“Any news on the scouts that were trailing the Cheyenne and its monster army?” Ice Blossom asked.
Shouts sounded out from the guards on the wall by the gate.
“Speak of the Devil.” Stone Fox said. “There is one of them right now.”
The Jicarilla warrior was correct and moments later the pair of scouts rode through the open gates at top speed and made a beeline straight to our little group. The pair of them reigned in their horses both sliding off and walking the rest of the distance then stopping just a few feet away, saluting.
“We have news First Rider.” Coiling Hare, the lead scout said then paused looking at me.
“Don’t keep us I suspense girl.” Chieftess Shining Eagle snapped. “Spit it out, what are you waiting for, the monsters to return and attack us?”
I smiled suppressing a chuckle and motioned for the scout to continue.
“Yes, sorry, we were tasked with following the Cheyenne and monster army. We found they had retreated back to the Cheyenne home village. At the last we saw the Cheyenne were fighting the monsters from inside their village. They have a small palisade, but I doubt it will hold for long.” Coiling Hare reported.
“What happened, why did they start fighting each other?” Dancing Lion asked.
“Bucking Firefly was the one who saw it first.” Coiling Hare said, pointing for her partner to take over.
“It started as soon as they retreated from the field of battle. Their Chief’s son, Bull Bear, rallied his Cheyenne who still survived and fled from the monsters. I believe there was confusion when the Skinwalkers were exposed. Before they could react, the Cheyenne had escaped and made a running retreat to their home.” Bucking Firefly explained.
“Dammit, you were right Moon Flower, they didn’t know about their Chief being taken, this makes things more difficult. We now have two different problems.” Dancing Lion said, exasperatedly.
“We always had two problems, if not more, the question is what do we do about them now.” Shining Eagle said, elegantly chastising her daughter.
I was quiet, taking in the new revelations and thinking on them while the rest of the Sissies threw ideas at each other. I listened with half an ear while formulating a good plan. If we were to help both tribes, we would need to split up but that would half our strength and leave us even more outnumbered. Not only that, but the fort we were in now, which was probably our greatest weapon behind the horses, would be unmanned or undermanned at the least, even further decreasing our strength.
“What if we split our forces and…” Stone Fox said.
“We already discussed that, remember...” Ice Blossom interjected, the discussion continuing around me.
Then I had an idea. It was something that Law had talked to my father about before he passed away. I closed my eyes trying to remember the memory.
“Tell me about this Son Zoo again.” Chief Running Hawk asked my fiancé.
I listened while the two talked about strategy. My father was intrigued with it and Law was more than willing to teach him. He called himself an armchair expert, or an amateur historian.
“You mean Sun Tzu, and specifically his Art of War.” Law replied. “Do you remember talking about his basic tenants?”
My father was quiet for a moment before nodding to himself and turning to Law.
“Yes, I believe there were thirteen chapters or principles as you called them.” He said. “They are in order; Laying Plans, Waging War, Attack by Stratagem, Tactical Dispositions, Use of Energy, Weak Points and Strong, Maneuvering an Army, Variation of Tactics, The Army on the March, Classification of Terrain, The Nine Situations, Attack by Fire, and Use of Spies.”
“That’s right. Which one is the most important?” Law asked.
“That’s easy, they are all equally important.” My father replied.
They shared a grin and continued their discussion.
I came back to the now and blinked the tears away that came unbidden as happened when I thought of my father. With a swipe of my eyes and then a deep breath I grinned, then cleared my throat, stopping the conversation. I waited till all eyes were on me before speaking.
“Actually, I have an idea and think it’ll work great. Here is what we are going to do…” I said, the rest of the group leaning in and listening intently as I laid our new plan of attack out, Sun Tzu’s Art of War weighing in heavily on the process.
TRACK 20 – TAKE A CHANCE ON ME – ABBA
“…the lookouts saw a mass of incoming monsters, there were giant Kuku’s, Tie-snakes by the hundreds, and a horde of Aglebemu coming from the great inland sea, so many that you could not see the waves they rode in on. From the land huge Chenoo’s and masses of Nirumbee covered the river lands as they encroached on the city from both sides. We were lucky to have evacuated when we did. We proceeded to set the town of Asgard ablaze, my long canoe was the last to depart and my family and me watched the town burn. The monsters were just getting to the town as it caught fire. That was the last we saw as we pushed hard to get back. Now we are here, with the enemy army two days behind.” Arun finished.
I looked over at Freya with a newfound respect in my eyes, she was intelligent and beautiful, not to mention a bit ruthless. What was it with all the women here, were they all freaking amazing? I shook my head and nodded to her.
“That was a great idea using the town as a trap, don’t worry we will rebuild it better than it was, make it like Thrudheim.” I said.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm but this all hinges on us defeating the thousands of beasts of legend. I saw them with my own eyes, they are more than one hundred of them for every single one of us. Even with your new weapons and these huge walls, how can we hope to prevail?” Freya replied, real defeat already sounding in her tone, her vulnerability making her even more beautiful.
I glanced around and saw the same look in her parents faces. It was time for a mood enhancer, it was time for a weapons test.
“Come on everyone, let’s go to the western river fort, we are going to do some instructional training.” I said, with a grin.
“What is instruction… what is that?” Arun asked.
“Ya daft prick, we are going to fire the guns and blow some shite up.” Billy said, patting Arun on the back then putting his arm on the big man’s shoulder.
The eyes on Arun and his family lit up and they plied me with questions as we headed to the western most river fort, the Missouri River Fort. We were going to that side because I wanted the other two river forts prepared as the army from the north would hit the Illinois River Fort first, and if the Fallen Tribe returned, they’d hit the Mississippi River Fort first. A new force could appear but there were no armies coming our way from this direction, as far as we knew.
I let the brothers O’ Conghaile take the lead and watched, enjoying their cursing and swearing, as they went through the safety precautions and then how each weapon worked. They started with the artillery, the cannon and then on to the mortar. After that, they explained how the Long Rifles worked. Like good instructors, they went over the process again until all four of them, Arun and his family, had it down pat.
“Alright, let’s go to live firing, we will start with the cannon, who wants to go first?” Patty asked.
To my surprise the Chieftess was the first to shoot forward and volunteer. Eagerness was painted across her features. I grinned, there were some people in my time that were just hit with the gun gene. Man, woman, or child, a small percentage of people just loved firearms.
“Chieftess Cloud goes first.” Patty said.
The pair went through the motions and loaded the cannon. Patty had her aim it and when she was ready, she fired. The weapon boomed, all of us had put our hands over our ears except for the noobs, who were astounded and deafened by the cannon blast. When the round hit hundreds of yards away their expressions turned to awe. I began chuckling along with the rest of the vets.
“You see why there is no reason to give up Freya?” I said.
She looked out at where the cannon ball hit, and the giant boulder it had obliterated, then to the cannon, and then to me shaking her head in awe.
“I’ll see you all later I have to go to work now as well, enjoy the live fire practice. Welcome to Thrudheim everyone.” I said, smiling then turning and heading back to the forge.
“What are you working on?” Cunning Wolf asked, as I walked away.
“I think we need a better scout system. I think we need an Airforce.” I said, over my shoulder.
“What’s an Airforce?” Sage asked.
I grinned, their voices fading away as I walked to the forge, already in my own head as I considered my next project. Even with Moon Flower having the Riders and with the new watercraft I was going to build for river travel, we needed a faster means of communication and transportation. Now that the guns and artillery were taken care of, we were good in that department for the moment. I’d actually been thinking of an Airforce for quite some time, the idea had been in the back of my mind, but I had relegated it too much later on. Thinking that I wouldn’t be able to pull flight off yet. Then it hit me, I didn’t need to build an airplane, but I could build a hot air balloon, and more specifically, a zeppelin.
The feverish dreams of burning Asgard had triggered the new ideas. It began to remind me of Warcraft II, and I had flashbacks of kicking people’s asses with fleets of goblin zeppelins. I remember trashing bases with bombs over, and over, and over again. Not only that, but the technology wasn’t really anything compared to an airplane. They were basically just balloons filled with hot air.
There were literally hundreds of videos on YouTube about homemade zeppelins and there was even a thing called Airship Caravanning. It was where people built their own zeppelins and caravanned across the world. It was really neat shit. I was surprised that I hadn’t thought of it earlier, oh well, no use crying over spilled milk and all that. Using my Total Recall Skill, I pulled up and watched all the videos I had seen on personal zeppelin making again. I partitioned my mind as I reached the forge and continued watching the videos as I got ready to work. The other Mage Builders were there working on more ammunition, you could never have enough, rifles, weapons, and armor for all the new editions to Thrudheim.
I waved hello and then got to work on my newest idea. The videos played in a partition and my main mind focused on step one. I retrieved the unworked hide that was used for clothing and armor and began weaving together pieces of the material. I activated my Fire Magic to help with the sewing and sealing the pieces together, then I activated my Water Magic to create watertight seals between pieces and infusing a coating over each piece of hide. This created a watertight coating which made the hide airtight as well. This process took a while and it was a few hours before I finished creating the amount of material needed for the balloon top. It was finally done though and just in time for dinner, as a runner had been sent for us to join the rest of the tribe to eat.
I stopped my work along with the other builders and headed to the dining area, after the four of us cleaned ourselves up. We arrived a little while later to a dinner time that was packed to bursting with the addition of the Asgardians. I headed to the main table, weaving my way through the newly united friends and family, greeting everyone as I sat down at its head. The whole of my elite warrior cadre and the Shamans were there, along with Arun and his family. Frigg set a platter down for me and I dug in while everyone talked.
The main topic of discussion was the new weapons, followed in a close second by the incoming army of monsters. I finished my first plate of food and another was placed down before I had even asked. I sent a thankful smile to Frigg and dug into dish number two. After that I was full and turned myself to the conversation.
“What is it that you are working on Law? What is an Airforce?” Shadow Bear asked.
The rest of the table quickly turned their attention to us eager to hear the answer.
“It is a machine that lets us fly in the sky and see our enemies from further away and to also attack. It’ll give us an even bigger advantage in our coming battle, not to mention the ones to come.” I said.
Quiet answered me and incredulous stares surrounded me. Some mouths sat agape, and others opened and closed like fish. The tribe’s folk around us heard me and the information slowly spread to the surrounding tables until the once loud dining area had become completely silent. I grinned enjoying the moment. Sage recovered first and stood up and cleared his throat grabbing everyone’s attention.
“Yes, well, let us have the Chief, Chieftess, Freya, and the rest of the newcomers swear to you and you can get back to your… Airforce.” Sage said, shaking his head as he said the last.
After that, all the Asgardians stood up, Arun’s family included, swore a simple oath and my periphery dinged. I pulled up the message on instinct.
THE WHOLE OF THE NORSE OJIBWE TRIBE SWEARS ALLEGIANCE TO YOU. DO YOU ACCEPT? Y/N?
I selected yes and my periphery lit up again.
WAR SHAMAN
TRIBES – THE PEOPLE, THE JICARILLA, TUATHA DE DANAAN, NORSE OJIBWE
ELITE WARRIORS – Moon Flower, William O’ Conghaile, Patrick O’ Conghaile, Arun Thorson, Chieftess Shining Eagle, Thunder Foot, Ice Blossom, Lightning Fist, Night Star, Silent Mouse, Shadow Bear, Dancing Lion, Stone Fox, Dusk, Dawn, Chief Otter Odinson, Chieftess Cloud Friggsdaughter, Freya Cloudsdaughter
SHAMAN – Cunning Wolf (Element-Earth/God-Wolf), Sage Lokison (Element-Water/God-Ojibwe/Nanabohozo, Norse/Baldur)
NORMAL MEMBERS – (N/A) THE PEOPLE WORKER/WARRIORS, (N/A) JICARILLA BUILDER/WARRIORS, (N/A) CROW WORKER WARRIORS, (492/492) NORSE WORKER/WARRIORS
BASES – The Springs, Fortress of Earth, Thrudheim
RESOURCES COLLECTED – Wood-1980lbs, Metals – Iron-760lbs/Gold-650lbs/Silver-455lbs/Tin-610lbs, Food-Abundant, Enough for 330 days, Animals Horses x N/A, Sheep-185, Cows x 127
VEHICLES – N/A
SPECIAL FORCES – SEAL TEAM 1 (LEVEL – 3), MINUTEMEN (LEVEL – 2)
I closed the window and addressed the gathered tribe.
“Welcome to The People. I am your tribe now and you our mine. As the god Loki said, we have a battle coming. Work hard and get ready to fight. Believe in me, your fellow friends and warriors and we will win. I believe we have maybe another day to prepare for the coming monster army. I’ll let you all take care of getting the newcomers settled and up to speed. I have work to do.” I said, gesturing to my elites then turned and headed back to the forge and my project.
Once back at the forge I was now alone, except for Freak who had been following me around since his latest scouting mission. He didn’t count though as he just slunk over out of the way and began snoring loudly. I grinned then ignored him and began step two of building my flying machine. Now that the balloon top was done, I worked on the base, or gondola, that would be where the crew would be. There were a lot of conflicting ideas in my mind about which type of base to make. Eventually, I decided on a very simple yet effective design. I should buy a boat! Ha! I loved that movie. Anyway, yes it would be a boat like open gondola.
There were so many examples of this type of airship that I had a plethora of plans to pick from. Try saying that ten times fast. I had modern types, old types, fantasy types, speed types, and so on. I decided that I’d make something that was useful for multiple types of areas and terrain. It needed to be large enough to fit a crew of at least three to four people but it also needed to be small and light enough to be carried in the air with the weight of its crew, weapons, supplies, and the next part of the project, the hot air steam engine. Now though, it was woodcarving and molding time.
I had the resource gatherers find certain types of wood for me, they were Balsam Fir, Sitka Spruce, and White Pine, These were all lightweight but strong woods that were exactly what I needed for my construction and all were indigenous to the part of the country we were in. My plans though didn’t stop there. I was going to infuse the wood with magic in different parts hoping my intuiti
on was correct and I’d be making it stronger and more flexible at the same time.
I began by planing and cutting the different wood types into usable pieces, while infusing Fire Magic while I cut and shaped them. It was then that the other three Mage Builders arrived, and I showed them what I was doing and passed the task on to them, while moving onto the next. I carved the ribbing and molding of the sides and more advanced pieces of the gondola slash watercraft. When I was done infusing Fire Magic into those, I took the completed pieces from the others and began assembling the entire thing. This time I used all three magics, Fire Magic for adhesive and resistance to burning, Water Magic to make the wood sealed and floatable on water and the added resistance to water damage and rot, then I focused my Earth Magic but instead of using it everywhere I only did it in the center of the craft where the burner would go.
The wood was light, and I didn’t want to make it any heavier as had happened when I made all my previous weapons. This way, I only made a certain area heavier and the balloon should still be large enough to lift the gondola and its passenger’s weight. I finished the gondola with the help of the other three and then moved on to the third step, the burner. Here, I was on my own, so I told the others to continue their own tasks. I was going to make a magical steam engine that would simultaneously fill the balloon with hot air and turn a crank shaft to a propeller I had yet to make.
That was the idea anyway, we would see how it went, worst case scenario I would always have a static lookout balloon, if the engine didn’t blow me up first that is. The first thing I did was create a one-inch plate that went in the center of the gondola bottom, this was to prevent direct contact with the hull. I instilled high amounts of Fire and Water Magic to help with its resistances. Next, I began forming the boiler, pistons, cranks, and other engine parts, infusing magic as I went along. Normally, I don’t think I would have been able to make this work but with the addition of my magical abilities I was able to counter act certain issues that would have bogged me down without them and traditional machining tools.
I Am Gamer III Page 15
