Jake left the crew to continue training as he headed down to the hangar bay where he was told the rest of the crew were located. Opening the hatch to the main flight deck, he looked down upon his crew going over the gear they had brought with them. Some were cleaning old swords and axes while others had some of Jake's first weapons he produced for the Demon’s Hand mercenary group before he gave up on it. As he walked down the gantry to the main deck, Jake was intercepted by a woman he hadn't seen for a long time.
“Mary, it's been a while. How are you?”
“How am I? Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
Mary looked more frustrated than angry, but she continued with her nonsensical questioning before she finally asked the thing she wanted to know.
“Are you married?”
Jake stopped walking for a second, then said with more confidence than he ever had before,
“Yes, I am married.”
Mary went quiet as the two walked together down the rest of the gantry until Mary said without any warning, “That's not going to stop me.” Then she left as quickly as she arrived. Jake looked over the group of people, his eyes landing on the ex-settlement guard.
“James, I've got a job for you.” As James came over, Jake pulled out a ring he was given by Erica back when she was on his ship. “This ring should have everything you need to re-equip your men. I'm making you the ranking officer here, so distribute the supplies as you see fit,” Jake said before raising his voice loud enough to be heard over all the metal clanging and chattering. “Mark, Alberta, Kay, and Sparks, I have some equipment for you all.” Jake threw them each a storage ring. “Those rings have some items your counterparts requested I hand over to you.” The four fighter pilots all placed the rings on their fingers before giving Jake a salute. “Let's not do that. Now you four can begin training with them.” Jake pointed over at the four light fighters that, for some unknown reason, were classified as part of his ship. Jake's guess was that any items that were stored in the ship when it was created became part of it, just like the portable diagnostic tool Kerry was using. Jake had some testing to do on this, like what would happen if the tools or fighters were destroyed; would the ship rebuild them, or if he added more items and then unsummoned the ship, would the items just fall to the ground, or is this a way to break the storage limitations when it comes to storage rings and bags? But this would have to wait for later, as Jake had to go and find someone before he began attacking the invaders, and that person was the one and only Jayne. Jake had left her to take care of everything earlier, only for her to take a lot longer than he had thought. He left the ship and headed back into the maze of streets and high-rise buildings. This time around, Jake instantly asked Alric where his wife was and requested a map to this horribly named city, and what's worse, Jake looked at the map he was given; at the top it now showed all the territory Jake owned on Earth, and for some idiotic reason, it was called Freedom Land. Jake sighed as he read over the map that showed all of the settlements within his territory; some kept the names from before the system while others didn't. But the ones that didn't all had strange names as if a five-year-old had named them. Even the waterside town Jake had once gone to was renamed from Corinella to Running Water, and as far as Jake remembered, that town had no rivers.
As Jake walked through the zigzagging streets, he finally found his way to the location Alric told him about. To Jake's amusement, this building was actually a complex of towers; each tower represented a field of study, and the one Jake was currently looking for was obviously the alchemy building. He was told Jayne came here the moment she heard that a place like this existed. On his way here, he had realised that maybe she would be better off staying behind this time, but he would leave that up to her to decide.
After walking around the complex, Jake stood at the entrance when two ladies exited.
“We need to increase the rewards for completing missions related to the invaders.”
“I don't disagree, but how are we going to do that? We have already given runabouts as rewards for lower-level missions, so we simply don't have any new items that we can give away.”
“What about cash? Can't you buy things in the market with money?”
“We can start paying them in cash, but we don't have a lot. After all, we generally just give items as payments.”
“Just use the alchemist here and start selling potions in the market. Also, set up a cultivation garden so we don't have to constantly find new herbs for potions.” Jayne looked up just as she finished speaking. She smiled before saying, “So, you came to take me.”
“I came to see you, yes, but take you only if you want me to.” Jake said as he watched Jayne's face slowly turn pink.
“Okay, you two can stop that now, or get a room,” Kiki said.
“Kiki, it's nice to see you as always.”
“It's nice to see you too, boss.”
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“You don't need to call me that.”
“I beg to differ. You are and always will be my boss, no matter what happens. On that note, I heard you expanded your territory. Does that mean the protection we have here extends over the whole thing?”
“Alric,” Jake said. Kiki looked at him strangely before a flash of light and Alric appeared.
“Yes, my lord. What can I do for you now?” he said as he waited for another question about where someone was.
“Can you explain to Kiki how the territory shields work and what limitations they have?”
“Lady Kiki, what exactly would you like to know about?”
“Does the shield that was once covering this city now encompass all of Jake's territories, and does it have the same restrictions and defences?”
“Short answer: sort of. In this territory, I have been forced to limit the effectiveness of the shield. Anyone can enter and exit with no ill effects, but people cannot fly in, and in the event of an attack, the shield will lock solidly—no one will be able to enter or exit, at least no one below D grade, that is. As for the shield in Jake's other territory, it is currently set as solid and will only change once Jake reaches C grade and has a fleet capable of defending against at least a B grade invasion. As for any new territories, well, that we'll just have to wait to find out.”
Kiki thought for a bit, then followed up with, “What about the other barriers? Like Melbourne's, is that still in place, and will monsters still appear within the territory?”
“First answer: yes. Second answer: yes, but with a caveat. As the energy increases within the territory, so will the monsters and their levels. So, yes, you will need to start putting up more jobs in your mercenary group; otherwise, there is going to be a bloodbath once the monsters get stronger. Also, new types that you haven't seen before will begin appearing.”
Jake and the two ladies took in the information before Jake asked Alric one last thing. “Are there any other spaceships we could use for scouting and/or troop transport?”
“Yes, we have two unarmed scouting vessels and one transport that was stolen by Eric and his late team.”
“Also, what happened to him?” Jake asked the group.
“I sent him down to Wonthaggi to help with the new outpost there,” Kiki said with a sombre expression.
“Don't go overboard with him; he is a good man, and if possible, I would like him to retake his position alongside you.”
The people went quiet for a minute before Alric asked, “So why did you ask about scouting and troopships?”
“I would like them to be used to transport teams across my territory, looking for monsters and setting up outposts and making defensive fortifications along the territory's edge.”
“We should be able to set something up,” Kiki said.
“I also think it might be time to create a territorial defence force or maybe expand the guards, maybe even make it mandatory service,” Jake said to Alric.
“People won't like that,” Kiki said.
“If people don't like it, they are welcome to leave. Anyway, I will leave all this in your capable hands,” Jake said to the group, then asked Jayne, "Would you like to go up to space with me, or are you going to stay here?” Jake said, pointing up at the building behind him with a grin. Jake already knew the answer, but he had to ask.
“I would like to stay here and work on my profession.”
Jake knew the answer, but it still stung. He really did appreciate having her with him; she was like a beautiful angel, always sitting on his shoulder. One that would temper his actions, always whispering possible actions the two could take. But Jake had to agree this was a good place to work on a person's profession. Jake smiled and said, “Have fun; I'm going to kill me some people.” Then he teleported away.
Kiki turned to Jayne. “He is talking about the invaders, right? He's not really going to just start killing people, is he?”
“Um, probably not,” Jayne said in a hesitant voice. Kiki went pale until she looked at Jayne again; she had a grin and was trying not to laugh.
“For real, you two planned that, didn't you?”
“Of course not, how could we do that?”
After picking up some things in the city, Jake was back at his ship. Jake entered, heading straight for the bridge. Walking down the corridor, there were two guards in exosuits with their helmets connected to their waists stationed at the bridge door. As Jake got closer, the two moved to the side as the door opened. Inside the bridge, the crew were busy at the consoles running what looked to be the same simulation as when Jake left. The only difference was that it looked like they had managed to make the second jump and now were getting organised for the next one. So Jake quietly walked over to his console, which now sported two new guards standing either side. Jake gave them both a nod before the two walked back towards the door and stood in place. Jake swung his chair into place and brought up the simulation data.
Not bad, it took them 197 tries till they got the second jump; since then, it has been 200 more.As Jake was thinking this, York shouted for confirmation on the jump’s status.
“Five minutes, sir, just running the final check,” Frank replied as he and Joel were working at the navigational consoles. Jake watched as the bridge crew worked in harmony with each other; finally, they seemed to be ready for this attempt, going over the information that had been entered into the simulation.
These are some good numbers; they have calculated over a million individual objects using everything at their disposal. They even used the weapons system to help track objects to speed up the calculations, Jake thought as Frank turned to York and, with a grin, said,
“Ready, sir.” Then quietly said to Joel,
“At least I think we are. Can you run one more check of the close-range objects? I would hate to mess up like last time.”
“Alright, Alan, set the shields to maximum. Orange, get ready to jump.” York said.
“Shields at maximum front deflection, sir.”
“All hands, FTL in progress.” As York said this, the two guards locked their boots to the floor as the lights in the bridge changed to red.
“Orange, activate the jump.”
All went as normal until, as the systems went dark for a second longer, the shields stayed active. As the simulation ended, the statistics came in, and a second later, the bridge crew roared in cheers as Orange said, “Jump complete.”