Book 2 C 13 Moving Forward

“Sword training?” Montgomery asks again

I nod my head to him “Yes you saw our weapons were almost ineffective out there and Ki'Diera's Sword sliced the heads off of those beast in one motion”. I say to him

“Doesn't she have some kind of special Sword tho Chief?” He asks

“She does, but it does not effect the way it cuts in comparison to a normal sword.” says Bre'Tirgan” That was her skill as a Ny'Har'en Warrior.”

Montgomery sits down and thinks, due to his bracelet I can not read his mind. “That is going to change a lot of things for us Chief”.

“I know, but it is also a good thing, it will add to the training regiment and give us one more weapons to fight with.” I say to him, while he is thinking.” You saw those dogs, we threw everything we had at them and they kept coming. Hit them with the electrical beams and then kill them with the sword, seems the only way right now.”

“Yeah that was not pretty for us. If she had not been there, I am not sure how that would have turned out.” He says nodding his head.

“So it is agreed then, the Supers will start training with the Ny'Har'en starting tomorrow morning, and all scouting mission will be a joint effort, 3 Supers and 2 Ny'Har'en from here on.” I say to the table.

“What about the swords? Where will we get them?” Montgomery asks.

“We have 181 swords from various drops, collecting dust right now, I sent them all to the Ny'Har'en Blacksmiths to be evaluated and fixed if needed or melted down.” I say to him

“What about the Elite Light swords?” Rick asks

“To be honest Rick, I do not know, but after seeing the Rifles energy beams being useless, I am almost betting the swords will be too, in the same situation. We can test them on those Dobermans and see tho.” I say to Rick.”We will also include Ny'Har'en with the Elite patrols was well, this will be a total integration and partnership from here on.This also means adding Ny'Har'en into your chain of commands folks.” I say to everyone present.

I look across the room and see Rick, Foutz, Cortes, Bre'Tirgan, Montgomery, Halloway, Ki'Diera, Cindy, Julie, Doc Snow, Doc Mathews, Linda Roberts and Terry Williams. I called a joint meeting of each of the affected departments.

“I also want each team to include one healer type for emergencies, as the sixth man of each party. This will make full parties and allow the Healers to level as well as a side product. Lets use the area barrier types for this, since we have 18 of them ok?” I say and many nod at that.

“Is that not a little risky sending fresh non combatants out there?” Halloway asks.

“We really have no choice in the matter, we need their skills to grow too and this is an ideal way. The portal site can only handle so much.” I say to him.” we had a team of 7 all advanced levels and barely made a dent in some of those creatures. Injuries will occur and you will need someone who can heal, with you.” I finish up.

“I want the teams set up and begin joint operations in 3 days, in the meantime they can familiarize themselves with each other and work with one another on various side projects to build team work. If one does it all do it of that team ok?” I say then.”We will keep some in reserve to rotate out in case someone gets too injured or killed. Unfortunately this is now a fact of life here, deaths and injuries are going to happen.”

“Can't we just resurrect them?” Foutz asks

“No, we found a doctor who was willing to become a healer, but when I tried to bestow the profession to him, I got the notice that a personal physician already existed and I would have to fire Doc Snow to give out the profession to someone else”” I say shaking my head.” In essence I would strip Doc Snow of all his abilities.”

“Is there no other way to get the Resurrection?” Doc Mathews asks.

“There may be a way, but it would require someone to become his apprentice and over time they may gain the skill.”, Linda Roberts speaks up.

"Then I agree to become his apprentice!", Doc Mathews quickly says and gives Doc Snow a smile. The smile is a lewd one in fact.

Eh? she has taken an interest in him?

Doc Snow sees this and you can almost imagine seeing him beginning to sweat bullets, but he smiles weakly and nods.

“Good then it is agreed, Doc Mathews is now Doc Snows apprentice. “ I say

“I just got a notice” Doc Snow exclaims

“So did I! It says I am officially now your apprentice,” Doc Mathews says happily then jumps and hugs Doc Snow.

He looks to me with pleading eyes, I just snicker at the scene quietly.

“Ms Roberts did you get the information on the creatures in question?” I ask her.

“Without the specific names of the creatures it was not easy but I think so and prepared a document with their information, but there is no information on their weaknesses. Just levels, their attack types, XP rewards, and environment they live in.” She says looking over a document in her hands. “According to the damage output of the creatures, those area barriers will only last seconds. Especially if more than one attacks it.”

“I kinda figured that and why the Healers need levels badly.” I say sighing. Then to the rest I say “ok lets break here then and get those teams up and running, Montgomery and Rick you coordinate with Bre'Tirgan on the Ny'Har'en placement, Julie and Doc Snow you assign healers to each group, talk to them and let them know how vital their jobs are.”

I get up to see if anyone else has any questions. I then nod to my wives and we all exit the Council Room.

Montgomery comes to me “How do you want me to handle Banks?”

“He is a tool, use him how you see fit” I say coldly.

“Scott he is a human still, he has no memory of the past” Julie says

“I realize that, but this is not easy for me, he used to be my friend and did that, he betrayed everything we stood for”, I say shaking my head” It is going to take some time for me to acknowledge that new Eddie Banks, if that is even possible”.

“Alright Chief, I will get him going then. Maybe being in a team, he will develop into a fine Soldier” Montgomery says.

“When I knew him, he was a good Marine, Montgomery” I say sadly.” but Soldier will do.” I then lead my wives away as we head for the Cafeteria. It is close to dinner time now. We spent most of the afternoon scouting and got back, when I called the joint meeting. Every new creature we encountered was close to or immune to our advanced weapons and only Ki'Diera's sword proved fatal to them.

I then had to re-think everything we did till now. Our weapons for all of our primary defense, were all science based tech, and Ki'Diera's low tech sword was not only doing more than it's share of damage but actually killing creatures we could barely put a dent into.

I also think of the Mages we have, that maybe we should start adding them to the patrol teams too. I put that thought aside for now, as too much change is not good either. We need to train the troops with swords first, get them proficient and get the mages leveled up at the site so their usefulness will be up and be on par first. Throwing another level 1 into a group, with level 1 healers to take on these new creatures would hurt more than help, diminishing the teams chances of survival. Time fixes everything, we just have to go step by step for now.

“Julie you got the new rotation roster plan understood?” I ask

“Yep, Supers then Elite, then mages” She says” and as they each level up they will be given a bracelet and ring to show they have done a rotation at the site, which means you need to make 8 rings and 8 bracelets a day”

“The Bracelets are not an issue, the rings will be tho, that is 3 hours day for me alone. I will do them before bed each night, that way I can fully recover overnight.” I say to her.

“So after dinner you are going to be busy every day, and one of us needs to be with you, to watch over you while you make the rings.” Cindy says. “Also I would like to get one of those 1st kill packages. As Queen, we can make parties of 12. Getting more people their 1st kill would also help in the long run too especially those XP potions.”

“I, .....I am really not comfortable with that, sending you all out there alone.” I say hesitantly.

“We would not be alone Scott, there will be 11 others with us, it is you who will not be there with us” Cindy now points out.” You believe, that by not being there with us is going to change anything? Plus we have divine protection remember? We should use that to our advantage.”

“ugh you are right again Cindy, I just want to be there to protect you, you know...as your husband and the father of your child.” I say looking her in the eyes.

Julie grabs me from behind and wraps her arms around me, Ki'Diera presses herself against my left and Cindy does the same on my left, as I become a human sandwich. “Sigh you know Tiger, as much as I love you and this, you need to protect us thing, it is getting old fast you know?” Cindy says “We are fully capable of handling ourselves out there, we are the highest levels in this keep next to you.”

“She is right sweetheart, it is time to let us go and become useful as well, we are not just your pets on a leash.” Julie adds.

“I never said you were pets kitten.” I say defensively

“Then stop treating us as such my warrior” Ki'Diera now jumps in.

I am speechless now and reflect on their words. Maybe I have been too overprotective of them and she is right, we can use the divine protection to our advantage here.

Of course I am right

Haha you finally are getting it

My warrior it is time for you to let us show the people, that as Queens we too, have value besides being at your side all the time.

“Alright Julie go ahead and put you three in the teams and set it up. Each of you can make 12 man parties, so use it to the fullest. But when you all go out, you keep your mind links up and going, if anything goes wrong you call for help and I will be there in seconds.” I say giving in, I feel a tightness in my chest, a slight fear creeps into my heart at the thought of them putting themselves in danger.

“It will be alright sweetheart, you are going to be seconds away from us just like you said” Julie says reassuringly to me.

We head for the Cafeteria and grab our dinners, the girls almost forget about me and talk excitedly about their upcoming missions. Julie is planning the teams, her set up is 3 Supers, 3 Elite 3 Ny'Har'en and 3 others, including mage and healer types. This would give everyone 1st kill packages and xp bonuses faster. Their target for now would be the Dobermans as the electrical beams would stop them in their tracks while the Ny'Har'en kill them with their swords.

After Dinner we head for our room and I start on the Bracelets and Rings for the night. The Bracelets go fast and in one hour I have 12 more made. It take me another 3 hours for the 8 rings and I am exhausted , it is now 10:30 pm, as I lay myself down. I look and the walls are slightly glowing, yeah the Builders finally got to the inner walls and ceilings and we now have somewhat soundproof rooms. The upgrade was advancing nicely. The outside walls grew to 20 ft tall, the towers were now 30 ft high, the added flanking towers were taking shape, the Keep and Guard House were getting bulkier, thicker looking. Even the main gate was looking sturdier.

The Builders saw the 3 massive generators I brought back from Albuquerque and said those could be converted as the primary barrier mana crystals for later, giving us the trinary barrier we would need. It had been a good day, lots of things have been put into motion now.

Larry Benally and his people were already working on the farms. Ny'Har'en and Supers were scouting and watching the area they worked in providing security. As they were only at the 1 km to 2 km mark of the safe zone, creatures were not wandering that far in yet. He did not want to start on all the farms at once, as it would be too much for his group to handle right away, as many were still learning their skills and abilities and food was in abundance right now.

Larry says he could have the first crops ready in 2 months and the next crops 2 months later to supplement our diets. If all goes according to plan we can have green houses set up to help and have year round crops growing with their abilities. So even in the Winter and early Spring months crops would be growing. I leave it to Larry, since he knows what he is doing.

Linda is using the Middle School nearby for classes now. It seems big enough to handle all the children. Scholars have broken them up into groups and have begun classes. Text books were plenty in the 3 schools in the area. Now we just need more Scholars to properly handle them all, hopefully the Albuquerque people will yield more.

Henry Stockings is one of the main Builders who has taken on the job as foreman directing our builds in order of need. He is working on the Ny'Har'en housing projects as well as Larry's needs for warehouses too. He is very knowledgeable in construction and everyone went to him for ideas and help. He is a nice addition to our team. Things on that front are progressing nicely as well.

Terry Williams and his crew are busy working on the vehicles. They went with a team and hit a few parts stores to get fluids and other items like tools and brought it all back. He is looking to see if some parts can be modified by the Builders to fit our needs, as going to Fort Carson has been put on hold for the immediate future

Doc Snow, Doc Mathews and Doc Wilson being the three original Doctors have been adopted as the Senior Staff of the medical department and viewed by the other Doctors with respect. Nancy Wiggins was an Administrator at the Albuquerque Hospital and has stepped up to assist them in their needs for scheduling and administrative work. It is now starting to work like a real Hospital in that area. Tho she she realizes 12 hours shifts are too much and has cut it down quite a bit, since we have an over abundance of Doctors and nurses now. She is having a hard time with the concept of no bills being made for patients.

The Builders are busy doing the upgrades, but have been able to break 45 Builders away to assist us in all areas to supplement out growth. They seem to want to repay their debt to us for not only the Bracelets but saving their comrades lives. As such, another housing area has been opened for future use as well. Power is on and waiting for more people. Some are helping Henry Stockings in his projects as well. While others are transmuting metal to gold for us.

Our treasury has grown to over 120 million gold now. Money is no longer an issue for the foreseeable future, but if level 2 rush jobs cost 320K gold I can only imagine what level 10 will cost then. Having more gold is a good thing and we need to get the rush jobs done as soon as possible. The Builders also advised me when we hit level 4 Keep we can start on the outer walls. Which will be yet another upgrade to add and more gold to spend as they too will have Watch towers and Flaking towers and I can probably add some turrets to them. A guard house will eventually be added as well, adding more upgrade costs.

The new Creatures have surprised us all. Their toughness made all of us realize how weak we still are. Even I who could wipe out hundreds of Orcs and Worgs in a single shot, can now barely scratch some of them. The Sword has proven to be mightier in many ways. I am realizing that now, going low tech may be the answer to our future, supplemented by magics.

As I think all of this, my mind slowly drifts to sleep, Julie, Ki'Diera and Cindy are already fast asleep, as I look to each one of their beautiful sleeping faces. My wives are now my life, they each bear my child. But I can no longer hold them back. They each want to be useful and independent. I will be fearful and anxious for their safety, but I need to believe in them more as they believe in me, they are right, next to me, they are the highest level and most experienced in this new world, not to mention they have divine protection. I will have to accept that and trust in their abilities.

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