Eric was on a call with General Parker, “Technically, Lt Peterson reports to me, correct?”
“Well, yes, indirectly, but I'm not sure I like where this conversation is going.” The older man replied.
Eric backpedaled, “Look, I'm not planning to punish him for picking the side of the goblins, I am just trying to understand our organizational structure.”
“You are a 'dotted line' superior. His direct chain of command runs to the top of the Arizona Army National Guard. Then there is someone called the Adjutant General, who is in charge of all the guard units. Then it gets messy. You see, the Adjutant General reports to the Governor, but also the Chief of the National Guard on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So they had two bosses even before the rifts arrived. Now you are in place, and in theory you are wearing a military combatant command hat, you are sorta part of USNORTHCOM. But you report to the President via Dr Cohen, not the military chain. So authority goes from the President through Dr Cohen to you, and from the President through USNORTHCOM to you, down to him, and at the same time from the Governor to him without going through you-except the Governors have all agreed to the Department of Rift Security using the National Guard to protect civilians. Meaning the Governor has implicitly granted you command but not explicitly.”
Eric paused to try to absorb that. “So, I am, sort of, in his chain of command in three ways?”
General Parker sighed, “OK, let me try this a different way. There is an administrative chain of command and an operational chain of command. Administrative makes sure a soldier gets paid, gets promoted when they earn it, handles the budgets of units and transfers and leave. Operational makes sure the units are where they need to be, that supply chains reach them, that units can communicate with friendlies and that someone is in charge of a military effort. Er, Operational actually fights. You are really an operational commander, just in a very odd region. Well, really Dr Cohen is the operational commander and you are his subordinate.”
“So I'm not in his administrative chain of command.”
“Correct. Now, why do you want to know?”
“So, the advent of classes means we have new abilities, new skills, that our society isn't really adjusted to yet. For instance, I have an inventory that TSA can't see, so doesn't know they should search. Even if I tell them, they would have to trust me to take everything out of my inventory to inspect. I could pull out everything but the bomb, and they would not know I had a bomb. At least one FBI agent developed the skill to see other people's inventories.” Eric explained.
“I understand that.”
“Well, my clerk has an ability to tell if someone has broken major agreements or oaths, to tell who we can trust.” Eric added.
“Oh,” Eric could almost hear the general's frown through the phone. “Well, that could be an issue. Do we know what he did?”
Eric answered, “No, but he has agreed to be loyal to the goblins, and he has an agreement to be loyal to the US and the state of Arizona. For all I know he lied on a loan application for a sports car. But I'd feel remiss if I didn't investigate in some way. On the other hand, I don't know what my rights are. I used to watch a show called JAG, but I don't know if it is accurate.”
General Parker sighed, “I haven't watched the show, but I can tell you that you don't need to go through the military, and maybe you shouldn't. Espionage in the US is investigated by the FBI. If you had an FBI agent you could trust...” The general hinted.
“Oh, wow, ok, that works! Thank you!”
After giving Kendra her new assignment, he went into the SCIF and looked at the world military situation. US, British and Aussie troops had reinforced the Canadians in Alberta, and the Yeti were almost driven back to the rift. The plan was to set up something at the rift like they had at the skeleton rift, heavy weapons aimed at the rift to turn it into a killing zone if anything came through.
US forces were also helping in France and Germany, and on the German front at least things were going well. The south of France had turned into a chaotic maelstrom of shifting loyalties and multiple rifts had become possible threats. The current strategy was containment and negotiation-which wasn't working well against the fae, beautiful creatures with charm abilities.
Satellites showed areas in Kashmir and north of Tibet going dark, which indicated that one way or another, humans were being pushed back in those areas. The UK had made an offer to assist India, while the US aided Pakistan, both on the theory that any incursion could be a threat to everyone. Russia was still refusing to admit that they were losing in the Caucasus, but had requested and been granted a “white peace,” by Ukraine, pulling out of all Ukrainian lands, even Crimea, in exchange for Ukraine dropping any claims of war reparations.
South America was a stalemate, which was probably a victory for humans as it gave us time to level, and Africa was a mixed bag, some incursions being forced back, especially the one in Kenya, while others were spreading, Nigeria would probably fall completely in the next week or so. No doubt some princes would be offering Americans a share of their wealth in exchange for setting up US accounts.
Finally, in North Korea, the incursion had been somewhat stabilized by an unusual surprise. Japanese weapons. The Japanese paid traditional craftsmen to maintain the traditional methods of manufacture, and had started to enchant large amounts of Katanas, Naganatas, and other traditional weapons. These were only wielded by Japanese heroes, but those heroes were happy to fight in Korea given the stakes, and had started to repair a rift created by the second world war. Once the additional orcs arrived, the local commanders were cautiously optimistic that the invasion could be driven back to the rift. Eric had a feeling there was something in that report he needed to act on, but he had forgotten it. Hopefully it would come back to him.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
He also checked the Navy information. NATO had offered naval support to the California coast but the allied navies didn't account to much, and there were other naval issues that seemed more important. Japan had also offered, and the help of their “Maritime Self-Defense force” as one of the more powerful navies in the world, had been happily accepted. The US Navy was still losing a ship here and a ship there, even though they were winning in tonnage-if you didn't count civilian ships sunk. Trade with the west coast was down as insurance prices skyrocketed.
Three days later Eric woke up, having remembered what he had thought of, “Of course!”
Even though it was 3 AM, he went online and looked up local gunsmiths. He put together a short list, and printed it out, then waited impatiently for a reasonable hour.
The first three shops were busts, the person claiming to be a 'gunsmith' was able to change out pre-made parts, do some filing if needed to make things fit, but looked at him blankly when he asked if they could make a custom gun from scratch. He had seen a few anonymous folks online who claimed the ability, but he didn't even know if they were in the US, much less Arizona.
As he entered the fourth shop, an old guy with a giant grey mustache greeted him from a chair at the counter. “Ayo, what's up?”
Eric approached the man. Even sitting down it was apparent that the man was tall, and he had the looks of a guy who had muscles, then beer, in that order. His grey hair was cropped short, and his arms had grey hair as well, though some was singed off. “Are you the gunsmith?”
“Yes sir, I am, who's asking?”
“Er, I'm Eric, Eric Brown, I'm, well I'm the regional director of the Department of Rift Security, I wanted to ask if you can make a custom gun from scratch.”
The man shrugged, “Depends on what you are looking for. I do have to register it-well you would know that I guess. Are you looking for a pistol, revolver, shotgun, rifle...?”
“Well, kinda all of the above, I would like to keep you busy, for as many hours as you are willing, and maybe get you to take an apprentice or three. Um, first, I realized I didn't get your name, and do you have a class?”
The man smirked, “Mike, Michal Van Andel, and yes, I'm a gunsmith level four.”
“Er, not that this is a problem, but I didn't see you in the register.” Eric pointed out.
“Not everyone wants to be on a government list. But I'm guessing you want me working for the government?”
Eric sighed, “Look, what you are is what is important. We have guys going into fights with guns that, well, are mass produced. The Japanese are kicking ass in Korea with traditional weapons, because they are handmade and then enchanted. I can enchant, but not an M-16.”
“Fuck. As much as I hate what you stand for, I can't argue with giving our boys the best gear we can. What were you saying about apprentices?”
Eric realized he had gotten ahead of himself. “Well, er, I'll have to find the right people, but I was thinking some of the armory guys?”
“Yeah, that'd work.” The two men talked for another half hour working out a deal, Eric was generous since he expected the work to be much more valuable soon, and didn't want to lose the guy.
Each of the rifts had two soldiers with the “45B” MOS, small arms repairer. Eric got lucky, one of them was actually a gunsmith (level 2) figuring it would help him with his MOS. The others seemed to have been more interested in classes like warrior and sharpshooter. Still, he asked for and got a volunteer from each rift to meet with the old guy-including the one gunsmith.
Returning to the shop, when he arrived with four guys in uniform, old Mike stood up and gave a picture perfect salute, which the men returned despite their surprise. “I thought you said three?”
Eric shrugged, “I said up to three, but I wanted to give you a choice. This is half our armorers at the rifts. Jerry here actually has the gunsmith class. I thought you could meet them, see what they can do, and decide who you can teach. Also, I've set up a budget and line of accounting. Send my assistant invoices and you will get paid. As for what to make, I'm going to put these guys in charge of access to you. They can decide who needs a custom weapon first.”
Eric turned to the soldiers. “There is an ability named 'enchant,' if you get it, you can enchant items, but it will take a lot out of you. You can use dead monsters to 'power' an enchantment and it won't take nearly as much. There is also an enchant skill. I'm not telling you to take that ability and skill, but you can see how useful it would be for your friends. Magical accuracy, power, even bullets that explode or set fires, an enchantment to prevent jams or, well I'm sure you guys get the idea. I'm an enchanter and don't mind helping you guys a bit here and there if you need.”
Mike asked “What is your level son?”
Eric answered, “Nine, about halfway to ten.”
Mike turned to the troops, “Boys, we are going to figure out this enchant shit, leave that guy to keep leveling. Not many people near double digits, and we need all we can get.” He turned to Eric, “We got it from here, go on, git.”
Over the next week, the orcs and goblins both wrote up treaties for the 'free trade human city.' The nickname 'tradetown' had started to stick, though shortened slightly to Tradton. Eric was looking over the agreements with Alicia, who had an ability to review contracts and agreements.
“Um, sir, this part right here is different.”
Eric read the relevant part of both treaties. The orc treaty had “We grant all legal, trade, and ownership rights to the area described in the survey below to the Humans to create a free trade and non-conflict zone around the rift to their world, with the understanding that if the orcs and goblins achieve peace, that the ownership can be transferred based on new treaty agreements.”
The goblin treaty had “We grant all legal, trade, and ownership rights to the goblin territory described in the survey below to the Humans to create a free trade and non-conflict zone around the rift to their world, with the understanding that if the orcs and goblins achieve peace, that the ownership can be transferred back to the historical owners based on new treaty agreements.”
Eric decided to test her, “OK, what is the difference, and why?”
“The goblins have claimed the territory, and the right to get it back in any peace treaty. Also if we sign this we will be backing their claim to the land, and probably their claim in general to that region.”
Eric smiled, “Exactly, but I wouldn't have noticed it if not for you, good catch.”
“Kinda underhanded of them to put that in, is it really worth it?”
Before Eric could answer, his phone rang. “Hey Lashawn.”
“We need you at the orc rift, we just lost 4 guys, and have some bad news. Do you know what an AK is?”
