Chapter 314. What now?
“Halt exercise! Clear and safe your weapons. Form up at the rally point,” First Sergeant Novak’s voice boomed out over the training exercise. It took me a moment to remember exactly where I had been and what I’d been doing when the most recent summoning session had occurred.
I had been overseeing one of the platoons running through an exercise where they tried to track down the mana slayer drone inside a series of buildings. Even though really no time had passed for everyone in the training session, all my minions would have disappeared. By now, the officers and NCOs knew that if the summoned minions all disappeared, it meant I had left and returned from a summoning.
“Sir, command is requesting your presence at the CQ. I know they usually have a debrief, but do you mind resummoning your minions before you go so the exercise can continue?” the first sergeant asked.
“Roger that, Top, I’ll give them commands to not harm anyone and to follow your orders. What they can do might be limited without me around to command them, but it should at least let you get some training in while I’m stuck writing reports,” I said before starting to summon my team.
It was funny, a few months ago, I knew nothing about the military, how it operated, or what was involved in their training. Now, I was getting a crash course and was starting to pick up the lingo. Somehow, I remembered that a first sergeant was called Top even after just returning from a summoning.
“Thank you, Sir, I’ll take good care of them,” Top replied.
“No need, do what you need to with them to get our troops trained. Remember, though, if they get eliminated, it may be a while before I can resummon them,” I replied. It seemed a bit cruel, but my minions weren’t real, and if getting some real attacks in on my team helped these soldiers to survive integration, it was worth a delayed resummoning time.
Top only gave me a nod as a soldier in a battered, olive drab green pickup came to collect me. The Joint Forces Training Base-Los Alamitos had pretty much been taken over by our crazy program at this point, so we had to be much less stealthy about my minions or the other summoned beings that had been brought on post to help with training. We stopped at an office building where a lot of the admin functions occurred, and I was met inside by Major Finley.
“Rico, I just got word that you’re back from a summoning. HQ wanted me to ask if Fitzfazzle was ready to return yet?” Major Finley asked. I checked on his figurine and could feel that the connection wasn't ready to activate yet.
“No, I don’t think it’s ready yet. Thanks for reminding me, though, I had forgotten to check when I returned,” I replied.
“No worries, with how many scientists and engineers are waiting to work with him again, I doubt they’ll let you forget about it. From what I understand, they’ve already developed several prototypes that they want Fitzfazzle’s opinion on,” Finley said.
“Major Finley, I’ve been in a training cycle for the last few weeks here on Earth and haven’t had an update. How are things going with the preparations for integration? Is the announcement about it happening soon?” I asked.
“A solid date hasn’t been set yet. I think the major governments want to have plans in place to deal with potential chaos, riots and whatnot. Every week that they delay brings us closer to the integration event, but also gives us more time to train and a gives us a chance to bring more people into the loop on what is about to happen,” Finley replied.
“I’m still shocked that word hasn’t gotten out yet,” I said.
“Don’t be, people are pretty resistant to change, and I bet that even after we announce things, a good chunk of them will just believe that it’s some kind of scam. Some clips of system related things have shown up online, and they do sometimes get a large number of views before we shut them down. I suspect we’ll have that announcement in the next couple weeks,” Finley said.
“Do they need me to do anything special when the announcement occurs?” I asked.
“Probably, I suspect that you, and several other summoned beings will be prepped a few days in advance so we can show off your skills to the world,” Finley said. I had sort of figured something like that would occur. If there were any important groups they needed to convince, there was nothing better than having me summon my minions to show them that this was all real.
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“Did we ever get a count on how many summoned beings there are on the planet?” I asked.
“There’s no exact data, as a sizable minority of the summoned beings are still out in the dark. After hearing some of what you went through in the beginning, I don’t blame them for not trusting that they’ll be safe if they join our efforts. The best guesstimate right now is that there are somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 summoned beings.
“Most were concentrated in large population centers where the system must have figured its efforts would blend in better. As far as how many are working to help with the integration, we have just over 1,300 signed up worldwide,” Finley said.
“That’s a good chunk, but still having more of us out there without support feels bad. If I can help convince anyone, just let me know,” I offered.
“Thanks, Rico, I know we have what they’re calling a first contact team out there. Sometimes, they bring a summoned being with them to help. At least for now, I think command is more focused on your help with training up our forces,” Finley said.
“Well, I’m ready to help with recruitment, or anything else that turns up,” I offered. They’d already used us to help quash the dungeon outbreak, so who knew what other dangers might turn up as the system integration got closer.
“Thanks for that, Rico. The men and women you’ve helped train will have a better chance at survival, and a better chance at protecting others because of your efforts. Now, I’ll let you get your report finished up. When you’re done, it’ll probably be early evening, so go ahead and call it a day. I can’t imagine how mentally draining it would be to suddenly be summoned away for what might feel like weeks and then pop back right to the time and place you left from,” Major Finley said.
“All right, I’ll see you later then, Major,” I replied, heading toward one of the small offices they had set up with a secure connection where we could submit our reports.
This report was a rather long one. I tried to add everything I could about my last conversation Tzes’zod and the note he left. Something was going to happen to the summoned beings’ personal spaces. Hopefully, with my next summoning, Tzes’zod would be back with more information.
It felt a bit strange writing about the crazy goblin amusement park, and I figured that with the information I was about to send in, there would be plans underway for something similar once the integration chaos was over. There was going to be a complete change in everyone’s lives, but there was also going to be a lot of opportunity.
I considered that maybe it would be in my best interest to invest in something that I had knowledge of, like the amusement park experience. After pausing my report and thinking about it a bit, I realized that helping to build a crappy dragon themed ride wasn’t what I wanted with my future. I’d been given power, and as long as that power wasn’t taken away when I was pulled away at tier three, I wanted to help people with it.
The report took longer than I had anticipated. A lot of different, but potentially important events had occurred in the last summoning series. I’d experienced a trench warfare battle, which I knew was something we’d want to avoid at all costs. There was also the experience with my final linked summoning. Both linked summonings had me appear at the end of the summoner’s life, once due to natural causes, and in the case of the kitchen manager turned emperor, through violence.
By the time I was done, it was dark out, and much of the staff on post had gone home. I was able to bum a ride off one of the clerks leaving for the night, since my car was parked in a lot pretty far from where I was doing my reports. My stomach was reminding me that it needed something by the time I reached my car.
It was strange, I felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw my rather utilitarian Honda Accord. I’d bought something that I needed to be efficient at my job, but also was able to enjoy it for myself. I had earned that car through literal blood, sweat, and tears, but I also hadn’t succumbed to the lure of spending all my newfound wealth on frivolity.
Just when I was starting up my car, Melvin, who had joined me in his armor form, sent images of tacos to me. That began a short argument over what we’d eat that night. I sort of was feeling a pizza, and Melvin wanted Mexican food. We ended up settling on In and Out Burger which both of us found not only acceptable, but also a rather good pick once we thought about it.
With dinner plans settled, we headed for the main gate, only to be flagged down by one of the MPs on duty there.
“Sir, I need you to pull your car into the holding area and wait for further orders. I’m told you are not to leave the base until you’re debriefed on an evolving situation,” the MP ordered. Two of them stood nearby while I parked my car in the small inspection area near the main gate. More MPs arrived, all in full battle rattle as they took up defensive positions around the gate.
While I waited, I noticed a stream of vehicles entering the gate, each driven by soldiers and civilian staff that had been hastily recalled back to the post. The MPs were efficient but also very thorough in vetting everyone inside the vehicles. The sounds of loud diesel engines caught my attention, and I spotted a line of huge trucks with lowboy trailers attached.
On top of each trailer was one of the armored personnel carriers that I trained on. The MPs cleared the gate for these vehicles to get through and the first vehicle in line, one of the ubiquitous government SUVs pulled up next to me.
“Rico, hop in, we’ve got a situation we need your help with,” Major Finley said. I jumped into the rear of the SUV and found myself seated next to Elliot who just nodded in my direction. Something big was going down, and given the firepower lined up behind our vehicle, I worried about what we were heading to face.