By the second day, Ajax Wills seemed to have some kind of grasp over the situation he found himself in. He saw the faces of the people, how they looked at each other, how they looked at him, and it didn't bring him any memories but unpleasant ones from overseas. He quickly suppressed that memory and focused on the present.
Everything he learned made him feel somewhat dejected, and somewhat looking forward to what was going to happen.
He ate the food distributed by those alien people, and it gave him the most nauseating feeling on an empty stomach. According to some rumors, the people from the main settlement had spices and monster meat added to whatever those bars were, so they were more tolerable. Ajax only diluted his bars in water and put in some jerky pieces before eating, without trying to think of the taste.
Looking at his reflection on the spoon he had, his beard seemed to have grown recently, his brown hair heavier than before, and his face carrying more weariness than he wanted to endure. He may need to shave soon since he saw some people with lice around the camp, and he wanted to avoid that. Sadly, the weather was too cold to consider shaving at the moment, and his cleaning supplies weren't sufficient.
However, if everything he heard was true, then he would step into something big, and he wouldn't have to worry about basic survival. Still, he'll no longer be in control, becoming once again just a puppet soldier that is told when to march, shoot, dig, take cover, and fire.
He was a soldier; he had signed up for all that once, but in this shitty new reality, he needed to play by his own rules to survive. Then again, he looked up and saw yet another corny recruitment poster.
[ You can't survive alone; the only way past the monsters is through. Join the Men-at-Arms! ]
"Yeah…"
He might have an above-average System Status, but he was alone in a world that would eat him alive the moment he stepped out past those trenches. A few more guns around him would make all the difference in the world, but he needed more.
They came to him; they wanted him, so they should be willing to negotiate with him. If they wanted some Captain America, they should at least give him some level of leeway.
They had floating devices, laser guns, automated turrets, and what seemed to be an actual Solarium Paladin. Most of all, they had one Commander who had led them this far, seemingly competent, and they had been doing non-stop construction work for the past month, meaning that they had enough resources and power to support all this.
Ajax didn't want to allow himself a sense of false hope, but he couldn't help it.
As he stood up, thinking of the next steps to take, he saw a familiar face among the crowd over at the food lane and was compelled to approach.
"Amanda!" He spoke, seeing the black-haired, distressed wife looking at him, wide-eyed, in her still pristine black coat.
"A…" She faced him, mouth wide, but then closed her eyes and controlled her expression.
"Ajax." He said, reminding her of his name.
"Right!" She smiled for the first time. "I'm sorry; I had a lot on my mind, haven't slept still, and…"
"Let me help." He looked at her and offered to carry the large backpack she was still carrying, which slid easily off her exhausted form.
"Thank you, Ajax." She said and let out a breath. "I am sorry for how I treated you yesterday, and for you going back for Jim; I can't thank you enough."
"Leave no man behind." He said and looked down before asking, "How is Jim?"
"I…" Her voice became subdued as she exhaled, her eyes reddened, but she still composed herself. "His arm is in bad shape. There was this medic called Sawbone who kept insisting on cutting it off, but a woman with a scarred face and metal arm came and stopped him."
"God!" Ajax exclaimed sharply.
"When she learned that we came with you, though, she offered advanced treatment. Said Jim's arm would be as good as new." Amanda said with a tearful smile before directing her gratitude to Ajax. "I don't know what you did, but thank you."
Ajax felt his chest tightening, realizing that the scarred woman was Elena Skarn, and that she was roping him in with a favor. He still nodded to Amanda:
"No worries." He looked around and then asked, "What about the girls?"
"They're with Jim in a field hospital building not far from there. I'll go back to them with the food."
"They didn't give you a place to stay?" He asked, concern on his face.
"No. No empty cubicle, they said." She replied.
"Wait here!"
Immediately, Ajax stepped off the food lane and went ahead towards a nearby shed where a few Solarium officers were gathered. He approached the same man that Kave spoke with yesterday and introduced himself, stating that he had an invitation to join the Men-at-Arms from Justiciar Adam Clay and that he was accepting it. He also asked that Jim's family be moved to his cubicle room, and when they told him there was a waiting list, he told them to contact Adam Clay or Elena Skarn and tell them he wouldn't accept the invitation without that first.
They already thought these people were important to him; he let them keep the misunderstanding. Not a minute later, he got the confirmation and was told to present himself for an interview at the base uphill immediately. He then returned to Amanda:
"Get your food, get your girls, and you'll get the room up there."
"What?" Amanda looked at him, a bit confused.
"I've arranged things for you. It's a bit upstairs, but it's away from the smell and all. Still gets enough heat."
She froze in front of him before looking at him with a strange face:
"Th-Thank you." She said, stammering, then tried to process her to-do list. "I'll have to be with Jim, though. He's supposed to be treated at the base. I think I…"
"No, you and the girls rest. That's final. I'm going there anyway, so I'll be with Jim." He said.
As Amanda thanked him a thousand times, he carried her bag up and took his things before heading to the nearby field hospital, which was some barn-like depot with little insulation and internal heating. Soon, he spotted Jim and his daughter, greeted them, and waited for Amanda together. Not long after, the girls headed home, and Ajax hastened the process to move Jim to the base with him.
There were not many vehicles as he thought; however, a hovering platform came from the base and transported them together through the snow wasteland, through a trench that was being used as a highway between the forward survivor base and the other two bases: the civilian cluster fortress town and the military base uphill.
The densely packed cluster town was now buzzing with life, as nearly 700 souls had started dwelling in it, so even beyond its walls, Ajax and Jim could hear people's voices and construction noises coming from within.
There were various smells in the air as well, little to no fire, however, as almost all the newly arrived refugees were advised against lighting anything on fire unless there was no other option. Some people protested about it when told it was dogmatic to the soldiers who saved them, but when faced with the no-nonsense attitude of the Men-at-Arms, all protests folded quickly.
Jim and Ajax spoke about the other oddities they witnessed, but the most surprising, of course, was this floating ride that hovered so smoothly even when it climbed uphill.
Finally, as they reached the gates to the base, a team of troopers received them. Ajax looked around to see that the fortifications were nothing but raised earth mounds angled to a steep degree; however, this raised earth didn't seem simple, as there were some concrete bunkers hidden under the dirt mounds with wide firing windows. The mounds were made of soft earth that wouldn't support any footing, and that seemed to be covering beneath.
Moreover, there seemed to be many automated turrets mounted on the towers beyond the mounds and on the gates.
As the first gate opened sideways, making a deep mechanical rumble as the gears rolled on rails, the area beyond appeared to be a secure double-gate system where one must bypass the first checkpoint by moving past this killbox.
Looking at the sides, Ajax couldn't help but let out a wry smile, seeing that the front fortifications were nothing but a trap that would end up with any climber falling into a deeper ditch if they were to ever succeed in bypassing it, evidently by the large bloodstains that seemed to have been left by some unfortunate monsters.
The second layer of defense wasn't necessarily higher than the first, but it featured proper concrete walls, barbed wires, probably electrified, and various turrets as well. On automation, this base was an impregnable fortress.
Soldiers came out to inspect and disarm the two men before the second gate opened, and Ajax was greeted by a familiar face.
"Sergeant Wills."
"Sergeant Skarn."
As Elena Skarn, a Wartopian, stood facing him, another woman, followed by a small girl, came forward and took Jim on the floating pickup platform. Ajax watched Jim being taken away by the medic and the young girl before looking around the impressive base.
"I thought this was fully military. It all looks… like some factory." He said, eyes narrowed as he checked every building.
"Like what you see?" Elena asked and turned around, pride clearly visible in her body language.
She wasn't hiding it either; in fact, as the current Chief Mechanic of the Base, this couldn't have been done without her. Many industrial depots, three massive, power-hungry Refinery Rigs, tons of processed materials, a fully-functional fabricator factory, unstoppable fabric mill and textile printers, ten grub processors working back to back, eight solar plants at the heart of the base, and linking all that was a grid of pipelines, power lines, and conveyor belts traveling between buildings, with hoverbarrows—the floating pickup platforms—handling the unplanned lines with a mind of their own.
If not for the existence of multiple recruits doing hard labor and drills all around the base, Ajax would have mistaken this for a factory.
No, it was actually a factory, one disguised as a military base, or a base/factory hybrid, but whatever it was, he knew for a fact that the Springhead area was a nice suburb by the ocean, meaning that all this factory stuff was only here after the military arrival.
Even the rumor about this land being charred dead by a dragon on D-Day seemed not to have affected it at all; the ground was clean earth, hard even, without mud or snow, save for a little on the places that weren't being used.
"That's… mighty impressive!" Ajax couldn't help but admit.
Seeing all this up close seemed to have calmed something within him, and he felt good about accepting the offer to join. For now, at least.
"I know." Elena replied with a smirk but still let out a sigh. "Honestly, we're behind schedule and low on power at the moment. Most buildings are half done anyway."
"Don't sell it short." Ajax said, hoisting his backpack over his shoulder as he followed Elena. "Back at the airport, we only had some sheds, a hospital, a kitchen, and a market, and people kept flaunting about rebuilding or whatever."
"Pardon my Venusian, but Solarium standards are not to be judged by the ones of this backwater world." Elena's tone turned cold as she said so, clearly bothered about being compared to Earthling standards when it came to what she built.
Ajax didn't want to make enemies, so he simply shrugged and followed along past the factories, only to find his steps frozen at the sight of a large, towering construct coming from a dome-like building at the center of the power plant area, similar in appearance to the Fossil Furnace in the forward refugee base. The only difference is that one wasn't active.
Finally, they reached a final large building made entirely of concrete. It seemed halfway done, and Elena explained that this was the Base Bastion, a fortress inside the fortress, but it was still uncompleted because most construction materials were allocated to build accommodations for the refugees, but this bastion was the current active Command Center for now.
The base had a hefty blast door that opened effortlessly when Elena and Ajax were scanned by the surveillance system, and they walked in through dimly lit corridors until Elena reached a door and opened it for what seemed to be an empty room with two chairs and a table in between. One small bulb lit the room, and Ajax was told to make himself comfortable.
An interrogation, he asked, but the answer was silence as Elena left the room; the door didn't even lock behind her.
This was a military; even with his background and experience, he would be re-enrolled and retrained, so he would have to follow orders and prove himself, and he didn't expect it to be easy, as he saw Adam Clay entering the room, followed by other figures that stalked the dark corners of the room, he knew he had some worth and decided on seeing this thing through, for better of for worse.
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