The bus got back to the base at 7:30am and the last group checked in. The 8 members of the Chen family went to their room. Joseph and Melanie decided to keep Melanie's parents in the dark but to let Joseph's parents know about the situation so that they can provide a buffer and make excuses for unexpected guests. Joseph's parents have enough experience of keeping their clients' secrets.

The base was locked down after. Each person was given a badge and sent to their rooms with a message to meet in the 'courtyard' for an announcement from the base management. At 7:45am a reminder announcement sounded in the room again for everyone to get up and gather in the middle courtyard. By 7:55am, all rooms will be locked and those that are left inside would be asked to gather their things to be deported out of the city. Needless to say, even though everyone was unhappy with that announcement, the timer on the large door display was very eye-catching and created a sense of urgency.

The courtyard was divided into two groups. The military personnel obviously stood close and clean together while the civilians gathered around their family and neighbors. A stage was in the front and a large halo screen on the wall from behind. The name and logo of the base in red was largely displayed on it.

The people on the stage were divided in half; there were 5 people from the Mech Division all dressed up in their dress uniform sitting on the left side, and 4 people from the Artemis Base dressed in red and 1 person in white sitting on the right. Melanie stood up and walked to the podium and activated the speakers.

Melanie: "Welcome to the Artemis Base. I am one of many managers of this base. We are the ones who make the rules and deal out punishments inside this base. Outside this base, the Mech Division will be the one to do so be you a military personnel or a civilian.

With the confirmation from hundreds of scientists from around the world, we shall soon be experiencing temperatures well below -15 degrees F. No one knows how long this will last and the government has yet to respond to questions of what they will do to protect its citizens.

Lady Artemis built this personal bunker with her own money, and each of you here were approved by her personally to take shelter in here with her. As such, there are no free rides in this world. Each ticket to enter the bunker is worth $5,000. If you are a civilian and you are here, then someone in your family has agreed to the price and have paid for your ticket already. For military personnel, the Mech Division has paid for your ticket.

Now I will go over a few important things before following up with the rules of the base. Each person should have an Artemis gold badge. This will allow you certain access and will also track your movements within the base. This is for the safety and well being of everyone.

Our rules are harsh but humane. Space and resources are limited. If you do not believe you can follow any of the rules in the next hour, you and your family will be escorted and flown to the nearest airport before noon. There are thousands of names still on the waiting list hoping to find a warm secure place for this coming disaster.

I will now introduce General Zhou to address the rules for his military personnel first."

General Zhou stood up from the chair, his clothes and appearance immaculate.

General Zhou: "While inside the base, the Mech Division will follow all of the Artemis Base's rules. While outside, you will follow your superior's orders. We will be entering an event never experienced before, so we shall set forth with vigilance and caution. Our new home will be here, on Artemis Base, so we will do everything to protect it. If we are attacked, we will attack back.

A copy of the military rules in addition to the base's rules will be displayed on each holo screen by default.... Do you, 'copy'?"

All: "Sir, yes sir!"

General: "At ease."

David: "I will now go over the rules of the base for the civilians....

...

As General Zhou said, these rules will be displayed on the holo screen by default as a constant reminder to live peacefully.

Last and not least. In cases when you are assigned to follow the military outside, and you see people you want to save and bring back to the base, then you will need to exchange you and your whole family's gold badge for them to apply for a ticket, which may or may not be approved.

Artemis Base is not in the business of saving people or sharing resources to those without a gold badge. You will encounter pitiful and heart wrenching scenes of people who are starving and dying. People fighting over resources, destroying property, attacking one another, and freezing to death.

Let me remind you. All of that has not happened yet and there are a lot of warnings and guidelines for people to prepare to survive. Each individual is responsible for choices they make and will need to own up to it themselves. If you feel like you can save the world by yourself, then we invite you to leave here and go off and become the savior of humanity with your capable self. We are not capable. But what we can guarantee is that while you're on this base, you will not freeze nor starve to death."

Melanie: "If you have any questions, all of them should be answered through the rules. When in doubt, don't break any of them and you will continue to have a roof over your head, a full belly, and a warm place to sleep. If you think you can cheat or break the system, then you will be banished because there will be no negotiations. We really don't need any of you here in our house taking up space, eating our food, and making trouble.

For those who would like to leave, Major General Zhou will be transporting everyone out to the nearest airport at 9am, so please gather outside and wait by the shuttle."

David: "Job postings will be displayed on each of your doors so if you are interested in applying for any of the jobs, swipe your badge to confirm your application. If you would like to stay for a demonstration of why you should not touch or approach any of the Artemis' uniformed personnel..."

---

After the Chens came back, Aria posted a message on her prophet account.

The Prophet 3033 @theprophet3033

October 13, 3031

Freezing Temperature Alert

Date: October 20, 3031

Time:12:22:43am GSE

Country: All

Temperature: -35 degrees F and lower

Duration: Unknown

Everyone who saw that pin started freaking out.

—

Catherine thought the base's rules were more ridiculous than the military's. Who chops off people's hands these days? Do they really think they are all that? Okay, well... it was for sexual assault. She clearly does not condone people abusing others that way. But the punishments for the other rules were too similar to hers. She has to pay the stupid rent on the bed pod that the military is already renting from the base? At 3x the price too!

Her gold badge started beeping. Surprised, she pulled it up and looked at it. Under her name, she can see the words, "Remaining time inside the base: 00:02:54".

Goshd*! It's a freaking timer to remind her to get the f* out of the base! Catherine started running towards the exit since she doesn't know what will happen when the timer hits "0". She made it outside with seconds to spare. Throwing the badge on to the ground she kicked some dirt over it. Stupid badge with it's stupid timer!

Her brother mentioned that it was another of the punishments that was enforced on her by the base. Apparently they did not like what she said to them and now they don't want her hanging around their precious base nor talking to them. Walking away whenever she sees them. Again, who do they think they are? Not allowed to approach, talk, or touch them? Heck she'll do it right now, see what they can do to her!

Catherine pulled out a breakfast CF cube and placed it in her mouth. Huh, this one tastes like ham and eggs. It didn't take long before a group of pilots gathered outside waiting for Major General Zhou. They were loud and full of excitement.

Male1: "Wow, those uniforms were awesome! Can you believe the power voltage of the shock?"

Catherine meandered over showing a cute smile on her face, popping a LP in her mouth.

Catherine: "What are you guys talking about? What's awesome?"

Male2: "Oh, you know those black, red, and white uniformed people?" The ones in Artemis Uniforms?"

Catherine: "Yeah."

Male2: "They just had a demonstration on what would happen if you approach and touch one of those black guards. Apparently each is decked out with a perimeter bracelet. That thing can shock and electrocute a bear! The settings are varied according to the guard's own preference. But at the mildest settings, it shocks the person who touches them for 1 minute. That volunteer went down like a rock! Can you imagine the settings for those in red and white?"

Male3: "I bet you they have theirs at maximum setting."

Male4: "Nah, bro. That's a bit extreme."

Male3: "just think about it. They are the most important people on the base. They like, own this place. And from what they said, they really don't care about whether we are here or not. So I figured if anyone crosses them, they're s* out of luck. Not only will the poor sod get electrocuted, they most likely will be banished."

Male4: "Still a bit extreme."

Male3: "Would you touch them then?"

Male4: "Me? F* that. I can doubt all I want but stupid I'm not. I'm fine with being shocked, but that 6 hour punishment... that's literally just enough time to sleep and bathe. The temperature is predicted to be below 35 degrees F. If I have to spend 18 hours outside as punishment, f* my life. I might just freeze to death."

Even though it was cold outside, Catherine's body was drenched in cold sweat. These pilots are surely lying, right? Negative 35 degrees F? She, who can't stand temperatures lower than 50 degrees F is going to be stuck outdoors at temperatures lower than that?

What is she going to do? Did she f* up? Does the General and MG know that it will get that cold and that's why they relocated the division to this place? No, she must beg her brother to let her stay inside! She can't be left out here while everybody is warm and protected inside!

—

During the announcements, like Alex, Aria did not move from her seat. It's clear that she does not intend to talk to anyone and is satisfied to let the 4 managers speak on her behalf.

Alex stood up and approached Aria.

Alex: "Can I have a word?"

Aria: "Let's go to my office."

Alex: "I will head back to the base to take away the remaining supplies and ships we were unable to take yesterday. I've left all the weapons with the General so that you don't remain defenseless. The general has ordered materials and we will build the wall today around the base."

Aria: "What about the people and leaders that didn't come with you?"

Alex: "They headed to 2 other bunkers yesterday morning. Now there are only a dozen people who volunteered to stay at the base to keep an eye on the remaining things."

Aria: "Do you have the list of names? Let me see."

S3 scanned the dozen names and their evaluation scores. One stood out like a sore thumb.

Aria: "This Joseph Shin is dangerous. His records look clean but in actuality he's a plant from the Su Cartel to infiltrate your organization. If you have access to the base, I suggest you change the passwords and lock down the place until you arrive or..."

Alex: "... I'll leave now!"

Alex's eyes darkened and his mood worsened. He passed over a new military satellite phone.

Alex: "Here. We only have a few of these new models. They don't use cell towers. You'll be able to contact me through this."

Then he left in a hurry. A bad feeling in his gut.

The MD base might be under attack.

---

Catherine suddenly saw a flurry of activity from the soldiers. The large group hurried off to the side of the building. Aria followed from behind, seeing over 3 dozen soldiers and 2 shuttles. Her brother was giving orders to his commanding officers as everyone started strapping down. She wanted to come over and asked what was going on but within a few short minutes, the shuttles took off with a soft whirl.

Puzzled, she stood there wondering what's going on and why it looked like her brother looked so worried. To others, he looked the same, but she could tell from his eyes when he was talking to his COs that his mind was elsewhere. Huh, it doesn't matter. She'll wait until he comes back to get him to remove her hours outside the base.

Female1: "Airman Zhou! What are you doing over there? Pick up your feet and join your group for recruit training. You're late, 10 extra laps."

Catherine: "Sorry, sir! Yes, sir! Right away, sir!"

Catherine is still a new recruit so her days mostly start off with recruit training, then regular base duties like security, etc, before classes in the afternoon. Catherine ran off to join her group in the field.

A gold card which was now dull and dirty lay embedded into the ground, forgotten.

---

Outside the bunker, everyone was like busy little bees. General Zhou put in orders for building materials and paid extra for next day delivery and the large orders came in at 8 in the morning. The military's SR machine had to be set up outside the bunker so Aria had a chance to see the stacks of raw materials and copy them to use later. Teams of soldiers went back and forth, moving the materials to locations noted by the PM.

General Zhou's commanding tent was set up in the middle of the field. Drones flew up in the air and soldiers marked the land. During the planning session with the Artemis Group, Aria offered to let the General use some of their equipment to speed up the building process. So a ditch 10 feet deep was dug using the machines. Then rows of cement bars were evenly placed down on the flat earth before the steel bars were fitted. Then cement was poured in to create the base and the group had their lunch break while waiting for the cement to dry. Once that dries, then cement bars are slotted through the steel bars after a swipe of wet cement. This was done and repeated by over a thousand soldiers on the perimeter. Eventually, the wall will be 15 feet high and 5 feet thick.

Aria pasted a few more hundred tons of cement for them, telling General Zhou it was donated by the Artemis Base. The soldiers worked hard for several hours before taking a short break. By the time night fell, the wall had reached 2 feet high and the first look out building was completed.

Another smaller group was in charge of building small look out buildings behind the wall. 10 tall buildings were planned so the whole place would be covered. The completed building was really a cement structure with 3 times the heat insulation. After going inside, there is a small short isolation walkway before opening another door. This was to prevent the warm air from seeping out. Inside were some bunkers and stairs that lead up to the lookout area and the roof was set up with solar power so energy can be used inside.

Aria knew that the snow will fall to more than 15 feet, unless the land is changed to let the snow roll away from the base. After some thought, she decided to shave the outside land slowly every night in the coming week to keep the base elevated. If worse comes to worse, she can take the snow inside her G space and leave at the top of one of her many mountains.