Mark yawned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He was already waiting in the lobby for Chloe and Sam to arrive. Outside a group of fifty people were getting ready to head out. They were part of the patrol group, heading for the edges of their territory to go and investigate these sightings. Granted, that wasn’t far, but what they thought they would find this early in the morning, Mark didn’t know. This was Karter's suggestion, and he had years more experience in troop deployment than any of them, so an early morning trek it was.
Chloe and Sam arrived with the ding of the elevator, chatting amongst themselves, climbing out Chloe waved when she saw Mark.
She had a cardboard tray in her hands with paper cups in it. Handing one to Mark she asked.
“Are they ready, out there?”
Mark nodded, he’d been going over patrol routes with Daphne for the last few days and they were simple enough that he could deploy them himself.
“Packed and sorted, they are just running last-minute checks now”
They walked out into the brisk morning air.
There were a couple of familiar faces here. The medic, Mark now knew as Carl, was part of their group, along with Chris, Franklin, and Isabel, who looked a bit lost without her twin nearby.
Some of the nearest people saluted toward them while others waved and called greetings.
Because their faction was made up of so many different smaller groups, people seemed hesitant about the correct form of greeting.
It wasn’t something Mark had even thought about, but apparently ‘greeting everyone in the same manner is a sign of respect’ or so Ethel had insisted.
To which, Mark had taken to a causal wave or lame thumbs up.
Being put into a position of authority had its perks, but right now it was a ton of work and finding his feet. Mark had also noticed the moment he would walk into a room people would suddenly either get quiet, stand to attention, or escape his presence.
He felt like a drill sergeant sometimes, with the way people acted around him. Only those that had been close to him before the bridge went down, still treated him like himself. Andy and the gang had no problem bothering him whenever they saw him in the halls, along with Joslin, and the soldiers he’d been close with.
Of course, this was the same for all their leads, Mark just had to get used to the different treatment.
The patrol left minutes later for the outskirts, near where they had set the limit of their territory. The surrounding areas that they were expanding into, were unprotected and lawless. This was not a bad thing, it just meant that the people there were a little more rough around the edges. As long as you didn’t try and harm them, they would stay out of your way.
With the size they were at the moment, they had managed to claim a couple of blocks in a radius around their main building, as they grew they would eat up more of the surrounding space, hopefully attracting the right people and scaring off the wrong.
The trip there did not take long, and the first thing Mark noticed as they stepped a little beyond their territory, was movement in the surrounding buildings. Continuing a little ways out, they arrived at the spot where most sightings were happening and came to a stop
Mark readied himself in case it was a trap. A construct long since deployed to cover his people as he kept watch. They waited for a couple of minutes, but nothing happened, no one came forward. Mark began to think they rocked up at the wrong place until he saw Chloe.
She was chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully, looking at the dark windows of the nearby buildings.
“Sam, you should go forward, I think they are scared to approach, our forces are killing our percentages”
Sam looked back at her and nodded, leaving Mark's protection.
She showed her hands non-aggressively to the open space.
Waiting.
“We mean no harm. Please send someone out we can talk with.”
Mark's full attention was on Sam, a barrier fully charged and ready to go. He was watching Chole out of the corner of his eye, just in case she saw an attack coming.
Another couple of minutes went by and a middle-aged man stepped out of one of the ground-level apartments. All around them the scene changed, suddenly people appeared from windows and darkened doorways. There were a few weapons at the ready and Mark got the feeling this group was much bigger than they had been led to believe.
“H-hello, I’m coming out, don’t shoot”
As he got nearer Mark could see the guy had probably been through a lot, his clothes were slathered in long dried blood, which he’d attempted, but failed to wash out. His personal hygiene was not much better. The man’s right arm was tied to his chest in a sling, Mark didn’t need Prana to tell it had healed wrong.
While he looked worried, his eyes carried a keen desire to live, this man had no intention of giving up, and Mark liked him immediately.
“You guys are the new faction that moved into this area, right?”
Sam nodded.
“We are The Order of the Sage and I’m Sam, who are you? Why are you in that state, I thought the Corrupted had been removed from this section of the city”
Stolen story; please report.
The man chuckled self-derisive.
“People call me Metayo. These injuries aren’t from those ‘things’, they are from other humans. We have to fend for ourselves out here”
Sam looked at him with compassion.
“I understand, you have my sympathies. But… I have to ask. Are you a neutral party or are you part of any of the nearby factions?”
The Metayo didn’t answer right away, taking his time to mull over the answer.
“It’s hard out here, you learn pretty quickly that banding together becomes the only way to drive off the scavengers. Over time people collect together from all over. Wanderers, vagrants, those who can’t cut it on the battlefield, and those ignored by their factions. Some of our numbers do come from the neighboring factions like the Firestarters but they have long since cut ties.”
Sam pursed her lips like she knew where this was going.
“Why are you so close to our borders? If you have Firestarters here, Ex- or not, it won't look good.”
Metayo braced himself and spoke.
“We are looking for a faction to join and we heard rumors that a new force was taking in people. Honestly, we just want a place to rest, some of us have been wandering around since all of this started. We are willing to work, but you have to take everyone.”
From the outside, the city looked like this great thing, but it was quickly becoming clear that there was a lot to still be desired. The majority of people did not care about those without power. Most just left them to their own devices, without a group to rely on. Perhaps they were getting turned away for this exact reason. Factions didn't want to invite the ire of their neighboring factions and in the meantime, these people continued to suffer out here
Metayo looked hopefully at Sam, who stared back at him with a conflicted expression.
“We currently have an agreement with the Firestarters. It does not expressly stop us from taking you on, but it would be in bad faith. Those of you who are neutral are welcome to join but- ”
Metayo suddenly looked panicked when Sam got to this stage.
“Please wait! Just hear me out! As a faction, the Firestarters are struggling. In the beginning, their leadership made a ton of promises that they never delivered. People are unhappy under them, but a majority of the fighters still stay because they get a good deal. They are not the only faction like this. Those who are here already cut ties with the Firestarters completely. All we’re are asking for is a chance!”
Sam frowned and looked back at Mark and Chloe to see what they thought.
Mark could see she wanted to help, but she wanted to know if they were on board. If they accepted these people, there was always the chance that there would be complications down the line.
He could understand her concerns, and they were valid, but that didn't change his decision. The whole point of this faction was to help their people, more than that, it was to extend a hand out to anyone who needed it, at least that’s why Mark had joined. If these people had nowhere else to go, then he saw no reason to turn them away. This decision was more than just the concerns about the Firestaters, they had to make it clear to everyone.
Mark locked eyes with Sam and made the smallest of nods toward her. Letting her know he was fully behind her decision. Chloe, who stood right next to him beamed from ear to ear, and gave a thumbs up, mouthing the words ‘68%’.
Sam acknowledged them and turned back to Metayo.
“Alright, Metayo. Call them out, I want to see who I’m talking to.”
The guy looked confused at first but he soon realized what she was saying. After a moment, he could see no deceit in her eyes, and putting his fingers to his lips, he whistled sharply twice.
One by one, people started to appear from the surrounding buildings, spilling into the road, very few of them had actual weapons, most making do with whatever they could grab nearby.
They were in equally dire states, with clothes of varying degrees of wear and tear, ample injuries, and caution in their bodies. There were a lot of them, and they looked more like refugees than people living in a city. Mark had thought the system took care of most necessities but the problem was, when you couldn't fight, you couldn’t earn, and without a faction, one had to scrounge for what was left.
At first glance there appeared to be over a hundred people appearing from the nearby homes, shops, and alleyways. Many of them held a flicker of hope in their eyes.
Sam’s voice rose to meet those expectations. Echoing out into the morning air, power lacing her words.
“This offer extends to anyone that's looking for safety. The Order of the Sage will provide. Our only requirement is that you are willing to grow. We do not care where you come from, or what your circumstances were before this. If you want to fight, we will train you. If you want to learn, we will teach you. And, If you want to rest, we will stand guard...”
The people around them seemed spellbound, so when Sam asked who was following her, a majority of the people there responded with shouts of relief or joy. Their own people seemingly adding to the noise.
Metayo was not the leader of this group, just respected enough to be their representative. Once more he looked at a loss for words as they approached.
“Just like that?”
Sam just bobbed her head.
"Just like that."
The trip back was not long, but with what Mark now saw, was around a hundred and fifty people in tow, it took some time to get back to the heart of their territory.
Once there, the Logistics team was notified and a good portion of them joined then and there. Metayo was meticulous in his questions and had terms stated until he was satisfied, but eventually, he decided to join as well.
The resolution of the patrol took hours, but eventually, they finished up.
Sam went to talk to Ethel about developments and see how they were going to be handling this going forward.
The first thing Mark did, when he had a moment, was to call a meeting with his growing staff of healers.
When Abby and Tommis got there he broke down what he wanted.
“We are going to start further training, I want as many people as possible to begin learning advanced healing techniques. We’ll start with bone reconstruction and move our way out from there. Tommis if you could, take them through what we went over”
With Metayo’s consent, Tommis did a demonstration of how to deal with reconstructing injuries that had begun to heal wrong.
His team was already growing into the nineties, made up of full healers as doctors, and medics or generalists as assistants. Mark didn’t turn away anyone who wanted to help, if they had no Prana they could help as nurses, and a lot of women seemed to volunteer for this role.
Gibby arrived around mid-afternoon, ever since he had come on board, the basics of the faction had been coming online much faster, and they all found themselves being able to delegate more.
Mark had time once more to visit the campus and take another lesson with Sunny, Sam joined him this time as well. He didn’t get as much out of it this time but the speed of his modifiers was coming along nicely. it was certainly worth the Sp.
Just as he passed the arena, the sight of it reminded him of Patrica Williams and her claims. After a pause, he turned to Sam.
“I’m going to go take a look at the Church of Brilliance, they may have some information I need, I’ll see you back at base.”
Sam looked thoughtful and then said.
“Wait, I’ll join you, Jon is thinking of going to Crafters Cove this evening, so we can meet up with them a bit later.”
Mark was interested in finding out more about inscriptions so that was perfect, the two of them lifted in the air and made for the center of the city, the religious district.