I am now including the Character List at the end of the chapter instead of the beginning and it is hidden within a spoiler, I hope.

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

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Chapter 26: New Friends

While I don’t like using my Telepathic Ability, yesterday when I was holding Nina, it had been absolutely impossible for me to block out her nightmares and painful memories. The poor kid had, had it rough! She never knew her father and her mother had been killed two years ago in an auto accident, which left her then to be raised by her maternal grandmother, who had been a very strict old lady from what I could gather. Though stern, the old girl had died giving her granddaughter a chance to flee from the monsters that invaded their home. I think that Nina was on her own for at least three months, before Lady Knight Night found her.

The utterly exhausted little girl had entered one extremely bad nightmare while I had been holding her. Without meaning to, I had joined with her thoughts and it was something that I was categorically not prepared for, either intellectually or emotionally. It was like I was in a tiny rowboat in the middle of the ocean during a perfect storm, it totally sucked and it’s something that I never want to experience again. Not knowing what else to do and since I honestly cared for the orphaned waif, I clumsily attempted to sooth her both mentally and verbally. I don’t remember exactly what I did or said or maybe I don’t want to. I know there was, or I think there was, a flash of an orange screen during all of that and then unexpectedly, she began to relax and sleep more peacefully.

When I bent down to lay her on a bed within my home; it proved amazingly difficult for me to pry her skinny little arms from about my neck, so that I could stand back up. She woke up briefly while I was tucking her in and said, “Goodnight Daddy, I love you.” Maybe someone else would have said something different and even though I am disagreeable foul-mouthed hermit, I replied, “Goodnight Pumpkin and I love you too.” I just know that those clowns at the DDS service are snickering in their cubicles. One of these days I’ll get their address and order a ton of pizzas and Chinese food delivered to them, which they will then be forced to pay for and it won’t be the good stuff either. It will be pizzas made with dough cut with sawdust, fake cheese and covered with expired toppings. As for the Chinese food, I’ve heard unbelievable horror stories about how the absolutely worst places use questionable meat, to produce such delicacies as General Tso’s Rat or Sweet and Sour Cat. One day I swear, I will have my revenge!

After my cool and completely unobserved landing on the Northern Wall, I had begun walking for home; sadly Star had pinged in while I was doing that. I say “ping,” because that’s the sound that arriving teleporters all seem to make and when they depart it’s more of a “bloop” noise. Star immediately began to berate me and she kept it up until we reached my very door, thankfully it was all in her native language. At least I think she was criticizing me, because her speech had included a lot of nasty sounding; hissing, spitting, and clicking noises, which sort of reminded me of broken steam engine. I might have to finally have a word with her, because her attitude is starting to get on my nerves and I think that I’m under enough pressure as it is. The way she treats me was kind of funny at first but now it’s getting old. Star is the leader of her people and if I’m not comfortable in her presence, then that just can’t be a good thing.

Upon my arrival at home; Nina flung open the door, ran to me and jumped into my arms. “Did you kill the monsters, Dad?”

I yawned, “The flyers shot some and I got four of them, between us, we scared them off. I got a feeling that they won’t be back very soon but we’ll start thinking of ways to fight them differently, now that they are flying so high. I hope you weren’t scared Princess.”

She vigorously shook her head. “Nope, I knew that you were going to destroy them.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a fierce hug.

“Nina, for tonight only, you’re sharing a room with two other young ladies but tomorrow I’ll be fixing that. I think it’s time for this household to move underground like everyone else. That will give us all some more space and be safer too. Though, it might be a little uncomfortable until we can put in wooden floors but it shouldn’t be too bad.”

“I don’t mind, so long as I’m with you.”

I gave her squeeze and said “And that’s how I feel too, but you need to get back to bed now, you’ve got a lot of sleep to catch up on, however if you have another nightmare, you come downstairs and get me, okay? I won’t mind a bit.”

She nodded her head and I gave her a kiss on the cheek, before setting her back down on her feet, at the base of the stairs. I would have carried her up but there were too many females up there and I didn’t want to violate anyone’s privacy.

I yawned again and stumbled into my own room, Morpheus was calling out to me.

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Faith gave Vincent a good twenty minutes to fall asleep and then slipped into his room. It was Jen’s night but after that attack, her children had been pretty nervous, so Faith had quickly volunteered to finish Jen’s shift, before anyone else thought to grab the opportunity. Nina had already been partially let in on the secret, she was told just enough so that if she did see or hear something a little peculiar she wouldn’t be too surprised or upset. The ladies had explained how her new dad slept very deeply and it was necessary for someone to be nearby to wake him up, in case of an emergency. And that it was sort of a family secret that Nina shouldn’t talk about because it might embarrass her new father.

The ladies then had a slight problem because the little girl had promptly and eagerly volunteered to take over the duty. But they told her that it wouldn’t look right if a child took on that task and the rest of the community found out about it. Nina hadn’t looked happy but she had understood.

The Minister of Justice, Lady Knight Faith Harper, climbed into bed with His Majesty, King Vincent Standish, snuggled up to him, wriggled to get comfortable, wrapped her arms about the Hermit, let out a sigh and then fell quickly to sleep.

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It was just after dawn and Sir Boris Khan was outside and drinking a mug of tea. He was just taking a sip when he heard the first scream; he looked up and was shocked to see, several white furry centipede-like creatures firing crossbows at his people from the top of the encircling wall. Boris dropped his mug and un-slung his rifle, before he could shoulder it, three of the fire teams that were on duty on and keeping watch from the second floor of the factory, opened fire on the strange creatures.

More furry centipedes were climbing on and over the wall, there was no time for an Appraisal, there was only time to fight. More shooters on both sides were quickly joining the fray. He saw that two of his people had crossbow bolts in them but they looked to be alive for now, one of them was even still in the fight.

Another round of bolts fell on the soldiers that were currently trapped out in the open courtyard. Two more fell and they looked to be much more seriously wounded than the first two.

The crossbows looked to be wickedly powerful things but they had nowhere near the rate of fire of the Guardsmen’s rifles. He heard muffled “whump” noises, the kind of sound that the Holman projectors generated when they launched shells. The battle raged for just a few minutes more before the centipedes began to withdraw.

Healers rushed towards the most seriously wounded. Sir Khan saw that many of the bizarre sentient creatures which had fallen within the compound were still alive, if barely so. Boris; quickly Appraised one of them before it could expire.

Name: Blood Drinker

Class: Scout/Assassin

Species: Swift Runner

A Swift Runner is a multi-legged omnivorous sentient being which has fur that changes color with the seasons; white for winter, brown for fall, and blue for spring and summer. The rear two thirds of their bodies have eight equally-spaced legs which in an adult keeps that segment of their body/trunk approximately 35 centimeters off the ground. The front segment has one lower pair of dual purpose limbs and one upper pair of arms.

On their backs is a large muscle/tendon arrangement that when contracted lifts up the front segment of a Swift Runner and supports it for the majority of its working day. A crude description of a Swift Runner would label it as a fur covered centaur-like centipede but that is a very rough and inaccurate depiction.

When only using its lower segment, to propel itself, a typical Swift Runner can indefinitely maintain speeds of nineteen kilometers per hour and sprint up to forty-five. If lowering its front section it can maintain speeds of twenty-five and sprint up to fifty-four kph.

They have six eyes. Four eyes are on the front segment, two below the center line and two above. There are two more eyes on their rear segment to prevent surprises. Their maximum adult length is three meters and maximum weight is 142 kilograms.

Boris grumbled to himself, he hated how the DDS was metric. He was old school and he was always forced to convert things to miles, feet, inches and pounds before he could get a true feel for things. It took him a moment to do the math in his head, and he didn’t like it at all, when he figured out how a sprinting Swift Runner could keep up or even exceed the speed of the Stronghold’s armored vehicles.

All of the surviving Swift Runners were severely wounded and possessed blue screens. Since no one currently at the Armory could speak their language and after a quick consultation with Captain Long, it was decided to just let the centipedes bleed out and die. As for Boris’s troops, it was expected that two of them should be okay before evening but the other two would need to go home and spend the next two to four days recovering. One of his soldiers, a craft-maker, had been a hair’s breadth away from joining Quentin Lee in the cemetery.

Lieutenant Khan inspected the arms and armor of the Swift Runners; he found them all to be made of good steel. They carried a wide variety of weapons; such as swords, knives, shields, lances, axes, and crossbows. The last item had been impressively crafted and it had at least two hundred pounds of pull.

Sir Boris muttered a curse; he preferred to fight dumb monsters over smart aliens. He now would have to figure out a way to increase his forces’ readiness levels which would be hard to do since the casualties almost made up a full fire team. Perhaps Captain Long had some people that could assist?

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Lieutenant Night drove out through the new gate. She thought it was kind of a cool, as the humans would say, how the entire gate lifted up and out of the way. Their first task that morning was to retrieve the 590 so it could be put back into service. They now had the needed replacement parts with them and while they might be able to fix the loader/backhoe on site; just in case that proved to be impossible and it was found that they needed to bring the tractor back home for repairs, the Sherman tank was now towing a large flatbed trailer that was more than big enough for the job.

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Corporal Sticks Spearmaker was one of those outside and providing security for the humans who were working on the 590.

Sticks, was an expert in the manufacture of pole-arms. She was also highly proficient at using them, which was something that would have gotten her killed if her former masters had ever learned of her adroitness. She still made weapons but she had yearned to be a warrior her entire life. Sticks had subsequently been the first of her people to join the Hermit’s Guard.

When her abilities were awakened by her new King, two of the gifts that she had received were slightly better vision and significantly better hearing. So even over the sounds of the vehicles and the voices of the humans, she heard what she thought was someone calling out to her in the Sabok language. She immediately brought this to her sergeant’s attention, who then sent her along with a Private, to cautiously investigate. The Hellcat rotated its turret so as to give both of them covering fire if it was needed.

She called out loudly, in the tongue of her former oppressors. “I am Sticks Spearmaker, Corporal in the Hermit’s Guard. Is there someone who wishes to speak to me?

In the distance she saw a greenish gray form step away from some trees, it waved its arms. “I am Cookie Oven. All of our warriors are dead. I would have peaceful converse with you.”

Sticks did an Appraisal and saw that the strange male craft-maker possessed a green screen. She had been hoping for orange but no adult craft-makers had one of those, living under the Warriors of Sabok had forced all of them to make too many compromises on their honor, not even Lady Star had an orange screen. “You may approach Cookie Oven but know this, the soldiers that I stand with, have already defeated many Warriors of Sabok and other monsters. Be deceitful with us at your peril.”

Cookie did approach and while the tractor was being repaired, he had a long conversation with Corporal Sticks and Lady Knight Night.

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“Daaad?”

“Yes Pumpkin,” something weird was going on with my magic; especially my Earth Magic and I think I was on the verge of figuring it out. But now I had someone keeping me company. Though she was a sweet child and far too skinny, she was also distracting me from my work.

“Dad, I want to do Earth Magic and enchant stuff, just like you do; can you teach me?”

I opened my eyes and looked at the skinny little malnourished form sitting on my lap. I sighed. “Baby, your gifts don’t lie in those directions.” She started to frown at me. “Now, don’t look sad. You are already the best Teleporter in the Stronghold and you’re the best at Body Augmentation Magic too. But Enchantment and Earth Magic aren’t among your abilities, if they were I would teach you in a heartbeat.”

Her eyes got tear filled. “But I want to make stuff like you do.”

“Princess, there is one ability which you possess that hasn’t been awakened yet and that is Alchemy. I might have that ability too but I’ve been far too busy doing other things to do anything with it as of yet, even though there is one thing that I really want investigate, that being the lifting gas of the Sky Krakens.” I used my own Telekinesis ability to bring down, from the shelves, two of the bottles that Ron had given to me and a large coffee table book. “Many years ago, I saw an old movie called ‘Master of the World,’ in the movie they had this huge airship. After I learned about the kraken gas, I thought that maybe one day that we might build airships like that.” I opened the large book and started thumbing through its pages. It was filled with all kinds of pictures of both old and modern airships. Nina seemed to find it interesting.

“In this new world, I think that steam powered airplanes are impractical, if not completely impossible, and while jet engines might be possible, it is my believe that it will take a lot of magic to make one work for even a short flight, so they won’t be good for long range travel either. Thus we are back to airships. I know that Ron, in his free time, has been working with the kraken gas. How would you like to work on it too? Since you’re my daughter, it would be kind of like that I would be contributing to the project too.”

Her eyes got big. “This is important?”

“Very important, it will let us fight the Sky Krakens when they are beyond the reach of our guns and help us to do other things as well.” I touched her cheek gently, she hadn’t sworn an oath to me but she was my daughter for gosh sakes. I carefully brought forth her only un-awakened talent.

Soon I had her set up with her own work table. On the table were the two bottles of lifting gas, some balloons, a child’s primer on physics, a chemistry book, the airship book, some little bottles and a balance scale. I told her to just play with that stuff for now, so that she got comfortable with it and later on I would introduce her to Ron.

I went back to working on my magic. When I had fought those krakens, my energy had recovered far faster than ever before. It had felt like I was the focal point of a mass of power that was just blasting into me. That thought led me to think about mirrored solar arrays and how they collect sunlight and project in onto a central point to generate heat. The mental picture of a circular array of mirrors, in turn, got me thinking about the almost circular shape of the Stronghold. Its true octagon form led me to think about other geometric shapes such as pentagons which directed my thoughts towards pentagrams. However pentagrams have star shaped points, so I started thinking about all those enchanted Earth Stones that are separate parts or points within the Stronghold’s walls and moat. Those stones that I had so carefully worked on; so, I reached out to them and the shape that they delineated; when I connected all the dots, for the shape that I was sitting within; there was a Holy Crap moment. The feeling of energy pouring me into was back and it felt even stronger than before. As best as I could figure out, the Stronghold and those Earth Stones were acting like a magical energy array. It seemed that this fortress had the capability to collect ambient magical power and give it to the person that it was keyed to, so long as that person was within its walls. I didn’t have perfect control of it and it had taken awhile to tap into but I immediately decided to try and take advantage of all that energy, now while I was hooked into it.

Last night or early this morning I had told Nina that I was going to make new underground living quarters for us, it was time to give it a go. In less than an hour; I built a four thousand square foot living area and a four thousand square foot workshop, I finally had a true cave. Now at least, the other hermits won’t make fun of me anymore. Doors, ventilation shafts, and plumbing lines would have to be installed or connected later but everything else was pretty much done. I created a wide ramp leading down from my former Hermit’s cave/garage to my new dungeon workshop. The new underground residential portion, I had already tied into the basement’s preexisting tunnel to the Stronghold’s machine shop. I would get Mack or one of his people to help me out with the finishing touches.

When I surfaced back in my garage, I found the women already waiting for me. Jennifer spoke, “Are you done Vincent?”

“It still needs water, sewage lines, ventilation shafts, doors, a few more firestones and wooden floors.” How had they known what I was doing?

Jen simply nodded her head. “Okay we’ll finish it up. We’ve got rugs so we can get by without wooden floors for now. But it will be nice having ten feet of earth and rock between us and any dangers that might come calling. You have to go with Grace now; they need you at the shop.” Grace walked up, took my hand and started pulling me down the slope to my newly constructed Hermit’s lair. I was little disconcerted at the abruptness of it all, so I held out my free hand and looked to Nina for rescue. She giggled, took my hand and followed me down the ramp.

Taking the subterranean route, we got to the shop, where I introduced Nina to Ron, so those two could start talking about kraken gas and begin making plans for world conquest.

The shop was much larger now, with the majority of it underground; it probably qualified as a baby factory what with over eighty full time workers and maybe double that in part time help.

Glen and Sean were anxiously waiting for me. Glen began speaking. “Hey Boss, the conversion of the Oshkosh truck is going smoothly and we might have it done in another thirty-six hours. It won’t have any armor upgrades but even so it’s still pretty tough. Subsequent trucks that are the exact same model should go even faster now that we know what we are doing.

We are not quite ready to start making our own cannons, since we still need to learn more from the M119 that we got from Captain Long so that we can finalize our own design for a 90mm gun. But after talking with Tornado and Sir Storm Wind, we’ve decided to make a custom run of fifty caliber rifles just for the flyers. It will be breech opening, like a single shot shotgun, and made out of titanium with a ceramic liner. We’ll also trim off as much weight as we can by shortening its barrel and possibly removing the shoulder stock as well. All in all, we hope to give them a rifle that weighs less than twenty pounds, which will be a lot better that those thirty five to thirty six pound beasts they carried up last night. The rifles’ light weight will hurt with recoil but after what nearly happened last night, the flyers’ new tactic will be to fire and to immediately dive away.

However to make those rifles, quickly enough, we’ll need your help with enchanting shop fixtures, cooling the titanium, softening the metal, and molding the ceramic liners. Hope you got the time?”

I wasn’t sure that their idea was a particularly good one, but I wasn’t going disagree with them, on the other hand we did need more practice when it came to machining titanium and working with the snails’ ceramic materials. So I readily agreed to the project.

It was just then that I heard that the convoy had returned with the 590.

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Lady Night was back on the road after dropping off her sixty-four craft-maker passengers. She had turned them over to Lady Star. According to what Cookie had told her, they had arrived on Earth about eleven days ago, since then; Night Stalkers, squirrels and leaping lizards had decimated their numbers, killing the Sabok Warriors first.

She was a little bit worried since she had lost a lot of time dealing with the new refugees, but it had given her the opportunity to pick up another trailer which the 590 was presently towing.

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Guardian Evonne Sting was desperate, she was now the leader of her tribe’s much reduced band of survivors. The Tribe of Evening Song had been betrayed, with Lady Song and the rest of the noble caste being murdered. As for the commoners like Guardian Sting, out of almost two hundred of them, only thirteen remained alive. But even though poisoned and surprised, the Tribe of Song had still fought back and killed one of the Marsh Tribe’s people for each one, that they had slayed. Sadly, thanks to Lady Song’s own kindness, the Marsh Tribe was larger. So in the end, after everyone else had fallen, Evonne had no other recourse but to run with her tiny band.

They had been on this world for almost sixty day and night cycles; and the Song people had been starting to get a grip on the bizarre and dangerous situation they had found themselves in. That is until fourteen cycles ago, when they stumbled upon another tribe from their very own world. Lady Song, seeing people of a similar form had reached out to help them, despite the Marsh Tribe’s horrible reputation and the fact that not one of them possessed an orange placard. Worse yet, Lady Song in her generosity had ignored the unmistakable truth that many of them had blue placards. Under the care and guidance of the Song Tribe, the Marsh Tribe did not have to pay nearly as much for their lessons in survival as the Song Tribe had been so painfully forced to do. The result being that there were many more Marsh survivors than there were Song people who had to learn the hard way.

The Marsh blues had kept themselves separated for the most part and it must have been them, who poisoned the food. After the Tribe of Song had fallen ill, the blues had used insane rhetoric to warp the minds of their weak minded green brethren, blaming their plight on Lady Song and the Tribe of Evening Song. They had spouted nonsense, like the gods would forgive them and send them home, if they killed the Song people. It seemed as if the green simpletons of the Marsh Tribe, all flashed to blue in a single instant, it was then that the slaughter began. As Evonne recalled again that terrible night, she fervently wished once more, for those superstitious, violent, Marsh Tribe idiots to rot in the freezing depths for all eternity!

Guardian Sting had seen many strange sights on this new world and she knew about the metal moving machines but her Lady, seeing people so unlike her own, had decided not to contact the possessors of those armored moving boxes. Evonne now had no choice, with only three Guardians left and two of the group’s husbands carrying babies; they desperately needed a safe haven. Perhaps the Lady or even Lord of those strange folk would accept their oaths, she could only hope.

Seeing the vehicles approach, she lifted her front segment and began waving the large red flag that her husband Aron had made for her.

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Jeffrey Vargas riding in the lead vehicle, nearly shot his 20mm rifle at the new monster that had suddenly arisen from the snow, a little over a hundred feet from the road. Luckily the sight of the flag made him hesitate.

He first triggered a short sequence on the air horn, signaling for a stop and that he had spotted a possible sentient nonhuman being, after which he did an Appraisal.

Name: Evonne Sting

Class: Guardian

Species: Swift Runner

A Swift Runner is a multi-legged omnivorous sentient being which has fur that changes color with the seasons; white for winter, brown for fall, and blue for spring and summer. The rear two thirds of their bodies have eight equally-spaced legs which in an adult, keeps that segment of their body/trunk approximately 35 centimeters off the ground. The front segment has one lower pair of dual purpose limbs and one upper pair of arms.

On their backs is a large muscle/tendon arrangement that when contracted lifts up the front segment of a Swift Runner and supports it for the majority of its working day. A crude description of a Swift Runner would label it as a fur covered centaur-like centipede but that is a very rough and inaccurate depiction.

When only using its lower segment, to propel itself, a typical Swift Runner can indefinitely maintain speeds of nineteen kilometers per hour and sprint up to forty-five. If lowering its front section it can maintain speeds of twenty-five and sprint up to fifty-four kph.

They have six eyes. Four eyes are on the front segment, two below the center line and two above. There are two more eyes on their rear segments to prevent surprises. Their maximum adult length is three meters and maximum weight is 142 kilograms.

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For the next forty minutes Lady Night Storm who possessed the translation gift/skill talked with Guardian Evonne Sting. Reluctantly, Night decided that she must return once more to the Stronghold, thus putting her further behind schedule. She hoped that Lieutenant Khan and his people were okay and that they could weather the extreme delay.

Her King’s standing orders were to make overtures of friendship towards all people of goodwill, most especially those from alien worlds. He had an absolute horror of starting or failing to prevent a war between sentient beings. Lady Storm was most concerned about the now insane tribe of Swift Runners that had attacked Guardian Sting’s former tribe and virtually destroyed it. She wanted to get a warning to Boris but the convoy wasn’t quite half way there yet and Swift Runners were so large that only thirteen of them half filled the C500’s trailer. So once again they were on their way back to the Stronghold.

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It took us two hours to make that first lightweight fifty caliber rifle. Prior to this, Sean had made other half inch rifles but they were out of steel and possessed bolt actions. So we had to make some new fixtures and design/copy some different parts. Sometimes I have to wonder how many international patents we’re violating. George might also like the new fifties for his fire teams since they’re so much lighter, if not quite so capable as their bolt action bigger brothers.

Glen and Sean didn’t keep me constantly busy on their rifle project, I was also helping Scott Blaine, Ring Armorer and Hammer Smith with their new body armor endeavor because they also needed some enchanted fixtures and cutting tools.

Nina was Ron’s shadow but occasionally she would wave at me and shout “Hi, Dad,” with a happy grin on her face. She seemed to be quite enamored with that word. I still couldn’t understand how she seemed to be so sane after everything that she had been through. Her nightmares, before I entered them, had been truly horrifying. The only thing that I had been able to do, at the time, was clumsily wrap her inner psyche with my own mind and briefly shield her, from all the pain that her emotions and memories were causing her. It had been some seriously yucky and distressing stuff too.

Right now, I was doing my best to not think about all of the children on this world and possibly other worlds as well that were living in terrible conditions or had already died in horrible ways, because of the change in physical laws and the emergence of monsters. In that lay madness and there was only so much that I could do.

Jen came running into the shop, to get me. It seems that we had a new sentient species, waiting to meet with me, in the old Council Room.

To say that I was surprised upon my first sight of them would be putting it mildly. They were well armed and armored furry white centipedes that arched the front quarters off their bodies off the ground. Surprisingly, their mouths and teeth looked quite human like, except for being larger. Lady Night gave me a quick briefing and made to leave so as to make another attempt for the Armory, but I stopped her and ordered her to first grab a meal, it being over four hours since breakfast.

I approached the Swift Runners who all bowed to me.

Hello, I am the Hermit King Vincent Standish. Welcome to the Stronghold of Hermit’s Forge. I hope that we can treat one another respectfully and cordially. You must have many questions. I have sent for Sir Storm Wind who is the leader of the Flyer Clan living here. He has the translation ability the same as Lady Night Storm and I. He will work with you and he in turn can call on the aid of Lady Jennifer Boone my spokesperson, Sir Stephen Monet my castellan and Lady Star Astrologer who is my advisor. You and your people must be tired and hungry; all will be done as quickly as possible to get you settled. After a few days, once you’ve had time to see things here and ask questions, we will talk some more. I give you warning that I am by nature a rude and foul-mouthed person. Before I go back to work, I need to mention my six rules; Lady Knight Harper, my Minister of Justice, probably has a few more but none of them apply to me because I’m a tyrant and a prick.

For some reason my last statement prompted a reaction from the Swift Runners. I mentally shrugged my shoulders and continued. They could always leave.

Rule one: Treat others with respect until they mess up.

Rule two: Don’t use violence against other sentient beings unless in defense of your life, personal property, or another’s life or personal property. It is permissible to use violence to punish someone when any of those things that I mentioned previously have already happened but you should see one of my Peace Keepers first and let them handle things, because if you foul up, it can be mean big trouble for you.

Rule three: Act honorably, for example; if you’re married and swore to be faithful then don’t cheat on your spouse. That rule also means that we watch each other’s asses. All children are to be cherished, that doesn’t mean that they have a license to misbehave and be disrespectful little grubs.

Rule four: Don’t fucking steal!

Rule five: Don’t lie. I know people tell so called ‘harmless or social lies’ all of the time and I can tolerate those but lying nowadays is kraken crap, when even a small one can get someone killed. I especially hate lies that are deliberately harmful to others, like giving false testimony. Many of us have the True Sight skill and we know when someone is lying to us.

Rule six: You will obey my rules and commands. You will also obey those people that I have put into positions of authority.

I see that Sir Wind is here now; he’ll take over for me. Rest and eat as much as you like, I hope that you can enjoy the same foods that we eat.

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To say that Evonne Sting was shocked would be a gross understatement. The Lord here, Vincent Standish, had referred to himself as a tyrant and a, she couldn’t even mentally think that word; it was simply uncivilized for a male to speak so. In all of her hundreds of solar cycles she had never heard of a noble refer to themselves as such, even if many of them really were “tyrants.” She wasn’t sure if she liked a lord who was so plain spoken and foul-mouthed, it was already bad enough that he was a male.

They were first brought to a large cafeteria where they were given a wide variety of quite tasty foodstuffs. There was a fish dish on the buffet tables but before she could try any or give some to her children, Sir Wind stopped her and explained where that particular meat had came from and why children were forbidden to eat it. She herself relished eating such a delicacy and from such a formidable foe, her children were justifiably disappointed but she could understand and appreciate the Hermit King’s logic, in not allowing any young ones to eat the Sky Kraken flesh.

She and her surviving tribe members; were then shown to a warm underground set of rooms. Large furs and thick tanned hides covered the floor and there were tables too. There were no chairs but Swift Runners didn’t need and couldn’t use them. The magical lights were explained to her tiny tribe. There were also two bathing/toilet rooms but while barely adequate they were uncomfortably small. Sir Wind promised that he would come back, once they rested, and see that their current rooms or different rooms were modified to better suit her people and their needs. Two older children were given the job of waiting outside the Swift Runner rooms and would serve as messengers to find a translator for them, if it proved necessary.

Guardian Sting was reasonably happy with how smoothly things had gone so far, and she was only sorry that her tribe had not earlier made contact with the King of Hermit’s Forge.

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The convoy ran into a pack of leaping lizards and family of Stone Giants, neither encounter posed a serious threat to them and only caused minor delays.

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Boris was worried, it was two in the afternoon and still the convoy had not arrived as of yet. It was at that point that someone triggered an air horn and someone else shouted out. “WE GOT BIG BIRDS INCOMING!”

Boris ran back towards the factory doorway, slung his rifle and reached behind to pull his shotgun from the scabbard that was strapped to his back. While they didn’t have enough shotguns to equip every Guardsmen, at least half of the soldiers with his fire teams, were lucky enough to possess one.

The birds were circling overhead and one of them even had the effrontery to land on the three-story Armory building across the street from the old factory. Boris did an Appraisal on it.

Pithecophaga jefferyi Giganteas; Giant All-Eating Eagle, maximum height is 410 centimeters, maximum weight can be as much as 32 kilograms. A single eagle can kill prey up to four times its own body weight. Eagles mate for life and the female of the species will normally lay four eggs in a single season, with the young staying with their parents until they find their own mates. Multiple hatchings can and do stay with the family group. Such families typically vary from two to eighteen members, with only the youngest four not out and actively searching for prey. Giant Eagles will seek prey alone or as cooperative group. Normally they will hunt with at least one other.

Seeing the Appraisal, Sir Khan switched back to his rifle and shot the eagle across the street. Shortly after that the convoy arrived and the other eagles scattered on seeing such large formidable creatures.

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

Seeing the corpse of a Swift Runner at Captain Long’s Compound, Lieutenant Storm got into a lengthy conversation with the other Officers about her own meeting with the Tribe of Evening Song. The humans were rather blasé when they learned about “good” Swift Runners. They figured that if it was possible for there to be good and bad humans, then the same thing should hold true for other species as well.

The passengers for the trip back to the Stronghold had already been selected. They quickly climbed aboard the C500’s trailer and their few belongings were loaded into the lone armored utility trailer. The convoy started its journey back for home, stopping briefly at the equipment store. This time they had the 590 with them and in the store they easily located a set of pallet forks, which they then connected to the tractor’s front bucket. Using the forks, they swiftly and efficiently loaded the convoy’s two flatbed trailers, with pallets of parts and materials. In less than a half an hour they were back on the road.

The convoy had three encounters on the way home. First they were attacked by another pack of leaping lizards, the creatures would be terrible threats to someone out in the open but for the convoy; they were almost a waste of ammunition.

They next saw a large group of blue screen Swift Runners, which they decided not to engage since the Swift Runners did not attack them. But three miles down the road, this changed when the Swift Runners ambushed the convoy, they fired crossbow bolts at truck windows and the two partially exposed tank commanders. Luckily the bolts missed and the Sergeants were able to withdraw safely inside their armored vehicles but immediately after this, the Swift Runners ran and leaped on to the vehicles of the convoy. Using swords and axes, they tried their best to break inside the armored boxes, so as to get at the crews and passengers. They were defeated when the vehicles positioned themselves, such that they could shoot at the Swift Runners that were climbing on top of the other vehicles, within the convoy. Five centipedes fell before the others broke off and ran away.

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

We had two of the new lightweight fifties done. Tornado and Metal Grinder had been practicing with the first one, when we heard the steam whistle alarm go off. A messenger came running into the shop, shouting that a small number of Sky Krakens were returning. Damn it, I would have bet money that those assholes wouldn’t be back for weeks.

I jogged home, grabbed my leathers and then ran as swiftly as possible towards the center of the Stronghold. What I was going to attempt should work better at the Stronghold’s geometric focal point. I arrived huffing and puffing, I really needed to get more exercise. I looked to the sky; I could see eight krakens approaching. I tried reaching for the Earth Stones that surrounded me, as I had done earlier that day. I failed miserably; I guess it wasn’t something that I could instantly tap into. Nor did I feel the same rage that I had felt the night before. Looking up, I saw two flyers rising into the sky, damn it! They were going to be far too late. So, why did those idiots have to go and do that?

Aw fuck it! I called the wind, straining myself because I needed to get up there as fast as I could. Giving myself a magical hernia I rose into the air. By the time I got up to altitude, the krakens had dropped their bombs and were already two kilometers away. Deciding that pursuing them would be a bad idea, I focused on landing on the Eastern Wall. Of course this time there were plenty of people about to see my dismal performance and while I nailed my landing last night, it must have been beginner’s luck, because on this occasion, in the best tradition of Willie E. Coyote, I did a screaming face plant onto the wall walk. I just have to get me a parachute. At least I didn’t break anything, bruise yes, break no. That overabundance of energy that I had the previous night had served me in good stead, but without it, the same task or mission became much more perilous.

Groaning, I stood up and then glared at all of those who were gathered round. “None of you saw that, do you understand me?”

I got a number of vigorous nods from those grinning bastards, as I slowly limped away.

That evening, I attended another Council session in our underground meeting room. We had Lieutenant Kellie Cross from the Army and Guardian Evonne Sting, both observing by invitation.

Lieutenant Night Storm opened the meeting by telling us all about the convoy’s experiences that day.

She then translated for Guardian Sting as that woman told us about her tribe and her experiences on Earth since arriving two months ago. She culminated her tale, by telling us how the Song Tribe had been betrayed and attacked by another tribe that her group had been trying to help.

Glen gave us a status report in regards to the new rifles. Sean now had eight done and production was increasing, with a target of fifty weapons to be manufactured.

Luckily no car bombs had hit anything today but once again, another greenhouse had been a near miss. It was my turn to talk. “Isabella has rightfully brought to our attention the peril posed by small monsters but we can’t ignore the threat of the larger ones either. I would classify the Sky Krakens, the mechanical arachnids and the Devolved Stone Giants as being a set of unique threats to this Stronghold and our lives. Who knows what other enormous monsters are already out there or will be coming to this world since we now have confirmation, thanks to the Swift Runners and the newest craft-maker refugees, that the ‘Inter-Reality Barriers’ which failed before the three hundred hour mark are still down and may in fact never reestablish themselves. We’ve certainly gotten no messages from the DDS indicating that those barriers have been restored.

I am concerned about those other threats that we will be facing. Lieutenant Cross, I would like you to send a message to Captain Long with tomorrow’s convoy. While she has given us two howitzers, your company still has four more. What I am proposing is a way to utilize them for our mutual defense. I would like for those four guns to be positioned on the Stronghold’s walls and crewed by your people. However, ammunition will be supplied and controlled by the Hermit’s Guard, while the cannons are within this fortress.

We have an abundance of low powered farming tractors. Each howitzer will have a tractor assigned to it, so your cannons can be towed along the wall walk, to where they’re most needed. I know that your company was originally a Transportation Unit and that you will have to train with your howitzers, but we will also see that you are provided with sufficient powder and shells for that purpose.

George, do you any problems with my proposal?”

“No your Majesty, I think it’s a good one. We can preposition the howitzers at equally spaced locations on the walls, in order to meet any threat that comes our way.”

“Good, Glen I want you to expedite the creation of our own tanks. We need that steel that Fred told us about, to make our new drawbridge. And I don’t feel comfortable sending our forces so far from home without more armored support, armed with better and more accurate cannons. For that matter, I don’t like leaving this compound so little in the way of armored fighting vehicles.”

“Boss, I can do that but don’t forget those dump trucks that Chester told us about. We can armor and convert one of those things in fairly short order nowadays.”

“Good point, after we get Captain Long’s group transferred, we’ll go after those trucks. Do you have any ideas about the new tanks?”

“Actually yes, but they won’t exactly be tanks because we’re fighting a different kind of foe. After a lot of talk between Captain Mesquida, his officers and our own experienced tankers, we’ve decided to revisit a concept from pre World War II and make an armored Land Cruiser. Now, we’re still stuck with the basic foot print of a vehicle that is twelve feet wide by twenty-six feet long, because it has been well learned over the years that, that is the maximum size you can make an armored tracked vehicle that is sufficiently maneuverable for most combat situations. We’d like to make the cruisers bigger but they would be too clumsy, especially within cities or forests.

However we do have to make them taller. This is primarily to allow their main guns the ability to elevate enough so that they can engage aerial targets, such as Sky Krakens or extremely tall foes like the mechanical spiders.

The top of our land cruiser’s hull will be 81 inches off the ground and there will be 19 inches of ground clearance beneath it. Its turret will rise another 63 inches beyond that for a total of 144 inches or twelve feet; that is not including the 20mm rifles mounted just outside the turret’s three hatches. The turret will be 12 feet wide by 16 feet long and it will overhang the cruiser’s tracks. Vision blocks will be made of extremely thick transparent aluminum and have armored steel shutters. Track width will be 28 inches. The land cruiser will have angular sides much like the M1 Abrams tank. With our current facilities it is much easier for us to construct the land cruiser’s exterior out of panels mounted on a frame rather than cast any part of it, like was done years ago for the Sherman’s turret.

Its primary armament will be a 90mm main gun. But there will be additional weapons systems to fight other foes, something that has gone out of fashion on most modern tanks. On the sides of our turret will be two air-powered 50mm Holman projectors, located in ball mounts. There will be a third one collocated with the main gun and a fourth one in the hull that the co-driver/engineer can fire. We are still debating if we are going to install a 20mm rifle that can be fired from within the land cruiser. Holman projectors are very light and if necessary they can easily be withdrawn into the land cruiser and an armored plug inserted to fill the hole that is left behind, that way a cruiser can slim down to twelve feet in width, in case those short protruding projector barrels look like they might cause a problem.

The main gun will have almost the same range of movement as a towed artillery piece, that being minus 10 to plus 75 degrees. The projectors in the ball mounts can pivot to the left and right up to 25 degrees, the same for elevation and down to minus fifteen degrees.

Sean has performed numerous tests in attempting to get a fully automatic or semi-automatic weapon to work in our new world. All of his attempts have ended in failure even if he’s using compressed air to drive a weapon’s action, which doesn’t make any sense at all. I have watched tests being done, at a far slower rate than I can personally work a manual action, and they’ve all resulted in cartridge jams by the second or third shot. Frequently there is also a significant loss of projectile striking power as well. This problem exists for both our black powder and air powdered weapons. Sean even made a crossbow with an air powered loading mechanism; it failed to operate properly as well. Call it quantum mechanics, magic or the will of the gods but something in our altered universe has it in for automatic weapons and will not allow them to function properly. What’s more, there is some preliminary evidence that if we ever do build steam turbines or use the smaller ones that we are still salvaging from the snails’ arachnids that they might also not work properly or as efficiently as they should. We’re still not so sure of that, as of yet and what with all our other jobs, we’re long ways for doing any definitive and irrefutable testing on that subject.

As a result of Sean’s tests, the proposed Holman projectors will have a top mounted two round magazine, similar to the old 40mm Bofors gun but it will be worked manually, with two charging handles located on either side of the Holman’s barrel or pipe.

On another topic, I have some good news, Grace has gotten her steam powered shrapnel shells figured out and we are about to start production of them. This will make all of our weapons larger than 50mm, much more effective against masses of less well-armored creatures such as the King Mandrills.

Getting back to the design for the land cruiser, since we have no idea from which direction an enemy might attack, it will have equal armor covering the majority of its exterior. The old M60 tank had ten inches of steel armor protecting its vitals. Ours will have ten inches of armor as well but it will be made of layers of compressed stone, steel, ballistic gelatin, compressed stone again, another layer of steel, gelatin and then finally an inner layer of titanium. We’ve already shot test sections with the Sherman’s cannon and our armor has performed well but we still need to do a few more tests to make certain.

By making the armor in layers and using other lighter materials, we’ve kept the theoretical weight of the land cruiser down to between fifty and fifty-five tons which is about the same weight as an M60 tank.

It will be powered by two 330 hp steam engines which we are extremely close to putting into production. Right now we have three of them in test stands and we’re doing our best to break them. The turret will be powered by its own 50 to 125 hp engine, which will rotate the turret and power the air compressor that supplies the Holman projectors. That engine will be located in an external armored bustle on the turret’s rear.

There will also be way to vent steam directly onto the land cruiser’s exterior, so as to parboil anything that might be on it. The problem there of course, is that each cruiser only carries a limited amount of water.

A cruiser’s crew will consist of from five to seven members. A commander, gunner, loader, driver, co-driver/engineer and two others manning the side Holman projectors, those last two are not absolutely necessary and might crowd the turret too much but we’re hoping that the land cruiser’s extra height will make a seven person crew a practical and functional option. As in older tanks, there will also be an escape hatch in the floor of the hull.

We have three full sets of parts for the land cruiser’s undercarriage, though only one set of shoes in the desired 28 inch width. But those parts give us the examples that we need to manufacture more of the same. And thanks to Lieutenant Night Storm we have two new knowledgeable employees to help us with our armored vehicles. Vince, if you can give us some help, I think that we might have a production prototype ready in as little as two weeks.”

“Outstanding Glen, because I want to send an expedition for that bridge steel in thirty days, and if you can do it, I would like four of those land cruisers ready at that time and also two new armored dump trucks like the T800 but with the bigger engines. That way our older armored vehicles can stay behind and protect the Stronghold.”

Glen looked slightly shocked by my expectations.

“Glen, I will give you as much help as I can. I feel strongly that we need to get that bridge done before summer.

Mack, we are now facing giants up to eleven meters tall. That means we will have to modify this fortress to a greater degree than we had originally planned for. Come late springtime or early summer folks, I want this Kingdom ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum; and I don’t like bubblegum. I let us slack off for a few months and I’m regretting it now.” Groans and words of protest greeted my words. “I know we kept working but none of us, most especially myself; were busting our asses to our full potential. If we’re going to survive this coming summer, that is going to have to change for the next couple of months. Come next winter, if we’re still alive, we can take a four day break then.”

More sounds of protest came my way.

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

Master of the World

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_World_(1961_film)

Eagle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_eagle#Diet

It’s time to switch back to Swamp Boy for a couple of chapters.

Version three of the Defective Hermit Character List, now packed with even more flaws!

Spoiler :

Some of the following information is quite detailed and at other times it’s not, sorry. There are probably some 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 end of most chapters until I feel like I’ve got it right.

Population of Embassy: 100

Total Population of Stronghold (not including embassy compound): 798

People with assigned jobs: 629

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

Unassigned: 169

Partial Character List, Version 3:

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.

Name: Nina Rivera Standish

Title: Princess

Title: The Survivor

Sex: Female

Age: 11

True Sight Level: Three

Body Augmentation Magic Level: 4

Teleportation Level: 4

Telekinesis Level: 4

Alchemy Level: 1

Hearing is 1.2 times as acute.

1.2x Scent/Odor Detection

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.

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

Hermit’s Guard (276):

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.

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

Construction and Maintenance (75):

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

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

The Shop Crew (93):

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.

David Hu, father, mechanic, True Sight

Linda Hu, mother, office manager, True Sight

Nicolas Silva, father, mechanic, True Sight

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

Motor Pool (24):

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Food Production (90):

Name: Isabella Gomez

Primary Class and Title: Knight

Title: Lady Knight

Title: Royal Botanist

Title: Minister of Food Production

Note: Released Innocent Prisoner

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

Logistics and Supply (18):

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 (13):

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.

Giovanna Silva, mother, dental hygenist, Healer, True Sight

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

Black Powder Production and Alchemical Research (29):

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

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

Captain Barbara Long’s Group of Survivors (630)

Lieutenant Jay Nichols

Lieutenant Kellie Cross, at Stronghold

Sergeant First Class SFC Patrick White

Staff Sergeants SSG

Lindsay Collier

Bernard Ballard

Corporal Julia Lewis

Private Shelly Hines

Howard King, at Stronghold

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