My day has not been going well. First I find out I am pregnant with an idiot for a father. Which was not what I thought was going on at all…I thought the cabbage from last night had gone bad…and the rabbit skewer from the day before. Missing my period, well that happens, maybe it was just late.

But no, it had to be the idiot. I am not even sure why I even dated the man. Sitting in her chair, twisting the finely spun gold necklace, she remember why she liked him…but now, they all might die. I might not even get a chance to vent my anger at the tall, handsome idiot. No here I am looking out at the transport circle, waiting for all hell to break loose.

And with that last thought, the circle began to glow…not a normal transport, no this glow was something everybody in the village would be able to see.

“I think we are at the beginning of hell.”

The circle glowed for a least 5 mins before the glow began to fade. Fifteen people and 13 transport cases were left standing in the circle.

Sandy popped up and ran to the circle.

A tall man in dark leathers stepped out of the circle and began yelling.

“Get the condensers up by the Wilbur plants. Get all the plants back up to maximum.” The man suddenly turned around to Sandy and took her in, head to toe.

“You, you are the transport lead for the village?”

“Yes, I am Sandy Ackerman, sir? Who are you?” I said the last bit more out of protocol than really wanting to know. It’s my job to verify any incoming transports. It’s also my job to guard this circle…and nobody wants to come up against combat transport personnel, unless they want to be missing pieces of themselves.

“Marshal Fellows. Here are your orders.” With that, he hands me a red envelope. I quickly verify the seal, and open the envelope and begin reading. Two short sentences. I am now under direct authority of said Marshall, and I am to facilitate evacuation of the village should it be deemed necessary.

My face goes a little white…and I vomit in the flower bed.

“Ms. Ackerman, you are stay here, in this facility, with the remaining transport people until I, or the Duke, say so. Understood?”

Wiping the vomit from my mouth, I reply quickly “Yes, sir. Do we need to open the reserve pads?”

The Marshal stops at that, and turns his head back to me. “Reserve pads? This is a small village in the middle of nowhere, why are there reserve pads here?”

“Umm, I don’t know why, but we have six industrial pads we use for some of the larger crafts and bunker area. I think they were installed when the village was founded 20 years or so ago.” I asked that question as well, but my boss at the time told me to basically never admit they existed…but I am surely not going to die, pregnant, waiting in line for a pad to cooldown.

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“Yes, get them ready. The rest of you, the job just got updated, we have more pads, get the details, see if we need anything. You have 15 minutes. Team Big Bear, you are with me. Ms. Sandy, do you know where the bear is now?”

“Ah, no…but my boyfriend gave me the note and he works as an influencer in the main tower, so…I would guess there, maybe.” My boyfriend…why did I say that…I could have said “Father of my child”, or my “Bang mate”…oh god, I am hungry.

“Main Tower, let’s move!”

And there they go. Eight people built like gods in various forms of metal and leather go flying out the circle area. As they leave, an elderly woman comes up to me…questions in her eyes.

“Ahhh…reserve pads, yes…ok, this way”

Leading out the same door the others had left through, I head straight across the entrance lobby and up to a double wide closet door. Opening the door reveals a very deep…closet.

“Dear, I may be a little old, but this doesn’t look like transit pads.”

“Yes, ma’am. One second, and we will get moving. Please take a step back out of the closet.” Reaching behind the open doors, I find a particular piece of baton moulding lining the entire closet, and pull.

“There you go.” With that said, the floor begins to slowly tilt down into a gentle ramp. I move down and in. As I head to the doors revealed at the bottom of the ramp, I take my second key from around my neck. The first key being for the office itself, and this one…for here.

The doors slide into the walls revealing a huge room with 10m ceilings and width and depth enough for 300 people to stand comfortably. Segmenting the room are 15 transit pads, each twice as large as the main pad upstairs.

“Oh, this will do. This seems a little odd though.” The older lady wanders a bit into the room and examines the essence storage cells lining each wall.

“I was told this was the bunker for the village should something come out of the forest that we couldn’t handle. I keep the cells topped off and sweep the room once a week after closing.” Well, it was actually once every other week. The cells were new enough that I had noticed I didn’t need to top them off every week…but one must keep up appearances.

“Hmm…that is a good idea, I would have thought I would have known about this. Do you know if this is in every village…Sandy was it?”

“Yes ma’am, Sandy. No I don’t know about other villages. The previous transit manager retired here 5 years ago. I was brought in as a replacement after my training. I grew up here, so it was an easy choice for me.”

I spin around and look again at the space. It is a little odd, I guess. Having a facility underground required the transport to use extra essence, but it did make sense in the case of a beast attack.

“Hmm…and the condenser cells are almost new, when were they replaced last?” The old lady was getting a little odd here, but maybe that is normal…this whole day is not normal. I want lunch…something roasted, herby.

“Sandy? Dear you are drooling.”

“Oh, sorry, yes, sorry…was thinking about lunch. Yes they are replaced every year with the Ducal inspection.”

“Hmm…ok, well, then let’s get moving, this will work better than I thought. I will double check the essence flows around the pads, could you get Bobby…uh, the tall man who looks like he is always constipated. Quickly now, we still have a lot of people who need to get here.”

“Yes ma’am.” I quickly head back up and out to the main transit pad.

Bobby is a thin man with a permanent slouch. His motions and interactions with those around just ooze distaste and annoyance. I really don’t need this today, or any day really.

“Uh, excuse me are you Bobby?” I ask with as much deference as I can manage today. Hopefully I can get this nasty man down the stairs and off to…what was her name? Did she tell me her name? Was I not listening? Ok, when in doubt, just point.

“That’s Nobleman Robert Pennderworth to you young lady. Now, what is it, we have a lot of work to do.”

Ok. It could have been worse. The whole Nobleman title is total bunk, so he is probably a second son, of a second son, of some twat in the Seat.

“Uh, the Elder wants to see you at the reserve pads…just head straight through the doors and down the ramp. She said she would meet you there.”

“Oh. Ok. Thanks.” And off the little twat went. Now, I need to get food, maybe for everyone…I can probably charge the whole thing to the transit account. Everyone here looks like they have everything in hand…so off I go.