County Goes Dark

When the grid dies, Cole Mercer gets a county to keep alive.The rural lineman knows how to pull a crew out of a bad job. He has never had to do it while copper-jawed creatures chew through the power lines and the sky starts drawing boundaries. The System offers him a Warden class. Every promise he accepts ties up the Authority he needs to fight. Every broken one leaves something behind.A red cattle dog chooses his side. A mortuary driver brings a steady pistol and a disturbing sense of humor. Around them, the settlement at Blackridge is running out of water, safe ground, and reasons to trust the man making promises. Someone else has already learned how to turn protection into ownership.Cole can build a stronger body and a harder boundary. Keeping people inside it alive will take a cleverer build: tools, terrain, allies who can tell him no, and powers that have to work when the lights go out.