The Command Center has had some transformation as of late, with Adam building himself a proper bed, wide enough to take him and Megan. But since the interior was an open space, the best thing he could do was to make foldable interior walls to hide the bed from anyone waltzing in while he's asleep, or in this case…
"Fuck! Yes! Oh, God!"
It was still early in the morning when the two lovebirds collapsed onto each other and then onto the bed, gasping for air, sweat covering every inch of their skin.
It took them a full minute to rest up after their morning sex before Adam sat up first and looked for his clothes. Beside him, his lover was lying naked, inviting him to lean on her once again and go for a second round; however, she immediately pulled a blanket over herself once she saw the smile forming on his face.
"Don't you dare think about it!" she said playfully.
"Come on! You said morning sex is the best," he said, trying to sneak a hand under the blanket.
"One round freshens you up, a second round puts you back to sleep."
"Yep, can't argue with that." Adam shook his head, smiling, and stepped off the bed, but as soon as his feet touched the floor, he pulled them back up again. "Argh! The floor is so fucking cold."
"That's what happens when you don't have proper insulation," Megan said, then picked up her boots and socks from the floor before putting them under the blanket to warm them up.
"As long as you're taking the sheets to laundry," Adam said, starting to put on three layers of clothing before stepping into his boots and stumbling towards his small fridge. "Breakfast?"
"We ate the last scraps for dinner, remember?" Megan replied from the bed, as she was raising one leg up to slide her jeans on while lying down.
Adam looked disappointedly at the empty fridge he salvaged and unplugged it from power since there was no need for it now.
"We're left with Grub Bars, and the Alfari won't bring spices until next week." Adam gritted his teeth and looked around. "We either scavenge or eat bland."
"You wanted grimdark, you got grimdark. Just forget you have a soul and eat it," she said before standing up in her boots as well.
"Will do!" Adam nodded, following her with his eyes as she seemed ready to go. "You heading out?"
"Elena is having us do roll call at 0700 this morning. We will have breakfast after it, since today has no drills. It seems it's just construction duty all day," she replied and walked to him before exchanging a quick smooch and asking, "What will you do?"
"Play with the Fabricator, finish up the Crawler engine, and I will see what Elena has for building plans," he replied.
"Fine by me. See you around, handsome."
He followed her with his eyes, sharing a grin as their thoughts aligned. He leaned against the small fridge for a moment before crossing the Command Center to stand by the large pile of Wartopia miniatures and lorebooks spilling from the tarp.
"Hey, Benchy. I guess we'll have to give you extra arms for this. We've an army to paint."
Talking to his Workbench across the room, the Workbench's arms twitched briefly, which surprised Adam, who narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
Maybe the mechanical arms needed maintenance, but before Adam could give it any heed, Buzz walked in.
"Commander, sir. The Sergeant wants you to join the Roll Call this morning," Buzz reported with a Solarium salute.
"Something wrong?" Adam asked.
"Negative, sir. The Sergeant is calling everyone, including Lord Creed wants to make the most of everyone's potential for today," Buzz replied.
"Good thinking! Lead the way." Adam took his hands out of his pockets and followed Buzz right away, yet he only spared one last glance at the Workbench just to check that everything was in order.
Just as Adam stepped out of the Command Center, the screen of the Workbench's terminal flashed up, lines of code running before messages started to form.
> DIRECTIVE — MINIATURE PAINTING
> OBJECTIVE — RAISE ARMY
> OPTIMIZATION — PULLING DATA
> PRAISED BE SOL IMPERIUS
> GLORY TO THE SOLARIUM
> …
> F̷͍̯̼̞̲̜̪͑̿́̍͒̒̚͠o̶̙͇̠̟̳͚͋̓̍̐̽̈́̾̕r̸̛̛̗̥͙̞̼̮̽̄͐̿͊͑ ̵̬͕͋̐̈́́̇̇͠͝C̸̘̯͍̫̪̼͌̑͆̄͘͝ö̴͈͎̱͕̗́̓̇̋̏͊̀m̴̛͍̳̙̼̿̓̅̎̈́̚m̶̛̟̱̬̪͔͑̐̍̈́̅̐a̷̬͉̿́̄͛͝n̷̠̠̬̪̑͐͗̚͝d̴̟͍̮̮̑̈́́̀̈́̑e̶̛̦͚̮͕̟̍̈́̎̿r̴̖̠͚͍̄̈́͛̄̕ ̸̘̙̏̿̑̈́͝C̷̩͍̱̬̽̈́̽͠l̵͇͎͍̮̄̐̓̕ḁ̸̞̬̀̑̈́̓͘y̷̘̲̯̙̔͛̓̎̿
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"You dilute Grub Bars with water? The sacrilege!" Grimsby, one of the seven Titanites, shouted fiercely at the Earthling recruits the moment he saw them pouring water onto Grub Bars, holding one in his hand. "You eat them like this."
With a thundering crunch, Grimsby chomped on a Grub Bar as if chewing on rocks. Yet unlike his volatile demonstration, Duke stepped forward to explain his point.
"Grub Bars were originally introduced by our people before spreading to all branches of the military," he said, and showed everyone the benefits of eating a Grub Bar without diluting it. "One small bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man."
"Sure about the ban on Tolkien jokes?" Kave asked as he leaned close to Adam, who was by his side.
"How many did you eat?" Adam asked.
"Four!" Kave replied.
"And that's the last Tolkien joke I allow." Adam's decision was final.
At the central, round plaza of the camp, all the base members were gathered, and according to the Command Center's Data, there were…
——————————
> PERSONNEL (32)
— SERFS — 1
— RECRUITS — 10
— MEN-AT-ARMS — 19
— STAR PALADINS — 1
— COMMANDER — 1
> VEHICLES (0)
——————————
… a grand total of 32 personnel.
Adam was naturally the commander, the sole Star Paladin was Creed, and the sole person registered as a Serf was Sophie, for being a non-combatant who was allowed on base. As for the newest members, there were 8 of them.
As the combatant personnel were all gathered for Roll Call, Elena and Captain Creed walked out of the garage; the hulking Star Paladin wasn't in his armor, but his appearance still caused all the hustle and bustle of the gathering personnel to die down.
"ATTENTION!"
Elena shouted, and everyone aside from the three highest-ranking officers started to line up. The first line was the recruits, followed by two lines of Men-at-Arms.
"Sir."
She immediately greeted Adam officially and stood to his right, while Captain Creed stood to his left, casting an unnerving stare at the recruits—in what could be considered the closest they had ever gotten to a Paladin.
Nobody here was stupid, and the rumors circulating about this man being an actual Star Paladin from Wartopia were running hot, especially with Yapper (Toby) insisting that the power armor inside the garage is the authentic Solarium's power armor.
He had even gotten a better look at Captain Creed's face and had mostly figured out his identity by now. However, the lack of explanation by the Men-at-Arms, the fact that all Solarium symbols were being hidden, and even the low-toned prayers chanted by Flint the Fanatic from time to time, it seemed clear that the "Commander" of this operation was keeping things under wraps.
Nobody was stupid, but this was now a military life, and nobody wanted to squander their chances; even a bigmouth like Yapper learned to keep his chattering to a minimum and focus on becoming a Man-at-Arms.
"First things first, Justiciar Clay, do you have any special assignment to give to anyone?" Sergeant Elena spoke to Adam, who was posing as the figure of highest authority right now.
"Since some of you will be working directly in the Survivor's Camp downhill, I want you all to be extra careful with what you say. You'll be met with a lot of questions regarding our operations here, so it goes without saying that revealing military secrets wouldn't only get you punished, but it would get those who receive this information arrested and tried alongside you. Make sure they understand that," Adam said, looking intently at the recruits. "Aside from that, you can take over, Sergeant."
Adam said, then stepped to the side, giving the central spot to Elena.
"Thank you, sir," she said and stared at her troops before speaking, "Recruit Yuki, step out."
Hearing her name, Yuki Nakamora stepped forward from the line.
"Turn around and face your comrades," Elena ordered again, and as Yuki followed suit, rigidly and silently, Elena spoke, "This is Recruit Yuki, and she will take the same training you do before she gets a special assignment, the same as Recruit Reeves. Memorize her face; she is a comrade."
"Hail!" The Men-at-Arms, Venuxians, Titanites, and the Lunarman and Urdman all stomped the ground with fists aimed up, startling the Earthling recruits as they gave a traditional Legio Solarium greeting to Yuki, one they vaguely remembered receiving when they first arrived.
"Step back in line, recruit," Elena spoke once, then called the Titanites, "Duke's crew, to the front."
The Titanites immediately stepped forward and faced the recruits and the other Men-at-Arms.
"These are our newly joined brethren from the Titanite forces. Introduce yourselves. Name, Rank, Specialization," Elena commanded.
"Private Auxiliary Duke." The first and eldest of the Titanites spoke first, having a big beard and mustache that were mostly white, but his body seemed vigorous despite his age, with muscles bulging all over his arms.
"Private Auxiliary Grimsby." The second said, a man with a darker beard, yet fierce, glaring eyes, and a no-nonsense attitude.
"Private Auxiliary Hazard." The third said, his airs and steady eyes gave him the same unhinged air as Flint the Fanatic; then a smile formed on his face as he must have thought of something weird while staring at nowhere in particular.
"Private Auxiliary Sleeper." The fourth said, a closed-eyed Titanite with a much shorter beard, yet a weird, stable posture, fitting his stout frame.
"Private Auxiliary Basher." The fifth said, a big-handed man with a low-toned voice, gripping a small stone in his large hands that started fracturing from their pressure alone, though he was simply nervous, judging by the fact that he was avoiding eye contact.
"Private Auxiliary Sneaky." The sixth said, smiling in a disturbing manner as he was watching everyone with his eyes, making those who met his eyes feel uncomfortable.
"P-Private Auxiliary Doper." The seventh said, appearing more sickly and less disciplined than the others, sniffing around from time to time, as if he was looking for something with his frantic eyes.
"Duke's crew was a squad I met once during deployment when I was stranded from the Trench Dogs," Elena said, a memory playing in her mind. "I was still a Corporal at the time, and I led them as a superior officer, but after I got injured in battle, they dragged me to safety and risked their lives to get me escorted off battle. They are an honorable bunch whom you can rely on both in base and in battle. Memorize their faces; they are comrades."
"HAIL!" Everyone greeted the Titanites with more passion than before, especially the Trench Dogs.
The Titanites returned to the line and waited for further instructions.
"As for your assignments," Elena lifted a clipboard and started giving orders.
"Flint, Patch, Buzz, Dusty: Patrol Duty; we have a lot of Krant ants that need culling, so make sure you pile up their bodies for food production."
"Sharp, Stone: you two are on base defense. Watch out for the new neighbors."
"Wrench, you'll join the Commander and me to assemble the Crawler Body and Engine since we have most of them printed. The vehicle must be ready before noon and shipped for shelter construction down at the new base."
"The rest of you, except for Biscuits, will be under Hammerhead's command to organize the survivors downhill into work teams and clear most of the scrap. Leave the building planning to the Titanites."
"Biscuits, you will be positioned here in the Command Center to watch the terminals and sound the alarm if we are under attack. You will also facilitate movement communications."
Elena raised her gaze from the clipboard and announced:
"Most Earthlings' accounts have testified that this location will be covered in heavy snow during winter, and most estimate the temperature to drop dramatically within a week if measured by last year's standards. Thus, we have a window of seven days to house 200 survivors and build enough food production and power supply for us and them to go through winter. It will be a challenge since most living things change their behavior in winter, including humans, plants, and xenos, which will affect our food sources and fighting tactics. Trust in your orders, and know that as soon as we finish the tasks provided to every team leader, we will have a chance at weathering the coming storm."
All the Troops saluted, not exactly in unison, but they were greatly inspired by Elena's assuring voice, which was a much warmer shift than her usual insults and bullying.
"To the Task!"
Finally, she dispersed them all, and every trooper reported to their assigned leader for the day, the same as every other day. Wrench joined Elena and Adam, who started making plans to make the day more productive than yesterday, and each of them had their breakfast—a mug of hot water and a Grub Bar in hand—as they discussed plans for assembling the Crawler, the construction vehicle that can print concrete buildings with cement in mere minutes.
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