The whole army then got to work. Everyone divided themselves up into different jobs that best suited them. There was, of course, some complaining done amongst the group, but after a few hours everyone had a job and were working diligently. The trench digging proved to be simultaneously easier and longer than expected. With so many people the issue of digging a trench was not of manpower but instead a lack of tools. Simply put, there were not enough shovels or other tools usable to create a defensive line. This meant that while there were other tasks that could be done, there was, instead, a lot of downtime as the shovels were passed around fairly.
The Gunners seemed to have actual experience with digging trenches and setting up defenses. They worked together like a cohesive unit and divided up their tasks efficiently. The Talon Company merc by comparison were a bit more motley, the cohesion of the forces was certainly nothing to scoff at but compared to the Gunners they felt like children playing around. However, in exchange, most of the Talon Company mercs were old veterans of battles long before Adam woke up. They all had interesting ideas and takes on how to create a kill box.
The rest of the groups were of varying efficiency. The Knights of the Round were pulling their weight, but as the Senior knights refused to take off their armor while 'on the battlefield' this meant they were pretty useless when it came to digging. Still there was a need for guards and lookouts so no one was without work.
Milla spent almost the entire time studying the ruins of the buildings and coordinating with other hunters as well as radioing back to The Pier from a portable ham radio she brought to ensure she could present an actionable and usable plan to the group later. Even with some spite and vinegar she worked with Devon from Midway to ensure explosives could be set off preemptively to ensure the building collapsed correctly. This was so incredibly outside Adam's wheelhouse as he did not know the first thing about construction or demolition so he simply left it to them and hoped they knew what they were doing. Ironically one of the Demon Klan members apparently had some experience with large scale demolitions so he also helped out too. It truly was a sense of cooperation between all these disparate groups. No doubt if the fate of Chicago was not hanging in the balance they would not have even considered working together but there is something to be said about having a common enemy.
During the day's work they got a lot done and also experienced the first few incursions of ferals. It was nothing the lookouts couldn't handle but it was sure fire signs that time was running out. However despite this looming threat the tension in the camps was low as the work instead occupied everyone's minds.
Adam even found himself whistling 'praise the lord and pass the ammunition' while he helped some of the Talon Company Mercs to fill up some bags with dirt and create the line for the sandbag wall. The ferals would not shoot at them, but a wall of sandbags was still an incredibly easy thing to set up and deploy whilst retaining a lot of weight and stopping power. Besides they weren't planning on using the sandbags to thwart the advance, just shore up holes and offer stabilized firing positions for their fire teams.
Interestingly, while Adam was whistling the song, one of the ghoul mercs that knew Salvatore that had stayed behind while the others went to scout noticed Adam's whistling and chuckled to himself.
"Been a long time since I heard that song, my grandpappy used to whistle that tune too back in the day." He chuckled a bit as he too placed a sandbag down next to Adam's.
"Oh yeah? Was he prewar?" Adam asked, curious.
"Oh yeah, he was. 'Course that is meaningless with the way the world is but growing up it was his favorite song."
"Are you um…" Adam asked, unsure the most delicate way of asking if he was a prewar ghoul like Salvatore is.
"Prewar? Me? Nah, I ain't that old." He grinned as he took out a small book of matches and then lit a match on his boot. Naturally Adam assumed he would then light up a cigarette, much like Salvatore, but instead he put the lit match into his mouth and chewed on it like a stick of candy, pulling it out a moment later. It was… confusing to say the least but Adam said nothing about it as he continued to work.
"Can't say it's one of my favorites." Adam continued as he walked beside the ghoul mercenary now. "But a prewar slogan turned song is something that naturally gets thrown around the army." Adam chuckled. The ghoul then turned to him and looked confused by Adam's comment, clearly having no idea Adam was both a clone and had memories from before the bombs, but decided not to press the issue, which was lucky because Adam was not going to explain so it saved them both an awkward topic change.
Eventually Salvatore got back with one of his friends and confirmed that indeed the ferals were still moving in on Chicago, which no one doubted, but gave a rough eta of 2 to 3 days before the ferals would be close enough to try to lasso them towards the killbox. The other ghoul mercenary had stayed out near the horde to watch the advance in person and promised to run back if something changed. But considering ferals were not exactly smart this was not likely.
By the time Salvatore had come back the day was pretty much over. Everyone was setting up for the night, tents, bedrolls, or simply a nice pile of rubble, one way or another everyone was getting a place set up for sleep.
Adam too took out some of the supplies from the Vault he had brought along for just this purpose and laid out some bedrolls for his team. He had not brought enough for everyone, after all, all he assumed would be here that needed sleep would be Salvatore and Deccanus. Pearl would but even 4 bedrolls would not really be enough for her so she would have to sleep on the ground, which she did not seem to mind. Mira was an unexpected add-on but she said she was content on finding her own place to sleep for the night. Luckily after the initial complaints about her being a member of this 'brotherhood' no one else paid her any mind the entire time. And she contributed to everything from offering advice on the soon-to-be minefield, to how best to place the laser and gun turrets the group had as well as finding an old working computer terminal and setting up the terminal to interface with all the turrets. Adam was quite impressed. The programming still needed to be done, but the set-up was good enough he could not have even done better himself.
After Adam's bed roll was set up in the back of his APC he took a stroll around the camp to see how things were looking for others.
It all was pretty uninteresting for the most part, the knights had brought with them a huge tent that could accommodate their entire group along with folding cots to put inside. They were living quite luxuriously. The Gunners requisitioned a nearby building and used it as housing and the Demon Klan did much the same. The Talon company all had individual or medium sized tents for everyone to sleep in. More or less everyone else was sleeping outside.
However as Adam walked the camp he stopped by the grounded Vertibird and examined it for a moment.
The Veritibird sported the same symbol that the rest of the Gunners had, a human head with an X on the forehead and sewn lips, but it stood out even more on the greenish gray that the Vertibird was colored with.
As Adam gently ran his hand along the exterior of the Vertibird he reminisced about the past. These beasts of aviation are most similar to an osprey plane of the past, with twin propellers that faced vertically when grounded, but once it was in the air the propellers could be transitioned into a horizontal mode to allow for more speed. Thus making the Vertibird a hybrid plane and helicopter. A true VTOL. Of course it did not hold a candle to a true military combat plane for the roles it would service, but it had been planned to completely replace the helicopter by 2085, only 8 years after the world ended, and undoubtedly would have replaced even most combat planes given the time for it to finish the prototyping. Simply put the Vertibird was better than a helicopter in every way. Faster, tougher, more maneuverable, and, most importantly, with a nuclear engine to power it so it could fly across the entirety of the United States without stopping once to refuel.
If the US had a fleet of Vertibirds back when he was serving they could have won the war. However he had only seen a few while he was serving, and never actually ridden one, the few deployed were for special forces.
The weird thing about this Vertibird was that it was… complete? It looked like a far more advanced version than the ones he had seen in the military. The ones he knew were not bad by any means but they had their flaws. However these looked… new. They looked almost as if someone had continued the Vertibird research after the world ended and perfected the design… but who would have the capability to do that? The manufacturing alone would be massive, it would require an incredibly sophisticated engineering team and manufacturing plant to create one, let alone continue to advance the design. But truly there were no answers to be had here.
Instead he heard, a handful of paces away, Jericho and Colonel Harrison sharing a beer while looking at the battlefield and chatting. Adam decided to join them. After all it couldn't hurt to get friendly with the men he might die with.