Cool Down
OCTOBER 12, 2015
Canadian Thanksgiving was upon us. It was odd to think of it, because there would be no having of turkey, and we had to think long and hard about whether or not there was any Canada left in any case. We certainly had things to be thankful for, of course - ourselves, our resources, our friends and associates, and our luck. Besides that, it was business as usual - fieldwork, tending to the animals, some renovations and cleaning up, and planning for the future.
Swift now had two students under her tutelage; the increasingly-skilled Rich, and the raw rookie Greg. Rich was showing quite a lot of promise, with decent skill in levitation and similar techniques. Greg wasn't starting out from scratch - he had some limited self-developed skill in levitation, but that was the extent of his ability.
I hadn't bothered to start my own classes yet - teaching Randy and Serge how to use their wings. My official excuse was that I was still building my lesson plans, and though that was technically true, the way it echoed through my head was that even I didn't know how I got into the air myself. And I figured that was a pretty important point to nail down before I taught it to somepony else.
I was being spread pretty thin, too - despite Swift's misgivings early on, my proficiency in handling the weather patterns was in high demand by our farmers. Jeff and Karin, and now Jenn on occasion, called upon me at least four times a week to give sun, shade, or precipitation to either the fields or the cow pasture. The past Saturday, I set up a good strong deluge for the afternoon, to rinse all of Ponytown down.
On the south side of the mall, along the periphery road that surrounded it, closest to the lake, we'd piled all sorts of junk. We weren't trying to make a garbage dump, but rather a storm break. I (and the other pegasi, assuming they could do the same once they got to the skies) could only do so much in terms of the weather. Lake effect storms would prove to wreak havoc on us, based on previous years' winters. To combat that, we took every vehicle we could still move (that we weren't using) and lined them up four-wide on the road, all along the length of the mall. Then, with Swift, Rich, and Greg's help, we loaded everything else we weren't using or had no use for - that wouldn't rot, degrade, or otherwise turn bad - on top of the cars and trucks. Eventually, we hoped to find enough seacans (and have unicorns with enough skill to move them) to pile up against the wall as well, making a good, solid wall that would keep us safe from blustery weather that got past our pegasi.
I smiled when I thought of things this way - 'our pegasi' and 'our unicorns' - as if there would be legions of us in Ponytown eventually, with enough to allow for shifts of people to work on and off, and some of us could get some rest. Daydreams were nice to have, so long as it didn't distract us from our work.
There was a chill in the air while I flew around, and that was something I couldn't just magic away - or, if it was, I didn't know how to yet. I couldn't move the sun closer to us to warm us up (nor would I want to try even if I had that power), and I couldn't just make the air warmer out of nothing. Magic still needed to work on some kind of material, and my brain hadn't figured out how to do that for simple air.
Rather than freeze my hide off flying around when I didn't need to, I decided to touch down and go inside. That just made me realize that there was one more thing we'd need to figure out for the winter - how to heat our building. Natural gas wasn't flowing through pipes any more, and an oil-burning furnace was out of the question. A wood stove or something that could burn all the junk and refuse we had lying around was one attractive idea. I tucked it away in my head and continued inside.
"Howdy," Jeff greeted me once I entered the mall. We'd decided to light up the mall now that days were getting shorter, and he was busying himself with Serge, trying to make the most efficient use of the electrical service so that we weren't wasting our generated power on lighting areas we weren't using.
"Afternoon," I smiled. "How's it goin'?"
"Not bad," he said. "We're running some LED fixtures in place of the existing bulbs in the ceilings, for the hallways. The interior of each store, or 'house', will get the motion-sensor lamps we scavenged."
"Cool," I said, flapping my wings to rise up to the level of Serge, standing on a scissor-lift we'd resurrected for high work. "Looks good."
"Thanks," he said. "I'm tempted to start my training early and just jump down from here from time to time, though."
"Don't," I said, "unless Swift's ready to catch you, or Karin wants to learn to set broken bones. Trust me." I smirked and added, "I promise, I'll get started on training as soon as I can."
"I know," he nodded, smiling. "I'm just joking with you."
I smiled and nodded back, and fluttered down the corridor, past all the stores, their barricades and shutters long since jimmied or defeated, so that we could steal - or, rather, scavenge - what we wanted or needed, and make use of the space as necessary. We'd already taken over one store, as mentioned previously, for Greg and his family, and the unicorns were shuttling stuff around in the other spaces, partly for practice using their magic, partly to prepare in case another family - or even just a pony that preferred seclusion - came into our fold.
Turning on the power wasn't as simple as hooking things up and throwing the switch. There were some things we didn't want to get turned on again, at least not unattended. Electric appliances in the food court or the mechanical/industrial stores, for one example; refrigerators or freezers in grocery stores for another. One unique situation that almost became a problem was discovered when Randy noticed a funny smell coming from a department store we'd lit back up. Odd smells were not unusual in Ponytown, but this was obviously burning rubber or something like it. Turns out that one of the checkouts with those conveyor belts had malfunctioned and was running continuously, with the belt rubbing against something. The whole place could have burned down had we not found it out in time, so from then on, we turned every breaker off and only switched on something when we could identify what was powered off that circuit.
For temporary storage until we could figure out a root cellar location, and because most of the walk-in freezers were too rank to bear being in for more than a few seconds, we used another source that had been right under our noses: bank vaults. Three banks and one credit union had branches in the mall, and once we cleaned out all the useless money and 'valuables', there was more than enough room to store our produce and supplies.
Some of the other specialty shops in the mall gave up their unique properties or prizes around this time as well. The mobile phone shop had a small cache of satellite phones, which meant everypony finally ended up with one, once we got them registered on the network. A few ponies took some clothing from various stores, altering it to fit their needs, but most of us preferred to go 'au naturel' - well, with a couple of exceptions; I found a scarf that kept my chin and neck warm and didn't interfere with my flying, and probably looked cool streaming along behind me. Other than that I was usually pretty decently comfortable even in the cooler weather.
Besides that, we jerry-rigged the movie theatre - just for a weekend; the power to run it regularly would bankrupt us energy-wise - and watched all the films that were in stock, once we figured out how to be projectionists. It was a good distraction for a couple of days.
With little else to do, I went over to the radio shack to lounge around, fiddle with the computer, and plan the evening broadcast, even though it was hours away. Of course, I should have been focusing on planning the training for the pegasi, but procrastination could have been emblazoned on my butt some days. I just didn't feel like giving any time to it at the moment.
The radio shack had been renovated, as promised; a blue carpet had replaced the green astroturf, the radios had been moved around and better positioned, and a little table fashioned out of some scrap lumber - but expertly crafted to look like it belonged - for me to put the laptop on.
Powering it up, I fished a stylus out of the cup that held it and its brethren, chewing on its tip as I waited for the computer to launch.
I should really put a full size computer in here, I said to myself. Or several. Or at least one with multiple sound cards, so I could record all the radios, and play stuff into them at will. Recording would be ideal in case something was received while I was away.
Musing about that concept, I started tapping on the computer, gathering my thoughts and composing what I would talk about that night. I don't have any idea how long I'd been there when I was startled by a burst of static from one of the radios.
"-f -ny-ne c-n ---r me, pl--s- -esp-nd," I heard a female voice call out. I hurried to throw on a headset and jack in, putting a patch cord from the radio to the computer at the same time, so I could record the signal.
"Station calling, this is Ponytown, I read you," I called out, speaking slowly and deliberately, trying to make my voice easier to understand if they were receiving me as poorly as I was them. I put my hoof against the headset to press it firmly into my ear.
"- -m -n north --w y-rk -tate, o- the la--si-e sta-e p--k..."
I remained silent, waiting to be sure the caller was done talking, so I didn't 'walk over them'. I didn't want to override something important by cutting them off.
"Person calling on this frequency, if you can hear me, you're getting through, but barely," I all but shouted out. "Keep trying. I'm going to keep listening until your signal gets stronger."
"-o s-ve my b-t--ry. -f I'm l-ck-, I'll -e -n --ur d-or-t-p by th-s --me --morrow. W-sh -e l-ck. Out."
"I can hear you better now!" I hurried to say. "Stay where you are and reply!"
No answer.
I felt my ears droop as I pulled off the headset. Well, at least I have something interesting to talk about tonight, I decided.
"Where are you guys going?" I asked when I saw Greg and Serge walking by a while later.
"The library," Greg said.
"Greg wants me to take him over with the truck," Serge explained. "Why, did you need me?"
"No, not at all, not yet," I shook my head. "Why the truck? It's literally across the road from the produce field. Didn't you walk over there the other day?"
Greg nodded. "I want to bring some books back. In time, I want to make one of the bigger stores in here our own library and learning center."
"Oh, embracing the suggestion?" I smiled, remembering the talk a while back about Greg possibly becoming a teacher, if or when we got any more youngsters.
Greg nodded again. "Want to come with us?"
I thought back to the signal I'd received earlier. "I probably should hang around - I heard somepony on the radio earlier, and I should be here in case they call back."
"Bring a hand-held," Serge said. "Or get somebody to listen."
I mulled it over. She'd said she was turning off to save battery power. "Fair enough," I said, picking up a portable and a carry strap I could sling around my neck.
Serge backed the truck up impolitely across the grass of the library's yard, right up to the front doors.
The three of us disembarked and entered. "How'd you get in without breaking one of these?" Serge asked, sizing up a glass door.
"Swift showed me a trick," Greg smiled, and his horn flickered briefly; the "thumb switch" on the inside side of the door lock swung back and forth, throwing the latch open and closed.
"I remember her doing that one time I was with her," I grinned. "We'd better hope our unicorns are all as trustworthy as the ones so far, otherwise we need to invent a magic-proof lock."
The others chuckled and agreed. Again Greg's horn flared, and this time remained alight, throwing illumination through the foyer.
"Showed you more than one trick, I see," I pointed out.
"Yup. This is so much better than holding a flashlight. Especially since I'm not used to holding two or more things in my magic at once yet, so I'd have to set a light down to pick up some books, and so on."
"Lucky bunch, unicorns," Serge observed.
"Lead on," I said, smirking.
A couple of hours later, we backed into the garage with our load of books, finding a couple of ponies there.
"Where ya been?" Swift asked.
"Over at the library," Serge explained, tending to the 'post-trip' work on the truck - in order to keep it working as long as possible, we took meticulous care of it every time it was used.
"Ooh, right," Swift said, gesturing for Rich to stop what he was doing. She said to him, "They're probably gonna need our help with this."
"That's... a lotta books," he said, eyes widening as he turned to look at the truck. The bed was full of carts from the library, and all of them were packed with as many tomes as they could hold.
"We're moving the library here," Greg said. "I'm a little spent from putting all these in the truck. Do you two mind bringing them down? I can push them just fine once they're on the ground."
"We'll all push them," Swift said, even as she picked up a couple of the carts in her yellow glow. "Do you have a place in mind?"
"I was thinking of one of the bigger stores," Greg said, watching as Rich took one cart in his own blue aura. "Not the anchor stores like the Target or Walmart, mind you - just one of the ones that take up two or three... 'spaces'? Do you know what I mean?"
"Yup, gotcha," Swift nodded, smiling.
"I think I know the perfect place," I said. I described a store that was down the opposite end of the hall our main living area was on. It was a large one-story clothing retailer.
"The floor's carpet, which makes it ideal if you intend to use it as a classroom down the road," I explained. "It's far enough away from the entrance to be safe, and right down the hall from the main area. And it has power."
"I'll take it," Greg smiled.
The parade of library carts drew some attention from the others working inside the mall.
"Oh, you're going ahead with this," Jenn said, joining us as we rolled past her home.
"Yup," Greg beamed. "Figured they had a good point about my mark."
"Do you have any Harry Potter?" Randy asked, scurrying alongside and leaping to look at the carts every few feet.
"Not this time, pal," Greg said. "Just textbooks and such for now. I'll try to remember to bring you something worthwhile next trip."
Randy leapt up on my back. "It's a deal," he said firmly.
We got all the carts into the former clothing store and stood there. "Where do you want them?" Serge asked.
"I think we just put them in a row for now," Greg said, looking around as if he was considering his preferred layout. "I'll have to figure it out later."
"Are they sorted at all on the carts?" Jenn asked.
"Unfortunately, no," he admitted. "I just grabbed whatever caught my eye until the cart filled up, then grabbed another one."
Jenn smiled and looked over at me - then I realized she was eyeing Randy. "I think I know somebody who needs something to do," she said.
Jeff and Karin came inside from the garden just then, and noticed us down the hall, coming to see what was up.
"Oh, good idea," Jeff nodded, when told of the plan. He turned to Karin. "That reminds me, there's some stuff we should look up, hm?"
"What's that?" Greg asked. "I'll tell you if I brought it over on this trip or not."
Jeff and Karin both shared blank looks at us.
"Chickens!" Karin blurted out suddenly.
"Right!" Jeff said just as abruptly, looking to Karin and then us again. "We need to make sure their hutch is insulated properly for the winter."
Greg shook his head. "Sorry, didn't think to get anything on that kind of topic. But I'll look on the next trip."
"Thanks," Karin said.
I pondered for a second. "Didn't you guys bring books from the Co-Op, way back when we were setting up-"
"Nothing about cold weather operations in there," Jeff interrupted me.
"Nope," Karin shook her head.
I blinked a couple of times. "O-kay then," I said.
Swift was hanging out with me later on when I was preparing for my radio broadcast.
"Got any ideas for what you're going to teach the other featherbrains?" she smirked, leaning on a radio stack.
"Not yet," I said, teeth clenched around a stylus as I tapped on the computer. "Unless you can tell me how I came to learn to fly."
"I thought it was an emergency thing," she said. "Both of us, that's how we figured things out. You almost fell and I saved you, then Serge almost fell and you saved him."
I flicked my eyes over to her. "I'm not going to put somepony in a near-death situation so that Serge or Randy has to save them."
"I didn't mean that. Of course not. But maybe you have to wait for it to come naturally. Maybe they need to really need it."
"That'd be a disappointment for both of them," I said. "We can't manufacture that kind of thing."
"I know," Swift said. She nodded at the laptop. "So, what's on the agenda tonight?"
"Well, first and foremost, reaching out to the pony I heard earlier tod-"
"You heard someone today?" Swift interrupted me.
"Barely," I said, and recalled for her the one-sided conversation from earlier.
"Did you, um, think of maybe telling somepony about this?"
"Isn't that what I'm doing right now?" I responded. "And I mentioned it to Greg and Serge in passing. And in 14 minutes, everypony'll know."
"I mean sooner than now," she retorted. "This is a big deal. We have to get ready."
"Get ready? For what? I can't even guarantee she's coming here, and you want to prepare a welcoming party?"
"We need to get a handle on how we receive people," Swift insisted. "Karin needs to have her schedule cleared in case they need medical assistance. We need to set aside some extra food since they're probably malnourished."
"Okay, okay," I said, lifting a hoof. "You made your point. I'm sorry. I'll go back to the old way, and jump and scream and shout as soon as I hear a peep from the radio."
"Don't be like that," she said. "Just... don't keep it to yourself. Okay?"
"Right," I acknowledged.
Swift stood. "I'll leave you be, so you can psyche up for the broadcast. Supper'll be ready when you're done."
"Thanks," I smiled. As she left, I told myself, I guess you still have some to learn about this leader stuff.
At supper, I told the others - those who hadn't listened to my broadcast - about our anticipated guest. Most were excited. One or two agreed (quietly, and privately) with Swift about the need for me to bring this sort of thing up in a more urgent fashion. So, chastised sufficiently, I retreated to my 'brooding spot' to think about things.
I tinkered with the computer and radios while rolling thoughts around in my head, and whilst fiddling with the handheld I'd taken out earlier in the day, came across some settings I'd all but forgotten existed in ham radios. I would have smacked myself in the head, like a facepalm, if I didn't think I'd cut myself with my hoof.
I won't bore you with the gory technical details, but many ham radios around the time of the Event had a data mode that allowed you to communicate short messages via text on a side-channel separate from voice communications. They also offered GPS tracking capability over the same mode, which could be shared with anybody else on the frequency - including to a computer, to plot those points on a map.
Happy to have a project to work on, I gathered up as many APRS-capable handhelds as I could find and set them up, and then went to work linking the computer to a suitable base radio. It was an enjoyable distraction to wrap up the day.
Hours later, after my project was completed as far as I could do it myself for the day, I was lying there on the carpet, headphones on, eyes shut, when I felt hoofsteps coming up the stairs. I paused the recording I was listening to and just lay there.
Swift's voice softly penetrated past the headphones. "Did you fall asleep up here?"
I shook my head, then opened my eyes and looked up at her. Behind her, I could see that the lights in the main area had been turned down. It was late evening, and evidently those who weren't already in bed were well on their way.
"Trying to figure out what she's saying," I said, sliding the headphones off with a hoof. As I held them up, they levitated away from me. Once Swift had them pressed to her ears, I played the clip back from earlier in the day.
She listened to it twice, with concentration showing on her face. "Good luck with that. About all I could make out was 'tomorrow' and maybe 'wish me luck'."
I nodded, taking the headset back as offered. "I got that and a little bit more," I said. "She said she was turning her radio off to save battery. I'm hoping this isn't the last time I hear from her."
"You tried to reply, though, right?"
"Of course," I nodded.
"Then you did what you could. C'mon to bed, and start again tomorrow with a fresh mind. And hopefully she'll turn back on and call again."
"I'll be there in a bit," I said. "I just want to listen for a little bit longer."
Swift sighed, a faint smile on her muzzle. "Fine, then. G'night."
"Night," I smiled back, slipping the headphones on again.
Ultimately, I too retired to my bedroom only a quarter-hour later. One could listen to the same scratchy, garbled clip only so many times before it became pointless. I'm sure that's what Swift was trying to tell me earlier, but I wanted to make sure I'd exhausted all possibilities.
It repeated in my head as I lay there trying to drift off into dreamland. I tried to think of something else, to put it out of my mind and allow me to start the next day fresh, as Swift had suggested. But the only thing I could think about besides that was the fact that our dreams were devoid of alien princesses, likely forever due to the drifting apart of the two parallel worlds. It was a depressing thought, so I excised it as best I could.
But that brought me back to the radio again. I forced myself to think of something else, and found myself ruminating on the little radio project I'd taken on. I'd have to remember to show that off to people in the morning, and encourage everypony to carry around a radio so we could see one another on the map.
Sourcing a map had been hard, since the computer software expected to draw it down from the Internet dynamically. Without such a thing any more, I had to get creative, and was able to do so, but the map data was static. I had to choose what area to view and leave it fixed in place on-screen - there'd be no panning or zooming out to get a larger view of the world. Maybe some day I could fix that, but for now, I was stuck with what I had.
The stupid radio clip was still playing itself over and over in my head even as I visualized the map I'd chosen. At first I was frustrated, but then, suddenly, things started to click. A word - or fraction thereof - made sense as I looked over the map in my mind's eye. Slowly, the message became clear and obvious.
I had to make sure my afternoon was clear of duties tomorrow. With luck, I'd be plenty busy.
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I guess the caller must have been listening to Stormy's broadcasts for a while already? Otherwise, she'd surely have had to get directions. The radio broadcasts really seem to be working out well.
Subtle, guys. I wonder are congratulations in order?
Stormy has upgraded her empire building capabilities. I see her with a Settlers of
CatanPonytown board tracking the location of ponies headed her way.:stormy: *claps hooves* Excellent.
Yessssssss more story!! Though it's a little sad that our leader pony has yet to teach the others to fly, Poor other Pegasi, all the other pony types are learning how to use their magic, except you guys T_T
Yes, new chapter! Thank you!
If anyone can hear me, please respond,
I am in north New York State, on the lakeside(?) state park...
to save my battery. If I'm lucky, I'll be on your doorstop by this time tomorrow. Wish me luck. Out.
Enjoying the story as always. Sooner or later though, they're going to have to bite the bullet and clean out some of those refrigerators!
I'm curious how they got into the bank vaults though. The Event happened overnight when they would have been locked, so how did they unlock them? Are the unicorns that skilled yet?
There are a few mapping programs out there that don't need a constant net connection once installed
6543591 That's true, but the one that Stormy is talking about fetches maps from OpenStreetMap, so unless OSM's servers survived the apocalypse...
There's probably a way to force in a static map, but eh, it's just a story.
What's described in the story is a real service called APRS. Amateur radio operators use it to communicate, send short messages, track one another, etc. Here's a sample of realtime data from the Pickering area. Well, Pickering and part of the lake and upper New York, which I zoomed out to fit in the shot for some reason.
6544942 Most of the current mapping systems people use rely on data connections to pull in the latest information. just saying there are a few options GPS units have preloaded maps. Maybe they'll get a chance to upgrade in the future.
MS trips and streets, Garmin Base Camp all have full maps
Stormy is totally going to bring them up to the roof, and buck them off. While Swift will have learned a basic cloaking spell, to hide the catch net below.
Oh, and nice chapter.
Things are happening, but I'm still having trouble figuring out where the story is pointing me. For the first few chapters that wasn't a problem, but I'm getting a little worried now. I think it's going to be about "helping people", though it's hard to tell what sort of conflict there might be in that. Still, I haven't been disappointed in any of your writing so far, so... maybe when you get back from your writer's block, you will have brought a little clearer plot back with you.
6558961
Believe me, I'm trying. I am having the hardest time getting stuff down. I know where I want to go with both stories but it's a struggle to lay it down with something entertaining wrapped around it.
I'm hoping to make some headway this weekend. And as always I appreciate the comments even if they're not gushing and raving!
6560740 It's true, 'Cool Down' felt a bit all over the place like a loose collection of nice scenes. Your {scene} approach maybe? I agree with Starscribe on the need to see an actual plot emerge so I don't need to repeat anything around that. What I don't agree on is the demand for a central conflict.
I don't think a large, central conflict will work here. The story is too character development driven, quiet and nuanced for that at the moment... and that's the difficulty, no? I think you need several smaller conflicts arising from personal insecurities or friction between the increasing amount of different characters that all have to work together, no matter what, with the main antagonist being the environment and general setting of the world.
That worked extremely well in TCS. Every time it looked as if a large conflict was on its way the situation resolved itself. You basically gave the reader the wrong impression of the actual danger or size of the challenge and had cooperation, trust and friendship (and your characters' deep personalities) lead the story back into calm waters. Very MLP, by the way. It fostered an immense amount of believable character development.
That's something ATS doesn't have yet, although it gives the impression that it's just around the corner.
Now Stormy is already thinking about what will very likely be a real challenge for Ponytown: the first winter up north. Having a steadily increasing amount of characters forced to stay indoors together for extended periods of time is stressful at the best of times. These aren't the best of times. If they can't figure out a way to properly heat their home, this is going to be bad. Here the advantage of having set up camp in the large mall all of a sudden turns into a massive drawback. How do you keep something like this warm without central heating?
What about water? Stormy's already worried about that as well. All this will almost inevitably lead to conflict and leadership struggles. Except, of course, if the situations resolve themselves like in TCS, but this seems more unlikely here as it's directly about survival. As in 'will we all still be around come spring?'
Also: do they know how much food they need to store to get over the winter? Do they have enough and the right kind of storage place? None of them have ever been in the position to worry about how long the winter will last and when they can get their first harvest again. Will they be forced to look for grazing areas for themselves, not just the cows? That won't be good for morale. Bring in hay? In a great scene in TCS, Stormy sampled a bite, much to the amusement of Buddy.
The world is your main antagonist still. If you introduce a real villain all of a sudden, something that your approach has given no apparent reason for yet, that will damage this delicate setup. You'd have to build up to that real carefully. The HPI as a great and possibly hostile unknown worked perfectly, but then the HPI is not a villain but has an inherent shock-factor to ponies. Their teetering on becoming de facto villains with their demand for 'tribute' added a lot of tension - but again it was resolved in the unique TCS way.
I don't know how far into the future you want to spin your tale, but introducing the main story's global supervillain might just kill yours. Your characters have neither superpowers nor heavy HPI artillery, only their wit and everyday survival skills. Having them take on something like that instead of fleeing will either kill them or make them unbelievable. And fleeing would just put them back to square one. Or more like minus one, seeing how they have to care for many more ponies and foals by then. That'd be a very dramatic story all on its own of course, but citystate Ponytown would be wiped off the map.
What I see as the most important conflict? Sudden Storm has accepted that she is going to be the leader. Now she has to actually become one and defend her status when the going gets rough. And it will, no matter what. She's already procrastinating working on a concept for the flying lessons. Small things like that can add up to serious problems. The way I see it (and it could be very different of course), at the end of After The Storm she should have a status not unlike Lonely Day in Alexandria.
Alex got there against her own will by being bloodyminded enough to pull all of her friends through despite her constant self-depreciation. Stormy might get there out of a genuine desire to fill the position to the best of her abilities. From that point onwards, Ponytown can begin to grow in a coordinated way and expand its influence into the wider region. And waiting there is your next array of smaller and larger conflicts. And, of course, possible annihilation by Charybdis.
Right, hereby have my essay on conflict.
Yes, I care about this story. Take your time. This thing is very much worth waiting for.
Fun story:
You don't need the internet to connect computers together. If you can find the IP range on a geosynchronous repeater satalite, and find a good enough UHF antenna, you can direct connect between IP addresses on both sides.
Not sure if you cover this in this chapter or future ones. Just thought I would share.
(I don't know exactly how it is done(yet), but I should be trained on it in less than a year if you are interested in the how.)
Stormy’s Ponytown should become a sister city with Alexandria, similar to Sister Cities International. Someone should restart these sister city partnerships, so why not Stormy?
http://sistercities.org/
6563455
The military has plenty of heavy-duty equipment for generating electric power and creating clean water, for field camps.
Multi fuel electric generators could work, with fuel made by moving a brewery to Ponytown. I’m wondering when a Ponytown brewery, for biofuel and beer will be built?
https://www.army.mil/article/87545
Clean water could be provided from by military, portable water purifier units.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-wb-wws-wss09-pres3_284554_7.pdf
http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-20/issue-10/features/us-army-reduces-water-costs-with-mobile-purifier-units.html
Why not use a few HESCO bastions?
The HESCO bastion is a modern gabion primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy duty fabric liner, and used as a temporary to semi-permanent levee or blast wall against explosions or small-arms. It has seen considerable use in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was developed in the late 1980s by a British company of the same name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion