301 Emergency redeployment (1)

Ah, my vacation is over and with a new Monday comes a new work day. Navi, what's on my schedule today? Skill books? Instructing?

{So, I'm in a meeting right now finding out what your schedule will be. Looks like you'll be emergency redeployed to being Y's white tower.}

Being Y? He's one of the leaders of the dungeon alliance too, right? I don't think I've met him yet.

{You haven't and you probably won't. He's busy with crisis meetings.}

That bad?

{From what I'm being told right now, the adventurers have started building a railway system throughout his dungeon. He's positively livid at the possibility of having his carefully crafted moral traps circumvented by those cheaters. His words.}

They are laying down train tracks in a dungeon? Is that even possible?

{Everything is possible with the right skills and enough resources. But if you mean it's a logistical nightmare, yes, it is. They must have been planning this for ages. And while they are struggling with the boss room and can't connect past the stairs of each floor, they are doing rather well.}

So they just build a train track from the entrance to the stairs or boss room and continue on the next floor? Do the monsters on each floor not hinder them?

{Sigh. Apparently they built small sanctuaries called train stations on each floor. If a monster does break the railway's tracks at any given point, a strike team eliminates it and repairs them. However, most monsters don't have the intellect or the capability to destroy train tracks. And the trains… those things are built like moving fortresses. Even upon collision with something like a dire boar they don't lose.}

I thought technology didn't quite work inside dungeons?

{Electricity based technology tends to malfunction because we take precautions against it. Though they have found ways to defend against that on a small scale. But these train are steam trains with magic acceleration that they can activate for a boost in speed. We can't do anything about a steam engine and the magic acceleration is only used when they need it so blocking that all the time isn't worth it.}

What about blocking it temporarily?

{That can or could be done but unless there's a solid plan involved, being Y won't agree to such an expense.}

And I assume being Y wants me to train something to deal with the trains?

{That would be ideal but honestly, he's just throwing everything he can at this issue. You aren't the only one he asked to have emergency redeployed. Jake, Monica and Blood, even Rani and Edward have been have been moved to this project. Not even Darwin gets to sit this out. Being Y personally asked him to pause his activities and be on standby.}

Who's Blood? A new recruit or someone from another branch?

{Neither. Jade has somewhat recovered from her problem but in the process a secondary personality has taken over. She calls herself Blood and appears to share no active memory with Jade.}

Okay, so we are truly sending everyone we have available. Why aren't the other branches sending people?

{Well, the branch master's don't really deploy unless we deal with the halls. As for the members of other branches… the treatment center focuses on ailments so they aren't a good match for steel structures. The survival camp… not a good choice either. The academy is already short on people. Lastly the dojo already lent us Rani and the others are kept on standby.}

Short on people?

{At the moment, excluding the masters, each branch should have three members. The academy has only two. We have the most since we take the special cases and those tend to be present in greater numbers among humans turned monsters.}

Special cases?

{It's a loose definition really. The dojo focuses on close combat, the survival camp on survivability, the academy on magic and the treatment center on ailments. Technically each of you could forcefully be assigned to one branch but that would be unsuited. I mean take blood as an example, her venom skills would put her into the treatment center while her combat focus would advocate the dojo.}

So the people in the branches are more specialized?

{As I said, loose definitions. Some of them are more specialized, others ended up just as spread out as you. The thing is, we won't relocate someone against their will. So far, Pascal was the only relocation we ever did and she switched fairly early. Simply put, once people have settled in switching would be too much of a hassle.}

Will I ever be introduced to the others?

{Well, you'll meet some of them while on the job, like you already met Rani or Jake. We do occasionally organize team building activities across branches to make us look more like a real company. I can sign you up for the next one, though I have to warn you that the timing is fairly random since it's held as soon as we have enough participants.}

Sure, sign me up.

{Done. Anyway, the meeting is over and you've already gotten a real time briefing. Get going.}

I'm afraid I'll need to ask some more questions. First, what kind of monsters is being Y prepared to give me control over and how many is he prepared to sacrifice?

{Hmm, the floors you'll be active in have a plethora of monsters but I guess the most suited for instructing would be orcs.}

No goblins?

{Goblins are on lower floors. You'll get there when the situation on the higher floors stabilizes. Also, I asked being Y for his bottom line and he said that so long as your actions are beneficial to the mission's success you can use everything present on the floors you were assigned.}

Great. Second question, will I get support from other members?

{Blood is the only one assigned to the same floors. If you want her help you'll have to convince her but you are welcome to try. As for others… I can forward any plans you make that need their assistance to being Y and if he signs off on them, they can be reassigned. But again, you'll have to convince them.}

Last question, can you get me a structural diagram of the train and the tracks?

{What for? Are you secretly an engineer?}

Not an engineer but a carrier. I figure that my dismantling skill should at least give me some hints on where this train can best be dismantled.