Chapter 30 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 30 — Comrades

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 29 — The Bamboozle · Next: Chapter 31 — Drop troopers; Tripper · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

<Note Added by Crawler Priestly, 14th edition>

Summary

Priestly, fourteenth edition: in battle one faces one's greatest desires laid bare, 'and it is my devastation' At the castle's one door, behind fan-shaped shields that stop grenades in mid-air but not pulse fire, Splash Zone, Doctor Bones and the strippers hold with a few hundred defenders while the 104th is scattered across the plain and the Beefy Boys, the mage squad that keeps every wall buff topped, are half dead. Three enemies in the camp: invisible Monkeywrenchers in tech cloaks the anti-magic charms cannot see (Donut's glasses on the heat setting can), Reaver paratroopers dug in below the barracks holding a door open for the main force half an hour out, and their own mages with worms in them. The hangar is repaired inside but the roof portal must be fixed from outside. Tipid, nearly armless: 'I didn't know we'd be dealing with Valtay cheese sticks.' Rosetta needs explosion suppression: Lonnie, head of the Beefy Boys, killed and worn, is switching off the interior protections from afar so the Reaver door can open on a bomb. A human crawler mage, Nick Sheets, darts from behind his shield, is hit by a pulse blast, and a second one finishes him: 'His body sizzled like bacon.' Walls 17, 19 and 33 lose their protections; both sides flip the same switches. Tipid on gondii: they take a dead body and its memories slowly, with gaps; they can hop hosts and overclock bodies; the Valtay charter requires willing hosts but outlaw crews exist, and there is a tunnel drama about one called The Maggot Squad. Donut has finally found a spell she can cast, Hole, and cuts a Monkeywrencher in half; Splash Zone's wife is Snail Trail, who dances at Bitches, and his mother-in-law is Grandma Sticky. Imani arrives through Shanty Town's doggie door, talking fast: the Extreme Focus buff doubled in the castle and has everyone chattering like speed; Elle waits in the corridor for whatever comes out of the Reaver door. Kiwi refuses to send Tina: 'She's just a child […] so why is Tina different?' Carl thinks of Asher, of the stepmother hugging him, of Donut sobbing after the Masquerade — 'She's a child, too' — and erases the order; survival has more than one meaning. Donut sends it anyway, and the doors fly open on a screeching allosaurus with a wand who can see the invisible too. Donut from the castle front, headset on: 'Comrades! […] Alpha squad card reserves, to the roof! […] Tina! Sic 'em!' 'She's been hanging out with Rosetta too much.' Imani, a little sad: 'This warlord thing suits her.' 'For the Posse!'

Characters

• Princess Donut — Hole against the invisible; 'Comrades!'; the order Carl could not give.
• Carl — Erases the order to send a child; she is sent anyway.
• Kiwi — 'She's just a child.'
• Big Tina — Unleashed, and able to see the cloaked.
• Tipid — Wounded, talking fast about worms and a tunnel drama.
• Imani — Back through Shanty Town; a buff that makes chatty people chattier.
• Rosetta Thagra — Hunting worms inside the castle; Lonnie is the leak.
• Splash Zone — Married to Snail Trail; son-in-law of Grandma Sticky.
• Doctor Bones — 'You heathens are dead. All of you!'

Locations

• The FUPA — One door, a mural-covered barracks, a bunker of dead mages.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Priestly's devastation: his fears and his desires are the same.
• The Valtay Corporation — The Maggot Squad; a charter about willing hosts; a mage worn from afar.
• Staying human — Children in the camp, and what it means to order one out.
• The Princess Posse — Card reserves to the roof; a warlord's speech.