This idealic life could only last so long. On August 15th, just five days before I planned on opening Olympus to colonists, I got a visit from someone I hadn’t seen in a long time. I was sitting in my office in AR, doing some paperwork that I had been putting off for a long time, when Wan entered my office.
“Wan?” I asked. “I didn’t expect to see you. What brings you here?”
He made sure my door was closed, then waved his hand. Suddenly my System connection was cut off and I stopped hearing or seeing anything from outside. At most the windows showed blurry images. “Good.” He nodded and sat down. “Now that I know the area is secure I can explain myself. I started a mercenary group in LA after the collapse. We mostly took over police duties or acted as private security. Then the GCA attacked, and we helped fight them off. Because of our help there the mayor has kept me appraised of their intel on the GCA. Three days ago one of the city’s teams killed a Jotun Lieutenant that was attacking one of their outposts and found this in his head.” He motioned and sent a file to me.
I looked at it in surprise. “This is an attack plan for LA, scheduled for a week from now. Have you come to ask for my help?”
Wan shook his head. “We also found out that the Jotun knew about attacks on many cities in the US and Canada, from San Fran and Seattle all the way to New Orleans. That includes the city here, and AR. All scheduled for a simultaneous attack, though the Jotun didn’t have details of those attacks as it wouldn’t be involved. We can only assume that they are going to launch another world wide attack like before. So I’ve been sent out to secure allies, so that we can help each other in resisting these invaders.”
I nodded. “I don’t have that many troops, so I assume you want me to provide material support.”
He nodded. “We would also like a secret base where we could train. I’ve heard of your use of Cloning to prevent permanent death, and your dungeons, where people can train. I was hoping you could build a training facility.”
I nodded. “That would be possible, but we would need to make sure that it was hidden so the GCA can’t attack it.” After a few minutes explaining how I had hidden the cloning facilities, he thought that would be enough for now. In the future, though, I should probably hide a facility somewhere in space so that it would be even harder to find.
Once he had left, I finished the paperwork I was working on and sent a message to Shackleton. He and the other settlements were to build a non-hyperspace equipped copy of all of their hardware and put the copies in storage to be handed out in the future, then start building guns and armor. I then left to take my ship for a flight. The orbit of Earth was too high, but if I stayed at only a few kilometers off the ground I could send down orbs as much as I wanted. Since the System had shown up several new mining locations had been discovered using flying craft and System sensors, but I started a detailed scan from space, putting my ship into orbit. Any time I found a place with more than one million zerka of confirmed minerals I marked in on the map.
Once I was done, I put them in order of richest to poorest deposit, then went to each one, dropping off a teleportation orb, naming it after the mineral in question. I started a dummy Mining company for that purpose, and registered all of the orbs to them, though I only directly claimed the ones with over a billion in confirmed resources.
At any mines where people were already mining I sent them an orb for free, so that they could connect to the rest of the network. A few of these didn’t have a System connection, so I sent them a copy of the Settlement Cores Settlement Builders were giving out as well, giving them the information of Settlement Builders so that they could contact them with any questions.
After personally contacting every one of the known mining locations in the top one hundred myself, I left my ship to drop orbs on all of the other mining locations without people, along with a small generator. Once I hired people for my new mining company I would send them to make contact with the claimed mining sites. Surprisingly, the GCA had only claimed a handful of such sites, for only a few minerals, but I wouldn’t be making contact with them.
The entire mining thing was mostly a ploy, though. Yes, Earth would need the resources and I could hire huge numbers of people to work at those sights, enriching the local populous, but what I really wanted was to run deep scans of the Earth’s crust. After a few days they had detected over a dozen underground pockets that were at least ten kilometers underground, so I sent down teleportation orbs, settlement cores, and Small Nuclear Generators to each of those pockets. Shackleton and the other Lunar settlements sent them autominers and more generators and, once they were ready, the industrial equipment they would need to expand.
By the time the GCA showed up to try their luck at a second invasion there were over a dozen identical Valhalla bases around the world. Each one had a cloning facility where they could produce new bodies for the warriors training there, and each one was building an identical dungeon.
I had sent over ten million rail rifles, two million laser rifles, a million particle rifles, and fourteen million sets of power armor to Wan and the members of his alliance, including the City, by the time of the invasion. I had left Paul in charge of the ground forces in AR and this time the ground forces of the enemy didn’t stand a chance. They only managed to breech the defenses in a few cities, and even then they were quickly gunned down.
The real threat this time had been the air forces. They had sent over a million drones out worldwide, shooting down every flying vehicle that was over a city they were attacking, including the simple flying disks many people used as personal transportation. Most of the cities were able to shoot them down eventually, but a week later some of the cities still had to keep their people grounded and inside, as the drones sometimes did diving or bombing runs on groups of civilians.
I had the lunar colonies switch to making drones and, a week after the invasion, I sent a million of them out to hunt down any enemy drones they could find. Another million went to Wan and his allies. The Earth Alliance was growing so quickly that even the manufacturing capability of the lunar colonies wasn’t able to keep up, so I had Olympus join in. Hephaestus chose to build fifty million anti-air turrets and send them at the suggestion of Ares, seeing that as our biggest weakness. Ares was a new AI that had been set up as a way to govern the military production and the defense of the city.
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Project Valhalla soon reached a point where we could start recruiting people. In order to keep the base locations a secret, anyone that joined would send a proper brain tissue and blood sample from which a clone would be produced. The teleporters of the various Valhalla bases would only connect to the other bases unless the commander said otherwise, and even then would only send troops out, but not in, to keep the location a secret.
Like the Norse legends the troops that went there would enter combat scenarios every day. Those that died would have another clone made before they were allowed to fight again. Most of them would have several clones, though, so that they could fight as much as possible. This would let them hone their skills quickly.
Once per week they would go up against another Valhalla settlement to guarantee that their skills didn’t stagnate. While they could only enter by dying, they would be held in reserve until they were most needed. The base would give them everything they needed to live, so they only needed to worry about getting stronger.
But the time a month had passed from when Wan visited me, all military personnel that didn’t have a moral objection to it and many other people had a Valhalla clone so that, if they died during the invasion, they could return and get their revenge.
The mines had worked well over the last month, bringing in over a trillion in resources, the vast majority of which went to making military hardware. Shackleton had even started construction on a few military frigates. These spacecraft weren’t the best the System had to offer, but they would let us defend ourselves if the GCA sent ships.
The mines now employed over one hundred thousand people, all of which had a better standard of living than a middle class American before the collapse. In some places, competition for these jobs had resulted in criminal activity. I let it be known in those locations that anyone who used criminal means to try to get a job with the company would not only be blacklisted from working for it, but would be blacklisted from buying from it. The same was true for all that committed crimes within the company settlements, excluding a few minor crimes like simple assault. This kept the people from causing too much trouble.
Each mining base was part of the Alliance, selling its minerals to the Alliance for use in producing military hardware, though they also paid whatever the local government demanded in taxes, up to half their output. After all, the last thing I needed was to upset those in power. If the governments started using the resources to commit serious criminal acts the Alliance might step in, but for now most had either used it to build military hardware outside the Alliance or to build social services for all of their people. Sure, the politicians got much nicer stuff, but even the poorest people had their basic needs met and it barely took any valuable minerals to do so. Those that noticed that now understood what the System meant when it said that it was developed by a post-scarcity society.
In time, the war with the GCA kept escalating. Where before they only sent out the really big stuff for direct attacks against their bases, it was soon routine for them to send a hundred thousand or a million battle robots to the cities they attacked. We responded in kind, and the winner would simply repair any damaged robots and end them out a few days later to fight for them. Both sides were taking casualties, though. By the end of October Valhalla had over two hundred thousand people in it, and we were fielding billions worth of hardware in any city that was part of the Alliance. While the cities didn’t come under daily attack many were attacked every few days, depending on what the local base felt like doing. I was certain that the GCA couldn’t be earning a profit here, and that something big would happen soon.
November tenth I was proven right, as the satellites I had placed in orbit detected something that they shouldn’t have. There was a Vaniir on Earth. Furthermore, it was at the GCA base just north of AR.
GCA Base Earth-327:
Vidar stepped out of the Portal and looked around. The planet seemed to have decent gravity and a bright star, but from the reports he had read, it was nothing special. Still, no matter how many resources they sunk into its conquest, the locals seemed to always be one step ahead of the GCA, always able to mount enough of a defense to prevent their conquest. Even worse, they had started to retake several of the native settlements that had been seized in the first attack, driving the GCA back to their bases. Many demands had been sent for them to return any captured members of the native race, but from what Vidar had learned of them and their unique connection to the System, that couldn’t be allowed to happen.
Whatever had wiped out the society of this world and resulted in these dead creatures wondering around had caused the locals to become physically immortal. Sure, they could still be killed, but without severe damage to their bodies their bodies would rebuild themselves. He had even had the pleasure of torturing one of the prisoners and from what he could tell, as long as the node in their brain wasn’t damaged, preventing the reinstallation of their memories, the soul connection points weren’t all destroyed, and enough organic material was left near them for their nanites to put them back together, they could come back from even the worst damage.
“Lord Vidar” said a man who quickly knelt before him. Vidar didn’t know his name or even his race. He didn't care. All that he cared about was that he was the commander of this settlement.
“Report.” Vidar said coldly.
“My Lord. We are preparing another group of troops for the invasion of the local settlement, named Anarchist Redoubt. That has been the largest source of resistance on this planet, but I have finally amassed a large enough army that I think I can conquer them. Once they have fallen, the rest of the world will lose its support and will soon fall.”
“They are that powerful of a settlement?” He asked, puzzled.
“Mostly in military hardware, sir. The leader of that settlement has built numerous other settlements, focusing on mining and production. He even built bases elsewhere in the star system, such as the five he placed on the planet’s moon. Rest assured, though, once the fleet arrives, we will destroy or conquer those settlements as well.”
“So, one man has managed to outsmart all of the GCA Commanders on this world, despite having just learned about the System?”
The man bowed deeper. “Y-yes sir. We failed to expand quickly enough, focusing on solidifying our position on the planet rather than expanding. It was a mistake, but soon I hope to remedy it.”
“I doubt you can. So far this planet of backward savages has managed to keep our forces at bay, even though we have invested over one trillion into seizing this insignificant ball of dirt. With the incompetence you and the other commanders have shown, I doubt you are capable of solving the issue. That’s why I am here. I will solve this issue for you so that your stupidity doesn’t hold back the goals of the Council.”
“Yes, sir.” the cowardly fool said. “Thank you, sir.”
“Oh, I’m not doing this for you.” said Vidar. “I’m doing this because the Council wishes me to. Rest assured that when I conquer this world, your incompetence will be duly punished.”
The man bowed in fear and Vidar walked off to inspect the troops. He had dealt with that fool enough for today. Now he would prepare for Battle, the one thing he always loved doing.
Greg’s Perspective:
“Understood” said Wan on the video call. “I’ll have the troops there soon.”
I hung up and looked over the hardware I had stockpiled. One thousand turrets, ten thousand drones, one hundred thousand battle robots, and enough weapons and power armor to equip every military member in the city twice over. There were also vehicles, including some type of System tank, a few mechas that people had experimented with but decided not to use, and over a million mind controlled animals in the dungeon. From the intelligence I’ve received the GCA had over a million organic troops, half a million animals, and five million robots. Plus, they were being lead by a Vaniir. Even at our best it would be difficult for AR’s forces to defeat that large of a group.
I considered bringing in the Valhalla troops, but thought better of it. The other cities hadn’t been offered their aid when they were under attack so that the troops could be used in emergencies, so it would be a bit hypocritical for me to use them to protect my own settlement.
So I had called Wan and asked him to have the Alliance send over troops. While I hadn’t contributed troops to any military engagement other than here and in the city, I had donated trillions in hardware, so many settlements should be willing to send help.
When six hours later no one had sent troops I grew concerned. We expected the enemy to launch their attack at sunset and that was only an hour away. I was considering sending all of my non-military personnel to Shackleton instead of Sanctuary, as it might be located if they scanned the ground here, but then the transporter activated. It had been upgraded to a tier 3, so that it could move a thousand people at once, and every time it received a group it was completely filled to capacity. This continued until the city was cramped with all of the uniformed and armored people. Paul quickly invited me to the base and I went over there, only to find dozens of military officials standing there. One hundred and sixty three different settlements had sent troops, from a few hundred to tens of thousands. They had merely gathered in LA before coming over, as Wan was their mutual contact, having been the one to recruit most of them to the Alliance. Now I had an extra four hundred and seven thousand troops on my side, all equipped with power armor and System weapons. Now I knew I had a chance to win the battle.