“Then let’s walk and talk, I’ve wasted enough time securing the city. I was told I’ve only got a few months to grab what I can.”

“Uh, apologies Mister Brunett, but I don’t think we will be able to keep up with you and yer mount.” He looked down at his rather short legs and back up to me.

“Kaia, think your pack may be willing to help?” The coyote cocked an ear at me. Then whined a bit. “Fine, I’ll stop hogging all the kills.” Both ears perked up at that and he reared his head back and let loose a loud howl. A second later his summons was answered and three smaller coyotes came bounding out of the gate, already saddled up. Who did that?

“Ah, ok, thank ye.” Gregor and his companion climbed onto the backs of the two smallest coyotes, the third followed along as escort and we loped off towards our destination and talked in earnest.

“Before we begin, let me introduce you to my companion, Junipher. Also, your people can camp out on this side of the river while we discuss your contract.” I introduced him and Junipher and indicated the river bank we had just crossed as we ate up the ground. He looked a little bewildered.

“Greetings, Princess.” He dipped his head when he spoke. There’s that ‘Princess’ title again, still need to dig into that. “This is my second, Bertram.”

Bertram had dark hair and a beard nearly as ostentatious as Gregors. He seemed to be a couple inches shorter but didn’t lack for muscle mass and I was certain that both of these men would give me a run for my money. Until now the only beings that I thought could give me a run for my money were the other old fucks in the settlement. And of course that behemoth, Lord Shubin. And I suppose most of the Valkyr battle junkies.

“Master Gregor, Master Bertram, a pleasure to meet you both.” She flashed them both a friendly smile and returned to listening to the conversation.

“So I’ll be quick about it. I’ve contracted with the Valkyr, whom you already know. And I’ve also contracted with the Daemon, they’re leader is Lord Shubin. I’m assuming you came this way as the Valkyr did to similarly contract with my settlement, we just advanced to a tiny village before you showed up, should make it a small village in another day.”

Gregor looked at me, not expecting my straight forwardness, “Aye, we tried to negotiate with that bitch in Flagstaff, she wouldn’t have us. Then…”

“You sought to have her replaced, knowing it may revoke your refugee status.” I gave him a hard look. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together, “What made it worth the effort and risk?”

He squirmed a bit in his saddle as we rode forward at a casual pace. “Orichalcum Ore. Lots of it. And a smattering of other precious metals we can use to craft weapons and armor.”

“So tell me what happened from your perspective.”

He looked at Bertram then back to Junipher and I. “Ah, so the woman refused to meet with us. Then she sent the Valkyr away. She was scared of them, though I assume, because of our stature, we were a simple annoyance that she didn’t want to deal with. All the while we saw as her Red Bands went about oppressing people and she did nothing to reign them in. I’m sure you’ve heard all that from the Valkyr. I won’t go into detail”, he paused to take a deep breath, then launched back into his story. “A resistance group was forming. Higher level adventurers and such that were tired of having their hard earned loot stolen. We met a group led by a young woman, April Dunbar, and her man, Grant Smith.” Anger lit his eyes and he spat on the ground.

“Veep, bring up the pictures that Nandi sent us.”

Between us was displayed the twenty or so people who had been crucified. More than that had been on the wall, only these remained. Gregor’s eyes widened and his white teeth shown beneath his beard as he stared at the one of the blonde girl that we witnessed previously being abused.

“I take it that one is April.” I flipped the pictures around to the one of the young man that was abusing her atop the wall. Gregor tensed, “And that must be Grant.”

“Aye, it is. I have a debt to pay that man. We snuck him, his woman, and two others, brother and sister, twins, into the Mayor's compound. Ah, there they are, Betty and Barry.” He indicated two other pictures, a pair of dark haired bodies hanging from the crucifixes. “It’s clear now that Grant sold them out, sold us out. I’ll have his head.”

“Fair enough. I just want the city. You can skull fuck that bastard for all I care.”

“Alright, so then you dipped out and headed my way. So. I know what I can do for you, Master Gregor. What can you do for me?”

“We didn’t make it through the portal with a fighting force. We did however bring some of the best engineers and craftsmen in the universe with us. We can provide a significant discount on custom crafted gear. We can also build the strongest buildings and defenses money can buy. And we can do it at material cost. I assume you plan to fortify this area of yours. The System won’t let you build anything significant til yer at least considered a City.”

“Fuck. Didn’t think about that. Here, this is what I had planned.” I had Veep project the planned wall and fortifications. Gregor and Bertram leaned in and examined what I wanted for a couple moments and muttered amongst themselves.

“Mister Brunett, it seems destiny brought us together, because that plan is absolute shite!”

Gregor and Bertram just grinned through their beards at me while I processed what they just said. Junipher just stroked my thigh and smiled up at the puzzled look on my face. “Ok?”

“Look, tall walls are OK, thicker is better though. And when you’re trying to hold a position, a defense in depth is more desirable. Think plenty of forward fighting positions with pitfalls and obstructions to make it hell on vehicles. You have to understand, war within the System is overpowering. If an attacker really wants to break your defenses, they can, though oftentimes they just go around them. Your defense is meant to slow the enemy down and bleed them, not stop them. You just want to make it so costly to attack they consider other ways.”

“Makes sense I suppose, I can already barge through a house and not even flinch. What do you suggest then?”

“I suggest that you let us worry about constructing your defenses as part of our contract. It’ll take us some time. We have to set up a quarry to mine the stone that will go into the fortifications, but that’s the kind of thing we are good at. What burden have you placed on the other refugees as far as dungeon management and troop requirements?”

“Fifty-Fifty on the dungeons they capture and manage. I want everyone to be prosperous, seeing as you do me a great service keeping the monster populations under control and the dungeons tame, I feel that’s a fair exchange. Plus, I don’t have to worry about managing them myself.”

“Hmph, that is pretty fair, however,” I swear I saw a gleam in the man's eye, “Considering we will be taking over the construction of your defenses, how about we go sixty-fourty?”

I considered his offer for a moment, and realized I didn’t particularly care. I was about to go conquering across Arizona and probably the rest of the country too. If they turned out to be less than they claimed, I could just cut them loose. “Fuck it, I’ll agree to that. I only have two locations left, North, which is quickly turning into a swamp, and East. You’ve already come through the East, will that work for you?”

“That’d be perfect, we already marked some basic resource locations as we came through. Iron, Aluminum, stuff like that. As well, we have a good read on a few of the dungeons in the area. I’ll have Bertram return and mobilize our people. We will get working on your defenses by the end of the week.”

“Sounds good”, I sent him the contract and he heartily accepted.

SooHoo Village has entered into a Contract of Sanctuary with the Broken Rock Dwarves

“Thank you, Karl. Now, I intend to ride with you and kill young Grant. I’ve made a vow. I will see it through.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go crack some skulls.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nandi was relieved when Samantha arrived with the rest of Karl’s team. Greg and Mike had been killed two days earlier when a small group of Red Bands ambushed them in the middle of the night while they camped. They hadn’t even woken up before their throats were slit. If the dirty bastards hadn’t realized the rest of her team were women and intended to rape them, they would have all died in their sleep. Since then she hadn’t slept. And knowing what almost happened to her and her team she shuddered as she imagined what was happening to the women on the wall.

“Thank all the gods!” Nandi stepped forward and embraced Samantha with a fierce hug. “Where’s Karl?”

Michelle snickered, “Doing Karl things.”

“It was AWESOME! He nearly blew up the entire city to include himself!” Stephen exclaimed from the back with an arm around Courtney. She pinched his side and he jumped.

“It was not awesome, He was practically dead, he has over 5000 HP. How do I know that? I fucking drained my mana to heal him!” She smiled at the awkward looking young man as she spoke.

“Christ, that’s a story for another time, right now we need to move. We have stayed here longer than I want. We move every two hours since…” Nandi paused as her eyes clouded, Samantha placed her good hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s work our way over to the East side of the city. Karl sent word he’s on his way with a new friend. He has a plan to get inside to get directly at the Mayor.”

“Really? Ok, let’s reposition.” She turned to her remaining team members and saw they had already gathered their equipment and were on the move. They streamed through the forest as silent as their noisiest member, trying to keep out of sight of the Flagstaff walls. Soon they found themselves wandering near the Lava Tube dungeon. Which now had lots of lava flowing around it. Nandi called a halt when they heard voices near the dungeon entrance.

“Jen, we need the rest of the team. We can’t take this by ourselves.” A young man’s voice could be heard.

Jen, the woman he was talking to responded, “C’mon Mark, it’s only level 15, we’re both 21. I got heals and ranged damage, you can keep them busy. They are just worm slug things.”

“Worm slug things that can set you on fire.” Mark responded.

“Even if we clear it, the Red Bands will take half our shit!” Jen said clearly frustrated, “And if we don’t come back with gear and UMC we will not be able to come out again. I’m fucking hungry Mark.”

“I know, but there’s the spider nest further south, it’s easier than this.”

“But it’s only level 10. The payout and loot is crap!”

Nandi motioned to her team to quietly surround the pair of adventurers, she intended to make contact, though worried they would run away. She knelt behind her bush and listened for a minute longer.

“I know. I’m hungry too.”

“You know there’s worse than not being to come back out, Mark.”

“I know, I don’t want to end up on the wall either.” Mark turned away from her and looked at the dungeon entrance. Nandi could see his resolve forming. Nandi was about to burst out of the bushes when the next thing Jen said caught her attention.

“We could head to Winslow.”

Mark looked at her incredulously, “You know what they say about the Warlord, he kills people just by looking at them. And he doesn’t care much for people from Flagstaff.”

“Bullshit, those stories started after people tried to leave for Winslow like the Dwarves and Valkyrie did.”

“Jason was in a group that made it out, I haven’t heard from him in days.”

“They probably sent the Red Bands after them. Either way we’re fucked, Mark.” Jen pleaded.

Nandi rolled her eyes at this and stepped out of the trees and startled the two teenagers, “Karl’s not killing anyone that doesn’t deserve it.” The rest of her team emerged silently from the trees and the teens looked around terrified. They both took up fighting stances.

“What do you want!?” Mark called out with a surprisingly firm voice despite the obvious fear in his body language.

“Put the pig stickers away, mate, name’s Nandi, you’re Mark and you must be Jen, unless of course you are identifying as the other, meh.”

“You’re from Winslow, aren’t you?”, Jen stepped forward, quick on the uptake.

“Got it on the first try, so what’s this about some Warlord of Winslow?”

The rest of the group came out and made introductions, Mark managed to put his knives away, but eyed the new people in front of him cautiously. Jen, the braver of the two stepped forward and began explaining what she had heard of the crazy leader of Winslow.

“So, the rumors started from the Red Bands. I know they were inmates before they became the Gestapo of Flagstaff.” She spit in disgust, then continued, “I overheard them talking about how this guy from Winslow came in riding a monstrous flaming coyote and ran them off. Said he was feeding people to his animal.”

“That’s not entirely accurate.”

“So it’s true!? C’mon Jen, let’s get out of here before someone sees us talking to them.”

“Calm down, Mark, I want to know their version of events!” Jen planted her feet and glared at the younger man. As Nandi watched their interactions she suspected they were brother and sister. Jen was clearly older and clearer headed of the two.

“Ok, so, he does ride a large coyote named Kaia. Kaia’s never been on fire that I’m aware of, though you definitely don’t want to be on his bad side. Karl did run them off, though he told them to go South, and nowhere else. Said he’d kill them if he ever saw them again.”

Mark and Jen looked at each other and Jen continued leading the conversation, “Will he? Will he come here and kill them?”

Nandi considered the question and decided to dodge it or a moment. “Will these Red Bands come looking for you if you don’t come back tonight?”

Mark seized the hilts of his knives and Nandi waved him down, “We aren’t talking about kidnapping you, mate, I just want time to pick your brains if you would allow it.”

Mark glared at Jen and she hesitated, “We have food, plenty of it.” Nandi smiled knowing the teens were on the verge of starving.

“Yeah, we aren’t due back for a couple of days. No one should come looking for us.”

“Good, we’re moving our camp around to the east side of the city. Can you keep up?”

“Yes, though, you didn’t answer my question.” Jen pressed Nandi.

Nandi just smiled, “Yeah, the big man is on his way already, won’t hurt telling you that much.” Then she signaled for her group to move out and they surrounded the teens in an impromptu escort formation. Karls gonna tear this place apart when he finds out about this shit!