Chapter 131 - Military Intelligence

  I eyed Turner carefully. He looked impeccable in his military uniform, which was a stark contrast to myself; I was still wearing the body armor I used whenever I was traveling outside the farm. I’d had it repaired and reinforced after taking a couple of near-mortal injuries during the fight against the Forgotten King. It wouldn’t be as easy to punch through as it had been. Carver wasn’t in armor, but he wore slacks and a button-down shirt, looking more ‘business casual’ than anything else.

  Turner stood out, which was probably the point. He was also back down to tier five, I noted. That was new. Delores told me they’d forced him to give up his Charisma stone after discovering how he’d been using it, and that was his tier six stone. He must have gotten enough crystals to get something else ranked up to tier five. That wasn’t a shabby rank, but it had to sting to lose ground like that. I knew I’d hate it, if something happened that cause me to drop a tier.

  He had one aide with him, a lieutenant, if I was reading the rank right. Also in uniform, but the lieutenant wore light armor over his and had a sword belted at his side.

  I crossed the room and extended my hand as an olive branch. “Good to see you, too. We’ve got a lot of work to do together.”

  My gut said Turner was never going to like me. In spite of his words, I saw the anger still flickering just beneath the surface. It was there, visible in his eyes. My hope was that we could get past that and work together anyway, because all the people counting on us needed that. Could he meet me halfway?

  Turner rose and shook my hand. “We do, and a lot of people counting on us.”

  “That’s absolutely true,” Gideon said, moving to the head of the table. “We have a number of threats and possible allies out there in the world. I’d like to begin this meeting with an intelligence dump, if we that’s acceptable?”

  Turner and I both nodded, so he went on.

  “I’ve had a number of scouts out, exploring the nearby area. I’m sure each of you have as well. We made this map as a tool for planning out strategies, and I wanted to use it today to share all that we’ve learned with the group. An alliance is only truly effective if we share information, and rather than asking others to kick that off, I figured I’d start.

  “You can see every Domain that I’m aware of on this map. You all recognize your own, of course. The one north of us, here,” Gideon pointed, “is the orc base. At the moment they only have one Domain, but there are at least three semi-independent groups operating there. I think it’s safe to think of them as tribes or clans. Only one of them has a Domain, but that Domain doesn’t seem to rule the other two tribes, from what my scouts saw. If that changes and the Domain ruler manages to win control of all three tribes, we will probably see a change in their overall effectiveness and attack patterns.”

  He moved around the table to the side closest to the lake shore. “I took down the pirate domain, as you know. They were enslaving people and being the worst sort of humans, so I have no regrets about that. When I conquered their Domain, it merged into mine, and I captured that location as well.” He pointed to the red zone I’d noticed that was right downtown, near the lake shore. “Interestingly, when I merged their control stone into mine, I simply absorbed their Domain at the same time. Selena, I gather you had a slightly different experience?”

  “I did. But my control stones came from different places. I already had one from beating the goblins, but hadn’t used it to found a Domain yet,” I said. “Then I got a second one from an ant colony.”

  I’d really have liked to keep one of those secret, since I was revealing that I had three control stones, more than anyone else in the room. But they both knew about the goblin fort, and Turner certainly had a good idea at least about the ants, too. It just didn’t make sense to keep secrets that would likely be found out sooner or later anyway. Better to come clean now and win points for honesty. Trust was still somewhat iffy in this room, so finding ways to boost that was a good thing. I hoped.

  “The one I got from the Forgotten King was the third I’d acquired. But I already had the other two merged into a tier two control stone, and that’s the one I used,” I said. “I haven’t used the stone from Lyonius yet. If I get another control stone, though, I’ll be able to rank the Domain to tier three.”

  “I knew they would rank,” Turner said. “My Domain—and it is still my Domain, although the Governing Council does the actual day to day rulership—is still tier one, but I already had a sense that merging in more control stones would rank up the Domain. Two questions: what value did that add to your Domain, and would you be willing to trade for that other stone?”

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  I chuckled at that. “We can talk trade, but…probably not. I have a feeling these control stones are one of the most valuable resources in this new world, so they’re going to be worth quite a lot. As for value, some of it is in the creatures that spawn. Tier one seems to spawn about a dozen tiers of support creatures to help defend the place. At tier two, my Domain spawned twenty-four. I’m guessing Carver saw the same?”

  Gideon nodded at me. “I did. Soon as I ranked up the Domain, it doubled the defenders.”

  “But yours is split, whereas mine is focused. You have two red zones on the map,” I said, pointing. “I have one. I think you’ve drawn mine too small, though. I’ve done a survey, and I think the radius should be about half again longer.”

  “So ranking up a single Domain, rather than having multiple focal points, increases the control radius,” Gideon said, drumming his fingers on the table. “Interesting. I don’t know which of those options is superior.”

  “Probably situational,” Turner chipped in.

  “Something we ought to learn more about,” Gideon added. “Moving on, I want to address this patch, over in the Red Rock Forest.”

  He tapped a spot on the map that was mostly woods, where the land met the lake in a curved point. I knew the place pretty well; it was one of the nicer beaches in Burlington, and there was a park there as well. Now it seemed someone had take it over as a Domain. Judging from the toothpicks Gideon used to signify their base, I was guessing it was a palisade similar to the one I’d captures in Centennial Woods.

  “Not goblins, I’m hoping?” I asked, even though I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

  Gideon chuckled. “Yes, it’s goblins. Good guess.”

  “I already took down one base like that. It wasn’t easy.”

  “This one may be more difficult still. I haven’t been able to get a scout near the place for a week. They’re killing every undead I send in. The last good look I got showed a lot of goblins there, though. It seems to be a gathering place for them. Not so many as there are orcs up by those farms, but enough to be a serious threat anyway.” Gideon gestured toward Turner. “The next one I’d like to discuss is the Domain set up northeast from you. I haven’t been able to get scouts out there, so I don’t have any direct knowledge of the place beyond the fact it exists. Can you fill us in more?”

  Turner stood and walked to the ‘east side’ of the table. “This one’s humans, not monsters or other creatures. They’re a collection of farmers, mostly. Bunch of farms out that way. Some of them decided to pool resources and, when the monsters started overrunning their farms, elected to pick up and move somewhere more defensible. There’s a spot where the Winooski River has a fairly absurd meander, a spot where it just turns right for about a mile, then doubles back. It created a little spit of land surrounded by water everywhere except on the southwest side, and even there it’s a narrow opening.

  “They moved all their people and farm animals there, and then started accepting new folks. I don’t have a ton of information about them yet, myself. We’ve been more focused on dealing with the local threat of the avian population staring us down, so outreach hasn’t been a priority.”

  “How are things going with the avians?” Gideon asked.

  Turner shrugged. “No real change. They raid us every few days, but it’s never anything serious. We’ve lost two men this week, though. They were foraging for supplies and were attacked. It’s why I wanted them wiped out. Still do, really. For us, they’re a more immediate threat than the orcs.”

  I had to interject something there. “But some of them joined us for the fight against Lyonius and his undead. That tells me that they can be reasoned with. It’s not simple, because of the language barrier. But if we can overcome that, we might be able to get somewhere with them, even have them join our alliance. If Patches and his people hadn’t been able to speak English, we might have ended up fighting them too.”

  “Like I did,” Gideon added. “Something I deeply regret now. Loss of life is terrible at a time when we can use every sword.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “The more allies we have, the better things are going to be for everyone. I just don’t know how to reach out to them, not without a common language to communicate.”

  “You managed it before,” Turner said. “Twice now you’ve been able to work out some sort of genial relations with them, from what I’ve been told. We need the threat removed. If you’re willing to try diplomacy, I’m happy to give you a shot. If that doesn’t work, though, I’d like support from the alliance in removing this danger to my people.”

  All eyes were on me, and I didn’t know what to say. I’d just said that I didn’t know how to communicate with them, so why was this falling on me? That is was going to land on my shoulders, I had no doubt.

  “Well, Selena?” Gideon asked. “Is that something you’re willing to take on, or should Colonel Turner go ahead and make attack plans?”

  I chewed my lip a moment as I realized I didn’t want the avians attacked and wiped out, and I definitely didn’t want to be part of the group doing it. I gave them a nod. “I’ll try. No promises, but I’ll give it a shot.”

  “Good. Is there anything else new, Colonel?” Gideon asked.

  “Yes, one more base you missed. It’s not a Domain yet, although I expect that to change soon,” Turner said. “Camp Johnson has organized themselves and begun taking on a civilian population to protect it, much as we did at the Air Guard base. Camp Johnson is the home of the Army National Guard, and like us, they were in a good position right after the Event. It took them a while to get things together, but they’ve managed. They have walls now, plenty of housing, and they’re accepting more refugees on the regular. General Adams is in charge of the place, and he already has a control stone; he simply hasn’t used it yet.”

  “Why not?” Gideon asked.

  Turner shrugged. “Glowing magic thing appeared in mid-air? Adams is a good man, but he’s also pushing seventy. He’s not the sort of man to jump into whatever weird shit is coming his way. He’s into a more cautious approach.”

  “I can understand that. If that’s all, it brings us to the Domain south of your farm, Selena. What can you tell us about them?” Gideon asked.

  I made an uncomfortable face. That place had only sprung up as a Domain a few days ago, but what we’d learned since then had me more than a little worried.