Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 131 Three Traps, One Fortress Plan

"Outrageous! A bunch of nobodies dare take over the grain depot?! Where are they?! The ones who brought the notebook?!"

Cliff slammed his fist down, eyes full of fury. The orderly in front of him stammered, "Commander! They’ve rigged the entire depot with explosives!"

"So what if it’s rigged?! I don’t buy they’ve got the guts to blow it! You think I give a damn about threats?! Where are those bastards? Didn’t you say they sent a few men over? Bring them here! I’ll blow their heads off myself! Damn it! Who the hell do they think they are?!"

"Commander, cool down!" Oliver stepped up quickly. "Sir, killing a bunch of errand boys doesn’t do us any good. You kill them now, then what? They may never trade food with us again. We’ve got tens of thousands to feed! And if we’re seriously planning to fight, don’t we want to squeeze some intel outta those kids first?"

Those words forced Cliff to take a deep breath. He glared at the orderly, voice lower but still boiling. "Where are those paper-passing punks now?"

"In... in the lobby, first floor," the orderly answered promptly.

Cliff gave a small nod, then lit a cigarette and paced the room. After a few strides, he looked to Oliver. "Go round everyone up. Now."

In less than five minutes, over forty high-ranking officers gathered in the meeting room. Oliver laid out the situation for them, and soon the room exploded with noise - especially from the ones who had originally pushed for taking the depot by force.

"Commander! I say we deploy fifty thousand troops right now! Take the underground grain depot by force. Once we control it, we’ll hold all of Northreach. Then we can unify the whole damn province!"

"No! That’s reckless. What if they actually do blow the whole place sky-high? We’d lose more than we gain. We can’t risk everything like that."

"John’s right! If you were about to be wiped out, wouldn’t you blow it? I sure as hell would! If I knew we were done for, I’d take everyone down with me!"

The room turned into a shouting match. Most officers leaned toward caution, arguing it wasn’t time to act rashly. Finally, when the yelling dulled, Oliver spoke again, clear and calm.

"Here’s my take - we test the waters. Go swap for a batch of food first, see what they’re up to."

"Trade food? You’re saying we actually bend to those street rats?" one officer snapped, voice filled with disbelief.

"Heh, hold up, let me finish." Oliver chuckled, glancing around as all eyes, including Cliff’s, turned to him. A hint of smugness crept into his smile. "What’s the harm in trading with them? Even if they blow the place up after, we still get a batch of grain out first, don’t we? And if we wipe them out before they get the chance to hit the trigger, whatever we traded away just comes back to us anyway, right?"

His reasoning hit home. The room went silent. The officers shifted their gaze to Cliff. Cliff gave a small nod. "Oliver’s right. Let’s do some trading, see what we can get out first. Go through our inventory, see what’s useless, and offer that. Mike, take your squad out and sweep again - just stick to the items on their list. Let’s get that useless junk swapped for grain first."

Once Cliff set the direction, no one objected. The officers moved swiftly to act. The three Ice Regiment envoys who came to Springvale City to distribute flyers were released too. Cliff even asked them to bring a message back to Magnus - Springvale’s willing to deal.

Over the next few days, more than ninety percent of survivor groups across Northreach Province received Ice Regiment’s flyers. The reactions varied. Some welcomed it. Some didn’t. And a few started scheming.

The smaller groups were the most receptive. They never had the power to take over a grain depot. Now they had another option - of course they were glad. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

But the larger armed factions... they weren’t too happy. They’d had their sights set on the grain too. Now someone beat them to it, even dared to threaten them. Naturally, they were pissed.

*****

The day after the flyers went out, Magnus summoned Evan again.

"I want defensive positions set up around Ashbrook Town," Magnus ordered.

"Defense?" Evan blinked. "I thought you said they wouldn’t dare touch us? Then why bother fortifying?"

Magnus knew full well - most wouldn’t dare, sure. But there were always some looking for an angle. Still, he kept his tone casual. "Just precaution. We’re not gonna sit around like ducks, are we?"

He pointed to a hand-drawn map of the underground grain depot. "These three housing blocks - I want a secure hallway set up in each. Post men there around the clock. No less than fifty per point. I’ll get grenades issued - ten per station. Fire on flare signal."

Ashbrook had only four neighborhoods. By setting defenses in three, Magnus aimed to confuse. Keep the enemy guessing where Evan’s true force lay.

"These three roads here - each leads straight to the depot. I want you to set up at these spots, here, here, and here..."Magnus marked three spots on the map, each about 300 meters from the underground granary. "Post a hundred men at each of these spots. Put two hundred on the main road. Lay spike traps across the road. If they wanna trade, it happens here. They bring the goods in; we check them inside the granary, then hand out the rice. No outsiders step within three hundred meters of the granary, no exceptions."

Evan and his men listened in silence, but their faces showed rising discontent. Simon finally snapped, "Why is it our guys doing all the dirty work? What are your people doing, just watching? You think we’re stupid?"

Sophia immediately shot back, eyes blazing. "Feeding you isn’t enough? We hand out food and water every damn day, and now you’re whining about pulling some weight? Don’t like it? Fine. There’s a hundred teams lined up who’d kill for this job."

Simon’s temper flared. "That food was ours to begin with! You - "

"It was stolen, Kingsley." Sophia cut him off cold. "And we just stole it back. Survival of the fittest. Be glad we didn’t kill anyone and are still feeding your sorry lot. Don’t wanna work? Say so. I can get ten groups in by tomorrow. You think I’m bluffing?"

"You - " Simon’s face turned red, fists clenched, but he had nothing to throw back.

Evan let out a long sigh, shot a look at Magnus, and finally gave in. "Fine. But you’re covering water for our men while they’re on this."

"Alright," Magnus nodded. "For the first month, we’ll supply clean water for your entire unit, no charge. After that, it’s back to the deal - 1,000 liters a day from us. Any more and you find your own."

Agreement sealed, Evan’s group left with sour faces. They had no leverage. Winners make the rules. They hadn’t thought of strapping the granary with explosives - that edge was Magnus’s now.

Once they were gone, Magnus kept staring at the map in front of him. Blowing the granary was the first layer of defense. Evan’s unit was the second. But two layers wouldn’t be enough. He needed more - layer three, four, even five. The granary couldn’t be compromised.

Just as those thoughts ran through his mind, something unexpected happened - before the trading convoy even showed up, a different group arrived... ones he hadn’t counted on.