#78: Banana Slug - “We killed them right back

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Elvira said “It’s in the rules. We can do that.”

“There were other incidents after that. The WarBoat we avoided is just the latest one.“ Chad said “You may or may not have heard of them. I had no idea that you didn’t realize the implications. Recall the spat of home invasions just before we left? Have you heard the tale of Cody taking out the trash, so to speak?”

“That was the government?” Joshua asked. He knew all about Fluffy. It had taken some convincing for Cody to convert to a smaller Avatar. Fluff was Ok but it was just too BIG for social occasions. The smaller bird sized dragons were much more convenient.

ahem He ignored Yvette,’s private snark.

“We don’t know” the Dragon lady said “It might have been. Perhaps it was something else. The point is that we don’t seem to be in the good graces of the government. Which flavor of government we’re not really sure. There are so many of them. Who can keep track?”

Everyone sat and sipped their coffee for a while.

“It’s a big shock to discover that you’re on a kill order isn’t it?” Captain asked gently.

Joshua nodded his head numbly.

“Why? Why do they want to do this?” he finally asked.

“That is a point of contention.” The dragon lady said “Who knows why a government does anything? Personally I think it is because that once a certain size is reached they become inherently irrational”

“Why...that’s Crazy” Joshua said

“Exactly. You do understand.” The Dragon Lady agreed. Everyone else seemed to agree also. (Government is Crazy)

“What can we do?” Josh finally asked.

“Avoid them. “Marc said “If it comes to a direct confrontation they’ll squash us like a bug. Drawing the wrong kind of attention to ourselves is NOT a good idea, so we hide.”

“I take it that if the Network News began showing people with a strange new technology attempting to help flood victims that would draw unwanted attention to us.” Joshua muttered.

“Yup..” Shelby agreed. “It certainly would.”

“But the farmers.” Josh looked up defiantly “We helped the farmers.”

“And don’t think for a minute that we’re not grateful” Weldon said. What he was hearing wasn’t pleasant. In fact it was very alarming. He tried to stay balanced though since he was still alive as was his family and many of his neighbors. Best to keep that in mind. These folks had helped him and his. No one had forced them to do that. For what ever reason that’s more than could be said about the government.

“As far as the government was concerned they were already dead” Shelby said sadly “They’d already been written off.”

Josh sat for some time after that. He had just received a serious blow to his world view.

After some time Shelby casually said to The Dragon Lady. “I do believe the lad has a good point though, regardless of what the Feebs have to say on the matter.”

The Dragon Lady nodded “Yes, he does. Even though we might be considered to be vermin by our Lords and Masters, their opinion doesn’t affect how we feel about ourselves.“

“To feel good about ourselves we need to see ourselves as BEING good.” Captain stated

“That would mean actually DOING good” Marc said.

“Regardless of the wishes of an insane government.” Joshua agreed.

“We need a plan” Shelby decided “a little fore thought.”

“Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance” Captain said solemnly.

“And we have one.” The Dragon Lady said.”There was no need to tell everyone but the surveillance cloud has been greatly extended. We added a different kind of bug.”

“This is a hugely expanded view. This guy is smaller than a Southern ‘no-see-em’. “ Shelby explained “He’s our tripwire. He can’t do anything on his own but when he detects a problem we can send something else with more capabilities. We send in the ‘wolves’ so to speak. A rescue pack as it were.”

“As we speak there is an expanding ring of these little fellers radiating away from here. Separate swarms of them are also been keeping track of the few FEMA camps that we know of. NaoMi has one by the way, you may have heard of her? She decided not come to the Banana Slug right now. She’s looking for more survivors. She did a rilly good job with the EggChild.

But as I was saying, Larger Drones are staging near those camps. They’re keeping out of sight. If FEMA screws up too badly and it looks like someone is going to die we intend to take action and try to keep the victims alive. We intend to TRY. However there’s only so much we can do. I hate to admit this in polite company but we’ve even set up a call center.”

There was a collective gasp, from those present. “NOT a call center! Oh Noes.”

“It’s getting colder for some reason. It’s odd. It shouldn’t be this cold this time of year, especially the water, but it is. It’s almost like someone poured ice water into it. Anyone who falls in and is not prepared will die of hypothermia really soon.” he finished

With THAT everyone returned to their meal.

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The Next Episode Is
#79: Banana Slug - Time to Get Busy Designing…
The Previous Episode was
#77: Banana Slug - ReDesign…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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