I didn’t have long to reflect today. Everyone is due back and my unit, and I will meet up in less than an hour to go over our plan. We have to present a full plan for the assembly tomorrow. The Gamma gave us today to put the final touches on our plan, so we can do a full presentation tomorrow. We are going to be presenting it in a war-room type setting. The way we would if we were planning a war or defense at our packs.
It’s time to meet with my unit, so I get up from my quiet spot in my room and head out to the common area to meet with everyone. As we all trickle in, I can tell that the visit home was good for everyone. We all look well-rested and ready to remain on top of the leaderboard.
This week, Beta Casion will lead the unit. He calls our meeting to order.
“Ok Alphas and Betas, we’ve had a couple of days to relax and put our thoughts together. Are we ready to put the final touches on our presentation?”
We all said that we were ready. Everyone pulled out our tablets and was ready to get down to business.
“I uploaded a current map of the kingdom, then broke it down into regions. I’ll display the satellite image and the topographical images. I figure since we are planning to strengthen the smaller packs and secure the perimeter of the kingdom, we need to know the lay of the land.” Beta Jona stated,
“That’s an awesome idea, Jona. I wish I had thought of that,” I said.
Jona connected his tablet to the projector so we all could view the maps as we discuss our plan.
“First, I will display the map with the regions.”
Jona pulls up the map and projected it on the big screen for us all to see.
“So this is how I broke the regions down. I kept it simple with North, South, East, West, and Central. Since the Royal Pack is literally in the center of the kingdom, it and the surrounding packs can be the central region.”
“I like the way you did this breakdown. I don’t think we need to change anything. Looks like all the packs in the regions are only a few hours away from each other. The packs can all respond to distress calls within a couple of hours or a day at the most.” Beta Casion said.
We all agreed to the breakdown that Beta Jona developed. There is even room for a little overlapping of the regions. All the packs on the borders are the larger packs and can respond to calls for help from the other region if needed.
The next thing we need to do is set up a plan for offering relief to packs if they are attacked. This is my area.
“I thought about our plan for offering relief to the packs. As I look at the map and breakdown of the packs, there are at least one or two peaceful packs in every region. These packs are heavily defended, but rarely take part in wars. I propose we engage them as our stage for getting relief to the impacted packs. They can offer medical aid, temporary shelter, and comfort to the pack. That way, they are contributing to the efforts without going against their stance on peace. The other packs would also be more likely to assist and protect these packs because of the important role they will play in helping us all get back to normal after a battle or after a war. All the packs in the region will need to provide some supplies to be kept and stored with these packs to make sure that we don’t overtax them.”
I pause for a moment to let everyone take in my ideas for the alliance with all the wolf packs. Now I just have to show them the benefit of reaching out to the other supernaturals. We are all in this together.
“The other part of building the alliance includes reaching out to the other species and shifters since we know the rebels are recruiting from the other groups and are trying to seize ultimate power over all supernaturals. For this, we will start with royals of all the species and then connect with the other shifters in our regions. We can serve as ambassadors to the shifters in our regions since we represent most of the regions. I know for the Central region, there are a couple of bear dens and dragon clans. The high priestess for the witches is also centrally located near the Roya Pack and already has an alliance with the king. The Vampire Royals are in the Western Region and the Grand Wizard is in the Northern Region. I think if we put together a team composed of a couple of representatives from the packs within the region to reach out to the supernaturals in the region. Many packs already have alliances or at least a working relationship with the shifters near their packs, so that should make the process easier if we use representatives they are already familiar with or already have a connection with.”
I finish my spill and sit back down, waiting for feedback. Looks like everyone likes my idea of including the peaceful packs and giving them a major role in the alliance.
Alpha Burton is up next. He and Alpha Brennan will discuss our training plan and our defensive structure. They asked Beta Casion to display the topography map to show the terrain of the different regions. There is a lot to consider as the kingdom has a widely diverse topography. We have mountains, valleys, and different bodies of water to consider, not to mention the plains and flatlands out west.
“So here is what I am thinking. For us to have a highly defensible kingdom, we need to make sure that all units are trained to a higher standard. From talking with you all, I see that we all have different styles of training. My suggestion is to form an elite team of trainers to go to the largest packs in the regions and train them.” Alpha Burton says.
“Each pack can send their top warriors or trainers to the regional training and they can go back and train the rest of the pack on the techniques learned. We should also have more stringent training for the Elite warriors from every pack. We can rotate warriors in for the training so that no pack is left defenseless while the training is occurring, and the packs will be able to get the specialized training faster and get updates as the warriors rotate.”
“Yes. We will leave it up to the alphas to determine which warriors to send to the training first, but we will make a mandate that all wolves in the packs be trained on the basics, including the women and pups.” Alpha Brennan adds. “The reason I added the mandate part is that, although all of our packs are forward-thinking and have female warriors, there are still some packs that do not allow the females to become warriors. For us to truly be able to defend our packs and kingdom, we need all available wolves to be able to at least protect themselves.”
“I agree,” I said. “It saddens me that we would have to mandate that any wolf learn to protect themselves, but it is the society we live in and some wolves hate change.”
“Now, as far as defending the perimeter of the kingdom,” Alpha Brennan says, “Let’s use the land to our advantage where we can and use wolf power and electronics in the open areas. I have a close friend that is part of the Viper’s Den of bears. He and I have discussed how we can use electronics to set traps and an alarm system so that no one could sneak up on us. We also discussed how we can combine magic and electronics to ensure that we are keeping out the right people and that none of our allies get hurt by the traps we set.”
“How is that possible?” Alpha Justin asked.
“The witches and wizards can spell the traps to recognize ill intent. Anyone crossing the traps intending to harm anyone will set off the traps. That’s the simple way to explain it. The witches and wizards could explain the more intricate parts of how it works.” Alpha Brenna says.
“So how do you propose we use the land as a defense?” Alpha Justin asked. I can tell that he is getting into this part of it. His pack is near the mountains.
“That’s a good question, Alpha Justin. I’m glad you asked. We all know the terrain around our packs and how to defend them. Correct?”
We all answered yes.
“What we don’t know is how to survive in other parts of the kingdom, so let’s play that up to our benefit. Let’s make the rough areas rougher with traps and snares. For instance, there are areas in the mountains that are hard to get to and hard to keep a patrol routine for them, so I suggest we again use magic and make those areas look easily accessible until the enemy gets lost in there. We will have cameras and alarms, so we will be able to monitor their movement once they enter the illusions. For the swamp areas down south, we do the same thing. We make the swamp areas look like either dry land or clear water. Once they get trapped there, the wild animals there will take care of them, and our allies will handle the survivors. We will have cameras in strategic places all over the kingdom with an alarm system that will be monitored at the Royal pack and all the largest packs in the regions since that is where the training will take place.”
“I like your ideas.” I say, “but how are we going to pay for all the equipment we will need to make this successful and how will the equipment be maintained.”
“That’s my area.” Alpha Justin says. “We will need to pool our resources. Currently, every pack pays a tax to the Royal Pack. Part of that tax is for war efforts, so some of the funds are already there. We will need to raise additional funds. We can do this by asking the packs to pay a small percentage more on their yearly taxes. It is actually time for an increase in taxes, anyway. Since we have been at peace for so long, we have not had to raise taxes in over 40 years. This would be the right time to ask for an increase since war is imminent.”
“Okay, that takes care of the financial part, but what about the maintenance?” I ask.
“For that part, we use man or male power. We will have an elite team of supernaturals from the different regions that will be assigned solely to monitoring and maintaining the equipment regularly. There will also be magical individuals assigned to each team, so they can make sure the snares and illusions are still working properly. They will also be able to tell if anything has been tampered with magically.”
“I think we have an amazing plan.” Beta Casion said. “Now let’s plan out how we will present this to the assembly.”
“I think we should lay it out for the assembly the same way we laid it out for the team. We each present our parts using the projector with graphics.” Alpha Burton says. “So let’s spend the rest of our meeting putting together a visual presentation to take to the assembly. Beta Jona, since you are our computer whiz, we will let you take the lead in putting the final touches on the visual aid.”
We finish putting the final touches on our presentation and spend the rest of the day relaxing and having fun in our unit. I took a walk around in the evening just to get some fresh air. I was surprised to see that most units were inside. I guess everyone is taking this assignment seriously. I wonder how many wolves have realized that this could be an actual situation that is happening now. I know I have the advantage of knowing about the unrest going on now because of the missions that some of my friends are currently on and the training Seleste is undergoing right now. My father is still being briefed on everything and he discusses it with me during our regular calls.
After my walk, I decide to make it an early night. Tomorrow could turn out to be a long day. We will have over 40 future alphas and betas all in one room. Although we will be presenting as a group and going one at a time, there will be a lot of discussions, especially when there are differences of opinion. Ranked wolves, especially alphas, have strong opinions.