33 Chapter 32
During the rest of the day, people worked away at cutting the tree line back. This time it was much faster as all effort was made to fell the trees, making the ground uneven and hard to run across for the swiftstalkers.
Jacob noticed more and more people with unique items from the shop. Most of them were daily necessities, like shoes and clothing. But some of the more skilled workers had their own tools. Like magnetic power tools, graphene hand saws. Things like this.
Jacob wondered if he should tax the people of their earned points… but he quickly decided not to. They earned those by doing work for the colony itself. The colony shouldn't take from their rewards as well. He decided would simply spend the colonies' points on essential items only.
The camp was a mess, wood was everywhere, and half-finished bathrooms were everywhere. The carpenters deciding to finish those over the next few days. Focusing only on getting the storage facility as ready as possible. Many people would still sleep on the cold metal floor. But they would at least have a bathroom option.
In the next few days and weeks, they would clean up the mess they were making and create a more structured defense. Jacob also knew the walls they built would soon be too small for the current colony.
In 30 days, they would receive at least 1800 more people. They needed a solution to this problem. Which was to create apartment buildings outside the wall area. Plans were already being made by the construction team. Turns out there was someone with a history of creating foundations for larger buildings. He was to create the blueprints for the groundwork. While multiple people worked together to design the apartments. In the same fashion as the current ones. However, each would have two rooms. One bathroom and one main room for sleeping.
It was small because they had no construction equipment yet. They also knew most of these buildings would be demolished once they could construct proper human residences.
But Jacob was more worried about the attack coming tonight. They had two drone operators as well, as he spent the rest of his points on guns and bullets. There were now 120 guns on the walls. Which means they had the firepower; it was up to their strategy to reduce the casualties to the minimum.
Jacob walked up to the wall. It was becoming darker out. "Adewale, how are things going? How are the drone operators working?"
"It's good, Jacob. Some people have even brought cases of ammo over. Spending their points to give us some supplies. Few, but it is worth noting. I think you should thank those that gave away their hard efforts."
"I should be thanking many people for many things, Adewale. What do you think about medals? Not physical ones, but digital ones created by the AI and assigned by them. This means they cannot be copied or falsified. These medals can give you benefits, like extra resources, once our economy is larger. Things like 10 pounds of iron a month, etc. This would let people build their own lives with efforts that helped the colony as well."
Adewale nodded. "It's a good start, but let's focus on making it through tonight. You should head to the storage facility. There is no reason for you to endanger yourself. The AI requires you as a leader."
Adewale continued, "We also made a holo shooting range. Using the real guns and shooting lines every few meters down, we can line up people to aim at targets or even just the people in front of them. I got this idea from the AI helping Kelly with the targeting. We had a couple dozen volunteers to be down the line even further to create swiftstalker holo's. As long as we can get enough people with guns in the right spots, we can take them all down! Right, Everyone!?" He yelled the last part to the near guards. They responded in kind with enthusiasm and cheers.
"You're doing great with moral, it's hard to make people do things sometimes. Especially risking their lives. You are all very brave and noble people! Each person will receive medals from tonight's service. More will be explained on the benefits tomorrow."
"Sir, the drone is picking up activity 22 km away!" Adewale's AI said suddenly.
"Everyone! Man your stations, listen to your AI in which location to run towards. The more guns we have concentrated on them, the safer you will be!" Adewale shouted through his AI to all the guards.
***
On a roof of the storage facility laid a woman in black clothing. She was laid down while looking through the scope of a strange-looking sniper rifle. Looking more like a turret than anything else. It had two poles in the building's roof. Penetrating the metal. This allowed it to not kill Kelly from the blowback.
"Ma'am, I will begin sending you the data now."
A holo appeared, as well as a highlight of the gun at a different angle than it currently was. The video displayed showed the drone's thermal camera as strange heat signatures seemed to fizzle into existence.
Had they been looking through the normal light, they would have seen it to be the same way colonists were transported.
"Let's get started." Kelly said with a sadistic smile.
She aimed her barrel in the same spot as the holo. Lining it up as perfectly as possible. The holo changed color once the angle had no items in the way. The forest being scanned earlier and the AI easily able to create a 3D map down to the millimeter.
BANG
She fired a shot, and it took two seconds to arrive at the other location.
However, instead of hitting a swiftstalker, it hit a tree, causing many splinters to fly around as the bullet pierced a large hole, she fired at the right time but her angle was not perfect. Causing the bullet to hit just beside one of the larger ones. Clearly an Alpha, it had many more tails than a normal swiftstalker, 9 in total. As well as it was taller and built, much thicker than the normal swiftstalkers.
They immediately roared in anger. And began running towards the colony at full speed. Dividing into three equal groups. Running like a flock of birds would fly when migrating. The Alpha protected in the center of them. Forcing a bullet to hit the front before hitting the alphas.
"You boys seem a bit smarter. This will be exciting!" Kelly said as she saw them begin to make their way towards the colony in formation.
"Let's aim for maximum kills on the side furthest from the ocean." Kelly said to her AI.
The Holo changed slightly and Kelly moved her gun in tandem.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Two of the three shots landed on a target. Ripping two swiftstalkers apart. The bullets could do massive damage to their frail bodies.
However, this only encouraged the living ones to run faster. Trampling their previous pack members to mush.
Kelly continued to fire. But the swiftstalkers were running at rapid speeds and changed their direction every few seconds. Forcing Kelly to slow her fire rate as she tried to conserve ammo.
BANG
Another miss.
BANG.
Miss.
BANG
Hit!
BANG
After the monsters were only 5 kilometers away. Kelly had killed 12 of the side group. Exposing the larger body of their Alpha. She now aimed at it specifically. Because they were closer, the bullets had less of a delay and they hit much more often as the swiftstalkers no longer could confuse her with changing of movements each second. The bullets would arrive in milliseconds.
In less than a minute, they would arrive at the clearing. Which would slow them down considerably, but that would only mean the guards had a few shots in each. Maybe their full clips of ammo.
Kelly intended to kill this group and continue killing the others before they even got to the clearing. Fewer trees in the way also meant the shots were easier to make.
"I'm going to kill you, F$%$er." Kelly said, as she pulled the trigger with an extreme killing intent.
Tonight was going to be a night of death!
But will any colonists meet the reaper's scythe?
