Shadow Sun Expansion

by Dave Willmarth

  “She’s been feeding them instead of herself.”

  Allistor thought she was probably right. Helen got up to grab more plates, and Allistor fetched another table to put next to the first, then brought over more chairs with Helen’s help. By the time the kids arrived, they were all set up.

  “Well, hello there, little ones.” Allistor smiled at the kids. The oldest was a boy that looked to be maybe ten, and the youngest a girl of four or five. The middle two were boys that might have been twins aged seven or eight. The ten-year-old was black, and the other three children looked Hispanic. Maggie was a blue-eyed blonde.

  “Maggie, you can introduce us to your family as they eat. Looks like all of you could use a solid meal.” He began cutting apart pieces of the murder chicken bbq and placing them on plates, which Helen passed around. She produced several water bottles from her inventory, and handed one to each child.

  Nervous at first, the children sat with their hands in their laps, their eyes darting from the food to Maggie to the strangers. Maggie nodded her head, picking up a piece of the chicken and taking a bite. The little ones instantly dug in.

  “Easy, easy.” Helen chided them. “Chew the food before you swallow, or you’ll get sick. We’re in no rush. You’re safe here with us. Take your time.” she spoke softly, reaching out to stroke the hair of the little girl, who flinched away. “I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She pulled back her hand and put it in her lap.

  Maggie swallowed her food and said, “That’s Lila. And this is Billy, Edgar, and Jose.” She pointed to the eldest boy first, after nodding toward Lila.

  “William.” Billy corrected her. “My name is William Jefferson Johnson.” He puffed out his chest.

  “Nice to meet you, William. That’s quite a name. Sounds presidential.” Allistor held out a hand for the boy to shake. Then he shook hands with the two younger ones, ignoring the sticky bbq sauce. “Edgar and Jose. Are you brothers?”

  They both nodded their heads, not pausing their meal to speak.

  Allistor and Helen let them eat in peace for a while, cutting more pieces of chicken for them when they finished the first. Helen even produced some cookies for dessert, which the kids seemed oddly unenthused about.

  Maggie saw her confusion and smiled. “We’ve been living off mostly vending machine food and stuff that’s prepackaged. So a lot of granola bars, chips, cookies, and sugary foods.”

  Allistor chuckled. “I did the same for the first couple weeks. We lived off what we could scavenge from a convenience store. Until we learned we could cook and eat the monsters we killed.”

  Maggie nodded. “We were part of a larger group until a few weeks ago. We were living in one of the hotels near here. They did the same thing. There were always those canid things sniffing around, and we learned to cook them. But then the earthquake hit. The hotel collapsed and killed almost all of us. The monsters got some others. We’re all that’s left. And I don’t have any weapons to kill the canids with. I don’t dare leave these guys to go find one, so we just hide.

  Helen put a hand on Maggie’s. “You’ve done an amazing job keeping them alive.” She reached into her inventory and pulled out a .45 pistol with a couple extra magazines, handing them to Maggie. “And now you have a weapon. Just in case.”

  “Speaking of hiding, if you want to come with us, you won’t have to do that anymore. At least, not from the monsters. We can take you to a safe place. I plan to make this place a Stronghold, so no more monsters can spawn here. And we have other Strongholds up in the Rocky mountains. With thousands of people to help keep you safe.”

  “Are you really a prince?” Lila asked around a mouthful of murder chicken.

  “I really am. Though I wasn’t always. I was just a regular dude like William here, before the world changed. I got lucky, and met Helen. She did some special magic, and turned me into a Prince!”

  Helen snorted. “He didn’t just meet me. He saved my life. I was all alone and hiding from canids, just like you. I was starving in a dark basement. Allistor found me, and pulled me up into the light. He fed me, and protected me, and became my best friend. Now we watch out for each other.”

  Lila had already lost interest and gone back to focusing on her food. But Maggie and William hung on every word.

  “Can you make me a prince, too?” William asked, hope written all over his face.

  Helen smiled gently at him. “I’m afraid it was a one-time, special thing. I don’t have that power anymore.”

  William looked disappointed, poking at his chicken with a fork and pushing it around his plate.

  “But thanks to Helen, I have some power now.” Allistor chimed in. “For instance, I have the power to make you a Squire. What do you think about that?”

  “What’s a squire?” William eyed him suspiciously.

  Maggie answered for him. “In the old days, when there were kings and knights, every noble knight had a squire. Usually a boy or young man who helped him put on and take off his armor, took care of his horse, made sure his weapons were clean and sharp. And, in return, the knights would train them to become a knight themselves.”

  Allistor was impressed. “Exactly right, Maggie! Well done. Now, I’m only a Prince, not a king. And I don’t have any knights yet. I do have cowboys, and hunters, and engineers, and crafters, and all kinds of other people. So, until I get myself some knights, you could be my squire if you like.”

  “And you’ll teach me how to be a prince?” William wasn’t ready to give up on princedom so easily.

  “Ha! I don’t have any idea how to be a prince. I’m just learning myself. But we can learn together.”

  William thought it over for a while, stuffing another forkful of chicken into his mouth and chewing slowly. Finally, he nodded his head. “Okay, but I need my own room. And a salary of like… a hundred dollars.”

  Maggie suppressed a grin as Allistor responded. “Oh ho! Quite the tough negotiator we have here. Maybe you can teach me how to be a good Prince!” Allistor winked at the boy. “You’ve got a deal!” He held out his hand for another sticky handshake.

  William beamed at Maggie, his chest puffed out again. Then his face fell. “Shit, I should have asked for two hundred dollars.”

  Maggie smacked him on the back of his head, just hard enough to get his attention. “Language, Billy!”

  Helen and Allistor suppressed their laughter. Helen said, “I can’t wait for you to meet Chloe. I have a feeling you two are going to get along great.”

  Noticing the position of the sun through the windows, Allistor got back to business. “Listen, Maggie. I need your permission to turn this place into a Stronghold, since you were here first. The system works on sort of a ‘finders keepers’ basis right now. If you’ll allow me to make the Stronghold here, and all of you swear the oath of loyalty,” he paused to look at William. “Just like the knights of old used to do.” Looking back at Maggie, he finished, “We can take you guys with us and give you a new home.”

  Maggie didn’t hesitate. “The airport is all yours.” The little ones all nodded in agreement.

  Allistor opened his interface and confirmed that he was now able to claim the airport. “Okay guys, there’s going to be some bright light and noise, but nothing that will hurt you. It’s actually pretty cool to watch. Are you ready? Watch this!”

  He claimed the airport and created the Stronghold. Using the existing building structure, he added high walls around the entire airport property, excluding the runways. He added the same subterranean levels he’d just built on the island, and added a couple of towers. Next came the greenhouse and other ancillary structures, the utilities, sensors, et cetera. Then he addressed the concern he had about stationing people in this dangerous earthquake zone. While he worked, Helen had Maggie and the kids repeat the oath, making it a solemn event for the kids’ sake.

  Opening the Defense tab, he went crazy. First, he purchased a dozen of the plasma cannons and mounted them on the walls and the t
owers. Then he bought three anti-aircraft batteries and placed them behind the walls. He littered the ground outside with mines, except for the one runway Kira had chosen. Then he repaired that runway just as he did the island’s strip.

  Next, he pulled up one of the options that Logan had discovered, and purchased five battalions of battle droids, each a thousand strong. The army cost him a seven hundred fifty thousand klax, but he had money to burn, and big plans for the small army. With that done, he asked the kids, “What should we name this place?”

  Distracted by the lights, and more than a little disturbed that their chairs now seemed to be sitting on empty space, the kids didn’t answer right away. Eventually, Edgar spoke up. “How about ‘the Mission’? My papa told us that this place was built to look like a mission that the priests built here a long time ago.”

  “Perfect!” Allistor patted the boy on the head, filled in the name, and completed the transaction.

  He enjoyed watching the kids’ faces as the Stronghold built itself. A few moments after the construction was complete, his own face adopted the same look of wonder as a side door of the market kiosk opened, and battle droids began to march out in a column ten-wide. They just kept coming and coming, marching directly toward him.

  The droids were roughly humanoid in shape, walking upright smoothly on two legs. But their torsos sported four arms instead of two. Two of the arms held plasma rifles, and one carried a long staff weapon of some kind. Each of them sported a pack on their backs. Their bodies were made of a black metal composite that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Atop their torsos, the droids’ heads were angular, shaped in a wedge like a viper’s skull. They had three eyes set in a triangle centered in their faces, two that glowed blue and one green.

  The lead droid was nearly twice the size of the others, and had gold stripes across its chest. One out of every hundred of the droids in the column was larger than the rest, but smaller than the leader, and had red stripes.

  The lead droid approached Allistor and bowed. Its motions were fluid and silent, none of the jerky movements Allistor would expect from a machine. “Brigade Commander Alpha, at your service, Prince Allistor.” Its voice was deep and smooth, with no mechanical resonance at all. It was almost as if he were interacting with a human in battle mech armor.

  Allistor was geeking out so hard he nearly forgot how to speak. He hoped the delay made him look impressive and royal instead of as doofy as he felt. Looking around at the shocked faces of Maggie and the kids, he felt a little better.

  “Welcome to the Mission Stronghold, Brigade Commander. I have some questions about your capabilities.”

  “Of course, Prince Allistor.”

  “Please take a look at this Stronghold and its defenses. I’d like to know how many of your soldiers you think it would take to defend this place against an alien force that might try to take it.”

  The Alpha stood unmoving as its two blue eyes separated and moved around its head in opposite directions. A moment later they returned to the front, and it spoke.

  “You have significant anti-aircraft capabilities, as well as more than the standard number of plasma cannon emplacements atop the walls. Proper estimation of force requirements is difficult without a specific threat assessment. However, a standard colonization ship would carry a force of approximately one hundred fighters in addition to the civilian contingent. Against such a force, with your current fixed capabilities, two hundred and fifty of my battle droids would be sufficient to successfully defend the Stronghold.”

  “Thank you, Commander. Do you have a name, by the way?”

  “My current designation is Brigade Commander Alpha. You may choose to change this designation as you see fit.”

  “Good! Since you are my first commander, I think we’ll call you Prime. You will command all of my current and future forces, should I need more. Giving you the effective rank of General. Is that acceptable?”

  Prime bowed again. “Of course, Prince Allistor.”

  “Alright then! I have several Strongholds, a Citadel, and the Bastion to defend. Please assign… let’s say five hundred of your troops to remain here and defend the Mission. Just to be sure. The rest we will distribute among the other facilities to support the human defenders.”

  “Very good, Prince Allistor.” The droid saluted with a fist to its chest.

  Immediately, the last five hundred droids in the column, including five of the mid-sized droids, separated from the rest and fanned out, taking up posts along the walls and up on the towers. Allistor was deeply impressed by their efficiency.

  “Are there any specific parameters you wish to include with the standard defense protocol?”

  Allistor looked at Helen, who was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. She said, “Looting mobs?”

  “Ah, yes. Any non-human attackers that your soldiers kill should be brought inside and looted. Can your soldiers loot?”

  “Of course, Prince Allistor. Any items looted or resources gathered will be automatically deposited in the Stronghold’s vault per standard operating procedure, unless you wish to designate otherwise.”

  “That’s fine. Then have your troops loot their kills after the battle is over, and seize any resources left behind by the attackers. This includes vehicles. If you are unable to secure the vehicles inside the Stronghold, then protect them until we arrive to take possession of them.”

  “And for human attackers?”

  “Give them a verbal warning to stay away. Use non-lethal force if possible, then detain them. Or if they retreat, let them go. But do not allow them to damage your troops or my property. Use lethal force if necessary. And in that case, treat them as any other attacker.”

  “Understood, Prince Allistor.” Prime saluted again.

  “No need to call me Prince Allistor each time. It seems clunky. How ‘bout you just call me Sire?”

  “As you wish, Sire.”

  “Alright. Last thing. And this goes for all of your troops in all our locations. I’m going to give you a list of my trusted advisors. You and your troops are to obey their orders as if they were my own. With the single exception that any order to attack me or my sworn citizens requires my direct approval.”

  “Understood, Sire.”

  “Good. Hold on for a moment while I arrange transport. Nigel, please update General Prime here on the size and defensive capabilities of our other facilities. I’d like a recommendation from the two of you on troop deployment at each.”

  “Of course, Sire.” both droid and AI answered in unison. Allistor was impressed that Nigel had picked up his instructions regarding how to address him.

  Walking over to the open market kiosk, he did a search for teleport pads. Not finding anything, he went back to his own Stronghold tab. He remembered reading that the pads were expensive, but didn’t recall seeing where to purchase them. The answer came to him when he gave up after a long search of that tab and switched to one called Transportation. He found the pads there along with hubs for sale. The hubs were greyed out, Allistor assumed until the Stabilization period was over. But since he already had a hub, he was able to purchase another pad for five million klax. That price, which had seemed so unbelievably high to him when he’d first researched it, didn’t even make him blink now. The value for the cost was tremendous.

  He quickly installed the pad, then tried his radio. “Gene? Kira? How we doing?”

  “Nice Stronghold, prince fancypants.” Kira’s amused reply came across.

  “We’ve got keys for three jets. I’m looking them over, but really any one of them would be fine. We can have the best two gassed up in about twenty minutes. You sure you don’t want to try a plane of your own? There’s a beautiful King Air turboprop just sitting here. I kind of want to hug it.” Gene offered.

  Allistor shook his head, though Gene couldn’t see him. “Maybe another time? We’re going to have some additional passengers. We found five survivors to bring home. Thought we might give them a little p
lane ride instead of just using the teleport.”

  “Roger that.” Kira answered. “Hey, um, I’m looking at the gate. You need to make it bigger. These two jets have wide wings, and we won’t be able to taxi out.”

  Allistor smacked himself in the forehead. He should have thought of that. Opening his Stronghold tab again, he made a quick adjustment to double the width of the gate. This required him to switch from swinging doors to a solid metal slab that rose up from the ground to fill in the gateway like a horizontal elevator door. Then, while he was thinking about it, he set some mines out along the other side of the runway, and under the other, still broken runways. Anybody trying to land here other than his people would have a bad day.

  “Alright, the gate is fixed.” he reported. Then, just to check, he called out. “Marina crew, can any of you hear me?”

  “Loud ‘n’ clear, boss.” Bagwell answered. “Congrats on the new Stronghold.”

  “Thanks, we’re calling it the Mission. And boy, do I have a surprise for you guys. How you doing on the boats?”

  “We found keys for two sport fishers and a friggin’ yacht. I mean, a big one. The kind you can land a helicopter on. Right now, we’re trying to figure out how to pilot the damned thing. It’s all digital, and we need a security code. But we’ll figure it out. We also found a real fishing boat with no keys, but Corvin was able to hotwire it. If we can get the yacht going, it can tow several other boats, so we’re picking out some good ones.”

  “Alright, well, don’t wait on us. We’ve got a teleport pad set up here, and you heard the update on the planes. If you have the boats arranged in time to get back before dark, do it. Otherwise, sleep at the Outpost and head back in the morning.”

  “Roger that, boss.”

  Mentioning the marina Outpost, Allistor turned to Prime, who was standing quietly, presumably communing with Nigel.

  “Prime, can your soldiers walk about ten miles to our Marina Outpost and man that station?”

  “Of course, Sire. Each unit now has the locations of all your facilities updated in their programming. My battle droids can march approximately one hundred of your miles before needing to recharge. I recommend sending twenty-five to the Marina Outpost. They can run there in approximately thirty minutes.”