“Well, run along then. My understanding is the surrounding area isn’t completely safe though, so be on your guard.”
Andrea nodded rapidly, then split into seven different Others and took off at a run. One remained behind with a sad look on her face. Felix noted that even the Prime had taken off.
“Don’t worry about it, Andrea, I promise to spoil you later for taking one for the team.”
The Andrea Other gave him a big grin, her ears twitching atop her head.
Adriana Prime assumed that permission had been given to her as well, apparently, since she split six times and sent her Others chasing after Andrea, though Adriana Prime remained.
“I’ll stay with you,” Adriana Prime said, peering up at him. “I want to be spoiled.”
Taking a moment to collect his thoughts as he laughed at that comment, Felix wasn’t sure if he really wanted to ask the question that was at the forefront of his mind.
The more he thought about it, the more things didn’t quite add up for him.
“Good. I meant to ask… and you don’t have to tell me but… where did Myriad go? You and Adriana are… well you’re fairly similar. And you clearly have all of Myriad’s skills, but I haven’t seen her personality in a while. It’s almost as if she’s been submerged too deeply.”
Adriana looked down, her shoulders tensing up. “She left. Myriad didn’t feel like an Andrea or an Adriana, she said. That she didn’t belong. She promised to keep in touch but… she still left. She’s out here on this planet somewhere.”
Frowning, Felix couldn’t help himself from shaking his head. “I’m sorry to hear that. Was it something I did or something I didn’t do?”
Adriana’s head whipped up, and the Andrea grabbed his arm. “No!” they said in unison.
“She just didn’t feel at home. The Death Others feel the same way at times.,” Andrea said.
“The Death Others feel like they are still one of us, though,” Adriana said, picking up where Andrea stopped. “Myriad… didn’t. I think it’s partially that she was the original Prime.”
Suppose that makes sense. I wonder how that worked out in the end. I mean… she didn’t even say goodbye and Andrea and Adriana didn’t want to bring it up.
A problem for another day.
There was a deep whumping noise that made the hairs on the back of Felix’s neck stand up. An Adriana stepped in front of him and began tracking something to his left. Turning his head, Felix found a bright red flare in the daylight sky. Then it got brighter, and bigger. Belatedly, he realized it was a fireball, and it was heading straight for the base camp.
The sound of the crackling fire could be heard as the giant ball of flame got closer and closer.
A beam of white energy shot out from the base camp and met the fireball. It broke apart into fiery shreds and burnt out into nothing, as if it had never been there.
“That was different,” Felix muttered. “And I’m starting to wonder if Michael owes me a bit deeper of a report. There was no mention of giant flaming balls of death.”
“That’d be because those only started up after my last report,” Michael said. Felix looked to the man as he approached.
He hadn’t noticed him. The fireball had been a real attention-grabber. “They also have tried lightning. One of the main reasons we’ve got all that lovely iron-age decoration everywhere. It’s all grounded deep in the earth.”
Felix grunted at that, holding out his hand to his site commander.
Michael shook his hand with a smirk. “Welcome back to Legion. We’ve been calling this place Fort One. Not very creative, but it describes it accurately.”
“Considering I named the planet Legion, I’m not one to complain,” Felix said, releasing Michael’s hand. “So what’s with the lightshow?”
“Locals are all up in a rage that we don’t worship their gods. No one from Hern’s group, or the group we saved,” Michael said.
“Hm. I take it my mercy is reaping its reward?” Felix asked.
“And then some. It’s not terrible, but it’s growing. Come on, let me show you what we’ve accomplished. The attacks are annoying, but ineffectual so far.”
Michael gestured towards the nearest wall and started walking. Felix wasn’t quite ready to let the subject drop, but he was more than willing to let Michael show him around.
There’d been a lot of change since the last time he’d been here. It had the look and feel of a functioning military encampment now.
Michael led him up a set of stairs and straight to the wall. Laid out in front of him was what looked like what he saw in old war movies. A training camp made of tents, wooden buildings, and areas with long benches.
Men and women moved around the entire length and breadth of it. They were clearly working as both groups and individuals.
“This is our first batch of recruits. First class everyone has to pass is of course learning the language. Only after they get a mastery in that do they move on. Our lone Fixer has been killing himself simply working on the new recruit entry, let alone anything else,” Michael said. “For those who look like they’ll fail the language, they get put with him to see if they’re worth training directly.”
Nodding his head, Felix could well understand the problem. “Identify some candidates. We’ll do some training the trainer once they get a pass from Kit. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing to start the new talent in an HR role. They’ll be better able to understand the situation,” Felix said.
“Understood. We can do that, sir,” Michael said. “That’d help immensely.”
Pausing, and clearly reordering some things in his head, Michael continued, “The vast majority of the new recruits are going to be brought up to speed in security, infrastructure, and the basic jobs. As much as I’d love to have a department for everything, gotta start with the foundation.”
Can’t disagree there. Especially in a hostile location. With everyone pulled in, we really have too many people right now. Kit said she was getting a lot of transfer requests. What if we just moved them before they even asked.
“My understanding is Kit has approved a number of transfers to here. With the recall, I can’t imagine a universe where that number hasn’t already skyrocketed. And since we’re all in defensive bunker mode, a lot of normal functions won’t be carried out.” Felix turned to Andrea. “Let’s put a meeting on the books to talk to Kit about doing a massive temporary move. It’d help morale and get people working, rather than sitting around doing nothing and worrying.”
Andrea nodded her head as she recorded a note down.
Felix’s wrist chimed a second later, and Andrea lifted her head with a grin. “Done, dear,” Andrea said.
Michael blinked and looked from Andrea to Felix. “I get the impression I should have been asking for things sooner than this.”
“You have your budget, Michael. Everything else is a request. They may or may not be granted,” Felix said. “Now, how about you continue the tour. I’m curious to see how you’ve done, and I don’t really want to head back to HQ yet. It’s been nice to stand outside without worrying about sniper fire and being attacked.”
“Do the fireballs count?” Adriana asked, a serious look on her face.
She’s as bad as Andrea is, just not in the same ways.
Sitting at a table in the center of camp, Felix had been answering questions from the locals for an hour. Andrea and Adriana had just finished shooing everyone away when it was clear he was getting weary.
Taking that moment to return, Michael was allowed to pass through the ring of Adrianas.
“And where did you slip off to, hm?” Felix said with a trace of irritation.
“Anywhere else. Politics isn’t for me, and honestly, I try not to attend any meetings here I don’t have to. I typically leave it to the HR and Legal people. I’m just a Jarhead. Give me a target and a rifle, and I’m good to go,” Michael said.