"What have you been doing, Shad?" Juana demanded.

I had never seen her look flustered before. Her face was red and her braid had started to come apart with strands of dark hair falling across her face.

"Me? Haven't done anything yet."

She let us step off the elevator platform and down into the surrounding empty space. Threshold was full to bursting. There were people bustling about everywhere, more than I had ever seen here at one time.

"We got a system notification about an hour ago that the member cap had been raised to 8,000 thanks to an anonymous donation of several Coalition Level-Up tokens. We’ve also got enhanced communications abilities, a dozen custom channels that the coalition officers can use to address different categories of guild members. Like a ‘general emergency’ channel that goes out to everyone but only officers can use." Juana said. "And then we started getting applications. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds. So I'm asking again, What did you do?"

Colonel Ames had implied he was sending a few people to join us. I had assumed maybe a dozen tops. "How many applications?" I asked weakly.

"I don't even know. I'm having Kieran and Arjun go through them. They'll present me with priority lists once they’re done. Meanwhile, I've been dealing with requests to meet from several other important coalitions. Something is going down. Do you know what it is?"

"Uh, yeah. Phase 2 starts in a couple of days."

Juana swore. I had never heard her use language like that before. Usually she made me feel guilty when I dropped too strong a curse word in Mama Grace's restaurant. "Alright. I don't have a whole lot of time. I was hoping you guys would be heading back down. That's why I was waiting for you. Let's talk on the way back to the restaurant. Then I have to go to the meeting. Phase 2 starting. What does that mean for us?"

I tried to collect my thoughts, glancing at Grandpa. I sent him a quick message. How much should we tell her?

Everything, eventually, he replied. But for now, let's keep it simple.

"There's a lot going on here. Some of it we will have to fill you in on later," I said. "Short short version, we're going to need more people because we're going into Phase 2 hard and we're going to make our mark. This is where we start paying off our debts. This is how we're going to be able to help our people."

She shook her head. "We're doing fine right now. We've got the farming zones under control and we've doubled the number of crafters our coalition can support. I told Kieran and Arjun to prioritize applications from crafters with unique skills."

"And we're still going to want those," I said, "but we need people capable of fighting, too."

"I don't want to put our people at risk," Juana said.

"They'll be less at risk because in phase 2, death isn't permanent. You respawn," I explained. "The more people we get into phase 2, the safer we all are."

I had several niggling doubts about that at the back of my mind, but there was no need to get into that just yet. "Look, we still have to actually make our plans, but we're going to need to recruit some more people like me and Gramps," I said, gesturing.

"And me," Sage declared, looking up from her handheld entertainment device indignantly. "Don't forget about me."

Juana laughed. "No one can forget about you, sweetheart. All right, what next?"

"The more alliances we can make with other coalitions, the better chance we have of really cleaning up here," I said. I still had a lot of the Outpost Construction Guide for Beginners briefing to get through, and I knew there would be a point of diminishing returns where we had no hope of holding a node valuable enough to pay all of us, but that point was a ways off.

I had already considered plans for taking multiple smaller nodes, holding onto them as long as we could to build up a war chest, and then concentrating on keeping just one. But until we knew the rule set and had an idea about the strategic layout, I wasn't going to commit to any strategy.

"In phase two, we'll have crafting materials too. I'm not saying we abandon our farm zones, certainly not at once, not until we know for sure what phase two is going to do for us, but we need to be ready to pivot. Everyone in the coalition will get a briefing about what they can expect in the next few days." I made a note to myself to figure out what those briefings would look like, or maybe to foist some of this back off on Grandpa. My action items were getting pretty long.

I kept up my conversation with Juana, Grandpa interjecting his two cents now and then, until we got back to the restaurant. Juana looked torn. "I’ve really got to get to this meeting. There's six of us local coalitions, and we're meeting with a representative from the Free Human League. He says they kicked out Waters and are reforming. I'm interested in seeing if we can work with them. They still have a foothold in some of the most profitable farming levels."

I nodded. "Go on. We'll fill you in when we get back." I stepped into Mama Grace's restaurant.

I was not prepared for the chaos I found there.

Mama Grace was in the kitchen shouting loudly enough that I could hear her from the door of the dining area. Coalition members ran back and forth. All the tables had been pushed together into three long work surfaces. There must be 40 different coalition members running back and forth, carrying everything from stacks of brown paper to boxes of salvaged plastic zipper bags to trays of steaming food that have just come out of the kitchen.

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"Just follow the instructions," Mama Grace was shouting. "No innovating. Do what the sign says. If you can't figure it out, ask your team lead. I'm busy in here."

We pushed our way through the throng. I noticed poster boards tacked to the wall with sets of numbered instructions on them. They looked like steps for making packaged meals out of Mama Grace's concoctions.

I saw now that the three long super tables were being used as primitive assembly lines, with food and wrappers being deposited on one end for guild members to bundle up and then push along to the other end where they were carefully labeled and packed in big boxes.

"What's all this?" I asked one coalition member I vaguely knew. Emma was one of our farm team members who usually managed a squad of seven farming miners. She was standing at the head of one of the long tables supervising.

"Not now, Shad," she snapped. "We've got a deadline and a lot of meals to pack." "

We should go into the back room and see if we can find Arjun," Grandpa said.

"Yeah, I'll just pop my head in the kitchen real quick and meet you there." I pushed through the throng, stepping out of the way of a woman carrying a tray heaped high with sliced meat and entered the kitchen.

It was even worse in there. It felt like 120 degrees. A dozen coalition members were standing over the stove or in a corner or along one section of the countertop. They were peeling potatoes, chopping onions, slicing fruit.

Mama Grace ran about being everywhere at once. She touched a pot boiling on the stove, then leapt across the kitchen and passed her hand over a roast. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Bad time, Shad," she panted. "I’ve got to keep my concentration up for this." She looked exhausted.

"Yes, but—"

"We got a contract from one of the off-world conglomerates. They want as many basic buff meals as we can possibly provide them, with a bonus if it's at least 5,000 by the end of the day. They said they'll renew the offer for as long as we can get them the finished products. They're paying us four times what I've been able to charge the local miners."

That pulled me up short. Mama Grace's meals had kept the coalition afloat until we had managed to diversify our income streams a bit. She was easily almost as profitable as my team was. She never had to face anything worse than a raw onion or a dull knife. If she was quadrupling her take, with an unlimited new market, we had to take advantage.

"Which conglomeration?"

"I don't know. Spectra, Astra, something, something."

I sent a quick note to Veda to see what she could find out.

"Now get out if you're not going to help. You don't have any useful skills, so go away," Mama Grace told me. "And don't let Juana come back either. I told her she's not allowed inside the restaurant until I'm done. She keeps distracting me."

Mama Grace's other daughter, Rosa, was in one corner of the kitchen kneading loaves of bread. She shot me a look of despair. I gave her a hopefully sympathetic shrug and backed out of the kitchen.

The back room was more full than I had ever seen it. Apparently anyone who didn't want to catch Mama Grace's attention was crowding in and working on their own projects.

Arjun and his manager/helper, Kirin, were all the way back in one corner huddled over a mundane looking pad of paper and a couple of pens. I pushed my way through the crowd toward them.

"Where's Dwight?" I asked. I would have expected to see our master crafter in here hard at work on gear to equip the coalition.

"He's out back trying to rig up a massive bread oven for Mama Grace," someone told me. "And keep your head down or you'll get a task of your own. She's got a bee in her bonnet for sure."

Grandpa had taken a chair over to the small round table where Arjun and Kirin worked. I swiped another chair from a crafter who had foolishly gotten up to fetch something from the other side of the room and carried it over to join them. Sage sat in the corner playing with her new entertainment system.

"Louis’s just been explaining matters to us," Kirin said. "We'll get that applicant pile re-sorted by mission runner capability as quickly as possible. The two of you together can approve any applicants to the coalition that you like the look of."

Juana, Dwight, and I were officially the stakeholders for the coalition. There were another ten members with the power to give secondary approval to any applicant. It required at least one stakeholder or two secondary approvers to let anyone in.

"Just a second," I said. "I’ve been thinking about phase two. Arjun, we're going to need some specialized skill sets here and I'm hoping you can help me find them."

He looked up, his eyes briefly meeting mine before he fastened his gaze on a point just past my head. "What do you need?" he asked. I thought he sounded eager, but sometimes it was hard to read him.

"First on my list," I tapped the pad of paper in front of him. "People with serious eSports background. On Earth I mean. Champions would be great. Somebody who's won a couple of tournaments. Strategy games would be best, things like Starcraft or even Civilization. Did they have Civilization tournaments back in the day? I don't know if they did. That would be best, but anyone with an eSports background, give me their information so I can contact them."

Kirin frowned, "eSports?" she asked, "like professional video game players?"

"Exactly. Phase two is a very different set of skills than phase one. Sage and I have a lot of hours playing games between us, but almost none in a real time strategy or base builder kind of game. I could use some help with my strategy going forward. Let me know what you can find."

"Right," Kirin scribbled down a note on the pad in front of them. "What else?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm certain there's going to be other specialists we need. I'll tell you as soon as they come up." "

And I suppose those requests will have priority, and that as soon as you do think of them, you're going to need them immediately." Kirin had just a bit of a sarcastic edge to her voice.

I shrugged. "Pretty much. Hey, think of it this way. It'll keep you here in Threshold helping Arjun and not in a phase two mission getting killed over and over while we try to figure out the ropes."

Her eyes went wide. "I’ve finished sorting the new applicants list like you want," Arjun said. "I’m pushing the top hundred or so candidates to both of you right now."

I got a ping from the system as Arjun's information packet transferred over to me.

"Thanks." Grandpa stood up. "What is it?" I asked him.

"I just got a message." His tone was very noncommittal. "Says it's from old acquaintance who needs to talk to us. I think you should come for this, Shad."

I rose at once. If someone was contacting Grandpa without already being on our contact list, there was a good chance they were part of Ames's team.

"Sure, I'll come along," I said. "Sage, you good there?"

"Uh-huh," she said, her head buried. Oddly it didn't look like she was watching any kind of show. The people on screen looked a little like superheroes, but the action was cutting back and forth way too fast. From above her and behind the display, it was hard to get much of a look at what she was viewing, so I left it at that.

"I suggest you go out the back door," Kirin said.

"What back door? Not through the kitchen."

"No, we had Dwight install a door before Mama Grace caught him. We figured we needed a way to get in and out without getting tasked on to team meal prep." Kirin pointed and I saw that there was indeed another door at the far side of the room. I thanked her and ducked out the back.