AP5, Ch. 43, 44 (Patreon)

Chapter 43

Time until next Challenge: 4 days, 17 hours 45 minutes

Everyone looked at me expectantly after my outburst, but I had to shake my head. “She’s still not responding to me. She probably can’t. I don’t even know if she can hear me.”

“Is Huntsville still in good shape?” Pointy asked. “Beebee knows how to interpret communications from Ariel, and she committed to monitoring him. If he can get to a spot where he can see a lot of monsters appearing, he might be able to get us some answers.”

“I’ll ask,” said Marie.

“Do that,” I said. “But we’ve got more immediate problems.”

I gestured upward. Above me and around us, I could feel a churning mass of monsters. Some were landing atop the lookout tower; others were feet away, held back only by the stone walls. My Life Sense was giving me a firework show of information. Monsters were dying constantly, but there were always more arriving. I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Despite the hundreds of monster deaths I’d sensed, it wasn’t all going our way: one human life faded away as well. Yes, that was “only” one person, but even if I’d felt a thousand monster deaths, the ratio still wasn’t in our favor. Hamlet could make new monsters indefinitely, but once someone died, that was it; they were gone. I sighed. “Can we-”

I was interrupted by a new figure pounding his way up the stairs. “Away! Get away from the walls!” 

We all obeyed instantly, although not without concerned stares. After a moment, I recognized the stoneshaper we’d passed just minutes before. 

“Sitrep?” one of my bodyguards inquired.

The man shook his head, looking stressed. “Monsters are still coming up from below, but we’ve got a lot of people in place fighting them now - anyone with an ability that can penetrate stone - and more of the stoneshapers are on their way over. Problem is, tons of stuff outside has been chipping away at the outside of the tower. Acid, explosives, high-pressure water jets: you name it. I’ve been trying to counter them from below, but too much material has been blasted clear.” He waved a hand upward. “I’m having to steal stone from the lookout tower above.”

Priya shot a look upward, alarmed. “That’s not good…”

“Just got new orders!” Marie said. “General Cleary wants you back in the cafeteria for now. It should be easier to defend you there while we figure out what to do.”

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s go.”

As we headed downstairs, I worked to keep my face calm despite my increasing nervousness, well aware that Anju and my own three kids were anxiously looking from the face of one adult to another.

The cafeteria was packed, a cordon of defenders ringing a small island of space in the middle, where several tables had been pushed together to make a space for General Cleary, his aides, and a growing pile of scribbled reports. It looked controlled and organized, but the Minor Matter Replicators ringing the walls told another story. Many had been knocked over and not reset, and a small crew seemed to be working to move others to a safer location. Others were clearly no longer working. Some had been broken by gunshots, the familiar circular scars of bullet holes breaking their surface, while others had been rendered inoperable by more esoteric means, with surfaces bearing the marks of supernatural abilities or split open by some crushing force that left curling, twisted metal in its wake.

I strode through the room and slapped my hands down on the table, leaning in to look General Cleary in the eyes. “Can you still protect us here?”

His eyes widened at my directness, but he barely hesitated before answering. “Short term? Yes. Long term? That’s still in question, but I’m leaning toward no as I get more reports, unless you can tell me that Hamlet is nearing the end of what he can throw at us.”

“How many unique varieties of monsters have we seen?”

“Just under 200.”

“Then, no, he is not close to his limits.”

The general frowned. “I was afraid you’d say that. We’re having a hard time developing a stable defense against such a mixed enemy force.”

“Sir!” an aide said, his hand pressed to his head. “Another report from the north wall - one of the new monsters is converting our walls to some kind of polymer.”

“Damnit,” Cleary growled. “I’ve got thirty rockshapers. Do we have anyone who can manipulate the new material?”

“We’ve got two people headed over to test their abilities, but even if they can, they’re not optimized for large-scale construction.”

“Get someone with Analyze on it,” Cleary said. “I want numbers.”

“Just got some preliminaries. At this rate, the outer wall will retain effectiveness as a defense for about two hours. More if we can get more rock up from below or get better at killing the monsters responsible.”

“And less if-” Cleary cut off, shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

I blinked. “Shit. He can probably hear our Mental Speech here, can’t he? Now that he controls the monster spawns in the area, he’s probably handling our abilities as well.”

“I hope not, but we have to assume as much,” General Cleary said.

I closed my eyes, consulting my Eidetic Memory. I’d gotten a good view of the Fort as we’d been flown in, and it had been designed well, with multiple layers of defenses. But if the outer wall might only last two hours, I didn’t think the fort as a whole could stay standing, not if we had over four days to go until the Challenge. Sooner or later, we’d be fighting in the open.

“Do we know how big Hamlet’s area of influence is?” I asked. “I know we’ve got more defenses here against Threats, but…”

General Cleary nodded. “You’re reading my mind, Ms. Moretti. The defenses we have against Threats are largely in the form of expertise and material. We can carry those with us, if necessary.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “I’m still hoping for other options, but we can’t wait too long to make a decision. We’ve suffered ten casualties in the past twenty minutes. That’s unsustainable.”

“Can we disable the monsters attacking us instead of killing them?” Vince asked. “That can be effective at suppressing spawns in an area.”

General Cleary shook his head. “We were trying that. Shortly after we began leaving monsters incapacitated, they began dying on their own. Judging by some other things we’ve observed, he’s made the various monsters vulnerable to each other’s attacks. It seems to have blunted his attack slightly, but deprives us of the option of suppressing monster spawns.”

An aide straightened, her eyes clamped shut as she held a hand to her temple. “General! We’re getting strange reports. Prices appear to be skyrocketing.”

“Which prices?”

“The first report was for Shop-purchased food and water, but it looks like the prices of all Shop-purchased items are being dramatically increased, one by one.”

“How are the other Linked Users?” I asked. “If Ariel lost control of the Shops…”

“One of my Blueprints is more expensive now!” Micah said. “Alternative Ration costs 154 Money. I don’t remember what it was before, but it wasn’t that.”

“154?” I frowned. Something about that number seemed suspicious to me, and I consulted my Eidetic Memory. “They were ten before, so that’s an increase of-”

1,086 new monsters activated. All Money purchases increased in price, but each grants ownership of a random plot of non-liquid Earth surface. 1,093 new monsters activated.

Face the challenges before you to grow in strength and earn rewards. Good luck!

My brow furrowed in confusion as the message began. It was given in the same tone as all the system announcements, so I initially assumed Hamlet was responsible. As the message continued, I realized that couldn’t possibly be the case; Ariel must have used Hamlet’s onslaught as an excuse to push through a system-wide announcement, and she’d used the opportunity to inform us about her efforts to fight back. 

A grin stretched across my face. “Great work, Ariel!” I shouted. “Keep it up!” I didn’t know if she could hear me, but if she could, I wanted to make sure she got positive reinforcement. I turned to General Cleary. “If the ability to make land purchases was what was slowing us down, this could really turn the tide. Even if they can’t get to a Shop, anyone with a reasonable amount of Money has dozens and dozens of Blueprints they can spend it on.”

He pressed his hands together and tilted them back and forth, clearly considering. “McGivens, estimate on how long the core of Fort Autumn will hold?”

“Estimate six hours until we’re in danger here, sir.”

“Hm… We’ll lose more people during that time, but this is a paradigm shift. There’s a non-zero chance the contest could end in that time. It’s unlikely, but possible. I don’t want to abandon the fort prematurely. Have we made contact with that Information Assistant in Huntsville?”

“Yes, sir,” Marie said. “Beebee has communicated with Ariel, but she seems limited in what information she can share with him. She has confirmed that she is continuing to follow the orders of her Linked Users to the best of her ability, even though she can no longer contact them.”

“Good girl,” I breathed.

“Can Beebee get land claim percentage?” General Cleary asked.

Marie was quiet for a moment, presumably inquiring, then shook her head. “No.”

“Alright. Jeffries, contact Washington. I want multiple high-tier Analysts in Shops, scanning the globe and giving us a running update on their best estimates. We’ll hunker down and watch the trends for a few hours, but I want us to make preparations! If we make a call to head out, I want us on the road in under ten minutes, with nothing and no one left behind.”

“Yes, sir!” came the ragged chorus.

I closed my eyes myself for a moment, offering a silent prayer: God, please let this be the break we need. 

Chapter 44

Time until next Challenge: 4 days, 14 hours 33 minutes

The next few hours were a strange mix of boredom and tension. We were sitting deep in the interior of Fort Defiance, surrounded by hundreds of defenders, so we had very little to actually do.

On the other hand, the constant flow of news kept us on the edge of our seats. One moment, we’d be celebrating. The next? Horrified. 

The immediate explosion of land purchases following Ariel’s system announcement had us all cheering. Purchases poured in, bumping us from under 19% claimed to over 23% in under an hour. Even the constant reports of deaths among Fort Defiance’s defenders didn’t fully dim our enthusiasm. Did I grieve them? Of course! But for once, it felt like the deaths caused by the Maffiyir had purpose. Meaning! These people were dying for a cause they believed in, for the sake of the planet.

Then, disappointingly, purchases slowed dramatically. We claimed another percent over the following hour, and a tenth of a percent the hour after that. 

“That’s still much better than we were doing,” I said. “If we can at least maintain at this level, we’ll be done with the contest in less than three days, well before the Challenge.”

“True,” said General Cleary. “Still, we’re left with a dilemma. We’ve lost the outer wall completely, and I just issued orders to retreat from the inner wall. We can try to hold here for the next two-and-a-half days, but we won’t have any defenses. On the other hand, our scouts have a good picture of the area Hamlet controls. If we can make it 50 miles, carrying the explosives with us, we should be able to bunker down in Ariel-controlled territory”

“Fifty miles still concerns me,” one of the general’s subordinates groused. “Why’d we have to get shithammered so hard? The group from Pakistan already got Ms. Syed clear.”

I winced. Someone - Hamlet or his handlers - seemed to have identified me as a particular threat, above and beyond the other Linked Users. Hamlet had taken control of the area around each of us, but the territory around me was Hamlet’s largest holding by far. Initially, we’d thought we had to travel nearly 100 miles to get out of Hamlet’s area of control, but Ariel had passed a hint through Beebee that made General Cleary’s scouts re-examine the area to our northwest. They’d found a narrow wedge of land free of the myriad nightmares that Hamlet had summoned down on us.

“Fifty miles wouldn’t be a problem if the roads were clear!” another growled.

“Tanks are designed to go off-road. If we can keep moving, we should be able to exit the area in less than two hours.”

“There’s no way the fighters on foot will be able to keep up that speed, not while actively defending the tanks.”

General Cleary slammed his hands on the table as he rose. The noise wasn’t particularly striking, not amidst the constant background of screams, rumbles, and gunfire, but every eye was still drawn to him as he got to his feet, especially as he pulled down his gas mask to speak. “Ladies and gentlemen: the buildings of the United States may have fallen, but we, her people, still stand. The governments of the world may have fallen, but humanity remains. The forces arrayed against us do not matter. What matters is this: keeping Ms. Moretti alive will grant a tremendous advantage for humanity. We are about to fight the most important battle in history, and no matter what it takes, we will succeed. If we can get clear, if we can keep her alive for just a few more days, I believe our people will come through for us. I believe humanity is on the brink of winning this contest.”

“With our victory, we will secure a future for our people and our planet. We will carve out a space to regain all that we have lost. All the music, all the art, all the literature, all the science, all the joy. We will demonstrate to the entire universe the strength of the human spirit. Let’s show them: targeting humanity was the worst mistake they could have made!" 

The general’s voice rose as he spoke, the last words coming out as a roar that was met by an answering cheer from the crowd. 

He gave a shallow nod, then began directing subordinates to prepare for the evacuation as he resettled his mask on his face. Perhaps only I was close enough - and undistracted enough, to notice his shoulders relax slightly as he finished speaking and the attentive audience moved off on other tasks, shrugging on backpacks full of explosives and securing their armor. 

“It was a good speech,” I told him.

He dropped his voice as he leaned toward me. “No one put any speechwriters on the staff here! They’re gonna stick whatever I just said in textbooks for a thousand years. Assuming we have textbooks…”

He said the last line in a lower voice. General Cleary’s speech had focused on the benefits my survival would bring, but we were both aware of the flip side to that: if I died, who knew how that would change the balance between Ariel and Hamlet? Humanity seemed to be on the brink of winning the contest, but we hadn’t won yet. If Hamlet got control of monster spawns across the whole world, it might be deadly enough that we started losing control of more land than we gained, even if people had set heirs. Or, if he got control of the Shop system, he might prevent our victory more directly. Or… 

I resolutely abandoned that line of thinking. “It’ll be fine,” I told General Cleary. “It was good.”

“Hmf,” he said, but he seemed to appreciate my words.

Then, there was no more time for speaking. Everyone was moving toward the exit: not running, but moving with a tense, steady speed. I held my titanium panels overhead as we exited, catching several missiles and a spray of some kind of suspicious fluid. 

Four tanks had been parked near the exit, all of which had been modified. The external armor had been left alone, but much of the internals had been removed and scrapped to make space for more passengers. Tanks driven by abilities had no need for fuel tanks or engines, and all the internal screens and computer circuits were totally useless. Only the treads, frame, armor, and weapons remained intact.  

My family, Marie, Priya, and Anju joined General Cleary and a pair of drivers in one tank, while the fort’s other children and parents joined communications specialists and other VIPs in the other three tanks. Even with the changes that had been made, the area inside the tank was cramped: modern American tanks weren’t designed to carry many people. The kids were all bunched together in a crawlspace less than three feet high, and the adults were packed together like commuters on a rush hour subway, all of us grabbing handholds bolted to the ceiling for stability. 

“It’s like a storm shelter,” I heard Anju tell Cassie. “Only, instead of keeping us safe from wind and sticks, it’s keeping us safe from a storm of monsters.”

When I’d heard about the tanks, I’d been worried that the driver wouldn’t be able to see, assuming that video displays would have been used to help steer. The military had been quick to calm my fears: even if some tanks did use such technology, it was only as a supplement to low-tech periscopes that remained functional even with all of humanity’s computers destroyed.

Driving them would be fine, but none of us had been sure how well the armored vehicles would hold up against the monster deluge. They’d been outside for days, but without people inside, monsters had completely ignored them. Unlike Shops and Siphons, they weren’t “important” from a contest’s perspective. No, they were just human-made nonsense, no more or less important than a mailbox, so the invaders had been ignoring the tanks, causing only minor, accidental damage as they clambered over them on the way elsewhere.

The moment we entered, that equation changed, as monsters suddenly saw the tanks as important, a tough shell protecting a delectable human center. Clangs, clanks, and pinging noises resounded through the interior as a multitude of claws and missiles hit our armor. Our pedestrian defenders were quick to clear any attackers from the tank’s surface, but any respite was only temporary, as more monsters streaked down out of the sky, burrowed up from under the ground, and even appeared directly atop or underneath the tanks. 

We’d hoped - as horrible as it was - that the presence of exposed humans would lead the monsters to ignore the tanks entirely, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The people around us were definitely taking the bulk of the monsters’ focus, but meaningful minority were ignoring them and focusing on the armored vehicles.

The cacophony made normal speech impossible, so I used a close range Announcement as we crossed out of the boundary that had been Fort Defiance’s outer wall only a few hours before: Marie, how are we holding up?

The younger woman had her eyes closed, presumably using Clairvoyance to watch the tank from above and direct our defenders to any unnoticed problems. We’re taking damage, but it’s minimal so far - just surface damage to the armor that the people outside are able to repair quickly. 

Awesome, I responded. Let’s hope we can keep that up until we get clear.

Without opening her eyes, Marie nodded.