Lake Pleasant Settlement

“Would you look at that?” Irene muttered as the group gathered on the wall watched one of the skyscrapers in New Phoenix collapse in the distance, “Looks like the Governor just lost his city.”

Samantha and Arnold were standing with her on the outer wall watching the fireworks in the distance. The sound of Lieutenant Portnoy’s artillery firing thumped across the settlement as the pair of guns launched munitions screening the retreat of the New Phoenix civilian refugees. To the East, New Phoenix’s last two blackhawks provided short bursts of direct fire, picking off Litchfield slavers as they fled the fight as well.

“Ma, I thought the Warlord was coming? Shouldn’t he be here yet?” Arnold’s manner of speech was improving, as was his emotional maturity. Even so, the young man was still rather naive.

“Anytime now, Arnold. My dad says he spoke with Eli, said they were almost here. They may still be able to prevent the city from falling into Litchfields hands.” Samantha supplied hopefully.

“SAM!”, Captain Devers, Samantha’s father, yelled up at them from the bottom of the newly upgraded rampart, “Karl’s made contact. His army is moving to engage Litchfields forces and secure the 17. He’s asking us to hit their flank on the 303. It’s time.”

“Now?” Irene looked at the man incredulously, “Like right now?”

“Sorry, Irene, you know this is what we’ve been waiting for. It’s now. Portnoy is in command of the Task Force. I’m taking the Armor and the Scouts forward, can you and Srookimal cover our Western flank?”

Samantha floated down in front of her father wreathed in pink energy. Arnold followed quickly with a small hop. Irene nodded to him, “Yeah, we can do that much. Give ‘em hell Captain.”

“Thank you, Irene. Where do you think you two are going?”

Samantha leaned forward and gave her dad an unexpected kiss on the cheek, then walked by him with a smile on her face, “We’re going to hitch a ride with Sgt. Jackson. Don’t act like you think you can stop us, either. Love you, dad!”

She waved her good hand and Arnold followed like a lost puppy behind her, “Sorry, sir. But, I’m going with her.”

Captain Devers rolled his eyes with a sigh, Irene just laughed, “You knew that was gonna happen, not that you made much effort to stop them.”

Captain Devers smiled up at Irene, “I know. But she’d think I didn’t care if I didn’t try. Take care, Irene, we should have King’s forces routed by dinner time.”

Ten minutes later the scout and armor company were hitting the Litchfield forces just northwest of loop 303 where it intersected with the I-17. They had set up an operations post under the tangle of overpasses and on/off ramps. That was the Captain’s first target.

A dozen HEAT rounds into the multitude of support pillars and the highway was collapsing on their heads. This was done from over three thousand meters away, as such, the slavers didn’t even know what was happening until they were crushed by thousands of tons of concrete and steel.

A few moments later, every machine gun on every tank was sawing across the wrecked landscape north of the 303, cutting down anything moving within a five mile stretch of the highway. The remaining slavers retreated quickly, slipping from cover to cover as they ran. They scrambled over the 303, rolling to the other side of the embankment while being chased by high velocity steel jacketed bullets, or in the case of Captain Devers’ own alien tank, white hot plasma.

Further down the flank, he saw the telltale signature light show of Arnold flinging his own magical plasma based attacks. White green explosions flashed non-stop for several minutes, then the report came over the radio that everything north of the Loop was clear of enemy forces.

They held their position, not risking crossing the Loop. King had the foresight to build a couple of large fortifications a few miles from the highway topped with massive alien cannons. He had no doubt assaulting those things would result in a significant loss of men and equipment. And he didn’t intend to spend his men’s lives on a fight like that without a good reason.

A couple hours later, the sounds of fighting ceased. Ash and smoke drifted up from New Phoenix, but no other buildings had fallen in that time. As he sat atop the turret of his tank, the sound of an old truck bouncing across the countryside caught his attention. He saw that Irene was coming with food for him and his men and he smiled. If I weren’t married....

As she pulled up he received a text message from Karl;

Thanks for distracting them. We’ve secured the city. Meeting with the Governor now, David from Mesa will be there. Would like you and Irene to come out too. Alyssa and Junipher would like to see Sam as well. Cross to the East side of the 17 and follow the route the NP refugees took to flee, got my people patrolling the route.

“Well, that’s short and to the point.” He muttered just loud enough that Irene, who was already digging into the back of her truck and passing a plate of food to his driver in the hatch, heard him and looked up inquisitively.

“What’s that?”

“Ah, Karl’s secured Phoenix. Is meeting with the Governor. Wants to bring us, you included, and David out of Mesa for the meet.”

She placed a defiant hand on her hip, looked around in thought for a moment and shrugged, “Won’t hurt to meet the man and hear him out I guess.”

He smiled at the stern but diminutive woman, “No, if Karl wants to talk to you, then it’s best to just go see him when he asks. XO! You’re in charge, Portnoy, you’re second if shit goes pear shaped.”

A chorus of “Yes, Sir’s” responded across the radio and Captain Devers pulled himself out of the hatch, slid off the turret to land on the ground, accepting a plate of meat and potatoes from Irene with a genuine smile, “Jackson, you’re coming too, with my daughter and Irene’s kid. Let’s go meet the governor.”

“I suppose we should bring Srook along too, he has been dying to meet this Warlord fella’.”

James “King” Wakefield, Leader of Litchfield Park

“King” James was mad. No, he was livid. His people stood in front of him, impotent defiance in their body language as he stared at his desk, the veins in his temples pulsing visibly. When he finally spoke it was with a calmness that belied his inner fury.

“They got Big Mike? And the trucks?”

The gathered leadership of Litchfield avoided looking directly at him, seemingly attempting to be anywhere but here, at this moment. This sparked another violent outburst as no one answered his question. His large fists came down on the heavy desk in a blur, shattering it and sending splinters flying through the room. Gasps of shock and fear echoed from the mouths of the cowering people he spoke to. They’d seen him like this before and it never ended well for the one he directed his frustrations on.

“SOMEONE FUCKING ANSWER ME!”, he roared, causing all in front of him to flinch.

A hulking man with tattoos covering his shirtless body from the top of his head into his exposed boxers stepped forward in irritation, “We only retrieved two trucks from the raid. And only one had any product.”

James stood, practically staring into the man’s soul before walking over to the large floor to ceiling window that looked out across all of Phoenix. He saw where one of the skyscrapers had fallen, spreading steel and plaster across several city blocks. He saw where even now, the system was repurposing that building to create more permanent fortifications on New Phoenix’s side of the 17. In the North he could make out the collapsed intersection of the I-17 and Loop 303. A Humvee navigated over the highway and headed towards downtown.

“The fuck are they going?”

“They got a meeting with the Warlord. Gonna get all the leaders together. They’re uniting against us, and that big white bastard from Winslow is the glue.” Shantel Smith spoke from the other side of the window where she sat casually, unbothered by his previous outburst.

“Is that so?”

“It is. But, I got you covered, King.”

He turned his scowl directly at her, “Oh, and just how is that?”

“Easy, got my infiltrators already in the city during the fighting. You know I am always plannin’ contingencies and shit. Well, they’re just waiting for the meet up. Take ‘em all out at once.”

James sighed deeply as he stared out the window and considered her words. When he’d gathered his thoughts and calmed his mood he turned to his people with a smile that contradicted his previous behavior, “You see motha’ fucka’s, y’all need to be more like Shantel here. Get your shit together! Get the fuck outta here! Go on! Get!”

The others filed out of the room as quickly as they could, even the big man that looked like he could crush James without a thought to it. As Shantel was walking out the door he called out to her in a low voice, “Shantel, you betta’ not fuck up.”

The menace in his eyes gave her pause before she forced a casual smile onto her face, “My girls know their jobs. They’ll get it done.”

James’ eyes communicated the unspoken threat.

As everyone left the room he looked over at his personal slave for the night, a pretty young blonde who avoided looking at him in terror. “Get this shit cleaned up, then come to my room. Be naked.”

Her eyes widened but she still didn’t look at him directly as she responded, “Y-yes, Master!”

James snickered as the girl went to work cleaning his office and he walked away, anticipating the abuse he would deliver on her. He had a lot of frustration to work off. The girl probably wouldn’t survive the night.

Karl Brunett, Merciless Reaper of the Foolish, New Phoenix Capital Mall Complex

We had yet to meet the Governor directly. A pretty young brunette secretary escorted Junipher and myself to a large meeting room that had several tinted windows facing the south side of Phoenix. Somehow, the large leather chairs managed to accommodate my System augmented frame.

I had Veep quickly tap out some messages to the varying players that I wanted at this meeting while sipping silently from a cool glass of water that I’d helped myself to. We watched the sunset while waiting for everyone to arrive, it’s quickly dipping orange rays silhouetting the Picacho mountains in the distance. Something resembling a Pterodactyl flew in front of the giant orange ball of light causing me to quirk a slim smile.

As we were enjoying the view I heard the door open behind us. We didn’t move to look at the person who had just come in, somehow I knew it was not the Governor. After we ignored the individual behind us for a few moments we heard the sound of a very feminine throat clearing, “Ahem. Excuse me, Mr. Brunette, and Miss Oakenheart, I’m Allison Green, Governor Smits’ assistant. He asked me to inform you that he will be down shortly to meet with you, and that he’s very grateful for your timely assistance. He apologizes, he has some administrative issues to attend to before coming down.”

Junipher frowned over my shoulder at the woman for some slight I didn’t pick up on immediately, “No worries, I have some friends en route as we speak, so it’d probably be beneficial to wait for everyone to arrive.”

“I’m assuming you called on Mr. Gonzalez from Mesa, who else did you request?”

I finally spun the chair around to look at the woman who claimed to be the Governor’s assistant. Facing me wearing the definition of pre-System professional attire, black skirt that extended to just pass the knees, a white stylish blouse, buttoned up just high enough to reveal only a hint of ample cleavage, and a pair of mid height heels. She had shoulder length wavy blonde hair, deceptively plain brown eyes that could pull you into a trance if used the right way, and full lips painted in cherry red lipstick.

“Irene, from Lake Pleasant, or is it Pleasant Lake. I can never keep it straight. As well as Captain Devers and his daughter Sam. I also understand they are bringing the leader of the only refugee group that’s been given Sanctuary in the region.”

I could tell Allison was trying to keep up an appearance of indifference, however, when I mentioned the Refugees she tensed just enough for me to tell the comment had struck a nerve. Even when we mentioned Captain Devers and Irene her eyes tightened just a hair. To her credit she responded without missing a beat.

“Excellent, we’ve wanted to bring the disparate communities together for a meeting like this for some time now. Myself and the Governor look forward to it. I’ll let Rosa know to expect more visitors.”

I stood and shook the woman’s hand, formally acknowledging her, she didn’t flinch like so many others do when first seeing my full height, “Sounds good, Allison. They should be here in about half an hour.”

The woman smiled, nodded briefly, then excused herself, leaving us to enjoy the rays of the setting sun. Ten minutes later David arrived, followed shortly by Irene, Captain Devers, and a light blue skinned mer-man wearing chitinous armor, large round eyes swiveling to take in the unfamiliar scenery.

Captain Devers introduced me to the pair, starting with Irene, a hard looking woman who must have been in her early fifties before the System took hold. She had auburn hair and the lithe figure of someone who had lived a subsistence lifestyle, barely making ends meet and working hard to do it. Despite eyeing me warily, we exchanged pleasantries, and then I was introduced to the fishy looking man who introduced himself as Srookimal.

“Irene, John, where is Samantha, I’ve so missed her.” Junipher asked with a beaming smile.

“Oh, yeah, she’ll be up soon. She ran into Alyssa. They were catching up.”

“Oh, good. I know those two were close. I am sure there will be more time for us to catch up later.”Junipher pouted a bit in disappointment then returned to her usual seat in my lap with a renewed smile.

A few moments later the familiar face of the former Governor of Arizona walked in with Allison in tow. The man with stylishly greying hair, a strong square jaw, and sparkling hazel eyes, strode into the conference room exuding an inordinate amount of charisma and command presence. Everyone but myself and Junipher stood as he entered, even the weird fish man. I felt the pull of a Skill in the back of my mind and realized his Charisma must be as high as my Perception.

He frowned slightly when neither me nor Junipher budged from our comfortable seating arrangement, but continued forward without breaking his stride. When he reached the end of the table where we sat and extended a hand with an unnaturally warm smile, Junipher slid off my lap casting her most sultry smile over her shoulder. I returned his smile, stood, and took his hand in a firm handshake.

“Mr. Brunett, you have no idea how happy I am for your timely assistance. I won’t lie, we wouldn’t have held out any longer. Your timing was truly fortuitous. I see you’ve gathered with us all of the disparate communities except for, of course, Litchfield Park.”

I released his hand with a beaming charismatic smile, not quite as effective as his own, “Well, we just happened to be in the neighborhood. As to why I’ve gathered you all here, well, I’m not one to beat around the bush so I’ll just come out and say it. In a little under two months, we will be invaded.”

Captain Devers didn’t even flinch at that statement, we’d talked about what the Mana Saturation Overseer, Audron E’fi, had told me after we fought off the second Gnoll siege. All the new players at the table however, shared several incredulous looks at my last statement.

“Uh, no offense to Miss Junipher here, but, haven’t we already been invaded?” The Governor asked, slightly confused.

“Well, technically, no. What we’ve experienced is a kind of introduction to the System. One where it constantly tests us and pushes us to become stronger as quickly as possible. How much have you interacted with your VPA?”

A sour look colored the big man’s face, “I hate the damn thing, so not much, though Allison here has been pushing me to use it more, why?”

“Because it has all the pertinent information on the different phases the System puts new planets through. It’s all very structured and what not. Currently, we are in what I’ve dubbed the quick growth phase. The System just refers to it as Phase 2. This phase starts immediately after mana saturation has hit one hundred percent, which happened for Earth about a month and a half ago. At that point we have three months before, well, alien migration occurs.”

Everyone stared at me in shock. Already I could see the wheels turning in both Allison and Irene’s heads. David seemed lost in his own little world of dread. The Governor, not being the brightest of men, just looked on with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“Just what phase is that, Mr. Brunett?” He asked.

“And, I’m sorry, sir, excuse me. But, you have another source of information. Don’t you?” asked Allison, proving to be much quicker on the uptake than her boss.

“Well, I was… EVERYONE DOWN!” I barked as I saw several black shapes swinging into the windows to my left. The sound of glass exploding inward echoed through the room, screaming and bloodshed followed soon after.