After spending the rest of the day and 2 other whole days of peace with his family, Rolan stood inside the basement of the Terraforming Bureau building. In front of him were the 500 settlers that the government provided to civilian awakeners, and another 500 that were the bonus for being a government employee.
There was also a small horde of sleek white and black drones with different colored lights. These were construction, military, and reconnaissance drones. The construction drones with their many arms and modules would be constructing the infrastructure for his territory. The materials needed for this were also in the basement.
The other drones would be used by the 100 trained soldiers who were part of the 1000 people given to him. They would be handling the safety of the village while performing recon on nearby threats. These soldier all had their uniform buzz cut hair with tall and disciplined statures. They were armed in standard power armor, which made them faster and stronger than most genetically modified athletes. They carried bulging ray guns and solid rifles as well.
All their equipment was sky blue with symbols of a sun planted in specific spots. The cartoonish sun symbol is the Sol Dominion's logo.
I'll have to replace their colors and logo when I choose mine. These soldiers used to be part of the Imperial army that fought on the frontlines against alien territories. Rolan didn't want them to be identified as imperial soldiers anymore. They were now his private soldiers, as all rights to these soldiers are transferred to the awakeners upon assignment.
He didn't want them to have their attachment to the dominion since they work for him now. But this is something he'll handle once his territory has its own identifiers and is more stable.
"There are a total of 287 families," said Leira, who was going through information on her datapad. She was also wearing a form-fitting armor with a metallic sheen. It made the perfect contrast to her red eyes and black hair.
"So 1000 people, including children?" Rolan asked, and she nodded in response.
When the dominion handed over families, they came whole. Including children or babies. They didn't like splitting up families. And his territory would need kids that were raised in the other realm, so they could eventually have naturally loyal citizens. So no one minded that the assigned quota included kids.
"Well then, let's get moving. The faster I can settle these people, the faster we can start exploring."
Rolan snapped his fingers as a large, enlarged portal appeared. He could control the size of the portal up to a certain limit. The limit currently is the length of a normal SUV. When the portal appeared, the people started to get visibly excited. The individuals at the very front wore different clothes from the civilians, who were dressed casually. These people were his assigned territory administrators. They were individuals who had gone through a special school and had good fundamentals.
Rolan walked up to them and gave his greetings politely. They would be the ones working closest with him as his territory grew. He would be relying on them heavily for day-to-day activities. There were 5 administrators. 3 women and 2 men.
"Hello, sir. My name is Briska." The shortest of the ladies, 4 foot 9 inches , put forward her hand first. She had a naturally endearing smile with bright white teeth. Her waist length brown hair was tied up in a long ponytail.
"Nice to meet you Briska. I am told you're the highest scoring out of the 5." Rolan was blunt with his words. This might have been seen as rude in any other situation, but the other 4 admins just smiled wryly.
"Hehe..thank you for the praise sir. I will do my best to carry over my skills to your territory." she replied. Her eyes were curving up in a pleasant arc.
Rolan shook the middle-aged woman's hand with enthusiasm. Then the other 4 also introduced themselves. They were all middle-aged individuals. So were the rest of the adults given to him. They were all people who have been surviving under the basic provisions and cramped slums that the dominion has assigned to them since birth.
I wonder how many people in the dominion are really without jobs and proper housing.
The dominion was never open with data about the population or any numbers in general. But Rpolan knew it was bad. His parents had shown him the slums when he was much younger. It was supposed to be motivation to work his ass off in school and top the academy. He remembered how the buildings stretched from the highest possible height to the very lowest parts underground. Hundreds of floors where 3 or 4 generations had to cram themselves into studio or bedroom homes.
They would live on barely flavored essential rations that provided a bare minimum nutritional value. During festivals or special occasions, local planetary governments might give out extra meals or delicious dishes.
The excuse the government always gave about these situations was simple. At least they are living better than the humans from 18,000 years ago.
Do I believe them? Hell no.
He was taught by his parents early on that Dominion history was heavily edited and altered. It is very hard to find out what life was like back in the early 2000's. Regardless, there is no way that in developed parts of Holy Terra back then were worse off than this. He cannot fathom this idea.
Regardless, this is why everyone here was so excited. The standards of living in the Zantara Realm are drastically better than in the dominion. As for how much better, we're about to see.
"Alright Briska. I'll talk to you and the other admins once we're settled on the other side. Send everyone in."
"As you wish sir." Briska turned around and faced the soldiers. "Attention!" she barked.
The soldiers stiffened as they raised their rifles and became serious. "March!" she commanded. The soldiers followed orders as they split into squads of 20 and entered the portal orderly. They kept their guns aimed and their fingers hovered on the triggers.
After all squads had entered the portal, Briska told him to close the portal for about 15 minutes. She knew that Rolan couldn't hold the rift open for too long, as is the case for most newbie awakeners. They could only hold the portal open for a couple of minutes a day, needing breaks in between. Their capacity improves with time.
Rolan agreed and closed the portal. He wasn't going to not take the advice of someone who was trained by the Dominion for years for a job like this.
Yes, Briska is probably in her 30s by now, and one would think she probably finished school a while ago, but the empire mandates that anyone not working, except awakeners managing their territory, be continuously enrolled in school. They had to always take tests and do training sessions. All of this was done remotely. The dominion lacks physical space, but current tech allows for near-infinite online spaces for such tedious work.
While the portal stayed closed, Rolan talked to Leira, who looked nervous.
"Don't worry, they'll be fine." Rolan tried to soothe her. He could tell she was worried about the soldiers. He had told her how there was a monster the last time he was there, so she must be worried about the soldier's safety.
"If I can take out one with a shitty gun and blade, what chance do those things have against actually armed and experienced soldiers?"
Leira then turned to face him and frowned. "I'm not worried about them. I don't want them to die and ruin the plans for our territory." she rebuked.
Rolan was stunned. He knows how practical a woman she is, but he didn't know that she's ruthless, too. He only saw here practical side when working on terroforming since it didn't involve much stake.
Rolan could only smile and accept. He didn't mind some ruthlessness, as the Zantara realm would not be forgiving to them. Still, this kind of made the air awkward since the administrators heard her too.
Yes, their expression was calm, but he knew how to read people, and he could tell they weren't expecting this. Especially since Rolan seemed like a nice guy. They didn't imagine his partner to be the opposite.
"When did the land become ours. We're not even engaged yet." he joked.
"Your mom begs to differ. In her heart were already married." Leira put her arms around Rolan's waist and flexed her nonexistent muscles with the other arm.
"So let this wife of yours take care of everything in our land" she boasted.
Rolan just flashed a grin and chuckled. The mood was quickly softened. He realized that just like back on the terraforming fleet, Leira wanted the role of the strict and ruthless one, while he would be the kind, benevolent and caring ruler.
He was honestly happy with this arrangement. He had no interest in being feared. Makes it harder to get your points across. The only other way would be pure tyranny. But leaders like that can't last too long. As history and a very ancient Terra song have taught us:
No man's fit. To rule the world alone...
And he's not alone. His family said they would also join in on the development once things get safer. For now, he'd have Leira with him as she had already moved herself to a no duties desk job with help from General Chen.
I owe that man another favor now. He sighed internally at the thought.
"I think it's safe to open it now sir." Briska suggested after 15 minutes had passed.
Rolan quickly looked at the ceiling of the room where massive artillery laser cannons were poised. She knew they had been on this whole time as people monitored the situation from some command room. They would melt down anything foreign that tried to exit the realm.
Rolan summoned the portal again and waited a moment in pure anticipation. Even though he had confidence in the soldiers as they were so much more armed and experienced than him, he never knew how many of those creatures lurked in the area.
The tension in the room was heavy, so heavy that you could hear the gulps of the ordinary people. They swallowed nervously for the few moments that stretched quite long.
But their fear were for naught as a squad of 20 soldiers exited, unscathed. The only difference was spodges of green blood and the laser rifles that smoked. The soldiers gave a quick salute to Rolan. They knew who their new allegiance was toward and were quick to adapt. Or they wouldn't have been Dominion soldiers in the first place.
"Sir, the perimeter has been cleared. No casualties among us. Kill count is 38 creatures." one of the soldiers reported in a military tone.
"Excellent job soldiers. As expected of my territory's forces." It cost Rolan nothing to dish out some compliments to his soldiers. He was going to need them for a lot of his plans.
The soldiers just kept a stoic face, but their lips curled just tiny enough for Rolan to notice, and that was all he needed. The administrators quickly reacted and wasted no time moving the rest of the 1000 people through the rift as efficiently as they could.
The drones also silently flew in as carried in materials and goods. Everyone knew he couldn't keep the portal open long, so in just 10 minutes, everything was inside as Rolan, Liera, and the 5 admins were taken in last by the 20 soldiers.
Rolan's forehead ached a little as he rubbed it after closing the portal. He had the portal open for barely 15 minutes in total today, but it almost felt like a migraine. He really hoped to figure out how to improve his power soon.
He made a mental note that this would be his next step after the settlement was set up.
As Rolan saw the familiar sky that was covered in dense red clouds, which let in just enough light from barely visible blotches of blue sky. He heard the ocean splashing onto the coast behind him. And in front of him was that same eerie forest with dark gray trees with light gray leaves.
"Damn, these soldiers don't disappoint. Maybe I should get a better gun..." Rolan remarked to Leira.
The 10 meter tall corpse of the sliced up creature that he slaughtered was nowhere to be seen. Except now there was a fresh batch of similarly sized pyramidy corpses in their places. They looked just like his kill except for the fact that they now resembled rotten Swiss cheese.
The laser rifles of the soldiers had done cooked them. There was steam coming from the wounds of those things.