Thunder Reforged
Copyright© 2026 by FozzieBare
Chapter 2: Juggling Nitroglycerine
The base was fairly bare-bones. The view was pretty nice, but Elias didn’t spend more than five seconds staring at the virtual sunset before he started listing everything the place needed.
A smelter.
A WarMAC construction pad.
More guild storage.
He was still verbally working his way through the list when he noticed Marcus’s virtual persona had taken a seat on the veranda. Adrian, meanwhile, was already back in the Arena practicing. Elias grumbled. “It is a nice view, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Once the movers had finished with everyone’s gear, Marcus returned to the office to catch up on paperwork that apparently still required his signature despite his leave of absence. Adrian disappeared to unfoul his personal computer setup. Elias wasn’t entirely sure why that was so important when the high-end machines in the Pit ... the Training Center, he corrected himself ... were probably better. Then again, the Training Center was so wide open that it would probably echo badly late at night when Adrian was working.
Elias had no such concerns. He grabbed one of the end machines and started exploring the area around the base. By the time he had completed what he considered a satisfactory survey, claimed a couple of resource sites, and set drones to begin harvesting them, he glanced at the clock. He had worked through the evening, through the night, and into that strange portion of darkness where late night quietly becomes early morning.
Elias jotted another item onto his growing list for the whiteboards.
Get some clocks. Too easy to lose track of time.
Then he staggered off to bed. Unfortunately, his brain had other plans. Every time he felt himself beginning to drift off, he remembered something else that needed doing the next day. More than once, he had to resist the urge to get back up and turn the nearly-all-nighter into a genuine one.
Elias felt like he had just drifted off to sleep when his phone’s alarm went off. Elias hadn’t set the alarm, it was just a relic from his old job. But he figured he had rested long enough. However long that had been. After a quick shower and change of clothing, he felt vaguely human again. Only vaguely though. “Probably going to need to grab an hour or two of sleep during the day...” he thought, then snorted to himself. He was going to need to set a reminder on his phone. Otherwise he’d pull another all-nighter and end up looking like an under-caffeinated zombie. He grabbed the to-do list he had filled during the night, trying to get every stray thought out of his head and onto paper before sleep washed them away.
As he headed back into the Training Center, he saw Adrian sipping a coffee. He was a little surprised that Adrian wasn’t already training or doing something else, but decided to take advantage of Adrian’s undivided attention to help him decide what the most important things were to do today. After the usual morning greetings, Elias immediately launched into his Guild Leader checklist. “It looks like most of the resources on this planet are barely tapped. We should claim a couple of sites so we can start stockpiling. I also need to compile a full list of what the base needs and prioritize which upgrades we do first...”
Adrian shook his head. “We have something more important to do.”
Elias stopped. “What’s more important than turning a base with a nice view into a workable Universe at War position?”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. “We have to start interviewing people for the guild.”
Elias stared at him. Wait. Interviewing? People? They weren’t ready. He wasn’t ready. They wouldn’t want to talk to him. This was Adrian’s guild too... “Can’t you do it? You’re ThunderRoad.”
Adrian shook his head. “You’re the guild leader, remember?”
Elias’s expression suggested that, for one brief and beautiful moment, he had forgotten.
Marcus chose that moment to poke his head into the room. “Oh, good. I did a bit of research on higher-level WarMAC pilots who reside in our general area, and I found a really strong WarMAC pilot nearby. I scheduled her for an interview today.”
Elias slowly turned his head toward Marcus. Marcus looked like he had plenty of caffeine in him.
Maybe Elias could distill it from his blood.
He shook the thought away. Obviously he was still far too groggy for this conversation if he was contemplating drinking someone’s blood, not for vampiric nourishment, but to receive the blessings of the fairy Caffina.
“Today?”
Marcus looked completely unbothered. “Yes.”
Elias was hoping against hope, but he needed a bit of clarification. “As in today today?”
Marcus looked confused. “That is generally what today means.” He then added, almost as an afterthought, “Oh, and she’s got a reputation for being touchier than a vial of badly distilled nitroglycerin.”
Elias’s eye twitched.
Marcus held up a hand. “Probably not her fault, from the signs I’m reading. But still.”
“Still?”
“Still maybe don’t open with anything involving swimwear, branding, marketability, or whether she’s a team player.”
Elias stared at him. “You scheduled this interview for today?”
“Yes. About ninety minutes from now, actually.”
“With the nitroglycerin?”
“Promising nitroglycerin.”
Elias was more and more grumpy at the lack of sleep, the lack of caffeine, and the lack of the universe allowing him to solve problems in a structured order. “I’m wishing more and more that I had gotten blotto. Then I could postpone everything for forty-eight hours due to a hangover.”
Adrian grinned. “What’s that old saying? He Who Dares Wins?”
Elias gave him a flat look. “Yes, but the SAS never had to do human resources.”
Marcus looked concerned. “Should I call her to reschedule?”
Adrian shook his head before Elias could exercise the offered escape clause. “Nah. I think he just pulled an almost-all-nighter. His plan was probably to get things moving this morning, then grab a couple hours of sleep before he started attacking the coffee pot for all the caffeine it could provide.” Adrian glanced toward Elias. “I’ll make him something strong. He’ll survive.”
Adrian took pity on Elias and offered his help with the interview as well as the dangerously low levels of artificial stimulants currently circulating through his bloodstream. “Of course I’ll sit in on the interview. We need to figure out how new pilots are going to fit into the guild anyway.”
Elias visibly relaxed.
Adrian waited just long enough. “Besides, before you know it, all twenty of these computers will have guild members sitting at them looking to you for guidance.”
Elias’s relief vanished.
“I hate you.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
Adrian had enough time to brew a really strong cup of coffee, and as Elias finally felt like the day hadn’t been designed to drive him absolutely bonkers, they spent time going over some of the items on the checklist. They were just getting to the unpleasant reality that their start was going to be slow. At the moment, only two people could survey the planet and claim sites, and they still had to build the infrastructure needed to turn those resources into real guild growth. That was when Marcus arrived with their first candidate.
At that point Elias remembered one last thing that had escaped his brain the night before and wrote it down before the slippery thought could take off again. “We keep calling it the guild. We really need to come up with a name. One that doesn’t suck.”
He thought about crossing “One that doesn’t suck” out and putting something more professional instead. After a second, he decided that he was still too much in sleep debt to come up with a better euphemism.
Amy Williamson was slightly shorter than Marcus, and Elias immediately understood why Marcus had warned him she might be a little touchy. There was a tension in the way she carried herself, like she had come in expecting someone to say something stupid and had already decided exactly how much patience she was willing to spend on it. That number was likely frighteningly low. Elias had the distinct impression that one sexist remark or belittling comment would end the interview on the spot, probably with Amy marching straight back out the door.
He tried to marshal the approximately thirty-seven opening questions he had thought of while he and Adrian were going over everything the base needed before the interview. Unfortunately, he hadn’t written any of them down. Now was probably not the best time to ask Adrian, Did you happen to read my mind about what we were going to ask her?
Then Elias had a brainstorm.
Adrian?
Of course!
Elias looked at Amy, then at Adrian. “I’m the guild leader, but Adrian here is currently handling our tactical side. I’ll let him talk to you about how you fight, what you’re looking for in a team, and how you’d fit into what we’re trying to build.”
Adrian’s eyebrows rose slightly. Elias continued, more firmly now that he’d found solid ground. “Then we’ll come back to me for the rest.”
Adrian gave him a look that said he knew exactly what Elias had just done.
Elias gave him one right back.
You said I was the guild leader. Guild leaders delegate.
Adrian went over the basics, asking how she fought. Unfortunately, thanks to his lack of preparation after Elias dropped the hot potato, or perhaps hot nitroglycerin, into his lap, it came out to Amy’s ears more like, “Can you fight?”
Amy bristled. “Can I fight? Do you think I’d be here if I couldn’t fight?”
Adrian glanced at Elias. “Well, she certainly has fighting spirit.”
And Elias, exhausted enough to have lost some of his filter, just muttered: “Marcus did say nitroglycerin.”
Amy’s head snapped toward him. It looked like the explosion had started a countdown. Time to defuse it before it went off. Elias winced. “I’m going to regret saying that out loud.”
Adrian rescued Elias. “I didn’t ask whether you think you can fight. I’m trying to find out how you fight. If we bring you on, we need to know your style and how you think tactically. If all goes well, before too long we’ll be juggling multiple platoons.” He leaned back slightly. “So I need to know where you fit best. Do you like being the one giving the orders, or are you better at interpreting the orders that come down and figuring out how to make them work?”
Amy took the question seriously, and it looked like the danger moment had passed for now. “I like being in the thick of the action, to be honest. Give me a target, tell me how many pieces you want it in, and let me do my thing without blathering constantly.”
Adrian nodded, as if it confirmed something he had already guessed. “So mission command. You want the objective and the limits, then room to improvise.”
Amy shrugged. “If you want to call it that.”
“I do. It saves me from saying ‘point Amy at something and stand clear.’”
Elias looked at his notes. That was about verbatim what he wrote down, and to further lower the tension level, said just that.
Adrian nodded. “There’ll be times when we have to shuffle things around, so I can’t promise you’ll always be the sharp end of the spear. But when that becomes necessary, we’ll talk about it.” He gave her a slight smile. “Who knows? You might have a flair for giving the orders.”
Amy did not look like that was a compliment. “Let’s not get carried away.”
They went over a couple of the things the guild had already done, and before long, they had reached the end of the questions that they could think of. They asked Amy for her thoughts. Amy leaned back. “Okay, my turn. Why come back after being away so long? No offense, Adrian, but they say reflexes are the first thing to go.”
Adrian nodded. “Fair question. I never really left the game. I just moved into another part of it. Building, powerleveling, testing machines, helping other people get where they wanted to go.”
“That’s not tournament fighting.”
“No. Which is why I’ve been practicing about six hours a day since Marcus made me the offer.”