Applying Pressure
No answer was directly forthcoming from Stormcrusher concerning the destruction of the building by Vanguard's cannons. Derek continued to monitor their goings-on, and Sean was extremely helpful in giving them information that added to their efforts to draw Shandra out. He also joined Jay's team and the two of them decided to be co-captains of sorts in training the rogue team to share their knowledge with the team. Jay had originally resisted the idea, as it felt like he was giving up his team. Sean, however, saw the abilities Jay had cultivated and gave him a few additional tips he had picked up from being an FBI agent and soon, the two became friends.
Sean and Jay had gone out on several reconnaissance missions as the days continued to pass and they could see no signs that Shandra was active at all. This meant she kept things hidden inside her base or knew she was being watched and waited to leave until they were sure no one was watching them. They didn't want to always post someone outside their base to give them the sense there was hope for victory to draw them out.
This strategy seemed to be working as Shandra seemed to shift to guerilla warfare-style tactics of trying to hit the teams when they were alone or exposed during training exercises. When a member of a team out doing some grinding in a dungeon was killed, Tom called for all groups to be paired with a senior team if they were going out of the guild building.
"That bitch hit us again!" Kiera yelled as she slammed a fist on the table in the security office. "When are we going to just go in and destroy her?"
"I understand your frustration, Kiera. But if we go in there will be much more killing. And there are people there who want to get away." Derek tried to soothe her.
"Kiera has a bit of a point, man. If we hit them hard and fast, sure there will be a bloody mess, but long term how many other lives would it save?" Jay added.
"We can't know that. If we can piss her off enough and get her to amass her forces and attack, then we can give the people wanting out a chance to get free." Tom said, his face hidden in his hand as he stressed over the best way to deal with this situation.
"What about something different? Can you challenge her to single combat?" Kedron offered. "Something she might be willing to accept?"
"Bob?" Tom asked, looking up at this mention.
"There is a dueling function of the System, so you could challenge her to a duel and have terms set. But if you initiate the challenge, Shandra will get to set the initial terms." Bob said as he thought about the details of the System. "Then you can amend them and send them back and she will do the same until you both agree on terms."
"There we go! Something to go off of! Now you can just kick her ass and we can be done with this." Kiera spoke excitedly at the prospect of Shandra being beaten like a rug in the streets.
"It's not a bad option. I will look into it. Until then, what else do we have?" Tom asked, now leaning back in a chair, and pondering his choices.
"Not a whole lot. For now, we are just continuing to build up the fighters and working on adding to the defenses of the building while looking into new weapons to fight off the Space Pirates. That's likely going to be a real kick in the balls when they get here." Brian replied, looking at his clipboard of notes for topics to be discussed.
"Are we getting anywhere with the possible air or spaceships? I think if we are grounded, we will be shit outta luck when they arrive." Derek asked.
"We have been working on some designs. Finding something that will work is tough because we as a species are likely far behind the others that have been integrated into the System for so long. But I have reports that Harold has found some schematics in the vending machine for some kind of massive battle spaceship. The only issue is it could take years to build one." Brian replied after looking at his list again.
"And we don't have anything for small fighters? Like X-wings or something?" Tom asked.
"Nothing yet, but I'm sure there is something in there. We will keep searching." Brian stated.
"And I guess that means we are making a lot of ground-to-air missiles?" Derek asked.
"Yes. Those we have the ability to make. Harold actually had knowledge of them from before the integration. He should be able to give us some firepower for that much sooner." Brian assured them as he moved to lean against a table.
"Excellent! Some good news for now. I think the best option is going to be the attempt at a duel. If we can draw her out, then we can hopefully set some terms that will prevent an all-out fight in the streets. Then again, from what Sean said, it may be completely unavoidable. I just want to try though. If we can prevent deaths, then that would be preferable." Tom spoke after sitting in silent thought for a time.
"Finally! Send it now. I wonder if I stand outside if I can hear her scream from here?" An evil grin appeared on Kiera's face as she daydreamed of Shandra's frustration erupting over.
Tom pulled up his interface and began to look through the options available. In the relations section, there was a dueling space that offered a drop-down for selecting names and a big button underneath that said Challenge. Tom selected the drop-down list and mentally searched for Shandra's name. Finding it, he selected the name and clicked Challenge. A notification appeared indicating the challenge had been sent successfully.
"Alright, now we just wait to see..." Tom began, then paused as a notification popped up showing Shandra had accepted the challenge. "Ummm, Bob, what happens when she just accepts the duel without setting terms?"
"Oh, my. That's bad. That means you get to set the terms. She really should read the details before hitting accept." Bob replied looking worried.
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Tom viewed the notification and saw that it had a button at the bottom corner that said Duel Terms. Mentally clicking the button, the window with the duel section popped up in his interface and a new section was now visible. There was a section indicating the Duel with Shandra was accepted and then a field for terms to be typed in. Tom thought about it and then typed in his terms. Mentally selecting the send option, he got another message within seconds stating the terms had been accepted.
"Shit. Maybe I should have asked for more?" Tom mumbled to himself.
"What was that?" Derek asked.
"She just blanket accepted my terms. I don't think she could have even read them in the short time it took her to respond." Tom said staring at the acceptance still and getting an uneasy feeling in his stomach.
"What were your terms?" Derek pressed.
"If I win, she gives up being a guild leader forever, disbands her guild, leaves Dallas, and all her people are allowed to choose to go with her or not. If she wins, we merge guilds and become her followers." Tom stated.
"You did what?!" Derek cried out in disbelief. "Why would you offer us up on a silver platter like that?!"
"Cool your jets hot stuff. It had to be enticing for her. Or I guess I thought it needed to be." Tom replied.
"Ugh...but if you do lose..." Derek tried to reply but couldn't bring himself to say the words.
"Then we burn that bridge when we get there," Tom replied, waving a hand to dismiss him.
"Just make sure you follow through. If you agree to terms and then break them, the System will be the one dealing out the punishment." Bob interjected.
"That's a bit of good news. I bet Shandra has something cooked up for if she loses." Tom said, leaning forward in his chair to place his chin on his hands on the table in front of him.
"We shall see. The only thing left is to set the time and place." Bob said, having already moved to reading a book.
Tom pulled up the menus again and saw there was indeed another field for time and place for the duel to occur. Tom selected tomorrow at noon and selected a neutral location that appeared to be halfway between their bases. With that complete, the fields merged into just a reminder of the duel's time and location along with stating the duelists' names.
"This has been a long time coming and I'm ready for it to be over with," Tom said exhaling loudly as his nerves began to ramp up.
"You got this, Tom. We believe in you." Jay said shooting him some finger guns.
"Thanks. I think I'm ready too. I wouldn't have been before, but with all this training I think I can do it. At least, I hope I can." Tom replied still looking unsure of himself.
"If anyone can, it's you. And she really hates you. So, you needed to be the one that extended the offer." Derek replied falling into a chair after having been pacing while considering what they needed to do.
"Anything else on the agenda for today?" Tom asked, now that his duel had been accepted.
"We need to talk about what we will do regarding this new development. I suggest every available strike team be out there with you. Not all in view, that might spook them, but somewhere nearby. Shandra is rash, and she will not take kindly to losing." Brian said, looking at Tom with a knowing expression.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have them all prepare to be ready. This is probably gonna get messy." Tom said rubbing his hands down his face in frustration. "At least we finally have some direction."
"I'm so pumped for this! I can't wait for you to wipe that smug look off her face once and for all!" Kiera added, her excitement bubbling over at finally doing something to Stormcrusher they weren't likely to come back from.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself. Some of the people with her are just as brash, so be ready to counter that." Derek said trying to calm her exuberance.
"Oh, let me have my moment would ya? I've been waiting for this." Kiera replied, again smiling evilly.
"Right, what else? Do we need to look into anything that the guild needs specifically?" Tom asked.
"If we could find some farm animals, that would be really helpful. The area out back is almost complete, and we can start breeding them for food." Brian said after looking through his notes again and turning to the second page on the clipboard.
"Okay. Once we deal with the duel and Stormcrushers, then we can look at finding a way to transport livestock." Tom said.
"I can drive a truck. Used to do it as a job. If we can find one of those livestock haulers, I can drive the truck and we can head out of town to find some animals to bring back." Jay offered.
"You used to be a trucker?" Tom asked.
"Yup. took things on a route up thirty-five to Missouri. Did that for years." Jay replied putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed position.
"Another problem solved. This had been very productive today." Tom smiled as they had gone over quite a few items in this meeting.
"When you dickheads put your mind to it, you can actually get a lot done. Most of the time you sit around bitching half the time, so it takes longer." Brian shot at them. "But that's all I have for now. I'll let you all know when we have any further updates."
"Perect! I even have some time to get another session in with Bron before my meetup with Shandra." Tom said as he stood up and exited the room.