We met Phil and Carly several miles north of Snowflake where they had been camping in wait for us. They had spent the last three days scouting the Mormons of Snowflake. When we got there they had a detailed report on their observations. It appeared that the Mormon’s in Snowflake were pushing hard on conversions and not taking no for an answer. The temple had always been the center of the town, now it was also the center of the barrier that was largely impenetrable. It had also gotten larger and more ornate. Almost gaudy, Karl thought to himself.

People entered and left the temple at all hours of the day and night. A large mansion sat behind the temple, more like a compound within the compound, that appeared to be where the Twelve Apostles and their own harems lived. These people rarely came outside, and when they did they had half a dozen Templar to guard them. Their original housing seemed unusually intact, as did their shops and pre-System facilities.

Freya, Eli, and Phil laid in the grass atop a hill that overlooked the city. When we had seen enough, we slipped back into the wooded hilltop to rejoin Carly, Junipher, and Alyssa who were catching up by the fire. Our troops camped in the draw below the hill, Phil assured us the Templars never patrolled in this direction.

“So, it seems we’ve got our own little Waco here.” I commented.

“Something like that, beesh.” Phil said while looking the Valkyr Queen up and down. “So, you are making kids, huh?” He asked nodding towards Junipher.

“Something like that.” I grimaced.

“Well, what about that one?” He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially towards the Queen.

“If you think yer man enough, ask me yourself little man.” The Queen snickered as Phil looked up like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Phil was no quiet man.

I laughed as Phil smiled at the woman and formed a response, “I’m sure I can more than please you. No one’s complained before.”

“Maybe I’ll try you out when I’m bored chasing my intended prey.” She smiled at the both of us with lust in her eyes. I joined Phil in slack jawed awe. I’m not going to touch that statement at all. Nope.

“So, what is your plan on taking the city?” Eli asked just in time to save us from Freya.

“Plan? I don’t make plans. I just walk in and kill leaders. I got you for making plans.”

The man looked at me bewildered, a smile formed on Freya’s face as she watched the man churn through his inner thoughts. “I don’t see a way around that barrier. We need it down before we can launch any kind of assault.”

“We can coax their men out from behind the barrier, bait them in. Though that will only last maybe once, twice? We could get them to commit three attacks, if they’re exceptionally foolish and zealotous.” Freya offered offhandedly.

Eli mulled that idea over, but dismissed it, “If they were exceptionally foolish they would do that and send the whole troop. But, I wouldn’t plan on it. No, we need a way to bring down the barrier.”

The two leaders debated different tactics while I thought. We need to force a surrender. We don’t necessarily need to kill everyone. That’s rather counterintuitive to bringing the people together. To bring all the cities of Arizona under my control. I can force my way in, but maybe just a show of force? Maybe we make that shield flicker real hard and give them something to think about.

“You guys ever use those shields before?” I asked Junipher and Freya.

“We didn’t, we always used the force of our arms to defend our people.” She smirked a bit.

“We only used them on our furthest outposts, my love.” Junipher added with a smile.

“How strong are they?” I asked.

“Fairly so, though they aren’t infallible. They can weather significant assault, though.”

My finger thumbed the rail pistol on my hip, Eli caught the motion and started shaking his head, “We didn’t bring the ‘little big’ gun, sir.”

“I’m thinking I'm going to have a chat with the leadership of Snowflake. It’s only polite to knock before I enter, of course.

The group gathered around the fire stared at me like I had finally lost my mind. I just shrugged and allowed them to stare, while chuckling to myself.

“Of course that’s just the start, I think it’s time to play the part of the villain.” I smiled then looked over at Carly, “How’s your ‘damsel in distress’ act?”

She threw on her best southern damsel voice and threw a hand across her forehead and wailed out into the air, “Good, Sirs, please! You must saaaave me from the bad men. I’ve nowhere else to go and I just know they wish to besmirch my honor!”

“Absolutely not! No way!” Phil barked across the camp fire when he caught on to what I was planning.

“Dad!” Carly yelled back.

“No, hell no, I already got one daughter stuck in there. I’m not sending another one in to get brainwashed!” Phil’s face was red and the veins on his forehead and neck bulged.

“Look, I get it, the difference here is Carly knows what to expect going in there. If she runs up to that gate in a state of distress they will cream their pants and stumble over each other to be the first to let you in. You just have to be able to sell it. Can you turn the waterworks on on command?”

Phil was on his feet now, fists clenched with the anger radiating off of him. “I FUCKING SAID NO!”

Carly was up almost as fast as he was and glared up into his eyes not backing down an inch, “I’M DOING THIS! I can get in there, find Kayley, get her out, or at least bring down the shield so you guys can come and get us.” She said the last in a pleading tone.

Phil huffed and puffed for several long moments before his brain finally kicked back in. His anger subsided as he took the time to think it through. It took him a while but he finally came to the realization that this was the best plan for getting his daughter and anyone else they had been working on out of there safely. We could always go in and wreck the place, but if we wanted to take the city intact and not have the people revolt weeks down the road, we needed to handle this with a bit more finesse. And Phil was soon realizing the necessity of getting someone in to bring down the shield. Yes, we could take it out with brute force, but how long would that take?

“Fine. I know you can take care of yourself, I just…” His face softened and his daughter reached around to hug his massive form.

“I know, Dad. We’ll get her back.” She disengaged from her dad and looked at me, “So how’s this work?”

I clapped my hands and stood up, “Alright, here’s what I’m thinking.” I started and proceeded to layout my plan. Carly prepared herself by changing into some of her older clothing that had been stained with mud and blood, and was liberally shredded. The t-shirt in particular left a great deal of her massive cleavage exposed, a fact her father wasn’t a bit pleased about. When she was ready I directed Eli to gather up a dozen of his most intimidating looking men. He picked out a group of men that actually wore dusters and cowboy hats. They didn’t have to look physically intimidating, the high collars and shade from their hats would do most of that work.

WIth the first few pieces of the plan in place we moved out of sight a couple miles down the highway and she began running towards Snowflake. She ran down the shoulder of the highway and faked a limp. Eli’s men came pouring out of the desert firing their weapons at her, she summoned the occasional barrier of ice, acting like she was low on Mana. The single guard on duty above the gate sent out an alarm to the Templars inside. He was joined by several more riflemen on the wall while a half a dozen Templars streamed out to face the men on their coyotes. They fired some more significantly inaccurate shots at Carly as she collapsed on the ground in front of the city. Shots rang out from the wall and the riders lingered out of their range before turning away.

The barrier opened up enough for the men to assist Carly through the gate and from our vantage we could see several women come forward and guide her further into the compound.

“Alright, as agreed upon, we give her 24 hours to either get your daughter out or bring down the shield. If neither of those two things happen, we go in hard. In a few hours I’ll head up and put the pressure on ‘em.”

*****

A stern faced woman with a sharp nose and greying hair stood over Carly after she was hustled through the gate and into the city proper. The woman pursed her lips as she looked her over, then offered her a hand, “Come child, I am Mistress Annette, the Head Priestess of the Temple. Tell me your name and what has happened to you, and while you do that we can get you fed and a change of clothes.”

Carly took in her surroundings. She had been scouting the city of Snowflake with her dad for several days and she knew she was near the greenest park in the desert for about a hundred miles. Just past that would be ‘main street’ which had survived largely intact. The Mormons had maintained their buildings while allocating System created ones to supplement their needs.Mistress Annette looked at the woman down her nose and waited for an answer to her previous question.

“Uh, thank you. I’m Carly. I was looking for my sister when I ran into those men. I tried to fight them off, but my mana ran out, so I just ran.” She made sure to ham it up as much as possible. She wanted their sympathy, not their suspicion.

“Mmm, the wicked things men do when law and order abandon us. You don’t need to worry about that here, girl. You say you are looking for your sister? We have a younger girl here that looks something like you, what’s her name?”

Carly was surprised the Mistress was being so helpful. Even more surprising was all the people just going about their business. This is creepy, it’s like no one realizes the world just ended a month ago. Oh, things had definitely changed for the sleepy LDS town, but it was like the people here just took it in stride and continued on like it was just any other day. Shopkeepers tended their stores and anyone not dressed for battle wore the creepy ass Mormon uniform, their Sunday Best, or for them, Saturday’s Best. With the tag that denoted your name and more importantly, your position within the church.

“Her name is Kayley, she’s 15.” Carly provided simply as she watched the men and women go about their day and followed Annette. She noticed quite a few of the older men eyeing her appraisingly and resisted the urge to turn them to ice cubes. Fucking perverts.

A look of recognition and something else, something Carly couldn’t place, flashed across Annette's face. “Ah, yes. She was quite the spirited one when she came to us.”

“Was?” Carly asked in concern.

“Oh, yes, after the first couple of weeks she converted to the faith. She should currently be at noon service. Then she will have chores to complete, everyone that chooses to stay here contributes to the community, we just call them chores. Anyway, we should be able to reunite you two after that.” The fuck she did! Carly thought to herself.

They reached a large building similar to the bunkhouse that Karl had initially created in his own settlement, though this one was less utilitarian and gave off a creepy orphanage vibe. A girl maybe two years younger than herself approached with a bundle of clothing, as well as a towel and wash rag.

“Hi, I’m Collette, Mistress Annette asked me to show you around. I brought you some fresh clothes and some soap so you can clean up. If you’ll follow me”, She offered Carly the bundle with a smile and nodded her head in the direction of the washroom. She took the offered bundle and followed the girl while glancing back over her shoulder at the Mistress. The older woman looked at her with a sharp eye then spun on her heels and left towards the big house on the hill, the Prophet's house. I suddenly feel like I should leave. Fuck it. Not like these pussies could stop me from doing anything, just need to find Kayley and/or the barrier generator.

******

I waited almost six hours before I enacted the next step in my plan. Time to crank up the pressure. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the leader will come out and talk. If not, fuck it, I like watching shit blow up. I walked down the road from the same direction Eli’s ‘bandits’ had originated from and noticed that there were no guards on the wall. These fuckers so confident in their defenses that they all go to bed at night?

The moon sat low on the horizon and clearly silhouetted the city, I didn’t need my enhanced vision to tell that the wall was absolutely unmanned and the only sound came from the sonic oscillations that emanate from the edge of the nearby barrier. I contemplated just opening fire on the barrier until someone came to see what the noise was about. I was going to do that anyway, but for this to work, presentation was everything.

“HEY! ANYONE THERE!?” I yelled into the night at the empty wall. I waited a moment and all I heard was the sound of crickets chirping in the night. “Well, fuck.” I muttered.

About to make some noise. I sent to Carly, then I walked back from the barrier and took a long pause and waited for anyone to acknowledge my presence. “Ah well, guess I’ll just have to knock louder.” I sighed in faux disappointment.

I decided to go for maximum impact and noise and pulled out the rail pistol, flicked it to full auto and pointed it at the barrier, no need to aim when you’re just trying to make noise. I looked around and didn’t see anyone mount the gate wall yet, though I did notice the crickets had stopped their mating songs. It’s like the fuckers know I’m about to sing my own little song.

“Mag Dump.” I muttered and held the trigger down. The rail pistol vibrated in my hand, no recoil bucked the weapon about as it was simply accelerating tiny metal slugs suspended between the rails at hypersonic speeds. Before the fifth round left the rails the first connected with the barrier in a violent orgy of light and thunder. As the last rounds struck the barrier it flexed and bowed in defiance of the sudden surge of kinetic energy. It flared a dull green where the rounds had struck and I could see more energy being shunted to the area I attacked in a line from within the center of the city. The kinetic energy created a shockwave that tore a furrow in the ground at the base of the barrier some 3 meters wide and 50 meters long. The affected earth was flung at high velocity outwards along the same path the furrow had been cut. The sound of rocks and debris crashing back to the earth echoed across the landscape.

I know that attack got their attention but part of me wanted to see what I could do to this barrier on my own. So I reloaded my pistol and watched the surging light of the reinforcement energy begin to fade and activated another Mag Dump. The shield began to waver as more energy was dumped into the location I was pummeling to reinforce it. I might actually break through on the next mag dump. Fuck it, no one’s come to talk to me, might as well find out.

I reloaded my weapon and held my arm out and was just about to pull the trigger when a dozen of the Mormon Templars burst through the gate and eyed me angrily. The woman Carly identified as Mistress Annette also followed behind them. She looked at me with barely contained anger and I smiled at her and lowered my pistol.

“Knock, knock?” I said while maintaining my smile.

“Who are you? And what do you want?” Mistress Annette asked, every ounce of irritation oozing from her demeanor.

“Well, my name is Karl. I’m the current owner of the City of Flagstaff and the Military Village of Winslow. And I’m here to talk to your leader about forming an alliance. So, if you could take me to him, that would just be dandy.”