I stay with Mom and Mike for a few minutes, watching Mom stroking Pops's hair as she cries. Mike tries to pull her off the body a few times but she wordlessly pushes his arms away.
He stops after the third attempt when, after he places a hand on her shoulder, Mom bites him and nearly takes his thumb off.
Mike joins me on the side after that, staring at the rapidly healing teeth marks. A small smile appears on his lips as he shakes his head.
I smile as well, even if it feels so out of place. We're both probably thinking the same thing: it's comical how Pops, such a big yet gentle man, ended up with a woman that's as fierce as she is small.
Soon enough, I have to get moving again. The siege might be over, but I have to install that bastion core to create a true safe zone.
I hate how the system doesn't allow me to slow down, how it always has something else for me to do.
The core is in my inventory, a ball of metal and glass bisected at the equator. I pull it out to examine it, expecting it to be huge. The item that appears in my hand is only the size of a baseball, fitting neatly in my palm.
Mike sidles closer to get a look as well. The core is made of some kind of dull golden metal that resembles brass. A line of fogged glass runs through the equator, separating it into two domes that slowly rotate in opposite directions.
Each dome is covered in swirling patterns, and where the lines meet to form circles, the metal is replaced with yet more fogged glass. They show blurry images of intricate gears that spin on the inside.
Small as it is, the contraption radiates with immense power. It feels like my own soul is a firecracker, while this thing is a nuclear bomb.
Item: Bastion Core.
Description: Located at the heart of every Bastion, the Core fulfills a myriad of roles to ensure the smooth running of your settlement. It stabilizes the ambient flows of Mana within the Bastion's borders, stopping monster spawns; it offers the leadership control over the settlement and its population; and perhaps most importantly, the Core is the Bastion's direct and only lifeline to the System.
Monsters and invaders will seek to reach and destroy the Core first and foremost. Such an important structure needs to be protected at all costs.
Notice: Ownership of the Bastion will default to the user that installs the Core. If you received this Core as a quest reward, it is highly advised that you install it right away.
Do you wish to install the core and create the Stelver Bastion?
“I better go do that,” I say.
“Do what?” Mike asks.
“Install this thing, didn't you read the description?”
He shakes his head. “I didn't get it.”
I toss him the core so he can read the item description as well, and after he does, he hands it back very carefully. We decide that I'll go off to install the core, while he'll stay here with Mom to keep an eye on her.
I'll do my part quickly so we can give Pops a proper funeral afterwards.
I walk aimlessly through the safe zone for a few minutes, trying to decide how to do this. Problem is that I have no idea where I need to install the core. The item doesn't tell me. My first instinct is that it should go in the center of the town, but I have no idea whether it wants the geographical center or the social center.
The second one would be easy: the downtown area turned safe zone. But if it's the first one, I'd have to check a map to figure it out.
I remember the quest I got, so I bring it up in hopes that it will tell me what exactly I have to do.
Quest: Install The Core.
Description: The Core is the most critical structure of any Bastion. Installing it in a fortified position is crucial.
Recommended Core Sites:
Stelver Police Station.
Bastion Type: Armory.
Description: Built out of Stelver’s former police station, the Armory Bastion offers a perfect blend of defensive and offensive capabilities. Much like the structure it is based on, the Armory Bastion helps centralize and coordinate the settlement’s forces to maintain law and order.
Perks:
-Allies can resupply their load-outs with fresh ammunition and other consumables anywhere within the Bastion’s borders.
-Ammunition is 10% cheaper in the System shop.
-Receive a basic communications array.
Fortified Apartment Buildings.
Bastion Type: High-rise.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Description: Unlike other Bastions that rely on strong walls and other defensive structures to keep its residents safe, the High-rise Bastion relies on height. The near impregnable base allows for limitless upward expansion, and the structure comes with many fail-safes to prevent catastrophic collapse under all but the most dire of circumstances.
Perks:
-Rapid Deployment Launch Pads that allow for the quick insertion of troops anywhere within the Bastion’s borders.
-High Capacity Multi-directional Maglev elevators to facilitate fast movement of personnel and resources throughout the Bastion.
-Receive a basic mapping array.
Doug's Doomsday Bunker.
Bastion Type: Bunker.
Description: Bunkers are structures designed to shelter people in times of crisis. Built deep under the surface, the Bunker Bastion’s main line of defense against invaders is the earth itself. While it requires many life support systems and the costs of expansion are high, the Bunker Bastion takes up little room on the surface, allowing settlements to make better use of their lands.
Perks:
-Structural Integrity Compensators that mitigate area of effect damage sources from the surface.
-All life support systems run with increased efficiency.
-Receive a basic life support array.
I read through the options a few times, then I prompt the system for more detail. It provides, revealing that each bastion type comes with a few more universal perks that aren't listed.
For starters, the core will restructure the site into a bigger, stronger variant of the building. The immediate area around it, that the system assures me will be marked, will be terraformed and off-limits for other buildings. It’ll be allocated for the expansion of the main building over time as we'll upgrade the core.
We'll also get a shop terminal, as well as a basic solid fuel generator to power just the main building of the bastion.
All of that is great, but I still don't know which bastion type to pick. The three of them are all tempting. Yet, as I go over the options a few more times, I slowly find myself leaning towards the bunker. The high-rise sounds too exposed, and the police station wouldn't be a good emergency shelter.
With the core in hand, I head to Doug's bunker.
----------------------------------------
It takes me longer than expected to get there. Not because the bunker is far away, but because I'm stopped over a dozen times by people coming in with reports or asking for orders.
I don't feel like dealing with them right now, I'm not in the right headspace. The whole leader thing is getting tiring.
I make up my mind on that matter. Once the core is installed and a proper safe zone is formed, I'll step down and let the population pick their leader. I never agreed to something permanent, after all.
As I descend into the basement, I find the bunker's door still closed. No one came to let them know it's over. I knock on the door a few times, until William opens up.
“Hey, boss!” He greets with an enthusiastic salute. “I saw the system message. Congrats.”
“Yeah,” I say drily. “The surface is more or less safe. Get everyone out.”
William eyes me, quickly catching on that something isn't right. His expression falters, and he quietly asks, “who?”
I clench and unclench my fists, forcing the word out through gritted teeth. “Pops.”
William's eyes go wide. He steps closer, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I'm sorry.”
I nod. “Let's get to work, I don't want to think about it right now.”
----------------------------------------
William and I guide the people out of the bunker, standing to the side as they trickle by. I saddle him with the clean-up, and although I can tell he doesn't like it, he doesn't complain.
“Where's Emily?” He asks as we wait.
With some apprehension, I tell him what happened. William frowns as I reach the part where I sent both Emily and Jessica away, but he doesn't comment on it.
“You know, I've been meaning to talk to you about her,” he says instead. “I just never found a good moment, she was always nearby.”
This isn't a good moment either, but I don't stop him. Neither do I tell him that I already had a similar conversation with Pops. I just give William the go-ahead with a hand wave.
Unlike Pops, William has no qualms with sharing. But he doesn't tell me much about Emily herself, instead going straight to Morris. He confirms that the guy is Emily's ex, and that he's been haunting her since they broke up a couple of years ago.
“We never got any direct evidence, no one would talk, but I know he threatened any man that approached her. Beat up a few of them, too,” William says.
“And you never arrested him?”
“Couldn't,” William says. “Not without evidence and witnesses. The best we could do was get Emily a restraining order against him, but she didn't give us enough details to work with. She was…still is scared of him.”
I nod. Although I don't know the specifics, I figured out as much on my own. William eyes me again, pausing for a long moment, but I don't bring up the fact that Morris already tried to kill me and almost did.
“I get that Emily wouldn't speak, but none of the guys he beat up either? How come?” I ask instead.
“As far as I could tell, they were either friends or clients of his,” William answers.
“Clients?”
“Drugs.”
“And let me guess, no evidence for that either?”
William shakes his head. “We were building up a case against him, but we never got anything concrete. Only rumors and suspicions.”
We fall silent after that, watching the people filing out of the bunker and basement. I know why William is telling me all of this, but I want to hear it from him.
“What are you trying to get at, William?”
He sighs. “I think she's a good girl, but that Morris guy? He was dangerous before, when we were all normal people. Now we're all superhumans and—”
“And what?” I interrupt, a bit of anger slipping into my tone. “Should I just give her up? Hand her over to him to save my own ass?”
“God, no!” William explodes, making the nearby people look at us. “I just…I don't know. I have no idea what we should do about it, about any of this. I've been thinking about it long and hard, but I don't know.”
“Elaborate,” I demand.
“Morris wasn't the only asshole around. Not in our town and not in the wider world. But they were normal people, we could lock them up. Now they're not anymore, so what can we do about them? I bet a lot of them only acted like decent people because they were afraid of the law, but how long will it take them to realize that all of that is out the window now? What will you do when he comes for you because of Emily?”
“We'll figure that out when it happens,” I say, though internally, I've made up my mind.
Next time I see Morris will be the last. I have enough shit to deal with as is, I don't need a psycho running rampant on top of everything else.
“Jack?” William asks with some worry.
I wave him off. “Make the clean-up quick, then try to get some rest. We'll have a funeral for Pops at his house at the break of dawn, and I think you should be there.”
William looks at me for a long moment, and when I don't add anything else, he sighs. He gives me a tired okay, and we split up as the last of the survivors leave the bunker.