CHAPTER XXXXVII: THE SUGAR FAMILY
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{12:00 LOCAL TIME 2ND JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
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FORT CHAVEZ SOUTHERN NOBLE ROAD
LONG BEACH
SUGAR
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< ZONE EVENT ALERT >
EVENT NAME: Wild Beast Horde
DESCRIPTION: The continuous horde kept the beast population at bay at night, but now that it is done, the Beasts have come out to play. A wild beast horde is forming, they will converge on population dense areas but prefer to go after groups in the wide. These are the biggest threats to Noble Road's integrity. The sheer number of Beast destroys anything in its way
Objective: Survive the Wild Beast horde.(0/1)
Objective: Save at least 51% of the group stuck in the Horde. (0%)
Rewards: EXP and free Noble road route.
{Time Until final wave:9M:57s}
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They had just killed the mini-boss of the second wave, and Sugar was pretty sure that the 10,000 people they were protecting under the overpass were absolutely in awe of their show of force.
Lyla hadn’t even removed her swords; they just sat on her hips as she just grabbed the beasts and bashed them against the ground, or walls, or even trees, shit, even each other. There were blood stains everywhere. Her brutality was beyond awe-inspiring.
The autocannons, mounted cannons, and mortars were constantly firing. But even with them, Lyla did the most damage, period. She took down all of the elites herself and did so with relative ease.
Sugar was happy to let her. Kuma was doing some hunting herself, so her EXP kept coming in fast and heavy. But something she hadn’t anticipated was slowly becoming a problem. Even with most of her fighting force here, a good fifty NPCs, it was apparent the difference between the Classers and NPCs. Stats Classers got Stats at every Level, while Skillers got them at every Tier and a whole lot less so far. They can level up multiple Skills to make up the difference, but they haven’t had the time since they were still accustomed to this new world.
Sugar saw the gunners slowing down and knew she needed to do something before they ran out of MP.
She stood on the railing, easily balancing on the thin tube structure. “Everyone listen up!” She yelled, getting everyone’s attention. The convoy had seen the overpass and all of the weaponry on it and, instead of running away, latched on to it like a lifeline.
They had pulled their beast of burden, which was pulling all of their supplies. It looks like storage devices were not very common. Sugar rubbed the ring Colonel gave her after he had returned, it had a massive storage capacity, weight reduction, and was blood bond. The Merchants had giant mule-like creatures pulling overfilled massive wagons of gear and supplies.
Despite outnumbering her party, the ten thousand hadn’t done anything to help against the waves other than the ones that snuck through due to either not being a threat or being so damaged that they would die anyway. Still, this last wave would be brutal on the Mana of Sugar’s Raid Party.
She was going to be leading more than fifty people. It was time she started practicing that. She just hated speaking to so many people in a public setting, but this was going to be her new life, so she might as well embrace it now. She just pretended that she was talking to her livestream audience.
“We don’t have the Mana to maintain that rate of fire anymore, so we need all combatants ready to defend the convoy ready to fight. If any-”
“Brittney?” A high-pitched female voice cut off her words. A voice that brought her a little joy and a sense of dread. It was a voice that any girl could identify without any need for confirmation. It was the sound of a soon-to-be disappointed mother. “Jack! Jack, it’s Brittney. I told you she would be fine, babe. We raised a survivor, honey. Hey baby, we missed you.” She yelled in the uncanny quiet before a wave.
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Sugar wanted to crawl into a hole, but there was a wave of beasts coming so she couldn’t even do that right now. ‘Onward, I guess.’ She thought. “Mom, are you in charge.” It wasn’t a question; if anyone knew Mickie Sugar, they would know she was always in charge of something.
“Of course, dear, your father is in charge of the combatants, and I am in charge of all of the professionals.” A tiny Asian lady with long dark hair, a soft round face, and a smug smile stepped out of the crowd. Kuma perked up as Jack, Sugar’s Dad, arrived at the railing, scooping his daughter up in a huge hug. He had to have used a movement power because Sugar hadn’t even seen him move.
“Oh, Sugar Bear, how have I missed you, sweetie.” Jack Sugar, the tattooed navy veteran, said to his baby girl and the thing he valued the most in this world. He squeezed her tight.
Sugar hugged him back, relaxing and needing the hug more than she knew.
Mickie walked up the ramp. “Where is Vic...”
“I hate to interrupt the family reunion, but we have a wave of beasts we need to handle,” Johnny happily interrupted them, seeing how exhausted Lady Sugar was.
Jack looked at Johnny and offered to shake his hand after letting Mickie hug Sugar. “Thank you for protecting my daughter during these few months. I’m Jack Sugar. Tier 4 Classer.”
“Sergeant Johnny Torres, Tier 4 Skill user, and you are mistaken, Jack.” Johnny began shaking Jack’s hand. “We work for Lady Sugar, and she protects us more than we protect her.”
Jack looked back at Sugar. “Really?” He said, unconvinced, but he wasn’t going to push it.
Sugar was just happy she had the self-control not to roll her eyes.
“You see Jack, a survivor, just because she has bad choices in men, don’t make her bad at everything in life, Jack,” Mickie said with a smile.
“Mickie!” Jack said
“Mom!” Sugar groaned
“Hush, child, I am on your side.”
“Yes, Mom.” Sugar said sarcastically.
Johnny smiled off to the side.
Kuma trotted up to them. Mickie looked at the recognition showing on her face. “Is that Kuma bear?”
“Bark!” Kuma responded.
“No way...” Jack said in awe.
Sugar hadn’t thought about it much, but Kuma was very old prior to the Breaking, over twenty years old, which was already ridiculous for a pre-Breaking canine. But Kuma had always been special, and Mickie hugged the now bigger dog as if she were her long-lost granddaughter. Mickie didn’t even have to bend over to hug her since she was taller than a human sitting on her hind legs. Sugar hadn’t even noticed the size difference.
She didn’t have time to worry about that either. “Dad, what is the breakdown of your combatants?”
Jack Sugar was a Navy man, true and true; he had retired from the Navy and continued working for them, and even did some contracted work for the JTF, so he still had his clearance, He would hav e had his clearance if the world hadn’t broken the way it did.
Either way, when a navy man was given a mission, he figured it out, period. He didn’t make excuses. He instilled that in his daughter he was proud of her even though her mom was... well, her mom. She was still able to keep the conversation on track. Jack absently realized that his daughter was waiting for his answer. He cleared his throat, pretending he was thinking about the numbers. Truth be told, he knew it by heart, and Mickie knew that, but she would never call him out in public. He loved that woman. He looked at her, and of course, she had a knowing smile on her beautiful face. God, he loved that woman.
“About ten percent of our convoy are combat capable, about half of that are Classers, and the rest are a mixture of combat-focused Professionals and Skill users. Our level varies from the lowest being Low Tier 3s to me at the top at peak Tier 4.”
“I can supply you with equipment and potions for a fee, of course.” Mickie joked; well, Brittney thought she was joking. “The schematics to those autocannons should be a fair price.” Okay, so she wasn’t kidding.
Sugar knew she had to shut that down quickly. “Mom, no, Merchant Mickie Sugar.” Sugar began in a professional tone. “You will be joining our nation. Doing so requires certain concessions, like any society. A few of which we would probably have to adjust on the fly sometimes. But one is for sure: an order that Colonel had made sure I will never forget. While the military serves the nation, it doesn’t work for it. The nation works for the military. We do intend to share all spoils of war with the nation, and 50% of all taxes will be used to maintain and upgrade the military, but professionals that work with the army will be compensated flatly not based on anything but their tier of gear and Styles created and sold.” She looked at her dad. “I am assuming you will be joining the guard, hunters, or the military, Mr Sugar?” She asked her Dad.
“Of course,” Jack answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. She never doubted it. People who have served before the Breaking would always choose to serve again in a time of need, and the world needs service members more than ever now. All she had to do was look at the 100, and she knew that service members were going to be a massive combat multiplier moving forward.
She shook her head, looking back at her mother.
“We aren’t part of your Stronghold dear.” Mickie began. “We can negotiate-”
“No,” Sugar found, saying it was easy.
The rules were set, and while trade rules weren’t set up yet, these people chose to leave their bad Stronghold to join Sugar’s nation. Colonel told her she was in charge; her Job title told her she was in charge, so she was in charge. It didn’t take her incredibly high Intelligence stat to recognize they didn’t really have a strong negotiating ground to stand on. Everyone knew it. What they did have was numbers, and numbers were a power in their own right. So Lady Sugar gave the Sugars the stick first.
“We are a military meritocracy, Mrs. Sugar. We will not be negotiating with our citizens. If we can help it, we would love never to have to interact with the civilian side of the government. The military is supposed to be above politics. It’s supposed to be a non-partisan organization. It is a tool, more of a toolbox. The world is a machine, and we can maintain it without tools, but we can’t do it without unconditional support. We will be leading from the front and with strength. But that is only because this world is built on strength, not on wit or scientific discovery of being on the best piece of land, though those things still play a role, and I’m sure they will continue to play a role, but right now, you need our strength and our magical technology, which we may share with you and all we are asking for in return is your participation.”
“Brittney, be reasonable you expect us to...” Johnny stepped dangerously in front of Mickie.
Jack noticed the change in the air and started to reach for his sword on his hip. Lady Sugar put her hand on her father’s wrist, stopping him far easier than he thought she should be able to. He could tell that his strength was beyond his daughter still, but her every other stat was way above his and that could help in a myriad of ways to prevent him from fully utilizing his strength. But certain ingrained feelings never changed. No parent likes to be told what to do by their child.
“Mrs Sugar.” Johnny began. “I am Staff Sergeant Johnny Torres. Please address our leader by Lady Sugar, Captain, or Ma’am moving forward you have been warned.” Johnny didn’t even wait for a response, turning to Jack. “Get every person with a big mana pool up here. We don’t need their powers. We just need their extra Mana. Have them link up with all of the gunners. If that is okay with you, ma’am.” He looked to Lady Sugar for confirmation.
“Great idea, Sergeant. Mr Sugar, this will be your test for your official rank in the Stronghold. Sergeant, you handle his evaluation moving forward.” Sugar said to Johnny and her father.
“Copy that, ma’am,” Johnny answered like they had planned it, but Sugar was just faking it until she made it, and it seemed that Johnny was on board already.
“Aye, aye, Ma’am,” Jack replied.
“Brittney, seriously?”
“It is Lady, Captain, or Ma’am, Mrs Sugar,” Johnny said again, this time much more aggressive.
“That is my daughter. I can call her whatever I like.” Mickie complained indignantly, glaring at the snot-nose Sergeant next to her.
“Mickie,” Jack said softly, “Ask yourself something. If this wasn’t Brittney, would we have this conversation the way we are having it? You are undermining our daughter’s leadership right now. Please think before you say something we all will regret.” Jack finished, calmly winking at Brittney. She smiled back at her father.
“I...” Mickie started, only to stop looking around. All of the gunners and mortar Players were staring at them. They looked between her and their leadership.
Mickie was a social butterfly, so she could always read people, doubly so in this new world. She had Merchant powers that helped, so knowing that this was a battle against time, she put off her gripes.
“Yes, ma’am. I apologize. I got caught up in our little family reunion, and I never looked at you as a Captain of our saving force. Thank you.” She rubbed her hands together. “Now, how may the Sugar family be of service?” Mickie smiled, thinking this was a fantastic family reunion. Her daughter had grown so much. Mickie thought as Jack moved to organize his troops.