As the economic meeting concluded, Professor Hendrick cornered Adam with a question.
"You have built a system that helps the strong get stronger, fortified it with the military, and set the weak against impossible odds." He said and looked right into Adam's eyes, "Are you sure you can prevent income inequality?"
"I am not trying to prevent it, professor. People who put their lives on the line naturally reap more rewards. People who sacrifice their own comfort and freedom also receive something for that. People who want to stay protected and safe, and work just enough to survive, will also find their place. I am not discriminating against their choices, and I know everyone has their own limits in certain areas." Adam replied, facing the professor and joining his arms together.
"Many will resent this system; many will protest. I don't see all the faces around here happy with what you are building, Justiciar." The Professor said.
"It is not my problem if some people choose to hoard more wealth than others, sir. They are free to do so. Hoarding is a personal survival tactic; charity and sharing is a virtue. So, unless you have a method to instill virtues into others, we'll have to go with what we know."
"And if and when people protest?" The Professor asked.
Adam let out a sigh and turned to Senator Carter, asking:
"There is no satisfying everyone, is there?"
"There wouldn't be a need for politics if everyone could be satisfied all at once." The Senator replied as he stepped closer to Adam and Professor Hendrick.
Adam turned to the Professor, shaking his head:
"If you want me to enforce it, I'd have to force people's hands to give up hoarding and share."
"Then what about making an upper limit to the amount of Credits and resources one can hold?" The Professor proposed.
"It is not a bad idea, I admit." Adam shrugged, looking at the side that was backing the professor. "But it is not good either. Power caps are boring and kill motivation, quite the opposite of what we're trying to achieve."
"I agree with Justiciar Clay." Senator Carter said, "Tithes and Taxes can keep a dynamic cap; some could break it, but they would have to work hard for it."
"Or find a workaround!" the Professor retorted. "If this camp grows, if it absorbs more survivors, it will attract all sorts of people: raiders and killers, along with poor survivors alike. Some will try outsmarting the system: loansharking, forced labor, all the suffering we used to inflict on one another. This is our chance to avoid all that, to think of a way to prevent it."
"We can't." Adam's tone turned flat, "We have neither the time nor the luxury. It's a bugged program; everyone here knows it, and it will be patched as we go."
Adam looked between the faces around him. Nobody knew how to really build an economy. Even the so-called Economist was a man who was just well-informed in the matter, and the rest were simply tweaking the example of Wartopia's economy to a hybrid example that could afford both military support and give people some freedom.
"This can turn into tyranny," the Professor insisted, shaking his head. He was about to turn, but then he halted and looked back at Adam. "What about the children? The meeting didn't clarify their situation since they can join neither the military nor privateers."
"What about them?" Adam asked.
"Will you make laws to prevent child labor? To at least ensure they receive a good education? Good homes?"
"I will," Adam replied, but then shook his head. "But I can't tell others what not to do all the time."
"Meaning?"
"If people become desperate for money, even children will be exploited for income. If the law forbids it, many will try to break it. So, no, I won't enact laws against it. Even worse if we limit individual wealth with a Credit Cap; a family would try to maximize the Credit for all its members, children will be wallets."
"You'll allow child labor?" the Professor asked with a pale face.
"If I forbid it, it won't stop. It will just go underground. And underground is where children disappear. Are you okay with that?" Adam asked, making his stance clear.
The professor shook his head, not as an answer, but in disbelief and disapproval of what he heard. He turned and walked away, no longer wishing to participate.
The room fell silent after that, and people started to leave one by one, but Senator Carter stayed and stood by Adam's side.
"Don't worry about Hendrick," he said, resting his arms in his jacket's pockets. "He's stubborn and inflexible, but he has ideals."
"Heh!" Adam smirked and shook his head. "I thought you'd be the one giving me a headache."
The Senator laughed and patted Adam's shoulder twice before walking away.
Playing politics with those two old men always left Adam drained, and it weighed on him. But the day was just starting; the troops were training. If he were lucky, he would finish half the items on his to-do list before it got dark.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
As the civilians all left the camp, Adam reorganized the Command Center once again and took out the Wartopia pieces he had been hiding behind the folding curtains at the other side of the building.
He wanted to paint at least five new units a day, but he had a lot more base management on his plate, especially after the power outages. Some of the newly summoned Men-at-Arms, like Solana, were very inflexible regarding the Solar Dogma, and a fight erupted because of fossil fuel between the summons and the survivors.
For that, Adam had to pull all the troops from the Civilian Base and started organizing the new construction plans inside the Military Base. The civilians could follow the building plans on their own after working with the Wartopians for the past few days, and if they needed help, he could always send the Titanites. However, to keep some presence down there, he sent his two Lawmen to patrol the place and keep the population in check.
Adam set a second meeting with his most important summons, namely: Captain Creed, Sergeant Elena, Sister Solana, and Corporal Wrench.
As Adam waited for them to gather, he sat facing his personal Workbench, Benchy, contemplating the fact that his custom Workbench could do much for him. However, the fact that it was developing its own AI was a risk too great to leave unattended, and he couldn't do much other than keep it unplugged from both the network and power, in order not to cause a base-wide AI infestation.
Wartopia's AI was a serious problem, and it could escalate into all sorts of crazy, murderous machines if left unattended. Moreover, the chance of its advancement to more dangerous iterations of AI was very random. From the games, there were certain machine actions that, if taken, would cause a Malcode check. Such checks would require a 1d100 die throw, in which all five stages of AI were split evenly, with 20 percent each, meaning that if it hit above 80, it was an Artificial Incursion Malcode scenario, with war machines automating themselves and joining with the Rogue Machina.
For that, Adam couldn't continuously operate Benchy without further experimentation. The Workbench awakened a sense for assembling and painting miniatures almost to a level of understanding close to Adam, and it was plenty useful as it was, but if it infected other machines, things would be dangerous.
Sister Solana would have purged the Workbench, but since Adam would hate losing the precious components he invested in his personal Workbench, he barely convinced her to quarantine it for the time being while checking on the integrity of the other terminals.
Aside from this being the first subject of discussion in the meeting with Creed and the others, Adam had a different subject on his checklist, and he raised it immediately:
"The Civilian Base has experienced power outages since last night, and it is worsening today. They have reduced the load to only power the heaters, but they are considering and will most likely… go fossil."
The term "Go Fossil" was enough to make even the Star Paladin show a slight twitch, let alone Solana, who started praying under her breath, as well as Wrench, who started looking around for reactions to copy.
"We have been a Fossil Civilization for so long, it is not even a taboo to us, barely something to frown on by some and cling to by others," Megan explained to the Wartopians what they already knew, but had to put a defense for the Earthlings in the Civilian Base.
"The Commander would face dangerous penalties if they were to ever resort to igniting unholy flames. It is a sign of Infernal corruption." Solana spoke with a hint of anger directed at Adam.
"I understand, blessed sister." Adam nodded with a gracious smile before patiently explaining, "Usually, we take Requisition and Morale Hits. But I can see our camp politics are more serious than that of a mere simulation."
To the understanding of most people in the room, the erection of a Fossil Furnace—one of the buildings that was considered taboo in the Solarium faction—while it would bring immense power to the base, would drain the Requisition Points used to purchase drops from the Stellar Arks in orbit. Those drops would range from units to buildings, and they were even the only way players could deploy Star Paladins.
As for the morale hits, it is already evident from camp politics that the troops wouldn't like the use of fossil fuel, and it would put Adam in a bad light with his summons.
"This leaves us with two options." Adam said with a heavy heart and started showing shapes on the table: "The orthodox and normal way is to finish up with the Script Monastery, which will make this Base qualified for becoming more."
"A Bastion." Captain Creed finally spoke, staring at Adam.
"Yes, sir. If we upgrade the Command Center to a Base Bastion, we will be eligible for building Plasma Generators," Adam said and rested his back in his seat. "Plasma Generators are simply great. Our Solar Plants have grown less efficient as of late due to winter weather mood swings, but this would take us days. We have the resources, but we need to spread the manpower across many projects."
"What is the other option, sir?" Elena asked.
Adam didn't turn to her but looked at Captain Creed directly.
"The Sun Shard is a source of near-infinite power…" Adam started speaking, but it was Solana who interrupted.
"You possess a Shard of Sol's holy flesh?" she cried, looking at everyone in the room.
"Yep," Adam confirmed, now regretting that he spoke in front of this fanatical nun.
"Then we must erect a shrine immediately. It's a hallowed item to be worshipped." She spoke with zeal before asking, "Where is the hallowed shard?"
"Since we lack all proper methods to contain it, this job has been left for Captain Creed, who has stored the Shard in a secure location." Adam answered patiently, "A Sun Shard would burn anyone who touches it to a crisp; only a Sunforged can touch it without harm."
"It is true!" Solana nodded firmly and turned to Captain Creed. "Brother Paladin, it would be an immense honor for the Monastery Temple of Aten-Sor to erect a shrine for the Shard. I will cast a ten-ton shell of warsteel alloy to contain the relic, if you give me your blessing."
Adam sighed and spoke before she started with her fantasies of erecting a shrine and converting the populace:
"I was thinking along the lines of erecting a Holy Furnace."
His words caused everyone to look at him, suspicion and bafflement on their faces.
"A Holy Furnace is a great way to enhance power, Commander Clay," Captain Creed said and leaned forward. "You have rallied those intentions once, but both you and I are aware that the Sacred Code wouldn't yield the Diagrams for the Holy Furnace except on the Third Phase of a Base, a Solar Citadel. We haven't finished the conversation yet. How do you plan to construct a Holy Furnace this early?"
[A.n: In chapter 58, it was said that a Holy Furnace needs a level 2 base, but after consulting the notes, it was base level 3, since it produces Solymer, which is used for high-level production.]
Adam exchanged looks with Kave and Megan, who seemed unsure about this plan, but it was the best shot for now, so he spoke his mind:
"From what we studied in the lore of the Solarium, we noticed a great resemblance between the two furnaces: the Holy Furnace and the Fossil one."
Adam's first line was problematic as it was, causing the Wartopians to frown one after the other. Even Elena, who had grown more accustomed to his unorthodox methods, seemed not to like what she heard, let alone Sister Solana and Corporal Wrench, who both reacted visibly.
"Sir, this is…" Wrench spoke, not sure if he could say the word in front of a Paladin and a Nun.
"Heretechia!" Sister Solana protested. "To compare a holy instrument and a fossil abomination is the most absurd thing to come out of a Base Commander!"
Adam and his crew knew that the Wartopians wouldn't take this easily, so they too went on the offensive.
"Both the Fossil Furnace and the Holy Furnace look the same from above, even though they function very differently. Also, the Fossil Furnace is still classified as STD and not SPD," Megan argued.
"Only under certain circumstances. Solarium-Prohibited Diagrams can only be trusted when an absolute order is given, and it is a do-or-die situation. Even then, no one would simply suggest building them," Corporal Wrench argued back.
"We didn't say we are constructing Fossil Furnaces, man. What Adam was saying is that both Furnaces share the same design, so unless we figure out how to turn the design from Fossil to Holy, there would be no harm done," Kave finally stepped in.
Despite the no-nonsense reputation of the military, the situation started to become more political than the economy meeting from an hour ago, as the conversation kept going back and forth.
Adam soon fell silent, as he didn't expect this fierce resistance from his summons, who were more offended by comparing the Fossil Furnace to the Holy Furnace. But he noticed that despite all this drama, Captain Creed was the only one who kept mostly silent, watching the conversation and weighing things in his mind.
"Sir," Adam spoke, facing Creed, who was on the other end of the table, in his extra-large seat. "What do you think? A Holy Furnace can mean we can also produce Solymer. The power production would spike, and the Base would grow explosively," Adam said, and tried his best selling pitch.
Everyone went quiet, and all eyes landed on the Paladin.
"Adam Clay," he said, his voice calm and final, "if you are asking whether this can be done, then yes, it can."
Adam's eyes went wide, Solana inhaled sharply, and everyone else felt tense at the Paladin's words.
"If you are asking whether it should," Creed continued, "then understand this: the moment we attempt it, you will have responsibilities greater than whatever you can imagine."
The Paladin's words felt more dangerous as he looked right at Adam and continued:
"A piece of land with a Holy Furnace is considered hallowed ground; its Commander must live and die defending it. For you, there will be no retreat, ever, until your service is done."
He then added:
"The Holy Energy of the Sun will be strengthened immensely; the power outages will be solved, but you will have to pacify the holy flame by prayers, sacrifices, and a great deal of faith. This will be a Holy Site that should be defended at all costs. I assume you already knew that."
Adam stayed silent for a while, realizing what Creed had just said.
The Holy Furnace itself was simply an RTS game building with a few mechanics tied to it. Rather than producing power directly, any Solar Plant that was adjacent to it would receive a huge boost in power production. Also, since it was a Solymer production facility, it was needed for Star Paladin upgrades and to unlock Solymer Fortifications, the highest-grade defense in Wartopia.
Other lore uses were known for the Holy Furnace, but Adam may have underestimated the "holiness" factor of this building to the Wartopians.
If erecting one would convert his base into a Holy Site, then it would significantly boost its importance to all Solarium faithful, converting it into a pilgrimage destination even. Adam wasn't sure about making this former suburban area into a fanatical haven for the Cult of Sol, but the two bases needed power first just to survive the winter.
Whatever comes next is something he would have to deal with later.
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