Neptune’s Bridge was a monument of system reliant construction. The Sapphire Armada had built an unusual city completely unlike anything that previously existed on Earth. The city was built in the center of a long bridge that crossed into the open ocean. The separation of the Florida peninsula from the mainland of the former United States had been undersold by those who described the distance in words. There was no sign of land on either horizon, north or south, unless perched among the tall spires that demarcated where the bridge met the city. It could have just as easily been the middle of any of the world’s oceans.
The peculiar location was the result of a combination of unlikely factors that began with the civilization shard landing in the water. Submerged civilization shards had little chance of being claimed. They were much more likely to be destroyed by the early arrival of Primal Constructs, with humans never realizing they existed, as evidenced by the glittering beaches in certain regions, but Neptune’s Bridge had been a rare exception.
The Sapphire Armada’s first Chosen were able to claim the nautical shard and establish their maritime nation, following the direction of their sponsors from the start. The fact that there weren’t any current residents to begin with meant that the entire population had voluntarily joined in the early days of the assimilation, pooling all of their resources together. The level of cooperation would obviously be a rarity during the apocalypse, especially from such a large number of people, but they had benefited from some of the same factors as Ghost Reef in terms of population reciprocity. Orlando had been wiped off the face of the Earth by the arrival of mana, and the survivors had no choice but to pull together, especially with the pressure of alien monsters building.
Flocks of seagulls circled the four spires, claiming the white and silver stone structures as a refuge. Marcus waved a particularly curious group of birds away from his vantage point on one of the southern spires. In the distance, he could just barely see a wooded shoreline abutting the long bridge that stretched so far, it revealed the curvature of the Earth. The tips of mana-enhanced slash pine trees were the only details he could make out.
The city was smaller than expected, given the high population of the Orlando settlement. The actual footprint of the floating city wasn’t larger than a handful of city blocks, but it had a verticality that Ghost Reef lacked. Layers of buildings were stacked, and wide bridges of white stone criss-crossed the gaps high above broad canals. Marcus had imagined the city would be like Venice, but the comparison only held if multiple Venices were stacked on top of each other. Broad courtyards encircled the perimeter of every block, even those that were elevated by multiple levels, giving the city a bright veneer with light colored stone catching the sun on every level. Four spires grew even further into the air, towering above the blocks, two for each side of the bridge.
When he and the others arrived by ship, they had all been shocked into speechlessness. The bridge functioned like a massive wall for ships, preventing access to the ocean from the gulf, but Neptune’s Bridge itself contained enormous canals in between blocks, putting the city in prime position for monopolizing transport from east to west. Waves crashed into the bridge as if it was a breakwater, but from what they understood, it didn’t extend far beneath the surface. Apparently, the bridge and the city were all constructed of the same floating stone that the Sapphire Armada used to build their ships. Mana was necessary for their very existence.
“Incredible.” Marcus had observed at first sight of the gleaming city, to the gratification of Viceroy Hali, but Shane had been shocked for other reasons.
The tactically inclined siege commander immediately recognized the weaknesses of the city and understood why they wouldn’t be comfortable remaining in such a location. Basically, sieging the city itself would be virtually impossible. An invading force would be funneled into the narrow bridge and any push would be done beneath layers upon layers of abutting walls and towers. Reaching either of the extraordinary stone gates would require running a gauntlet with an active tower defense raining from above, and that was only after crossing miles of bridge while exposed to naval bombardment.
The situation sounded ideal for a defensive and naval focused settlement, but the issue had already been exemplified by the north. The long bridge also funneled the residents when they wanted to leave by land, and to the north, monsters claimed the wide landmass, reversing the advantage into a disadvantage. Shane saw that in order to siege Neptune’s Bridge, a force would simply need to camp where the bridge connected to land.
Even Marcus could see the problem. The Sapphire Armada had committed the bulk of its population to claiming a new settlement out of necessity. The residents who remained within the island city blocks were barely hanging on in a desperate defense against masses of Primal Constructs that pressed against their northern fortifications, even as Ghost Reef’s visitors arrived.
Coop had warned the advisors that when left alone, even the Ancient Defenders, the weakest monsters they had experienced, would become aggressive, forming raid parties to attack the fort. Neptune’s Bridge was essentially experiencing a siege event wave at all times from their northern shore. It was manageable due to the limitations imposed by the bridge, but even as the newcomers arrived, they could see Field Bosses pressing forward. While the defenders were hanging on, and receiving enough experience to elevate the entire city’s population to relatively higher levels, it was clearly only a matter of time before the gates fell and they were forced out. The leaders of the city had clearly determined that they were doomed in the long run and needed a more secure headquarters.
To the south, the rival settlement of Empress City had already presented a risk of bottling the city in completely, so the former Champion of Neptune’s Bridge had led an aggressive forward defense that would leave them with a release valve should it become necessary. Long term, their naval dominance would play the most important role in providing them with freedom of movement, but until it could be assured, they were at risk of being inhibited to their own walls by virtue of the city’s greatest feature, the bridge itself.
Neptune’s Bridge had a large territory, but it was entirely aquatic, meaning the civilization shard was doing nothing to tame the wild Primal Constructs that spawned on the lands at each end of the bridge. The north was out of control, and the south was barely held by frequent caravans of fighters who were braving the variable growth of monsters outside of settlement territory. They lost many and as even the south slipped out of their control, they determined that their position wasn’t sustainable.
The siege event had revealed other settlements and the existence of a weakened Ghost Reef had been too tempting for them to pass up. Especially since their overall strategy relied on naval dominance. They couldn’t let an exhausted maritime rival bolster itself even further.
As far as they could tell, Ghost Reef had barely survived the siege, losing almost its entire population until less than a thousand people remained. Of course, they couldn’t know that Ghost Reef’s tiny population wasn’t disabled by greater losses, but had actually begun extraordinarily small in the first place. Rather than weakened by the siege event, they had been hardened and empowered. The Armada’s misunderstanding of the island settlement’s situation had led to their loss. The gambit had also caused them to fully lose control of the south, allowing monsters to finally claim the territory all the way to the shore. The most intrepid Primal Constructs even wandered onto the long bridge itself, fully realizing what they had feared.
When Charlie unleashed her skills upon their arrival, resecuring the southern bridge, the city’s residents celebrated as if they had a new lease on life. Their Champion had been killed and they assumed they would be left to die, but instead powerhouses from the settlement they had aimed to suppress rescued them. Clearing the southern bridge was the first order of business, and it had been completed by the residents of Ghost Reef with the support of half of the pirate fleet and 3,000 of the Armada’s defeated troops. It took their combined forces a single day to clear the long southern bridge while Hali and Marcus established the new state of governance.
The main point of conflict after the transfer of power was that they intended to retain Neptune’s Bridge. The residents that joined in on the council protested that it would be impossible to retain the settlement in the long run and argued that they should be allowed to join other safe territory. Marcus made some promises regarding their safety that would be backed up by Shane’s party while the navy continued to transport the defeated soldiers of the Armada from Ghost Reef back to Neptune’s Bridge. It would be a long process that would hold Ghost Reef’s parties in place for longer than expected.
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Marcus checked the leaderboards for the umpteenth time, worried as he was for how things were going elsewhere. When he returned to Ghost Reef, one of his highest priorities would be to find a new way for them to have real time communication over long distances. The Cleary’s should certainly try and figure something out. In the meantime, he was forced to scan and observe familiar names on the leaderboards just to confirm they were still there. Extrapolating successes based on level gains was rudimentary at best, but there wasn’t much more available to him, so he was making do.
A few names jumped out at him on his latest examination. The first was that Mr. Gibson and his entire party had climbed into the top 100. Gibson’s party was responsible for exploring and securing the interior of the Florida peninsula, with the help of Jackson Hobbs and the former rebels of Empress City, ideally reaching all the way to Neptune’s Bridge. It appeared that they were finding healthy resistance in the swampy highways that had claimed the lands in between settlements. The fact that they were steadily increasing in levels was a positive sign. Marcus guessed that they were at least comfortable with the challenges they were encountering. He would have been concerned if they were jumping large numbers of levels at once, indicating that they were overcoming great struggles that would inherently bring great risk, but they were instead growing at a more constant pace.
Their smooth progress contrasted with their Champion’s, who had appeared dormant for most of their trip to Neptune’s Bridge. It wasn’t until Coop leapt forward another dozen levels that they were sure he was up to his usual antics, finding something unbelievable to fight and overcome that should have probably been completely off-limits for those undergoing the assimilation. He was doing his part, so the rest of the expedition members felt like they would need to step up when it was their turn to contribute to the faction. In particular, Camila and Charlie didn’t want to be outdone.
The more surprising fluctuation on the leaderboards was that Derek had suddenly been making excellent progress as well. The man had drifted out of the top 1,000 while lazing about the tavern, but he was now approaching the top 500 after gaining fifteen levels in a third as many days. Derek had volunteered to take a more prominent role in the Adventurer’s Guild back in Ghost Reef, stepping up at home while many of the more responsible members of the faction were leaving on various missions. The Adventurer’s Guild was establishing a basecamp within the Coral Forest Mana Well, adjacent to the enormous shrimp colony that would hopefully become a high level grind area for the residents of the settlement. Marcus had been operating under the assumption that Derek would lounge around the bar and make sure others were periodically challenging the monsters. Apparently, the lazy bard was taking a more hands-on approach than expected. He had even surpassed Champion Jackson on the leaderboards.
“Good for him.” Marcus assessed.
The only others worth mentioning were Dr. Jones’s steady growth as the caretaker continued to progress by taking a page out of Coop’s book to grind the local monsters around Rock Key, and Shane’s party.
Shane’s party had traveled along with the bulk of the travelers from Ghost Reef, boarding the Eye of the Storm with himself, Charlie, Camila, and the visitors from Neon Park as they escorted former Viceroy Hali back to Neptune’s Bridge. A majority of the Tempest Fleet joined on the journey, just in case they needed a proper show of force to properly claim the settlement while also transporting the first batch of surrendered troops.
Even though Hali had assured them that the transfer of power would be peaceful, they didn’t want to take any chances, so they brought Ghost Reef’s version of an army. It really only amounted to a few dozen of the residents along with a handful of pirate ships, but each and every one of them was formidable. Luckily, the young girl who he would need to begin to accept as a peer had been telling the truth. Neptune’s Bridge was officially the newest addition to The Lighthouse and the population was reprioritizing their security under the tutelage of Ghost Reef’s tactical commander.
Shane and his party had immediately gone to work reassessing the defenses of the settlement, preparing forward guardhouses on the southern end of the bridge, and establishing safe zones with their own effort. They had easily cleared a wide area around the southern end, liberally utilizing Mana Pylons to reclaim the wild territory in the name of their faction.
The north had proven more difficult. Even with the aid of Charlie, Camila, and the trio of Neon Park elites, they made slow progress thinning out hordes of elites that doubled their average level. While they took the pressure of the fortifications of the city, there was no hope of actually holding a forward base on that end, and that was against monsters that were on the fringes of the wild territory. The ones that were meandering onto the bridge rather than establishing themselves in the unchecked forest were certainly not the most dangerous of the bunch. They all agreed that Coop would enjoy finding whatever was in the interior.
Other than the monster zones and the incredible architecture of the floating alien stone city, there weren’t many benefits acquired from Neptune’s Bridge. They didn’t have a mana well or particularly convenient grind zones for anyone of normal progression, though the north held promise for the most advanced levelers. Frankly, they would have been practically deadweight as they hadn’t invested into anything outside of their navy and the city that housed it. But Ghost Reef was different, and they had a need for the one resource that Neptune’s Bridge could provide. Population.
Admiral Kayla had been the surprise connection necessary for turning the city’s purpose around, and the reason why the expedition had remained inside the newly claimed settlement for an extra few days even after the northern bridge was reset. The Ghost Reef pirates had found fertile recruitment ground among the residents of Neptune’s Bridge, and especially with the surrendered soldiers that were being funneled back home on the pirate ships. The idea that they needed to leave the settlement behind had been pervasive, and serving in the Lighthouse’s navy was an opportunity to integrate into the broader faction that many begged for.
Kayla had literally thousands of volunteers as soon as she revealed her plan, all with varying levels of experience, jumping at the chance to join one of the pirate crews. The Admiralty back on Ghost Reef would be busy, receiving its inaugural class from potential officers being picked out by Kayla and her captains. They had also acquired the tokens for rebuilding ships and would be truly amassing a proper armada of ghostly pirate ships with fresh crews under the watchful eyes of the trusted phantoms. By the time Coop finished with his business, Ghost Reef would have a massive naval fleet and a growing navy burgeoned by human volunteers.
While the new sailors were being sorted, the taxi services were being organized by utilizing the existing vessels. Ghost Reef to Empress City was already running twice a day, once in the morning and once in evening, providing a convenient connection with the island and the mainland. The first two settlements were so closely connected, the residents of each would feel as though they were a single unit in no time at all. Residents of Ghost Reef were already taking daily trips to contribute to the effort of clearing out the mainland before returning to their apartments on the island to sleep each night.
The much longer route from Ghost Reef to Neptune’s Bridge would complete a trip every other day, with two ships alternating positions between settlements, and an overnight pitstop at the reclaimed oil rig. It was at a decent midpoint between Ghost Reef and Neptune’s Bridge, and it gave the pirates a proper outpost. The longer route between the original settlement and the newest addition was already the busiest, as the entire surviving assault force was being brought back piece by piece as they were relieved from camping on the second and third islands of the Ghost Reef chain.
Unfortunately, the Sapphire Armada’s flagship had proven uncomfortably slow for the pirates, and though it could transport a massive amount of people at once, they had parked it at the pirate outpost instead, bolstering the relatively small oil rig with much greater living space.
The second leg of their journey was approaching, and the residents of Ghost Reef were splitting up even further. The Eye of the Storm, captained by Admiral Kayla and escorted by Fearless and Sea Burial, would be transporting Marcus, Charlie, Camila, and Camila’s family all the way to Neon Park next. The other captains would be handling the former Armada’s recruitment and Shane’s party would continue to assess Neptune’s Bridge’s northern defense while coordinating the remaining Ghost Reef residents in a steady push south to try and assist Mr. Gibson and Empress City’s efforts to create a land connection.
Marcus involuntarily let out a deep sigh that had Arthur raising an eyebrow at him.
“What’s with you old men stressing out about every little thing?” Former Viceroy, now Champion Hali asked in her typical antagonistic tone.
“Perhaps we have seen one or two things go wrong and wish to avoid such events in the future.” Arthur politely suggested.
Hali tapped away on her manifested tablet, managing the settlement in real time with her support abilities aiding her. She stopped for a moment and looked up. “You guys kicking our asses wasn’t exactly something going right for us, but you don’t hear me whining into the breeze like Viceroy Pessimism over there.”
“He has a long trip ahead of him.” Arthur added. “It’s normal to be concerned about affairs at home while being away.”
Hali snorted and refocused on her tablet. “Make sure to pack a toothbrush.” She recommended.