Partial Character List, Version 2:

Spoiler :

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 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.

People with assigned jobs: 550

Note: Many people help out where ever they can, like Clyde also being a Healer.

Unassigned: 172

Partial Character List, Version 2:

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 (256):

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.

Sergeant Derrick Miter, former marine M60 tank driver in Vietnam, green screen, normally drives or commands the Priest. Note: He can levitate and teleport.

Corporal Sticks Spearmaker, green screen, female craft-maker, though she is still making weapons she joined the Hermit’s Guard because she feels that pole-arms aren’t as important nowadays.

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 (60):

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 (80):

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 (20):

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 (5):

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 (6):

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 (76):

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 (15):

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).

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Health Department (12):

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 (26):

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

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Captain Barbara Long’s Group of Survivors.

Lieutenant Jay Nichols

Lieutenant Kellie Cross

Sergeant First Class SFC Patrick White

Staff Sergeants SSG

Lindsay Collier

Bernard Ballard

Corporal Julia Lewis

Private Shelly Hines

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Miscellaneous:

Name: Nina Rivera

Title: The Survivor

Sex: Female

Age: 11

True Sight Level: Three

Body Augmentation Magic Level: 4

Teleportation Level: 4

Telekinesis Level: 4

Hearing is 1.2 times as acute.

1.2x Scent/Odor Detection

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

This chapter was a pain to write, the next one is too. I’m not saying that they are any good. I’ll let my readers be the judge of that; the chapters were difficult because of the number of encounters and the new things that I had to figure out so that incidents were more believable (at least to me). I’ve put some notes at the end explaining my reasoning for certain things; it’s there if you want to read it.

I plan on doing at least one more chapter before switching back to Swamp Boy. There is a lot of new stuff in my head that I have to write down before I forget.

If you spot any flaws please point them out, thank you.

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Chapter 25: Larger Than Life

The Sherman tank took station off to the side of the gravel road and a hundred feet away from the new wall. Since it was the toughest armored vehicle that the Guard possessed it was always first out of the gate and last in.

The T800 pulled to stop just short of the ditch that ran along the outside perimeter of the new barrier. The driver, of the truck, turned and shouted back into the passenger compartment. “Lady Night, we’ve arrived but we need someone to open a hole in the wall for us.”

Suddenly Night Storm stopped talking with her attendant. Her eyes grew large and she said a very bad word in her native language, followed by. “Let me speak with the Captain first and then I’ll fly inside to arrange for an opening.” In a very soft voice she added, “I hope.”

The C500 pulled up and then the Hellcat. After descending from the rear ramp from the T800, Lady Night walked over to the Hellcat. Captain Mesquida was standing up in the commander’s hatch of the tracked vehicle.

“Captain, my driver just asked me to open a hole in that wall. How are we going to do that?”

George looked down at her, did a face palm, and muttered something about “Ah crap, I’m never going to be able to live this down.” He then took a deep breath and spoke to her. “Well I guess your clan members won’t have any difficulty but the rest of us might have to use ladders. Why don’t you go inside and see if Mack or Glen; have any ideas. We’ve got about an hour and a half before dark and I’d like everyone inside the Stronghold before then even if we have to abandon the vehicles.”

Lady Night nodded her head and after a brief flight she landed just inside the new barricade. She was surprised to see that part of the interior wall now had a large patch made out of what looked like aluminum.

She saw Glen and Mack admiring the new patch with big smiles on their faces. Upon seeing Lieutenant Storm they walked over to speak with her. Mack was the first to talk. “Hello Night, what to do you think about our new gate? All we need is for the boss to cut a new hole in the wall and it’ll be ready for service. Glen had a brilliant idea which we implemented. We used some of the snail’s smashed aluminum along with two hydraulic spider legs. The legs are sunk deep into the ground and attached to the wall to stabilize them. When we turn a valve the legs go up, lifting the gate with them and when we release pressure, the gate glides right back down. It’s pretty slick, if I do say so myself and we were able to use a lot of spider parts with very little modification, in fact the gate is made up of a section of arachnid hull consisting of all three layers, so it’s pretty darn tough. So where’s the Boss?”

Glen was beaming with pride because of the success of his idea, sometimes things just click together and the new gate was an excellent example of that.

Lady Night on the other hand grew embarrassed. In a very soft voice she said. “We left him behind at the Armory because he needed to finish the defensive wall he was making for them.”

Glen shouted. “YOU, WHAT?!! Have you all gone insane? Vince hasn’t locked this new wall yet like he did the Stronghold but even so, attaching those spider legs took Mack and me over a minute per hole, for each of the sixteen attachment points, which we had to make in that stone bulwark. I was feeling pretty cocky about how fast we were working, when Mack burst my bubble by telling me that it was Vince who practically did all the work on that embassy compound last night and that the six Earth Mages that were assisting him, didn’t even do five percent of the labor. So based on how fast Mack and I were magically drilling anchor points, we estimated how long it would take for either of us to make that big hole in this solid stone barrier that the Boss did at noon today. We calculated that it would take one of us, forty-six hours to do the same thing that he did in only five minutes.

Without our King we wouldn’t have the Stronghold, a safe place to live, or food to eat. As for me, I would probably still be in prison or more likely lying dead somewhere.” At that point Glen got rather incoherent.

Mack spoke up. “Glen calm down. It’s not Lady Night’s fault, you know how the Boss can get. As for how we get the convoy inside, I see the crawler crane still sitting right there after we used it to install the new gate.” Mack pointed to the nearby crane with his right hand. “It can lift eighty tons and it should have no problem picking up even the Sherman tank and lifting it over the wall. As for the Boss, it takes a whole lot to kill him and I’m sure that any monster that tries to get to him will first have to go through Boris and his platoon.

But we better have Lady Jen tell Lady Star that Vince won’t be home tonight because that crazy lizard lady can get downright scary when it comes to the Boss’s safety. I’m surprised that she let him go off without her for once.”

Luckily because of installing the gate they already had one of set of chains and cables available nearby. While the Oshkosh 1070 truck was being hooked up, more chains were sent for. A major part of the job was properly attaching steel cables and such, to the vehicles to be moved. By having more than one set of chains, vehicles could be prepared in advance of their lift slot thus making everything more efficient. Still it all took time, when it grew too dark to continue working safely; the Sherman and the T800’s armored utility trailer still remained on the other side of the wall. Captain Mesquida decided to risk leaving them outside for the night.

Two hours before dawn, lookouts with true sight spotted large objects floating in from the west and they were about a mile up. The steam whistle alarm was sounded.

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Sir George Mesquida ran to the Western Wall, to get a better look at the enemy. He sorely wished that True Sight worked with binoculars or telescopes but if wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets. He wondered if the boss could fix that problem, maybe by enchanting the optical devices. Candace was there since she was in charge of the current watch and besides possessing True Sight, she also had Telescopic Vision. She spoke, “Captain, I make it twenty Sky Krakens and they’re all carrying large objects with their tentacles.”

“Captured prey of some kind?” George asked.

Still looking up, she squinted her eyes to see better and then shook her head. “No, I can definitely see one panel van and a pickup truck. I think the other things are all cars.”

George cursed. “Vince was always talking about them bombing us, but I think he was expecting trees or rocks, not automobiles.”

Lieutenant Wind arrived with two flights. “Captain, I and my clan are willing to fly up there and fight them, please let us go.”

“No Sir Wind, I think we’re going to have to take our lumps for this first time. Most everyone should be underground by now, so they should be safe enough. But correct me if I’m wrong, those squids up there are about as high as you can normally fly, aren’t they?”

Storm Wind looked up, paused for a moment and replied. “I must reluctantly agree with you. We do go higher on occasion but conditions have to be right.”

“So, as I thought you won’t be able to easily or safely dive bomb them with IROD shells and our 20mm rifles don’t have the kind of range we need, to hit them from the ground. As for our artillery pieces, they don’t have sufficient accuracy and I’m not even sure if they have enough power to shoot that far straight up. If we fire those guns, we just might do more damage to ourselves, with our own shells falling back down upon the Stronghold, than if we let the krakens drop their car bombs on us.”

Sergeant Derrick Miter chose that moment to speak. “Captain, when I fought against the King Mandrills; I levitated myself off the wall and I used my shotgun on them. Though each shot knocked me ass over teakettle, it did work reasonably well, I just had reposition myself after every pull of the trigger. Now a fifty caliber rifle has about the same recoil as a twelve gauge firing a three inch shell. Regretfully, my current flying ability isn’t good enough yet, such that I could levitate up high enough and engage in aerial combat with those squids. However the scuttlebutt has been that one of the guns being considered as the standard firearm for Lieutenant Wind and his people is a twenty gauge pump action shotgun. Now I know that there is a heck of a recoil difference between a twenty and a twelve gauge or a fifty caliber rifle for that matter but maybe some of Lieutenant Wind’s people have the strength to fly a fifty up there, fire it from the hip and then recover when the recoil disrupts their flight. It’s too late now but if those krakens come back maybe we could give it a try then.”

Just at that moment the first eight Sky Krakens dropped their loads, which after only a dozen seconds or so, impacted in and around the Stronghold. A few minutes later eight more did the same, followed by the final four. The krakens seemed to almost lazily let the wind continue to carry them to the east and then they dropped down, disappearing from sight.

Damage reports started coming in. The Stronghold had apparently dodged a bullet. All impact sites hadn’t been found yet but only two objects had fallen within the compound proper. A car had crashed into a winter withered garden and a truck had almost hit a greenhouse. Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief.

Storm Wind had been talking with some of his people, one of whom was Tornado Challenger. Lieutenant Wind returned. “Captain I have spoken with my clan. I have eight strong flyers that would like to undertake the task of taking our battle to the krakens. We were born to fight in the air, and we refuse to let some overgrown fish, beat us in our own territory.”

George sighed, “I don’t like doing this but I’ll reluctantly okay it. We don’t know when they will be back, so have your people immediately meet with Lieutenant Murphy and Sergeant Miter at the firing range, so that they can instruct your clan members on how to fire those big fifties.

Lieutenant Murphy, make sure that you rig up some proper slings for those rifles, we don’t need them dropping on our heads, especially if they’re loaded with enchanted bullets.

Lady Night Storm, I need you to get a few more hours of sleep. With the Stronghold under threat, I don’t dare leave later this morning to return to the Armory. So you’ll be in command of the convoy and I want you well rested. Alright folks, quit standing around and let’s get to work.”

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A little over two hours later and the Sky Krakens still hadn’t returned. Lady Knight Night had her convoy back at the wall waiting for the first vehicle to be lifted over. She had heard that Sergeant Tornado was in love with his new weapon, even if it knocked him into a spin every time he fired it. She flew up to the top of the new wall, looked down and cursed. She found where one of the “car bombs” had landed. They were going to need a new armored utility trailer; perhaps the one left behind with the disabled 590 still remained useable?

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“Your Majesty, please wake up, you told me to wake you in two hours and it’s past that already.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at the strange young face looking down at me. “Sleepy go away, must sleep.”

“You promised that you would finish the wall today.”

Oh yeah, I remembered where I was and who she was. I sat up with groan. “Good morning Private Hines, thank you for waking me.” She wasn’t one of my subjects, so I figured that I had better not start abusing her, just yet.

I smelled something good. Seeing my nose twitch, Shelly hurriedly handed me a plate with two rolled flatbreads on it. I took a massive bite, rhino meat and fried onions, not bad at all. She giggled at my expression and spoke. “I know; they taste really good, don’t they? I didn’t think that I would ever have something that tasted that good to eat, ever again. I ate six of them this morning and there’s plenty more too, enough for weeks, maybe even months.”

I wolfed the food down, stood up and stretched my aching back. I missed my comfy bed. A minute later I was walking down the armored trailer’s ramp.

I next used my canteen to provide water for brushing my teeth. That was another thing that we needed to manufacture or locate, toothbrushes. After that I went off in search of the little Kings room. Fifteen minutes later, I was back at work on the wall. I was surprised that the convoy hadn’t already returned but I wouldn’t let myself start to worry about them until noon, there were plenty of innocuous reasons for the convoy to be late.

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When the convoy arrived at the site of the wrecked tractor, they found the trailer a little banged up but a few field expedient repairs had it fixed in twenty minutes and attached to the T800.

They were within six miles of the Armory when they ran into a large pack of leaping lizards; they were gathered around the entrance of a residential driveway for some reason. While they might be deadly in most situations, if a person was in an armored vehicle they were no more than a mere nuisance. Three of the pack managed to escape death.

The soldiers of the convoy were astonished, when a small human crawled out of the large corrugated pipe, running beneath the driveway. The petite person stood there unmoving, numbly looking at the convoy. Lady Night hurried out of the truck with some of her soldiers. The little one’s eyes got very big.

Night approached the small person slowly, so she wouldn’t scare the human. “Hello there, my name is Night Storm. I’m what you humans call a flyer. Is there anyone else with you?”

The small form sadly shook its head no.

Night held out her hand. “I live in a big fortress, it’s not completely safe but it’s much better than any other place that we know about. Would you like to come with me?”

The small human put their hand in Lady Storm’s. The Knight then led their latest petite survivor up the steps as she was doing so she thought about what Appraisal had just revealed to her about the tiny girl that she was leading.

Name: Nina Rivera

Title: The Survivor

Sex: Female

Age: 11

True Sight Level: Three

Body Augmentation Magic Level: 4

Teleportation Level: 4

Telekinesis Level: 4

Hearing is 1.2 times as acute.

1.2x Scent/Odor Detection

Night Storm had to wonder what horrors the child had faced to have such a title, to have awakened so many abilities and to have them already at such a high level. She knew that in the Stronghold that the highest level anyone had reached so far, excepting for the Hermit, was Level three. And almost everyone had been awakened or instructed by their King too.

Once they had the girl inside the trailer, the women of all three species began to fuss over her. They got her cleaned up a little and fed. Despite the fact that she smelled pretty ripe, Lady Night held her on her lap. Three miles down the road and they had another encounter.

The latest oddity had everyone confused, since it was a simply a herd of American Wood Bison but they appeared to be much larger than normal and their horns seemed to look more pronounced too. However it was peaceful meeting, with the few bison that were blocking the road quickly moving off of it.

A mile further down the road and they were once more passing the Farm/Construction Equipment Store. The crews of the armored vehicles were slightly surprised when nine people burst out of what they had all thought to be an empty building, the members of the small desperate group frantically began waving their arms. Some of whom were obviously children. The convoy stopped and picked up the new refugees.

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I had the wall just below ten feet in height when the convoy finally arrived. I had to melt a hole in the wall to let them inside. The first one down the ramp was Star and she was coming my way with fire in her eye. I am so glad that we are two different species. Because I could just see her wanting to marry me, so that she could control my actions and life a little bit more. On the other hand if she was human, I doubt that I would be acting so polite with her.

“Your Majesty I am glad to see that you are safe. But while you were gone the Stronghold was attacked by twenty Sky Krakens. From a great height, those monsters dropped cars onto the inner compound, and while nothing was damaged and no one was hurt, I’m sure that you realize that a great calamity might have befallen us while you were gone.”

Damn it, “I get the picture Star, I am a bad negligent King. I will be returning home today but I still need to get this wall higher and make some more weapons for the people here. I’ll go speak with Captain Mesquida, immediately.”

“The Captain, knowing that his primary duty is to protect the Stronghold, remained behind today. Lady Night is in charge of the convoy.”

She just won’t give it a rest, will she? I walked over to speak with Lady Night Storm, who was already talking with Boris. Upon arriving there, I was told about the new monsters that they had fought and defeated, yesterday and this morning. I was not pleased to find out about the giants, not one little bit. Upon hearing their stats, I knew that we would have to drastically change our plans and increase our military buildup somehow. Captain Long was standing nearby and listening to our conversation. I turned to her.

“Captain, those giants change things for me. This is what I would like to do today. First, I need to get the wall up another fifteen feet or so and then I’m going to enchant two of your howitzers so that they can fire black powder shells without an external primer. I’ll also put an explosive fire enchantment onto a small number of the 105mm projectiles. Between Boris and me, we will then load the cannon shells with black powder but since we have limited stocks of the explosive, we will only be able to do four or five of them.

The monsters that we are fighting seem to be getting larger and larger. What I need from you is one of your 105mm howitzers to take back with us, today. We can’t afford any delays in this matter; even one single large well made cannon, might very well give us the ability to save the Stronghold, when fighting the right or perhaps I should say the wrong foe.

Lady Knight Storm, you should be able to make a round trip while I’m taking care of those things here. I’ll be ready to go upon your return.”

“My King, I cannot do that, I was ordered to return with you. We don’t know what perils we may face on the trip going back home. We might only be able to make one trip today and not two or three as planned.”

I looked at her, but she returned my gaze unflinchingly, I sighed. “Okay if you’re going to hang around here, how about going to that Farm Machinery Store that’s just a couple of miles away. Glen has been going nuts over those parts that he wants. You can load up the utility trailer with everything that it will carry. That way, all of your time here won’t be going entirely to waste.”

She hesitated for a moment and then replied. “Agreed, that location isn’t too far from here and we should be able to easily hear any gunfire if you do get into trouble.”

“Oh Lady Night, we will also need a semi-trailer to use as a gate for this compound, since I won’t be returning here. Before the convoy leaves for the Stronghold, we’ll have the C500 hook up to it and roll it into place. A trailer won’t make a perfect barrier but it will be better than nothing. See if you can’t find one that is heavily loaded, that will make it a better road block.”

She nodded her head, before walking away.

With that settled, I went back to work. I never would have believed that we’d be facing humanoid giants, up to eleven meters tall. I know that they hadn’t fought one that size, yesterday but I was sure that it was only a matter of time.

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David Hu, his wife Linda and Nick Silva had all been employed at the Farm Equipment store. Their two families had become good friends over the years and when the first Warning had come, the Hu and the Silva households had quickly agreed to form their own small survival group. During their preparations, they had acquired several inexpensive single shot shotguns and using their practical skills they had successfully converted them into flintlock firearms that hadn’t blown up on them as of yet. The men had also constructed body armor and spears for their two families. Through luck, foresight, preparation, a few magical skills and keeping hidden as much as possible; the tiny group had been able to survive virtually untouched so far, but they knew that their good fortune would surely evaporate one day.

Then two days ago, they had heard the sound of clanking tracks, but because of too many monsters prowling around nearby, it had taken them the next two days, to make the mile long journey from the basement of the Hu home, in which they had all been living, to their former place of employment, which seemed to be closer to the location where those clanking noises had been originating from. They had all speculated before arriving at the abandoned store that perhaps someone had gotten some of the equipment parked there, working again. All of the adults were gravely disappointed upon entering the Farm Machinery Store, to find it as empty of human life as it had been months ago, when they last saw the establishment.

However, shortly after sitting down to discuss what they were going to do, they again heard those clanking sounds and had been overjoyed to soon see coming down the road, what appeared to be a small well armed convoy of working armored vehicles.

And now after a trip to the old Armory, they were back at their former place of employment on a shopping trip.

Sergeant Vargas was speaking to David Hu, Linda Hu and Nicholas Silva. “You’ve already seen and ridden in our vehicles. We are looking for parts to help maintain them, more parts to build different vehicles and even tough steel that we can repurpose and use to make armor. It doesn’t matter what physical shape the steel has, it can be a backhoe bucket, a large ground tine or whatever; our magic users who have Earth Magic, especially our King can reshape it.

You probably won’t believe it, but we are hoping to soon start production of our own tanks. We only have three old ones now and I’ve lost count of the number of times that they have saved our asses. We want to make something bigger and better for this crazy new world. We’re looking for steel dozer tracks that are twenty-eight inches wide and can go on a vehicle that is twelve feet long. One idea that we have is to reduce or cut off entirely the traction blades that stick out from the steel track, I’m talking about those pieces of metal that dig into the ground. You know what I’m describing, right?”

All three newcomers nodded their heads that they understood, David spoke up. “That part of a track’s steel shoe is called the grouser.”

Jeffrey continued. “Thanks for that piece of information. After we remove the grouser, we’ll glue or bolt on pieces of rubber tire to the tracks’ steel shoes to make them more like a modern tank’s tracks and more suitable for road travel.”

Nicholas replied first. “I think we have one set of steel tracks that long in the parts warehouse, but they’re probably only twenty-four inches wide. I’m pretty sure that we have a set of rubber tracks too, which if we can’t use them as tracks, they will probably make a better source of material for the rubber pads that you want. I don’t think that we have any rubber track pads in stock; they’re not only used on tanks. Most heavy steel tracked construction equipment that are moving on hard surfaces, are normally fitted with pads. And you might want to rethink about cutting off the grousers. We’ll need sprockets, idlers, rollers and all the other undercarriage parts too, but we should have at least some of those in stock. This store mainly dealt in agricultural equipment, so it doesn’t have too much in the way of dozer or crawler parts. Now if you need a cherry picker, there are six of those on the back lot.”

Jeff looked disappointed at the news but there was nothing to be done. Until Linda spoke up, “Nick, we had some pallets dropped off, just before our cars stopped working. If I remember correctly, from the shipping list that I glanced at, there might be two more sets of steel lubricated track chain and shoes sitting just inside the warehouse’s big doors.”

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A short while later there were some happy soldiers loading the utility trailer. But they had two problems. The trailer could not handle the weight of everything that they wanted to take and without the 590 it was damn difficult, loading the over half ton of track chains into the trailer. They found one set of shoes in a twenty-eight inch width and two more sets in twenty-four. For now they only took the twenty-eight inch shoes, they would be back for the other things that they wanted during the days to come.

The Hermit’s Guard had a very small herd of Rhinos attack them, but they were easily dealt with, greatly impressing the newcomers.

During the loading process they did hear some gunshots coming from the direction of the Armory but the shots seemed very controlled and very brief. Lieutenant Storm rose briefly into the air to see what was going on. She saw that a flock of Terror Birds had stupidly attacked the old factory. Lieutenant Khan had ended them, quickly and efficiently. And while Knight Night was looking, she saw Boris’s platoon already begin the work of butchering the monsters.

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The convoy had returned and I had the wall up to sixteen feet. That’s when a new round of gunfire began.

Star immediately took my hand and started dragging me to the T800. “Vincent, Devolved Stone Giants are attacking, we need to get behind some armor. They throw rocks, very large rocks.”

She was right, they did throw rocks, most of which were about the size of those that I used to make the fire-stones for our steam engines. Ten or more such small boulders; landed within the walls but luckily no was hit. More shots rang out and then I saw my first giant. He had his hands on the wall and he was starting to climb over it, like an adult hopping a backyard fence. A third fusillade occurred and then Star informed me that the surviving monsters were now fleeing but a fourth set of shots soon followed her words and she then notified me that all the giants were down. Did she find out that information by using her Telepathy or was it some other ability?

I don’t know if our presence brought the giants here or if it was damn lucky for Captain Long that we made contact when we did. We would probably never know. I got back to work.

Five and a half hours later, and the four walls were all over twenty-five feet in height. Additionally I had enchanted two cannons and six shells. The trailer that Night had found for me was loaded with books, later on we would check to see what kind but for now, they made the trailer nice and heavy. I had used my magic to partially dismantle another trailer for its steel. Then I had magically welded that metal to the top and undercarriage of the gate trailer so that the gaps above and beneath, would be smaller, thus making it more difficult for monsters to break in. I had also constructed a very crude door in the steel wall beneath the trailer; so that people could crawl in or out if it proved necessary.

Boris had installed the proper type of hitch to the back Sherman tank. It would be towing our howitzer home with us. With fifty of Captain Long’s survivors loaded into the C500’s trailer and the gate trailer in place we were ready to return to the Stronghold.

We did have one minor monster encounter before we left; three Jackalopes weighing at least sixty pounds each. They had two antlers, each with two wicked looking sharp tines. When we saw the creatures, I just couldn’t take them seriously. According to my appraisal they were herbivores.

When I entered the T800, I almost immediately acquired a passenger, a freshly washed young lady timidly approached me and I was introduced to The Survivor, Nina Rivera. She gave me a big eyed look and then sat down on my lap without asking. I believe she mistook me for a seat cushion. I didn’t have any Twizzlers or caramels but she seemed to be satisfied with hunk of monkey jerky. After eating, she rested her head against my shoulder and promptly went to sleep.

We ran into both Terror Birds and Stone Giants on the way home, neither seriously inconvenienced us. It was a shame to leave all of that excellent poultry behind but we had no place to put it.

Upon getting home I melted a hole in the wall. It was a little difficult to do while holding a sleeping child with one arm but I managed it. The gate that Mack and Glen had made was pretty ingenious. It seems that they had, had a pretty uneventful day. They had only seen one oddity since the convoy had left; a large herd of American Buffalo had wandered by. My mouth started to water upon hearing that, the best steak that I have ever eaten was from a buffalo.

But I had no time to daydream about steaks; I needed to get back to work. There was embassy to build, a dungeon to expand and things to enchant.

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

Nina felt for the first time in months like she was truly safe. The man that was carrying her was quite obviously the Boss and everyone called him the Hermit King. She couldn’t read minds but without even talking to him very much, she had been convinced that any monster that wanted to eat her would first have to kill him and that it would take a really big monster in order to do something like that. She let herself drift off back to sleep.

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

Tornado Challenger and seven other flyers had practiced during the day with their new weapons and they were currently resting in the old Council Room by the shop, waiting for the Sky Krakens to return. Grace peaked in on them and she suddenly thought back to the early days of WWII when English Spitfire Pilots would lounge about near their planes, waiting for the word to scramble, so they might meet and combat the German planes bombing England. As she was thinking that the steam whistle alarm sounded.

The flyers sprang up, donning their ammunition vests and then picking up their heavy rifles. They dashed out the door and leaped into the air, in an attempt to get as much altitude as possible before they met the enemy.

What with their heavy winter clothing, ammunition and enormous rifles, the flyers were carrying approximately twenty or more pounds than they were really comfortable with lifting to such an extreme altitude as was their goal. All their rifles had been equipped with tight beam mage lights that the shop had recently started producing, they weren’t laser sights but they were better than nothing.

Sergeant Tornado was working his wings for all that he was worth. As he circled going for greater altitude he could see the krakens approaching in the distance. It was his goal to attack the monsters while they were outside the Stronghold and before they dropped anymore car bombs but he didn’t know if he and his two flights would be in time to do that.

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

The Sky Krakens had crept up on the Stronghold, barely above tree height, until they were about ten miles away; at that point they had inflated their lifting bladders so that they could achieve their maximum altitude as quickly as possible, this was done so as to keep them out of the weapons’ range of the stupidly dangerous monkeys. That was exact time when the lookouts in the Stronghold first spotted them.

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

By striving mightily the flyers had succeed in getting slightly above the krakens but not until eight of the twenty monsters were already above the Stronghold. Since the flyers did not want to let their own bullets rain down upon their home, they took to braking momentarily before firing so that they might be able to point their weapons better. With bus size targets it would be difficult to miss the squids. But because of certain obvious factors, the flyers were unable to shoulder and aim their weapons and thus they were forced to shoot from the hip, so to speak, though the mage lights attached to their rifles did help.

The flyers closed to two hundred yards so as to stay out of the natural air cannon range of the krakens. Then in two fusillades the flyers let loose their bullets at their giant floating targets. With those cracks of gunfire, the squids all dropped their car bombs. Four, fifty caliber bullets hit the mantles of four different krakens, doing damage to the creatures and in one case, possibly fatal damage. Because of the flyers’ braking action and the recoil from their weapons, their ability to fly stably had been momentarily disrupted and they lost altitude.

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

I felt my ear pops as I gained altitude. I cursed the fact that I was so difficult to wake up nowadays. But I was glad that I had taken the extra three minutes or so to dress properly, because it was damn cold! I had no weapons since nothing that I could carry would be useful against such monsters. I felt full of energy, more so than the day before, when I had corralled those boars. It was as if “My Land” was angry and feeding me more power. Flying on my belly, I tilted my head to look up. I was about to do something really dumb and if I lived through this, I was going to have to avoid Star for at least a month. I had to wonder if I would have enough energy to safely land.

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

Jennifer stood numbly as she stared up into the night sky. Vince had been exhausted from working all day and then most of the night too. He had barely gotten two hours of sleep when the alarm had sounded. It had been extremely difficult to awaken him, taking almost five full minutes of furious shaking and loud yelling. He had still been so groggy that even as he had stumbled out the front door of his home, she didn’t think that he had even been aware of her own partially clothed state.

But suddenly, as the cold night air had hit him; he had looked up and roared. Not only had he roared; it was as if the land, air and even the water in the moat, outside of the Stronghold’s walls, had all roared with him. And then an enraged wind had swept in; lifting him up swiftly into the night sky. After a moment Jen shivered, waking up to the fact that she still had to see to the safety of her own children, though she knew that the other women would have already gotten everyone below ground, especially their new eleven year old addition.

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

Even ten feet underground, Nina heard the roar echo through the open passageways and she instantly knew that her new Dad was going out to kick some serious ass.

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

Seven of the first wave of krakens were either unwounded or only slightly wounded. Sky Krakens have excellent eye sight and for a time measured in seconds they can be very fast if they want to be. The winged creatures that had hurt them were only a little ways away and for some reason tumbling out of control. Those seven squids charged for the bird monkeys with their tentacles outstretched.

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

Five of the flyers saw the krakens coming for them and went into steep dives. The only reason that they had been slightly out of control, for those few seconds, was because they had been trying to maintain their altitude so that they might attack again. Seeing a mass of hooked tentacles reaching for them changed their minds about staying in the vicinity.

Metal Grinder, Storm Cloud and Spring Breeze hadn’t seen, in sufficient time to evade, the krakens reaching for them.

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

At a scary fast velocity, I was climbing into the sky but I chose to embrace my anger as a defense against my fear of heights. I knew the natural air cannon ability that the krakens possessed, out ranged my own flame strike. I figured the only thing that I could do offensively was to charge in and launch flame strikes even while I was out of range, following them in, until they could reach my foes. But those huge hooked tentacles of the squids had me more worried than their air cannons. The cannons might stun me; those hooks could rip me apart in microseconds.

I heard gunfire and just as I had feared the flyers couldn’t handle the heavy recoil of their rifles while flying, or least while flying at such extreme altitudes. What I hadn’t expected, was for the Sky Krakens to rush towards the flyers while they were still recovering. I had been a little timid during my flight upwards; I mean if man was meant to fly, it should be first class with a pretty stewardess serving him drinks and not riding a tornado!

I instantly cranked up my ascent to full bore; I shot towards the krakens at a velocity that terrified me. Belatedly, I started launching flame strikes because I was certainly in range now.

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

Metal Grinder had seen his death coming for him. He hoped that his wife and daughter wouldn’t grieve too much. At the very last fraction of a second there was a roar of wind, accompanied by streams of fire coming from below. The wind sounded furious. The krakens paused and Grinder took the opportunity to bank down and to his right. He passed a flaming and roaring thing on the way.

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

Oh crud I’m going to hit. I felt like I was Willie E. Coyote, in a Warner Brothers Cartoon, and I had just run off a cliff. I should be holding a sign that reads “Yipe!” I can just imagine the guys and gals at the DDS Service chortling away in their cubicles. “Did you hear how Vince finally killed himself?”

“No I didn’t, what happened?”

“He ran into a Sky Kraken while he was going over a hundred miles per hour when he was…...”

Damn it, I didn’t even have time to finish imagining my after death scene. I was shooting flame strikes like my live depended on it which it did. I hit something that was crispy, then gooey and crispy and then ashy and suddenly I was out into free air, trying to hack out the warm ash ball that was in my throat.

I wiped soot of my goggles trying to see. There seemed to be two large falling and burning objects and then pieces of a third one. My mouth tasted terrible, but my magical gas tank was still over a third full. I started looking for more krakens. They had dashed off, breaking to the south and to the north around me but for some reason they had all slowed down again. To the north was the Armory, so I chased after that bunch. There were two that I could get to, before I had to start worrying about my energy levels. But being a novice flyer, I only succeeded in getting one of them. I decided to call it quits and I began lowering myself to ground, which was much scarier than going up, since I had to pay so much attention to how freaking high I was.

I aimed for the moat outside of the Northern Wall; I figured if I messed up, perhaps the water would cushion my fall. I deliberately forgot the frozen layer of ice on it. Miraculously, I made a trouble free descent and I even managed to set down on the wall walk on top of the Northern Wall.

I came down on one knee, trying to achieve a dramatic pose. To paraphrase that Great Hero Buzz Lightyear, if you’re falling, do it with style.

I lifted my head before standing up. Darn it, nobody was even nearby to score my landing. I think the judges should have given me at least a nine. I rose to my feet. I still had some magic left so I used a trickle of it, to clean off all of the ash and soot on my clothes and body. I gathered the yucky stuff into a ball and tossed it over the wall.

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

Lieutenant Murphy possessing both True Sight and Telescopic Vision; was one of the few people who had been able to watch the battle. She had seen the flyers rise into the sky and followed their progress. A few minutes after their departure, she had heard that great frightening roar; she knew instinctively and immediately that the Boss was pissed. She didn’t know why he was mad but she guessed that he was probably angry about not being able to do anything about the krakens that were high over head.

She had jogged along the wall’s walkway throughout the short battle, in order to stay as close to the action as possible, so that she might have the best view. Lady Murphy had been concentrating on the flyers and when the krakens had counterattacked; she had gasped, fearing that many of her new friends were going to be killed and eaten before her very eyes.

Then had come this blazing thing, arriving on the scene and it had deliberately rammed and then went straight through one of the Sky Krakens while toasting the krakens on either side of it.

The other krakens had scattered, after dropping their bombs mostly outside the Stronghold’s walls. The humanoid shape had paused for just a moment and then it had gone after those squids that had fled to the North.

Captain Mesquida had been walking beside her. He hadn’t been able to see much, but nobody could have missed those flames. “I know of only thing that can throw fire like that,” he said.

Now focusing on that man sized figure, she saw it chase after and slay another squid, then it start to descend. She ran along the wall, in an attempt to reach that person’s possible landing spot.

Candace was still far from him but she could see perfectly thanks to her gifts. He came down in a perfect landing falling to one knee. Then her King had slowly stood up, magically cleaning himself of the residue from his battle. He paused there slowly turning about, obviously looking for anymore dangers to his Kingdom and his people.

Candace Murphy and her mother were both fans of the Backstreet Boys. Though the lyrics of one of her favorite songs didn’t exactly fit her King at that exact moment in time, three of the words were perfect in her opinion, those being “Larger than Life.”

# # # # # # # # #

Explanations for some of things that I put in this chapter, you can ignore this bit if you want. I probably would; it’s boring stuff.

Bomb dropping Sky Krakens, my formula: I give the krakens a thirty percent chance of getting within three hundred feet of their target. Then for those that fall that close, I set up a target grid and use the RNG to tell me which squares the successful bombs fall in. The last step is a definition of the targets in that particular square and I use the RNG to see if they hit anything. I researched WWII bombing accuracy and I watched videos of cars being dropped by helicopters and planes to come up with my system. I don’t think my system is the best, but I couldn’t come up with anything else. If anyone has any insights on how I can improve it, I would greatly appreciate it. WWII planes dropping their bombs from around 20,000 feet normally put thirty percent of them within a thousand feet of their target. And even though the Sky Krakens have excellent eyesight, I don’t envision bomb dropping as being a natural ability for them, they just would have no reason to develop that skill. I mean why squash your prey and make it uneatable? I had the squids drop cars and trucks because I thought that they would be easier for the krakens to grip instead of rocks/boulders and there must be a lot of them lying around. I think that the maximum “long term” payload of a kraken should be around six thousand pounds but for very brief intervals they can pick up a maximum of eighteen thousand.

The maximum altitude of the Sky Krakens is not limited by their lifting gas but by the fact that at any higher than ten or twelve thousand feet, there isn’t enough air for them to breathe. Nor are they comfortable with low air pressure since they evolved from deep sea dwelling creatures and they still do frequently return to the depths when they can.

You might think that it was very convenient that the equipment store had those dozer tracks in stock. What can I say, the RNG gives and the RNG takes things away too. I have no way of knowing what kind of parts are typically stocked in a local equipment store. The one time a friend of mine needed new tracks for his small very old dozer he got them from a discount place in Chicago, which is over three hundred miles away. My friend paid for his cheapness. When we tried to put them on, we found out that he had ordered the wrong kind of tracks. He was then forced to pay to ship them back. He lost money rather than saved some.

Rate of climb for Flyers: I could not find any information on the internet about the rate of climb for birds only their top speeds and maximum altitudes. I have personally seen an eagle climb to what I estimated was three thousand feet in three to five minutes. Having no other recourse, I started looking at the rate of climb for early WWI biplanes which can attain speeds not too different from a flyer, which isn’t that fast. But all flyers can obtain Air Magic which is a racial trait and thanks to swearing oaths to Vince they all have their magical abilities. So that helps boost their performance stats.

So based on my own observations of eagles on a cool day and my minimal research about biplanes; without the aid of magic, unburdened flyers can climb to: three thousand feet at a rate of 14 feet per second, the next three thousand feet at a rate of 8.5 feet per second, and after that their rate of climb reduces to 6 feet per second, until they reach their maximum altitude of ten to fifteen thousand feet depending on the weather and their individual capabilities.

Because they were overburdened by twenty pounds, I am giving them a twenty-six percent performance penalty. That might be too much or too little, I have no idea, thank the RNG. I know from my research on birds that they should be able to do it, I just don’t how much it will hurt them.

But they do have Air Magic which they can use to help themselves and one another by causing updrafts. Updrafts of several meters per second are common but the flyers aren’t that magically powerful yet, however there are eight of them. I thought that having their magic add thirteen feet per second, before weight penalty, would be appropriate. The RNG wanted to give them sixteen but I overruled it.

Article about vertical momentum, this is regards to Vince’s climb rate. http://stormtrack.org/community/threads/vertical-momentum-how-fast-does-supercell-air-go-up.578/

Larger Than Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEb2CecR11I

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