At home - chapter 1 - crumble

Backwoods. A city nation. It is located in the north of modern day coleria in a dark forest filled with dreadfull creatures such as bears and venomous snakes, sitting right in between the volcano Halzebeth and the leaping river is a city of a million people. It may not look like a city. In fact it's essentially many many many wooden cabins and houses next to each other in a vast dark and humid forest where the cold northern are clashes with the warm and dense jungle air leaving thick fog and steam. These mix of climates make an almost perfect temperature with a thick haze. The city has the fitt

Living here is where our three heroes have their most influential ancestor, Cleko. Now Backwoods isn't just any other city state. Every household is armed to the teeth. The minimum armament of the backwoods house hold is a carbine musket and large dagger. This is the legal minimum. The year is 1690 (basically the early 1800s, in this universe it was a time period that lasted 1400 - 1860) and the reason this nation is so armed is quite peculiar. Long ago in 1459 the most prosperous nations ever has fallen. That nation created 500 legendary nock guns. Most of them were destroyed during the war of the humble. It is uncertain how many survived for that long. Up to now 14 have been found. Or at least publicly declared. One of them could be worth more than an entire country! Specifically the one in backwoods. The nock guns were a creation scientists don't dare tamper with due to their complex nature. They were forged in the lava of this very volcano.

The backwoods nock gun was special. It was the only surviving Mark 4. The stock made out of soft Crenla tree wood which is very rare, and 24 karat gold to absorb the recoil. Nock guns fired 9 high caliber blunderbuss rounds. The pellets made out of pure obsidian and fired so fast that just one could split medium sized rock. The accuracy could be changed. If you add more pieces of leather with the round the wider the spread would be. And with 9 individual barrels it could vary. Safe to say it was and absolute unit of a gun. A well placed shots could easily kill over 50 people.

The duty of every single man in backwoods was to defend that gun with their life. As soon as they turn 15 they go through vigorous trust and combat training to be able to fend off an invasion. Small militias have tried. Every single one ended in failure.

Cleko was a very young and trustworthy person. He was posted as a cavern guard ( the cavern is where the Nock gun was located )

He was no better trained than anyone else but still climbed. Waiting for the day he would fire at enemies probably wouldn't ever happen in his life.

The news spread like ice on a lake. Rayde armies were building up around the city. The Rayde is single handely the most powerful country in the world. And the tyrannical tsar is obsessed with growing his wealth. What better than raiding a city holding an artifact worth 678 trillion dollars in today's money.

Cleko was awakened an hour early by his father. "Cleko! Get to your post! Attack is lingering!" "What..?" "Rayde forces are building up on the uninhabited forests. The government wants the artifact to be protected and the streets to be defended." "Oh alright I'll head over and get breakfast at miss Grenio's shop" he said jumping out of bed rushing for his clothes as his father left the room.

As he left his house the streets changed. From merchants and civilians trying to get to their jobs it was horses sandbags, checkpoints, logistics and cannons. "Wow things are going fast!" He said walking through the war ready town. The aroma was sizzling rations and chatter of women working their husband's shops.

He checked into his post. He sat behind sandbags chatting with fellow guards. The caverns smelled of volcanic ash. It was a long network of tunnels including a secret exit to the port in case they were every compromise.

The chatter was interrupted by artillery fire. They all prepared for the worst. The officer spoke

"you are to not leave your post. From the main cavern entrance it breaks off into five different tunnel systems. Only two of which lead to the nock gun. Completely on opposite ends. You are to only leave your post if the trap in the section 2 goes off. That means it's compromised. If you ever need to escape with the nock gun there is an emergency escape tunnel with dynamite at the middle. You have a pack of matches to set it off to crumble part of it as you escape to prevent following. Clear?"
"YES SIR" responded the garrison. Cleko was in almost closed off area of the tunnels being the only entrance to his sector a small hole only one man at a time can fit through. Gunshots could be heard from the distance. They couldn't be too far given how deep in the caverns they were. 10 men including two on a gataling gun were in his section.

The gunfire and explosions got louder, and louder, and louder, he was scared for his brothers were stationed in the town. This only meant one thing. He was the last line of defense. The Rayde army would've been massive. The defense ready Backwoods citizens were 300,000 strong. It has just been a few hours and they killed hundreds of thousands.

Cleko was jolted out of his thought when gunfire was going on in the section in front of him. The hole was blocked by smoke. For a solid ten minutes he heard swords clashing and guns firing until silence. Backwoods had a code for a won skirmish being a whisle blow.

The blow never came. His friend tossed a grenade (yes the had grenades back then irl look it up, these aren't frags like the ones today) to see what would happen. All the heard was scared voices in a Rated accent. Without skipping a beat the Gatling opened fire while rayed soldiers rushed through the hole being mowed down. Cleko fired his rifle at one who managed to slip away while they adjusted for recoil. While he reloaded, the gataling ran out of ammo after multiple continuous minutes of firing. The two operators instantly shot. Cleko got jumped by a charging soldier who he instantly stabbed to death with his bayonet before drawing his saber.

If the devil himself caused this downfall the alarm trap was triggered once which meant an enemy made his way into the lava pool of the volcano Halzebeth. His officer told Cleko to go himself. Without hesitation he left his comrades to fight for themselves. He entered the area. It was a long obsidian pathway stretching the diameter of the volcano with the nock gun in the middle. On a round pedestal. He was maybe 100 feet above the lava but the intense heat reached him.

As he looked he saw the man. The general Smith. The one who led the entire invasion. On the bridge. Just him and Cleko. He walked quickly past the nock gun to meet him about a hundred meters from the artifact. "You sick maniac! You killed hundreds of thousands just for a gun! Why??! My brothers! My friends! My family! Just for a piece of metal!" Cleko shouted out of rage
"Boy, I don't know you in the slightest, surrender now. We've defeated the entire army with our 4 million men and currently we're 560,000 strong! You are the maniacs! You've killed millions of fathers, sons, husbands and brothers just for this alleged piece of metal. Now step aside, surrender and you will be honored as one of the last brave soldiers of the backwoods. I must admit your people's bravery. You will have no place in prison since not a single backwoodsman surrendered. You'll be honored. Now step aside young one!" "Never!" Cleko said charging with his saber at the general. General Smith drew his and parried his attack.

The two were stuck in a tight bind until Cleko used the hook of his saber to dismantle the generals guard before slashing the side of his head removing his left eye. "There he is! Shouted a small squad of rayed soldiers coming from the same place as the general. Cleko ran back grabbing the nock gun while avoiding bullets flying past him.

He made it into the section he was posted in. It was devoid of anyone living. The entrance caved in and all his comrades and enemies were dead. He didn't stop to mourn however he made it to the emergency tunnel that lead to the dock. It was a long dirt tunnel that was poorly lit. The squad that chased him didn't follow him into the tunnel for the had no knowledge of it and didn't see it. After they left he assumed the city would be occupied by rayed so he dragged the body of a dead opponent and took his disguise as well as his large bag to hide the nock gun. The Rayde uniform was white pants with black boots, a white shirt, dark blue jacket with red accents. The hat was an almost plain shako with a dark blue emblem.

He lit the dynamite fuse just in case and stealthily exited the tunnel. He blended in with the other occupants. The city was in ruins. Lines of widows and children waiting for their food, bodies of countless men being buried. Houses being burnt down. Injured being treated the air smelled of blood ash and gunpowder. It was the dead of night. The entire city was taken in a bloody ten hours. One of the bloodiest where almost 4.1 million people died (4 million - 300k = 3.7 million rayed casualties + 300k backwoods + 100k civilian casualties = 4.1 million). As Cleko crept around in the docks he found a small river vessel looking ready to depart. He tried not to raise suspicion as he climbed in. Click. The sound of a cocking pistol rang next to his head "hey" said a female voice "Who are you" Cleko turned around to see a short woman with black curled and wavy hair in a small red dress that was cut at the knees seemingly by a knife.

"I know this may look bad but I am not rayed." "Really? Explain." Cleko leaned into her ear to whisper his situation. His voice stressed and quiet. "My name is Cleko, I am one of the few if not the only surviving Backwoods cavern guard. I have the nock gun and I need to get to safety." "Show me" she said not entirely buying his story. Cleko pulled her by the back down to the ground to stay hidden from Rayde. He unbuckled the back and held one of the boats lanterns up to the firearm before putting it back in.

"Believe it now?" "Oh sweet blood of virgin Mary it's real..." She put the firearm to her side "What do you mean it's real? Don't you live here?" "Nah.. I'm a pirate from upstream, I come here every now and then to sell my plunders." She said while putting on a black tricorne with a red rose on the side. "I steal from bandits, gangs and other pirates and stuff. I've always tried to return things if I can but I'd not I sell them." "Alright.. well can you help me get this to somewhere safe and far away?" "Yep." She said with a smirk while tightening a leather corset. "Also by the way can you tighten this for me?" "Uh.. okay..." Cleko reluctantly tightening a black leather corset but not to hard in fear of hurting her. He was a little puzzled on why she was doing this now but he didn't want to ask anything yet.

"My name's Angelica by the way." "Nice.. uh mine's Cleko."

Nice

Good!