Shadow Sun Expansion

by Dave Willmarth

  “How do your droids recharge?” Helen asked before Allistor could.

  “We are capable of several charging options. The most efficient is to charge by connecting to charging stations using hydrogen fuel converters. A full charge can be completed in twenty minutes. Next most efficient is connection to facilities like your own that have power provided by the system, taking one hour to fully charge. We can also use solar energy, though the charge time varies based on the intensity of the energy source. On this world, a solar charge would take eight of your hours. We can also convert certain materials to energy in emergency situations. This is an inefficient method, and not recommended for regular use.”

  Allistor thought about it for a moment. He’d certainly buy the hydrogen fuel charging stations for each facility. But he wanted to know about outside. Like field battles.

  “We have the Juggernaut vehicles which run on hydrogen fuel. Can you connect to those and recharge?”

  “I am not familiar with the Juggernaut designation. But most hydrogen fuel vehicles do allow for charging of droids and other systems.”

  “Good to know. Okay! Let’s send a contingent to the Marina Outpost. They’ll be okay without one of the uhh… officer droids?”

  “Those are Centurions, Sire. Each operating unit of one hundred is assigned a Centurion. And yes, a simple Outpost defense is well within the operational capabilities of the standard droids without supervision. Assume the same parameters as given for this Stronghold?”

  “Assume those parameters for all of my properties, please.” Allistor nodded.

  “Very good, Sire. It shall be done.” Twenty-five more of the droids peeled off the back of the column and ran at a solid clip out the gate.

  “Alright, General Prime, it looks like we’re about finished here. I’ll open the teleport pad to the Citadel and you can begin sending your troops to the various Strongholds. We’ll arrange transportation to some of the outlying Outposts. Have you and Nigel worked out force disposition?”

  “We have, Sire.” Prime replied. “We estimate that it will require approximately three thousand eight hundred of my droids to effectively defend all of your facilities. I recommend placing reserve forces at the Cheyenne and Denver locations.”

  “Very good. I defer to your expertise. Both of you. Nigel, please use the pads to transport the troops as you and General Prime have planned. And uh, please put me on loudspeaker at all of our facilities.”

  “Whenever you are ready, Sire.” Nigel replied.

  “Hey everybody! It’s me, Allistor. Your friendly neighborhood Prince. I have a little surprise for all of you. In the next few minutes, a small army of battle droids under the command of General Prime will be teleporting to all of the Strongholds. For those of you at Outposts, they will be arriving by more conventional means in the next day or so. These guys are going to assist us in the defense of our homes in the coming days. Please don’t be frightened by them. They will not harm you, unless you somehow violate your oath and try to harm one of our own.”

  He paused to think for a few seconds, then added. “All of my advisors with access to the structures you’re in, please order one of the hydrogen fuel chargers and install it at your location. Chris, please purchase enough for the Outposts as well, and send them with the troops we transport out there. If they’re ridiculously expensive, let me know before you buy them. If they’re cheap, buy two for each Outpost and ten for each of the bigger properties.” He stopped again, feeling foolish.

  “Oh! We have two new Strongholds, one called Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz Island just off the coast of Santa Barbara, and the other called the Mission at the Santa Barbara airport. We also have new Outposts at the island’s airstrip, and the Santa Barbara Marina. We’re in the process of commandeering ourselves a fishing fleet, a navy, and an air force! So, uhm, if any of you have an interest in becoming pilots, find Kira at the Citadel in a few days for training. And any of you who already have experience driving boats or working a fishing boat, we could use you on the island. Thanks for listening! Have a great day.”

  Allistor looked at General Prime. “Okay, my people have been warned, so nobody should try and shoot you when you step through the teleports. Please commence your deployment. I’d appreciate it if you would remain with me, wherever I am. And maybe an honor guard of two more of your troops? I have a habit of getting into trouble.”

  “Certainly, Sire. And may I say I appreciate your willingness to consider my advice.” Prime saluted again. Two of the droids stepped forward to stand behind him, and the entire remaining column did a perfectly synchronized about-face. The first group stepped onto the teleport pad and disappeared, followed quickly and efficiently by a second group.

  Allistor grinned, wishing he could see the faces of his friends when they got their first look at the droids.

  Chapter 23

  Potts Shot

  By the time the battle droids had all gone through the teleporter, Kira and Gene were ready. Allistor, Helen, the kids, and the three droids walked over to the hangars to find the couple standing between two sleek-looking private jets.

  Allistor introduced everyone quickly, then asked, “So, what do we have here?”

  Gene pointed to his right at the larger of the two planes. “This is an old Gulfstream G650. It’s much newer than the Cessna you guys killed yesterday, only about sixty years old. It has seating for eighteen people, and a range of seven thousand miles with its current systems. This will, of course, change greatly when we replace the engines with alien tech. But with this baby as it is, you could fly from here to Paris or Tokyo. The cabin is super-pressurized, so we can fly as high as forty-five thousand feet, hopefully higher than the dragons will go.”

  Kira pointed at her plane. “I went with a smaller one. The Learjet 70. About the same age as the Gulfstream, it’ll hold eight passengers, plus two in the cockpit, and has a range of two thousand miles. This little darlin can fly low and small, and go over five hundred miles per hour. My little Baby almost outran that dragon at two fifty, so in this girl we should leave them in the dust!”

  Gene pointed to a very cool looking prop plane parked in one of the hangars. “There’s the King Air. You sure you don’t want to try it?”

  “Nope, but I was thinking I could ride with one of you, and maybe try the take-off and landing? You could take over if I mess up.”

  Gene bowed and waved a hand toward Kira with a flourish. “One master flight instructor, at your service.” Kira rolled her eyes.

  Helen said, “Gene, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to ride as your copilot and see if I can pick up the skill?”

  “You’re welcome to try. Though, if I understand it correctly, Allistor picked up as many levels as he did because of a bonus for studying under Kira. I’m afraid I can’t do the same.”

  “That’s okay. I’d still like to try. No point in wasting the opportunity.”

  “Fair enough! And since Allistor’s going to try his hand at landing on that short strip on the island, maybe the kids should ride with you and me?” He winked at Allistor to show he was teasing.

  “Good idea, actually. Take the two battle droids with you as well, and I’ll take General Prime with me.”

  They loaded themselves into the planes, and both pilots performed their pre-flights. When they were ready, Gene took the lead. Over the radio, he said, “I’ll go first. That way if Allistor crashes and burns, blocking the runway, we won’t be trapped.”

  “Speaking of the runway, I fixed the one Kira picked.” Allistor replied, ignoring the jibe. He decided to write the bad jokes off as engineer humor.

  Gene’s take-off went smoothly, and Kira had Allistor taxi to the head of the runway, even as Gene was leaving the ground. She talked him through the process, had him run through it verbally three times, then told him to go for it. Gritting his teeth, his heart pounding in his ears, he increased the thrust, released the brakes, and began to roll down the runway. Picking up speed, he adjusted the flaps, pulled
back on the wheel when Kira told him to… and all of a sudden, they were airborne!

  “Well done, rookie!” She gave him a fist bump. “Pretty smooth for your first time. You must have had a great teacher!”

  “She’s a little gruff, but yeah.” Allistor replied, keeping his eyes on the instruments. They weren’t all that different from the Cessna, except these were all digital displays rather than analog gauges.

  “You might as well keep the wheel.” Kira leaned back in the pilot’s seat. “The flight will take about three minutes. We’ll circle a few times to let Gene land that big monster and get out of the way. Then you can try and land us.”

  Allistor steered the course she gave him, and, sure enough, it was just a moment before they passed over the marina. Allistor waggled the wings a bit to signal the guys below. “Heading back, guys. Join us as soon as you can.”

  “Nice plane, boss!” Corvin responded. “See you soon. Oh! And the robots are cool as hell!”

  Grinning to himself, Allistor watched the island as it seemed to glide toward them from the horizon. When they got closer, and Kira had him circle, he could see that Gene had already landed and moved the plane to a holding area next to the Outpost.

  “Alright, let’s do this.” Kira brought him around and showed him how to line up with the runway. He reduced engine speed, lowered the landing gear, and adjusted the flaps. The plane dropped rapidly, and he thought his breakfast might come up, but Kira just laughed.

  “Happens a lot on first landings. Takes a few tries to get the touch right. Just level her out a bit, good. Now adjust your speed… annnnnd… there!” She clapped her hands as he touched down, hitting the brakes and cutting the thrust. He started to panic as the plane rolled toward the rapidly approaching end of the runway, but the brakes did their job and the plane came to a halt.

  Skill Level up! Your Aviation skill has increased by +1!

  “Way to go, fancypants!” Kira bowed her head in mock respect. “Not bad at all. I’ve had students do much worse with more practice.”

  “Thank you, Kira. I don’t think I can take credit, though. I think the system is somehow assisting me. Like, each skill level is giving me knowledge or skill that I haven’t really earned like I would have had to before the apocalypse.”

  “Well, regardless, I’m proud of you. Now let’s park this baby. Any chance you can build a big hangar up here so we can keep them out of the weather?”

  Allistor thought about it. “I can. But I’m thinking maybe we should construct a strip closer to the Stronghold? It’s a long walk from here to there.”

  Kira grinned and pointed out the window. “No walking for us. Our limo has arrived.”

  Sure enough, Andrea was approaching in one of the Juggernauts.

  “But yes, Gene and I will check out the terrain closer to the Stronghold and see if there’s space for a runway. In the meantime, the hangar?”

  Allistor parked the plane and got out as Kira did her shutdown procedures. He opened his Outpost interface and located a few pre-designed hangar buildings. He chose one of the larger ones, made of a metal that looked a lot like the material Prime and his droids were constructed of. He pushed the button, and the hangar grew over top of the two parked planes.

  When everyone was out of the planes and standing around the vehicle, Allistor said, “I don’t think there’s room for all of us inside. General, can your troops make the walk to the Stronghold?”

  “Yes, sire. And I can ride atop the vehicle so as not to take up space in the interior.” The two droids set off at a walk, heading directly toward Pelican Bay. The others piled in, and Andrea drove them back.

  “This has been quite the day!” Andrea spoke to Allistor as they cruised up the side of a ridge. “Fisher called me from the Marina. He says they’re bringing back like a dozen boats. Should be quite the sight to see. They’ll be here before dark. And we have this shiny new robot army! And airplanes that look like rock stars should be stepping out of them. So, what new and amazing thing are you gonna do tomorrow?” she teased.

  “I was thinking I might take a break and go fishing.” Allistor replied. “If the boats are going to be here tonight, maybe in the morning we can catch a bunch of fish and send them out to everyone.”

  “Sounds more like work than a break, but if you don’t mind, I think I’d like to come along. Might be fun. And I can work on my tan.”

  “Certainly! We can both try and boost our Fishing skill!” he said as they passed by the two walking droids. Andrea honked the horn at them and waved, and they waved back, much to the amusement of the children.

  It wasn’t long before they were back at Pelican Bay. The kids made ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ noises as they saw the beach and the cove, with the shining white Stronghold on the cliff above. Allistor had to admit, it was beautiful. They passed by some hunters who were walking back, and offered them a ride. The three waved them off, saying they were enjoying the walk.

  Once inside, Helen took charge of Maggie and the kids, bustling them off to find quarters and get them cleaned up before a visit to Meg for a proper meal.

  Allistor took a moment to call the leaders of all the Strongholds, to make sure the troops arrived. Then he confirmed they were sending trucks or RVs pulling the big hover pads to deliver troops to the High School, Gun Shop, Ranger Station, Warehouse, and Gas Station Outposts. The ones at the Gas Station in north Denver and the Warehouse in Laramie were close enough to Strongholds that the troops could walk, and he sent someone along in a pickup to install the charger.

  It turned out that hydrogen fuel chargers were considered very basic equipment on the worlds within the system. Like a microwave. They were ten thousand klax each, and Chris purchased a whole pile of them - – two hundred and fifty in all. They sent two to each Outpost, which only had twenty or twenty-five droids to charge. But the Strongholds got twenty each, and the Citadel and Bastion got fifty. There were nearly a thousand droids at each location, and having too few chargers would mean some of them would always be sitting idle waiting to charge. The droids themselves already had programming that allowed them to establish a rotating charging schedule that would keep them all at seventy five percent charge or higher at all times. Fifty chargers meant a hundred and fifty fully charged droids per hour. More if they were already partially charged. The extra chargers were kept in storage for distribution to future facilities or current properties that needed more.

  Allistor received two messages that evening. One from Harmon, the weapon and vehicle merchant, asking which of his properties he wanted his shiny new space yacht delivered to. Allistor had assumed they’d just bring it to wherever he happened to be when the clock ran out, but the question made him think. He sent back a message asking about the size of the ship. The more he thought about it, the less he wanted others to see the thing land at one of his properties. They might make assumptions about him being in league with the aliens, or simply be jealous and want to try and take the ship.

  When he received the reply with the ship’s dimensions, he coughed and had to take a drink. As best as he could visualize, the thing was about the size of a navy battleship! He immediately replied that he’d like it delivered to the Wilderness Stronghold, where no prying eyes would see. He also had to quickly rethink his previous plans. None of the towers he’d built with landing pads on top were anywhere near structurally strong enough to support that ship.

  The second message he received was from the military commander who’d sent him Kira and Gene. The man had apparently heard about Allistor seizing the depository in Denver, even though Allistor’s people had strict instructions not to speak of it. There were things he wasn’t ready for others to know about. The gold was one, the dragon eggs another, and his spaceship a third. He’d also told them not to mention their ability to teleport, but that secret had also gotten out.

  The man’s message asked for Allistor to contact him ASAP. Not sure what the man wanted, and with his opinion of the man pretty low after hearing how he
treated Kira and family, Allistor decided to make it a group call. He gathered Andrea, Dean, Sam, Chris, and Ramon together in a conference room, then had Redd in the Silo radio room place the call.

  The man, whose name was Colonel Potts, answered almost immediately. He was gruff and to the point.

  Good evening, Allistor. I know you’re busy, so I’ll just get to business. After hearing about your successful clearing of the depository in Denver, I sent some of my people to Fort Knox to take that facility. I figured, better we have it than the aliens, right?”

  Allistor made a face at his people. He was sure the man’s greed was his main motivator. But he kept his voice neutral when he replied. “I agree with you there, Colonel. We don’t want the aliens to get their hands on that gold. Can I assume that since you’ve reached out to me, you’ve hit a snag?”

  “You could say that. My people can’t take the place. We blasted past the security doors okay. And cleared the top floor. It was mostly low level monsters. But the minute my team went downstairs, something wiped out half of them. Six men gone in less than a minute. My guys who made it back upstairs and reported in said it was a level thirty elite monster. Something called an Occulant. They say the damn thing shoots lasers from its eyes or some shit.”

  Allistor looked around the table. “Anybody run into one of these before?” Every head shook to indicate a negative.

  When Allistor didn’t speak right away, the Colonel continued. “Anyhow, my highest level guy is twenty, and I’ve got half a dozen at fifteen. We’re no match for that thing. My people tell me you reached level twenty, and some of your people have as well. And you have better weapons than we do.”

  Allistor bristled. Where was this man getting so much information about him and his people? “You seem very well informed about my business, Colonel. Can I ask where your intel is coming from?”