We moved quickly to the scrap heap that Veep had marked for us while I exchanged several messages with Johnny and Samantha. Alyssa wasn’t responding, though I figured she had some more issues to work out having lost her arm in battle. I shot a message off to Shubin to see if they had any healers that could help her and he responded that he would send a group over and that the first shipment of Dark Iron was ready to place on the market. He also informed me that once the trade route was established between the dungeon and my settlement the system would automatically place a basic road between the two. That’s convenient.

As we approached the encampment I turned to Bradley and indicated with a tap to my temple that he should take the lead. He smiled and found a nice spot overlooking the scrap pile and kicked the hornet’s nest the only way he knew how. With an empowered railgun shot through the head of some kind of mole man-creature thing. More molemen surged from the trash and Phil led the ‘kids’ into the camp and began the slaughter while I rested on the back of Kaia and Junipher provided support. I watched for a moment as Bradley evaporated moleman heads a little ways away from me, and, seeing that the situation was well in hand I went back to my message and received a call from Samantha.

Incoming Visual Call from: Samantha Devers

ACCEPT? (Yes/No)

I accepted the call as she had begun filling in for Alyssa while she was down.

“Wassup?” I asked casually, keeping my eye on my team as they fought through the scrap camp. Even though I wasn’t contributing I was still earning experience just from being part of the team. I didn’t feel a bit guilty either.

“Hey Karl, not much. Just wanted to check in with you. Alyssa still hasn’t come out of her room so I thought I’d find out when you plan to return and if you had any direction while we wait for your return.”

I thought for a moment before answering, “She was that bad?”

“She almost died. If that group from the prison hadn’t shown when they did and distracted the ugly bastard I wouldn’t have made it in time.” A cringe formed across her face as she recounted her side of the tale. “Have you tried to contact her?”

“I have.” I stared at the woman for a moment, “She won’t answer. I even sent her some text messages. No response yet. Is someone with her?

The woman silently chewed her lip for a second and nodded, “Yeah, Carly has been taking care of her, says she won’t talk. She can hear her crying when she thinks she’s alone. I don’t know if it’s physical pain or mental. She won’t talk, barely eats.”

“Probably mental. Nothing hurts very long with the system, did you uh… feel pain in your arm after we healed you?” I asked as sensitively as I knew how.

“Not at all. I think you’re right, I just don’t know what to do for her.” A worried frown creased her face as she spoke. “When do you expect to be back?”

“I’ll be back by tomorrow morning, and you should also be expecting a delegation from Shubin. I asked him to send a healer and he’s also bringing the first load of ore for sale on the System Market. So, you know, make sure the guard on duty knows to expect them.”

She chuckled a little at that, “Will do, and I hope their healer can do something for Alyssa.”

“Me too, anything else that needs my attention?”

“No- Oh yeah, Johnny asked me to remind you to review the building proposal. And also asked when we would start expanding the territory?”

“Ok, I’ll look at it, thanks for connecting with me and looking after things, I’ll be back soon.”, I stated as I smiled and closed the connection.

I ran my hand over my head and through my quickly growing beard, then I sighed as I watched the team return from the camp with smiles and blood across their faces. Kaia was content to sit and watch as well.

“Good call?” Bradley asked next to me as I swirled within my thoughts.

“As good as it can be, the girl I left in charge of defense, the one that lost her arm is refusing to leave her room.” I told him with a sour look on my face.

“Yeah, I can see how she might be taking the loss of her arm. Probably a significant amount of PTSD there. How old did you say she was?”

“About a week shy of eighteen.”

He whistled and continued, “ Yeah, that’s a hard loss at her age, she probably just needs time to process.”

“I dunno, you haven’t seen the Kiosk yet, you can have severed limbs regrown. Or replace them with some cybernetic things. It’s super Sci-fi at that thing. Look at your shiny new rifle, I saw thousands just like it or better on there.”

“HEY! Don’t you disparage Lucy, there’s none better!” He chuckled as he took the weapon into a loving embrace.

“You’re probably right, though I can’t help but suspect there is something more going on there.” I looked sideways as he cradled his rifle, “You two need some private time?”

He smiled and looked at me, “Maybe! What about you and Junipher?”

“Touche’.” I smirked back, “Not sure what’s going on there, not even sure how that would work.”

“Looks like she has all the right parts, if you don’t take it I’ll be happy to peel her away from ya!” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

The jealousy hit me so fast that if I hadn’t known he was trying to bait me I woulda’ probably taken his head off. Instead, I looked at him sheepishly and responded, “Point taken. Though I think she’s already claimed me, don’t feel like I got much of a choice.” I ended with a chuckle.

By this point, the team was within earshot so we ended our conversation. Phil walked up carrying an ostentatious-looking shield and one-handed mace. This must be what he earned in the dungeon and he was probably as in love with the gear as Bradley was with his rifle. The shield stretched his entire six-foot height and equally spanned his width. It was rounded at the top and bottom and was rounded there too. Along the edges, it was seemingly gilded in gold while the center was matte black. The gold inlay spread around in a floral design that reflected the stark Arizona sunlight.

“WASSUP, BEESH!” He roared in triumph and the rest of the group laughed at his antics.

“Looks like you had fun, you all ready to move on to the next camp?”

“Let’s do it!” He responded, “You get that call from Samantha?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” I asked, pretty much knowing the answer.

“Carly called, we still can’t get ahold of Kayley.” He said with a frown.

“Well, she’s as crazy as you two are, so, I’d be more worried about any monsters or ‘ne’er do wells’ that get near her.”

“That’s true, and she knows where the guns are. I just wish I could get a hold of her.”

I considered the problem for a moment when Veep added to the conversation. “The internal communicators only have a range of about 25 of your miles. Most planets that have been within the system also have established certain long-range communication relays. These will boost the communication range to 1000 miles.”

“So we’re just barely out of range of Holbrook.” I stated absent-mindedly as I pulled up the settlement management menu. I saw that even without the Settlement Core added to the point pool I was sitting at a little over 60000 settlement points. I didn’t see the communications array on the list of upgrades so I turned to my Virtual Assistant for help, “Veep, I don’t see this communications array you speak of?”

“You need to raise your city level to ‘Large City’ and also have over a million settlement points.”

“Well, shit!” Phil said defeatedly.

“Ok, what about building it manually?”

“That can also be done but requires several different Master rank building and engineering classers to provide the skills and ability, as well as massive amounts of raw material. All of which you don’t have yet.”

“Well, we’re fucked.” I stated flatly.

“It’s alright, you know, I’ll have to leave as soon as I gather up Carly?” Phil told me with a little bit of guilt creeping onto his face.

“ I expected it, I would never ask you not to. In fact, depending on the situation I may be able to get a quest for you out of it and get you some extra firepower to join you on your way.”

He smiled at the thought, “That’d be good. I’ll hit the kiosk on the way out and make some changes like you!” He winked at me at the last.

We had been walking and talking so we soon found ourselves standing in front of the Complex building where the Major waited for us by himself, smoking a cigarette.

“BOUT DAMN TIME!” He yelled at us with a smile that was only interrupted by a drag on the cigarette between his lips. He looked around at the remaining officers standing before him. Then he turned his gaze on me and took another drag of his cigarette. “Where’s Anthony, Artur, and Dick?”

I held his gaze and shook my head, “They didn’t make it.”

He looked down and took another drag of his cigarette and flicked the cherry loose. “The inmates?”

“Dead.”

He nodded in satisfaction and flicked the stub of his cigarette to the ground. “What’s yer plan?”

I sighed audibly, “Got some camps to clear on my way back to my settlement, was just hashing out what upgrades I need to make. Phil’s gonna go after his kid, I think the youngsters here are gonna stick around. Bradley?” I looked down at the other man.

“Got kids on the Rez, so, I’m going to make my way out there. Probably team up with the others at your settlement that are looking to get out there.”

“And you, Major?”

“Gomez already went to check on our families, I’m going to link up with him, maybe come by the settlement.” He responded while fidgeting with his now empty pack of cigarettes. “Find some more cigarettes too.”

Everyone laughed at that, “You should come by the settlement and use the kiosk, get yourself geared up.” I looked around for the former Deputy Warden. “What happened to Kristy?”

He laughed as he opened the door to his truck. “That bitch, she came out of her office red-faced and hopped in her car and took off as soon as she saw all the officers leaving Kaibab.” He looked at me with conflict on his face, “I don’t think she will make it. I don’t disagree that what you did needed to be done, I just wish it hadn’t needed to be done.”

I ran my tongue across my teeth and nodded silently. Robyn climbed into his truck which I noticed was loaded up with guns and ammo from the unit armory. I smiled and guided Kaia back around to my team as Robyn started up the truck and pulled away with a wave.

“Next camp?”, Bradley asked.

“Next camp.”, I responded as I resumed perusing the settlement options.

“Veep, what is the next rank for my settlement and how do I get there?”

“The next rank should be village. Also, you should consider specializing.”

“Ok, why does it feel like everytime I talk to you, you throw another thing in my lap?”

“Because I do, the virtual personal assistant program is designed to drip feed information only as needed. You’ve reached a point where you need the information I am providing.”

“Fine. What can we specialize as?”

“You have several options as follows, Agricultural, Commercial, Bureaucratic, Military or Adventurer. And each of these has advantages over the others, though Military and Adventurer are almost the same.”

I thought about what she was telling me then checked the upgrade requests that Johnny had sent along. He wanted a market, a proper apartment building for the family types we had taken in, some farming plots, and to upgrade the wood wall to stone. We had enough points to do all of that and more, though I had other plans. Specifically to expand our territory and then place a new wall, made of stone, further out from the wood one, that would also allow us greater expansion within the walls. So I approved everything but the wall upgrade then returned to Veep’s lecture.

Before that happened I noticed that Junipher was walking with the two other women on our team and they would occasionally glance and gesture my direction. I could only imagine what they were plotting and went back to my business as we veered off the highway and headed into the desert towards the next encampment.

“Ok, I would recommend either Military or Adventurer specializations. Before I explain that let me give you a general rundown of the other options.”

“Ok, do it.”

“So Agricultural is pretty easy to figure out, you get discounts to any food producing structures and an increase in food production overall, as well as a slight boost to selling food on the market. The downside is that you aren’t able to build all of the best Military buildings under this governance. Governance is what we call these choices by the way.”

Got it, Agricultural Governance means lots of food. Next?”

“Right, Commercial is also pretty obvious, it focuses on buildings and structures that boost settlement income. However, you are slightly restricted on the Military and Adventurer types of buildings you can build as well as the size of your garrison. Though you can become a planetary trade hub, which means even more income.”

“Sounds like an option, my natural distaste for bureaucracies has me inclined to dismiss this one out of hand, but hit me with it anyway.”

“Good, because the Bureaucratic Governance is actually the most powerful in the long run. While it doesn’t excel in anything directly beneficial to farmers, tradesmen, military or adventurers, it can quickly set up satellite cities that specialize in all of those roles, more like districts. While the settlement itself can’t build, say, a planetary defense emplacement, it can control a Military district that can build one.”

“Oh, hmph, but they’re slow to get going I bet?”

“Yes. Now, onto the Military option. With this Governance your garrison size doubles. All buildings that benefit a military are 25% less to build. And it infers a passive bonus of your choosing to all persons enlisted in your settlement militia. You’re able to send out expeditions to claim resources from other settlements and are able to withstand sieges with no penalties to morale and food consumption. You are however restricted to what types of civic buildings are available and all farming and agriculture will be required to give 20% of yields to the city granary. This governance also gives you access to military grade crafting facilities.”

“Sweet! So how is Adventurer Governance different?”

“Adventurer Governance provides similar facilities as the Military but with the focus on catering to Adventurers, obviously. You can build the Adventurers Guild Hall, which comes under the purview of the settlement administration. This will then allow you to build other facilities that boost the individual adventurer. With this Governance you can only levee 10% of all production and sales within your city. Though all quests issued by the city and completed by adventurers from the city will provide 20% of their experience earned converted to Settlement Points. Which means as long as you are issuing quests and people are completing them, you can easily grow your settlement.”

“I see.” I understood why she said these two were the best for my loosely stated goals.

I reviewed the Military and Adventurer options in more detail as we travelled through the desert. It seemed like Veep was steering me towards the Adventurer option though something about the Military one spoke to me. One of the things she failed to mention as I reviewed the literature was that I’m able to build better defenses around my settlement and I can claim other cities and settlements and install my own ‘Governor’ to run them and they keep whatever specialization they chose before I rolled in and wrecked their shit. It’s only in the beginning stages of settlement building that the type of settlement Governance you choose is important. The system doesn’t limit you from claiming or building other settlements.

I started daydreaming situations where one system would be better than the other and the thing I kept coming back to was that no one was really checking on the status of the rest of the world right now. We’d just been moving from one crisis or fight to the next. So, I did just that.

“Veep, we still got internet access?”

“We sure do! What do you want to see?”

“Has there been any government that has released any kind of statement in the last 24 hours. Also if we can find some recordings of how the military is handling the monster situation.”

“Most official government outlets have gone silent. Oh… wow… that was overkill.”

Concern spiked in my mind, “What was overkill?”

“Oh, well, the system determined that your military would make shit too easy and it wiped them out. With Ancient Dragons.”

“Completely wiped out?” I asked with some concern.

“Meh, about 2% survival rate across the globe. Around 10% survival rate in America. Yay?”

“Fuck! What happened to the dragons?”

“Eh, they got bored and left.”

“LEFT!?!? WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY GO!?!?” I exclaimed out loud and everyone looked at me startled by my outburst.

“Oh, I dunno, back to space. I think.”

“Space?”

“Yeah, Ancient Dragons live out in deep space, they only come around when the system needs to… fix? Something.”

“How do they survive in a vacuum?”

“Oh, the Ancient Dragons are some of the few God Tier beings in existence. They can survive anywhere really.”

“The dragons are Gods?”

“Yeap, Mhmm.”

Pushing that revelation aside I determined that there was no real response to this shit and made my choice.

You have chosen to convert your settlement into a Military Governance. Once done, this process cannot be reversed. Are you sure (Yes/No)

Yes.