Solace & Taproots

Epilogues

The construction site settlement grew with a rapid slingshot effect. The next convoy to visit brought several unexpected items that dramatically expedited key projects.

The sole biggest surprise was construction equipment on extended loan. One was an extendable boom-arm forklift thing — Epstein referred to it as a "telehandler". It made an abrupt world of difference in getting heavy loads to the upper floors. Paired with that was a small civilian backhoe — bigger than a Bobcat, but barely a full-sized tractor.

Then, hundreds of empty sandbag sacks to start basic fortifications, and several odd kits consisting of large folding metal baskets and thick fabric liners that combined into open-topped cubes. Ronnie called them "Hescos", and said that even just a handful, once filled with dirt and gravel, would help them create some very solid cover at key locations.

On the cleaner side of things, a tabletop radio station, complete with a dozen individual handsets, to get effective comms off the ground. It wasn't everything Fairbanks wanted, but they could upgrade over time once the basics were in.

The roof was quickly encircled with and shaded by yards upon yards of camouflage netting, creating one large observation blind, hidden from exterior spotters and snipers, but ideal for their own. The sandbagged corner of the roof facing the main ramp and nearest street intersection gained an emplaced .50 caliber, and the other three corners had mounts for a single 7.62mm M60 medium machine gun that could migrate between them as needed.

A couple of Black Tusk's standard carbines (eventually identified as "HK 416's", which Rebecca commented just made the entire M4 / M16 thing even worse) and several surplus M4's were donated to kick start their communal armory, and Ronnie's expertise was crucial in providing some basic maintenance, handling, and marksmanship education. Multiple shaded, sandbag-fortified parking spots were built where the armored beast and the Humvee could be moved as mobile strongpoints.

Visiting patrols were able to leave them a small amount of fuel every week or two, which made occasional generator and vehicle use much more feasible until their biofuels project, well, took root sometime in the future. Sam also asked them to bring her every solar powered traffic sign and roadside call box pole they could find, and that boom lift made arraying them on the outer lower roofs and linking them into a proper budding solar farm a swift accomplishment — especially since many of them already came with some form of battery. She still supplemented with more batteries liberated from boat and RV dealers, at one point bringing a load home in an actual RV. Apparently, that one had been "enough of a bitch to get the batteries out of" that she simply decided to task her team with siphoning fuel from same vehicles they scavenged batteries from, and "just drive the whole damned thing home". (It became guest officer quarters and meeting space for Fairbanks and the like, when it wasn't being used as a kitchen because of its propane stove.) Long term, she dreamed of getting a Tesla Power Wall from somewhere, even if she'd have to figure out how it would hook in to everything. A "good problem to have", she'd called it.

In the meantime, she improvised dangling charging leads on the 25mm cannon mech (AKA 'Thorn'), and a dock for them to touch. It was too difficult to position it on top of the charger remotely, someone had to actually go watch it in person as they controlled it, but it was greatly reassuring to have that much firepower and 'bump in the dark' investigation capability parked at a warm ready inside a vacant storefront, especially once Sam managed to connect it to portable tablets, not just the mobile command station in the truck. She and Ronnie discussed potentially switching the cannon and the rooftop .50 cal for ammo availability reasons, but that was going to take a bunch of custom fabrication for the mounts and tinkering with firing mechanisms.

Rebecca and Sam didn't feel right moving into the original place Rebecca shared with Jaime, but found a nice corner unit on the fourth floor. Rebecca had forgotten how long it had been since she'd awoken in sunlight until it happened, illuminating Sam's hair in a brilliant luminous red as the usually lively engineer moaned and tried to bury her face the pillows, cursing the evil daystar. And oh god, a real mattress again... the first indulgence they allowed themselves with the promise of occasionally replenished fuel was a trip to a few mattress stores, bringing back several for everyone on Leonard's truck and Rebecca's old CUV.