively turned their backs to each other, forming a packed circle. Mark Wu, taking the opportunity, casted an explosion spell, taking out the bandits. They walked back to Leroy, and looked at the little girl.
...
Melvin, along with the operators, have their eyes stick to their screens. It had been hard work making a long and multiple chains of plausible fake memories for the agent could response to when questions, intercepting a native criminal organization near any benevolent natives willing to take her in. They then had to find a way to nudge the group to go along the path that the group of native criminals went, so that they would eventually cross paths for the benevolent natives to pick up the spy for the operation.
The invisible SE-24 fitted with a speaker, guilty for making the cries of the girl, watched over the group. Using it's microphone, it taps to the natives' conversation. Their words and phrases go through the A.I, translating and learning to translate better. Everyone was very still, waiting for the natives responses.
Using voice synthesis, it mimic their voices, not to perfection, but recognizable, to English. The conversation was also typed out in a notepad, for any reviews for the high command later. The first native to speak was the one with the blue clothing.
"What is he saying?"
"He appears to reflect sympathy for the trojan horse sir."
"Good. The others?"
"Sympathy between the others could be detected. Though one is having a few doubts of the authenticity."
"Initiate the wake up protocol then. Neutralize the toxins within her body." A few buttons were pressed. Orders were given to the A.I, and Phase 3 of Phase 1 of Operation Troy had begun.
"Agent is regaining consciousness. Natives' face indication reaction to be positive."
"Dialogue is being exchanged. No questions are currently being asked. Native receiving a fruit. Purple in color." Melvin, still staring into the monitor, felt a bit suspicious.
"Karl. Give me a signature on the Agent's brain." Karl changed tabs to agent's neurology. Signatures show that strange brain activity after consumption of fruit. Melvin's heart start to beat faster.
"Jake, status of the chemicals inside body. Check for increased Agent TG43." TG43, is a new chemical, discovered to be found in certain fruits on Xerox-H43. Ever since it's discovery, Hamilton had been on a way to find a way to neutralize the chemical. Though nothing has yet to be found, it has been found out some agents could partially reverse it's effects.
"Natives are now asking questions from Agent." said Simon. Melvin smiled.
"Initiate Memory switch. Switch memory name 1 to memory name 2." With just one press of a button, and a load of work from the A.I, something in Hellena's brain, somewhere in her psyche, her consciousness or whatever, changed.
"Sir, question regarding her name is asked. Agent responded with name from memory name 2." Melvin gave huge grin at the sound of Simon's voice.
...
"My name is Hellie." the little blue hair girl responded. A bit of a weird name sure, but the group was confident in it's legitimacy.
"Were you hungry Hellie?" asked Milo.
"Yes sir. I was."
Small questions like this go on with the three adventures and the girl. Leroy however, with his stinking suspicion that something was wrong, waited patiently for his opportune moment.
"Well Hellie. What were you, a little girl, doing far out here going around in the forest alone where not many villagers nearby?" Leroy asked glaring at her, still wearing his black cloth as a mask to cover his face.
"Well, I was headed to the city with my uncle. I was able to cast magic, so I hope to join the academy." Tears then start flowing through her eyes.
"B... But then... some bandits attacked us and... my uncle lost his life trying to protect me. I ran away ever since..." Leroy felt an enormous block of guilt being dumped unto him. The other's calm her down. Internally, everyone was disappointed in him, for questioning a little girl.
"Don't worry my child. You are safe now with us." Coline said while patting her back.
"Hey, why don't you come with us? We will help you get into an academy. Is that good?" Mark Wu proposed. Her tears have been wiped off with a towel.
"You mean it?" She asked. The adventurers smiled.
"Oh course we do."
...
"Sir, they have agreed to take the Agent in. Maybe even help her with her entrance to the school" Melvin could not help smiling. Melvin start to dial Marquise.
"Sir, I contacted to let you know, that Phase 1 of Operation Troy had been successful. We will shortly begin setting up the dominos for Phase 2."
...
Next chapter will release on next Sunday. I was planning to release the discord today but.... it's still not ready. If you want to check out my other novel on Wattpad, the one on a mechanical engineer bringing new technology to a fantasy land, the check it out on Webnovel. Chapter 7 had just released!
https://www.webnovel.com/book/the-mechanical-era_23632115106092105
Thank you for reading.