TRACK 3 –

I stared up at the airship as it floated serenely above our forward outpost as I listened to my friends and family discuss our situation and what our plans should be. During the conversation I had been mostly quiet and let them all do the talking. I used the time to look around our base and figure out how to reveal my plans. Besides, the place was impressive these Native craftsmen and women and industrious and learned quickly considering they had a magical advantage due to my abilities. More specifically my teaching skills using my eidetic and didactic memory and my Total Recall skill.

EIDETIC MEMORY

User has the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision after seeing it only once and without using a mnemonic device.

DIDACTIC ABILITY

User has the natural skill to convey instruction as well as pleasure and entertainment to others in a preternatural way which gives a one hundred percent retention rate by the instructed.

TOTAL RECALL

This ability allows the user to recall any memory of anything that he has ever experienced in his life. Due to having the skills of Eidetic and Didactic memory, the user’s Total Recall ability is on par with pulling up a video in the mind’s eye.

YOUTUBE SKILLS

User has an unhealthy relationship with the video streaming service. There were always questions about how many videos one can watch and those questions are still there. The user has consumed hundreds of hours of video and still there are thousands upon thousands of more to consume. By using all his memory skills combined all those videos are available for the user to access and replay in his mind.

After a quick glance at my dope skills I closed the windows and refocused on the current conversation, which had just risen to a shouting match between all parties.

“Ach! Ya daft prick fuck of a wanna be Viking shite head!” Billy roared, shaking his fist across the table at Arun.

“Shite head? Me? Well, fuck you, you little arseling!” Arun yelled back, thumbing his nose at the foulmouthed Irish warrior.

“Arseling? Arseling? Me? That’s… That’s my word ya big fucking piece o’…” Billy spluttered in rage, leaping to his feet and jumping halfway across the table at the big Norse-Ojibwe, or NO fighter.

He would have made it all the way to if his cousin Patty hadn’t snagged him by the back of his trousers, which were barely hanging on, I really needed to invent belts. It was almost the end there since Patty was laughing so hard, he almost let go of his cousin. The rest of the table was chuckling in mirth as well and it had the effect of cooling down the arguing parties.

I used the brief lull and cleared my throat loudly grabbing the tables attention. All eyes turned to me even Billy’s, albeit he muttered swears under his breath the whole while. I looked around and locked eyes with my friends, family, and fellow leaders. These were my most trusted and capable men and women. These were my lieutenants and generals. They would have to fight battles without me and each other and on multiple fronts. I smiled at each person as our eyes connected, Billy and Patty, Sage and Arun, Thunder Foot and Lightning Fist, Shadow Bear and Cunning Wolf, the Chief and Chieftess, Dawn and Sky, (maybe others).

Mirth at the arguing and determination at the many tasks at hand and to come was in their eyes. When I was sure everyone was paying attention, I began turning to my head of logistics and supplies, Sage. He was ridiculously organized and thrived on the job unlike someone like me who would hate the minutiae and attention to detail the job required.

“What’s the status of our combined military and civilian forces?” I asked, already knowing the answers but wanting everyone else to be on the same page as me.

Sometimes getting information in a large group helps everyone retain it more. Everyone processes things a bit differently and my people would probably have insight I didn’t on different things. Synergy my friends, synergy.

Sage nodded and cleared his throat as he stood up gathering the tables attention from me to himself. Then he made a few gestures and a holographic screen appeared in the center of the rough oaken table. A smile crept across my face on its own, all my elites had gamer abilities now and they had taken to them like a fish to water. Plus, it made everything from daily tasks to information dissemination so much more efficient, not to mention way easier.

“Thank you, Law. This is a rundown of our forces in their entirety. Now that we have the ability to share information with our forces under Law’s fiancé, Moon Flower, our numbers are much more accurate. So, to begin…” Sage said, his voice taking on his teaching monotone.

I quickly read the screen to brush up on the details as he spoke.

TRIBES

JICARILLA –

NORSE OJIBWE –

THE PEOPLE –

TUATHA DE DANAAN –

CROW –

BLACKFOOT –

CHEYENNE –

AIRSHIPS –

IRONCLAD –

“…with the multiple defeats and final destruction of the monster armies all the outlying tribes in our controlled areas have joined us. And that is the sum of our total forces War Shaman. Here is a map of the layout of our forces and the enemies.” Sage finished, gesturing and a magical representation of North America appeared.

INSERT MAP HERE

“I said call me Law unless it’s for the masses Sage. Thank you for the info.” I said, admonishing the older man jokingly then turned my attention back to the table as a whole.

We had more than quintupled the amount of tribe’s folk since the defeat of the monster armies. I now had no shortage of labor and the number of soldiers, sailors, and airman we’d soon have trained up were the reasons I was able to fast forward my plans so much.

“I know everything is moving at a crazy rapid pace and there is no time to slow down. We have to tackle this full speed ahead, so to speak.” I said, a round of nods and faces even more full of determination were my answer. Good, they would need it.

It was time to start handing assignments out. It wasn’t a difficult task as they had already all been working in their respective areas. I patted Freak on the head as I pulled up the next screen for the meeting with everyone’s new job titles and assignments then let them all read it. I ginned widely as gasps and chatter started up as they all saw what they were being tasked with.

INSERT WORK LIST HERE

Then a voice I knew was going to be the one to notice first quieted the rest and pinned me with his old beady eyes.

“Why are you not on the list War Shaman?” Cunning Wolf asked, with a raised eyebrow and a decidedly disapproving pitch to his tone.

“Ah yes, about that, I will be going on a solo mission.” I said, waving my hand and adjusting the screen, my name and mission appearing below the others.

“Now, wait just a gods damned minute…” Patty began, but I cut him off before he could get going.

“Listen first then questions and stuff after.” I said quickly.

This quieted them for the moment. Though they looked doubtfully at me but at least they were listening, for now. That was a start of sorts, I closed the window and switched it back to the map. This time though I had made it bigger and it showed North American, northern Mexico, and the northern part of the Caribbean. On it were our forces in all the places we occupied.

Currently, we were in our forward most outpost south of Thrudheim. More specifically, at the intersection of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. It was basically a smaller scale fort town much like Thrudheim. All our newly constructed bases were and would be based on the same templates. Another military tactic and one used in successful restaurants.

Systems, plug and play systems, and more importantly continuity. Most people don’t realize the role mass production has played in societies advancement. Plus, it just made everything easier. I had new magesmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, et cetera, all working in shifts round the clock creating the tools needed for our war and building of our civilization’s infrastructures.

This was a task just as important as defeating the invaders. After World War II the USA created a program to build the countries interstate system. It was a huge priority to President Eisenhower. Why was that? Well, for those of you who don’t realize that when making war with large numbers of soldiers, vehicles, and not to mention supplies takes a huge amount of planning. And the speed of moving those things is what wins wars.

Not only that, World War II was the first major war where airplanes were a huge part of it. There were planes previously but the air technology was nothing compared to WWII. The US interstate system was not only a transportation system for ground and water, but for air as well. The interstates were made large enough for planes to land and take off anywhere they ran.

My plan was to do the same thing. I was having my people create a series of roadways, waterways, and airways so travel in my territory would be safe and fast. Now that I had the manpower I was also creating bases and rest areas all along the major intersections of my newly created transportation network. Once again, thank the gods for being able to pawn off work to underlings. Sage had relayed the information that almost every single major river intersection was a place of power albeit of differing degrees. There were reasons our ancient ancestors chose the places to settle where they did. It was no coincidence that a shit ton of them were on river intersections to each other and other bodies of water.

Back to the map. Each base was a small icon that glowed light blue and there were five so far up and down the Mississippi and surrounding major rivers every fifty miles for now. Smaller defensible outposts would be created every ten miles from base to base. Since our influx of Natives had bulked up our Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, not to mention the huge increase in ranks of our civilian forces, we had plenty of bodies. All the other tribes came out and pretty much pledged allegiance right away. There were still some stragglers, but runners had been sent to collect them. I foresaw another influx of tribe’s folk soon.

On Moon Flowers side we were working nonstop as well. From the area of what would become Mt. Rushmore down to the Fortress of the Earth we had bases already and they were all well ahead in their construction of roads and outposts. This was all according to plan considering we needed to up our timetable and I wouldn’t be around to see to our expansion.

“For the next month we have to take control of all the area between the Rockies and the Appalachians and the Great Lakes down to our forward outposts and the Fortress of the Earth. After that, we need to meet up and strike out against the Invaders at the mouth of the Mississippi and into Mexico against those Invaders there. This is going to take a coordinated effort the likes of which has never been done in this time or before.” I finished, this caused the attention to go to our new battle plan and away from me leaving.

Cunning Wolf was about to reiterate his question, but Sage cut him off and jumped headfirst into the forming of our plans. Thank god for nerds, in this time or any other.

“Law, we will have to create complex communication chains. Runners and smoke signals so we can…” Sage began.

I cleared my throat interrupting the older Norse Native and grinned widely at him. He raised an eyebrow at me as I turned and pulled out a surprise I had been working on in secret. Quiet abounded as all eyes went to the sheet covered item in my hands. I set it on the table and pulled the sheet off with a flourish. A chorus of sighs and other less kind reactions followed my reveal. Of course, no one knew what the fuck it was.

“Eh, Law, what in all Dagda’s sperm lacking balls is that?” Billy asked.

“This is a radio. I have them installed in all the Ironclads and in each Airship, not to mention all the bases and outposts when they are complete.” I said, barely containing the excitement in my voice.

“We can all see that you are very pleased with this thing, but I don’t suppose you could clue the rest of us in?” Sage said, taking the lead in relating what everyone was thinking and gesturing around for support. Which, he had no trouble garnering.

“The thing as you call it will allow us to talk to each other from hundreds of miles away from on another and in real time. The radios will allow us to keep in contact and will keep us informed and tactically ahead of our enemies.” I explained, in my best teacher voice. I followed up my statement with a window that showed the radio’s properties.

TRI-ELEMENT RADIO

ITEM TYPE – Communication Device

DURABILITY – 15/15

CLASS – Rare

UPGRADES – Flame, Earth Strength, Water Resistance, Fire Resistance

WEIGHT – 10.0lbs

DIENSIONS – 2” x 2” by 12” x 12”

By using a mixture of technical knowledge and magical fusion the Tri-Element Radio was created. Comparable to a shortwave radio in our time it differs in two major ways. The range is triple that of the shortwave and it is powered by the users own magical power.

The table was quiet as they all read the information and as usual Sage was first to finish and pose questions.

“I’m afraid it’s all well and good but how does it work? I highly doubt I can talk to someone with this, thing.” He said, emphasizing the word ‘thing’ again.

“Which is why I’ve prepared a demonstration to show everyone how it works.” I said.

Then I reached down and picked up the receiver toggling the power on with a burst of Earth, Fire, and Water magic. The machine burst to life in arcs of colored magical power and the doubters looked askance at the radio. I grinned and began the test.

“Breaker, breaker one-nine, this is the Bandit. Over?” I said, in my best Smokey and the Bandit voice.

The grin on my face was from ear to ear. I had always wanted to do that ever since I saw the classic Bert Reynolds flick as a wee lad. All eyes looked questioningly at me as no one else got the reference and silence reigned for a few seconds until the radio began crackling with static. My comrades all turned to the radio in shock as a familiar voice began speaking.

“Roger that Bandit. This is Eagle 1. Over.” Dusk’s voice sounded out, over the distance and through the airwaves for the first time in human history. At least, recorded human history.

“That’s Dusk!” Patty said.

“What’s your twenty Eagle 1? Over.” I asked, clicking the radio receiver.

“Hovering above the remnants of Asgard on the Mississippi. Reconstruction is well under way and things are in order. Over.” Dusk reported.

“Ten-four, good job Captain. Over and out.” I said, clicking the connection off and turning my attention back to my fellows.

“Questions?” I asked sarcastically.

The room lit up all at once. I shook my head and began laughing. After they all quieted down, I began explaining my plans. Twenty minutes and twenty million questions and dumpster fire arguments later I had finally gotten everyone on the same page. And we moved on past the part about me leaving them and us all taking different areas of responsibility. It took another twenty minutes to explain radio etiquette and then another twenty to assign call signs, which in hindsight was totally worth it. I was going to be calling sage the Bald Eagle for the foreseeable future not to mention the other hilarious names I gave out so yeah, twenty minutes was a steal.

“Ok, now that the dissent is all settled follow me down to the harbor, I have another new toy to show you.” I commanded, standing up and walking out without bothering to see if anyone was following me.

They would I was sure, everyone got excited about all my inventions plus this one was super dope. I mean it’s not every day that you get to show off a brand new magical invention. They were going to love this.