Chapter 09

“Good morning Mum. You have three incoming communication requests.” Cassi said appearing at the end of Vesta’s bed. She crossed her hand in front of her and waited patiently.

Vesta groaned as she rolled over under the covers. The soft warm embrace of the bed had only had her for a very few hours, and she didn’t want to let go just yet. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to sit up.

“Are these communications urgent?” Vesta asked blinking her eyes and smacking her lips.

“They are the leaders of near and neighboring cities.” Cassi said pleasantly.

“Alright, give me a minute.” Vesta said throwing her blanket off her legs. Her suit was next to her bed but before she could don it, she needed to run to the bathroom for a quick break. She washed her hands and then she went back to climb into the suit.

The face mask closed, and Vesta took a deep breath. There was no telling what she was about to get blasted with, but she was going to face it head on.

“I’m ready for the first one.” Vesta nodded to Cassi.

The lights in the room dimmed slightly and the glass on the windows tinted to reduce the incoming light noise. A figure flickered into existence standing about six feet in front of vesta. This woman was tall with a slender body. She wore and elegant robe that was complete with a sash that had many jewels embedded across the front. This woman had long blond hair and bright green eyes.

“Lady Vesta.” The woman said with a slight bow.

For a moment Vesta was wondering how this person knew her name, but the answer appeared in her visor. A small profile of the woman showed that her name was Lady Nalla-Ru of the city-state Morentla which was to the south of Vesta’s city.

“Lady Nalla-Ru.” Vesta said returning the bow.

“I was excited to see that your powerplant’s output had increased. I had been long assumed that this city was lost to the tech scourge. The people who inhabited it before you befell an addiction to technology.” Nalla-Ru said with a solemn look.

“I’ve been able to clean the streets of the city and begin its grand reemergence.” Vesta said confidently.

“This is news to my ears. For a great time, we were trade partners with your land. Our city plays host to a train station, Airport, and port. In return to access to these things we were granted use of the power that your city produced. We have not been able to keep up with the demand of our people and on some days we suffer black outs.” Nalla-Ru explained.

“My power plant is only operating at a third of it’s maximum potential and we are expanding rapidly.” Vesta explained.

“I understand your concern. I wish to make an offer. From what I remember your power plant has three reactors. If you could repair or replenish one that we could use I would be willing to allow your city access to our shipping solutions. We will also send to you a thousand units of building materials per week. We would also gladly pay the power fees as per our original contract.” Nalla-Ru said.

City Mission

Nalla-Ru of Morentla is offering a trade agreement, but it requires that a mission be completed.

Repair or Refuel one of the nonfunctioning Nuclear Reactors to provide power to her city.

Rewards: 1000U Building Materials, Power fees averaging 5000t/day, Access to shipping solution*.

*Though not specified this agreement is for shipping of goods only. A separate agreement must be reached for the transport and passage of citizens.

Accept?

Yes | No

Grace pondered the mission for a moment. She had no clue what really needed to be done to get the power plant back up to full strength, but she had already decided that it was a good idea. This mission would end out in both the reward of thread and building materials that the city was going to need if it was going to keep expanding.

She accepted the mission.

“Thank you so much Lady Vesta!” Nalla-Ru said with another bow.

“Might I ask, why can’t you keep up with the power demands? Why don’t you build a power plant like mine?” Vesta asked.

“Nuclear power plants are an expensive and rare advancement. I have not been able to complete the prerequisite city skill to be able to unlock it. When we construct power plants, we have to use mostly solar and wind power. It’s clean, but it’s lower yield is detrimental. We were once able to use a coal power planet, but we’ve been cut off from coal supplies.” Nalla-Ru Explained.

“Ah, that is unfortunate.” Vests said with an understanding nod.

“We get by and we are still formidable.” Nalla-Ru said firmly.

“I hope that I can help you and that we can have a strong lasting relationship.” Vesta said with a curt nod.

“As do I Lady Vesta.” Nalla-Ru said before the image flickered out of existence.

“First call didn’t go too bad.” Vesta said sitting down on the end of her bed.

“No ma’am. It sounds like you have a potentially powerful ally in the works.” Cassi said walking around the side of the bed to stand next to Vesta.

“Who is next on the list?” Vesta asked standing up after her short break.

“The leader of Lorindale, King Harrison.” Cassi said.

“Put him on.” Vesta moved to the center of the room.

“Lady Vesta.” King Harrison said in a growl. He offered no bow and no other formalities as Nalla-Ru had.

“King Harrison.” Vesta said and decided to go ahead and bow.

“I’ve gotten word that several refuges from my lands have made way into your protection. Know this, I will retaliate. Given the history that we once shared with the former people of your city I will give you two weeks. You have been warned.” He said curtly and then the hologram vanished.

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Vesta said throwing up her arms in frustration. The bottom line was that if taking in refuges of war was an offense then she was going to be offensive.

“It would seem that you’ve already made an enemy.” Spark said walking into the room.

“Who the hell let you in here?” Vesta demanded.

“I did, given that he is your advisor I thought it prudent that he would be available to advise on some of these calls.” Cassi admitted.

“Thanks Cassi.” Vesta said with a huff of exasperation.

“You’re welcome Mum.” Cassi said not catching the sarcasm in Vesta’s voice.

“Dare I ask that we bring on the next caller?” Vesta asked with a sigh.

“Let’s get it over with.” Spark said with a shrug and a smile.

“The next person is Lord Gilton of Solintell.” Cassi said.

“Show him in.” Vesta said waiving her hand.

“Lady Vesta.” A very large round man appeared. He looked out of shape and he heaved deep breaths from just standing for the hologram.

“Lord Gilton, how may I be of service?” Vesta asked bowing slightly.

“I noticed that your city was back online. I wanted to contact you and offer,” he said with a cough, “My assistance where I could.” His eyes were shifty, and he seemed like there was something that wasn’t right with him.

“I appreciate your contact, what kind of help were you thinking, and what would you like in return? I don’t like to accept anything without knowing what I am going to be owing.” Vesta said with an assuring smile.

“I could offer you building materials and workers,” he said tapping the tips of his fingers together, “You could owe me a favor.” His eyes grew dark when he said favor.

“Is this a now or never offer or may I have some time to think about it?” Vesta asked.

“Of course. You know how to get ahold of me.” He said with a smile and a small bow, “I would be careful of who you align yourself with out here. We are a long way away from Axiscore.”

“Thank you for the advice.” Vesta said slowly.

“Anytime.” Gilton said and his hologram vanished.

“Well that was fun.” Spark said sarcastically.

“Fun like visiting the dentist.” Vesta said turning away from the center of the room.

“Maybe we start on so defensive upgrades to the city?” Spark said clapping his hands together.

“Yeah I think I’m going to take a little while and spend some time with the city map.” Vesta said with consideration.

“Can I sit in?” Spark asked with interest.

“Sure, I just figured you would consider this boring.” Vesta said with a shrug.

“I may yet surprise you.” He said with a smile in his voice.

“Cassi can you extend the city controls to Spark as an observer?” Vesta asked.

“Yes mum.” She said with a nod and did as she was asked.

A holographic map of the city appeared in the center of the room when she grabbed the air with her fist and made a lifting motion. The city spun slowly. Vesta noticed that the powerplant had a much clearer representation than it had before. There were also several new sections around the edge of the city that were not included before.

“Your map has been updated as certain industries begin to claim unclaimed land around the city for their work. For example,” Cassi said as a section to the south zoomed into focus, “This is where a vein of iron has been located. This mine also has several other materials that have also been extracted in low quantities.”

“Thank you, Cassi.” Vesta said with a firm nod.

Vesta moved through the city’s information pages, most of which were blank or greyed out because she had not unlocked what she needed to access the information.

Notification

Your accessible systems have been updated.

Since you have completed two missions that are vital for the growth and development of your city you now have access to the City Systems deployment cube.

Vesta looked into the city upgrade system. She wanted to get her hands-on things that she could use to protect her new city and her citizens. When she checked her population, she was surprised to see that there were eight hundred people that had moved in. Currently the city had five hundred and thirty city points that she could use to bring new options and technologies into her city.

The options available were mind boggling. She decided to narrow things down with a little search. Defense was her first choice.

Low level concrete walls.

These walls will funnel low level opposition into chosen pinch points.

Note: These walls will not stand up to head on bombardment from high level assault.

HP: 250/250

City Point Cost: 10

~~~

Medium Level Concrete Walls.

*Low level Concrete walls are required.

These walls will protect from incoming attackers’ orders better than the low-level walls. These walls will still not stand up to direct bombardment.

HP: 450/450

City Point Cost: 30

~~~

Low level Steel walls.

These walls will funnel low level opposition into chosen pinch points.

Note: These walls will not stand up to head on bombardment from high level assault.

HP: 500/500

City Point Cost: 25

~~~

Medium Level Steel Walls.

*Low level Steel walls are required.

These walls will protect from incoming attackers’ orders better than the low-level walls. These walls will still not stand up to direct bombardment. Energy from ballistic attacks can be deflect from the wall and dispersed away from the surface.

HP: 850/850

City Point Cost: 50

Vesta purchased the steel walls that were available. She went ahead and got the medium ones, but she was required to purchase the low ones first. Once she owned the medium ones heavy and super heavy became available. One thing she noticed about the heavy and better was that a base version of medium and or low had to be build first and then upgraded afterward.

She switched over to the building section of the system. The new option for building walls essentially allowed her to draw out the walls with her finger and select the style that will be built. She started by surrounding the city in walls that face the two cities that might potentially become problems.

“The walls that you have indicated will exhaust one quarter of your available resources in order to be completed. If you assign all of your working robots to this job it will take three days. They will not be able complete any other work in this time.” Cassi explained.

“What are my options for assigning the work bots?” Vesta asked.

“You can assign them via percentage or you can assign a specific number to the job.” Cassi said.

“Well how long will it take for ten percent to do the job?” Vesta asked.

“It would take roughly thirty days.” Cassi said with a smile.

“We don’t exactly have that much time. Can we assign one hundred percent and pull bots away if we need them elsewhere?” Vesta asked.

“That is acceptable. Should I execute the command?” Cassi asked.

“Please.” Vesta said returning to the purchasing window.

Vesta did a new search for offense. Three options appeared for her to choose from where she was currently at in the tree.

Military I

This offers the ability to train you citizens into base offensive combatants.

*Minutemen

CP: 10

~~~

Posted Soldier

*Your Soldiers can be posted for shifts where they will watch for incoming enemies.

*Sandbags will be provided to offer protection to these people.

**This requires the purchase of Military I

CP: 10

~~~

Weapon’s Crafting I

This will allow you to establish a city owned factory in your city where you can employ citizen to create weapons for use by your armies or for trade.

CP: 50

It was rather amazing how quickly she spent the seventy points to purchase the three options. When she purchased Military I she was granted access to a new office in the main building. She had a new window available that was pretty much greyed out except for instructions leader.

She looked into the factory next. This was easy for her to understand because she had already placed zones in the city for buildings to be constructed. This part worked a little different though. Instead of placing a zone she had to chose one of the buildings in industrial areas that had been built and was not claimed. Once chosen she was given the option to convert to Weapon’s factory.

Surprisingly as soon as the conversion happened four people appeared that were qualified for the position of foreman and were looking for work.

Marison Tlers

Marison will take 20% of the factories operating profit.

Marison has abilities that allow for more efficient operation.

Marison has contacts that will allow for a higher caliber workforce.

Marison has 15 years’ experience in factory management.

~~~

Aliya Snow

Aliya will take 30% of the factories operating profit.

Aliya has abilities that allow for more efficient operation.

Aliya has contacts that will allow for an Extreme caliber workforce.

Aliya has 25 years’ experience in Weapons’ Crafting (Non-factory Level).

~~~

Austin Roth

Austin will take 10% of the factories operating profit.

Austin has abilities that allow for an efficient operation.

Austin has contacts that will allow for a high caliber workforce.

Austin has 5 years’ experience in Weapons’ Crafting.

~~~

Kamari Farley

Kamari will take 40% of the factories operating profit.

Kamari has abilities that allow for an Extremely efficient operation.

Kamari has contacts that will allow for an Ultra caliber workforce.

Kamari has 20 years’ experience in Weapons’ Crafting.

Kamari has 10 years’ experience in Factory management.

Kamari has Owned and Operated a successful factory.

When Vesta began to compare the candidates, it wasn’t hard to see who the top notch was. They were all pretty good, and she didn’t think that any of them was taking too much money for what they were bringing to the table. In the end Vesta knew that she had to go with Kamari. Even though she was going to take forty percent of the profits she was bringing a combined thirty years of experience to the table. She assigned her to the position.

A chirping began to ring in Vesta’s ear indicating that she was receiving a call. She checked to see that it was the woman that she had just hired.

“Hello Ms. Farley.” Vesta said answering the call.

“Good day my lady. Please call me Kamari.” The woman said in an extremely pleased tone.

“I see that you bring excellent qualifications to the table for our factory.” Vesta said.

“Yes ma’am. I do bring a great deal of experience to the table. I wanted to let you know that while I was imprisoned with the Vortex mongrels I was working on weapon’s ideas the whole time.” Kamari explained.

“I’m sorry to hear that you were part of that experience.” Vesta said with compassion.

“Though it was unfortunate the event did lead me here to a new start that I thought I may never get. I’ve decided that I will do this for you and only take thirty five percent.” Kamari said.

“I appreciate the service that you are going to provide for our home.” Vesta said.

“Thank you. I do have one suggestion as we start. Our factory has only basic starting crafting capabilities. I suggest that as we unlock research in the factory for more complicated weapons we craft as much of the simple items as we can to sell for what profit we can. This way we can move forward and use the profits to purchase weapons as we expand our operation.” Kamari requested.

“That sounds like a good plan. I place you in charge unless I deem that you are not performing to my expectations.” Vesta agreed.

“That will never be a problem.” Kamari said. They said their goodbyes and disconnect the call.