The busyness of the streets of New Flame was barely covering the tension that was festering due to the power struggle left in wake of Lucas’s violent overthrowing of the Families, the only saving grace being his conservative approach to taking life, even though the mercy he had shown to all of the ruling members of the Families was proving to be a pain in the ass for Bruce, forcing him to meditate between Prince, the new chancellor and all of the Families that were his vehement opposition. Unfortunately, that also meant he was forced to maintain presence in New Flame on the regular basis, transferring all of his businesses to his new office, a comfy place he was being forced to leave on regular basis to solve one problem or another.

“This shithole better solve itself quickly, or I will let Lucas finish the job” Bruce thought to himself, but in reality there was little they could do, their problem being they were forced to cooperate with Prince and that little slime ball would be more than happy to poison the New Flame against Camp Hearth the moment his rule stopped being threatened meaning the Families have to stay relatively powerful and in constant opposition. Luckily, the New Flame was functioning on the daily basis and most importantly, they imports were becoming a continuous stream as proven by the fact that there was a almost permanent queue of people awaiting teleportation. Arriving at the mansion of the chancellor, a building Prince took after its previous occupant was ousted by Lucas, Bruce knocked on the door and waited.

Heavily armed woman open the door and signaled Bruce to come in. She escorted him through the building, staying silent the entire way, knocking on a flimsy wooden door that represented the barrier between Prince’s office and rest of the world, indicating to Bruce that something happened to the previous one, probably blown up in a fight which could only meant there was yet another attack on Prince, the Families getting more aggressive which each passing day.

“Come in” a voice from the other side of the door stopped Bruce from analyzing the door further. His escort opened the door, allowing Bruce to confidently stroll forward, bringing into the office full might and authority of Camp Hearth, a reminder to Prince how much he could push his demands. A look on the man’s face indicated Bruce’s posturing had the intended effect so he quickly seated himself on one of the chairs not waiting to be offered, reminding Prince who was subordinate to whom before he got too pushy in his demand as he had a habit of doing.

“Good morning, mister Prince” Bruce opened the conversation, deliberately omitting the man’s formal title, yet another reminder that his rule was tenuous. Omitting didn’t went unnoticed as the Prince frowned upon hearing Bruce’s voice, but the man showed enough wisdom not to challenge the omission, instead getting right to the business.

“Good morning, governor. I hate to bother you, but last night there was another attack, the attackers managing to fight their way into the mansion proper, being stopped here in the office” Prince started, continuing with recounting the events of the fight. Bruce listened to the man, controlling his frustration. As per Prince, there was two dozen of the attackers, all killed at the cost of fifteen of his men, meaning almost forty people died yesterday. That wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but this attacks happened semi – regularly and those small numbers started adding up, seriously damaging the numbers of people in New Flame which was already struggling to bring in new people.

“I’m glad to see you managed to come out unharmed” Bruce lied, his preference being that one of the sides capitulate without interference from Camp Hearth, and last night seemed like a perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened, instead he had some appeasement to do, the Chancellor clearly angry at the Bruce’s inaction.

“I give you my word I will investigate the matter and bring the ones who gave the order to justice” Bruce continued, measuring his every word to be as non – committable as possible.

“Governor, the time for investigation and justice is almost at the end. If you don’t do something about the Families and their lackeys, I will reveal who brought me the Chancellor’s seat” Prince said calmly, the threat clear.

“And you will also lose your seat, Mr. Prince” Bruce responded, testing to see if the Prince was bluffing. He wasn’t as afraid now of anybody discovering the meddling of Camp Hearth as he was when Lucas did his thing, his governance proving to be beneficial to ordinary people of New Flame, for the first time in a long while the power struggle not spilling out in the streets, spies of Camp Hearth working tirelessly to strangle any plan for terrorism in its infancy. Nevertheless, the people of New Flame were still pretty independent bunch, the rivalry with Camp Hearth still strong and that could bring them to riot if the meddling ever becomes common knowledge.

“My seat is already on the brink. I cannot withstand many more attacks like the one that happened last night and if I’m going down, I will take you with me” Prince responded, Bruce figuring out he was not bluffing.

“Careful, Mr. Prince, someone might think you are threatening me, and seeing I’m official representative of Camp Heart, that someone might come to conclusion you are threatening the Camp Hearth” Bruce said, his voice calm, but the implication clear. Prince once again frowned, the words sinking in. With that, Bruce felt that this conversation is over, so he got up from his chair and exited the office. His mind started spinning, his Intelligence hard at work, trying to create a plan to deal with the political situation in New Flame permanently. His thoughts raced, every plan he came up with shut down by some flaw or another, as he slowly coming back to his office. There, a young woman snapped him from his thoughts, ecstatically running towards him.

“Mr. governor, sir, the early warning system is working. It just fired up” Maya, the genius engineer and new Chief Engineer startled Bruce from his thought, his speech rapid and full of excitement.

“Whoa, slow down, Maya” Bruce interrupted her “start from the beginning” he told to engineer. Maya took a deep breath and started describing all the intricacies of the early warning system she invented and more importantly, that it flared this morning, showing someone arriving to the shores.

“Whoa, Maya, what is the range of these things?” Bruce asked, worried.

“It can catch up to hundred kilometers, giving us three days, give or take” Maya spoke, still excited for her contraption to work so flawlessly. Bruce would usually share her enthusiasm, but right now he had bigger problems. He called the Loremaster’s archive, quickly scrolling through a number of maps, thanking the gods and the System filters existed. Finding the one he and his colleagues considered as the most accurate one, he opened it, the map confirming his doubts. There was nobody on the other shore capable of building ships, so that meant that their blue skinned invaders have decided to pay them visit once again.

“Maya, is the defense matrix ready?” Bruce asked, Maya sensing the distress in his voice and losing some of her excitement.

“Somewhat, but it is not fully charged” Maya responded.

“How much time could you buy us?” Bruce asked, his fingers finding the message he had written a long time ago, calling Lucas back.

“A week” Maya responded “what is happening?” she asked, her excitement completely replaced by fear.

“We are under attack, Maya. Go back to Camp Hearth and start working on some defensive gizmos. I will give you full access to funds” Bruce said, navigating through the settlements menus, finding the town funds and authorizing Maya to spend it as she saw fit. The girl lost all the color in her face, but quickly put on a brave face and nodded before running to the teleport stone. Bruce, on his side, took out a small white stone from his pocket and press the paper with the note on it, before a quick flash of white light transported that note to Lucas.

Bruce let out a heavy sigh, before his minds returned to something he delayed doing, on the pretense of not having time to do. Now there wasn’t any excuse, as he had to do everything in his power for Camp Hearth to weather the coming siege without too much issue and also creating a chance to talk about the beasts that guarded the General’s vault, as there was only one supplier of those kinds of beasts. He once again entered into the archive, finding the personal archive of Misha, an Organizer for the richest man on Earth and one of the rare individuals Bruce feared might put Lucas in danger. Luckily, the man seemed interested in trade and amassing wealth, which might be power in its own right, but was sure to paint a giant target on the back of the man once Earth complete its integration into the multiverse. Bruce stopped his train of thoughts, focusing instead on leaving a notification that the Camp Hearth would like to trade, hoping that the man would soon arrive, Bruce dreading the cost of all the stuff he would need to buy.