October 5, 2152
Emory yawned and stretched as she woke up under the heavy blankets. As she slowly sat up, a red alarm flashed across all the screens in her cabin. She had known they would flash, in fact, she was surprised there wasn't a blaring horn the accompanied the alarm. Without getting off her bed, she said aloud in a slightly annoyed tone, "Jask, I already know that the Apleem are on their way."
"You may want to check these readings," Jask chimed, "I haven't seen numbers like before."
"How bad is it?" Emory sighed.
"My scans indicate ten dreadnoughts and forty-five carriers to both Temia and Vostea," Jask answered, "Based on the data from the Elandrian, there are an estimated one and a half to two and three quarters million troops headed to each planet." Emory choked for a moment as the number echoed in her mind.
Emory's eyes bulged, "That's a few more than I was expecting. Transfer that analysis to all of the other teams."
"Right away, miss," Jask beeped, "Do you have any other orders?"
"Let Nephenee know I'll head there today," Emory solemnly replied. This week had been a mixed bag of news. On one hand, Perceval had joined Sam's outpost, giving a serious boost to the morale and power of that site. Additionally, Innes, Nephenee, Sam, and Tana were all nearing the third level of the Arcane sphere, meaning in Meta Form, Nephenee and Sam were fighting with a level in the low double digits. But on the other hand, Emory remained at the second level of the Chaos sphere, which meant her true magik level was only slightly higher than her friends. Of course, between her limitless magik, her gauntlets, and the crown, she was still many times stronger than them.
After changing and packing her bag, Emory headed off to find Cath and Tethys. She went out of her way to pass by the Command Center on the way to check on Greg. Despite watching him all week, he hadn't revealed any evil plan or openly advocated for anything that would lead to suspicion. She had almost convinced herself that the strange encounter she had with him was just her mind playing tricks on her, almost being the key word. Unfortunately, neither Cath nor Tethys had seen anything strange with Greg either. This morning, like every morning, he was only reviewing files and jotting notes in a small book. So, she continued on to find her friends.
Since there were now so many people in the outpost, Tethys had made an outside mess hall from a few of the tents. Emory found Tethys there, supervising the troops to make sure things were running smoothly. When the two girls saw each other, they waved and approached each other. Tethys greeted Emory, "Good morning! I saw the alert from Jask come over my communicator a little while ago."
"Yeah, it looks like they're making their move," Emory nodded, "I'm headed to Temia shortly. Stay alert and at the ready here in case we need reinforcements."
"Don't train so hard the next couple of days; you'll need your full strength for them. Plus, you can direct your pent-up frustration at them then," Tethys teased.
"I know. I'm sorry I've been a little grumpy," Emory apologized, "I just want to reach higher levels quickly, so I can do a better job of protecting everyone."
Tethys smiled, "Don't worry, you're doing a good job of that already. Good luck out there. Go ahead to Temia; I'll let Cath know you left," Emory returned the smile and flashed a thumbs up sign. With a snap of her fingers, she faded away like an illusion.
Moments later, the crisp smell of blowing grass entered her nose as she looked out at the savannah before her. Behind her sounded the hustle and bustle of the outpost: boots tromping through the ground, metal clanging as people practiced fighting, and a deafening roar of three million humans chattering. Emory turned to take a good look at the little fortress they had built before walking towards the training area. She could see Clarine off to the side of a set of platforms that elevated the trainers from the trainees. Clarine waved when she recognized Emory getting closer from a few hundred feet away. She moved behind the platform to hide the pair from view as they talked.
Emory called, "Clarine! It's good to see you. Training looks like it's going very well."
"Thank you for the compliment. They've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time," Clarine nodded, "Though I suspect a key reason for their quick improvement is your training plan. I've never seen this speed of growth before; if it's okay with you, I will definitely share this with my clan when I return."
"Of course you can share it. After all, my goal has always been to help all humans, not just a portion of them. The only reason the training helps them so much is because they have a solid foundation. Without that, we'd have to build a hospital to deal with all the injuries," Emory countered.
"You're probably right, but enough about that," Clarine changed the topic, "I would guess you're not here for a social call. What's going on?"
Emory began, "Jask detected fifty-five Apleem ships in bound to our location here. They'll be here in less than two days."
"I see," Clarine frowned, "That does make the situation a bit more dire, doesn't it? Well, we'll just have to deal with them the best we can. What's the plan?"
"Let's grab Innes and Nephenee, so we can talk about it together," Emory suggested.
The pair walked towards the main structure where the new Command Center was since Clarine said that was where they were most likely to find Innes and Nephenee. As they walked into the main lobby, they saw Innes and Nephenee walking hand in hand with coffee cups in the opposite hands. After Emory explained why she had arrived, the foursome headed up to the second floor where Nephenee had mapped out the battlefields.
Once they sat down, Nephenee presented her plans to the group. Due to their lack of geographical defenses, she had outlined three fields that, when connected, formed a triangular defense around the outpost. The battlefields were only a few miles away from the outpost to the north, southeast, and southwest, but this was so troops could easily move from one to another. They had also added extra defenses to the outpost as well including a secondary wall, caltrops, and a deep trench that encircled the area. Nephenee had also chosen the three battlegrounds because they were high points amongst the rolling hills.
As far as the troop formations themselves, the plan was also relatively straight forward. The Elandrian and Witches would remain at the outpost when the enemy landed, so it wasn't completely defenseless. The army itself would consist of ranged combatants at the back guarded by an elite guard of close-quarter fighters. In front, those with weapons would form the point of the triangular attack pattern that would flatten into a simple line, so that the ranged section could continue to rain down supporting attacks. Clearly, Innes and Nephenee worked on the plan together since it had many similarities to a traditional army formation.
Innes would lead the elite unit of defenders around the ranged attackers. He had tried to go with the rest of the front, but it was strategically better to leave at least one of them to guard the troops that would be doing the most damage. Clarine and Nephenee were both polearm users, so they would be at the front leading the charge. However, because they didn't factor Emory into the plan, she was free to help wherever she wanted. After all, who was going to tell her what she could and couldn't do.
Emory thought about the plan as she looked at the maps and diagrams. It was clear to her that a lot of preparation and thought had gone into this plan. After a few minutes, she decided to start with the ranged group, so she could survey the battlefield from a distance and empower that squad. She reasoned that the longer the ranged troops could keep back the Apleem, the more effective the overall approach would be. Once the two armies formally engaged, Emory would join the front. Between her strength, her speed, and her fighting style, she would be a massive asset.
"It's really solid work," Emory commended them, "If it's alright, I'd just like to survey the defenses and surroundings in person. There were some things I saw in the shops in Arcadia that we could implement here. Tomorrow, everyone should rest and relax."
Everyone stood up and solemnly walked out of the room. With the approaching army, there was no need to spend energy on constructing anything except barricades and other defensive measures, but after five days, the work was finished. So, Innes and Nephenee went to send those troops to rest while Clarine went to continue overseeing the training. Emory formed her wings and flew out of the outpost, causing a chorus of gasps and several finger points.
Once she passed the outer wall, she lowered her flying height to a few feet above the barricades. When she saw they were only normal defenses, she quickly flew back and found Clarine. "Can you do me a little favor? I need to borrow one of the Elandrian for a little while. Could you sub in for one of them?" Emory asked her. Clarine nodded and went to the closest one teaching. A few minutes later, a shorter man with brown hair and a fit build walked up to Emory. He bowed low as he got a few feet away.
"Ancient One, I am honored to meet you," he graciously spoke, "Our leaders told us if we ever saw you to give you the upmost respect and help you to the very best of our ability. My name is Puck, and I am at your service."
Emory smiled, "Hi, Puck, my name is Emory. I need your help drawing the trap symbol on some defensive measures. Can you help me with that?"
"Just traps, not enchantment?" Puck verified, "Yes, I can help with that. With level four of the Arcane sphere, we can mark them without a level two Creation caster." Emory's grin grew as she heard this news since she thought they would need to mark the objects and then get all the Creation casters to imbue them with magik. Without a word, she grabbed Puck's hand and pulled him into the sky as they flew towards the defensive measures.
Once they landed, Puck walked over and looked at the barricades before asking, "So what kind of trap would you like to put on these?"
"There are multiple kinds of traps?" Emory's eyes widened, "I didn't know there were different ones or, honestly, what they even did. I just saw some on display back on Arcadia and wanted to use them here. What can we put on them?"
"Well, you can mark an object to do just about anything you can think of, with some important caveats. However, for battle, we generally use one of three specific marks: explosion, imperceptible, or reinforcement. The first and most important rule is that an object can only be marked to do one thing. You can remove a mark and put a different one on, but only one will be effective at any given time," Puck carefully explained. Emory looked at the array of different defensive measures and thought for a few minutes before responding.
"The caltrops should get the explosion mark, so if a lot of Apleem rush next to them, they'll work like proximity mines," Emory thought aloud, "Then the fortifications in the middle can be imperceptible which would create more chaos for the advancing group. Finally, we'll shore up the closest parts with reinforcement. Does that sound doable?"
Puck nodded, "That should be feasible. I would like to add that explosion works best when not everything is marked. It cuts down on chain explosions, and it makes the enemy wary of any of them, even if they aren't trapped. The best solution would be to place one explosion mark every fifty feet or so."
"Why don't you show me the mark for imperceptible, so I can start on those?" Emory suggested, "Then you can work on the explosion ones while I do these?" Puck agreed and walked over to the makeshift wall by Emory before an orb appeared above his fingertips as if he were casting Contract. When he pushed the orbs into the wall, lines spread out and formed a particular symbol on the front. It glowed for a minute, and then the entire wall began to vanish. However, with her Arcane sight, she could still clearly see the wall though it looked faded and fuzzy instead of like it did before.
"Once you infuse the object with your magik, you must burn the symbol into the surface," Puck noted, "After a few moments, the magik will activate and charge the item with the intended effect. Just as a warning, the caltrops will be rigged to blow when they are destroyed, so our side shouldn't attack them just in case."
Emory agreed, "That works fine. I suppose having proximity mines could be disastrous for us too. Wait, so if I were to throw the caltrop at something else and it breaks on impact, it would still cause an explosion, right?"