by Tao Wong
No surprise, Mel follows us as we walk.
As we head down the corridor to the elevators, Ben speaks. “Sam tells me he’s not really from the Yukon. He joined you later?”
“Yes.”
“Ah…” Ben pauses, realizing I’m not going to elaborate. “Well, he seems to have gotten along well with you.”
“He’s got an interesting Class,” I reply.
Mel’s eyes tighten, but he doesn’t say a thing.
“Very true. There’s been some interesting synergy between his Class and the Mechanics, Engineers, and other craftsmen in town. Now that they’re working together with a wider range of resources, they’re managing to develop some interesting inventions,” Ben says. “Ah, you might be interested in this.”
Ben stops at a door, opening it and pointing at where the original apartment building expanded to join the retail stores. For a time, he explains the various security measures and his Skill, detailing Mana and point cost, the self-improving nature of the building. It’s an interesting discussion, but as we speak, I can see Mel getting more and more impatient.
When we’re finally out of the join, Mel speaks. “What are your plans for us? For the residents.”
“What do you mean?” I say, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t seem intent on leaving. Are you intending to choose people based off their Class and Skills? Off Levels?” Mel says belligerently.
“Choose what?” I ask softly, playing obtuse.
“The people in charge. Don’t think we’ve not noticed that everyone in charge is someone with a high Level or one of you Yukoners.”
“Well, we are somewhat more experienced,” I say, shrugging. “Thus the higher Levels.”
“Bullshit,” Mel snaps. “Ben here knows more about city planning than you do. He was on a damn city council, for god’s sake. And Mikito might know how to fight, but she’s still learning about tactics. At least you’ve got Sam and Torg dealing with your farming and crafting.”
“Figuring we’re not competent?”
“Not competence. Lacking a little experience perhaps,” Ben interjected.
Mel says, “You kids have—”
“Kids? You might be a decade or two older, but we’re not exactly children,” I snap, then draw a deeper breath. “And who’s the kid? You both are nearly half our Levels. Whether you like it or not, those Levels matter.”
“As does pre-System experience!” Mel snaps. “You think your Levels are all important while—”
“While you aren’t paying us enough respect for what we’ve done.”
“I’m sure Mel wasn’t insulting you on purpose,” Ben says quickly, stepping between us. “We’re all just looking to help out where we can.”
“Maybe. But calling me a kid isn’t helping,” I say angrily. “We’ve got the experience of actually building up a city in this new System world. And yeah, we might not have the same skills you had, but we sure as hell have done it before.”
“And we understand that,” Ben says, shooting a glare at Mel to shut him up. “But we’d also like to know what your plans are for the city.”
“Not much to tell. We’re going to do our best to get the city into shape, give you all the boost that we’ve found worked in the Yukon to become a functioning city,” I say. “We’ll kick the Sect’s ass too, while we’re at it. In the meantime, if you guys want to help, we need you to continue Leveling up and helping keep things contained. Whether you like it or not, till the Sect is dealt with, we’re the city’s best hope.”
“Fine. We’ll continue Leveling up, but you guys better start talking to those of us from Kamloops. We won’t take being locked out of our city. Not again, and not by a… by humans,” Mel says huffily.
I nod. He’s a bit short-tempered and gruff perhaps, but I get it. And I do have plans for them—but it’s not time to tell him just yet.
The next week passes in a blur. The Hakarta platoons arrived yesterday. They integrate pretty well, mostly because my team and I take the time to ensure everyone is settled with their presence before we head out. I guess when you have a walking, talking, mostly polite humanoid and compare it to the slavering, carnivorous monsters that lie outside the cities, you get a little bit of perspective. Helps when the polite green humanoid looks as though he could rip you apart if you weren’t polite.
In the course of the week, Mikito’s able to drag the average Level up by one, which is pretty impressive when you consider how few high-Level zones are around here. I’m once more reminded how “lucky” we were in Whitehorse.
“DRONES ONLINE,” Kim flashes at me, and my minimap updates.
A second later, another larger map appears in front of me, providing a real-time feed of the surrounding areas. While the bionetwork continues to grow out, the modified sensor drones will help fill in the gap and provide more detailed information. For now, Kim has them on a routine sweep.
“Thanks.” I stare at the information, watching data flicker and update before stabilizing. I dismiss the map after a second, and the view of the roadway where we wait reappears. The rest of the team hasn’t arrived yet, so it’s Sam and me standing in the middle of the road west, sharing the map information that he’s fed to the settlement. “Good work there, Sam.”
The Technomancer grunts his acknowledgement, head still in the bowels of his modified truck. Now that he has had the time and supplies, he’s been upgrading his transportation, adding everything from anti-gravity plates to plate armor. The most eye-catching addition is the anti-tank beam cannon mounted on the roof, a weapon that feeds off its own power supply. It doesn’t have a lot of shots, but it’d hurt even me.
“Keep the teams to the north for now,” Mikito instructs the group that trails her as she turns the corner. “Remember, the Hakarta are here to help, but you all are still the primary defense force. You need to pull the teams back in time for you to join the convoy. Watch your rotations!”
“We got it,” Mel grumbles, shaking his head. “I’ve done this before you know.”
Mikito’s lips purse, but she nods shortly, leaving the group.
Coming from around the other corner, Lana’s doing much the same with her tiny retinue. Torg, Benjamin, and a few others who make up the new city council listen to the redhead. While they still aren’t happy, the short-term solution of using a group of locals to oversee the day-to-day has settled the locals down somewhat. Unlike Mikito, Lana’s mostly just saying goodbye and letting them know our general plans. Rather than breaking away, the group follows Lana all the way to me.
“John,” Benjamin greets me with a smile, eyes sweeping over our group as we get ready to leave. “We’ll keep the city ticking for you.”
“Thanks.” I smile in gratitude. I’m not stupid—I understand the risk in giving this group of strangers as much access and power as I am, but it’s not as if I have that much time. Better to trust that Lana picked them right and that Kim can keep them contained while I get on with the important parts of keeping everyone alive. Not to mention the fact that unless they’re really stupid, they’ll wait to take over until the current danger has passed. No reason for me to stick around and help them out if they take the city from me.
“Not sure what I’m doing on the council,” Torg mutters, shaking his head as he returns to a familiar complaint.
“You know farming. System farming to be exact. The city mostly does farming. Seems like the perfect fit to me,” I say.
“I’m just a Serf…” Torg peters off as everyone else looks at him. He sighs, giving up.
Still, I make a mental note to keep an eye on him and look for a replacement. Never know if he’d choose to leave for a more established city.
“Right, you guys keep the city running. Get the convoy up and running. We won’t be gone too long, if everything works out well. Kim can contact us if necessary and has an idea of what we want done. Mostly though, keep building, keep growing in Levels, and keep strengthening our defenses,” I say.
; After that, getting on the road takes no time. Lana joins Sam in his truck while Mikito and I ride ahead. About half an hour later, we exit the sensor envelope around Kamloops and find the last member of the team waiting for us.
“Ingrid.” I pull Sabre to a stop, leaning forward as I sweep my gaze over her body. Nothing out of place and she looks, if not relaxed, at least somewhat neutral.
“John. Ladies,” Ingrid says, her gaze lingering on Sam’s truck before she shakes her head and dismisses whatever thought is bugging her. “You got my message?”
“Yes,” I say, tapping my helmet so I can at least speak with her eye-to-eye. Really, a part of me wonders why I bother with a helmet. I’m strong enough that I could fall off the bike onto my head at a hundred miles an hour and only get a tiny ouchie. But years of training seems to hold true, making me feel really uncomfortable on the bike if I don’t have the helmet on.
Before Ingrid can answer further, Shadow, who has crept up next to her, assaults her with a giant, slobbery tongue. A few minutes later, after Ingrid has finally pried herself away from Lana’s puppy and its shadow—and how a shadow slobbers and licks is somewhat mind-bending—she is more calmly greeted by the girls and Sam, leaving me drumming my fingers in impatience.
“They pulled everyone from Vernon?” I say slowly.
“Yes,” Ingrid says.
“And you’re certain there isn’t anyone in town?” I mutter.
“Certain? No. But I’m pretty sure the Sect grabbed all of their people and their Serfs,” Ingrid says. “If they’re there, they’re so well hidden we can’t see them. They might really be gone."
“What do you intend to do?” Lana says, tilting her head toward me, a lock of hair falling across her face to be angrily brushed aside.
“Take the city. Organize those who are willing and have them leave for Kamloops. Then I’m going to sell the city back to the System,” I say.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Maji?”
“Why?”
I turn to Sam, who asks that last question. “We can’t hold the city. And with our population so shot, there’s no point in keeping a ton of tiny little enclaves. Better to concentrate our people where we can to grow faster. Also, the Credits from selling a town can be—”
“Lucrative,” Ali says, flashing a wide, shit-eating grin. “That’s how John got Sabre.”
I see lots of nods, but of course, it’s Ingrid who asks the obvious question. “You going to share?”
Organizing Vernon and getting its citizens moving back toward Kamloops is painful. People are stubborn, emotional, and irrational, and even in the face of incontrovertible proof that their town is dying if not dead, many still refuse to leave. It takes all of Lana’s significant Charisma to convince most of them to pack. There’s no way we can guard them all, no way to keep them safe from the monsters or the Sect if they are out on the limb. And yet, some refuse. Some because they don’t believe us. Some because they believe it’s another test. But Lana does her thing as do the others to a smaller extent, and we slowly get a stream of others in. Of course, the next problem is transporting people back to Kamloops.
“We ready yet?” Sam asks. “The convoy should be ready by now.”
“How long will it take?” I frown, trying to mentally gauge how long it’d take to send a message back to get the convoy moving to us. Then again, until we have at least the majority of people sorted and out of the way, I’m not going to even attempt to enter the City Center. Just because we haven’t run into any traps or resistance yet doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
“Hour or so. Should just be about right for the pickup,” Sam says, turning to his truck. He stares at it for a second, and a panel in the back rolls back, a drone floating upward. I can see portions of my drones in it—the dragonfly’s base framework has been bulked up and altered. The resulting drone is no longer a surveillance drone but something bigger, nastier, and greyer. A pair of beam rifles stick out from its side, and a smaller dish hangs below the undercarriage. “I’ll let Kim know. Shouldn’t take more than an hour and it can hone in on me later.”
“When did you build it?” I ask, looking over the new drone. Not what I was expecting, since this drone is significantly different from my own and the ones around the city.
“In the last few days, after I modified the others for Kim. Have about a half dozen drones in store, though I can only control three right now. Well, three with any degree of control,” Sam says quite proudly. “I got fed up of hiding inside Mikito’s PAV.”
I smile and send Sam off to send the message while I walk around quietly. As always, Mikito has taken on the role of dealing with the few hunters while Lana’s in the midst of organizing the others. I pitch in with Lana where I can, cajoling and answering questions, but it’s no surprise that Lana and eventually Sam are the main go-tos. I’m more than content to let them deal with the crowd, and I eventually break off when Ingrid makes her way back.
“So…?” I ask.
“Traps. Lots of them. The entire building’s wired to blow. Multiple spells and turrets are set up to deal damage if anyone tries to enter the Core. Probably some mines too,” Ingrid says, shaking her head. “Wasn’t easy to get close enough to look. The townsfolk cordoned off the place. I hear a few people were injured before they realized the problem.”
“Can you disarm it?” I ask.
“What do I look like?” Ingrid says sarcastically.
I wince at her tone and glance at Sam, wondering if he could be of use.
“Don’t bother, boy-o,” Ali says. “He doesn’t have the Skill for this. Or skill. Disarm Traps or its equivalent is a specialized thing. You’d need both to do a proper disarm.”
“Great.” I frown, considering my options.
“What are you worried for? Toss your Soul Shield on and walk in,” Ali says, waving. “Just keep casting your Heal spells and you’ll be good.”
“Just walk in?” I say, somewhat amused. “One does not just walk in—”
“With your health, Skills, and spells?” Ali says. “Yes. Yes. You do. Unless you want to take a few days slowly whittling down the defenses.”
“Then we stick to the plan,” I say, gesturing to the group of humans still being slowly moved and guided out.
The second convoy departs as I speak, enough transportation scrounged together to make a group large enough to make sense to send out with our limited number of hunters. I can only hope the rest of the hunter teams arrive from Kamloops. We didn’t want too many of our own people in the initial scouting groups, but now that we know what the situation is, it’s time to get moving.
Hours. It takes hours for transportation to arrive from Kamloops and the refugees to pack themselves in. The hunter groups from Kamloops are finally here, spread out to play guard over the convoy. Lana and Sam are in the midst of it all, organising people and directing them to vehicles, bargaining and explaining why, no, bringing Grandma’s armoire isn’t going to work. It’s stupid, irrational, and emotional and why I’m dodging it all, seated as I am on a nearby office tower and watching the roads, staring at the data Ali feeds me.
It’s there that Ingrid finds me. “Nothing?”
“Not yet,” I say, my fingers rolling a chocolate bar around and around. “I could have sworn they’d have hit us by now.”
“Might be waiting for you to take the city,” Ingrid offers, gesturing toward the abandoned building which houses the City Core.
“They can’t think I’m that stupid.” Maybe I’m being paranoid, but this feels too much like a trap. There’s no way I’d go in while the city is still mostly populated, never mind the threat of an attack if I’m stuck making my way to the City Core.
“Stupid is as stupid does,” Ingrid says.
“And boy, have you done some stupid things,” Ali adds.
“We set?” I say to Ingrid, ignoring Ali, and receive a nod in reply. I relax slightly, grateful that whatever the reason for the delay, we’ve
set up our own little series of surprises.
“Would I be here otherwise?” Ingrid snarks back.
I open my mouth to reply, but something on the horizon catches my eye. I frown, zooming in with the helmet, the dot growing bigger at an astounding rate. A pair of stubby wings, a flattened, cone-shaped body in grey, and stubs of metal pointing out of it is what I see. Behind it, bigger, blockier airships follow at a more sedate pace.
“Shit!” I mentally command the radio on. “We have incoming airships. Get everyone off the streets and hidden. Sam, we’re going to need that gun of yours. Ingrid, Mikito, get ready to intercept when their ground-pounders arrive.”
Even as I speak, the dot I noticed has expanded significantly, now visible to the naked eye. A moment later, its weapons start tearing up buildings with brilliant blue beams of destruction. I throw myself off the building, crossing the distance to another, my Soul Shield flaring into a brilliant corona of reds and blues as energy bleeds over.
I run and dodge, the attacks seeming to be fixed on me. A few eternal seconds later, my Soul Shield having fallen and my exposed skin blackened, the attack cuts off. The booming echo of too-fast airships and crumbling buildings rings through my ears. My breath comes hurriedly, the filtered air from the helmet stale and sterile. On a partly crumbled building, I swing my hand up and ignore the falling black dots that make up air-inserted Sect members. My team will have to deal with the invaders disembarking from the transport ships. My job is to fix my mistake. I should have known about the damn airships.
My hand rises, my mind fixing on the fast-retreating airship that is already turning, and I make the connection. Lower the potential on one side, increase it on the other. Use Mana to restrict the flow, my Elemental Affinity to reduce the bonds in the channel. Then more Mana to start the process, even as arcane symbols and thoughts flicker through my mind. Lightning explodes from my hand, reaching across the distance in a blink of an eye, and I channel the raw forces of nature. Ali darts forward into the stream, focusing the flow and intensifying it with his ability.
