Chapter 81: I never mentioned a palace, but alright
Hana stood at the mouth of the bunker, her eyes glued to the tablet as a long line of Boars began hauling crates out through the waterfall. The logistics were a nightmare, but the sheer volume of high-grade tech was intoxicating.
The Chief approached her slowly. He moved with a heavy, hesitant gait, his nine tails tucked low as he stared at the glowing relics being paraded out of his ’sacred’ cave.
He looked like a man watching his entire belief system being sold at an auction.
Before he could even open his mouth, Hana spoke without looking up from her screen.
"Don’t even think about it," she said, her voice sharp and clinical. "Not a single wire, not a single pill. None of these goods belongs to the Fox Tribe. You had centuries to do something with this ’Sin,’ and you chose to hide in the dark. Now, it’s mine."
The Chief stopped, his weathered face tight. "You are taking the heart of the mountain, female. My people have nothing left but stories."
Hana finally lowered her tablet, her gaze meeting his with a chilling lack of empathy. "Then maybe it’s time for a new story. One where you aren’t starving in a ’sacred’ ravine." She paused, her eyes flickering toward Raiden, who was busy directing the Boars with a smug, authoritative air.
"I might let you migrate," Hana said, her voice dropping an octave. "I’m building a community at the Peak of the Emerald forest. It’ll have light, advanced medicine, and protection. You could enjoy the privileges of the future... but it comes with a price."
The Chief tilted his head. "What price?"
"Go down on your knees," Hana commanded, her eyes turning dead cold. "In front of everyone. And beg Raiden for forgiveness for what you did to his mother. If you can do that, I might consider your tribe as something other than ’street rats’."
The Chief’s jaw dropped, his emerald eyes flashing with a spark of the old pride, but Hana didn’t give him the chance to argue. She turned her back on him and signaled to the dragon.
"Caspian! It’s time to move the first batch. Take the medical supplies first—I want them in the climate-controlled zone of the den. It’s the best spot."
The plan was already mapping itself out in her head. Dumping these crates into their cave was only a temporary solution. They needed expansion. They needed houses.
With these industrial robots she’d found in the manifest, she could set construction commands that would put the beastmen’s primitive stone-working to shame.
If the Fox Tribe joined the Boars and the others, she could establish a public power grid, a water system, and most importantly, rules. A structured city-state in the middle of a primitive wilderness.
Well, that was if the Chief discarded his pride and knelt. She had to make plans just in case his pride got in the way.
Caspian stepped up beside her, his massive frame casting a shadow over the Chief. His obsidian wings were out for all to see.
With a sound like cracking stone, his wings unfurled, and his feet shifted, his talons digging into the wet rock of the Divide.
"Hana, stay safe, okay?" Caspian growled, his golden eyes fixed on the Chief with a promise of immediate violence if the old fox so much as twitched. "I don’t trust these rats."
Hana gave him a small, confident smirk, tapping the stun rod at her hip. "I’ll be fine, Caspian. If they try to get me with their illusions again, I have Raiden. He’s the better trickster anyway."
Raiden, overhearing her, let out a delighted laugh and blew a kiss in her direction. "Always, my love! I’ll keep the ghosts away while you build us a palace."
I never mentioned a palace, but alright.
Caspian huffed, a plume of smoke escaping his nostrils, before he took to the sky with a heavy crate clutched in his talons. Kulu followed with his own haul, and Hana turned her focus back to her tablet, her mind already calculating the power draw for a 10-block radius.
Her system chimed, and she tilted her head up to look at the blue screen.
> [INFRASTRUCTURE GOAL: NEW EDEN STARTUP]
> Current Status: Planning Phase.
> Reward: ???
Unknown, huh. Hana thought as she stared at the glowing window and blinked, her eyes rolling away from it. That means the reward will be massive, right? I have to get it all done as quickly as possible.
"Alright," Hana muttered to herself, her eyes reflecting the scrolling green code of the bunker’s mainframe. "Let’s see what else this ’Sin’ has hidden away."
The Chief stood frozen in the cold mist of the waterfall, his nine silver-gray tails trembling slightly against the wet rock.
The heavy silence of the Great Divide pressed down on him, broken only by the rhythmic thud-thud of the Boar-kin hauling heavy metal containers out into the light.
He looked at Hana’s back—small, unyielding, and entirely draped in the terrifying authority of a world he couldn’t comprehend.
Her terms were absolute.
There was no negotiation.
No diplomatic middle ground.
It was total submission or ash.
Hana didn’t check to see if the old man was still standing there. She didn’t care. Her boots clicked against the slick metal threshold as she turned back into the bunker, her eyes already scanning the scrolling green data lines on her tablet.
Raiden fell into step beside her, his long, pink tails swishing with a sharp, energized rhythm. The usual lazy, mocking smirk was still plastered on his face, but his emerald eyes were sharp, darting around the metallic corridors with an intense curiosity.
"You really know how to ruin a man’s day, don’t you, sweet-eyes?" Raiden purred, running a hand through his hair as they walked deeper into the sub-station, past rows of automated weapon racks and sealed medical pods. "My father looked like he’d swallowed a bone-spike. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost."
"He wasted time," Hana said flatly, her fingers flicking across the tablet screen to map out the interior structure. "People who waste time don’t survive. I’m just accelerating his reality check."
They bypassed the main storage bay, where the heavy lifting was still echoing, and walked down a narrower, reinforced hallway that led toward the back of the power grid.
