The road was bumpy. Probably because it wasn’t really a road, so much as a stretch of dirt vaguely headed in the direction they were trying to get. Several times they had to run over small mounds or crawl over rocks to get to the next dirt patch headed vaguely in the right direction.

“Are you trying to hit every rock along the way?” Isaka asked through clenched teeth. She had already hit her head several times on the metal frame of the truck because Greg had gotten a little too off-road happy.

“Sorry darlin, we’ll get there when we get there. Not much I can do yet about a bumpy road.”

“Okay fine, but if this truck breaks down on our first outing, it’s coming out of your paycheck.” Greg laughed like a madman and revved the engine, pulling the truck up and over another pile of rocks. They didn’t get paid. Not yet anyway.

“Look, you can see the base over there.” Greg pointed to the north. “What’s our number again?”

“Outpost five. There are six outposts, and six support towns.”

“Yeah I got that, I just forgot our number is all.” Isaka ignored him and pulled up a set of binoculars to get a better look. The walls of the outpost were about fifteen feet high and made from some kind of metal.

“Everything is shiny, chrome, and reflective, it’s like it’s all factory new. What metal is that?”

“Probably a mix of things. I doubt it’s all metal. Probably layers of steel, carbon fiber plates, plexiglass, and kevlar infused stuff they’d have to kill you if they told you about.” Greg gave her a wide grin. “Basically stuff I could have made in my backyard with a sheet grinder, smelter, and a few off-the-shelf police vests.” Isaka rolled her eyes, and the older man laughed.

“Sure you could, Greg. But I doubt most people could.”

“No, really, it’s not that hard. These government geek types think that most of their super secret special material is unique or can only be cooked up in a lab somewhere.”

“Can’t it?”

“The top shelf stuff, sure. But you can get practically the same spy stuff by tinkering around. All you need is a smelter, some off-the-shelf plastics you can mix and match, maybe a few molds, some bricks for holding and molding stuff, and some used kevlar vests, then boom. You can make something almost as good as any of this over-priced government bullshit.”

“It can’t be that easy. Or legal.”

“Easy, sure. Legal? Well, let’s just say I probably broke more top secret recipes for metal and other shit tinkering in my backyard with the right second hand tools, a basic understanding of metallurgy, chemistry, plastics, and knowledge of how to use my tools then the soviets ever did. They were some hard core linier thinkers, even their scientists. But that’s a social thing. I think. Comes with the territory of being a fatalistic society built in a frozen-over hinterland everyone avoids like the plague. I probably broke a crap ton of patent laws doing it too.” Isaka didn’t doubt it, but Greg was humble about his skills. He also thought way too highly of most people.

“That’s them, I think,” Isaka said, pointing to the flat area between them and the shiny outpost. There were a dozen men with rifles slung across their backs, moving boxes out of a cargo hauler. “Stop there.” Greg did as ordered, parking the truck about half a dozen yards away from the other truck.

Isaka hopped out and made her way over to the group of soldiers. One of them stepped forward and greeted her. He was tall, slender, and young looking with an air of total authority about him. “Major Dawson at your service. I take it you are Ms. Isaka Smith?” Isaka took his hand and shook it.

“Yup, that’d be me. We’re here to lay the flags out for construction to begin. Do you have your surveyor with you? We brought the range finders.”

“Yes ma’am. Specialist Mackenzie is on his way. He got airsick, and has been down for the count the last little bit, but he’s doing alright now.” A small two person rover stopped next to the cargo army cargo haulers and a young, pale-faced man with freckles and some the blondest hair Isaka had ever seen stepped out.

“Is he old enough to be a soldier?” Isaka asked. She tried to put her mother’s sternness into her voice. That woman could peel the paint off a barn when she wanted to just with her glare.

“Yes ma’am. I may look 15, but I’m actually twenty-eight. When I have a beard, I look my age. Right now I probably look like the government kidnapped me off a playground somewhere.”

“Doubt a beard would help much.” Greg said as he came up beside Isaka and folded his massive arms. “But, then again, I’m used to real infantry. My Corp would have chewed you up and spit you out, kid.”

“Nah, I’d have just thrown a bunch of crayons at them. The drill sergeants would have thought I was treating them to a three course meal.” Isaka braced for a fight, but the soldiers all started laughing. Including Greg, who chuckled, pulled the bottle of spirits from his bag and handed it over to the major.

“Here you go, Major, housewarming gift. You and the mayor can have a drink tonight to celebrate our new relationship.” Isaka’s cheeks burned. She wanted to lay into Greg, but she didn’t dare open her mouth for fear she would damage her relationship with him. She liked Greg, but he was overstepping.

“I’d be delighted, ma’am. Thank you and your people for the gift.” Isaka’s worries ebbed. Maybe she wouldn’t have to murder Greg. “After our work today, if you are so inclined, you and your people are invited to dinner hosted at the outpost. They might label us an outpost, but the general has encouraged me to treat this as a proper command. Which means an officer’s dinner.” Major Dawson pulled out the bottle and read the label.

“Scotch, I would have taken you for a wine lover myself. I guess it goes to show you can’t tell a person’s tastes by first impression alone. To each their own.” Greg barked a laugh, and Isaka elbowed him in the gut.

“Yes, well, I’m not much of a drinker so I went with what my staff suggested.” Isaka lied. “Are those the digital flag markers?” She motioned towards the crates the soldiers had finished unloading.

“Yes ma’am. When the surveyor is finished laying out the land,” he opened one crate and showed her the contents. “You can use these augmented reality headsets, to layout the prefab buildings you’ll each need for your roles. After those are finished, we can start work on the residential and market districts. While you’re doing that, my people will mark out the underground wire and electric nodes the defense grid is going to require so we can avoid interfering with each other’s work.”

“Great plan. Do these interact with the system at all?” Dawson smiled as Isaka took the headset from him. He moved it around in her hands. It was a helmet, but was much lighter than she expected. It felt more like a plastic bike helmet than a piece of clunky military gear.

“Yes, in fact, they do. They’ll overlay your HUD, which will allow them to read the data the system is sending you and feed it into the building overlay. You can make lists of supplies, equipment, and building specs you need for each space, and the augmented reality gear will upload them to our data net. Allowing the town architect, and lead builder on your team to see things more clearly.”

Several people in her group whistled, or said things like ‘alright,’ or ‘cool, I’ve been dreaming of something like that for years!’ as the soldiers passed out the gear to each of them.

“Just be sure to lay the projectors down first.” Dawson lifted a small metal ball that looked like no projector Isaka had ever seen. “They’ll relay the data to each of the other projectors and keep things as close to real time updated as possible. That way, you’ll know if you’re building into someone else’s space by accident. We wouldn’t want a chemistry lab on top of a weapons research lab, for instance.”

Isaka put her helmet on and the world around her came alive in vivid detail. Colors were brighter, the image was sharper, but it just reflected what was already there. At the bottom of her display were listed a bunch of building shapes that reminded her of build-a-blocks from when she was a kid.

“Alright everyone, you know what we’ve already laid out and agreed on before we got here. Don’t get carried away expanding things, or changing things too much.” The team looked at Isaka and she could see shoulders slump a little. They had been excited, like gamers just introduced to Minecraft, that game her older brother had spent hours on when they were younger. “But don’t be afraid to be creative if something strikes you as useful.” That seemed to pick them up again, as they all grabbed several projectors and began moving throughout the space designated with flags at its edges as the academy.

Isaka’s job differed from the others. While they got to play build-a-collage, she had to resolve disputes, and be a total buzzkill on their creative designs. She sighed as she watched dozens of interesting buildings sprout up in her augmented reality almost instantly as her team disregarded her instructions and went full ham with their projects.

She was going to have a lot of work to do.