AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 35
He led me back up the treacherous path, and then we drove nearly half a mile back up the hill, and down on the other side. That was followed by almost the same distance again on foot along that same cliff face we’d just been looking up at, finally descending to the water via a long staircase. The tide was in, and he warned that it was completely unsafe during high tide, as the currents would bash you around, then suck you right out of the pool, the rough lava rock making that much worse. At low tide, he assured me, it was a great place to snorkel, or learn to swim.
He mentioned a cave that was only reachable from the water, but that he’d never been, and had no interest. The climb back was tiring, and I was ready for lunch. He invited me back to his place, where he had fresh fish for us that he had over baked.
He offered to let me borrow an ATV, so I eagerly accepted after lunch, using it to ride out to the north end where my RV was. Coming out of his house I saw one of my marked targets, and balanced him for a cool 45 million negative points.
Once out at the RV again, I again examined the rocks, ravines and cliffs. There were hardly any flat spots at all on the island, it was constant up and down, even in town.
I needed to do a couple things, first I summoned the generator, then the gas can. I considered summoning the gas trailer to fill the can, but decided, I’d just drive back down. I filled the ATV and the ten gallon can, and went back to the RV. The generator I set up under the 5th wheel hitch to keep it out of the sun and rain, it had a plug for the 30 amp fifth wheel, and the cord just barely reached it. I plugged it in, started it up, and turned on the power. It purred nicely.
The RV had four glass pack batteries, no water needed to be added to the batteries that were now charging. I put a solar charger for them on my list, so I could run the fans and lights without the generator. I hooked up the propane tank to the RV, then made sure it was flowing, by lighting the stove. It worked, so I activated the fridge. The fridge went on in electric mode, but I set it to auto switch to propane if the power went off.
I summoned the 30,000 liter water tank Anthony had given me. I had to carve out a spot for it out of the top of the cliff so it was secure. With it in position, I went down the steps to the ocean, where I summoned it, and let it fill with seawater. Once it was full, and mostly sunk beneath the waves, I summoned it to its resting spot. Doing it this way left its ocean location as the default spot to return it to in case I needed to refill it.
I started my water purification skill, a chinese sheng was the same as a liter, so it took a lot of points. 1.125 million a second but it only took four seconds. That was half my neutral points, but an amazing amount of fresh pure water.
I hooked up the water hose, and ran it down the 80 feet to the trailer, and hooked it up, then I turned on the tap, and went inside. I ran the water everywhere, to get the air out of the lines, but didn’t turn the hot water on. I still had access to the rental house, I’d shower there. The RV management system showed that the batteries were charging, so I left everything as it was, and locked up. A run down to the island chalet house for a final shower, and to collect anything I might have forgotten, and back to load the fridge and cabinets with my food.
I now had a place to stay. Good work, so I sat back in my easy chair, and realized I didn’t have internet.
I switched off the generator, and locked up again. Making sure no one was around, I launched into the air, towards Oregon.
I landed just outside the storage unit, and got my truck out. I hit the Wendy’s drive thru again, and then headed for a Harbor Freight. This town had one too, so I went in and started to buy the miniature lumber mill I wanted when I realized my cutting skill would work much better, once the tree was down. I bought a couple chainsaws and the stuff they would need like chain oil instead. They had a great solar panel for RV battery charging, so I grabbed that, and I bought a box of craftsman tools for the guys who were working on the local ATV’s.
I was looking around and found a plow, when I remembered my farming skill. It was very dusty, and there was just the one, with a big wheel in front, a steel plow head, and a couple of handles. It looked like it was for hooking up to a draft animal, but I figured with my strength skill I could push it well enough. There wasn’t a price, so I asked a customer.
“Oh we don’t sell those, that’s just decoration.”
“I want to buy it.”
“Let me ask the manager.”
The manager was agreeable to sell it, so I added it to my shopping list. The manager saw my solar power choice, and showed me something better. There was a hundred watt solar panel that would plug right into a controller, which could clip right onto the batteries for charging, and I could add more panels if I needed it, chaining them together. Each panel even came with a stand to hold them at what was considered the ideal angle.
“Thanks for your help, anything you could suggest for going off grid in an RV?”
He showed me a nifty waterproof solar rope light, 16 feet long, and had its own little solar charger.
“It’s good for 8 hours on full charge.”
I bought three, thinking I would wrap one around my little porch so I wouldn’t fall off if I went out at night, plus run two along the path to the RV.