Chapter 26

By the look Narishma's giving us, I know we're not going to like the plan. At all.

With a sigh she starts "So far, what's been agreed on is that every military base, every supernatural group of significant strength, every coven, every Pack, even the Mage Corps and the School of Magic are going to designate a zone for themselves. A zone they'll be in charge of protecting from behind the scenes until it's necessary to take the lead. It'll have to be small enough they can actually do it, and anything outside of a protection zone will become a no man's land if local forces can't deal with any incidents. If a group can get to incidents in the no man's land it's for the best. However, they will only be expected to take care of their designated regions."

Shocked understanding hits me. This is the Pack Business that Alpha Petros needed to take care of. This is why he had to leave immediately tonight instead of staying to visit, he's got to decide how much land the pack can protect and inform all the important residents, both human and lycan, that things are changing.

Then decide how to work with or replace the local government and police forces. There's no military base besides the national guard on or too close to our Pack, so it will all be on Petros.

"What of the Task Force members?" Jake asks. "Are we to disband and go home?"

"Not yet. The combined councils and the remaining human government that hasn't abandoned their duties to hide somewhere or been killed have agreed the Task Force is still needed. You'll all be working independently, or in small groups of your choosing, to maintain order. Whether it's a portal, a riot or a disease outbreak, the Task Force has authority to deal with it. Just don't cause more troubles, or you may well end up stripped of your positions. In practice, very little will change."

Wow, just wow. What do we even say to this? Thanks for making us the new CIA and FBI combined? At least it's still within our discretion, so my team can still keep working from the Safe House, doing what we deem important.

"How long do we expect the government to stand?" Someone asks, bringing me back from my reverie.

"I don't expect it'll fall entirely, but we're expecting widespread riots and local disruptions even before portal incidents. More and more of the portals are stabilizing, turning into these time locked dungeons as the official releases are calling them. Not many are opening like the ones we've been seeing here, to other worlds entirely. So we're going to try to stabilize the ones we can, in case things really go south and staying on Earth full time becomes untenable."

This vampire is really a ray of sunshine today. Bringing us all sorts of good news. Not.

"So, close what we can becomes priority 1 and then deal with what's left afterwards?" Karl asks, a plan forming visibly in his eyes.

"Yes, the other Mages have closed everything they can in the Dakotas and the Canadian prairies already. Fewer than 50 portals remain, but strangely, the ones near large population centres are almost all stable, time locked types. On the downside of that downside, the larger the population in the area, the more dangerous the portal's residents seem to be."

"Aren't you glad you got stuck with the middle of the country now?" Alpha Petros jokes, nudging Karl.

Right, if the population determines the danger, our Pack might be in for a rough time. We're just south of Portland, and Seattle has already all but fallen.

"Just call if you need me and I'll nuke the area" Karl jokes, and Narishma turns extra pale.

"Please don't joke about that. And for all that's unholy, don't do it either." She really needs to lighten up. I'm pretty sure Karl wouldn't actually nuke an American city.

Well, reasonably sure. Maybe.

The round of news has really put a damper on everyone's spirits and we all finish our dinners in silence, not really knowing what to say at this point.

Karl decides to be the ice breaker today. "So, Jake and team. Will you lot be staying on here? I know you're from the Port Angeles Pack on the Washington coast, or were, when it still held Pack lands before the invasion. Or will you be going back to your father to help settle in somewhere else?"

Jake shakes his head "We're staying here. My father and brother are resettling the Pack at the northern border of the Blood Claw Lycan Pack, with Alpha Petros's blessing. That was decided before this news came in today."

Honestly, that's good news for us, we could really use the reinforcements. Mages are great and all, but they're not the best in close combat, with the exception of a few oddballs like Karl.

"How much area is the Safe House going to designate?" I ask the room, hoping someone, likely Narishma, knows and will tell me.

"For now, we're on everything within a 200 mile radius north, south and west of here. There's a vampire and witch coven working together that have taken everything east of the state line, and werewolves have volunteered to take pretty much everything that looks like mountains and woods on the continent. They're loving this way too much, but I hope they can keep the mostly unexplored areas cleared."

"That's where the Task Force comes in" Jake interjects. "The packs will work together to face threats, but they're short on air defences and magic as the incident in Seattle showed us. So, until we can get volunteer Mages from the Corps or independent magical groups to agree to spread out to the packs, the Task Force members will be helping them out."

Wow, they really thought this through.

"Mages in all the big cities have already set up transfer circles to shift forces between cities and the Safe House, so we can get from here to anywhere in our region in a reasonable hurry" Karl adds. "Narishma has designated a number of mages to powering the circles as needed, so they'll always be available"

"I just wish we had more than a thousand full members" Narishma adds. "With support staff, it doesn't leave us a whole lot in case of emergency, spreading out so much."

"It should be alright. With the students studying here, we've still got over 500 on base. That should cover anything short of world ending" Karl mused.

"Enough of the depressing talk" Alpha Petros cut in. "Today was a good fight, and tonight will be a prolonged departure while I get everything set up back home. So I say we drink and celebrate"

That's possibly the best idea anyone's had since the machine gun on a stick.

Karl breaks out a cask full of summoned Elven wine and I just know this is going to be a long, long night.