Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 51

In the twenty years since being cast out, they had explored most of the island and had noted that there really was only a handful of shoreline locations that would be amicable to land a ship with soldiers. He wanted to build communities at those locations, all with the same capabilities as Landstown, and build cannons, guns and rockets for defence, effectively defending the island as long as the attackers couldn't land and take control of a community.

The next attack came a couple of years later, but now with cannons, guns and rocket launchers, the attackers turned away long before they could ever mount a serious attack. The cannons mounted on the attacking ships didn't have enough range to destroy defensive battlements before the ships were in range of our more refined materials and weapons, plus our rocket launchers had far superior range and accuracy. Firing one or two warning shots close to them while we were still out of their range was a great deterrent.

There was a period where attacks became more frequent and they even tried landing at some not-so-friendly shores, resulting in the building of signal towers along those shores, they could provide early warning of potential attacks and give the other defences time to get positioned. Each tower also had rockets, which were the most accurate weapon and had the furthest range, so they could attack from a position out of reach of the attacking ships.

After a few years of those failed attempts, they eventually gave up and the only traffic was merchant ships. We have telescopes, so we can see approaching ships in great detail. If they do not load the ship with cannons and soldiers, we let them approach. They always want to trade for our weapons and technology, but keeping true to the Federation, we have given them nothing. We are self-sufficient and need nothing they try to trade.

We think most of them are spies, just reporting back on what they see, as a few months later we see them prod an unfamiliar area, just to see if we're paying attention. We have effective defence weapons and a good lookout and signalling system, but we don't want to fight if we don't have to. Like the Federation, we just want to live in peace. Ever since my forefather reverted to the Federation ways, we've been hoping for your return."

Mark contemplated what Edward had said, "If your people have been trying to live the Federation way for almost two centuries, people should be fairly receptive to fully rejoining."

Edward and the other people with him were all nodding in agreement. "It should be near unanimous! So how can we make this happen?"

Mark thought for a second. "How many communities are there?"

Edward shrugged his shoulders and thought, "There's 5 large communities, but there's probably 20 other communities scattered around the island, all of them are small farming communities, unless they are along the shore, then they probably do a lot of fishing as well. There is one community at the top of Lookout Mountain, and there's another mountain near Hubbard in the south. They watch for signals from any of the watchtowers around the island and then relay the warning."

"Just curious, but how do the lookouts relay which part of the island is under attack?"

"Each large community has coloured fireworks. Landstown is yellow, Hubbard is blue, Stanton is purple, Freya is green and Cascadia is red. The lookouts at the top of the mountain relay the corresponding firework colour. We don't have a colour for Federation City, since they would have to go through one of the other communities before they reach us.

Cascadia, Freya and Hubbard are the most attacked communities. The seas and winds are unpredictable on the north side of the island and there are lots of rocks for ships to avoid, so the attacks typically come from the east or west. The only place that's unprotected is the southwestern portion of the island, but it is very rocky and not practical to attack from as travel would be difficult."

Mark smiled at the ingenuity. "Smart! So we need to set up an outreach centre near the middle of every community. Outreach centres provide food, water, clothing, medical, transportation and all the other Federation basics. They also offer library access, which we can use to allow the people to vote on joining the Federation, and they have offices and communications for community administrators. For defence, they would also allow people to travel from other communities to assist."

"Really? That alone makes it worthwhile. There should be a storm shelter near the centre of every community. Only the original churches in Landstown and Stanton are rectangular, all the others are round. The round ones are easy to build and we find they are very sturdy during severe storms. If these outreach centres are for the use and protection of the people, then I would say build your centres where the shelters are."

"That will make it easy. So the first step is to get the outreach centre built here so you can see what they offer. Then you and I will need to visit every community, starting with the most remote locations and build them an outreach centre. Once every community has one, we will announce the vote. The vote will do three things, first it will get everyone on the island identified. Do you currently have an identification system?"

"Yes, we do! Each person has an identification card, it contains the parent's names, place of birth, date of birth, date of death, spouse and children. The community administrator keeps the cards, so if a person moves from one community to another, the administrator makes a copy of the card and they mail it to the administrator of their new community. So we have a system, it's just not a great system."

Mark smiled. "It's better than nothing! Second, the centres will provide a variety of services including medical, communications and transportation. So people can travel between communities easily, which is why I want to start with communities along the shore. Third, the centres will provide a base to begin the transition into the Federation. This is going to take a bit of time, and we will need some resources, so I've already got another ship in orbit manufacturing stuff."

As they walked and talked, they eventually found themselves among a crowd of people watching the outreach centre construct itself where the former rock pile was, but soon the outreach centre construction engulfed the stone igloo.

The outreach centres all looked basically the same. They were smooth white buildings with dark windows and blue trim. The buildings were usually round and two levels high, with the upper level overhanging the lower level by 7 metres, providing shade and shelter around the base. Then the transit zone was on the roof. In a few of the more populated cities they had to go with a rectangular design, simply to fit the footprint, but then often had to expand to more than just the two levels.

It seemed like every planet or country they setup the outreach centres; they had made slight improvements from the previous iterations. The latest improvement came about on Virgohn, where they controlled access to certain areas with a force field that would block anyone that hadn't gone through identification. The selected force fields now protected the medical bay, administrative offices, subterranean prison, rooftop transit zone and the prep area of the soup kitchen.

Another change was instead of allowing computer access only in the library. They now had walk-up computer terminals all around the base of the building. This allowed anyone to access the library, or more, based on their citizenship status. A bonus to the walk-up convenience, when they weren't in use, was they displayed local news and weather.

A few iterations ago, they had added picnic tables around the perimeter under the overhang, so people could simply rest in the shade and eat or whatever, and the locals could always add more picnic tables in the surrounding area to accommodate more people.

***

Sandra and the girls returned from their tour, having visited the marketplace, the school and the hospital, all of which were near the centre of the community, and they had also wandered down to the docks and saw the boats. They also had birds and other animals they raised for meat, and in the fertile valley soil there were orchards and fields all around the town.

They gave Mark a summary of their tour as they joined the crowd watching the last stages of the outreach centre construction.

When construction reached the point where it was safe for the public, the lights came on inside and the library kiosks started up outside. They followed the crowd inside, where Cricket had a hologram manning the information desks, which were another recent alteration. Rather than having a single manned information desk in the centre of the building, they had small information booths in the centre of each entrance to the building. Also, to keep some semblance or order, there was an information button they had to press to ask a question. Most people were just watching the others ask the questions.

The information hologram was fairly limited, it would just provide directions, any requests for information resulted in instructions to visit a library kiosk. Several people asked about medical and were given directions to that area on the upper level.

Medical had also slightly changed. They simplified and automated the medibeds for tune-ups and checkups, they couldn't regrow limbs, fix major disabilities or handle pregnant women; well, they could check a pregnant woman and fetus to inform if there were any concerns, but if you needed something major done or anything that required recovery time, you'd need to visit a staffed medical facility, like the one on the Space Station.

One of the other modifications they had made to the outreach centres was basic federation banking, and for every person who went through the registration process, they would have some funds put into their bank account. That helped start the transition to Federation currency.

Edward's eyes were wide, and his mouth was agape. "This is remarkable! I can't believe you built this so fast. So how do we go about getting these centres built in every community?"

"I was thinking we would stick around here for the day, then tomorrow you and I can take the shuttle and visit every community, visit all the leaders, get their outreach centres started and announce the vote in a week's time."

Edward smiled, "We shall have a feast in your honour tonight!" He then turned to the man that silently followed him everywhere. "Go tell the crier that there will be a feast tonight at the new Federation building."

The man nodded and left.

The rest of the afternoon involved just walking around town and talking to people.

Twice they saw the town crier, all dressed up in his blue outfit, with a Federation flag on a tall staff and ringing a bell, then once he had people's attention he would shout that there was to be a feast tonight at the new Federation building.

***

Just as everyone was getting ready for the feast, towers set white fireworks off in the northwestern direction.

Mark asked, "You told me the colours, but what do the white fireworks mean?"

Edward said, "White fireworks are just early warnings that ships have been sighted, but they haven't determined where they will land yet."

Everyone had stopped what they were doing and looked that direction; worried and distraught as they waited for further fireworks that would indicate the attack had begun.

Mark said, "Maybe we can do something about this attack? Maren, let's go talk to the attackers."

As Mark, Maren and Gyges ran to the shuttle, the Senator followed along. They boarded and quickly lifted off, turning on the cloak and heading off toward the fireworks.

It didn't take long to find 4 ships sailing directly toward the island.

Maren flew the cloaked shuttle in between them all, close enough that they could see the decks packed with soldiers. The shuttle was unarmed, and all they had were Gyges' non-lethal weapons, so how could they dissuade four ships from attacking?

Cricket's hologram popped up on the dash. "I've deployed the drone dropper from the Sentinel, open the ramp and let the 3 security drones out. I'll give them a warning. Also get out a construx and put it on the floor."

Mark grabbed a construx and put it on the floor as Maren lowered the ramp. The construx turned blue and began transforming. They watched out the windows, seeing if the drones had dissuaded the ships, but the ships hadn't turned back or slowed down.

Cricket announced, "Drop the pod in the water."

They turned around and Mark immediately recognized the 2 metre long blue pod. It was what spawned the kraken that protected Atlantis.

As Mark pushed the pod overboard, he got an idea. "The shuttle is pretty much indestructible, right? What if we rammed their mast hard enough to break it?"

Maren looked at him like he was out of his mind.

"I'm going to give the lead ship another warning. They are to turn back or we will break their mast."

Cricket's hologram popped up and said, "They must think we're joking, as they're all laughing! Take out the mast!"

Not wanting to risk damaging the shuttle, Maren merely turned into the path of the lead ship and eased up to the mast about 4 metres above the deck. Applying thrust in the opposite direction the ship was going caused the mast to snap like a twig and fall backwards, damaging the helm and making the ship veer into the path of one of the other ships, as the three other ships immediately started stowing their sails and drifting closer.

Since the ships were now close to each other, Cricket used the three drones to address all four ships. 'Breaking your mast was the first warning! If you continue, we will break all your masts and then destroy your ships! I hope your men can swim in all that armour!'

All the ships seemed to contemplate their next move and were likely assessing the damage to the one ship. The soldiers on the decks were visibly scared as the voices they heard could actually inflict physical damage. Something they had never encountered before.

In order to sway their decision making, Mark told Maren to reveal the shuttle in front of them and then told Cricket to relay his voice through the drones.

The shuttle strafed sideways, circling the 4 ships as if it was a predator about to pounce. 'You stand no chance of succeeding with this attack. Turn around now before we tell our sea monster to destroy your ships!'

Maren then cloaked the shuttle as everyone on the ships gasped and stared at their commanders, curious about what they were going to do. The delay was giving the pod a chance to grow into a kraken. Then if they advanced, the kraken could influence their decisions.

The ships stayed there for more than an hour before finally attaching heavy ropes to the damaged ship and towing it away. The drone dropper would distribute drones over the sea around the entire island. They could monitor anyone approaching the island, and they could coordinate the kraken.

Once the ships started retreating, Maren turned off the cloak and Edward guided them to Stanton, a community built around a small bay at the far northwest corner of the island. Upon arrival, he introduced Mark to the mayor and assured them that the Federation took care of the invaders. Edward then explained that the Federation was going to be visiting every community tomorrow to build outreach centres.

Mark suggested, "Since we are here, we could start the construction now, it would be active by morning."

The mayor agreed, and Mark placed a construx inside the storm shelter and Cricket used a drone to activate it. They then told the mayor he would have an office inside the building that would allow him to communicate instantly with the mayors of all the other communities that were getting these buildings.

Then deciding since they were out and about, and since there were only 5 large communities, maybe they would just swing by all of them and get the outreach centres started.

Continuing around the island counter-clockwise, they stopped at Cascadia, which was at the end of an enormous bay at the base of Lookout Mountain, the tallest mountain on the island. They had called it Cascadia since there were many beautiful, cascading waterfalls surrounding the town.

After a quick meeting with the mayor and reiterating the same information about the outreach centres, they made sure the storm shelter was clear and then started the outreach centre construction.

They then continued around to Hubbard, which was on the southeastern part of the island. This part of Colonia had enormous bays and many islands, which probably made for good fishing. It was definitely scenic. Again, they met with the mayor and recited the same information as the other two places and then started the outreach centre construction.

Finally, they went north of Hubbard to Freya, which was at the top of a long, narrow bay that was separated from the ocean by a narrow peninsula.

Edward then said, "I wish we could go tell all the people at the signal towers that they could get some rest tonight and then go home tomorrow."

Mark had a thought, "Cricket, record Edward's message and deliver it to every signal tower around the island."

Cricket's hologram popped into existence and saluted. "Yes, sir!"

Mark then gave Edward some direction. "OK, say your message as if you were talking to each of them individually. Introduce me as the King of the Federation and say that the Federation has taken over protecting the island and they can get some sleep tonight and then make their way home at their convenience."

Edward delivered almost that exact message, then Cricket displayed for their review. Edward just smiled and said, "Remarkable!"

Mark then said, "Cricket, could you reveal a drone near each signal tower and display that message to the people stationed there?"

***

As they returned to Federation City, the sun had now set, and they seemed to have missed the feast.

Since it was dark, almost everybody had retired to their homes, as the only illumination was around the outreach centre. Liyana, Athena and Elizabeth were still waiting and had saved them some food to eat.

As they sat at one of the picnic tables recounting the event with the invaders, Liyana informed them they had made bedrooms in the outreach centre and that they were putting Joseph to bed.

After Edward, Mark, Maren and Gyges finished eating, the Senator bid them a goodnight, and the gang walked into the outreach centre, with Liyana and Athena leading them to the second level and the area that would eventually be administrative offices. Solara had redesigned them as temporary bedrooms.

Mark knew that Annabelle was probably getting Joseph to sleep, so he tried to be as quiet as possible as he entered the room.

Joseph was already fast asleep, but what surprised Mark the most was seeing Sandra's ass facing him with Annabelle underneath her while she was being fucked by Rayven.

Rayven and Annabelle smiled as Mark undressed as quietly as possible and then approached the sexually charged trio. Annabelle lubed up the head of Mark's cock in her mouth and then gave a couple of licks to Sandra's pussy as Annabelle guided Mark's cock into the nubile teenager.

Sandra groaned as her teen pussy stretched to allow Mark's cock entry into her body. She wasn't a virgin, but her pussy was really tight, and Mark was sure the head of his cock was pressing on her womb. Mark knew he wouldn't last long inside her, especially not with Annabelle licking his balls at their union.

Wanting to prolong the sensation as long as possible, Mark slowly fucked in and out of her as Annabelle massaged her clit with her tongue. Unfortunately, Rayven had reached her climax and began pumping cum into Annabelle, which Sandra happily cleaned up as the two parted.