[Observer]
[Connecting]
[. . .]
“Future Agenda”
Day 0 - 09:20:56 AM Local Time.
District Thirty Six, New Rouen Megacity.
Soldier, Leo Danese.
Bastone Family.
I stretched my arms looking towards the large meeting table in the center of the room, the boss and his capos were sitting down. Discussing the future and what not, seeing as we are in some fantasy hell now.
“We need to seize this chance, while we have it,” Bennett stood up from his seat, “The cops are busy, the government is reorganizing. We have the chance to expand right under their noses.”
“Yeah, and what happens if they don’t like what we're doing, Benny?” Lanzi took the lit cigar from his mouth and tapped the ashtray with it, “There is no federal government, for all we know, no judges. They’ll fucking shoot each of us personally.”
“We have a good chunk of men and supplies. All we need is a bit of a forceful recruiting strategy and we’ll rival them in this new order of power.” Bennett replied, moving his hands as he spoke.
The two looked towards the end of the table, the boss, Mister Bastone, looked at the two carefully and at the other Capo’s in the room. I wasn’t a big wig but I was happy enough guarding the door rather than be out there with those birds.
“Bennett, Lanzi is right. But I see what you mean,” Bastone leaned forward looking around, weighing his options, “We could go rounding up the food and recruiting people based on that. Hell we could even try smuggling shit to the non-human fucks that could be out there. But, we aren’t home, any wrong move and I’m sure Davidson will get us with treason and have us killed.”
The capos looked at each other, Bennett sat down, his proposal seemingly being shot down at this point.
“However, I’m not a vicious man unless I need to be,” He eye’d Bennet, then looked to the others, “We can expand our power with a bit of compassion, we can’t rival the government in firepower but we could use this as a chance to gain influence in it.”
“I think I can see it,” Bennett looked up in thought for a second, “We could pool together ‘community’ resources, then gain members by acting like a non-profit. Hell, we could even act like a merchant group down the line, like in those fantasy novels, eh?”
“I think that’s actually a pretty fun idea, I’m sure Davidson couldn’t say no to us too easily if we had a bit of community opinion on our side,” Lanzi smiled a bit, looking at Bastone and the others, “We could expand our name like a noble family of sorts, heh.”
Bastone laughed for a second, “Us, a noble family. Hehe... well that doesn’t sound half bad actually. We better hope there's some poor schmucks in this world besides these griffins we can get first contact with first to leverage some influence Since we are traders and warriors at heart, ain’t we?”
“Hmm. So, we do a bit of rebranding and gain some local influence. Then we try to sell ourselves to the outside world as a sort of merchant family. Should I get that plan ironed out, boss?” Servi, the underboss stepped out from the shadows slowly as he spoke, his fedora in hand as he looked at Bastone.
“Yeah, yeah. Get working on this plan, update me with the details, and try to shoot some of those griffins out there when ya’ can. I’m sure they’ll like us for that too, we could get a bonafide truce with the government.” Bastone stood up slowly, nodding to the capos as he picked up his hat from the table and walked out of the room through the door to his office opposite of the door I’m guarding.
The capos collectively stood up, talking to each other as the underboss eye’d the room and shuffled into the boss’s office, closing the door. Guess I should act a bit nicer now, seeing as we’re becoming a kind of charity. Heh, noble family.. Maybe we’ll be branded as knights and shit.
[. . .]
[Swapping]
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[Connecting]
[. . .]
“Emergency Council”
Day 0 - 10:10:55 AM Local Time.
District Forty Five, New Rouen Megacity.
Governor, Ronald Davidson.
City Administration.
I can say, I always wanted to play general a bit, but now that I do, I don’t want to. Thankfully, I have a couple National Guard Officers to help me and give their opinions on shit, unluckily the original base commander wasn’t actually in the city when we were forcefully abducted. But these lot seem competent enough and quite energetic, oh how it would be great to be young again, then I could work myself to the bones I am, again. On second thought, I’ll stick to being old. Anyway I gave the younger acting commander a wartime promotion, using my administrative powers I now possess. That should smooth some military procedures over and give him some better official reach, probably. In the meantime, I should be thanking some part of our federal government for considering this many detailed protocols, but you know they could have shortened these packets a bit. These aren’t even packets, these are just full novel collections at this point. I’d sigh and sit back staring down the cluttered council table with its strewn papers, hastily setup landline phones, and a radio setup when that gets fixed fully. Heh, I feel like I’m in one of those wartime bunker simulations back from when I was in officer school. I wonder, is this what the blitz felt like? I mean we weren’t being bombed, so probably not. I looked up as I saw the newly appointed Colonel walk over to me, stopping next to my section of temporary office setup and then gave me a short salute.
I’d eye him for a second, “What is it, Colonel Wattson?”
“Governor, our quick reaction force is moving out as we speak. We expect a casualty report from the initial fighting later.”
“Damned birds, don’t we have automated weaponry?”
“Army Techs are working on that, but in the meantime city technicians believe they might have the radio problem solved and are half way to restoring a bare bones version of a city-wide internet.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Hmm, so we’ll have faster communications finally and of course no real internet content.” I’d look up at the ceiling then back at him.
“Yes, sir. All of our standard operating systems are capable of using basic text, video, and voice under this internet infrastructure. But major file storing will have to be reconfigured a bit, seeing as many of the server farm workers aren’t at work. That should be within the upcoming day, according to their report.”
“Mmh, thank federal regulators for looking at the bigger picture sometimes. Anything else related to the fighting?”
“As I said we expect a casualty report later from fighting along the west and east outer edges of the city. Initial reports indicate the recent southwest battles have resulted in civilians taking up arms as well.”
This is a mess, I’d sigh, “What am I recreating... uh, Stalingrad was it? Blasted... is the evacuation plan in place yet?”
He gave me a short nod, “Yes, sir. We are trying our best to move people inward and are fortifying the second inner highway ring with whatever we have in stock, our current combat manpower is limited despite getting many new recruits eager to sign up. Primarily because we lack proper weapons, ammo—”
“Yes, yes... weren’t they getting an ammo factory setup at the complex in district fifty six? And also the greenhouses in twenty four?” I’d lean forward, searching my desk shuffling through files.
He’d move a report forward, “Yes, sir. We are in the process of converting some abandoned industry areas as fast as possible. The greenhouse protocols are also set up to produce immediate rations within the day as long as we get manpower.”
I’d eye the report, “How about the underground complexes? Wartime bunkers and tunnels?”
“We are having them surveyed with our engineering corps, it will take time without more manpower and longer to ensure it’s safe from possible underground threats.”
“We haven’t seen evidence of any big creatures have we?”
“Not yet, but with our quake sensors out of action and our imaginations we can only assume.”
I’d sigh, leaning back as I put the papers down, “Just be sure to alarm me immediately if we come into contact with anything besides the griffins. Especially if it's something that can talk and not kill us on sight”
“Yes, sir. That is all of my report for now, unless you have questions.”
“No questions, your dismissed Colonel Wattson.”
He gave me another salute before turning around on his heel getting back to work with the others in the room. I looked at the reports one more time, sighing. I just wanted to retire, but I can’t do my city a disservice and retire yet. I slowly got up from my chair, stretching my legs before walking out of the command room. I went down a hallway following signs to the residential quarters eventually finding myself at my newly made bedroom, a bunker bedroom, safer here than my apartment. Is it safer? Hopefully giant tunneling worms aren’t a thing and hopefully theres no fucking rat creatures that spread infinite corruption, plagues, and then make undercities. Fucking hated fighting against those pricks in that one strategy game. I slowly sat down on my bed, not too shabby for a few decades in storage. I looked at the digital clock on my nightstand, Ten Twenty Five AM, to think it's only been like two hours since we got here. Progress is going good, food should be up soon, along with weapons production, hopefully they get water surveyed and repair what's needed for that. They even said the internet will be back soon, might be basic but here's to hoping some bright minds live long enough to make new video games and content for it. Hopefully a data hoarder lives in our city, not the creepy kind though... I shudder to think people like that can get through societal filters. I laid back on my bed and closed my eyes for a bit, just needed a quick nap... maybe some coffee later.
[. . .]
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Weary refugees, their pointy ears and dirtied faces illuminated in a bright flash that swept the land. A sudden morale boost, maybe the goddess was on their side? A magical city appeared just in the nick of time, although hunger had settled in a while ago, hunger could be put aside for sanctuary was ahead. The refugees had renewed vigor and a beacon of hope that stood tall above the forest, but the path ahead was still laced with danger. Descending down the rocky paths into the forest below, this would be the final push, through feather foes, through cursed trees, they marched for that was all they could do.
The griffins continued to loom overhead, not only at the traveling line of people but at the city full of riches before them. If the griffins could smirk they would, for they can see their plan of wave assault and fast moving rogues working. The speed of a griffin’s dive is unmatched, even when other humans employed fancy mages and bows, griffins triumphed, even if there were losses here and there. The griffins continued to direct their conscripted armies ahead and soon they’d have many riches in their talons, and hopefully to themselves.
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[. . .]
[Connecting]
[. . .]
“Neighborhood Watch”
Day 0 - 10:15:33 AM Local Time.
District Thirty Six, New Rouen Megacity.
Soldier, Leo Danese.
Bastone Family.
“What the fuck happened ‘ere?” I’d walk into the alley, the sight was a gorey mess.
“I think I’m going to be sick...”
I’d hear the thug behind me start throwing, weak fucker. I walked over to inspect the corpses... well more like pieces of the officer and... person. These people weren’t entirely shredded, but they were torn up barely holding on. I looked up and saw the blood filling this back alley, big scratch marks on the walls and floor. What fucking creature did this shit? The gun is still in the holster too... didn’t even have time to draw... wait.
There was silence, why was there— My gut pinged as I turned around to see the soldier with me getting gutted by a dark tall fucking freak my hand was outpacing my thoughts.
BANG. BANG. BANG. It wobbled a bit, dropping the man’s corpse to the ground. BANG. BANG.
The thing stumbled back, it looked in pain or so I thought as it lept towards me. I instinctively rolled onto the ground, feeling the squish of the gore below, a foul stench hit my nose... I shook my head and refocused firing again.
BANG. BANG. BANG. It tried to swipe at me blindly, stumbling with each shot, it bled more and more. BANG. BANG. BANG.
“DIE YOU FUCKING—” It wiped the blood from it’s eyes, it’s dark eye’s moving to look at me as I sat still squeezing the trigger again.
BANG. Click. You gotta be fuckin’ joki—
Before I could blink I felt it ram its long claws into my stomach as it barreled into me, I was smacked into a wall with a thud and the audible cracking of my own bones. It stared into my eyes as it slowly stood up straight, its claws cutting through the brick behind me as it kept me propped up.. Fuck I couldn’t move.. I- I... it... staring at me... it twisted its claws as it stared into my eyes... I could only cough up blood... not even scream. Tall fucking monster... I can’t move ... my body is screaming alarms at me as it just stares into me, I feel myself getting weaker the longer its claws stay in my gut... is it draining my blood... I- I don... want to... it smiled at me as I heard tinks on the ground, I saw the glimpse of a bullet get ejected from its head sealing wound as it smiled into me... healing piece of shit... fuck I’m so tired... I.. no... please... I need to...
I struggle to keep my eyes open... It smiles at me as it uses one of its claws to keep my chin up. Then I can only see its smile turn to annoyance as it looks down past me... where the alleyway entrance is... as it throws me to the side...
BANG...
I wish I could muster a smile... fucker...
. . .
Fading light...
. . .
. . .
It’s dark.
[. . .]
[Disconnecting]