“We have… what? Three weeks left before our year is up? Then we can start killing aliens instead of other humans. Get a little payback for what they’ve done here. What they’ve turned us into.”
Bjurstrom’s voice was just as quiet. “To be fair, boss. Some people were assholes, rapists, and murderers before the apocalypse. It just freed them to be themselves without the usual consequences.”
Allistor knew he was right. But like Matthew, his anger was so focused on the aliens who’d caused the apocalypse and killed his family that he didn’t truly acknowledge the point. Instead, he changed his train of thought to something more practical.
“Nigel, please contact Andrea. Tell her I’d like her radio crew to set up a nationwide conference call for tomorrow morning, 9:00am our time. Include everyone we can reach. And call our leadership together for a 7:00am meeting.”
“Of course, Lord Allistor.”
Chapter 20
Big Promotion
The following morning, Allistor was up early to meet with his own leadership. Rather than try to squeeze everyone into a conference room, he called them all to the nearly empty Wilderness Stronghold and set up in the dining area. His core group were there, Sam and Meg and the other original survivors from the Warren, as well as George, Virginia, Bob, Richard, Dean, Andrea, Lars and Logan, and most of the leaders of the allied Strongholds or their representatives. In all, there were nearly fifty people attending.
“Thank you all for coming so early. In a couple of hours, we’re going to have a conference call with every major group of survivors we’ve managed to contact over recent months across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Our radio teams have been doing a great job of seeking them out and handling the ‘getting to know you’ bits, so that we’re on at least a friendly basis with most of them. Now I think it’s time for us to start the more serious discussions about how to deal with the pending invasion, and how best to work together with all of them to improve everyone’s chances of survival, and even continued expansion going forward.”
He paused, giving them all a chance to absorb what he’d said. When all eyes refocused on him, he continued. “Some of the folks have their shit together, maybe even better than we do. Others are just barely hanging on. We can help those folks to some extent, but our time is limited. My people and I will do for them what we’ve done for some of you – that is make sure they have access to healing spells, some offensive magic, the formulas for health and mana potions, and maybe some of our cast-off gear that we have replaced with newer, better stuff.”
The reason I’ve brought you all here is to discuss what we think the priorities should be over the next few weeks. I have my own opinions, but I’m not foolish enough to believe that I have thought of everything. Among this group are folks from more than a dozen different Strongholds that faced different challenges and circumstances as they grew. So, let’s pool our experiences and see if we can agree on the best steps to take between now and the end of Stabilization.”
Seeing heads nod around the room, he motioned to Ramon, who took over.
“We’ve been cranking out and stockpiling scrolls for distribution. As Allistor mentioned, the priority has been on healing spells and the low level offensive spells. I’ve also made fifty copies of scrolls with Nancy’s Grow spell to help folks feed themselves with crops. And our research into using it on crystals has paid off. We have grown thousands of small crystals into medium and large crystals that can hold significant enchantments. We’re still working out how to make practical use of these crystals, but I think we’re close.
One of the Denver leaders raised a hand, and Ramon nodded at her. “What about the higher level spell scrolls? Do you have some of them for those of us with the stats to use them?”
Ramon nodded his head, but looked uncomfortable. He glanced at Allistor, who took the floor again.
“The short answer is yes. But those are significantly more expensive to make, in terms of both materials and time. We’ll be making them available for sale at prices that cover the cost of production and provide a small profit to our scribes. Those prices will still be considerably lower than what you’d have to pay for them on the open market.”
There was some quiet mumbling, but no outright protests. All of these people had benefited from Allistor’s generosity in some form, and were grateful.
“Which brings us to another aspect of necessary preparations. Economic strength. Chris has been handling most of the trading and finances for my people and myself since he joined us. I’ll let him talk about this. And please, feel free to speak up with questions or suggestions. That’s why you’re all here.”
Chris stood and cleared his throat. “Our radio teams have been passing on certain information to the people we talk to. Including how to identify and sell rare and valuable items on the market to generate klax for the Strongholds. Because there are things we’ll need that we just can’t salvage here, or make for ourselves. Like the plasma weapons. Or teleport pads, vehicles with the hydrogen fuel engines, and so on. We have no idea what level of wealth the colonizing aliens will bring with them, so our theory at the moment is simply that we need to gather as much wealth as we can in the time that we have. And then try to spend it wisely on items that will be most useful. That’s part of what we wanted to ask all of you.”
Richard spoke up. “The vehicles are vital. Being able to travel between our allied Strongholds without having to carry large gas cans or siphon fuel from vehicles along the way is huge. Especially if we’re going to start expanding our travels to visit allies in other regions.”
Dean added, “The plasma rifles allowed us to take down that elite void titan at the Citadel. If we’d still been firing our Earth weapons, that fight might have gone differently.”
Sam continued Dean’s contribution. “And we can be certain that the aliens will have weapons at least that good, if not better. We don’t know how hostile they’ll be when they arrive, but we need to assume we’ll need to defend what we have.”
Amanda stood up next. “Don’t forget the medical machines we bought that can regenerate severed limbs and destroyed organs. If we’re going to have large scale fights on our hands, those are the best way to keep our people combat effective. Healing potions and spells are great for minor wounds, but without those regeneration machines, more serious wounds are going to whittle down our forces quickly.”
Allistor shook his head. “Most of the others are not going to be able to afford those anytime soon. Maybe we can structure some kind of loan program to provide one at each major holding? I think they were something like seven hundred thousand klax each?”
Chris nodded his head. “We can get a discount if we buy them in bulk, but then we have delivery issues. I’ll work with the vendor and see if we can arrange shipment to multiple Strongholds from one order. But we should bring that up in the call later. Assuming every one of the sixty-five Strongholds we know of wants one, that would cost us…” He paused to do some quick math. “Somewhere between forty and forty-five million klax, depending on the discount.” There were a few whistles from among the leaders in the crowd. Most of them didn’t currently have even a million klax in their accounts. What they earned, they generally spent on some of the same gear they were discussing here.
Allistor looked around the room. “Obviously, those of you who don’t have one of these machines yet can participate in this loan program. I’m thinking one year to repay the cost, at one percent annual interest. Any of you interested?”
Five hands went up in the air, representatives from most of the other Denver Strongholds. Lars already had one at his place. And Matthew’s Stronghold wasn’t represented here.
Lilly stood up. “I think we should add in crafting recipes and training scrolls.”
Allistor nodded. “There’s not a lot of time left for their crafters to level up, but you’re right. Every little bit of buffed gear might help. Those are more expensive than the spell scrolls, but we can offer them at the
same discount.”
Logan raised a hand, and Allistor gave him a nod. “I’ve been doing some reading on the Stronghold construction and defense options. None of us has really explored this much, but the system does offer the option to construct automated defensive systems, even on structures as small as Outposts. Wall-mounted batteries, anti-aircraft, shield bubbles, even land mines and similar traps for outside the walls.”
Allistor had noticed them when he first built the Warren, but they had been priced so far out of his range that he’d mentally written them off and forgotten about them. And that was Logan’s next point.
“They’re expensive as hell. But if the aliens are hostile, they might be the one thing that can save us.” He pulled up his interface and read off some numbers:
“Wall-top plasma cannon emplacement: 500,000k
Anti-aircraft disruptor battery: 800,000k
Shield dome generator: 400,000k for 500 meter diameter.
Each additional 500 meters: 200,000k
Anti-personnel mines: 100,000k per dozen”
He looked around at the other Stronghold leaders. “These are the basic units. Just like with everything else, there are upgrades available that reach into the tens of millions in cost. And the arms dealers sell things like tanks, fighters for both air and space use, sea vessels from small armored torpedo boats all the way up to something called a Leviathan, even battalions of battle droids.”
Allistor wasn’t the only one who found himself drooling. These were things straight out of sci-fi movies and VR games that every kid dreamed of. And now, with the invasion pending, he intended to buy as many of them as he could afford.
Bob spoke up while everyone else was daydreaming of droid battles or driving tanks. “With price tags like these, we should be encouraging people to push hard on gathering resources. And I don’t mean foraging. Like, finding gold or silver mines, or large depositories like the one we claimed. How valuable are diamonds on the open market? They should be exploring what big caches of valuables they can get their hands on quickly. And for long term income producers like the mines, my guess is that with a system as advanced as this one seems to be, there will be an opportunity to borrow needed funds from some kind of bank against future mine proceeds.”
“That’s a very good point, Bob. Thank you.” Allistor grinned at the man.
George cleared his throat. “I hear that a bunch of the folks you contacted are on military installations. Those guys should focus on the big weapons. Tanks, cannons, missile launchers, fighter planes, drones. If they would be willing to send a couple tanks, for example, to the smaller Strongholds that don’t have the funds for plasma cannons, it might make the difference in whether they stand or fall. And if they leave now, they should have time to travel before our clock runs out, even stopping to siphon gas if necessary.”
Helen raised a hand. “I’ve been thinking. Since I was able to grant you the National Parks in this area, I might be able to do the same for them. Like, grant each of them a park near their location, if there is one. That might enable a few of them to get titles like yours, and upgrade their Strongholds to Citadels. And give them space for their people to raise crops or hunt, or whatever, that the aliens can’t claim.”
“Damn. You’re right. If you have that authority, we should have been using it already. Let’s get out some maps and get to work on assigning all the parks. We can get our allies to start sending people there to create Outposts or whatever and protect those claims. Every square mile we can claim now, we should. I wish we’d had this conversation earlier!” Allistor felt like smacking himself in the head.
Amanda poked him in the side. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We haven’t known about the others for very long. And while I commend you on your intent, you need to consider that plan a bit more from a long-term perspective. Everyone here is an ally, and trustworthy. But those people on the radio… well, humans are greedy by nature. If you just give them all these resources, what’s to stop them from using those resources against you at some point? Just because it’s us against the aliens right now doesn’t mean it will always be that way.”
Allistor bristled a bit at those words, and there were some thoughtful murmurings among the crowd. But as he considered what Amanda had said, he found wisdom in it. Calming himself, he answered. “You are absolutely right. Helen, maybe we figure out a way to claim all the parks immediately, then distribute them to those we trust as quickly as we can. Can you maybe do some research into that?” She nodded and began to write on a pad in front of her, giving him a ‘we need to talk later’ look.
Michael stood up next. “This is a little off topic, but since we’re all here and talking strategy…” he broke off and looked at Allistor with a question on his face. Allistor nodded, and he continued. “You have one teleport pad left. And I’m thinking you should put it somewhere far away. Like on one of the coasts. Where we can establish a fishing fleet, maybe even a navy. There are plenty of lakes and rivers here with enough fish to feed all of us. But with the aliens coming, who knows how they’ll treat those resources? They could drain the lakes, dam the rivers, and harvest all the fish in a week for all we know.”
There were alarmed looks from nearly everyone in the room. Clearly none of them had considered that possibility. What if the aliens came to basically strip mine the planet’s resources and then leave the humans with a depleted wasteland?
“I… think you’re right, Michael. And maybe it’s worth spending the funds to buy a few more teleport pads. Our hub can handle up to a dozen. The question is how we get to the coasts to execute your plan.”
Andrea spoke up. “We have helicopters at the Silo. Nobody who can fly them, but if one of the other bases has pilots, maybe they’ll lend us one? Hell, they might have planes, too. Or there are some National Guard planes still at the airport in Cheyenne. I’m sure Denver has some as well.”
The conversation continued with input from almost everyone present by the time they were done. It was 8:45am and Allistor wanted to speak to the folks at the Silo for a bit before the scheduled call. He wanted a refresher on who they were speaking with and where. The thought of squeezing into the cramped radio room at the Silo got him thinking, and he asked, “Nigel? Can the radios at the Silo be tied into your communications system?”
“They already are, Lord Allistor.”
“So, could you broadcast the entire thing here in this room, and let them hear us as well?”
“Of course, Lord Allistor. Would you like me to make it so?”
“Yes, please. And patch me through to Redd in the radio room. Thank you.”
*****
The conference call turned out to be quite difficult to manage. With so many voices in different places, and the delays caused by long distance radio transmissions, there was initially a lot of talking over each other. This meant a lot of repeating questions or replies, and some hard feelings in a few cases. There were a couple of groups in Mexico that needed translation in Spanish, and one group in Canada claimed to only speak French, though the general consensus was that they were full of shit. It turned out Nigel could translate the broadcast for everyone, and eventually the military folks whose radio operators were more professional managed to work out a system that minimized the other issues, and the call became more productive.
The main call lasted nearly three hours, and Allistor was giddy over how well it went. The amount of information shared, the willingness to cooperate and help each other, and the news of just how many hundreds of thousands of human survivors were still out there and accounted for made his heart thump in his chest. Just the groups they’d managed to make contact with had a combined total of nearly two million survivors. It turned out they’d been right about the military posts and large cities doing better. Houston, for example, had a dozen Strongholds and a Citadel, and more than a hundred thousand people. It gave him real hope.
The call eventually ended, but spawned several smaller calls with specific Strongholds or g
roups of allied Strongholds, and the result was nearly two whole days of scheduled calls on the radio.
Allistor had to delegate a large chunk of the immediate secondary calls to his leaders, as he was expected back at Matthew’s Stronghold at noon. By the time he teleported to Denver, grabbed a vehicle, and drove across town, he was an hour late. But when he and his crew from the previous day arrived, the folks who greeted him didn’t seem to mind.
Linda awaited him at the gate, which was opened as they approached. Once again, they parked a short distance away, and Allistor walked the rest of the distance. He saw Dillon standing behind Linda, along with the same group of men who’d walked out with Matthew the day before.
As soon as they’d shaken hands and said hello, Dillon got right to the point. “I’ll save us all some time. We’re not going to be swearing the oath and joining you as your citizens.” the man looked annoyed as he spoke.
Linda stepped in to explain. “We spoke about this for several hours last night, and again this morning. Despite our assurances, there are still some people who believe my father’s accusations about you. And some of them circulated more rumors last night that you murdered him in cold blood yesterday. We’ve talked to them until we’re blue in the face, told them the truth, but they refuse to accept it. And a hundred or so have threatened to leave if the rest of us take your oath.”
Allistor shook his head. It amazed him how much damage a single deranged individual could do. And what cattle mentality some groups of people could display. Even before the apocalypse, the masses believed what they saw on holovids or supposed news media sources, regardless of whether there was any truth to it. Most never bothered to check for themselves.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He reached out a hand to Linda, aware that a large number of the Stronghold residents were watching. “And again, I wish things hadn’t gone the way they did with your father. I wish you all good luck.”
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