[McLaughlin]

Good chapter. I don't think it's that easy to quit cold turkey though, haha.

[Xaeris]

Star Wars: The Old Republic had my attention. It was great. Then I hit 50. My sub runs out on the 29th, and I have no intentions of renewing. It was a fine experience leveling up, but the endgame isn't even a little bit compelling. As for Tera, I may give it a look when it lands, or try to get into a beta. My problem is...well, I'm not a prude. You all know I like me some sexy powerful women, but...I mean...I have limits.

This is Johann we're talking about. Don't be surprised if, when he's questioned about it, he replies, "oh, it's fine, I never inhaled."

[Magus_84]

Inevitably. Good chapter, and a nice ending to the fight. Luckily for Johann, he didn't damage Launcher Sr's shirt.

CO's going through crazy stat-revamp land, and I haven't logged onto Live in about a week or so. It should be good when they get finished, but it's going to be a hell of a time setting up new builds.

[Xaeris]

As you can see, I'm basically treading water here. Once I clear the next...three chapters, there should be an uptick in the rate of content as we get to the interesting stuff. But when I have to write about Ethan...yeah.

Chapter 39: Let the Battles Begin

Are you finished, Johann? You sure? I wouldn’t want to interrupt you while you’re fluffing your ego.

Everything was going to get settled in that day. Our enemies would be beaten, Gurhal would be saved and everything would just be sugar and rainbows. But, the time in between our meeting and Colony and the credits roll was going to see a lot of grief. We thought we were prepared for it, but it was just one rough situation after the next.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. We do that a lot, don’t we? The day actually started off pretty all right. I returned to Neudaiz. Looking back, maybe it was a little wasteful for me to go to Colony for a five minute pep rally, but those things are important, you know? When I did get back, the situation was pretty much the same as I left it. The Communion’s forces were dispatched across the Agata archipelago, where Neudaiz’s confinement system was, and our engineers were busy getting everything ready for the Unification Point.

The big difference was that I was alone. Yeah, yeah, Johann had that whole nice speech he ripped off of TV, but realistically, I was on my own on Neudaiz. If something went wrong, or if we got a powerful opponent, it was going to be on me to handle it. I had taken and dealt with a whole lot of responsibility up to that point, but it was still just a little scary to think about. But it was also exciting: I mean, just a year before, I had been a pampered princess doing glorified volunteer work and now, I was in a position to make a real difference in the world.

Anyway, Neudaiz was actually pretty boring for a while. Since it’s just me and Johann telling this story, we might as well tell you about what happened on every planet and not just our posts. Let’s see, I think Rykros was the first to heat up if I remember right. Johann had already left to go camp at his reactor, so it was just Stacy and Ethan at the base camp. Well, them and a bunch of Guardians.

Rykros was a planet that was always crawling with SEED, so their presence there didn’t raise any alarms. Most of them were so weak that Stacy didn’t even bother herself keeping the camp clear and left that job to Ethan and the Guardians she assigned to Rykros. Just like in Dezolis, there was a perimeter set up with barriers and inside were the tents. It was a big base; it had to be since it was the only safe place on Rykros.

The way Stacy did the assignments, our best and most experienced Guardians went to Rykros. Parum and Moatoob split the fresher recruits, with Parum getting the larger share. Still, she had to spend a good chunk of them just keeping the perimeter clear. Johann only got about fifty or so Guardians to help him defend the reactor. To give a little perspective, I had about five hundred Communion servants with me at Neudaiz’s reactor. So yeah, it was pretty rough up there for them.

GRM, opportunists they were, even set up shops for everyone there to use for resupplying. You’d think we’d have gotten at least a discount under the circumstances, but no, they charged full price from everything from monomates to photon charges. It sucked, but what could we do? But you better believe I stuck a gigantic tariff on their butts when it was all finished. People said it was tyrannical of me to impose a tax on a single corporation. To that, I say ‘pbbbht.’

Right, so, Stacy was doing her thing in the command tent. She had a bunch of screens active, showing the movements of pretty much every active Guardian in Gurhal. She had delegated command to the other aegii in their respective locations, but she still wanted to keep track of everything. I’m not sure how she was managing the ridiculous amount of information that was coming her way, but it wasn’t surprising: it was Stacy, after all.

I guess the best place to start with the day’s events would be with the first speedbump we encountered. A lot of things had to be done that day so we could activate the Confinement System and Stacy had just gotten news of a complication.

”Freaking hell,” she said as she dragged her palm down her face. She stewed in her seat for a few seconds, adjusting her glasses, and then hit up her comm unit. “Ethan? Could you come in here as soon as you can get away?”

”Sure thing, just gimme a minute,” he said with the sound of some SEED guts going squish in the background. Ethan had been playing errand boy for Stacy around the base camp. When she called, he was helping the other Guardians fend off a surge of SEED coming at the base. He managed to get over to her tent about ten minutes later. “What’s up?”

”Problem,” she said. She beckoned Ethan further in with her finger, while never taking her eyes off her displays. “I dispatched a team about half an hour ago to plant the power relays Rykros reactor.”

”Power relays?” he said, closing the flap of the tent behind him.

”You remember how we talked about linking up the power generators on all three planets so that the Illuminus would have to split their forces, right?”

”Sure?”

”To do that, we needed to set up a trail of circuits from here to the reactor, but the most efficient path goes through some pretty rough territory. The team couldn’t complete the mission.”

”Are they okay?”

”Heavy injuries, but no deaths. They had good judgment about pulling out, luckily. That still leaves us with an incomplete mission though.”

”Ah ha, so you want me to take care of it!”

”If you understand, then get to it.”

”Eesh, a little bossy,” he said. He was probably just kidding, but when he saw Stacy turn her head over her shoulder and give him a glare, he very quickly added, “on my way, ma’am! Sir! M-ma’am! Sorry!”

...Johann, do we really even need to tell this part? I don’t think anyone cares. ...Yeah, yeah, fine. So, Ethan went out to do as Stacy ordered. Might have been better if he hadn’t gone out alone, but like I said, we were stretched pretty thin. Besides, he was making good progress with the beacons. He ran into a problem with setting them up in an efficient order, but that being the most of his problems, he was pretty lucky.

Right when he was done setting up the last beacon is when things started getting stupid. There were plenty of SEED on Rykros to start with, but the rest of us were just sitting on our thumbs, waiting for something to do. That was when the SEED started spawning everywhere. Just straight out of thin air. From Moatoob, from Parum and from Neudaiz, reports of SEED sightings were flooding in.

”At once?” Zoe asked. The seven of us were linked up on comms, naturally.

”The Illuminus have been orchestrating the SEED for sometime now. It’s not much a surprise that they’d put up a concerted front,” Johann said. “Elyham, what’s Colony’s status?”

”All clear so far, here,” she said.

”Awesome, time to kick some ass!” Sable said.

”No,” Johann said.

”What the hell do you mean no?!”

”Well, it’s the commander’s call in the end, naturally, but my thinking is this: these are just mooks. Minions. Our rank and file can cut them down. If we enter the fight now, we’ll just needlessly expend energy on something other people can do and be that much worse off when the real fights come our way.” It turned out that Johann knew we exhausted ourselves fighting endless waves of SEED and went into our fights with Illuminus agents in sorry shape, so, he was making another ripple.

”That is sound strategy,” Stacy said. She was quiet for a little while. She already decided it was a good idea, but she was deciding if it was worth the increased casualties that the Guardians would occur without our assistance. “All right. We’ll do that. Intervene if our forces are looking overwhelmed, but hang back and conserve your power.”

”I don’t like this plan,” I said. “We’re just going to throw them to the wolves?”

”Keiko. In Dezolis, we agreed that everyone has the right to fight for their own sake, didn’t we?” he asked. We did. That was a very enlightening time for me. It really was the high point of this story. ...Shut up Johann, I don’t like it just because it was about me, no one asked you.

”I really hate when you use my words against me.”

”Then don’t talk so much.”

”That’s no way to speak to your empress!”

”It’s a perfectly acceptable, nay, appropriate, way to speak to a sixteen year old girl.”

”Okay, okay you two, you can hash out your little sibling rivalry after the fight. Get back to work,” Stacy said.

”Who are you calling siblings?!” Johann and I both yelled.

”Ah...well, I’m already out in the field. What should I do?” Ethan asked.

”Get back here. Help any Guardians you see on your way in though, but make your primary goal returning to base.”

”Gotcha,” he said. ...Seriously, we can totally skip this part Johann, no one will care. ...Geez, when did you become so diligent about details? So, Ethan was on his way back when he ran into his fight. He wasn’t that far out from camp, but he was far enough that he only had himself to count on. He might have had some help if he had gotten there sooner, but when got to the scene, there were nothing but cold bodies on the floor.

”What the...” he muttered as he looked over the Guardians. We had all been expecting casualties, but a whole team had been wiped; no one was expecting anything that bad. He opened up his comm link and said, “hey, I think there’s something nasty out here.”

”We’ll worry about it when you get back,” Stacy said.

”I’m already out here. I can take of whatever it is.”

”We don’t even know what it is. Come back!”

There was silence on the comm for a few seconds, but we could all just about hear there was something on the tip of Ethan’s tongue, like it was caught in his throat. He managed to pull it out and say, “I get strategy and everything, but if it’s right in front of me, I’m not gonna ignore it!”

”Heh heh...”

”Dammit Johann, what’s so funny?!” Stacy said.

”Oh, nothing really. Ethan’s just more manly than I thought, that’s all. He raises a good point though. If he’s in a convenient position to prevent more Guardian casualties, we may as well take advantage of it.”

”It was your idea for us to hang back in the first place!”

”I’m making a small tweak. You have to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, Eustace.”

”I’m juggling data from four planets and Colony right now, but I’m taking a second right now to write a note to myself to kick your ass when this is done and over with.”

”I’ll look forward to that.” It turns out that Johann knew that Ethan was going to have to fight this battle one way or another. He’d spend a good chunk of the day subtly giving us advice to assist us in our fights. It was kinda like cheating, but, that’s not really a surprised, considering who I’m talking about.

”Anyway, Ethan may be our newbie, but I think he’s grown enough as a man to decide where he’ll die,” Johann said

”W-wait, what?” Ethan said.

”It’s kind of a relief when you put it like that,” Stacy said.

”If you ask me, eighteen years is plenty of time to live, as long as he got laid at least once,” Sable said.

”C-come on you guys, quit screwing around,” he said.

”If you die, I’ll arrange for you to have a nice ceremony in Ohtoku!” I said.

”It’s a really brave sacrifice you’re willing to make, Mr. Waber,” Elly said.

”Do you have a last request?” Zoe asked.

”Yeah, okay, make fun, but I’ll handle this, no sweat!” he said. And wouldn’t you know, his chance to make good on those words dropped in right after he said that. I’ll be honest; Ethan lucked out and got the second easiest fight that day. Unlike almost everyone else who got a sentient enemy, he just got SEED. Sure, it was a big SEED that none of us had seen before, but still.

The SEED Venas dropped in from above and behind him. His head would have gone boom from one punch of its rocky arm if he didn’t duck and tumble out of the way. He scrambled to get up and get some distance between it and him and got his weapon out.

”Hey, Johann, did you ever finish Ethan’s custom weapon?” Stacy asked.

”He broke my family’s heirloom, so I didn’t see the need.”

”You said it was cool!” Ethan said.

”You can make it up to me by doing us the honor of drawing first blood for our side. Hop to it.”

[Keiko_Seisha]

"Who had THE easiest fight that day?"

"Johann."

I see it coming.

[McLaughlin]

I'll put money on Zoe, just for the deadpan "what now?" it would result in.

[Magus_84]

It's going to be Stacy.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Originally Posted by Magus_84

It's going to be Stacy.

A good guess, she'll probably wipe the floor with whoever she has to fight.

[Xaeris]

Oh, I've sparked speculation. Silly as it sounds, this makes me happy.

[Xaeris]

Whew, now that that's done, we should be able to proceed swimmingly. That was like pulling teeth. Not much further to the end now people. I figure we'll be done...late June.

Chapter 40: The Encroaching Dusk

Of course I’m not done praising myself, Keiko. I could live a dozen lives and still lack the time to do justice to my own glory. But, I know how to pace myself.

On that note, let’s talk about Ethan. First, I should lead by saying that I do respect him. Mostly. A year before any of this happened, he was just some teenager who rode around on his hoverboard without a care in the world. In the time that year had passed, he had ascended into the highest ranks of the Guardians and was at the forefront of the greatest conflict Gurhal had ever seen.

So, that aside, he was kinda bad at fighting. Sure, relative to the rank and file, he was a genius, but the fact remained that he got his combat training from the Guardians. Don’t misunderstand me; Guardians Basic Training is a decent program, but its purpose is to make a competent fighter out of barely pubescent children in a matter of weeks.

Contrast that to any of the others, who have been immersed in the world of combat for years and years. Eustace joined the Guardians when she was fourteen and she was forty- excuse me, “twenty one plus twenty one” at the time of the conflict. Sable was in a band of rogues when she was six and joined the Guardians when she met Eustace and got her arse kicked. Zoe ran away from home when she was a teenager and joined the AMF. The empress and I, of course, have been trained for battle from infancy.

What I’m saying is...did I forget someone? Nah, I didn’t forget someone. What I’m saying is that Ethan lacked combat experience. There wasn’t much to do about that aside from obtain more experience, but it showed. His time off the grid probably helped his skills along, but really, looking back, we were very fortunate that he got the SEED Venas as his opponent.

As for the SEED Venas itself, I don’t know. I guess it was a formidable opponent. That’s what I hear, anyway, but it’s not as if I had the opportunity to fight one myself. It was fairly big, but really, how often is that of any help to the enemy? De Ragans, Dimmagoli, they’re all huge, but that just ensures they make a resounding thud when they fall over dead once sufficient amounts of blood have been loosed from their ankles.

The SEED Venas though, was big in a helpful way. It had long limbs which contributed to its reach and had just enough of a height advantage to be a benefit without becoming a significantly easier to hit target.

”All right you purple freak, let’s do this...” Ethan said.

”Oh, is that your trash talk? I’m embarrassed for you,” Sable said.

”Give the man a break, Sable. I’m sure it was a very compelling line when he heard it last Saturday morning,” I said.

”Shut up!” he said. Since he broke my Orotiagito, he had been remanded to the use of his caliburn. It was a fairly common weapon among the melee ranks of the Guardians. I’ll never figure out why. The skills available for swords were rather terrible, in my opinion. Then again, I’ve never seen the sense in willingly walking up to the enemy and poking it when throwing fire at it from afar is a viable option, so, I’m biased.

Ethan started things off with Tornado Break. I...can’t say precisely what he was thinking, opening up with Tornado Break against a single target. Still, it was a strong one. He swung his caliburn in front of him in a sweeping arc and roused a heavy storm of air and golden light around himself. The SEED Venas leapt out of the whirling flash and braced its feet into the ground upon landing.

”...”

”Problem, Ethan?” I asked.

”It’s...nothing,” he said. The SEED Venas picked up its arms, performing a tell for a charge so obvious that it belonged in a video game, and then, charged. Shocker. For something so big, it was going fast enough that its rigid carapace was making sparks from the friction with the air. Ethan jumped up and over as it went under and took a swing at its back on his way down. “...I don’t think I’m hurting it...”

”So hit it harder!” Sable’s advice is nothing if not helpful. Conclude what you will from that statement.

The Venas was coming around for a second charge which, again, Ethan had no problems dodging. And again, when his caliburn sunk into its body, he didn’t get that satisfying sensation of a warm photon blade cutting through monster flesh. Instead, in his words, it felt as he was hitting a ghost.

”Eustace, didn’t you describe a similar phenomenon while fighting Hauser?” I asked.

”Yeah...”

”Oo, and our moms had the same problem on Neudaiz!” Keiko said.

”Then what the heck am I supposed to do?!” Ethan asked as he kept on dodging the Venas. It was just a SEED form, so it’s not as if it was intelligent to change up its tactics. Still, even a dumb animal will try something a little different if it doesn’t get results after a long enough while. After another failed charge, it thrust its spiny limbs into the air and began charging up.

”Eh, I was going to wait a bit longer, but why not now? I hid a little something in your coat, Ethan,” I said.

”Huh? What is it?”

”Look in the pockets and see. Hurry now, doesn’t sound like you have time to dawdle.” Indeed he did not as the Venas leapt at him, coming in fast from above. The energy it had gathered into its carapace was bristling at the joints and bloating its frame. Ethan was frantically going through his trenchcoat’s pockets, trying to find the item capsule I slipped in there. ...Eh, you’re asking when? Does it really matter? You’re going to call bullocks anyway.

The Venas landed, fist first, and pounded a crater into the floor that kicked up all the usual dust and debris. A few seconds later, a severed limb came flying out of the dust cloud, and soon after, Ethan jumped out along with it, holding the new sword I had made for him.

”This thing’s amazing!” he said as he swept the saber in a wide arc. It felt light in his hand, yet the swing felt sturdy, as if it would cleave through concrete if need be. I was pressed for time after I finished Alsydeon, so I didn’t stress myself making it look fancy. It would have been nearly indistinguishable from a regular saber if not for my initials on the butt of the blade.

”That’s a Save the Maiden. I made a striking based version for you, but it still cuts through an aria just like mine did,” I said.

”You could have said something earlier!”

”This is not untrue,” I replied.

*****

While Ethan was doing that, Eustace was at the forward base. I’d say it was right about then that the situation became intense. Sure, she was already a managing a large amount of incoming reports and data, but all at once, the volume went from a trickle to an all out landslide. On the three planets, SEED forms were appearing virtually from thin air and descending upon the Confinement systems’ locations. Of course, all of our forces snapped into action, but it was still an incredibly sudden attack that managed to catch us off guard. Come to think of it, I probably should have said something. Meh well.

”Dammit!” Eustace said as she tried to get a lead on all of the information coming in on her screens. “Sable, Zoe, Keiko, report, what’s going on down there?!”

”SEED! Lots and lots of SEED!” Keiko said over what sounded like her firing her arrow bullets. “We’re holding though!”

”They just showed up all of a sudden! This is some bullcrap right here!” Sable said. “It’s cool though, we got this.”

”It’s a little hard,” Zoe said. Stoic girl, she was. Planet could have been knocked out of orbit and sent hurtling toward the sun and she might have remarked that it was a little warm.

”All right, hold your positions, but be ready to jump in there if it looks bad. I...hmm...I think we have a guest,” Eustace said. Eustace’s sense for photons wasn’t as sharp as mine or Keiko’s, but even she could feel the wicked anathema right outside. Arms folded against her waist, she walked outside and sure enough, she found the base in a mild panic. To our Guardians’ credit, it’s not as if they were running around with their heads cut off, but there was a certain dischord among their movements as they scurried about to suppress the sudden surge of SEED that had descended upon camp.

”Johann, how are you holding up at your reactor?” she asked as she casually kicked a diga at a delnadian that was running by.

”I’m inside, so I don’t have a visual. My ears tell me that the fighting outside is fierce, however,” I said.

”This is all too organized. I’m thinking the Illuminus is finally making its play. You?”

”I’m thinking the laning phase is over.”

”What?”

”Don’t worry about it. More importantly, if they’re making their move and they’re not stupid, they’ll be looking to cut off the head of the beast,” I said.

”Speak of the devil...” she said as she looked up. Up, standing on the air, was Hauser. His body was a patchwork of human and SEED, as if he had only a few moments to sew himself back together after getting killed by father on Neudaiz. Still, there he was, on the front lines of the battlefield with a menacing blue aura and everything. “Hauser. Don’t you look like crap?”

”Miss Caroll, we meet once more on the final stage!” he said from the air, holding up his arms as if taking in the splendor of the scene. I can’t imagine he wasn’t happy with what he saw; SEEDs outnumbered our people at the camp at least 6 to 1 and they were making slow, but steady progress towards messing the place up. “But I am surprised. You’ve barely positioned any of your forces at your most sensitive position,” he said with a smirk.

At this point, I don’t believe it should be a secret that I hold a deep respect for Eustace. All the same, I cannot properly impress upon you, the reader, how absolutely and utterly terrifying this woman is when she wants to be. She took off her glasses, holding them by one of the lenses between her fingers, and said, “I’m here. That’s all the force this place needs.”

”Tch, boastful,” he said, narrowing his eyes down at her. “I wonder how that attitude will change as each of your allies is snuffed out? Even now, my agents are on their way to kill them and bring our plans to fruition.”

Our commander tucked her arms tighter against herself and looked up at Hauser with a smirk. “You’re talking pretty tough for a guy twenty Rp in the air. Why don’t you come down here so I can introduce your mouth to your ass? They have so much in common: crap spews out from both.”

”Ohhhh!” most of us said over the comm.

”Ha, that’s not necessary. Once you lose your reactors, further battle will be pointless. I simply come to observe your despair once that moment becomes a reality.”

Oh right, before I forget, at some point during this speech, Ethan defeated the Venas. Turned out it was Hyuga, or something. Go figure.

”You’re pretty sure you’re going to win, aren’t you?” Eustace asked. “But I don’t think you understand the people you’re dealing with, here. If you understood, even just a little bit, about what makes each Aegis tick, you’d understand how stupidly screwed you are. And you know what? I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you do figure it out.”

”You’ll have a chance to have your hopes dashed shortly. The Moatoob reactor will be the first to fall in but a few minutes.”

”You hear that Sable? Make us look good!”

”I almost feel sorry for you guys, having to follow my act!”