CHAPTER 121: Water Solution
“Thanks for telling me, Adam,” said Mr. Morris, Nick’s dad. There were tears in his eyes.
They lived in a different building within the Sentinel Army’s primary base Rift. Nick hadn’t wanted his family to live right below him. Unlike Adam, prior to the [System] Nick was a popular guy. He enjoyed having space to have friends over, throw his own parties, and entertain girls.
“I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what I could say to bring him back,” explained Adam. He was having a hard time maintaining eye contact with Mr. Morris.
“It’s not your fault. Nick was always trying to impress you.”
“Me?! I never tried at things. Everything he did was impressive compared to me,” Adam expressed his surprise.
“He had so many people who would praise him, whether when playing soccer or basketball or his other sports. Yet, he would play his hardest when you came to watch the game. Nick always checked if you were in the bleachers before the games and would look at you after doing something neat.”
“Well, that’s just…wow. I’m not sure why he valued me so much. I thought he left because he was upset I was able to do more than him,” wondered Adam.
“It sees more likely to me that he didn’t want to let you down. He wanted you to be able to count on him. He understands the value of teams, and probably felt like he was dead weight compared to you. Covering for his weakness.” Mr. Morris put his hands over his face to hide new tears coming in. “I just hope he can live long enough to come back to us.”
Adam put his hand on Mr. Morris’s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.
“He’ll come back. Nick won’t lose. He’s never let me down.”
***
“Adam, we need to start improving the city and living spaces,” Mrs. Clemens said in the meeting.
Adam frowned, though not directly at her. Other people had been alluding to that need. They had expanded the size of their territory, but other than the obsidian walls and ramparts, they hadn’t been reconstructing anything outside the walls. The people they rescued, as well as those already from Jackson, were living in all kinds of buildings. Repurposed office buildings, parking garages, stores, and anywhere with space. They had no running water, electricity, or sanitation services. Cleanliness was becoming a problem.
The Sentinel Army base distributed as much as it could to provide for people’s needs, but the size was growing without the infrastructure to support it. People were still going on their mandated hunts and leveling trips, so there was plenty of food. Waste and garbage could be brought onto the Rift base to be broken down into energy or raw materials. A large bathhouse was also placed just inside the base walls so people could stay cleanish, though that had a limit since there were just too many people for it and not enough water or space.
“No. It still isn’t time,” said Adam, knowing people were looking at him severely. “We’ve been making strides but not enough. If the mind witch finds out she’ll just do something else to stop us.”
“Aren’t you a little too focused on her?” suggested Ron. “You haven’t heard about her in a while. That one failed raid could have been set up long ago. We’ve even reviewed the rift communications, now that we can read it, and there has been no mention of her or you. Just chatter about different races battling.”
“NO!” snapped Adam. “She’s out there and setting something up that we won’t be ready for! It will only take one weakness, one mistake and then everything is destroyed and everyone dead!”
Adam’s voice rose as he spoke, and he had risen to his feet without realizing it. His insides churned and heat wafted out of him. The pressure he projected on the room caused most to flinch back from him or the lowest leveled of them to cower.
“Adam, please calm down,” his mother said quietly, not recognizing the madness in his eyes.
Looking around at the fear and distrust that he saw due to his outburst, Adam tried taking a breath. To him, they were being naïve and complacent. The voice inside telling him to conquer wouldn’t let up and wouldn’t be ignored.
He closed his eyes and felt the flow of the river inside. A lot of things had gone wrong, but Adam didn’t think that was the reason for his outburst. Things could always go wrong, and he had never been a perfectionist. There was something coming, though since the [System] had arrived there was always something coming. Adam had worked so hard and didn’t want it all to crumble from unseen schemes. They were only now getting an understanding of where they stood and what could be done, thanks to the Leputi. That left them still far behind the invaders.
Adam opened his eyes as he looked around, the intensity now manageable for the people around the table to meet his gaze.
“Fine. We’ll make some changes. Jordan, get the plumbing and sewage system fixed to all the buildings. Just don’t announce it. The buildings will have to wait until we have a defensive solution. Otherwise, keep working on the underground shelters in case people need to hole up.”
“But Adam, we still don’t have enough water,” said the city planner.
“I’ll go get us some damn water,” swore Adam, as he stomped out of the room.
***
“This is what you wanted all that stuff for?!” gasped Mr. Fenton, referring to the list that Adam had wanted him to collect a few days ago.
They had two dump trucks full of bags of items from landscaping and pool supply stores, among other places, behind them. There was also a cement mixer turning as people dumped bags of chemicals into it.
“Do you think it won’t be enough?” Adam asked.
Mr. Fenton barked a laugh. “Not enough? You’d be able to recreate the dead sea with this much poison. I’m just surprised you thought of this.”
“Not military enough?”
“The chemical warfare part is definitely like the military, even if more like other countries than ours. Cleaning up the fall out, on the other hand, is where your ideas have some merits. We’ll just need to see,” confirmed Mr. Fenton.
Stolen novel; please report.
They were at the edge of the Tennessee River, at a campground, before it hit Pickwick Dam. An invader base had merged with the dam. Before they had attacked the previous water reclamation plant, Adam had suggested this target, but had been shot down by the intelligence agents. They thought it was too far and too dangerous, with the invaders being aquatic creatures. There was no way they could fight an army of aquatic monsters.
Adam had made a list of water-based cleaners and poisons. Mr. Fenton and his unit had spent a few days collecting all of them from stores in Jackson, even visiting nearby towns to get what they had.
The plan had surprised people with its simplicity. Everyone had been so worried about fighting aquatic invaders within their base they had been overthinking it. Instead of fighting the creatures underwater, they would poison the water. The chemicals they were using would mostly get stopped at the damn. Of course, if the invaders had immunity, they could retreat.
After a time, Lucas came jogging towards them with a body. The body was a little smaller than Lucas, but much more bulbous. It was like a hedgehog or porcupine, except with longer spikes on its back. There was no fur on it, nor scales. The skin was a mucky brown color that had a coating of oil which made it slide through the water, with the spikes wriggling to help propel it. The feet and hands had a paddle-like quality to them.
“It’s confirmed. They do come on land but are hella slow on it. I’m not sure how they breath since they don’t have gills,” informed Lucas, dropping the corpse of one in front of them. “They are called Akanoch.”
“Were they willing to talk?” asked Adam.
Lucas laughed at him. “Would it matter?”
“No, I guess not. Are our troops positioned on both sides of the river?”
“Everyone is in their assigned positions. We’ve also confirmed that the dam is still closed,” nodded Lucas.
They waited a little longer to mix an ample supply of the chemicals they brought. Once the mixer was full, they poured it into the water. It wasn’t that the chemicals changed the color of the water, but they were able to watch as the high concentrations killed all the aquatic plants in and around the river. Then Adam and Lucas began jogging along the edge of the waterway.
What they witnessed was environmentally horrific. The natural beauty was being poisoned and eroded. But in Adam’s mind, getting rid of the invaders came first. He started to wonder once again if he was giving in to the voice inside too much, but then he saw one of the Akanoch dragging itself out of the water at the edge of the river.
It was struggling to move, and its round body spasmed as if it couldn’t breathe. The mucky brown skin had lost the coating of oil and now looked cracked.
As soon as it was on the shore, a squad of Sentinels rushed from the tree line and got their hits in, then killed it. It only took a few more minutes before ten of the Akanoch came out of the water, then dozens, then hundreds. They were gasping and heaving on the ground, until the Sentinel Army troops came forward and finished them for good.
This was the easiest XP they had ever gotten. There was a limit to how many of the invaders the troops could tag before they died, since they were already nearly wiped out from the chemicals. Adam saw several try crawling back to the water, but they couldn’t even make it all the way in before being dispatched by the surrounding humans.
This went on for about 15 minutes. There were so many corpses that groups were alternating dragging them away from the water. There were a few thousand of the creatures being wiped out.
“Wow,” muttered Mr. Fenton in amazement. “Are you sure they can’t just clean the water using their Rift menu?”
“Lashtam said that merged bases can’t reconstruct themselves during attacks, that energy is automatically saved for defenses. Also, since the chemicals didn’t all enter the water at the same time, even if they cleaned out a portion all it would do is dilute it since more chemicals would continue to enter the water base from upriver, outside their territory.”
“I see,” nodded Mr. Fenton. “I guess that is why you wanted people stationed on top of the dam.”
“Yup,” agreed Adam. “That is part of their territory, so as long as the dam is closed, the chemicals will build up. Our people defending the dam will prevent them from cleaning it. We also don’t want them to just physically break the dam and drain the chemicals.”
“That just leaves two issues,” said Lucas. “The boss and then claiming the base in all those toxins.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered,” Adam said confidently.
After a quick radio call and a few minutes waiting, a pickup truck drove close to the dam. The trio walked to the dam’s entrance and Adam grabbed two things from the bed of the truck. One was a large white, two-pronged harpoon. It was made from feral behemoth bones. They had tested the testudinate metal against the chemicals and found that corrosion did occur. These bones were also Tier 3 strength, so it should be able to hold up to the toxins.
It had taken Garrett several days to make long enough “rope” out of the feral behemoth’s tendons. Once more leveraging the body of Adam’s stronger past opponents to increase their army’s strength.
The second thing was a crate that he handed to Lucas to carry.
“Let’s go fishing, boys,” said Adam as he got to the center of the dam. Then he closed his eyes and sensed with his soul map. There were a lot of people nearby, but they had varying levels of appreciation for him. However, it wasn’t hard to find what he was looking for. A strong soul, bigger than any other in the area, radiating enormous hostility towards him.
Keeping his eyes closed, Adam pulled back the arm holding the harpoon and threw it into the water. Drops and spray flew all around them from the harpoon hitting the river. Mr. Fenton tried to nonchalantly hide behind Lucas, who in turn used Adam’s body to prevent the chemically saturated water from hitting him.
Once the harpoon’s rope stopped moving, Adam pulled it back up, having only a little resistance, indicating he had missed the boss. It took five more throws before he felt something struggling at the end of the harpoon.
Lucas and Mr. Fenton added their strength to keep the boss from pulling Adam and the harpoon into the water. The three heaved and struggled to keep their balance, desperately trying not to fall into the polluted water. The pull from the boss wasn’t as strong as Adam expected, showing that whatever level it was, the chemicals were affecting it too.
As soon as a brownish paddled foot landed on the dam’s edge, Adam released an [Incapacitating Shout] roar. It was better than a signal, as all the Sentinel Army members who heard it came running.
Lucas flipped a loop of the rope around the invader’s neck to make it harder for him to escape and to give Adam more leverage in his pulling. The dam filled with humans, everyone waiting for their turn.
The tag above the invader read “Fisher King [21]”. It wasn’t an especially high level, since it probably didn’t have much prey to level with, but in the water, there was no doubt this creature could take something a tier above it.
“Order’s up!” Adam yelled at those around him. He held on tightly as the attacks rained in like a school of piranhas descending on a wounded fish. The soldiers would get their hits and then back away to allow others to take their place.
The boss Akanoch sputtered and spit in pain. Its skin had a thicker layer of oil around it than the smaller ones, but there were still some cracks showing dry patches. A few melee weapons slipped off and had to be re-thrust to get their damage in, but the invader stood no chance and died quickly.
Akanoch Fisher King [21] slain. 2,256 shared XP gained.
Once dead, Adam heaved the body onto an open space on the dam. Then he began stripping, taking off his own armor.
“The crate please,” he said.
Lucas brought the crate over and opened it. Inside was a specialized Hazmat suit with two air tanks.
“General Gervin requisitioned some interesting stuff for his men to bring. In this case a scuba hazmat suit used when inspecting or welding in dangerous places, such as when sewage pipes break underwater. I checked with the equipment officers, and they said it should be fine within this chemical soup we made,” explained Adam.
It did take a bit for Adam to get the suit on and the air tanks and headlights properly set up. Before jumping into the water, he searched the Akanoch boss just to make sure the crystal wasn’t with it.
Then he swam down, found the control pillar with the control crystal fastened to it, and took ownership of the base. It was one more title that went to all his people within the base territory. This time, he left the base as it was, merged with the planetary reality instead of returning it to a dimensional convergence rift. He also changed the settings to deconstruct any of the materials and chemicals polluting the water, setting up a filter as Jordan and Lashtam had showed him, before opening a connection to send the water through to Jackson.
Now, there should be plenty of water for the base and all of the people.