They said Fish Island had been glassed to nothingness once. That the Fish Island of today wasn't even the original, that the first had been utterly destroyed and the current island was just some other block of glacier that had anchored itself on the undersea mountain that formed Fish Island's base when it floated by. It was a subject of some debate, whether it was the icy surface that counted as the island or the undersea peak, if it should be called Fish Island II or not.
Forrest, personally, was inclined towards the former, though it hardly mattered. Island of Theseus or not Fish Island remained a cold, inhospitable piece of real estate and the PLAID execs who hired him onto the construction crews intended for it to remain that way. For weeks and weeks Forrest and his crew dug. Six great pits, a runway, some dozen bunkers for stores. This and no more- his heavy machinery suffered in the freezing temperatures, and the ice patently refused to be dug, despite the constant vibrating hum the island seemed to keep. But whenever Forrest stopped to replace a bit or warm his hands, he would still hear the oddly cheery PLAID crews going at it on their side of the island, shrouded by winter's ever present fog and mist. Their equipment seemed to never stop, and when he asked about it he was given platitudes about "Built PLAID Different!" and given a quote for a large-scale excavator. It was surprisingly inexpensive, given the size of the thing, though Forrest wasn't sure how he'd ever move it anywhere or what he'd do with it. Forrest did not plan on destroying any mountains in the near future, and when his contract was up he returned to Zokesia and thought no more of it.
He missed the guns being raised. He missed the tanks and warships and fighters and more being churned out of the factory erected mere kilometers from his position. He missed the great bastion of steel and gunpowder, formed of millions of creds of Zokesian and Pan-Veiidic Commonwealth funding (not really creds, of course, no one else could be expected to use the PLAID currency of choice, but when in Krome and all that). PLAID did not intend on losing their island, and the plans were tremendous in scope- laser antimissile batteries, dozens of flak bastions, colossal ship-killing gun turrets, ranks and ranks of Harpoon launchers, all the works, linked together into a great complex that would be titled Fishenge. At it's core would be a grand fortress- twenty meter steel ramparts, built to stop a battleship, bristling with guns and launch cells. PLAID would dare the Kerbal Powers to try it again.
The first walls went up in the dark unseen, and when the first satellite images unclouded by storm came back two months later and made it to the papers Forrest walked to the bookies and placed a bet.
No matter what the PLAID engineers did, there would be a Fish Island III.
