"Are you eating that pudding?" Mouse asked as he reached over presumptively.

"No, help yourself why don't you." She rolled her eyes as he pulled off the lid and licked it clean.

They were still eating from ration packs which were one size fits all in terms of calories so she was quite happy for Mouse to eat what she didn't need. He had been busy changing out wall panels and reconstructing the command tower. Instead of being made solely of wall panels he had worked with Gary and the material from the ziggurat to replace over half of these with blockwork. It had an odd attractive quality to it, the rough inner edge of the material now planed flat with just a little texture to the touch, like plain stonework. Next to the metallic finish of the wall panelling the two set each other off to enhance the interior.

"I like the new look." Elias said to Mouse.

"We had to get a bit creative with the ceiling panels, not worked out how we can make those with the materials we have here yet." Mouse replied

The expansion of the first floor of the tower meant they did not have the materials for a full ceiling and instead a mezzanine level had been created. A ladder led to this and then up further to the second floor where the both the Crystal and a door out to the roof were found. As the sun set outside a beam of energy became visible shooting down into the ground from the Crystal above in the centre of the room. The warm purple light pulsing from it gave the room a calm ambience, picked up and complementing the harsher more clinical light from the wall and ceiling panels.

"Just wait a moment, there's another surprise." Mouse said with glee as he finished off his second pudding and jumped up out of his seat. He took his console and connected it via a plug to a panel in one of the walls.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Ready?" He said dramatically. They all moaned for him to get on with whatever he was doing, ignoring the dramatics.

Mouse ignored them back and with one last exaggerated gesture pressed one last button on his console. As he did so the stone-like sections of the wall connected with the energy of the Crystal and started to glow alongside it. Not all the areas were lit but a scattered effect was present that gave the room an even more calming feel. The work Mouse and Gary had done to the surface of the material taking away the disturbing growths and shadows one found while exploring a ziggurat.

"We were playing with the panels, trying to work out if we could connect them through the zig material." Mouse explained. "Looks good, doesn't it?"

"It's beautiful." Slim was the first to speak. The others nodded in agreement.

"Anyway," Mouse said sitting himself back down, "thought it would make the place more homely. Adding our own touches rather than the basic building plans we brought down."

"It's a great idea Mouse, and a great start. This place is our home after all." Elias said.

"Plus now we have the men to safely secure and patrol the area we can start to make it less like a military camp." Slim added. "Much as I like the security of being inside four tall outer walls, we shouldn't need that anymore. Time to look forward to building up our population and getting the necessary structures to grow Libertas into something more."

"True," said Elias, "now the ziggurat has been officially marked as destroyed no one can pull the stunt Prevail tried. Right?" He looked at Slim who had been the one looking into the question.

"Right." Agreed Slim. "If they came back they wouldn't be able to stop right by the settlement unless they truly joined in the defence, and then they would have no right to claim the settlement when we won. In theory they could still drive past with Swarm tailing them but without stopping a good number of the Swarm would just continue with the convoy and leave the settlement as not worth attacking. I can't see that happening, but never say never."

"There is the question of the Swarm from the East." Oberon joined in the conversation. "Why did they decide to migrate in our direction?"

"So we need to expand the settlement and need more materials to do so. Once we have those we need to stop it looking like a military outpost so we can encourage more people to come and settle here rather than elsewhere. Plus we need to work out what's happening to the east so we can protect ourselves." Elias said, and look into whatever Jed found that made him contact Oberon he added in thought only.

"Compared to what we've just been through that can't be too hard, can it?" Elias gave off a weak smile of encouragement. "First, let's just enjoy what we have here for a moment." He looked around the group once more. Mouse gave him a thumbs up in support, Slim was rubbing her temple like she was considering the hard work ahead and Oberon simply gave a knowing smile.

Yes he mused. A bit of a rest and then they could get on with their next adventure.