After moving back upstairs, Tom and James headed for the gym. They saw that almost everyone in the guild had gathered and had almost filled the gym. This wasn't going to be a viable meeting spot before long. Brian was standing just inside the doors trying to get everyone to move around to allow room for Tom to give his speech. Moving to where he was standing, he tapped Brian on the shoulder.
"I don't know if this will work," Tom said near his ear so he could hear him better.
"It definitely won't work," Kiera piped in after seeing Tom enter. "It's basic sound physics. Bodies absorb sound. So when you talk it won't make it to the back of the room."
"How do you know about sound physics?" Tom asked.
"I was in a band, moron. We have to know these things for room setups." Kiera replied annoyed at being questioned.
"Oh, right. That makes sense. Sorry. Brian, can we move this outside?" Tom said again turning to face him.
"Yup. Yup. Good idea. This is definitely not working. Over a thousand people all in this one room is making me nervous. Let's get everyone outside. TJ, go ahead and make an announcement to have them all meet out front. We would never be able to do it from here." Brian called over to where TJ was standing.
He dashed off to the Security Center to make the announcement. Once that had happened and about half an hour of people herding later, everyone was assembled outside. Tom had driven the GS2 around the front as well so he could stand on the roof to see above the crowd and so they could all see him.
"Uh, hello! How is everyone?" Tom began and a few people shouted things back.
Cries of "We're good!" and "Hey, look it's Tom!" mixed with some "meh" and "Can't complain I suppose" and one odd "GNOMES RULE" was shouted from someone at the back, but Tom couldn't tell who had yelled that.
"Alright, alright. Now, the reason you have all gathered here today is because of the attack that just happened. I know by now the word of the zombies likely isn't news to everyone. But if it is, then tonight I went to see what was happening in another base in the city." Tom continued.
His eyes found Lily standing in the crowd and looking up at him as he gave his speech. She had tears running down her face, but they appeared to be happy tears this time.
"There is a man not far from here, who has decided that his desires are greater than those of others. A man who has come to think of his fellow humans as puppets to use as he sees fit! He has condemned them to a life of slavery by placing collars on their necks and using them to force them to complete his plans. And now we find out that he has the power to raise zombies to fight for him as well!" Tom continued as the crowd began to look uneasy.
"I cannot stand by while people are forced into slavery. We are better than this! Do you think letting this happen and going unchecked is okay?" Tom called out to the crowd.
Shouts of "Hell no" and "What the damn hell" came back to him. "We really living in a time where people are slaves again? I thought we got past that?"
"I am going to fight to stop this. We brought you here to tell you we are planning to go to war against this man who calls himself The Master. That he cannot continue and if he does, we will get to a point where we won't be able to stop him. Who here is with me in putting a stop to this atrocity?" Tom asked the crowd, attempting to shout louder as the murmurs had grown to where he could barely make out anything over the din.
"YES!" "Let's rip his fucking slaver throat out!" "It's not right!" "Death to zombies!"
"Isn't that an oxymoron?" James leaned over and asked Derek when he heard the last of the shouts.
"Your mom's an oxymoron," Derek said back out of the corner of his mouth.
"Dude...weak," James scoffed.
"The time is near! We aren't just running over there without a plan to kill everything. We will be strategizing and making sure the least amount of lives possible are lost. But we didn't want to commit to a war without your support. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing you still care for how people are treated, even though you could be selfish in this moment. This is why VANGUARD WILL STAND FOREVER!" Tom yelled the last line as loud as he could.
The crowd went absolutely ape-shit at this pronouncement. Pride swelled in Tom's chest as he thought of how much effort it had taken over just the short period of time since the System had been put in place.
Tom climbed down from the vehicle and Brian came immediately over to shake his hand.
"That went way better than I thought it would. I guess the zombie attack lit a fire under the people here." Brian said enthusiastically and with a hint of that fire for revenge still burning in his eye.
"They all came here looking for a better life. I think they just see that they are now able to do for others what we did for them and it's inspiring." Tom replied smiling from ear to ear.
People began to file back inside to return to what they were doing. Tom turned to go inside, but Brian caught his arm.
"Only you can make the selection for who we are at war with. You need to do that before we forget." Brian told him.
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"Right, okay, I'll do it," Tom said nervously, pulling up the System interface and navigating to the guild tab.
Looking at the options, he selected the tab for war. Looking at the screen, he realized that he hadn't figured out what the name of The Master's Guild was.
"Oh for fuck's sake. We have no idea what the guild is called. And there's a list of over a thousand guilds in here now." Tom complained loudly as he put his face in his hand.
"Can we try? Is there anything obvious that might give it away?" Brian asked.
"I can look through it, but unless it's called 'I'm the master, Tom please declare war on me' I'm not confident that we will find the right one," Tom replied, getting more and more frustrated as he looked at names in the list.
Scrolling through the list Tom looked at all the names. Some of them were really cool like the Electric Salamanders or the Red Dragon Brigade. Others were clearly made by someone's child or as a joke such as Assy McAssFace, or It Burns When IP which Tom found amusing as a developer.
"Heh... it's not a wifi you're naming. But that's clever." Tom said aloud as he chuckled.
After a long period of scrolling, Tom finally came across a name that he assumed had to be for The Master.
"Well, this is likely it. But if we do declare war on them and it's not the right guild what do we do?" Tom asked.
"What's the name of the guild?" Brian asked.
"It's called 'The Master's Flock'," Tom replied.
"Odds are pretty good that's our guy. If we are wrong, I guess we have to either fight another guild or explain the situation to them when they find us." Brian replied, shrugging as he was unsure exactly what would happen.
"Well, I guess here goes nothing," Tom said and selected The Master's Flock and mentally selected the big red DECLARE WAR button beneath the drop-down menu.
A message with a bold red border sprang into his vision, along with every other member of the Vanguard guild. Unbeknownst to them, the same message appeared in the vision of every member of The Master's Flock as well.
War has been declared:
The leader of the Guild VANGUARD has declared war against THE MASTER'S FLOCK Guild. Be warned that sides can be taken. Alliances can be formed. Prepare for battle and fight with honor!
"Well....I didn't know it was going to do that." Tom said sheepishly after closing the prompt.
"It can't be helped. And normally declarations of war were a bit of a public affair so it's not uncommon for them to be broadcast in such a way." Bob said sneaking up behind Tom.
"Holy shit! Where did you come from?" Tom asked, jumping slightly from the startle.
"Oh, I've been here the whole time. Waiting to see what you would do." Bob replied, hands clasped behind his back in a patient stance.
"I guess you are right though. Proclamations used to be made in times of war didn't they? With heralds and all?" Tom asked.
"Indeed. So this fanfare is pretty normal." Bob replied.
"Right. So now we need a plan. When we were there, it wasn't super hard to get in. It was getting out that was the problem." Tom began.
"But we won't need to worry about getting out. They will hopefully be dead when we leave. It's the keeping the innocents alive and getting the collars off that's the issue." Brian chimed in.
"True. We will have to give Herbert some more time to come up with a solution. In the meantime I want people training. Parties killing monsters, learning new skills and spells, and stocking an armory for us." Tom ordered.
"Look at you, all fired up and taking charge. Much better than before." Jay mentioned also sneaking up behind Tom.
"Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker, why is everyone sneaking up on me today?!" Tom shouted indignantly.
"Hehehehehehe! I'm a rogue, what do you expect? Plus it's good practice." Jay replied, rubbing his hands together menacingly.
"Dude, that's creepy. Stop the hand rubbing." Tom said looking blankly at him.
"Must not have had the effect I was going for, sorry," Jay said.
"It's fine. I need to find Kiera. We need to get her working on some sniper stuff as well. Anyone seen her?" Tom asked.
"I think she went to the Infirmary. James headed there just a moment ago too." Jay informed him.
"Oh, right! The infirmary! I need to get there as well to see how Squirrel is doing." Tom said and rushed off toward the building.
Moving swiftly for the back hallway that led to the Infirmary, Tom continued until he reached the door. Opening it and looking inside, Tom was not prepared for what he saw there. In the back corner of the room, where Squirrel had been laid up on a cot after the battle with the zombie horde outside the walls, was what appeared to be a six-foot-tall wolf with red glowing eyes. Tom quickly identified it while he equipped his sword.
Dire Wolf - Squirrel
The dire wolf is one evolution of the wolf creatures spawned on planet 35956390246, or "Earth". It is larger, faster, stronger, and more ferocious than its brethren, and has the ability to rally other wolves if they are nearby.
"What the actual fuck?" Was all Tom managed to say as he lowered his greatsword so the point rested on the floor.
He stood there in complete shock at the size of the creature in front of him. It had to take up nearly a third of the Infirmary's main area.
"Oh, hey Tom! Look! Squirrel is fine! It was just time for him to evolve!" James shouted excitedly as he scratched at Squirrel's fur.
"Yes...I see that. But again...what the actual fuck? Will he even fit out of the door?" Tom asked, now concerned that Squirrel had evolved in a terrible place.
"Oh, yeah. He can actually shrink in size. Show him, buddy." James said turning to Squirrel.
Squirrel howled once and then began to shrink to just about double the size of a normal wolf.
"That's...that's amazing! How big can he get?" Tom asked.
"I think that was about the max size, but we would want to go outside to really test it," James stated.
"Okay. We can put that on our list of to-do's. But for now, we need to meet in the Security Office. Hopefully, we can come up with some plans to begin haranguing The Master to disrupt his plans." Tom told him.
"Alright. How about Squirrel and I just go over there and wreck everyone?" James asked with an evil grin.
"No, absolutely not. He has slaves he could just throw at you and you'd be hamstrung trying not to kill them. Or worse yet, you'd just kill indiscriminately and end up killing a bunch of innocent people being held captive against their will. Do you want that?" Tom asked James.
"No," James said glumly looking down at his shoes.
"I didn't think so. Now, let's go get to planning. I think there will be some raids in our near future."