Aide (running in): Um, I've got some real bad news, boss. Mayor, at desk: Oh crap, what now? First we get booted out of Mars by space turtles, then those damn robots kick us off Venus and we have to bail from the Moon and the rest of the world because of bug men and four-armed lizard men. What other wonderful news do you have for me? Aide: Someone or something blew a hole in the Traveller and killed it, and then a whole bunch of these little flying things popped out. They say they're called "ghosts". Mayor (holds head in hands): Geez we are so screwed, what's going to protect the city now? What's the story with these ghost things, do they bite or something? Aide: No, even worse--they raise corpses from the dead! There's a whole bunch of stiffs roaming around over by the wall. Mayor: So you're telling me that in addition to getting our asses handed to us by stinking aliens, we're having a freaking ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?!? Aide: No, not that bad of news, luckily. These zombies don't want to eat brains, they want guns. They found an old warehouse full of guns and grabbed them all. Mayor (crawls under desk): Crap! When will they get here? How much time do we have to get to cover? Aide: That's just it--they seem to only want to kill each other with guns. They keep doing it over and over, and the ghost things keeping bringing them back so they can do it again. They love that, and they love shooting the crap out of anything that moves anywhere near them. Except birds. They don't seem to care about birds at all, even when they land right next to a zombie. Playing hell with the rest of the wildlife, though. Not that it was in great shape after the last Fallen incursion anyway. Mayor (crawls out again): Wait, do you think the zombies would shoot Fallen if they got through the wall? Can we make like a moat of these things to protect us? Aide: Yeah, shooting Fallen is no problem. A dreg managed to crawl over the wall, and the border patrol was about to kill it when these things got a hold of it. It looked like swiss cheese by the time they were done. But a moat? I don't think so. They jump like the dickens. I think they'd escape. What about a tower? They'd die if they fell off. Mayor: How are they supposed to kick Fallen butt if they're trapped up in a tower? Aide: What if we gave them ships that were programmed to fly anywhere but into the city. These things could live in the tower, and we'd send up guns and stuff for them, and they'd go out all over the solar system to shoot aliens. Mayor: How do we get them into the ships? Aide: We glue fake guns all over the ships, kinda like bait. Mayor: Brilliant! And we'll put that goofball in charge of them, the one with the mask that keeps saying he's communing with the Traveller! We'll give him a fancy title, say, Speaker or Chief or something. ================ Mayor (on podium, giving speech to throngs of cheering people): And so, today, I give you my plan for the future of the City: We now open this Tower, and Salute these Guardians, Defenders of the City, Forged in Light. EDIT: Over 50 likes! Thanks, all! EDIT 2: Woo, over 200!! Thanks again!