Captain Devers struggled with a cascade of emotions. He had reunited with his oldest daughter and was happy to see that she was safe, though she had suffered a grievous wound. He found his eyes constantly wandering to the point where her arm ended just below the elbow. During the brief exchange they had together she assured him she was alright and she would explain how that happened later.

Upon discovering that the large violent man she had come to associate with was a former soldier, and a tanker at that, eased his apprehension of the man he had just witnessed from a distance demonstrating an unbelievable amount of personal destructive power. Then, the apparent inmates that had fled the man’s warpath and attempted to carjack his soldiers for their HUMVEE were brought down and he killed all but the last one. Executed them in the street. No judge, no jury, just an execution.

Of course, the invasive way he replayed their memories for everyone to see was more than enough to confirm their crimes. And the man seemed to have a strange sense of compassion, though it was clear he expected everyone to stiffen their spine. And a part of Captain Devers couldn’t help but approve of letting the abused woman execute her assailant. If there was one thing that got a wounded soldier back on his feet it was sticking a rifle in his hands and pointing him at the enemy that caused his wounds.

Then there was how he pressed the final man into his service. The only one of the gathered inmates that hadn’t seemed to abuse anyone. That man had family living in Flagstaff, and while Karl was clearly a firm and unwavering man, he again demonstrated he had the capacity for compassion. He had already demonstrated his ability to keep his word to the inmate. So the man agreed to his terms and ran off into the woods headed for Phoenix with the stated fact that if he didn’t keep in touch he would meet the fate of the others.

They waited for a few minutes as Captain Devers' command began to appear and Karl looked at him pointedly, “That’s more than a company. That’s more like a Reinforced Company. Where the hell did you gather all of that, Captain?”

“I’ll give you the short of it, NTC. We were all on our last days of a two week training rotation. Dragon swooped in while my company was out on maneuvers and when we made it back to the rear, everything was gone and I was the highest ranking officer in the entire base.”

“Yeah, we saw the Youtube reports of massive dragons merc’ing the shit out of all organized military bases. Let’s head in, Clarissa, you get the Admin building rebuilt yet?”

“Gimme a moment to gather a couple of my men.” Captain Devers turned on the approaching vehicles.

“Uh, it should be finished in an hour.” Clarissa checked her interface and shrugged.

“Alright Captain, I’ll find us a place to talk.” Karl said to the military man and went back to discussing arrangements with his new assistant.

“Anders, Jackson, Portnoy! On me! We’re going into the city to see what supplies we can get and discuss what else the big man back there can offer us and what he wants for it.” Captain Devers called out to the four leaders that led different elements of his command.

The three men appeared as ordered and gathered around their commander. Jackson was the first to voice his concerns.

“Sir, are we sure we want to climb in bed with this man, I know he seems to have taken care of your daughter, but he did just execute three men and who knows how many more during that running street battle.”

Devers looked over the gathered men and considered all that the Infantry Sergeant said. He had been considering the same thing but couldn’t come up with an alternative. They were almost completely out of tank rounds. They had no TOWs left and only a couple bursts of the 20mm the capable bushmasters fired. Not to mention the empty artillery that was just for show at this point and the nearly dry fuel tankers. They also were in desperate need of small arms ammo, repairs on certain systems and potable water and fresh food. If Kingman hadn’t been occupied by Mad Max Wannabe Cannibals they wouldn’t be as bad off as they were.

“You all thinking the same thing?”

A chorus of “Yes, Sir” issued forth from his men.

“Good, keep on your toes. My daughter trusts the man but I don’t. He seems amiable to trade though. Just make sure we don’t end up signing a contract with the devil.”

“You saw his class, right? Merciless Reaper of the Foolish. What the fuck is that and how did he get it? Sets off all my superstitious alarms.” Lieutenant Portnoy, the artillery section leader commented.

“Yeah, I saw it, let's get going. I’ll try to get more info from my daughter later.”

*****

“Do you guys have a regular gathering area? Fire pit? Park? Somewhere with benches? I don’t wanna have these conversations just standing around with our dicks out.” I asked Clarissa the Assistant.

Clarissa chuckled at that, seemingly regaining her composure from her previous ordeal. “Yeah, there’s a nearby park, has an awning and some outdoor grills with picnic tables.”

I looked around and flagged down Samantha and Michelle, “Hey, I’m going to talk with your father and his men, I don’t have anything for you guys to do so just watch your messages til we can get some local security up and running.”

“Alright Karl, I'm going to see if Stephen and Gregor want to come. Gregor’s all about the military vehicles, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has one of them tanks disassembled before someone can stop him.” Samantha laughed and walked over to the other two who were indeed shoulders deep into an open hatch. The tank crew excitedly answered questions as Gregor poked and prodded.

Captain Devers and three other men, a Lieutenant, Sergeant First Class and ‘Buck’ Sergeant walked up. “Karl, let me introduce you to my command team, this is Lieutenant Portnoy, commander of the artillery section, Sergeant First Class Anders, commanding the Bradley platoon. And last but not least, Sergeant Jackson, in charge of the two infantry platoons. They got hit the hardest in the initial attack.”

I looked the men over and offered my own greeting, “Gentlemen, it’s nice to meet you. This is Clarissa, my first ever administrative assistant. If you have any questions about Flagstaff itself, you’ll have to ask her, I just recently took possession of it and have no idea what I’m working with, just that I want to get it working and fast.”

The men laughed as if they were intimately familiar with being tossed into the ringer and being tasked with making it work. We followed Clarissa as she guided us to the location she had selected and before we could get the deeper conversation started Kaia and his pack mate came charging around a nearby building, tongues lolling and ears perked. They zeroed in on me and Kaia playfully tackled me to the ground and proceeded to bathe me in his saliva.

I heard rifles come up to shoulders behind me and Clarissa waving the startled soldiers down “They’re with him. I’d say they aren’t dangerous, but that’s not true. They’re just not dangerous to him.”

I reached up from my back and scratched Kaia’s neck as he insisted on licking me one last time, “Who’s a good boy!? Are you happy? Did you get to kill some murderous assholes this morning!?” He barked in response then trotted off to lay down next to a large Fir tree. I rolled back to my feet and smiled at the men as they looked at the oversized coyotes in a mixture of awe and fear. “That was Kaia, my soulbound companion. He’s been with me pretty much since the beginning.”

“Christ, I saw you and the dogs fighting the other guy, I knew they were big, but up close.” Captain Devers’ thoughts trailed off.

“Yeah, he’s awesome. Anyway, we were talking about a trade earlier?” I redirected the conversation to the business at hand.

“Well, first we were hoping you would allow us access to the city kiosk. Not every settlement or city has welcomed us so we’ve taken an ask first stance. Plus, to get all of our tanks and vehicles fueled up and rearmed they have to be within a certain range of the kiosk. It takes time and irritates the adventurers when we’re occupying the only vendor location in town for several hours.”

“Where’s our kiosk at?” I asked Clarissa.

“Oh, shouldn’t be a problem, it’s next to the old Amtrak station. No trains running so you can just park on the tracks. Although, now that we’ve lifted the restriction on accessing the kiosk, it’s pretty busy. I was considering ordering a second one and placing it in the NAU stadium.”

“Kiosk access was restricted?” Sergeant Jackson asked.

“Yeah, long story short, the previous HBIC was squeezing the people for everything they had. When a group of freedom minded people got together to take her out and failed, shit got worse for the people here. Kiosk access was limited and you had to pay a fee to get access, on top of that local taxes were hiked up to 60% in some cases. All in the name of progress.”

“Ah, fuck.” The Sergeant grimaced as the realization of what was going on here settled in.

“Yeap, fuck. I’m not opposed to you using the kiosk at all. I mean, it behooves me as I’m earning ten percent on all purchases through it.” I smiled at the men and they all groaned. “What? It’s not the pocket gouging 60% from when I took over!”

“No, no it’s not, that seems fair, though how are we going to get access, I don’t wanna push twelve thousand people out of the way. That’s just being dickish.” The Captain responded.

“The second Kiosk can be ready in six hours. It’s almost night, so I don’t assume you want to leave before tomorrow do you?” Clarissa offered a reasonable timeline. “And we can make sure the second kiosk is locked out until you finish your business with it. If I position it directly in the center of the football field that gives you more room to maneuver those tanks and large trucks.”

“Karl, I think you picked a good first assistant.”

“Yeah, I think so too, though I got a question, how are you guys paying for your supplies?”

“Well, we all earn credits for the kills we’ve made getting here. We basically put the onus of responsibility on the vehicle commander. We aren’t regular military, we’re Arizona National Guard. With no support from CENTCOM and the majority of the active duty bases across the country burning, well, we’re actually being forced to adopt a more traditional militia model.”

“Every man provides his own equipment and weapons. You just had the benefit of being in command of some serious hardware. If a little dated.”

“Bingo! Which is why we’ve been trying to scavenge the National Guard Armories where we can.” Lieutenant Portnoy added.

“Though the kiosks already have everything you could possibly need to keep your reinforced armor company moving.”

“Yeap. And honestly, if we had enough cash, we’d probably get some upgrades similar to that plasma pistol you used earlier.” Sergeant Anders finally commented, “There’s some sweet looking missiles I’d like to put in the Bradley tubes.”

I scratched my beard in thought as we discussed their material needs, “Like I said, I’m not going to keep you from the kiosk, though it probably would be better to use the new one as soon as it’s built.”

“Thank you, Karl, we appreciate it.”

“Now, let me give you some background on our situation.” I proceeded to fill them in about everything that happened since I had found Samantha being carved up for a meal by a nasty little Kobold. Meeting and the Daemons and creating my own settlement. Releasing one batch of prisoners that were considered ‘non-violent’. The ultimatum, and the subsequent battles fought at the settlement. About the Valkyr and the Dwarves. And most importantly that a large portion of the assholes I released had defied my orders and came to Flagstaff. I handed the story over to Clarissa and she proceeded to detail the gradual escalation of oppression at the hands of the Mayor and the former inmates. When it was done the Captain and his men were silent for a long time.

“So you have been saving people and securing safety for them? You saved my daughter? I guess my question is why?”

I chuckled a little and answered the man’s question, “I’ll be honest, in the case of your daughter she was one of only three people left alive when I finished fighting that abomination. It’s not like I cared if she survived or didn’t, but I’m still human, I’m not going to let someone die or suffer if I can do something about it. But if I determined I couldn’t do something about it, I would have left her.” The man’s look hardened but he held his tongue and I continued, “SooHoo was a safe place for me. The fact it became a safe place for others wasn’t a driving factor in my decision making process. I needed people to defend it and I made it clear they would do just that if they wanted to stay.”, Then I looked at Clarissa, “I didn’t come to Flagstaff to save this city either. I made a mistake and my pride demanded I correct it. I’m a man of my word and I’ve certainly proven that. Seeing the people being abused pissed me off, the people on the crucifixes pissed me off. It was cruel and unnecessary, you’ve seen my justice. You have to really piss me off to get me to be that vicious.”

“The bottom line is I’ve lived my life before the System under the influence of petty self serving assholes that didn’t give a shit about the people they served. When I realized the power I had gained I realized I didn’t have to live under other assholes inept decision making. I didn’t want to be in charge of shit. I just want to be left alone. Problem with that is, a visitor from another world keyed me in on what’s about to happen next.” I smiled as I now had their rapt attention.

“Aliens? Like the Refugees?” Sergeant Anders asked first.

“No, the assholes administering the System.” I smirked as everyone gathered digested that bit of information.

“What exactly do you mean, Karl?” Captain Devers asked in alarm.

“You haven’t put it together yet? There’s aliens appearing all over the planet, refugees from their own planets that have been overwhelmed by their dungeons. The coordinated way all of the world's largest militaries were dismantled. The fact we didn’t get nuked into oblivion by the paranoid asshole politicians of said world powers? I figured someone was managing the saturation process. And I’ve met him.”

“WHAT!?” Everyone gathered exclaimed in one way or another.

“Tall blue man named Audron Ef’i, he gave me this after a little kiosk mishap that almost killed me.” I held out the rail pistol for everyone to examine. “It was similar to one I bought off the kiosk, though that one launched slugs on fully automatic at ten percent the speed of light. Needless to say, when I pulled the trigger, all of Winslow thought it was under nuclear attack.”

“Holy shit! Even the amount of energy the one in your hand puts out is absurd, you could shred a tank with that thing.” Lieutenant Portnoy, the artillery section leader, seemed well versed in silly things like kinetic energy and ballistic properties of heavy objects. Which makes sense if you’re trying to lob said objects accurately onto distant targets.

“So, it seems one of Audron’s subordinates was bored and decided to plant a Mythic grade weapon in the kiosk and see if I would use it. The bastard apparently even bet on whether I’d use my Mag Dump skill. When I had gathered my wits I asked Veep, my Virtual Assistant, to send a strongly worded letter to management. A few hours later he appeared and apologized.”

“Holy shit. So there’s space aliens on top of the alien refugees.”

“Yeah, he left me with a couple tidbits of information. First, they directed the majority of the Mana flooding our system to Earth, in a few months the rest of the flood of Mana will have fully saturated the entire system. When that happens the system, including Earth, will be open for immigration.”

“Ah shit. People aren’t going to take that well.”

“Yeap, also, before he left he said he would be leaving orbit to ‘administer another planet in the system’.” I bobbed my eyebrows and Clarissa was the first to catch on to the meaning.

“There’s other intelligent life in our solar system!? Holy shit! That’s HUGE!” She exclaimed and the gathered soldiers struggled to comprehend the meaning of that.

“Yeap. They aren’t particularly important at the moment, but it’s something to keep in mind. The most important thing he left me with was a warning. He said if I didn’t secure as much territory as I could by then, depending on the aliens that immigrate, we could be fucked. He said I had three months to grab as much as I could and then it was open season.”

“Son of a bitch. So you plan to secure as much of Arizona before they get here, establish a power base?”

“I do, Arizona, despite being hot as fuck almost all the time is packed with resources. With the rivers flowing strong now we don’t have to worry about fresh water sources. If you hadn’t noticed, the trees are growing taller, thicker, and faster. My dwarf companion assures me there is a wealth of mineral resources just between here and Winslow. And with the Mana infused soil we can grow whatever crop we need. On top of that the generally rough terrain works in our favor when it comes to defending it. So yeah, I’m about to go around conquering Arizona.”

“What do you plan to do if the official government comes around? Demands you hand it over to them.”

My expression darkened as I responded, “Do you think you and your entire command could take me and Kaia as we all are now?”

Captain Devers thought about his question for a moment and was grateful his people reigned in their bravado. He looked over at the artillery lieutenant who arched an eyebrow and shrugged. Sergeant Anders shook his head and Jackson remained in thought, probably considering the best situation for a fight against this man and his coyote. “I think we could, eventually, but it would cost most of my men and equipment to do so.”

“So I’ve set the stage on my intentions, what are yours, Captain?”