"Bronwic!” exclaims Uncle Ant as I emerge through a Portal. “I’m very glad you’re here.” He sounds relieved to see me rather than just happy. It’s been a long time since I checked in on him properly and I wonder if I’ve left him without my support for too long. Overseeing all my Settlements, even if we try to apply really consistent policies and get the right leaders in place, is still a big ask. Even if he’s mostly just touring around and delegating, it’s a big mental load. He’s looking a bit stressed out and so are the people all around me who’ve stopped what they’re doing to stare at me. I guess it’s still not a usual thing for people to appear through Portals, especially if they own a third of the Settlements on Earth and have a deserved reputation for violence.

  Uncle Ant is wearing some old blue jeans that look a bit big for him and are held up by a thin black leather belt that’s probably cinched too tight, or maybe that’s just an impression caused by the bunched up fabric around his waist. His classic business shirt is open an extra button at the top, revealing his gray chest hair, and he’s wearing a baseball cap with mesh at the back that I can only assume helps him to block out the light as he looks at some kind of dynamic map projection on a very large tabletop. All around us people start to go back to whatever urgent tasks they were doing and I can’t help it - I stride up to Uncle Ant and give him a big hug. His slightly gnarled hands and rough skin hug me back with a few pats on my back, but he releases me pretty quickly.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, seeing he really has a lot on his mind.

  “You’ve been gone a long time, Bronwic. Some Guilds and Settlement Syndicates have grown powerful and now they’re clashing. Nobody has attacked any of your Settlements yet, but it’s only a matter of time I think. It’s just terrible. It’s like some people have forgotten that Monsters and invaders are the real enemies.”

  He’s right that I haven’t spent much time looking for what I’d term ‘minor’ conflicts between people. Instead I’ve been watching for powerful Monsters, and Foresight is tuned to warn me about attacks on people close to me or major attacks on my Settlements. If those have been left alone, any other activity between people has pretty much been invisible to me.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much, Uncle Ant. Where is it worst?” I ask him as I rest my hand on his thin, wiry shoulder.

  “Probably all around the Great Lakes.”

  “The Great Lakes?” I ask, confused. Toronto and Buffalo and all around the Great Lakes had been a real success story.

  “Your Settlements in Ottawa still haven’t been attacked, but they have been building up their defensive measures. Three big groups have formed, and the most powerful is one called the Guardians of Erie that controls all around Toronto, Hamilton, Buffalo, and all the way west to London. Most of Michigan is now controlled by a highly technological Guild called Forgebound that we suspect has Galactic backing. Further west you have Chicago, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis who are still holding on through a loose alliance called the Bulwark that’s supported heavily by human Crafters and Builders. The Bulwark is claiming Dungeons and Settlements as they go with no regard for who they’re steamrolling..”

  I can’t help but feel irritated that now Earth is in relative safety, at least in some cases humans have turned back on each other instead of building toward strength on a much bigger stage. Fighting the real enemies of humanity. Perhaps it’s just that most humans don’t even know what awaits us out there, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a different perspective. I guess maybe everyone is in their own world with their own context, even if Galactics are walking around every day. On a different scale it probably applies to me too… after all, how long has it been since I found out the Tuvvok Council existed?

  “Is it urgent, Uncle Ant? Do I need to be there right now? I’d like to spend some time reconnecting with everyone and checking out what’s going on.”

  “Urgency is always relative, isn’t it?” he asks me while he scans his map, and I nod. “In this case, tensions are high but right now other than skirmishes along the borders of their territories it isn’t dire. The last couple of weeks were bad and we were on high alert, but right now there’s nothing that needs you immediately. There are dozens of other situations like this all around the world where people have started to create new nations and war against each other, though mostly not in places where your Settlements are. It seems like nobody wants to mess with you.”

  “A good idea,” I agree. “What are you doing with these maps?”

  “Trying to figure out where we most need to invest in defensive measures. As much as I love building and planning, Bronwic, this just seems like a waste. We could be spending our Credits, time, and resources building things like schools, research facilities, and Crafting infrastructure. Instead, we have to think about keeping our people safe and it’s not the same kinds of defensive measures we put in place for Monsters. We’re even looking at special badges to identify who is part of our communities.”

  “If we get to that, we’ve already lost. That’s just going to reinforce whatever differences or disagreements that have been bubbling up.”

  “I agree,” says Uncle Ant. “But people are fearful of what they have now being taken away from them, and without a clear imminent crisis to bring everyone together we’re fragmenting again. It’s terrible.”

  “You have time to sit down for some lunch and a catch up?” I ask him. I can’t save everyone, and if the situation isn’t dire it won’t be any different tomorrow. “You can invite some of the people who you’re working with as well? I’d like to get to know the folks that are helping us look after our Settlements.”

  Uncle Ant agrees to take a break from his planning and I get the chance to sit around and catch up with him, plus meet some of the very dedicated former civil and military planners, economists, and leaders who are ensuring all my Settlements are set up to thrive. It’s not easy in a post-Apocalyptic world, but then it wasn’t easy before the Mana Influx. Overall, it actually seems like if you can stay alive then the opportunities are greater than the challenges, mostly because of the improved technology we have access to and the addition of Skills and magic that make things possible that were unthinkable before. The Merchants I talk to in particular seem more attuned to what’s happening with interplanetary trade with Earth, due to their focus on items that sell for high prices in the Shop but are disproportionately easy for us to produce. Often that’s a combination of new materials based on the ecology of Earth, high Level Monster Loot and parts, and creation processes that are only possible in places with very high ambient Mana.

  It’s a nice afternoon and I feel grateful for all the work these people have put in, and especially what Uncle Ant has managed to do. It would have been very easy for him to fall short of most of the things he’s managed to achieve. A lot of his crew is older people, though not all of them still appear old. Enough Credits and the Shop can alter your appearance sufficiently to turn back the clock a bit, and even a relatively small number of points in Constitution can double your natural lifespan, if not more.

  Eventually we wrap it up and it’s time for me to see what I’m dealing with before I go check on Carter and Logan. I trigger Omnipresent and scan over the area around the Great Lakes. As Uncle Ant said, there’s no real conflict around my Settlements but beyond them I can see hotspots, particularly around Detroit and Chicago. It looks like the Forgebound Guild is fighting on two fronts out of Michigan.

  I trigger a Step and appear high above the Detroit River. It’s kind of weird to think the old Canadian territory was south of the United States territory here, but now in the post-Influx world the river is separating the Forgebound Guild and the Guardians of Erie. I’m high enough to have an unobstructed view as I start to free fall so I trigger Perfect Focus and speed up my Perception to make sure I take it all in. It’s a start reality below.

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  Fires blaze across the Windsor Settlement up to Riverside, dark smoke billowing into the sky. It’s strange because I’m not used to fires like we used to have pre-Influx. With Mana batteries and power taking over for combustion engines and Skills that are much more powerful than explosives, it’s odd to see a scene like this.

  Focusing on the largest conflict I detect, I Step directly above what once was the Windsor city centre. Now, it’s unrecognizable. Streets torn apart, large buildings and what’s left of the skyscrapers stand damaged and smoking. Defensive Mana shields shimmer faintly, barely holding. Spells and Skills arc sporadically across the Detroit River, though right now I don’t see anyone trying hard to reach a beachhead here since they are mostly just pot shots.

  As I fall through the air watching, I don’t even know which side of this conflict to take and my instinct is to say neither side - that what I should do is just stop some senseless fighting between two groups of humans. It’s not going to be easy to figure out who is in the wrong or right, if anyone is. I consider my Skills as I fall, and I realize there’s only one potential option really for me to put a halt to the current fighting without just killing everyone, which is where my talents dominate.

  I trigger Iron Mandate and feel the intense drain of my Stamina as I project my mind out across a wide area.

  “Cease fire!”

  My command ripples through the air and hits both sides of the Detroit River, halting the exchange. I’m not sure how long it will last with the number of people affected and the size of the area, but for now it’s quiet. How on Earth am I going to find the leaders of each side to find out what’s going on?

  Instead, I decide to find the highest Level person on each side. The river is now getting uncomfortably close so I Step onto the top of a tall building on the Detroit side and look down at the scene below. Combatants are standing around, confused. Some stumble and others look like they want to resume hostilities, but as soon as they try they’re driven to their knees or stunned as their Skills, spells, and weapons fail to activate. The smoke rolling around is thick, but no problem for my Perception.

  I trigger Omnipresent and locate the highest Level humans quickly. Without any hesitation I Step to the first, grab him by the back of his high tech armor, and Step to the second and do the same, then Step back to my original spot on the building rooftop. It takes only a couple of seconds for the round trip.

  They’re both a bit disoriented, but they’re also some of the highest Level combat Classers I’ve seen, so they try to break free and begin attacking me desperately. My Stamina is feeding my Strength through Perfect Focus so I hold them with an unbreakable grip. They both strain and strain against my grip and their attacks part and unravel as I assert my Dominion all around me. Even the tech heavy combat Classer’s attacks don’t make it through my Resistances, but the two of them do start to chew up each other. I trigger Psychic Eruption and stun them both, then wrap them up in super strong steel composite wire that I pull from my Inventory. In a few seconds they’re both wrapped from head to toe and I set each of them, sitting, against one of the old air conditioning units and vents still placed on the roof.

  Reaching through the connection, I release the stun on each of them and cross my arms as their will reasserts itself. Then one of the fuckers disappears. Some kind of expensive portable Portaling device.

  “Oh no you don’t!” I exclaim. In a blink I Step to him and Step back with him, then throw him to the ground where he was before. The guy’s head slams against the metal vent and dents it severely, but I doubt it’s hard enough to even crack his skull with the Constitution he must have by this point.

  I pull their Status.

  Jonas Clearmont, Guild Founder, Guardian of Detroit, Exterminator, Tech Savant

  (Level 11 Technocrat) (Legendary)

  [Human] [Forgebound]

  HP: 2490/2600

  MP: 4830/4830

  Conditions: Overdrive Core, Magblade, Tactical Uplink, Reactive Plating, Hardened Circuitry, Combat Diagnostics, Nano-Forge Acceleration, more…

  Pretty high Level, even this far after the Mana Influx. Probably worth saving if he isn’t a complete dick and he has much different Skills and Class than I have. The other one isn’t the Guild Founder or Leader… in this case I’ve just gotten lucky with the Forgebound Guild that they’re the same person. I can see his eyes are defiant and nanites under his control have almost finished eating through the wire I’ve wrapped him up with.

  “I’m not here to kill you,” I tell him. “At least, I don’t think so. But I don’t want to chase you all over, so how about I release you and you stay calm? In thanks for me not slaying all your nanites, and keeping you alive? Fair trade?”

  Jonas gives me a slow nod, so I slash with my sword and part the wire without even touching him. Millimeter perfect and I’m pretty proud of it, actually. I decide to do the same to the other one then orient my attention on her as she shrugs out of the wire.

  Elena Cortez, Ironblood Survivor, Breaker of Siege Lines, Echo of the First Blade

  (Level 16 Bladewind Marshall) (Legendary)

  [Human] [Guardians of Erie]

  HP: 4320/4320

  MP: 1900/1900

  Conditions: Windline Advance, Aura of Command, Firstblade Stance, Marshall’s Reversal, Zone of Control, Arsenal Recall, Legacy of the Marshall, more…

  Interesting Skills. Strong, fierce warrior who reminds me of Freya from Iceland. Similar build and a beautiful intensity about her that radiates danger. She watches me warily so I double check that my Status is showing like it should be, and it is. No doubt about who I am. There’s a fierce intelligence in her eyes, so I’m not surprised who’s the first to speak.

  “What happens in Detroit doesn’t concern you, Bronwic,” spits Jonas. I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve his ire other than put a stop to the fighting, kidnap him twice, and threaten him. Tie him up also, I guess. And take his most powerful attacks without flinching.

  “Everything that happens on Earth concerns me, Jonas,” I reply without any sympathy, then scan the surroundings. “I find the situation where you are fighting against each other… counterproductive. So this ends now. Can we agree on that?”

  “They’ve attacked us multiple times, even violated our truce,” Elena says. She conveys it firmly without heat or disgust and I double confirm for myself that this woman is dangerous.

  “You’ve captured our main Dungeon!” Jonas fires at her angrily. “Our survival depends on the materials we get from it.”

  “Survival?” I butt in. “Is this what you call survival? The relative safety and prosperity we have now, with death not looming over you at all times. Because I remember when it really was survival… don’t you?”

  I let that breathe for a moment and neither Jonas or Elena looks away from me. My words hang heavy in the silence. I can feel their tension, anger, and desperation to escape pulsing from them. They’re obviously enemies, but for now their concern about what I might do seems to be just as powerful. I feel compelled to continue my argument even though they haven’t given a rebuttal.

  “Fighting each other and undoing every advantage we’ve fought for. That we bled for and died for.” I shake my head and address Elena.

  “Who is the leader of the Guardians of Erie?” I ask.

  Her lips tighten and it looks like she’s not going to answer me. At least, not without a Geas. Then she glances over at Jonas and gives me a name. Ron Smitko. Two more seconds and Ron is with us on the roof. Interestingly, his Class reminds me more of Dennis from London and his physical presence is not imposing. Out of shape and shoulders that slope like a ski field. After Ron regains control of himself from being completely disoriented, he’s not happy.

  “What the fuck is going on here? Who the fuck are you?” he asks, then sees Elena sitting on the ground with wire that’s been sliced apart scattered all around her. I think Ron is going to make an even bigger scene, but he surprises me and calms it down right away. Maybe he’s pulled what he can of my Status.

  “Ok,” I say, and I have their full attention. “It’s time to have a chat about all getting along together and who the real enemies are. Because I guaran-fucking-tee you that if we don’t all band together they’re ready to rip us apart and crush us all.