The relocation operation wasn't the smoothest; it was filled with decision-making and tough choices, but for the most part, cooperation prevailed among all parties.
With the Wartopians on one side and the Alfari aliens on the other, Adam still made it clear that, despite a couple of hours of joint effort, their alliance was born of necessity, and the lines were redrawn.
Since the Survivors now officially belonged to the new camp under Wartopian control, no trade with aliens was permitted. For once, Senator Carter was extremely supportive of the Wartopian side, unlike Professor Hendrick.
To validate the trade agreement, Adam and Megan suggested Privateer Status for those aligned with Professor Hendrick.
In Wartopia, Privateers were the Solarium's solution for foreign trade with alien entities. Essentially, they were sanctioned groups of self-autonomous armed traders who traveled the stars to acquire all manner of foreign commodities for the Solarium with little to no Inquisitorium oversight. They would answer only to the Titharium, the Solarium's Department of Treasury, specifically the Libre Titharium, the Solarium's IRS for Free Trades.
As Privateers, Professor Hendrick and his student followers would be allowed to dwell on Solarium colonies; operate with freedom and little oversight; conduct their own combat operations; construct their own colonies in non-claimed areas; and trade with whomever they wished, provided they paid Tithe. However, the Solarium had little to no duty to answer their SOS signals outside its areas of operation, and their Tithes were significantly higher than the average citizen's if they decided to stay in a colony.
The Professor was initially against it, preferring to remain where he could contribute to the survivors through his monster research. However, Ivan and Raj, both fans of Wartopia, were immediately enthusiastic upon hearing Adam mention "Privateers." They persuaded the Professor, especially since Adam stated he would be adopting Wartopia's methods.
This would allow the Professor to conduct research and explore freely with his students; collect field samples without military interference; and trade with the Alfari or any other sentient alien races they encountered. Adam further sweetened the deal by promising the Professor would be consulted on all monster-biology matters and would gain insights into new technology and military resources.
To that, the Professor had no further complaints.
As for the trade deal with the Alfari, the contract had been updated.
The Food Processor Adam gave to the Factory Shelter would now be the property of Professor Hendrick's Privateers. They could hire people to operate it, and the Military would tithe the product, whether they made food with it or exchanged the food for Alfari spices. Additionally, Adam still agreed to provide more Food Processors, as he had promised, to maximize production.
As for Lord Kaimu, he added one more commodity to the deal, but this time, he made it public.
Gemstones.
Lord Kaimu stood among the humans, and in his hand, he raised the fluorite gemstone bearing the Rune of Recovery. He announced that gemstones were important conduits for runes and that the Elden of Alfari would love to exchange them for more humans. Even non-runic gemstones would be sought after for the chance of growing runes.
He added that Runestones were very important to the Alfari as objects of reverence. Since they couldn't be used in their stone forms without a competent Runesmith integrating them into weapons and armor, they would be useless other than as trade commodities.
Senator Carter protested the fact that the Elden didn't want to share their runesmithing methods with the humans. But Lord Kaimu gave him no quarter, stating that the Runes shared a spiritual kinship with the Alfari people. This meant it would risk worsening relationships between humans and Alfari if humans were caught destroying a runestone while fiddling with it.
Adam and his group disliked Kaimu's last statement, as they had plans to test runestones and felt he was trying to prevent them from experimenting with them. Nevertheless, they kept their opinions to themselves for the time being.
Lastly, Lord Kaimu renewed his offer to the common people, offering spices and weapons in exchange for runestones, gemstones, monster items bearing runes, and even mining locations for gemstones on Earth.
Some of the people exchanged their gemstones on site; some women offered their diamond wedding rings, while others refused. The Elden Lord refused the diamonds, stating that while the diamond gems themselves were precious and perfect rune bearers, small sizes such as these wouldn't hold a rune; thus, they were worthless to him.
On the other hand, a man then offered a unique gemstone he had, which was bigger than even the fluorite runestone Lord Kaimu had. The man called it Sunstone, but Lord Kaimu identified it as the "Solar Flare gem" in his tongue and asked for its origin. The man replied that this stone was unique to his home state of Oregon and couldn't be found anywhere else on Earth. He even pointed to where Oregon was on a map Lord Kaimu had.
The one who showed the most concern in this scene was Megan, who shared many speculations with Adam. She knew gemstones better than most and felt concerned, since some areas in the United States—and North America in general—possessed exceptionally high gemstone concentrations, which seemed like a more critical demand for the Alfari.
If she was right, gemstones were their original goal, not food supplies, which Adam was inclined to agree with.
After receiving a few gemstones and acquiring information about their mining locations from the people, Lord Kaimu departed on his Serai, declaring that all the weapons left to the humans could be kept as a token of battle camaraderie.
As for Adam, he made sure that everyone in the factory shelter was loaded, a convoy of cars was readied, and a stream of people was prepared to depart. The old and the injured were in the vehicles, while the young were on foot. If they hurried, they would make it to Springhead before nightfall.
The road wasn't as peaceful as Adam had hoped. The convoy encountered monsters along the way, but since they were moving on the highway, it was an easy fight regardless.
Most of the monsters were Host Blighters—zombified humans with parasitic worms in their heads—an enemy far easier than most Gobzkin.
But halfway through the road, a giant corpse of something vile and sticky blocked the road. Beside it were some familiar faces.
Biscuits, Flint, Dusty, Jazz, Crunch, Fish, and Bolt. This seven-man team was the squad meant to provide support if there were complications on the way, but there was no way they could fell a monster of that caliber on their own.
The culprit was not too far from his handiwork: a towering armored supersoldier, with a buzzing sword and an oversized rifle, stood proudly near the monstrous corpse, completely covered in monster goo.
The moment Adam saw the hulking Star Paladin, his entire body tensed, caught in a conflict of mind and heart. He was pleased that Captain Creed was here to deal with this large monster. But now that he had appeared in front of 200 survivors—most of whom were clearly familiar with the comings and goings in pop culture—there would be no more hiding his secret if a Star Paladin were to emerge.
Captain Creed used his sacred flame aura to burn away all the goo and mucus surrounding him in seconds. His sight emerged bright and clean, even though he had seemingly killed the monster from inside. Adam sighed and signaled everyone to be on standby as he approached the Star Paladin, followed by Kave, Megan, and Elena.
Many eyes followed him as he walked over to Captain Creed, and some even started whispering at the familiarity of the power-armored goliath, even among the Earthling recruits.
"Captain Creed," Adam said, still insisting on continuing the act as he saluted his own summon.
"Commander Clay," Captain Creed replied, before glancing back at the human train following Adam: "You're in for a logistical nightmare."
"That would be the best-case scenario," Adam replied, looking back at the group of survivors, who started to come forward. Leading them were Professor Hendrick and Senator Carter, followed by the other notable survivors. Then he added, "And another nightmare of questions on the way."
"You can always refuse to elaborate," Creed said, glancing at the humans, who looked at him with obvious fear: "You are too soft for a commander. Better fix that."
"Noted, sir."
Adam had a wry smile on his face and prepared to meet the stream of people coming from behind him, but Captain Creed immediately took charge of the situation.
"Sergeant," Creed addressed Elena.
"My Lord!" Elena raised a fist and stomped her foot on the ground, ready for orders.
"Deal with the civilians while I have a word with Commander Clay and his two confidants. Tell them the Commander is dealing with a matter of absolute importance." Captain Creed relayed his orders to Elena, making it vague as to which Commander she would be speaking about.
He clearly meant Adam, but Elena clearly understood his intention as her lips curved into one of her mean smiles.
"Acknowledged, my Lord." She stomped once more before turning and signaling her troops. Those who had accompanied her, along with those waiting at the rendezvous point, were to block the tide of curious Earthlings. With grim faces and a condescending military tone, they were to stop the civilians and put them back in line.
Adam, along with Megan and Kave, followed Captain Creed, who headed further down the highway past the rendezvous point and approached a cube-like object covered with a blue, heavy-duty tarpaulin sheet and wrapped with chains.
"Sir?" Adam turned to Creed after examining the tarp-covered cube, which was as high as the Paladin and clearly being dragged by the chains wrapping it.
"I've brought things," Creed spoke cryptically.
"Things?" Megan raised a brow, touching the tarp-covered cube with her hand, but it seemed too hard and heavy for her to figure out what it was from the exterior.
"Relics of great value," Creed continued, still cryptic with his words. "You should see if there are enough."
Adam, Kave, and Megan turned to each other, shrugging at first. Then Kave stepped ahead and started fiddling with the tarp before cutting a part of it with his new sword. He expected medical supplies or some heavy weaponry, but as he took a first look at what was inside, his hands froze before he turned to Captain Creed.
"Is…" He wanted to ask something, but he hesitated to gulp first. "Is it all like that?"
"All I could find," Captain Creed replied with a flat voice.
Adam and Megan stood around Kave to see, but he started tearing more parts of the tarp sheets until it was all visible to them.
The three stepped back, gulping, sweating, and having trouble breathing.
"Holy Fuck!" Megan exclaimed as her face and eyes lit up, as if she were standing in front of a pile of gold.
"Merii Christmasu, oldo furenndo." Kave's mind reverted to Japanese as he patted Adam's back.
"It's tomodachi, you filthy casual!" Adam's smile grew in disbelief as he replied with the same expression as his two best friends.
Before their very eyes, a mountain of Wartopia merchandise loomed—a sight so vast it dwarfed even last year's Comic Con spectacle. Starter kits, Stellar Arks, Star Paladins, Walker Gears, War Tanks, IFVs, disciplined Men-at-Arms, Starships… an entire universe of war, laid bare, sexier than anything their eyes had ever seen.
Christmas may not be a thing in Brighthaven City this year, but for the first time ever, Santa turned out to be real.
"I knew it; so they were your summons after all!"
But out of nowhere, a voice echoed, startling everyone. At the same time, three rugged survivors and a Star Paladin aimed their weapons toward the source of the voice.
A young woman with black hair, streaked with green, stood before them. Dressed in punk attire and sporting more piercings than the last time they saw her, she met their wary gazes. Yet, her presence seemed to offer more than anyone had dared to hope for.
Without a smile, she regarded them with sharp, unbothered eyes, unfazed by the weapons that could end her life countless times over.
Yuki Nakamora had become the fourth Earthling to be in on Adam's secret.
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