Approved for Resistance-Armed With Approval

They received approval.After months of forms, reassessments, and compliance checks that tested both the patience and the existential certainty of the Penford Volunteer Defense Unit, the authorization finally arrived: the request for defensive equipment had been reviewed and approved.Captain Pennington read it aloud twice—to be sure nobody was hallucinating.Then he turned to page two.The weapons would be released upon successful completion of Transport Readiness Phase Two.This, for the assembled volunteers gathered in the church hall, presented a problem of immediate and comprehensive scope. The unit had no suitable vehicle. No certified driver. No delivery-compliant loading area. And now, having been approved for weapons they could not yet receive, an entirely new category of form to fill out.