Axle stood and somberly shook Rayna’s hand as well, before hugging Jada and sitting back down with her at his side.

“Thank you Rayna,” I said. “I may not understand everything about this, but I appreciate your resolve, and your people’s eagerness to help. We accept, gladly.”

Tollya turned and walked briskly out the door. I could see she was still choked up, but over her shoulder she yelled as she left, “I go get hobbs ready for work detail!”

No one said anything as she left, and we stood or sat in silence for a few breaths.

“Well. What can you tell us about our funding, Axle?” I finally said.

“Currently at three point two million morties, after the partial refund from Da Gobbs. I have also been turning over our Sleem farm every hour, and it’s still operating at full capacity,” he reported.

“Good. We need to turn that into at least five million by nightfall, to pay the new radar guy. Spend all the morties to upgrade the farm. I want more freezers, as many as we can get,” I said. Lee and Axle both cringed.

“Well,” I hesitated. “Maybe not all the morties.”

“Two million would be a solid investment, we could expand the farm significantly with that much, and still have an operational fund for any unexpected problems that arise,” Axle said. “Or construction materials, the gobbs left nothing behind. I will aim for our Sleem farm upgrades to ensure the five million needed by tonight. It may be close, but we should be able to produce that much, with that investment.”

Lee nodded at him, lacing his fingers together with a smile. “I think you can borrow my books after all, granted I can come along and see how this kiosk of yours works.”

Axle brightened immediately, his tail thumping against the concrete. “Really? Thank you! I would love to show you the workings of a Knowle library! It’ll be fun.”

“Well, you’ll have to do that later. Right now I need Lee, Rayna, and Jada for a battle plan about the morning, and you have work to do,” I said, gently. I was smiling, but I was also rubbing my thumb against the bull’s head ring and grimacing inside.

Axle blinked in surprise but nodded. “Of course. Of course, yes, there is much to be done.”

Lee reached behind himself and produced a small stack of books, five hardcovers. “Here, get started. I’ll catch up later.”

The Knowles' eyes widened, and he stood. He approached the desk and carefully lifted the stack of books. Once they were gently tucked into his bag, Axle bowed at the waist to Lee. “Thank you. I will come find you once the construction is underway and show you how my kiosk produces copies.”

Then he left, following the same route Tollya had used to leave.

Once he was gone, I looked at the remaining crew. Time for a battle plan.

Jada started us off. “Too many yarsps. Something off about this hive, be careful tomorrow.”

“Well, I assumed the best time to go would be during the attack,” I said. “I just didn’t realize it would hurt our defenses here so badly.”

Rayna nodded, crossing her arms. “No one expect this many yarsp. Not realize they would grow like this. Have so much meat to build hive, send drones out.”

“It’s not unheard of, but an unfettered yarsp hive is a dangerous enough occurrence that Dearth is offering a bounty to remove it. They’re lowballing the bounty, of course, but that’s to be expected with Dearth. Any top-ten, really,” Jada added.

Lee idly scrawled at the air in front of himself, glancing between the alien women as they spoke. “Someone clarify ‘top-ten’ for me, please,” he drawled.

“Top-ten affiliates are the most powerful organizations within BuyMort. They all operate multiversally, which means the affiliates have significant presences within all of known BuyMort space,” Jada answered.

“And we’re dealing with three of them simultaneously, on hostile terms?” Lee asked. He peered over his glasses at Jada, hand hovering in the air, ready to take more notes.

“Yes and no. The Sleem are rank seven, recently down from six. They are only a top ten affiliate because of their size. The Sleem act more like animals than people and are easily predicted and controlled. They are still dangerous in numbers and can easily overwhelm even other top-ten affiliates if underestimated. Population is key to their business strategy, if it can be called that.” Jada looked between us all, sighing before continuing.

“They eat one another. Each Sleem funnels morties to the affiliate while alive, and when an affiliate grows to an appropriate size, they all consume one another and evolve to higher levels of Sleem, the cubes and orbs we see in more organized groupings. Sleem economics are further unusual in that they don’t seem to spend morties on anything besides travel, mostly ships and transport fees.” The tall Knowle woman looked between us all again, making sure she had our attention.

“Sleem are top-ten, but nobody really considers them to be, or means them when they say ‘top-ten.’ They’re more like dangerous pests, or potential threats in large enough numbers. Something to be managed and mitigated. Not legitimate competition,” Jada said, finishing with a sigh.

“Now Dearth on the other hand, is rank four, recently up from five. They’re a for-profit resource, research, production, and service machine that has a reputation for reliability, and ruthlessness. Dearth is run by a collection of all major and minor BuyMort species and races, aside from Sleem of course. The best way to describe them is business first. Nothing but the profit margin matters, and they are often disorganized or ineffectual because of this blinding focus.” The Knowle paused to sip from her water bottle, before tucking it back in her mesh weave pockets.

“Their organizational structure is loose but conforming to prototypical business and church standards. Smaller affiliate structures run by larger affiliate structures. The Arizona board runs their operations on this part of the planet, but they answer to a Nu-Earth board, who answers to a Sol board, who answers to a Milky Way board, etc ad nauseum.” She frowned and shook her head.

“The best way to beat them is to make yourself too expensive to be properly destroyed. Or too necessary to their business to be destroyed. Dearth cares about profit and income before anything else, that can and has been leveraged against them by affiliates in the past, but it seems to be a flaw they do not care to resolve. The size of their apparatus, and economic capabilities typically ensure the affiliate’s continued profitability, and that is the guiding light of their leadership. Very little else matters in the long term with Dearth,” Jada finished.

Then she spread her hands. “The Church of BuyMort owns us all. This is their game, we are all merely pieces. They de-facto run every other affiliate, control BuyMort culture, and profit from the entire known multiverse. Extra-dimensional beings are rumored to cohort with church leadership, and no one can remember a time they were not the single highest ranked affiliate in the BuyMort system. Unlike Dearth, leadership is centralized and highly effective.” She paused to lick her lips and nose before continuing.

“We are not truly in conflict with the church. I would consider their stance toward us more idle neglect at this point. If we defeat Dearth here, they will notice us. If we do not bow to them when they notice us, they will crush us without hesitation or mercy,” Jada said.

“Sounds an awful lot like the way the mob operated,” Lee interjected. His hand was still scrawling notes in the air, but he raised an eyebrow at me.

I nodded. “BuyMort has no laws.”

Jada nodded. “Only customers.”

Rayna cleared her throat. “What is laws?”

“A concept, very much like rules, but bigger, and more serious,” Jada answered. “If BuyMort has laws, the church has written them.”

I stood, leaning against the wall, and realized that the concept of law was foreign to the layperson in BuyMort. Only the affiliates had that level of power, and aside from the church pushing their vision of culture, it looked like nobody wanted law to exist. It would interfere with business, after all, and nothing could be allowed to interfere with that most sacred process.

“Back to the yarsps?” I asked, gently.

Lee nodded, satisfied with Jada’s explanation.

“Ah, yes!” Jada said. “I suggest we burn them, en masse. Most BuyMort bugs are vulnerable to fire, or heat based defenses. Cook 'em in their shells, using the mo-gas. We can hook up some high efficiency aerosolizers for the main wall, they won’t be expensive.”

Rayna nodded. “Cook and sell as we go,” she grumbled.

I looked over to her, my eyebrows peaked in interest.

“Too many coming tomorrow. We kill, they climb their dead. Have to sell as we fight, keep the bodies low,” the hobb explained.

“Okay, won’t that hurt our ability to gather them for food?” I asked.

Both Rayna and Jada shook their heads, but Rayna explained, “No. There so many it not matter. We leave the last of them, that plenty for us and for trade.”

“Got it. That sounds like it’ll work. Probably,” I said.

Afflqwst chimed softly, and I pulled up the notification. One of my quests had progressed.

Quest – Prepare your affiliate for an upcoming wild animal attack, scheduled to take place during your absence.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Draft plan of battle. (complete)

2. Modify structural defenses. (incomplete)

3. Affiliate must survive attack. (incomplete)

4. (Optional) Say final goodbyes to important affiliate members. 0/1 (incomplete)

PROBABLE OUTCOME – Heavy affiliate casualties, loss of affiliate infrastructure. (40%).

POSSIBLE OUTCOME – Affiliate morale boost and food surplus. (60%).

REWARD – Credit level upgrade.

I nodded and closed the screen. One crucial item on the to-do list down, several more, equally pressing to go.

“Well, unless anyone else has something, I think that’s it,” I said, with a clap of my hands.

Jada, Rayna, and Lee all shook their heads.

“Good. Jada, you have the structural defenses to oversee. Rayna, I want that Fumble-Bee hive fully stocked and ready to use against a bombing run.” Both alien women nodded when I gave them their tasks, then turned to leave.

“Lee, you keep doing whatever it is you do,” I said, turning to leave. “Maybe take a nap, if you get the chance.”

The man huffed behind me. “Sure. Just need a bed. The cots we have down here don’t cut it.”

I chuckled as I left.