Upon finally entering the Breakpoint Headquarters we were brought to a group of tents outlining a rectangle in the middle of the street, during the walk I noted the guards stationed on the sidewalks and their weapons. They were carrying the same kinds of weapons as the patrol groups and the guards we just passed. It seemed like regular tools were the standard equipment of this faction. The second thing I noted was the abundance of females inside the camp, the ratio of male to female in the guards was less than one out of four. It appeared that the rest of the population of women were not fighters. I had initially thought maybe more women than men were lost during the initialization, however it seems that I was wrong. The simple answer was that Breakpoint just doesn't force everyone into being a combatant. Honestly, I understood the decision, but if I was in charge everyone would have been out killing monsters, if not to create a military force, then purely so that everyone got a class and wasn't just a bottomless pit for resources. It's a cold decision on my part but I think it would be better to have people who could take care of themselves and could grow.
Once we reached the outline of tents, I could see that this was their food court. Under the tents cooks made meals over portable grills and a proficient use of propane. I Idly wondered where they got all of these supplies. Inside the rectangle were dozens of tables many of them different sizes and styles with several chairs around each one.
"Welcome to the mess hall." Jax grandly announces. He's clearly going with a military theme, which I didn't mind.
"Sit, I'll have some food brought over." He tells us.
"Thank you." Gideon responds as we move to take seats around what I presume is the head table that Jax usually sits at.
The table looks like it was brought from one of the dining rooms of the houses around us, it's a sturdy oak with filigrees and detailing. It's probably not that expensive but compared to the folding tables that make up the rest of the "mess hall" it's truly kingly. The chairs around the table are padded and look like they go with it, again practically thrones compared to the lawn or folding chairs around the rest of the tables. It's set up so that one head of the table is facing the hall and anyone sitting at the other would have their back to it.
Jax takes the head of the table facing the courtyard after sending someone nearby to tell the cooks to bring food. His two companions who have yet to speak, sit down according to how they stood next to him, with Vivian to his left and Conrad to his right. Gideon moves to take the seat opposite Jax, but stops to glance my way, however I'm already moving to sit with a chair between me and Vivian. I guide Lilly to sit on my right next to the second in command, and Andy to my left next to Gideon.
There are only just enough chairs for the ten of us with four on each side and one at each of the heads. I'm surprised Grover isn't sitting at the table with us, he walked here with us but then moved off to one of the other tables. It appeared as though this was not their usual mealtime, though everyone started filing in to take seats nonetheless.
"While we're waiting to be served, why don't you tell us about the city, Gideon was it?" Jax broke the silence.
"Thats right, the city is exactly like you might expect, except there's monsters running about, and very few people left, hence why we're here in the first place." Gideon answers.
"And how's the food situation, without many people there must be stores full of supplies." Jax asks. I approve of the question, it's certainly something I would have asked.
"There's still some food, though more of it was taken than you might think. In the early days there were many more people, and several of them looted stores before the monsters got to them." Gideon was right, there wasn't a store that I had seen in the city that wasn't missing most of its supplies. Half of it was spread out broken or torn open across the streets where presumably whoever was carrying it was attacked and killed by monsters.
"I see, that's what the scouts who have returned reported, isn't that right Conrad." Jax looked to the man on his right.
"Thats right, we had hoped other areas of the city would be different." Conrad spoke for the first time. His voice was cold and pointed.
It appeared as though asking someone else to speak loosened whatever restrictions Jax's two lieutenants had about speaking because Vivian spoke next.
"Thats quite unfortunate, though anything we can recover will be beneficial." She spoke with a commanding yet velvety voice.
From there conversation opened up and questions were asked by everyone at the table to everyone else. I kept my speaking to a minimum, but Lilly was doing her thing again, asking innocuous questions that seemed to have little point to them, though no one seemed to mind. From Jax's people came questions about the city, what the first few days were like, and about the monsters that came out at night. From our side questions mostly regarded the situation here, how the groups formed, and what it was like having to take care of so many people.
According to them, Breakpoint formed from six Individuals who found themselves together during the initialization, these were Jax, Vivian, Conrad, Grover, Austin, and another girl named Tanya, though she died a day later to monsters. The five remaining were some of the first to get classes, and from there they gathered up anyone they could find, creating this faction. They really didn't explain much to us though, like why they were together at the start, or what classes they got, but that kind of detailed information wasn't really expected as we had just met.
After the introductory stories the conversation moved to Kontrix again and how the two groups met, and why they were at war with each other. According to Jax, Kontrix struck first when two of their groups met, and after the Breakpoint group tried speaking with a group of five that they met on the other side of town, trying to offer them a place in their faction, the five members of Kontrix attacked and killed all but one the Breakpoint party. That one person got away with some bruised ribs and reported to Jax. From there everything just escalated. It was now pretty much kill on sight for both sides, apparently the only reason we weren't immediately attacked was because we weren't seen first therefor allowing us to approach peacefully showing our good intentions, and we came from the complete opposite direction than anyone would expect Kontrix to show up from.
At some point during the conversation, we were brought our food, it was a stew with small pieces of meat and multiple vegetables in a red sauce. It wasn't the best food I had ever eaten, but it was better than the cans of food I had been eating for every meal. Everyone else must have thought the same because they all moaned and thanked Jax for the food. Before I took a bite, I had a thought that maybe the food was poisoned, but I didn't think it would be, Jax seemed like the type to just attack if he wanted us dead, and in his own words he didn't think we were much of a threat. It was still a gamble, but with my vitality and endurance stats with the boost to stat effectiveness it was a gamble I felt I could take.
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It didn't take long for us to finish our food, and it wasn't long after we were done that Jax said he had business to attend to and stepped away. Conrad and Vivian stayed for another 10 minutes before they too left. As we got up from the table, a few people came over and took the dishes away. Following them was Grover, who came to speak with us and lead us out of the mess hall.
"Jax told me to find you seven somewhere to stay as night will fall shortly, and you wouldn't want to go back into the city in the dark." Grover explained as we were led back down the street the way we came.
He was probably right; I was likely the only one who could actually move about the city at night without being killed in two seconds flat. We were led outside of the Breakpoint HQ, and down two streets before Grover stopped and pointed to one of the houses. The house wasn't special, I would have walked right by it without stopping if we weren't brought here by our guide. The only difference between this house and the one next to it or all the others on this street was the different shades of brown and grey it was painted with, and a spraypainted red circle on the front door. Though looking at the other doors on this street I saw some with the same circles, but they had checkmarks inside of them, and some with squares instead of circles. I wasn't sure what the tags were for, but I assumed it was some kind of sorting system for the houses that Breakpoint had searched through.
"Thanks, we'll settle in here for the night. Should we head back to the mess hall in the morning for breakfast, or should we find our own food tomorrow." Gideon asked Grover.
It was a good question, my four allies didn't carry any backpacks, so I assumed they didn't have any extra food with them. Lilly, Andy, and I did however, and we even had enough to share with our allies if we need to, so I wasn't worried. While I hadn't planned to stay the night in the town, I was glad my forethought was paying off.
"You're more than welcome to eat breakfast with us, we serve food between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM. So come on over whenever." Grover confirmed we would be fed with a smile before leaving us for the night.
We still had at least another hour before night would fall, but we all ventured inside as we weren't exactly given the ok to roam around. The house only had three bedrooms, so we decided to let the two couples each have a room, and Lilly would get the third to herself. Me and Andy would sleep in the living room, I gave him the couch and decided to take a nice recliner for myself. I wasn't worried, my stats would make sleeping in the chair easier. After getting our sleeping arrangements figured out, we came together in the living room to discuss what we all thought of the situation. This would be the first time since we met the Breakpoint faction that we would be able to speak without them hearing.
"So, what does everyone think about this Breakpoint group?" Gideon started the conversation.
"Well, I think they seemed okay, they obviously have a pretty good handle on things, they were able to keep an entire area clear of monsters." Sam answers first.
"Yeah, they have so many groups of people out killing monsters there must be at least 100 people with classes here if not more." Andy adds.
"While that is impressive, I'm not sure we should be basing our opinions of them on their military might. I think the leadership is a better judge for what kind of group this is." Rick adds.
"You're right Rick, while Jax is reasonable if somewhat arrogant, and Vivian and Grover are pretty normal, Austin seemed bent on removing our weapons from us, and that Conrad guy gave me the creeps." Lilly's read of the five leaders of Breakpoint was impressive and just about identical to my own observations.
"I think we need some more time with them before we make any decisions, talk with some of the regular people and see what they have to say." Iyana said before looking to Gideon.
"Thats true, I was just curious what everyone thought so far. How about you Reaper." Gideon asks with a look my way.
"I agree with Lilly's summation of the leadership, though I'm less impressed with Breakpoints military. While yes, they have a large group of people, they're individually underwhelming." I share my thoughts with the group.
After a few surprised looks and some nods Gideon finishes the conversation.
"All right then we will wait and see what happens tomorrow then and try to gather some more information from the lower ranked members of Breakpoint."
With that we mostly disperse to get some sleep, it's early but there's really not much else for us to do. I catch Lilly before she goes upstairs.
"Hey, how is your class coming along." I quietly ask her.
"I feel close, if I can spend tomorrow investigating Breakpoint, I think I'll be ready to get my class." She whispers back.
"Good but be careful tomorrow ok. Waiting to get your class is better than asking too many questions and getting killed, understand." I look into her emerald eyes until she nods.
After that I wish her a good night and she goes upstairs to sleep. Andy's already laid out on the couch by the time my conversation with Lilly is done.
"I'm going outside to look around a bit, keep an eye out while I'm gone alright." I tell Andy.
"You got it Cass." He responds.
I have no intention of going to sleep for a few hours yet. I have some things I want to check on, and being awake for a while will let me keep watch for anything Breakpoint tries to pull on us. I don't actually think they're going to try anything, but I'm not going to take the chance. Exiting the house is simple enough, I just go to the back, activate my Void Tainted Cowl and walk outside. I haven't tried this before, but my plan is to get up on top of the roof using Burst. My first activation brings me about five feet off the ground before I start to fall back down. Just to test my theory for getting back down, I wait until I'm close to hitting the ground then activate burst again for an inch up. It takes more energy than it would have to go from immobile to an inch in the air but it's still a small use of energy and completely stops my momentum and leaves me hovering about three inches off the ground, which I drop down like it was nothing. I was in no danger of hurting myself even if my idea didn't work, at this point a five-foot fall wouldn't have even stressed my legs.
With my test completed I use a Burst to reach just above roof height and then a second to move myself over it. I fall two inches onto the roof, the entire process only took two seconds, and was silent. No one could have seen me either as I had my cowl activated the entire time. The first thing I notice once I'm on the roof is that there are people walking down the road. Every so often some of them break off and enter the houses along this street. From what I can tell warriors are entering the houses with squares on the doors, and unclassed people are entering the houses with circles filled with checkmarks on their doors. I hunker down on the slope of the roof leading to the small back yard, then deactivate my skill. The only thing visible from the front of the house is the top half of my head, and its dark enough my dark brown hair definitely isn't standing out.
I get comfortable up there, waiting and watching, by the time an hour and a half has gone by there's no longer anyone on the roads. Soon groups of monsters start showing up, walking down the road, hunting. I'm immediately taken aback, In the city these monsters would be asleep by now, though maybe that's only because of the Night Stalkers. Maybe hunkering down and "going to sleep" is the monsters hiding from them. I'm not sure why the Night Stalkers wouldn't just enter the buildings and kill them while they slept, perhaps they don't go into buildings or by going to sleep the monsters aren't detectable. Regardless I think this means we're safe for the night, Breakpoint could get to us, but they would make enough noise doing it we should wake up before anything happened.
Leaving the roof with new information I make my way down silently and with my cowl activated. Time for me to get some sleep.