Some of the following information is quite detailed and at other times it’s not, sorry. There are probably some minor errors too. This Character List is a work in progress. I am pulling together information from multiple messy files and having to decide what I want to reveal. I will keep tacking it on to the beginning of most chapters until I feel like I’ve got it right.

Partial Character List:

Name: Vincent Standish

Primary Class and Title: Hermit King

Class: Professional Hermit

Title: Sovereign and Absolute Monarch of the Kingdom of Hermit’s Forge.

Title: The Grumpy Hermit King

Title: The Grumpy Hermit

Warning Label: Caution, This is an Insanely Strong Smelling Hermit; It is Extremely Dangerous When Enraged. Please Keep Hands and Feet Away From Its Mouth at All Times.

Oldest Daughter, Linda (blue screen) married to Attorney James Lopez (orange screen), daughter Angela is six months old when she arrives at compound.

Daughter Sandra (blue screen) married to Jacob Schwartz (green screen, former sales manager for a new car dealership), their son Jonathan four months old when he arrives at compound.

Ex-wife Nancy Connor (blue screen), her boyfriend Steve Griffith (blue screen) is gone and probably dead.

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Hermit’s Guard:

Name: George Mesquida

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Soldier

Class: Combat Officer

Title: Knight Captain

Title: Captain

Title: Husband of Sheryl and Ruth Mesquida

Name: Candace Murphy

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Soldier

Class: Combat Officer

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Knight Lieutenant

Title: Lieutenant

Title: Daughter of Sean and Denise Murphy

Name: Boris Khan

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Soldier

Class: Combat Officer

Title: Knight Lieutenant

Title: Lieutenant

Name: Storm Wind

Primary Class and Title: Chief; Chief of the Terran Long Flight Clan

Secondary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Soldier

Class: Combat Officer

Title: Knight Lieutenant

Title: Lieutenant

Title: Husband of Dawn Song

Title: Father of Mountain Breeze

Note: Mountain Breeze is a very young boy.

Name: Night Storm

Primary Class and Title: Chief; Second Chief of the Terran Long Flight Clan

Secondary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Soldier

Class: Combat Officer

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Knight Lieutenant

Title: Lieutenant

Title: Wife of Metal Grinder

Title: Mother of Smoky Night

Note: Smoky Night is a very young girl.

Sergeant Richard Jacobs (green screen, Vietnam veteran, very attractive man) married to Martha (green screen), surviving with two great grandchildren. Normally serves aboard the T800 or Hellcat.

Sergeant Jeffrey Vargas (green screen, Vietnam veteran, commanded a M113 during war), now he typically commands the Sherman tank. Note: He can levitate and teleport.

Sergeant Derrick Miter, former marine M60 tank driver in Vietnam, green screen, normally drives or commands the Priest. Note: Burgeoning Earth Mage, that’s his only ability so he is working it for all that he’s worth.

Private Dominic Jackson, sharpshooter, had previously worked as a waiter in a high end restaurant. Few skills but he has been gratified to find that he has the makings of a natural shot.

Private Quentin Lee, first member of the Hermit’s Guard to fall. Died defending the Southern Wall from King Mandrills.

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Construction and Maintenance:

Name: Macallister Smith

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Minister of Construction and Maintenance

Fred Stone: Civil Engineer, picked up at County Building

Jean White: Civil Engineer, picked up at County Building

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The Shop Crew:

Name: Glen Stewart

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Minister of Manufacturing and Production

Note: Released Innocent Prisoner, Mechanic and Machinist

Name: Grace Lee

Former Aircraft Mechanic and Machinist

Note: Oath Sworn, Retired Naval Petty Office, Release Prisoner (technically guilty but extenuating circumstances should have found her innocent, Prosecutor was a jerk, the jury were idiots, and the guy started it.) She now lives in the Hermit’s home.

Ronald Lewis is an expert welder and burgeoning Fire Mage (Ron’s magic wand). (Green screen, released innocent prisoner.)

Andrew Thomas is a former appliance repair man. (Green screen, released innocent prisoner.)

Scott Blaine is an expert machinist as well as a tool and die maker. (Blue screen, alcoholic, is guilty of vehicular homicide, served most of his sentence and is truly repentant.)

Sean Murphy (green screen) is an expert gunsmith, husband of Lady Denise Murphy Minister of Health and father of Knight Lieutenant Candace Murphy.

Rufus Stokes (green screen) former M48 tanker, mechanic and drag car racer. Note: He knows how to link multiple engines together.

Mindy Stokes (green screen) is his wife and pregnant.

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Motor Pool:

Name: Clyde Jenkins

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Minister of Transport

Note: Farmer, collector of old tractors and former tank crewman.

Chester Fletcher (green screen) Note: He used to own the gravel pit and associated equipment.

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Peacekeepers:

Name: Faith Harper

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Minister of Justice

Note: Former Judge

Melissa Kilmer (age: 13), Orange Screen, Squire to Lady Faith.

Sir James Lopez (orange screen and former attorney)

Note: Son-in-law of the Hermit King.

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People Who Keep Things Running:

Name: Jennifer Boon

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Chief of Staff and Spokesperson for the Hermit King Vincent Standish

Note: Released Innocent Prisoner

Star Astrologer (green screen) is the Chief of the Craft-Makers, known as the Wise One. Note: Possible Enchanter if abused sufficiently enough by Vince.

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Food Production:

Name: Isabella Gomez

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Royal Botanist

Title: Minister of Food Production

Note: Released Innocent Prisoner

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Logistics and Supply:

Name: Stephen Monet

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Castellan

Title: Minister of Logistics and Supply

Note: Released Innocent Prisoner, former owner of a trucking company.

Name: Barbara Monet

Note: Oath sworn to both the King and her husband (his secretary/clerk too).

-----------------------------

Health Department:

Name: Denise Murphy

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Class: Healer

Class: Soldier

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Minister of Health and Chief Healer

Title: Wife of Sean Murphy

Title: Mother of Candace Murphy

Note: Nurse and an excellent shot. She and her daughter are equally good with a rifle and better than Sean.

Peggy Barnes; green screen, released innocent prisoner, nurse, possesses healing magic.

Gloria Bennett; blue screen, released prisoner, nurse practitioner; Note: gambling and drug problems, possesses healing magic.

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Black Powder Production and Alchemical Research:

Blender Apothecary (green screen) is the Second Chief of the Craft-Makers. Note: Possible Enchanter if abused sufficiently enough by Vince.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Chapter 24: A Peaceful Drive Home.

After her tour of the new embassy compound, Captain Long went to the Council Room to sign the official Documents of Understanding. Captain Mesquida was there waiting for her along with another man.

“Captain Long, this is Lieutenant Boris Khan, he’ll be going with us and staying behind to help with security at your base while we’re getting everyone transferred; that is if it’s okay with you? I must say, that since we never saw the inside of that factory complex you took over, that we were quite surprised when you told us about the number of people that you’ve managed to keep alive. We know that many have died and we grieve with you but you’ve done a remarkable job with little in the way of resources. But because of your success, it will take us five to six days to move everyone, if there are no complications.

Sir Khan will have six fire teams, armed with repeating firearms, fifty caliber and 20mm rifles. In addition they are also taking four, three inch Holman projectors with their required steam powered air compressors. Those weapons are like short range mortars or grenade launchers. While right now we only have IRODs for them, one of our shop people is very close to making a steam powered shrapnel shell. Even so, the IRODs are quite deadly and they have been used to kill a number of Sky Krakens.”

Barbara clearly had a puzzled expression on her face. “IRODs, Captain?”

“Oh, I’m sorry for the confusion, that stands for ‘Iron Rod of Death,’ it is an aerodynamic wooden shell that contains an iron rod which has been enchanted and loaded with heat energy. After passing through an arming ring, if an IROD hits anything with sufficient force, it will detonate and instantly release all of the heat energy that it holds. Once primed, they are generally safe enough to drop from five feet or be launched through a driving rain but anything more than that can get kind of dangerous.”

Lieutenant Khan spoke next. “I’m a beginning Earth Mage, as is the Captain, though we’re not even close to being in the same league as our King. I was talking to his Majesty last night while we were working on your new compound. He too was surprised at your number of survivors. As a consequence, he has authorized us to take along a number of his enchanted Earth Stones. He will use them to construct walls around your current base, to better protect us all during this transition phase.”

Barbara found her doubts being chiseled away. She still felt like she may be betraying her oath but this kind of aid was worth facing a firing squad.

With barely a sign of her former reluctance she signed the documents. And shortly before noon they were exiting the Southern Gate. Barbara thought she couldn’t have any more surprises that day, but she was wrong. What greeted her eyes were the corpses of hundreds of giant monsters, almost as large as an adult African elephant. Workers were quite casually going about the task of moving and butchering the immense creatures.

She knew that there had been some disturbance last night that the Stronghold had viewed as a minor wild boar attack but at the most she had expected fifty or so swine and for them to be no more than half the size of the monsters, that she was currently seeing.

The huge hogs distracted her to such a degree that she completely missed the new wall until they stopped before it. What yesterday she would have considered a marvel of defensive engineering, now after seeing the Stronghold; she only considered it a modest barricade. Still it was impressive, being at least twenty-five feet tall and somewhat less than five hundred feet in total length.

Barbara was again riding in the T800 along with the Hermit King. Upon reaching the new wall, the ramp was lowered to let him out. He descended and put his hand against the barrier. Before her very eyes a section of the structure began to melt. In slightly over five minutes, there was a gap there almost twenty feet wide. Driving through the gap she was astonished to see how thick the new wall really was.

The vehicles all drove through and on the other side they paused again. Lady Star explained. “Since our King only put up that wall last night we’ve had no time to construct and install a gate. While other Earth Mages could make a doorway in it, no other could do it as swiftly as the Hermit King. He now needs to reclose that door to give those toiling inside a safe place in which to work.” Several minutes later the unkempt, slightly short, burly Monarch returned to the truck.

They were just six miles away from the armory when a group of screaming and crying people bolted out of a partially wrecked roadside home trying to flag them down.

The convoy pulled over and stopped, the grateful people were greeted and the situation explained to them. After which the new group, happily walked up the ramp to board the C500’s trailer.

Upon arriving at the old factory Captain Long was horrified to see the building being repeatedly rammed by a herd of giant rhinos. The huge beasts seemed to be enraged; she saw one large creature standing over what looked to be the corpse of a much smaller rhinoceros.

The armored vehicles quickly got into action. She heard Sergeant Jacobs call out. “Use the enchanted rounds; we need to put them down fast. Go for head shots if you can, you’ll waste less meat that way.”

The sharpshooters started firing and where their bullets struck; flesh exploded and disappeared. It was all over in little more than five minutes.

The Hermit’s Guard secured the area and then she and the Hermit King disembarked from the T800.

She heard cheers coming from the old factory building and she saw her Senior Lieutenant Jay Nichols push his way through an obvious makeshift barricade that was patching a hole in the southern wall of the old structure. When she had left two days ago, there had been no large hole in that wall.

She greeted the man. “Hello Jay, what’s been going on?”

“As you know our food stocks have been running low, Corporal Lewis saw a small isolated rhino and decided to get us some meat without first asking permission. She had no reason to know that the rhino she saw was only a baby and that its family was nearby. It’s a good thing that you showed up when you did, they’ve only been attacking for less than a half an hour and despite everything that we were doing to stop them they would have broken inside soon.”

“Jay, I need to meet with our senior people and then address everyone. I made an agreement and you might not like it.” Looking worried because of her words; the Lieutenant nodded his head and ran off to arrange things for his Captain. Barbara turned to look at the Guard; a number of them were bringing out what looked like chainsaws. She had seen similar tools being used earlier to butcher the giant pigs. She mused, that Corporal Lewis was probably going to get her wish and find out what rhino meat really tasted like.

She saw other Royal Soldiers disconnecting the trailer from the C500. Barbara knew that as quickly as they could manage it, the soldiers would be hooking their semi-truck up to one of her; no, the Hermit King’s new Oshkosh 1070. The plan was for them to race back to the Stronghold with it, so that their machine shop could immediately start the conversion process. It was possible that by working twenty-four hours a day, that they might have it ready in three or four days, which would greatly aid in getting everyone and everything moved to the Stronghold. Hopefully by the time the C500 returned along with its escort she would have her first load of fifty people ready to go.

Before walking back inside the old factory, she took one more glance around the old parking lot and saw the Hermit directing where to emplace some of his Earth Stones. With how shabby her building was looking, the wall that he would soon build would be a greatly appreciated.

Ten minutes later she was addressing Lieutenant Nichols, Lieutenant Kellie Cross, Sergeant First Class Patrick White, Staff Sergeants Lindsay Collier and Bernard Ballard. “What I have agreed to may very well get me shot but what with our current situation, I feel that I have no other choice. I will give you all written orders to protect you as best as I can however it may not be enough to save you from a court martial.

As I told you before I left, that short broad shouldered man out there is an orange screen and his title is Hermit King. I have been to his kingdom and while it is small, I was still impressed nonetheless. He has built a fortress with walls over forty feet in height which enclose and protect almost ninety acres of land. The whole thing is surrounded by a deep moat. They have food, water, shelter, security, warmth, steam engines, repeating firearms, tanks, greenhouses, farm animals, two other intelligent species and most importantly the Hermit King, without him everything falls apart. He is a grumpy cantankerous man who drives a hard bargain but he also seems to be honorable and according to the stories that I have heard, self-sacrificing.

He has agreed to permit us to live in a five acre embassy enclave within his fortress, they’ve already started construction on it and by using magic it should be completed in a few days. We will be provided with food, water and other daily necessities. In turn, we will be required to work with them in defending the Stronghold of Hermit’s Forge and on other projects for the common good.

They will convert both of our Strykers to steam power as well as eight of our trucks. The Hermit King will personally enchant all of our 105mm howitzers so that they will be able to fire shells loaded with black powder.

However, there is a cost for them to do all that for us. For transporting us all to their Stronghold, which is a perilous task, building our enclave, converting our vehicles, enchanting our cannons and providing our daily necessities besides our full cooperation, they want eight of our vehicles and,” Barbara took a deep breath, “two of the 105mm howitzers for their own use.”

Her lieutenants though they had shocked expressions remained silent, they knew how desperate their situation truly was; it was SFC Patrick White who spoke up. “Captain, you’re telling us that the shabby man out there is some kind of King? That he has established a tiny Kingdom on U.S. soil and he wants two of our artillery pieces? If we go along with that, despite your written orders, we’ll be lucky if we only get locked up.”

“Sergeant, I don’t like it either but we have a duty to protect U.S. citizens. We are long overdue for the promised resupply and reinforcements. Agreed, we might get locked up. Hell, we might even be shot but if don’t do something soon; some monsters are going to eat all of us for lunch. I have already signed a Document of Understanding with his Royal Council. While we are living there we abide by their rules and if we cannot do that, we will be asked to leave. If we decide that we are going to come into conflict with them, then we must exit the Stronghold first. The only reason that we were delayed in getting here today was because of the corpses of over three hundred huge monsters that were blocking their front gate. Thirty monsters of a similar size almost ended your lives today; to the Hermit’s Guard those monsters that they are cleaning up in our parking lot right now, are nothing more than a minor inconvenience which represent a windfall of tasty meat.

We have over six hundred people that are looking to us for salvation and I feel like we have no choice but to accept his offer. By making this bargain with King Standish we have a chance that all the men, women and children here; have a chance at living for another year. That man has an orange screen and we’ve all come to learn and trust what the different screen colors mean. He might be rude and slightly insane but he’s honorable and powerful. If you have a plan that will guarantee, that we’ll make it alive to tomorrow morning then I am I all ears, because King Vincent has such a plan and he’s already implementing it.

Six fire teams, armed with large bore rifles, loaded with enchanted bullets and led by one of his Knights will stay here with us, until we’ve all been transferred. What’s more they have four steam powered grenade launchers with them which shoot enchanted shells. Right now the Hermit King is out there magically building a stone wall around this place and he’ll have it done before dark. Yes, we are giving up two M119 howitzers but right now they don’t work. If we don’t take this deal, all the Hermit’s Guard has to do, is to wait a month for us all to be dead and then waltz in and take everything they want, it will be easier for them too.”

Reluctantly Sergeant White agreed, later Captain Long addressed everyone and while there were some people who disbelieved her tale about a great fortress, everyone was so desperate that they willingly decided to follow her plan.

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All the vehicles were gone and I was left behind with Sir Khan, his platoon and a wall to build. This was my first real attempt at building something not on my land and it was a lot more work than I had been expecting it to be. I was attempting to build four walls, all in excess of four hundred feet in length, six feet thick and over twenty feet high. But not only could I do more on my own land but I recovered faster there too. I had been at it for over two hours now and I barely had these walls six inches high but that didn’t include the four feet of compressed rock which I had made for the wall’s foundation. Even with the aid of my Earth Stones I might be staying here tonight. Thanks to the rhinos, the factory was now a wreck. Boris and a few other Earth Mages in his platoon were patching the building but it was still going to be in sorry shape. I still find it amazing that they have over six hundred survivors crammed into that place.

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Captain George Mesquida was in the Hellcat at the tail end of the convoy. They had found out through experience that it was best to keep their big gun, the Sherman tank at the front. He was scanning his surroundings, when he heard a blast of the T800’s air horn. He saw Lieutenant Night Storm riding on the vehicle’s roof. She was gesticulating and pointing off into the sky behind him.

What he saw made him curse, another new group of bloody damn monsters. But they were some of the weirdest looking creatures he ever thought could exist. He put his binoculars on them, hoping that his appraisal skill would work from that distance.

Dimorphodon Giganteas is an omnivorous predator. It has four legs, a body length of up to three meters and a wing span greater than six point two meters. The animal despite having wings attached to its front legs or arms is able to run on all four limbs for long distances. When on the ground its wings fold back along its body like a stiff cloak. They are sprint flyer and are unable to stay aloft for long periods of time without the aid of updrafts. While running they can maintain a speed of over sixty kilometers per hour. They are able to fly for brief intervals in excess of ninety kilometers per hour. Their primary form of locomotion when chasing down prey or running from larger predators; is a pattern of run, hop, fly, run, hop, and fly; repeating that sequence until they are successful. Dimorphodon has a strange multi-colored beak. Body coloration varies from a drab brown, to molted green, to sky blue for some rare individuals. The last case might be akin to albinism. Packs of Dimorphodon Giganteas generally contain fifteen to thirty members.

George was grateful for the information but despite the new knowledge that he had just received he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being pursued by a pack of wolves. He wished Grace’s new steam explosive shells were ready but she was still calibrating how much heat energy was needed and how thick to make the shell casings.

The T800 was loaded with passengers and towing a trailer which made it difficult to turn around and face this new threat. Not having any better idea, using simple horn signals, George ordered the convoy to maintain its pace while preparing for an attack from the rear. He then rotated the Hellcat’s turret to face the rear. He shot at the monsters with the 20mm rifle mounted next to his hatch, while the gun crew started firing canister shot from the 50mm cannon. At less than two thousand yards the monsters were in theoretical range of both weapons. The fifty millimeter cannon on the Hellcat went to rapid fire which was five rounds per minute.

The first round of canister shot did nothing because of the extreme range but the flapping beasts had twice the speed of the convoy and were soon within range of the fifty millimeter cannon’s shotgun like rounds. Eighteen, fifty caliber balls blasted out at the hopping flock. For the first time in George’s experience the large gun performed above his expectations, four of the sixteen monsters went down and he could see that a fifth might have been wounded.

As for himself he was getting frustrated with his marksmanship. He was still trying to live down his abysmal performance against the Sky Krakens the other day. But today, he was facing smaller targets from a moving platform, and with three shots, he had only succeeded in scratching one Dimorphodon’s wing. He was just deciding if he should button up the Hellcat or not, when the cannon fired once more.

This time the cannon performed as he had originally expected. It only succeeding in hitting one creature and that monster remained in pursuit. George descended into the Hellcat and closed the hatch.

The fifty millimeter fired yet again, one monster fell and another was wounded. Unlike the Sherman tank, the Hellcat did not have a 20mm rifle that could be fired from inside the vehicle. Nor did the tank destroyer have any firing slits for their personal weapons. The crew of the armored vehicle was now relegated to shooting at targets of opportunity with the cannon but the monsters were so close and swift that those opportunities for a good shot; did not happen all that often.

Lady Night Storm had retreated inside the T800; she chafed at her orders to avoid aerial combat whenever possible. She appreciated the sentiment about keeping her and her people safe but it was frustrating nonetheless. The armored truck was crowded, what with eighteen refugees, eight flyers and their eight attendants but all firing slits were armed and ready, when the leaping flying lizards broke around the Hellcat and then the trailer that the T800 was towing.

The heavily modified, former dump-truck had no firing slits to the rear so they had to wait until their side guns could bear on the enemy. Lieutenant Storm wasn’t personally afraid, because she doubted that the attacking monsters could make it past even the outer layer of steel armor on the truck but she was worried that the beasts would inconvenience the convoy by destroying a tire or two. It would be especially bad if one of the 590’s tires was wrecked since they had no spares for those tires.

There were eight 20mm rifles in the T800, all were manned and for once Lady Knight Night; was one of the sharpshooters since she had decided to make the best of a bad situation. For the first salvo only four rifles could fire, they succeeded in disabling or killing two and wounding a third. Six rifles had targets for the second fusillade. They killed a monster, finished off the wounded beast and wounded another. Now, all eight rifles had beasts in their sights, and another three of the leaping lizards were removed from the battle and one more was wounded. At that point, the four still living Dimorphodons decided that maybe these large strange moving creatures weren’t prey after all and perhaps their best course of action was to run, hop and fly away; which they succeeded in doing.

Since that attack, the convoy had driven another eighteen miles towards home. Sergeant Jeffrey Vargas was standing up in the commander’s hatch of the M4. On his left he saw some large stone boulders, which were over two hundred feet away, the strange thing was that he couldn’t recall ever seeing so many large rocks in that location before? He shrugged his shoulders, it was not his job to be concerned about inanimate landscape features; he was supposed to keep alert for monsters. He turned his eyes back to the road in front of the Sherman.

Suddenly there was a deafening clang on the left side of the turret which made the whole tank shake. Sharp fragments of stone flew into and by his face. He looked to his left to see what was happening and blanched. He screamed out “GIANTS! ACTION LEFT,” as he twisted the 20mm rifle around to bear on the approaching foes that were charging towards the convoy.

Chester Fletcher was driving the 590 that he used to own. Instead of a 100 hp diesel engine, the tractor now had a 200 hp steam engine. Additionally, the cab of the vehicle had been heavily armored using steel and compressed stone. There was an inner and outer layer of three quarter inch steel plate, and a middle layer which was made of two inches of compressed stone. The four inch thick windows were constructed out of transparent aluminum and steel shutters could be closed over them, reducing possible weak points to only a narrow vision slit. Behind the driver’s seat, a gunner’s stand had been added on. The gunner or sharpshooter had their head and shoulders in a manually operated turret made of steel and four inches of transparent aluminum, the weapon installed was a 20mm rifle. When the backhoe portion of the tractor was in use, the gunner was forced to leave their stand but for normal driving operations that location was manned.

Chester nearly loaded his underpants when he saw the strange boulders unfurl, becoming giant humanoids and start throwing rocks at the Sherman and his own tractor too. He jerked the tractor to the right, trying to make the small boulder that was coming his way, miss his cab; while silently praying that the magical enhancements that the Hermit had placed on the 590, lived up to all their hype.

Sergeant Vargas got off a hurried panicked shot; the creatures were running straight towards him which greatly improved his odds. The first enchanted bullet blew the left arm off of one huge monster. He racked in a second cartridge, mentally thanking the Hermit King and the shop for the fact that he didn’t have to manually prime this type of rifle anymore.

Private Jackson had seen action on the Stronghold’s walls many times now. While many hated the new world and he still feared it. His own self-image had been bolstered when he found that he had the makings of a natural marksman. He got off his first shot before the incoming rock hit the tractor that he was riding in. It was standing procedure that all suitable weapons were always loaded with enchanted bullets or shells, it was thought that if you needed enchanted ammunition, then you needed it right now and not after you changed what was previously in your weapon. Dominic was gratified to see that his shot had taken the head clean off of the monster that had thrown the rock at the Sherman tank.

He only had a microsecond to be elated because after that, a thrown rock hit the left front wheel of the tractor. The vehicle started to lean to the side. Chester knew that at the very least, that the tire had been destroyed. He hit the brakes and dropped the front bucket to stabilize the loader/backhoe. The loss of electricity meant that vehicles no longer had break lights, it was soon discovered how necessary they were for driving safely while in a convoy. The Stronghold had two solutions for that particular problem; both used a simple mechanical linkage. The first and more primitive method caused a bright red flag to be raised; the second and preferred solution opened a small shutter that masked an enchanted light bulb within a modified brake light assembly.

The driver of the C500 which was towing the Oshkosh truck and following the 590; heard the shot, saw the rock hit the tractor and quickly drove the rig around the right side of the 590 when she saw it stop with its brake flag raised. She cursed the fact that the cab of her truck, as of yet, hadn’t been equipped with a turret like the 590. The C500 currently only had three gun slits which were only good for personal weapons. Deciding that forward was her only option she also drove to the right of the Sherman, in an attempt to break out of the ambush. She figured that if she got clear, those other vehicles could concentrate on their own safety rather than having to defend her truck.

Sergeant Vargas got off his second shot as the turret slew around. He saw that the 590 had been disabled and he yelled out and order to his tank’s driver to position their vehicle between the monsters and the tractor. There was one problem with that order; he doubted that his driver would be able to do it in time, to save the crew of the loader/backhoe. Jeffrey mumbled a bad word, when he saw that his most recent shot had again only succeeded in blowing off the right arm of a different monster, however both monsters that he had shot were down and rapidly bleeding out.

Captain Mesquida heard the clang and the first rifle shot. Turning his head from the rear, he saw the huge humanoids. He didn’t want to get too close so he ordered the Hellcat to stop and take the creatures under fire. After issuing his orders he appraised one of the monstrosities.

Devolved Stone Giants: These creatures are not actually covered in stone but instead grow a natural armor that has the appearance of stone. This species of humanoid giant is not sentient but they are the magically warped descendants of the Greater Stone Giants which were/are sentient. DSGs can grow as tall as six meters but some genetic throwbacks can be as much as ten or even eleven meters tall. They are extremely tough and strong, but as a consequence of their extreme weight they are not particularly fast though they can briefly sprint up to fifteen kilometers per hour. An adult DSG can pick up as much as 7,750 kilograms. They seek foods that are rich in calcium and enjoy eating bones. They normally ambush their prey and despite lacking sentience, they instinctively use rocks and clubs as weapons and they are also able to dig crude pit traps. A family of them will typically contain five to twenty individuals.

George was already firing his rifle at those monsters charging towards the disabled 590. He had large slow ground targets before him and the Hellcat was stopped, this sort of situation was much more to his liking. He fired of one round which hit a monster in the right hip. While a fatal wound because of the amount of damage that the enchanted 20mm bullet did, it was not where he had been aiming for. He muttered a curse.

Dominic fired again but it was just as Chester did something with the tractors front bucket which caused the whole vehicle to move and threw off Private Jackson’s aim. The result being that he missed.

Because of their limited view, the sharpshooters in the T800 were late in getting into action but finally all four of them on the left side fired nearly as one. Only one shot hit but it took of the head of the giant it had struck.

The Sherman tank fired its main gun, but it was not exactly the easiest weapon to fire accurately when both it and its target were moving. The 75mm enchanted shell missed in a spectacular fashion. Deciding that any hit was better than nothing at all, the crew reloaded with one inch grape shot.

Captain Mesquida fired and his second shot blew off the right shoulder of one of the creatures. A split second later, the Hellcat fired its cannon for the first time in this particular battle. They followed the Sherman’s example and failed miserably. The gun crew of the vehicle also independently decided to load one inch grape shot for their next attempt, deciding that fifty caliber canister shot would be too small against this literally giant sized foe.

The shots from the convoy had killed the monsters closest to it, while temporarily slowing and confusing the rest of the giants. But DSGs were now next to the Sherman and the 590. Sergeant Vargas snaked his way back down into the turret, pulling the hatch closed behind him. A huge creature ran right into the tank and was rather surprised when its charge failed to do much of anything to the armored vehicle, except shove it to the side for a few feet.

Meanwhile, Dominic got off one more shot before a monster piled into the tractor, knocking it over onto its side. His shot blew off the right leg of a second monster preventing it from also ramming the loader/backhoe.

Chester was buckled in, and while he was slightly dazed he was okay for the moment. Dominic was badly bruised and acquired a knot on the side of his head but other than that, he too was fine.

George’s next shot struck the pelvis of a monster, separating its legs from the rest of its body.

The sharpshooters in the T800 fired again. Two shots hit, blowing off the left arm and left leg on two different giants.

The driver of the Sherman had turned the tank in order to position it, so he could drive the armored vehicle back to protect the disabled 590, as a result his co-driver was now able to engage the enemy with the 20mm rifle located in the Sherman’s bow ball mount. Taking her time she aimed carefully and successfully shot the giant that was pounding on the 590. The enchanted bullet removed a major portion of the creature’s torso.

A rock was thrown and hit the driver’s door of the T800, the over thirty-five pound stone, traveling at almost seventy miles per hour put a large dent in the enchanted steel armor but luckily no more than that.

Sir Mesquida had another giant in his sights and again nailed a monster in its pelvis. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was killing the monsters, he would have been quite angry with his marksmanship, he promised himself that he would get the Hellcat’s 20mm rifle checked for accuracy upon his return to the Stronghold. He just hoped that there really was something wrong with the rifle.

The Sherman’s crew fired its first load of canister shot at the monster that was beating on their tank. They discovered that a load of grape shot fired at point blank range did an excellent job of turning the torso of a giant into a disintegrating cloud of bloody mush.

The soldiers in the T800 fired once more, this time in a series of shots instead of a single salvo. They really wanted the monster that had dared to hit their ride with a rock. That particular monster also had its torso blown apart while a second giant had its head taken off.

The Hellcat fired again, four of the one inch balls struck four different monsters. Causing moderate wounds on two, severely wounding a third and scratching a fourth.

There were only five surviving giants on their feet and what had happened was enough to put fear into the creatures. Only one of their foes was down while fifteen of their own family/pack was dead or dying. The monsters turned away from the battle and attempted to lumber away. Too bad for them, that none of the Hermit’s Guard had any difficulty at all with shooting them in the back. None of the giants successfully made their escape.

The Sherman was immediately dispatched to catch up with the virtually unarmed C500 which was sitting an eighth of a mile down the road. A flight of four flyers took to the skies, to provide a local over watch while the rest of them all saw to the fate of the two that had been manning the tipped over 590.

The eighteen refugees that had been picked up earlier had been terrified during the short battle but now they were overjoyed after seeing the Hermit’s Guard victorious in a fight against such huge creatures. It had been the refugees’ experience that when humans went up against monsters, the monsters generally won. The convoy’s encounter with the Stone Giants had certainly lasted no more than seven minutes and probably less than five but the battle’s very brevity, had underscored the Hermit’s Guards abilities even when surprised.

Chester and Dominic emerged from the tractor’s cab to subdued happy cheers from the gathered soldiers. Chester performed a quick inspection on the damaged loader/backhoe. While he was doing that, others removed the firestone, rifle and associated 20mm ammunition, from the disabled vehicle.

After a delay of almost twenty minutes they were back on the road. Captain Mesquida was beginning to have serious doubts about being able to make the return trip to the Armory today, since it was already past four in the afternoon and night time excursions were extremely unwise and against the operational procedures that he and the Council had agreed upon.

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It was dusk now and I was hoping that the convoy had stayed home, if it hadn’t Captain Mesquida and I would have words like, YOU’RE FIRED! The barrier that I was building was nowhere near how high I wanted it to be. Because the wall was so long and I was off my own land, it was taking me twenty-five minutes to engender every foot of vertical growth. What with having to build a strong foundation for the wall, the result was that after four hours of work, it wasn’t even six feet tall. I could possibly empty my magical energy reserves into it and jump the wall another two and half of feet in height but such an act could leave us defenseless while I took at least an hour to fully recover. By matching the magic that I expended with my magical energy recovery rate, I was able to keep my energy levels up while still making progress with the wall but it was so damn slow.

Boris came out to talk with me. “Boss it’s starting to get dark, don’t you think you better come inside? I’ve been talking with Captain Long. She’s informed me that for the past two months now, human night-stalkers have been attacking them almost nightly. Those monsters should be coming out anytime and your wall isn’t high enough to slow them down by much.”

“That species of night-stalker can’t fly; they seem to be only a little stronger and faster than normal humans. Let me push the wall up to over seven feet, that should stop some of them or slow them down enough, that it will make it easier for us to kill them.”

He nodded his head and kept pace with me, as I walked quickly alongside the stone barricade, dumping about half of my energy into it. Less than ten minutes later we were inside the factory and I was blocking the entrance we had just used with summoned stoned wall.

I knew one thing, the inside of the factory stunk with the smell of unwashed humanity. The building was now lit with mage lights but not at many as I would have liked. They should have some incandescent bulbs lying around here someplace; perhaps I could enchant a few more later on, after I recovered a little bit.

“Boss, I’ve got two fire teams down here on the first floor for interior security, that’s in case something breaks in. On the second floor, there is one fire team stationed along each of the exterior walls. If what Captain Long told us is true, I find it amazing that they’ve held out for so long with less than fifty percent casualties.”

We were soon joined by a young girl wearing a ragged military uniform. “Your Majesty, I’m Private Shelly Hines. I’ve been assigned to you as your aide and escort while you’re here. If there is anything that I can do, please ask.”

“First I need to speak with Captain Long; then I need as many old fashioned incandescent bulbs as you can dig up. With those bulbs, I can make more mage lights which will reveal any Night Stalkers that their radiance falls upon.”

Private Hines’s eyes got very wide for a minute, she chirped “Reeaally?” Like a schoolgirl who had just been given a diamond ring by her favorite movie or singing idol.

“Yes really, I’ve been making them for over four months now. But make sure that they are incandescent bulbs and not fluorescents, halogens, or LCDs because they won’t work.”

On the second floor, we found Captain Long looking out a window. “Hello Captain, I’m sorry that I didn’t get the wall any higher. I wasn’t expecting to have to build such a long wall nor was I fully conscious about how much more difficult it is, for me to use magic outside of my own Kingdom.”

She turned to face me. “Well, I can’t say that I’m not a little disappointed, you were talking about constructing a twenty or even twenty-five foot wall but to surround us with a barricade over sixteen hundred feet long and five feet wide in slightly over four hours is still a pretty amazing thing to do. What do you think happened to the convoy?”

“As you already know, we don’t travel at night if we can possibly help it. I expect that the Captain got delayed and decided that he would not be able to make another round trip today. If there has been some kind of calamity, we’ll probably see a flyer tomorrow who will explain things to us. At that point, we will have to make other plans but the Hermit’s Guard is pretty battle hardened, it would take a lot to defeat them.”

I looked out through the window and over the wall that I had just built. I could see shapes scurrying in the darkness, lots of shapes. Suddenly I felt like maybe I hadn’t brought along enough ammunition with me and I began to fervently hope that Lieutenant Khan and his fire teams had extra. Boris had enchanted floodlights and spotlights shining down upon the parking lot that was encircling the old factory but there was certainly not as much illumination as I would have liked out there.

Coinciding with that last thought, a breathless Private with a troop of younger children came running into the room with boxes of old light bulbs. She needed the help, some of the bulbs were quite large and of a variety that I hadn’t seen in years. One type was an extremely large fifteen hundred watt bulb built into a metal reflective housing, the sort that used to be suspended high off of factory floors in the old days.

I let Boris and the Captain talk; I was not a professional military person. Instead I broke away from them and began inspecting bulbs. Of the twenty-five giant bulbs, only three of them were still any good. Using some magic and the tip of my knife, I engraved the metal base of the first one, charged it and then activated the light, which might have been a bad idea, since the brightness was absolutely blinding. Private Hines went off to search for aluminum foil. Boris took the light from me and added it to those shining down upon the parking lot. Sporadic gunfire broke out from the northern side of the building. Boris left to see what was going on, I resumed enchanting light bulbs.

That night made feel like I was living through a zombie apocalypse. If the old factory hadn’t have been built as stoutly as it was, Captain Long’s command would never have survived for so many months with no support.

According to Boris, each Guardsman was issued with 150 rounds of ammunition for their rifle. By the time dawn came, they had all gone through slightly more than eighty percent of their personal allotments and those soldiers didn’t miss very often. I had been busy throughout the night enchanting bulbs and healing sore shoulders bruised from the recoil of those powerful rifles. The fifty caliber and twenty millimeter rifles had been barely used; too much overkill for our current foe.

When the sun rose, the parking lot that surrounded the building was covered with Night Stalker bodies.

Surprisingly, a great number of those people that had been living here had been able to sleep last night. I was actually told by Private Hines that they found the sound of such rapid and frequent gunfire to be reassuring. As for me, I wanted a nap. I snuck out to the C500’s trailer, rolled out a foam pad and went to sleep after telling Private Hines to wake me in two hours.

Captain Long had two hundred people outside moving bodies. All of the corpses that didn’t have obvious fatal wounds had their heads bashed in with a fire axe. Then the bodies were stacked in small piles about the parking lot, creating clear lanes for people to walk. Two hours later the clean up was almost done.

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The convoy, minus the 590, was heading for home again. Six miles down the road, Jeffrey Vargas saw people frantically waving from the second floor of a mostly demolished large house. The building was being pounded apart by another family of Devolved Stone Giants.

The M4 tank stopped with its bow pointed toward the giants so that all three of its guns, could take the monsters under fire. The C500 parked behind the tank while the T800 pulled up alongside the Sherman.

There were only ten of the creatures this time and all of the armored vehicles had sufficient time to position themselves properly while gunners took careful aim. The short battle was over in less than four minutes and it only lasted that long because the M18 Hellcat had to reposition itself in order to kill the last two giants.

Sixteen more refugees were rescued from that home, after which the convoy made it back to the Stronghold without anymore encounters. They only had one problem, how to get through the new wall without their King?

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Oshkosh M1070

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshkosh_M1070_heavy_equipment_transporter

Case 590, Loader/Backhoe, Construction Tractor

http://www.casece.com/en_us/Equipment/Loader-Backhoes/Pages/590-SuperN.aspx

Armored Version of Case Loader/Backhoe

http://thedealerconnection.org/2008/11/03/case-delivers-first-50-armored-backhoe-loaders-to-u-s-army-for-deployment-to-southwest-asia/

YouTube demonstration of a drop test onto a rugged steel plate, this impact or collision demonstration is within the ballpark of the DSGs thrown rocks. It was my thought that the DSGs would select rocks based on which ones they could throw the fastest. So I made estimates based on scaling up a baseball using the monster’s base strength as the multiplier. That resulted in a rock weighing around sixteen kilograms. I mentioned in the story that DSGs are slower than humans, so I maxed out their throwing speed at seventy miles per hour or 31.3 meters/second. Resulting in an impact that should look something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IqTa3Qo4q8

I didn’t fudge things to match this video; I found the video after I calculated everything out. At first I thought the convoy was screwed when twenty DSGs ambushed them. I was surprised when the Guard got off so lightly but armor and enchanted bullets proved to be a heck of an equalizer.