Scarlet dropped as low as she dared, her wing tips evading the treetops. It took almost two hours to get back home. They’d probably gone much farther out of the way than needed, but Jared didn’t want to risk any possibility the ships would find them. Everything rode on their ability to maintain secrecy and build up their fighting force. They were in no position to start their campaign against the cities.
Carla had barely taken out one robot, and Jared suspected many of the water folk would fare similarly. He needed to make sure that everyone was ready for the eventual encounter, including those who didn’t want to wield a weapon.
“We need to impress upon everyone how important it is they learn to shoot a weapon. I just don’t know what else we can do to convince them if they aren’t already. You showed them what happened to those people who stowed away on the drop ship, and those on the ground the ship massacred. What will it take for everyone to realize they need to protect themselves?”
“What happened?”
“Huh? Oh—” Jared snapped out of his introspection and realized Scarlet hadn’t seen Carla and the scene with the robot and he quickly filled her in.
“Perhaps it is time to train everyone with these new phase weapons?”
“I think so. We have enough of them; it makes sense to use them for training and hunting. They are much quieter and more effective than traditional guns. I just hope it’s enough to get everyone involved. I understand some people don’t like weapons or are scared of them, but maybe after they see Carla’s injury, they’ll change their mind. Besides, it’s much less scary to fire a phase weapon with no retort and recoil than traditional weapons.”
Jared glanced at his Colt. No matter how many of the new phase weapons he gathered, it would always have a place on his side. It was the one weapon he could always rely on in a pinch, and he’d never had a malfunction with it.
Jared mentally inventoried all the weapons he’d collected so far and realized they had over a dozen phase weapons, including the more powerful rifles. He’d save one for himself, but the rest they’d dole out to those who had more experience with weapons. They also had quite a few batteries after the haul from the previous drop ship and this one. It was enough ammunition to last them a long time if they only used it for small practices and hunting.
Once more of the water folk bonded with creatures or dragons, they wouldn’t need to use weapons as much. With Scarlet’s brothers, they’d become a dominating force. He didn’t know how they’d compare to the cities and the forces they could deploy, but at least they wouldn’t need to worry about other creatures. The biggest issue they faced would be the dragons getting all the kills and nanites.
As little as her brothers had in the way of nanites, they didn’t need them nearly as bad as the water folk. They needed to alter their minds if they ever hoped to operate on a level in harmony with the dragons. Jared was only now realizing how much he had yet to go, and he already had significant upgrades.
As soon as the cities cleared out of the old colony, Jared wanted to take a group of people out to find companions, those who hadn’t yet bonded with a dragon.
He didn’t know how far afield they would need to go, but it could take them a while. That was fine since having the other dragons around meant he didn’t need to fret every second over everyone’s safety while he was gone.
They were his people now, and their safety was paramount to him. As little time as he’d spent with them, not once in the past weeks had he felt like, or considered himself, an outsider. Maybe he wasn’t a water folk, but he was a protector, and every person under his and Vanessa’s charge were family. Well, most of them, anyway.
He still had issues with George, but thankfully Damien had come around and was a useful addition to their budding settlement. Though the recent developments suggested George was at it again, sinking his claws of malice into anyone who deigned to listen. Jared didn’t know what it would take to bring George around, if there was even a possibility of doing so. A small part of him wanted to banish the man, but he knew that would get backlash from many others, possibly Vanessa as well. On the other hand, George knew too much, and Jared didn’t like the idea of sending him off with that knowledge.
Jared shook off the negative thoughts as their home came into view. Scarlet circled once and landed in the clearing next to Attis and Carla. It looked like Vanessa and Elle were sitting nearby as well. The moment they landed, Vanessa and Elle ran over to greet him.
“What happen—”
“Are you okay?” Vanessa’s question cut off Elle as she ran up to him.
Jared smiled grimly, hoping to put them at ease, but it only made Vanessa’s frown deepen. “I’m okay. I’ll explain in a moment. Where is everyone else? I’d like to make sure everyone is inside. We can meet up in the dining room, but no one should wander off right now. Scarlet? Will you be okay here?”
“Yes, the trees and surrounding cliffs provide enough coverage.”
“Let’s round everyone up and head to the dining hall.”
Thirty minutes later, everyone had assembled in the dining room, and Jared addressed the crowd.
“As most of you know, I took Carla back to the old colony and the lake to absorb nanites for her and Attis. That mission went well, but before we could fly away a drop ship appeared from the cities. Dozens of probes and a few robots disembarked and searched the city.”
“How many?” The icy voice startled Jared. He didn’t have to search the crowd to find out who spoke. He only needed to look toward the door to find George in his usual spot leaning against the door frame.
Jared was about to respond, but Vanessa laid a hand on his and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. He bit his tongue and continued the recounting.
“We encountered five outside the ship.”
Though it answered George’s question, Jared said as much for the benefit of everyone else. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw George’s eyes widen at the number. Jared swore he saw the corner of his mouth tick up, but when he flicked his eyes over, George wore his usual scowl. Jared closed his eyes for a brief moment to compose himself and keep from lashing out at the man. He wasn’t violent, but something about the man set him on edge.
“They found our hiding place, forcing me to react. I took out three. Carla brought down another one, and the other fled back to the ship to take off, but Scarlet intervened and brought the ship down.”
Eyes widened when he’d said Carla destroyed one, since most knew she hated weapons. Jared didn’t know why she was so averse to them, and it hadn’t come up in their short adventure earlier. The fact that she’d bonded should have been enough to drive her to change her mind so she could protect her companion. Perhaps Jared could use that as leverage later if she ever balked at using a weapon again. The surprise on everyone’s face increased when he said Scarlet had brought down the ship.
“You took down a ship? What will the cities do now?” Vanessa sounded scared and angry.
Jared turned his head to glance at her and caught sight of George smirking at her response. That was enough to set Jared off.
“What is your problem, George?” Jared jerked to his feet and started toward him.
Vanessa stepped in front of him and shot him a look of annoyance.
Vanessa’s intervention did nothing to cool his anger, but he didn’t move any farther toward the smirking idiot. “Do you not understand that Carla almost died out there? If we hadn’t taken the ship down, they’d know about Attis and Scarlet. You realize that they’d probably experiment on you, or kill you outright if they knew about you, right?”
George didn’t answer him, but rather stormed out of the room, completely blowing off his questions.
Jared clenched his fists and closed his eyes. He spent several long moments composing himself before he turned to look at Vanessa. The look she gave him promised a discussion later, and he
wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.
“D-d-did you b-bring any of the-the parts b-back?” Pete looked ready to race back to the scene and confiscate the parts himself.
“Yes and no.” Jared smirked when he saw Pete’s face light up and then cloud over. “I’ve got these—”
Jared dumped the duffle onto the table. Six phase rifles, three pistols, and a dozen battery packs fell out. A collective gasp filled the room.
Johan rushed over to Jared’s side and picked up one of the rifles.
“This is amazing.” Johan held the rifle reverently, inspecting it from every angle.
“Careful, everyone. Yes, I agree this is quite the haul, and no, Pete, it doesn’t answer your unasked question. Scarlet and I took all the destroyed robots and the sensor probes, but we didn’t bring them here. Instead, we flew north and left them near the opposite end of the lake. I don’t know if there’s a way for the cities to track them and didn’t want to risk bringing them back. Does that answer your question?”
“Y-y-yes! When can we g-go s-s-study them?”
Jared held up a hand to slow things down. “I’m not sure how the city will respond to our actions. They could swarm over the place and we might not get back there for a while. In a few days, we’ll go scout the colony from a distance to see what’s happening. If there’s no activity, then we’ll go check on the parts to see if they’re still there. My guess is that they’d want to confiscate and bring them back to the city, so we don’t get our hands on them and learn how they work.”
Pete nodded his head vigorously and ducked back to his seat.
“Now, for these weapons. Here’s what I’d like to do, and I know some of you won’t like it. Johan, I’m remanding these over to your custody, but I want every single person to learn how to fire them.”
A cacophony of voices rose in protest, but Jared silenced them all before he continued. “Carla?”
“Yes?”
“After the events of today, do you still wish you’d stayed away from weapons? Or do you wish you’d learned how to use them?”
She glanced at the bandage on her arm and a determined look crossed her features. “I will learn how to shoot better.”
Jared took a moment to look around the room. Several of those who had previously refused to take weapons sat with their mouths open in shock. Carla was spritely, but she wasn’t violent and had been one of those more vocal against using a weapon. Seeing her reverse her position set them back on their heels.
“I know some of you don’t like this idea, and I haven’t talked to Vanessa about this yet, but we must prepare for the inevitable. That means everyone here needs to learn how to use these. For those who feared using traditional pistols and rifles, these will be much easier to use and learn. There’s no recoil, it’s not loud, and you don’t have to reload anything except a battery pack.”
Jared watched the naysayers consider his words and slowly nod their heads, accepting his ultimatum.
“Each of these battery packs can shoot around three hundred rounds. Well, at least that’s how many I fired with the phase pistols before it ran out. That means with the batteries up in my room, and these, we have enough for over five thousand rounds. That’s not a ton of ammunition, but it should be enough to get everyone here familiar with their use. We’ve also got the weapons I raided on the last ship. Everything considered, we’re doing pretty well. These weapons on the table here are worth more than a dozen colonies combined. I think we’ll run into more ships and robots before we can get everyone bonded. These might save your life.”
After his speech, no one was on the fence, and without George in the room, there was no one to inject criticism and doubt into his plan. The small group that Carla had formed initially to take a stand against using weapons now rallied around her and voiced their agreement to learn.
Carla explained to a few around her and met Jared’s eyes briefly. “We’ll do what we must.”
Jared nodded once and gathered the weapons together before bagging them and handing them over to Johan for safe-keeping. He turned and left to put them in the armory right away.
“Hold up, Johan. Just a couple more things. I’d like everyone to remain inside for the next few days. It’s okay if you need to move from room to room, but please don’t hang out on the platforms or the riverbed. I’m almost certain there will be more drop ships coming, if they haven’t already, and we don’t want to give them a reason to visit us. Scarlet and I will go investigate in a couple days.”
Receiving nods from everyone present, Jared called a close to the impromptu meeting and everyone filed out of the dining hall to their own rooms. Pete, Vanessa, Elle, and Carla remained behind.
“What’s up, Pete?”
“The p-parts, probes, and ship? You have p-parts for them all? They d-didn’t g-get destroyed too b-b-bad?”
“I didn’t get any ship parts since I didn’t know what would be worth salvaging and we didn’t want to stick around longer than we had to. If there’s any of it left when we visit, then I’ll see about bringing it back. The rest of the parts are all yours if the cities don’t find them. We need to figure out how they work and how they’re programmed. If we can somehow control them, we’ll have a major advantage when we attack a city.”
Pete bowed his head and left the room without another word. Everyone else moved next door to Jared’s home.
“Jared, do you mind if I move in here?” Carla gestured at the empty bedroom next to Vanessa’s. ”I want to be close to Attis, and he doesn’t fit on the lower ledges well, plus there are more people down there, and he’s wary of them.”
“As long as Vanessa has no objections.” Jared looked at her.
Vanessa shook her head. “None here. She already asked me.”
“Then absolutely! Sorry, I should’ve suggested it myself. In fact, I’ll go grab your things from your other room in a bit. While we’re all here, we should talk about assigning your nanites. I know we talked about pushing all into Mind but add some to Body this time around to make sure you can recover from injuries like this faster. Any nanites assigned to Body Manipulation will help you to heal faster. You can also use them with Remodeling to revert your appearance back to how it was before…” Jared’s voice trailed off. He hated bringing up their experience with Razael.
“Thank you for all the help. I’ll put half into Mind again and the rest into Body Manipulation to help me heal.”
“Wait, you have the category for it already?”
“I do! I did what you told me and studied them. I can see their purpose, even if I don’t understand them all. The categories are already there, they just didn’t show up on my status screen, but once I thought about it, they were there. I don’t know if I understand them at the level needed for Regeneration, though. I’ll talk with Scarlet soon and see if she can help me.”
“Good! I’m hoping everyone has a similar experience and their first enhancements unlock more pathways for them. Once you understand Regeneration, you can use Remodeling to change your body. Obviously, you’ve been working on understanding the nanites, but definitely spend the next couple days in confinement to study more?”
“I will.”
“There isn’t a lot I or Scarlet can do to help you, aside from providing guidance. This is a journey of self-discovery you must make on your own.”
Jared suggested Elle and Kitty do the same thing. They had two whole days to work together and they could learn a lot in that time. He didn’t know if Kitty really understood, but Elle understood the concepts well enough to start working with Kitty on it.
“I feel them!” Elle squealed and ran off to her room, Kitty on her heels.
Shaking his head, Jared went and grabbed Carla’s extra clothes from her old room, depositing them in her new one.
With nothing more to do, Jared went to his own room and stripped off all his
gear. He needed to downsize soon. All the extra stuff he carried with him was getting cumbersome. If he couldn’t move quickly enough, or if something impeded his movement, it could mean his death.
There wasn’t much he wanted to part with, but he forced himself to leave all the extra weapons and only take the two phase pistols, his Colt, and the phase rifle with one spare battery each. He also carried only one box of ammo for his Colt. Medical supplies weren’t super crucial anymore, given his many enhancements, so he only kept a few bandages. After he’d cleaned everything out, he placed the extra items onto a shelf and sat down on his bed.
Taking a page out of his own book, Jared started his meditation process. The moment he closed his eyes, he heard Vanessa enter the room and clear her throat.
Sighing, Jared opened his eyes. He knew why she was here, and he really didn’t want to have this conversation.
“Do we need to do this right now?”
Vanessa planted herself firmly in front of the door, hands on her hips. “We do.”
“Vanessa, look—”
“No, you listen first.”
She didn’t say it in a rude way, but it made his mouth snap shut all the same.
It was her turn to sigh before she continued. “I understand your frustration with George, Jared. I do. But I also have to put on a strong front for everyone else. If I didn’t stand up for one of my people in there, how would that look to everyone else? I told you I was going to handle him, and you promised you’d try to work with him.”
“What else do you want me to do? You see how he treats me. I’m supposed to just set our differences aside and let him undermine all my decisions?” Jared involuntarily clenched and unclenched his fist when talking about George.
“To be fair, you put me in charge of the people here,” countered Vanessa.
“Yes, but these choices are about protecting everyone and fighting a battle everyone else agreed to.” Jared emphasized the fact that George was the only one who hadn’t vowed with the rest.
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 10