About half of the chosen leaders refused. Most of them were military leaders who felt that there would be a conflict to the oaths they’d already taken, or simply didn’t want to give up their autonomy. The rest swore the oath and accepted the land.
And just like that, there were more than a score new Barons and Viscounts across the continent. Allistor made it a point to call each of them and congratulate them personally.
Allistor’s citizens continued to push themselves. They crafted like crazy, gathering materials from hunting and foraging parties, or purchasing them through the market. Allistor had Chris set aside a million klax and three people to shop full time for his crafters, to make sure they had what they needed.
They also continued to seek out and clear dungeons or areas that were heavily populated by alien monsters. Nearly all of his people were at least level fifteen by then, and were among the best-geared in the world, as far as he could tell. Their throwaway gear was sold or donated to the less fortunate in other Strongholds so that no potentially helpful items would go to waste.
And with just over three days left on the countdown at the top of his interface, Allistor got a call he’d been waiting for. It was Andrea, letting him know that he had a visitor at the airfield.
The leader of one of the other Strongholds had agreed to send him a pilot in return for some plasma weapons. When Allistor arrived at the Cheyenne airport, he discovered that the pilot had brought along her family. Standing next to a twin engine prop plane with skids for landing on water was a family of four - the pilot, her husband, and two daughters. Allistor practically leapt out of the Juggernaut’s passenger seat before Helen had even pulled to a complete stop. He jogged over and greeted them, shaking each of their hands as he introduced himself.
“Welcome to Cheyenne! I’m Allistor. So glad you decided to join us!”
“Thank you, uhm, Prince Allistor?” the woman ventured, giving an awkward bow, which her husband and daughters quickly mimicked. “I’m Kira, this is my husband Gene, and my little ones Brooke and Hillary.” Helen came walking up as the girls were introduced.
“Please, just Allistor. No formality here. And it’s good to meet you all. This is Helen, my Minister of Parks and one of my best friends.” They did another quick round of handshakes. “There are some airmen on the way to see to your plane. If you like, we can run you up to the Citadel and find you some quarters. Or if you would rather live in one of our other locations…”
“The Citadel would be just fine.” Gene answered. “And I think it’ll just be the three of us. Good luck getting Kira away from her baby before she gives it a complete post-flight inspection, fills the tank, and whispers sweet nothings to it for a while.” The girls both rolled their eyes while nodding in agreement. “We’ll go ahead and get our quarters in order while she does that. Just give us a minute to grab our bags.”
He turned and popped open a door in the side of the fuselage and began pulling out heavy-looking duffel bags and dropping them onto the tarmac.
“Let me help you with those.” Allistor easily hefted four of them by their straps and walked over to deposit them into the back of the Juggernaut. When he opened the rear door, Fuzzy sniffed at him and the bags.
“Oh, I uhh… I’d like you all to meet Fuzzy. Don’t worry, he’s my bonded companion. He won’t hurt any of you.” He motioned for Fuzzy to hop out, and the moment the bear rounded the back corner of the vehicle, carrying Fibble in his mouth, both girls squealed and charged him.
“He’s adorable!” Brooke shouted as she wrapped her arms around Fuzzy’s neck and buried her face in his fur.
Hillary was right behind her. “Can we ride him?”
Allistor saw momentary panic on Gene’s face and a look of mild concern on Kira’s, but they both held their ground while the girls cuddled Fuzzy. Eventually, they relaxed and smiled as they watched the girls and the three hundred pound bear get to know each other.
Fuzzy gently set the Fibble doll down and licked Hillary’s face. The girl stepped back two steps and began wiping at her face. “Ew! His breath stinks! What do you feed him?”
Helen chuckled. “You don’t want to know.” she said, saving them from Allistor’s standard, ‘Some guy’s face’ response. But the image reminded her of their past battles with other humans, and that led to another topic. “Before we go anywhere, I’m going to need all of you to take the oath of loyalty. They filled you in before you came here, yes?” All of them nodded and repeated the oath after Helen. “Welcome to the family!” She hugged the little girls.
Gene resumed pulling bags from the cargo hold and Helen and Allistor loaded them into the vehicle. When it was all done, Allistor looked around. The folks from the Silo hadn’t arrived yet, so he asked Helen, “Can you take them up and get them situated? I’ll wait here for Andrea and her guys to arrive, make sure nothing sneaks up on Kira while she’s distracted with whispering to her baby.”
Gene grinned and moved around to get in the passenger seat. Fuzzy and the girls climbed in a side door, and Helen drove them up to the Citadel. She was a little quiet at first, remembering the last time she’d driven on this tarmac during the fight with the void titan. But the girls’ enthusiasm eventually lightened her mood and she made a little game of listing all the horrible sounding things Fuzzy might have eaten. Like skunk butts, stinkbug nests, and octopoid feet.
Allistor waited and watched as Kira ran through a mental checklist while looking over her plane. Eventually, he asked, “Does the plane have a name?”
Kira tilted her head. “Not officially. Before this year she went by her tail number. Now I mostly just call her ‘Baby’.”
“She looks like a fine plane. How many people can you fly at once?” he asked as he peered in through a window. He could see six seats in the main compartment.”
“That depends on how much cargo you carry with you. If it’s just people, Baby maxes out at eight to ten. With cargo, that number goes down based on weight.”
Allistor was slightly taken aback. It had been almost a year since he’d had to think about the weight of the items he carried around. Not since he’d gotten his inventory rings.
“Do you not have inventory rings?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just found out about them the other day. My family and I were at an Outpost until yesterday, no access to the market kiosk. When the word came around that you were looking for a pilot, we hopped right in and flew Baby straight here.”
Allistor produced one of the one hundred slot inventory rings and handed it to her. “Your cargo weight worries are over.”
She put the ring on and her eyes unfocused as she looked at the description. “Uh, it says there’s some food and water already in here. Something called ‘murder chicken bbq’?
“Ha! I forgot I stored some of that in there. Just keep it. In case you ever find yourself short on supplies. The food will stay good in there indefinitely.”
“Thank you for this. Let me know what I owe you, and-”
Allistor stopped her with a raised hand. “My gift to you. We’ll get some for your family as well. All my people carry at least one.” He changed the subject, anxious to get going on his planned mission. “Did they fill you in on where I want to go?”
“Nope, I didn’t even ask. I saw the same message everyone else did a few weeks back, that you had managed to become a Prince. That means you’ve been doing well for yourself. My family and I have barely been getting by for the last year. My pilot skills weren’t of much use, as nobody was flying anywhere. There are dragons in the skies now, and they don’t like planes. My husband is a good hunter, though, and has managed to keep us fed. We spent a lot of time foraging for items to trade with the folks at the Stronghold when they came by. But, basically, we were glorified security guards, watching over the airfield Outpost.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve learned from my discussions with some of the other leaders that not all of them are as interested in developing their people, or t
aking care of them. But we’re going to work on that. You and your husband, and your girls, will be able to learn spells, crafting skills, and whatever other skills you want now that you’re here. Everybody here contributes in some way, and I believe in making sure you have what you need to make those contributions meaningful.”
Kira nodded. “Gene will be thrilled to hear that. He’s an engineer by trade. That’s how we met. I was flying for a flight school, training yuppies to be pilots. He was working for a small aeronautics company in the hangar next door. We started having lunch together, and a year later we were married. That’s where we took shelter when the world ended. At the hangar, I mean. Eventually somebody came along and we agreed to let them put an Outpost at the airfield, and we agreed to maintain it. Since then he’s tinkered with every plane on the field, modifying the engines or the hydraulics. He was pretty much out of things to fix, but he has leveled his Mechanic, Engineering, and Manufacturing skills quite a bit.”
Allistor laughed. “Did you tell this to your Stronghold leader before you left?”
Kira grinned. “Nope. Screw that guy. He pretty much left us to rot. If he knew what Gene could do, he might not have let us come here.”
“Well, at the very least he would have charged me a much higher price to let you come.” Allistor mused. “But it would have been worth it. You saw the vehicle we brought? I call them Juggernauts. They run on hydrogen fuel engines, which means they literally run on water as fuel. You think Gene would like to start playing with those?”
Kira’s eyes widened and she nodded slowly. “If you had told him that before they left, he’d have started taking it apart right here.” She paused, and a small smile crept across her face. “Please, let me tell him? I’m gonna make him promise to replace Baby’s engine with one of those. No more pumping fuel by hand!”
Allistor agreed, and she got back to work on her post-flight checklist. As she poked and peered at her plane, Allistor continued on the track they’d fallen away from earlier. “So, I want to go to the west coast to establish a Stronghold. Specifically, just off the coast of Santa Barbara. I now own a small group of islands there called Channel Islands National Park. There’s a runway on Santa Cruz Island. If it’s not long enough, there is a channel between the islands or a large cove that could be used for a water landing.”
Kira paused in her checklist to grab a well-worn atlas from the cockpit. A little bit of quick measuring, and she nodded. “Santa Barbara is about a thousand miles as the crow flies. Baby’s max range is about thirteen hundred miles. So, even if there’s a headwind, we should be able to get there on a full tank. Do you know if there will be fuel on the island?”
“I assume so. But even if there’s not, Santa Barbara has a large airport and it’s just a few miles across the water. Plus, we can always have more fuel trucked in from here.”
Kira looked at him, frowning. “Trucked in? How long is this trip? If it’s going to be a week or more, I’ll want to bring the family.”
Now it was Allistor’s turn to be confused for a moment, until he realized Kira didn’t know some vital information. “Ah, shit. I should have told you. When I place the Stronghold out there, I’ll also be setting up a teleport pad. The hub is here in Cheyenne. We can get from most of my Strongholds to any of the others in seconds. So, if there’s no fuel on the island, we’ll have a few airmen drive a fuel truck through.”
Kira took a moment to absorb the new info, then finally nodded her head. “That actually answers the next question I was going to ask you. Which was how you planned to defend a Stronghold a thousand miles away. Instant troop transport. Guess it’s good to be a prince!”
Just then, Andrea and two of her guys came driving up in a blue van marked USAF on the side. Allistor made introductions, and they quickly finished refueling and inspecting the plane. When they were done, Andrea offered, “You know, we have a few bigger planes you could use, if you want to bring more people.”
Kira looked at Allistor. “How many people did you want to take on this trip?”
Allistor shrugged. “I figured you and myself, and four or five people with guns in case there are mobs or hostile humans when we land.”
Kira nodded, turning back to Andrea. “Thanks, but for a small group, I’ll stick with Baby here. She’s small and fast, and not such a big target for the dragons. Those big fat C-130’s waddle through the air shouting, ‘come eat me!’”
Andrea laughed. “Good point. Well, they’re here if you need them. We also have a couple fighter jets, if you’re interested. Just been sitting there in the hangar all this time. We’ve got more than three dozen Air Force personnel here, and none of us can fly them.” She smiled at Kira, who laughed.
“I’m not qualified to fly a fighter jet, I don’t think. I’ve been leveling my Pilot and Navigation skills, but I think those are still out of my league. I can fly helicopters, if you’ve got any of those?”
“Sure do! Couple of old Hueys, and one of those big double-whirly Chinook cargo deals.”
“Double-whirly cargo deals is a technical Air Force term.” Allistor teased his friend.
Kira chuckled. “Those would be great for local use. Like for short trips to transport groups or cargo where I can stay close to the ground, hug the trees. Cuz, you know, dragons.”
Allistor zoned out, picturing a big helicopter lifting his Howitzers up to be mounted atop Stronghold walls. When he began to pay attention again, Andrea was pushing him toward the van. He blinked a couple times, noting that Kira’s plane had already been pushed into the nearest hangar and secured. He climbed into the back of the van and Andrea drove them up to the Citadel. Along the way the airmen complimented Kira on some of the upgrades to her plane.
Gene and the girls were waiting for them in the former food court area of the Citadel. Helen had procured ice cream cones for the girls, and Gene was drinking hot coffee. He handed Kira a cup without a word, and she sniffed it. “Mmmm… been a long time since we had real coffee.”
Annoyed by the treatment Kira and her family had received, Allistor made a note to be less generous in his future dealings with her former boss. Then he looked at Kira, and made a suggestive eyebrow waggle before looking at Gene, then back again.
Kira laughed. “Okay, okay. So, honey? I’m going on a little trip tomorrow with Allistor and his people. But when I get back, I’m thinking you should replace Baby’s engine for me. Would you mind?”
Gene took another sip, looking at his wife as if she were speaking gibberish. “What? I rebuilt that engine from scratch, with my best modifications. She’ll outfly anything with a propeller. There’s nothing wrong with her engine.”
“Ah, but Allistor and his people, they have these new engines. Alien tech.” She paused, taking a couple sips and savoring her own coffee as her husband began to shift from foot to foot, then his hands started to twitch.
Finally, he said, “Damn it, woman! Tell me.”
She grinned, leaning forward to whisper in his ear. Allistor smiled as he watched Gene’s eyes go wide. He immediately set down his mug and stepped toward Allistor. “Tell me about them! Do you have one here I can look at? Do they really run on water? What kind of conversion and consumption rates are you seeing?”
Kira grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him away from Allistor. He resisted for a moment, then looked sheepish. “I’m sorry. It’s just… a viable hydrogen fuel engine?”
Allistor patted the man on the shoulder. “The vehicle you rode up here in has one of those engines. Feel free to go take a look.” He paused and looked at Kira. “As soon as Kira says it’s okay. I don’t want to piss off the woman who’s about to fly me a thousand miles.”
“Tomorrow.” Kira said, her tone firm. “Today we meet people, eat some good food, and rest. You can play with all the new toys while I’m gone.”
Gene nodded, though the hands wrapped around his coffee mug still twitched slightly. Kira took each of the girls by a hand and led them away, saying, “I’ll see you f
irst thing in the morning, Allistor? Say, 7:00am?”
“Sounds good. Enjoy your evening! And once again, welcome to the Citadel. I hope your rooms are comfortable enough. If you need more space or something, just let Nigel know. Oh! Uh, there’s an AI that runs this place. Did you have one at your Outpost?”
Gene stopped in his tracks, forcing Kira and the girls to do the same. “An AI? No, we did not have one of those.”
“Nigel, say hello to our newest citizens.” Allistor looked up at the ceiling, causing the others to look up as well.
“Welcome, Kira, Gene, Brooke, and Hillary. I am Nigel. Should you need anything, simply call out my name and I shall assist you.”
“Cool!” Brooke exclaimed. “Hi Nigel! Can I have more ice cream?” The little girl grinned mischievously as her mother shushed her.
“I believe it is customary for young humanlings to obtain permission from a parent before obtaining sugar-based food products, little one.” Nigel answered, causing both girls to giggle and Kira to smile.
“Nice to meet you, Nigel. I have lots of questions.” Gene spoke toward the ceiling.
“Tomorrow!” Kira insisted, resuming her march out of the dining area. “Show me where our quarters are.” Gene jogged to catch up, still glancing repeatedly at the ceiling as he led his wife and daughters to their new home.
“Oh, I like them.” Andrea smiled at the departing family.
“Me too! She seems tough enough. And he told me he’s a hunter on the drive up.” Helen added.
“He’s much more than that. He’s a trained engineer who’s been leveling several related skills pretty much every day since the apocalypse.”
“Well, how do you like that? He’ll come in handy.” Andrea mused. “Alright. Quick meal and back to the Silo. I’m due to check on Daniel and the dragon eggs. Have fun storming the island tomorrow.” She walked off toward the kitchen.
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