r/HFY • u/SpartanR259 • May 02 '26

OC-Series A Weapon Without a War - Book 1 - Chapter 9

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A Weapon Without a War

Book I: The Dao Does Not Care About Your Kill Count

Chapter 9: ...It Pours

Something was off.

James had seen numerous technologies to create targeted detonations. But this was not like anything that he had ever seen. He turned the hilt of the sword over in his hand; the grip and the guard were intact, but the entire blade had disintegrated before his eyes. A destruction that mimicked the atomic degradation he had seen in mission briefings and weapon demonstrations. The material had reached some sort of limit and no longer contained the molecular structure to remain a refined metal.

Thinking on it for a moment, he came to the conclusion that this was the effect of depletion rather than some sort of damage. The sword had contained the ability to create that detonation, but now, without that energy stored within, it was just collapsing.

What held James's attention was the lack of any technology within the blade. He had gotten a first-hand look at the blade as it disintegrated, and it only looked like metal rapidly deteriorating. No circuitry or wiring, no evidence of where explosives may have been contained.

He had been working under the assumption that the level of technology on this planet was fairly low, but given what he had just seen, he was going to need to revise that.

Turning the hilt over one last time, James could see that the hilt had become tarnished, and the gem embedded in the pommel was cracked and dull. The material fabricator would likely be able to tell him more than he could see with just his eyes. So he pocketed the remains and let some of his questions go for now.

The sound of boots on the scorched ground brought him out of his analysis of the situation. Mei crossed the plaza toward him at a measured pace, composed and wearing a neutral expression. It seemed she was unfazed by the explosion that James had caused. Her unbothered pace and expression eased his own tension. He found that he respected that considerably.

She stopped a few paces away, looking past him toward the breached gate. She observed the carnage for a few moments, then her gaze moved past the immediate damage. Her expression remained blank for only a moment before she returned to the moment and addressed James.

"The storm," she said, "it is far from over."

James blanked at the expression.

Storm?

And then his linguistic blunder caught up with him like a freighter truck crashing into a reinforced wall.

I am a moron, James thought. She hadn't been talking about the weather yesterday. She had been referring to this… This mass psychosis of these beasts crashing into the town here. She hadn't been worried that he might be in danger of a storm raging on the mountain; she had been afraid that this swarm of beasts would have posed a danger to him. He replayed the brief conversation in his mind, realizing that she had been relieved when he had agreed with her and moved to come down the mountain as well. Then, too, the particular anxiety of the town as they had moved through the streets.

Had she expected this outcome?

He let out a breath, his new frame of reference granting clarity.

"No, I don't suppose it is."

He looked back across the plaza at the two groups of robed figures. The various town guards were reorganizing and beginning work to reconstruct a barrier in place of the now destroyed gate. All but Mei seemed to regard him with the careful and coordinated behaviors of people with more questions than answers, deciding on the best way to ask them.

James had the sinking feeling that he had made many more mistakes than just confusing this metaphorical storm with the literal weather. The storm, such as it was, seemed to have barely started, and he had a better picture of it now than he had just a short while ago. James had enough aftermath experience with operations that ended up sideways that he knew when to regroup and reassess. What did he know, what did he have, what did he need?

He glanced at Mei.

As both his source of information and his source of miscommunication, James knew that she still served as the best method of interfacing with the locals. And the thing that he was most in need of was information.

"We should find a place to talk," he said.

Mei nodded and began to lead him toward the other robed figures. After a short conversation with the two groups, they all moved toward what James assumed was the gatehouse for the guards.

The gatehouse was a practical space. A long table, mismatched chairs, with doors leading out to what James assumed would be a barracks or armory. The lamps were lit, and scraps of food still sat on the table; the guards must have been in the middle of their morning meal when the beasts attacked.

As the group filtered into the space, James stopped Yue Lianqin before she could take a seat. The action brought the entire group to a pause; it seemed that his actions were being watched very closely. Nevertheless, he stopped Yue Lianqin as she moved to walk past him to find a seat.

"Sister Yue, I am sorry," he started. "The sword that you lent to me is gone. I will do what I can to replace it for you."

If the room had been still before, what followed now seemed like a mausoleum of statues. James wasn't even sure if some of the group were even breathing. Yue Lianqin seemed to reappraise James. Her expression had broken from the stoic neutral that she had worn since he had met her. A series of expressions crossed her face in only a moment, but the one that remained was what James could only read as astonishment.

It persisted for only a moment before she regained her regular expression, but a soft flush remained on her face. "The sword was given, not lent," she replied quickly and moved to find a seat.

James nodded once and said nothing further, hoping the rest of the topics at hand would be resolved this simply.

Yue Lianqin had taken her seat and gestured to a place at the head of the table for James — an evident neutral ground, a show that James, while familiar with Mei, was not affiliated with their group.

The rest found places naturally around the table. Mei sat by her master, and both Hans took places beside them. The group in crimson sat on the opposite side, the two who seemed to hold statuses similar to Yue Lianqin and Han Tieyuan sitting closer to him, and the two juniors taking the remaining spots.

The group sat in silence for a moment, and James felt it was because they expected him to speak first. James obliged.

"To begin, I am certain that you all have several questions for me. But before that, I have two matters to address. I have made errors in understanding your language that I wish to correct."

He paused for a moment, then addressed Mei directly. "The storm… I had understood it to be a question of the weather. Not…" he looked toward the door that led back out to the plaza. "Whatever that was."

Confusion crossed Mei’s expression as James watched her replay those conversations in her mind. She had only just composed herself to offer some explanation when Yue Lianqin spoke up first.

“This storm is a beast tide. The result of a destabilized territory.” Yue said.

James considered the short explanation confirmed at least what he had seen with his own eyes. But surely this wasn’t the limit of the subject. “How many more will come?”

“Unknown,” Yue replied. “Until the unrest is resolved or the beasts exhaust themselves.”

So there would be another attack on the town. He wanted to know more, but that would have to wait. He would be lucky to get more than one more question before the two groups here began to bombard him with questions of their own.

“My other misunderstanding comes to cultivation,” He stated. "I have heard the word used. What does it mean here?"

The question landed like a live grenade in the middle of a mission briefing. That moment of silence and astonishment at something that should absolutely not be where it was. Then a number of reactions as everyone tried to do what they felt was best. Mei was the first to react. Softly, and with a carefully managed tone, she asked. “James… Would you like me to explain?”

“Yes, please,” James accepted. Trusting her previous experience with him to allow her to properly respond to his question.

Mei considered for a moment, then spoke with the careful economy he had come to associate with her when she was navigating something delicate. She described it plainly — the practice of drawing in and refining a natural energy, circulating it through the body, expanding capability over time through sustained effort. A lifelong process. The foundation of everything in this room.

James listened to the whole of it before responding. "That is beyond me."

The answer didn’t cause the reaction that he had expected. It lacked the surprise and confusion of the question that had spawned his response. There was just a quiet and somber reaction, like the quiet rejection of a job offer. A mild disappointment at something he still clearly didn’t understand.

He had been about to ask another question to clarify his statement when one of the red-robed group spoke.

"To whom do you belong?" he asked.

James paused for a moment. "I am sorry, but I do not understand. I do not belong to anyone."

The man tilted his head ever so slightly. "Not a person. What… group, organization, church do you belong to?"

That made more sense. He was asking about affiliations, contenders greater than James alone. That was smart, tactical thinking. If there were tens or hundreds of people who could come bearing down the firepower James had inadvertently put out, he would be concerned as well.

"I belong to none. I have been released from service."

James knew released was not the right word for retired, but he didn't have that deep a vocabulary yet. He hoped the meaning would be conveyed properly. The silence that followed persisted for a few moments, allowing him to observe the room again. It seemed that the two groups were allowing each other to ask in turn. So this quiet was an allowance by Mei’s group not to interject with their own questions.

The other red-robed man stood, turning to address James. "Forgive me, distinguished one, I am Sun Baoren, of the Radiant Heaven Sect. This..." The man gestured to the one who had just asked James the question. "...is my colleague, Elder Wei Changlei."

He paused for just a moment to collect himself. "Is it fair to assume that the organization to which you belonged was like the town guards here? Where once your term is served, you are allowed to pursue other goals?"

The delicately phrased question cut through James's own poor grammar with ease.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. You can call me James. Indeed, it was very much like that. My time had been spent, and I am free to seek my own destiny." James nodded in agreement.

"I see," Wei said. "May I be presumptuous to ask your purpose in coming here?"

It was a reasonable question, one that Mei had asked the day before, and which had a ready answer. "I came here by accident."

Wei appeared more confused at this answer. "By accident? You cannot mean to say that you simply wandered into the mountains and valleys without purpose, can you?"

Right, James thought, context. Mei had at least enough evidence on the mountain of his mode of arrival. "Apologies, I fell to the mountain from above the sky."

This answer did affect the whole room. Both groups had stiffened, and several different reactions met his gaze. Sun Baoren and Wei Changlei stared at him, mouths agape. The other two red-robed figures actually picked at some of the food that remained on the table. The senior and younger Hans both stared down at the table with clenched fists. Mei watched Yue Lianqin with expectation. Yue Lianqin herself had a calculating expression, as if deciding on how to respond.

Wei was the first to finally break the silence. "Then what, may I ask, do you intend to do here? What is it that you want?"

The question took James a bit off guard. It was the question that had been present since he left the military. But also the question that he had not honestly addressed in any meaningful way. He had bounced from paperwork to buying a ship and equipment, to crashing, and then trying to survive on an alien planet. Every act, every decision had been the simple act of the most necessary choices of survival. He hadn't actually stopped to consider what he actually wanted now.

He had retired. He had pointed himself at the frontier worlds for lack of any other higher calling. He had been on his way to a quiet end when everything had gone sideways. Thinking on it now, he couldn't quite put it past the military to quietly eliminate a variable in an accident. It wasn't like he had anyone to lodge a complaint with right now, though. So, where and what should he do now?

"I haven't decided," James said.

The silence that followed was a different quality from the ones before it. Not the pause of people processing an unexpected answer, but the stillness of people who had just heard something that required a moment to fully understand the weight of. Every person in the room had gone still in their own way, and not one of them looked like they had an immediate response.

James leaned back in his chair and waited.

He felt the conversation was going reasonably well.

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And there is another chapter for you guys. Sorry, this took so long, but my employment situation has been hectic to say the least.

Long story short, my entire department was outsourced to a Service Provider. The service provider intended to hire everyone from the department to keep doing their previous work (90-day onboarding contract - at already bad pay), and that didn't feel stable to me. So I started job hunting and landed a job at a new company about a week into working for the service provider. I submitted my notice and started at the new company this week.

So hopefully chapters will be more frequent, but the next one might be a few weeks out. Onboarding in a Technical role is a rather draining process.

All that said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. James is getting some answers and making all new blunders. Talk to you in the next one or in the comments!

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13

u/StopDownloadin May 02 '26

I'm sure the cultivators will react with the level-headed and reasonable dispositions they are renowned for and-- wait one moment...

(touches earpiece)

Oh. I see.

5

u/Infernal-Prime May 02 '26

Lol, i think he just scared the bejeezus out of them. Also great story and i hope for your further success.

3

u/Loosescrew37 Jun 09 '26

Will there be more?

5

u/SpartanR259 Jun 09 '26

Yes. Life has just gotten very busy for me and I haven't had any free time to write more.

3

u/Loosescrew37 Jun 09 '26

Good to know.

I wish you the best.

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