AP5, 37 & 38 (Patreon)

Chapter 37

Time until next Challenge: 9 days,  8 hours, 18 minutes

I spent the whole flight waiting for something to go wrong. Maybe the darkness would make the twotwos too hard to spot and fight. Maybe… maybe something else would go wrong! I couldn’t think what else could, other than one of my counterparts suddenly dying, but… well, actually, that was something to fear.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly, despite Hamlet’s best efforts. We could spot the twotwos arriving from too far away, and the darkness didn’t hamper that. If he’d been able to keep them in the cloud cover until he had a mass of them ready to attack, it might have been a problem, but he didn’t have the controls to micromanage the Titans that way. 

Since we could use holograms to counter their stealth, even a wave of over thirty wasn’t too challenging for our group to deal. Ariel would let us know when Hamlet had spawned the Titans, and our group would turn aside or slow down, changing the site of battle away from the one Hamlet had carefully calculated for the twotwos’ simultaneous arrival. Even a small change would spread their arrival out over the course of a few minutes, and the stealth-based monsters weren’t designed to charge through the coordinated attacks of a hundred-plus ranged attackers the way some of the tankier Titan varieties were.

After we’d fended off two assaults in the total darkness, I even I started to relax, at least enough to quiz Ariel. I was still angry with her, but she was an invaluable source of information, one that I needed to lean on. And… the giant upgrade in her ability to communicate was clear proof she was continuing to consult with her conscience.

She was trying to change. Even if she still scared the hell out of me in many ways, I could respect that. 

I mentally poked her. Hamlet didn’t send anything else at us. Just twotwos, twice in a row.

<His options are limited, as previously discussed.>

Are there really no avian races in the Commonwealth? I asked Ariel.Surely, after thousands of contests, Hamlet would have more flight-capable Titans available than this.

<I have not been provided with demographic data about the species of the Commonwealth, but there are a large number of flight-capable Titans in my databanks. However, even with the most aggressive assessment of your capability, you are still very early in the contest. Less than 4% of the Titans in our databanks are permissible, and of those, the vast majority were designed to function in different atmospheres, temperatures, and gravities. This effect is more pronounced with flight-capable Titans.>

That made a certain amount of sense, but it still piqued my curiosity. Oh? How so?

<Of the Titans Hamlet has implemented in the past few days, only half are fully functional in Earth’s environment. For example, Titan #8 was designed to function in about two-thirds of Earth’s gravity. Operating here has greatly slowed its motion.>

Ah, but that’s a good trade-off for Hamlet, because the area electrical attack isn’t affected by gravity, and the Titan’s heavy armor makes it hard to kill. But… that wouldn’t work so well for a Titan that relied on speed or flight.

<Accurate. Titans designed to fly in different gravities or denser atmospheres cannot be easily implemented. Data transmissions I received from the Maffiyir company frequently consisted of tweaks to monster, Titan, and Threat designs to address such issues.>

So they were planning on keeping that rolling. Giving the Overmind stuff right before the contest needed it, because they didn’t have it all ready before they launched.

<Unverifiable, but plausible.>

Hmm.

<Requesting permission to spawn new monster variety.>

Oh yeah. We haven’t done that yet this week. It’ll only be worth marginally more, but we’re so behind on land purchases. We need every edge.

<I am implementing a new Blueprint drop.>

Something important?

<I believe so. I had a Blueprint for an item to allow Shopowners to adjust prices from afar. I have altered it to instead allow Money withdrawals without being physically present in the Shop. Unfortunately, the original version of this item was designed to drop off of Titans. To make it available from new monsters, instead, I have had to dramatically increase the price.>

To what?

<Blueprint: Shop Management Kiosk costs 2000 Money.>

I flinched at the high cost - almost as much as 14 land plots - but thought for a moment. Before it had been destroyed, the Shop at Fort Autumn had earned me thousands per day. And my Shop in Cozy Grove was still standing. Not to mention, I wasn’t the only Shopowner among us: Vince had placed a Shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he hadn’t been able to withdraw his taxes from it since he’d left the area nearly two months prior. Something like this would let him - and anyone else in a similar situation, like my fellow Linked Users and their guards - claim thousands of plots they’d have had no chance at affording otherwise.

It won’t solve things by itself, but that will definitely help. I sighed, then reluctantly followed up the thought. Good job. Thanks. Keep it up.

<Affirmative.>

Hamlet’s last attack, launched just before we reached Fort Defiance, barely even reached us; I only used abilities on a single twotwo. While the military had sent all their best flyers ahead to assist us, they still had a few people available who had some flight capability but couldn’t stay in the air continually. These people exhausted themselves to safeguard our entry, carrying their warriors with the most lethal Specialties up to meet the twotwos in the air. Others were picked off from the ground by high-caliber sniper rifles and a few larger guns set up on wheels and tripods, so we were able to make our final descent in comparative peace, using only a few stray abilities here and there to take down smaller flying monsters during the last few hundred feet.

It gave me plenty of opportunity to study the building. Like Fort Autumn, it was a “star fort” instead of a more traditional rectangular structure. Unlike Fort Autumn, it hadn’t been built to house thousands of civilians; it had been built for war, and that showed. The fort had three distinct lines of defense: an external wall nearly 20 feet thick, an internal wall, and a raised lip around the roof of the windowless building at the fort’s center. A lookout tower rose from the center of that building, surrounded by five more, one in each point of the star, and each look at least as - I frowned, activating Analyze - no, each looked stronger and larger than the tower we’d built in Fort Autumn.

People here had been busy.

A greeting party met us in the courtyard, ushering us swiftly inside to a cafeteria-like room, where we all stripped off our goggles and gas masks with great relief. A collection of people in decorated uniforms met us. One of their number, a balding shorter man, stepped forward. “I’m General Cleary, Ms. Moretti. Welcome to Fort Defiance.”

“The… the Threats,” I said. “There are over 30 following us now, and the closest one is only about an hour back, and a huge wave will hit in about a day. Are you-”

The general smiled at me gently. “We’re ready to deal with numbers far greater than that, Ms. Moretti.” He gestured to the side of the room, which I now noticed was lined with stacked Minor Matter Replicators. Actually… all the walls of this room were lined with Minor Matter Replicators, floor to ceiling, and it wasn’t a small room. If every single one of those was replicating explosives… even if it was only gunpowder, which I doubted, that was almost 5,000 pounds of explosives per day.

We’d used maybe a fifth of that to bring down a Threat at Fort Autumn, and we’d done so hastily and sloppily, with no experts on hand to optimize our attack. I was pretty sure that the blasts that had defended us at Gordonsville had used a fraction of that volume. If they were replicating a stronger explosive than gunpowder - and why wouldn’t they be? - Fort Defiance could probably eradicate dozens of Threats per day. 

And we had only around three dozen following us, some of which would arrive more than a day from now.

Standing was suddenly too much for me. I sank down to one of the benches, unable to speak. I tried to unbuckle Cassie from her carrier, but after three fumbled attempts at managing the buckles, Flip took pity on me and unsnapped us.

General Cleary’s voice was gentle. “I’m sorry that getting to us was such a challenge, but you’re in safe hands now.”

I’m safe.

My kids are safe.

There was still danger in our future - we weren’t nearly on track to win this thing before the next Challenge, and that was almost certain death - but for the first time in days, I could rest.

A splash of liquid hit the side of my hand, and I realized I was crying.

Chapter 38

Time until next Challenge: 8 days,  19 hours, 7 minutes

I woke up in a rumbling building. Earthquake? I wondered muzzily, then remembered where I was and what was happening. Oh, the first Threats must have caught up. Fort Defiance is blowing them up.

<Correction. The first Threats arrived hours ago, but this is the first large wave of Threats.>

Another rumble shook the building. I slept through stuff like this?

<You woke briefly and then returned to sleep.>

I wanted to reject that, but since I’d already closed my eyes again, it seemed distressingly plausible. 

I sighed. How long was I asleep? What time is it?

<It is slightly after noon local time. You first laid down to rest just under eleven hours ago.>

I groaned and stretched. Guess I should get up, then.

Ariel didn’t comment. 

My family lay piled around me, equally exhausted. We’d been given a space in a massive communal barracks. It was bright and crowded, to allow sentries to easily pinpoint any paraslug that managed to penetrate this deep into Fort Defiance. We’d been assured that none had, but I wasn’t going to criticize the extreme caution being exercised. Everyone slept on a rotation in this same room, even the generals. Despite the public nature of the area and the bright light, there was one thing I really appreciated about the space: someone with a high-tier Zone of Silence ability was constantly on-duty, ensuring the continual traffic in and out of the room wasn’t disruptive to people already asleep. Of course, that put sleeping space at even more of a premium, so another bed was suspended a few feet above my head.

I appreciated that they’d shoved an extra mattress in between two rows of single-person cots to allow my family space to sleep together. Even though I’d never let the kids share our bed before the world went mad, it felt natural now, and that went double after a day like yesterday. 

Although… that begs the question, I thought. Do I wake them, or let them sleep? I definitely can’t just get up and leave them here. If I woke up and they weren’t around, I would have panicked.

I mulled the question over for another minute or so, ultimately deciding to wake them. We’d gotten the best night of sleep we’d had in a long time, and we were in the final push. Nine days from now, we’d either be dead or victorious. Being well-rested was defensible, but lazing around? Not really.

I rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, half-expecting to see that I’d been the slowpoke and that the rest of my family was already awake, but only Gavin had his eyes open. Pointy was projecting text onto the bedpost next to him, and when my middle child waved at me I could see that he had some blurry letters written across the skin of his hands that faded as I watched. Must have been practicing Shapeshift.

Gavin sat up in place, too short for his head to be at risk of bumping into the bunk above, and helped me try to shake the rest of our family awake. We were gentle at first, but we had to put some real force into it before anyone else opened their eyes… which I supposed made sense if they’d already slept through several bomb blasts. Actually, that explained why Gavin was up, too. The Zone of Silence might have canceled the noise of the blast, but the rest of the rumbling would have been incredibly “loud” on Gavin’s Seismic Sense.

I hope he got some rest, I thought. And I hope it was just the explosions that woke him… I’ll have to check with Pointy later. I’d apparently been sleeping too deeply for nightmares, but that didn’t mean that Gavin had.

Eventually, I got my family moving. An aide immediately moved in to pull the extra mattress we’d used against the wall. Our beds weren’t really “ours” and would be used by other people while we were awake. It felt a little weird and unsanitary, but it was the most effective way to ensure everyone got safe and restful sleep.

Exiting the Zone of Silence brought an abrupt return of noise: not just the booming rumble of explosions, but the uncoordinated drum of a hundred footsteps, the hum of regular conversation, and even some shouting. To my relief, that was where it stopped: only shouts, no screams. Things were busy and tense, but… probably not out of control?

Another aide met us as we left the zone. He led us to the mess hall, then left, saying he’d let leadership know we were awake. “I’ll come back to get you in a few minutes. I know we have several people who want to talk to you.”

The food in the mess hall wasn’t anything special - just bland, utilitarian spacecakes - but there was still a pleasant surprise waiting for us. Davi was sitting at a table across from Byron. She spotted us as we entered and waved a hand. “Hey! Come and sit with us!”

“Davi!” Vince yelled. “I was hoping you were still around. I was happy to see you yesterday, but we didn’t get a chance to talk.”

“Most of us are still here!” Davi said. “They sent about 30 people out again, but the rest of us are on-duty here until the next Challenge.”

Vince slid onto a bench. “So you’re military now, huh?”

Davi laughed. “I guess? But they got me my Specialty early, and a few of my first missions were out to the areas where my family and friends live.”

“Did you…”

“Yeah. Things weren’t as good as I hoped, but much better than I feared. I found almost everyone, and only a few were… had been…” Davi shook herself, then took a deep breath and straightened. “My mom isn’t with us anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Vince said.

We were all quiet for a moment, before I hesitantly broke the silence. “You found almost everyone?”

“One of my older brothers is still missing,” she said.

“What’s his name?”

“Vibol. Vibol Sok.” Davi’s voice rose hopefully. “Can you…”

I consulted with Ariel. “Ariel has got a number of contestants with that name who are still alive, but most of them on this continent are on the west coast. On the east coast there’s a guy in Lowell, Massachusetts; one in Ashburn, Virginia, another in Providence, Rhode Island-”

Davi stood up, slamming her hands on the table. “That one! That’s him! I mean, that might be him! How old? Is he 27?”

<Demographic data stored on contestants is limited, but biology is approximately consistent with that age.>

“She says she doesn’t know his exact age, but probably around there.”

“Oh, my gosh. That’s probably him. Thank you so much.”

I smiled. “No problem. I wish I could do it for everyone.”

“Did John…?”

“That’s what made me think of it. We kind of bailed on an expedition to help him look for his wife when Ariel connected to me.”

“You were unconscious, Meghan,” Vince growled.

“That’s why we bailed,” I said. “So-”

“That’s not bailing.”

I stared at him. “Can I finish what I’m saying?”

He rolled his eyes and waved a hand at me.

I shook my head. “Anyway, between one thing and another, it was a long time before we met up with him again, and I’d kind of forgotten about him until we did. Apparently, his wife had taken advantage of him being out of town to drive up to Unclaimed Baggage for some bargain hunting.”

“Oh! So she wasn’t even in Huntsville!” Davi said.

“Yeah, he would never have found her if he kept looking around the area,” I confirmed.

“But they reconnected?”

I hesitated, unsure. Honestly, after I’d given him the info, I’d kind of put it out of my mind. 

Byron jumped in. “He’s talked with someone who talked with her, but he was still trying to figure out transportation. He’d made it across to northeast Huntsville, last I heard.”

“I’m happy to hear she’s okay,” Davi said. 

We sat and chatted for a few minutes, the conversation adding necessary spice to the plain water and flavorless spacecakes, before the aide who’d met us outside the barracks returned.

“Let me know when you’re done eating, ma’am.”

“Leadership wants to see me?”

To my surprise, the aide shook his head. “They’re second on the agenda. The moment you’re ready, I’m supposed to take you to our legal team.”