COLIN POV

"It needs a name," Sage asserted, looking around at our new base. I had to agree with her. The giant pink snail shell stood in the center of a bustling town.

In the direction we had arbitrarily denoted as "north" stood an adobe-walled fort with multiple buildings to equip, train, and house our more advanced units. Now, instead of training single spearmen or archers, we would be training entire squads of units. We already had access to some pretty exciting options: cavalry squads with eight horsemen, starting out as light cavalry but with an upgrade path that could take them up to heavily armored. Rok’gar thought if we also upgraded our weapons technology, eventually they could become dragoons.

We had a foundry putting out steel weapons and armor, and an alchemist's shop next to it creating buff items that would help for now while also researching chemical compounds to help us create gunpowder.

To the east, our small army of farmers was scurrying about planting trees, which would be harvested to fuel our furnaces and build more buildings. A squad of miners was descending into a hole in the purple ground and coming back out with sacks stuffed with ore. To the west, along the pale white shore, were the beginnings of a boatyard.

"I think we should name it Las Vegas," Sage continued.

"What?" I blinked, distracted from my survey of the town. "Las Vegas isn't by the sea.”

"Well, it's where gamblers live."

I considered. "How about Monte Carlo? It's much classier."

"Isn't that a sandwich?" She grinned at me, and I felt my stomach lurch just a little.

I laughed. "Swanky casino town in Monaco. The sort of place James Bond would go to gamble." It had been a long time since we’d had a chance to relax. While there was a long road ahead of us, it was nice to look around and see how far we’d come, working together.

I had been becoming more and more aware that Sage was a talented, smart, beautiful young woman. Literally the most beautiful girl in the world. But the circumstances were terrible for starting any kind of meaningful relationship. Trapped together, fighting for our lives — it might be good for chemistry, but long-term it seemed like a recipe for disaster. So I just kept reminding myself that eventually, when we got out of here, Shad Williams was going to be debriefing me and I did not want him unhappy with how I treated his sister.

"Oh, got it," she said. "Gambler, what do you think?"

"I like the image you have in your head for this James Bond," Gambler said. "Perhaps when I take on an avatar, I will copy his style."

"There you go. Monte Carlo it is," I said. "All right, now we've got the base set up and our initial build orders going. Have you had time to complete your survey yet?"

Gambler replied, “I have. This location can be considered an island. We conquered the only large fragment on that island. There are several other smaller, nearly senescent ones to gather up. Sage, I suggest you handle that when you have time."

"Understood," she said brightly.

"Now that we have ascended to this level, we are unlikely to meet any further individual minds or shattered fragments. But the sixty-three we have allied with us should prove helpful, because we are going to need to split our forces more. As I said, this area can be considered an island, entirely surrounded by the Wash.”

I looked out at the pale white froth. It seethed gently up and down the shore. It didn’t look like liquid to me, more like condensed cloud. I could still remember how it felt when I waded out into it, tearing at my being and trying to take me apart.

“What is this, anyway?”

“This is what happens when an Overmind fragments too much,” Gambler said. “As it was ripped to pieces, much of it fell into decay and ruin, losing its ethereum reserves to larger fragments, but maintaining some vestige of will. It wants, more than anything, to consume. That’s all that’s left to it, just instinct. I am gradually pushing my will outward. As I do, I will be able to extend the area of land, pushing back the Wash. We can speed that up by claiming other nearby islands, destroying or allying with their fragments, and connecting them to ours.”

“Hence the shipyard,” I said.

“Yes. We will be building shell vessels that will allow us to transport our units across the wash without requiring much of my will to do so.”

“Have you got a map of the larger area yet?”

“I have extended my awareness for the nearby locale. Take a look.”

I brought up my mini-map and Gambler populated it for me. We were in the center with a small X marked Monte Carlo. Several small islands surrounded us, and off to the north was a larger mass, shaped long and skinny. He marked that one with a big skull.

“The fragment which dominates this island is significantly larger than I am. It would be best if we ambush her before she before she takes notice of us.”

"Then we've got a plan," I said cheerfully. "Let me start swapping out minds and work out the best unit comps. You know anything about these enemies?"

"Most of the ones on the nearby islands should be a similar size and threat to the one you destroyed to make room for me. Now that we are able to bring our units directly to bear against their will, the battles should be somewhat easier and we won't have to risk our allied minds."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I was already sorting through our library of conquered fragments and allied minds, looking for what they had to offer, trying to build up useful armies. First, I looked over the shipyards. Right now, we could only create two different sizes of vessel: a small craft which could hold up to three squads of minions and a larger one that could hold eight. The small craft cost 400 ethereum, the larger 600. But the large craft moved slowly.

"Other than it taking us longer to get there, what's the downside of a slower ship?" I asked.

"The longer you are out in the Deep Wash, the more the vessel will be eaten away. It costs more ethereum to repair, and if the hull gives way, we will lose the units on board as well as any of you or the allied minds," Gambler said calmly. "I advise against it."

"Taking that under advisement," I said. "Alright, let's build one of the fast ships and take a scouting party."

"Any of you or our allied minds will require the same amount of space on a vessel as an entire squad of units," Gambler informed me.

For our initial scouting, I had been thinking of myself, a group of archers, and a group of infantry, but now I hesitated. While I really wanted to get a look at the setup on the next island, Sage had much better combat abilities than I did. Her ability to target enemy units and force them to fight for us was invaluable.

Sage saw me hesitating. She grinned, pulling out her lariat and swinging it around her head before letting it vanish back into her inventory.

"Don't worry, I got this. I'll let you know what there is to see while you get our base all bright and shiny."

I still didn't like it, but I didn't have a good reason not to agree, so I nodded. "Be careful."

"Be back soon," she said as the first boat shimmered into view. It was an ancient row galley with one bank of oars on each side and a tiny mast and sail. It didn't look particularly sturdy, not to hold back the forces of devouring nothingness, but I had to trust Gambler knew what he was doing. Sage took command of a squad of archers and spearmen, loaded them onto the galley, and set off.

I watched them go. When they were out of sight, Rok'gar turned wordlessly and set off toward the crafting buildings. "I'm going to try to get us some upgrades. Longer range bows, better armor, eventually pikemen."

"And I need to start working on defenses," I realized. That was going to be an interesting challenge. If the island boundaries had stayed where they were now, I could have set up a ring of defensive turrets, but as Gambler pushed back his borders and annexed new territory, I'd either need to keep updating my defenses or….

I went into the menus and started flipping through, looking for one of the shattered fragments we had conquered on the previous floor. It had offered an upgrade that wasn't particularly useful at the time. The creature had been a walking fortress that looked like a giant turtle, and there had been dozens of tiny purple flower things clinging to its shell when we attacked. The flowers had turned out to be smaller enemies who leapt off and fought us as well.

It hadn't been a particularly difficult fight, but the ability that fragment, when slotted into one of Gambler's minion slots, allowed us to move our buildings. The movement speed was low, and the buildings were vulnerable while moving, and I hadn't seen a need for it at the time. Now, though, it might be just what I needed.

Gambler's minion mind capacity had grown to 18 slots, of which we had 16 filled. I added the walking fortress fragment mind into one of the two empty slots and checked. Sure enough, now all our major buildings and turrets could move. Some things, like the walls, wouldn't be able to move, and neither would our command centers. I started changing my town building strategy right away.

Sage checked in as she neared the nearest island. "I see the enemy waiting for me. It looks like a sleeping lion. Can't tell how powerful it is just yet. I'll let you know."

"Be careful," I urged her.

“Think you’re talking to my brother?” she sent back. "Alright, going in. Talk to you later."

I waited, worrying, fiddling with my build orders and micromanaging units, trying not to stare at my communications screen.

"She all right, Gambler?" I asked.

"She's fine," he said. "She's busy, though. I won't let you distract her."

"No, no, I didn't mean to suggest that," I said hastily. "I just..."

Rok'gar stalked over. He had an armload of axes that he was taking over to a whetstone. "Stop fussing," he told me. "She's fine. She's gone off on missions on her own before."

"Yeah, but not like this. The Wash makes me nervous," I told him.

Rok'gar grunted. "You should stare non-existence in the face a few more times. It'll lose its terror eventually." He sat down and began grinding the axe. "But it is cute. I will have to tell Sage when she gets back how concerned you were for her well-being."

"Don't you dare," I snapped back. "Besides, I'm not worried. She can handle herself."

"Mm-hmm," Rok'gar set aside his first axe and picked up the next. "I must admit, I do not understand human mating conventions. You and Sage seem to be avoiding the topic."

"What?" I felt my eyebrows raise into my hairline. "What are you talking about? There's nothing between the two of us. We're allies on the same team, that's all."

Rok'gar snorted. "You humans have puny olfactory senses. My nose can tell you are lying. But I don't know why you're so hesitant. The two of you would make a good pair. You are both fine warriors on the same path, with the same alliances and interests. You already have her brother's approval of your fighting skills, at the very least."

"This is neither the time nor the place for it," I said firmly.

"From my point of view, this should be the perfect time," Rok'gar said. "You have the female in whom you are interested here, with no competitors at all. You have been showing her your skills daily. What more is there?"

“I need to go check my build queues,” I said, getting up.

"You don't need to go anywhere for that," Rok'gar chuckled. I didn’t dignify him with a response.

I tried to ignore Rok’gar’s taunts as I headed over to the barracks. He kept right on messaging me, but I went anyway. It was fun to watch the squads of units training as Gambler brought them into existence. I was building a squad of Hoplite soldiers now, armed with spears and tall shields. They were better disciplined than the regular spearmen and better armored as well.

That didn't keep me occupied for very long, so instead I wandered over to one of our defense turrets and pulled up its menus looking to see what all I could customize.

The moving buildings upgrade gave us some interesting possibilities. After all, what was the difference between a defensive turret and an offensive siege tower? Just the location.

I was getting excited about the possibilities of turning our very powerful siege cannons into slow-moving tanks, until I realized they couldn't load into the ships. My spirits plummeted.

"Gambler, what would it take to build a barge that we could put our turrets on?"

"Why do that? We could just create them on the target island. Once it is conquered, connect back up to our own and relocate anything wherever we want."

"That could work, if we’re willing to wait.” The shifting map was really going to make me have to work. “Wait, your enemies will be doing the same thing, won’t they? Moving their borders, trying to encroach on more territory."

"They already are. Check your map."

I did. The long, thin mass at the top of the map that Gambler had said belonged to a larger, more powerful fragment, was now a long, slightly fatter mass, extending a pseudopod of land down toward us. There were several more islands in between us and them, but I could see what was coming.

I shivered and quickly changed my priorities. We were going to have a defensive war here sooner or later. I would need to be ready.