The Cabal

A figure stirred under a cover made out of soft animal skin. He carefully removed himself from the tangle of bodies cuddled up against him and strolled butt naked to the large open balcony. His bare feet brushing against a carpet of animal furs.

From the vantage point of his balcony, ex-United Nations of Mankind Marine Corps, Third Sergeant Raman took in a breath of fresh air and grinned widely. He looked at the city he shaped slowly come awake and sat down on a wicker chair to observe the sun rising over plains.

A wooden palisade ringed his tiny kingdom and further out a larger and taller concrete wall was being built to replace the palisade. Blocky houses made out of mud and stone bricks were arranged in a ring around his fortified palace also made out of local bricks and concrete.

"My Lord, the bath is ready," A soft feminine timid voice spoke from inside the room and Raman stood up and stretched before he followed the scantily clad slave to the bath. A gilded gold collar ringed the neck of the voluptuous slave which indicted her status as a favored slave. The slave collar on a slave indicated his or her position. A gold collar generally is for slaves with masters of high ranks or status while silver collars are for slaves with some status or position and iron collars are for the lowest of slaves.

Should a slave attempt to escape and was caught, they will be beaten till an inch of their lives before slaving away at the saltpeter production factories for life.

Raman entered the Turkish styled bath and allowed the girl to wash him before he sank down into the waters and she massaged his shoulders while he soaked in the water. After washing up, Raman had a full body massage before he pulled the girl down and ravaged her.

Fully refreshed and dressed in a pair of white spider silk robes, he entered the dining room to find the rest of his gang already feasting on the food laid out on the table buffet style.

"Yo, here comes our great Sultan!" Former Petty Officer 2nd class Ivan Pavlo greeted Raman when he entered.

"Good morning!" Raman grinned at his gathered men and sat down on the head of the long table. "Anything of immediate concerns?"

"Some of the orc village chiefs are grumbling that we are taking their men away and we are destroying their traditions and beliefs." Chun-Kok, the only Chinese among the deserters said. He was in charge of Administration here. "They complain that their people no longer have honor in their lives."

"Ha! As if we care what they want!" Nicolas De Vos, running the Recruitment and Manpower department said. "We did not force their young men to join us anyway! Hahahaha!"

"But Boss, I must say using a pyramid scheme on these dumb aliens is a damn good idea!" Nicolas laughed. "We sell them guns and ammunition in return for slaves, food and trade goods!"

"And we don't have to worry about any rebellion from the orcs!" Ivan wiped his greasy fingers on to the table cloth. "They are so stupid to fall for it! As long as they each recruit people who are willing to 'invest' in our weapons, they get a small percentage of the investment and if their recruited members also recruit more people to invest in, they too get part of the investment as a reward!"

"Hahahaha, seeing those dumb orcs doing sales is so damn funny!" Ivan laughed together with Nicolas. "Ultimately all the profit goes to us!"

"Don't worry with the local Chiefs, I will be meeting them later," Raman replied and picked up some cold meat from the plates. "Siddarth, how are the fabricators coming along?"

"Pretty well," Siddarth replied, "We are in the midst of assembling the third fabricator, but we are pretty short handed here." He gestured around the table, "Only two of us are from Engineering with the knowledge to work the parts."

"Well, some of you guys that are free need to help out with the fabricators," Raman said. "We need those tools to keep enjoying our life here, yes?"

The men around the table nodded and agreed. "But Aaron, I want you to keep your focus on training our core of orc troops, you are excused from working with the fabricators." Raman detailed out his work plan.

"Yes, Boss," Aaron nodded, "We need a more sturdy weapon design, those damn orcs keep breaking the guns!"

Raman sighed, "Well, I see what I can come out with. How goes the training?"

"Well, I got over a thousand hot-blooded and grouchy orcs who keep trying to prove that he's the better Orc over the other," Aaron said. "Had to shoot a few of them to keep the others in line."

"The cannon revolvers you made are pretty deadly in close range if they could stop trying to use the guns as melee weapons and breaking them in the process," Aaron said.

The revolver cannons were a simple design with a revolving chamber able to hold four 25mm black powder short case rounds. The revolver barrel and frame was made out of carbon steel was too large for humans and elves' hands as it was specially designed for orcs.

The orcs were able to hit targets up to 15 meters away accurately with the revolver and blow huge holes out of a standard Empire plate mail.

"As for the rocket guns," Aaron grimaced, "Its accuracy is something to be desired. I am training the orcs to volley fire with the rocket guns and I don't want to be under the receiving end of that volley."

The rocket guns were another design made by Raman. The weapon is similar to the M79 grenade launcher used in the 1960s. The difference being a larger handgrip, no flip up sights and different ammunition. It fires a 40mm black powder explosive shot with a crude rocket motor. The rocket is loaded singly into the break action of the gun and fired with a contact fire rune.

It had an effective range of 400 meters and 4 seconds of fuel for the rocket to burn. It was highly inaccurate but the effects were devastating to receive and the Orcs loved it.

"Keep training them, I don't expect them to be the Marine standard of training," Raman replied. "Alright, I think there is a delegation of traders waiting for me to talk business. I leave it to you boys to do what you need to do."

With that Raman wiped his lips with a cloth before he headed off to the meeting area where a group of merchants was awaiting his arrival. He has chosen the site of his city carefully, building his city directly on top of a freshwater oasis in the plains which was also near a major trade route. His actions, of course, incited the ire of the local Orc clans as he took possession of a major water source.

Two Orcs were chatting among themselves while standing guard over the door into the meeting road, straight up and saluted military style to Raman as he approached. They pushed the doors open for Raman to enter and return to their gossip once the doors were closed tight.

In the large meeting room were a long wooden table and comfortable chairs laid out around. Several merchants dressed in rich and colorful clothing to showcase their status stood up as Raman came in. "Greetings, Sul-tan,"

"I heard that you seek safe passage over the plains?" Raman got into business immediately.

"Yes, my Lord," The merchants looked curiously at the strange being seated in front of them. "We like to hire your men to provide escorts."

"I got a better plan," Raman grinned, "How about setting up a trading hub here?"

"A trade hub?" The merchants looked at each other, "Why do we want to trade here in the middle of no where?"

"I offer a free trade zone here in my city," Raman replied. "It's free trade, no trade taxes."

"What is a free trade zone?" The merchants asked curiously.

Raman grinned, knowing that he has gotten the merchant's attention and started to explain what a free trade zone is and the benefits of it.

-----

The meeting went on till late afternoon and Raman came out of the room with all smiles on his paunchy face. Finally, it is all coming together! Raman thought to himself happily. It had been almost half a year since they ran away from the ship and established his city-state here in the plains.

If it wasn't for the fact of his powerful weapons, the Orc's countless raids on his budding city would have destroyed his dreams. Luckily he managed to sell his pyramid scheme of investing in his weapons to the Orcs who paid in slaves, valuables, food and trade goods which increased his wealth and manpower greatly.

He even accepted contracts of servitude by the Orcs if they couldn't pay and while sales incentives and commissions, he formed a medieval army of sales executives that strived to hit the end of the month KPIs!

All these generated incoming and manpower as word spread to the surrounding cities and towns of a new city that offered weapons and items of the utmost quality. His city mostly consisted of Orcs and slaves, while a mix of merchants setting up shops and services here. As only one can offer to buy a property in his city will automatically become a citizen which has its own benefits like exemption from paying entrance fees and water taxes.

These activities, of course, did not well went with the Orc nomadic clans living in the plains as young orcs lured by the promises of riches by Orcish salesmen. The Orc elders were also unable to do much as Raman was smart enough to offer trade deals with the surrounding clans that would force the clans to rely on him solely in the future for weapons and other resources.

And with his weapons and an army of Orc soldiers bonded to him by a magical contract, no Orc clan was stupid enough to attack him anymore. Raman grinned as he envisioned what his city will grow into and unlike those damn stuck up officers trying to regimentalize everything, this is what freedom is all about!

But he still has to be mindful of the power of his previous colleagues. Those people playing soldiers might be weak in dealing with this world, but they still have plenty of fire power to destroy everything he has built up.

And for that, he needed to be both economically and militarily strong that those UN shitheads will have to think twice at attacking him. Now his city population is almost fifteen thousand strong, with another five thousand traffic daily at least. People are flocking to his city in waves due to the expansionist Empire which was aggressively expanding its borders.

Sooner or later, the Empire will come knocking and Raman knew enough that to prevent stop the Empire is not to defeat it but to make it too painful and expensive for them to continue.

But he needs an army and for that, Raman planned to unite the Orcs under one flag, his flag. With the powerful Orcs in his pocket, he will have a force that no one can content against and he will be king!

As he walked towards the great hall, the doors were opened by two of the largest specimen of Orcs, Raman has ever seen. He strolled confidently through the opened doors and sat down on the throne like seat on the raised platform where a large group of grumbling Orcish chieftains and Elders were gathered under the watchful guns of his Orc soldiers.

They watched cautiously with beady eyes at Raman who looked down on them like he was their god.

"Welcome to The Cabal!"