Xue looked at their armor with interest. As with most things that he had seen from the Initiative, there was more to it than met the eye.
The different groups looked them over, with people using their private chats to talk to one another.
When Xue had first come to Ice City, he felt as if they were finding their feet; they had great ambition and they were moving toward it but it would take time. Now, seeing the speed at which they were advancing and the attitudes of the people around them, it seemed that they were already comfortable with their roles and sure in what they were doing. They were pushing their advancement further and faster.
Why do I have the feeling that we’re just simply going to fall further and further behind them? Right now we have more ships and production, but their ships have many unknowns, and their building is on a scale that is set to eclipse all of the efforts in the Deq’ual system.
Xue looked back at Lisdel.
“If we built this city, it would be greater and better. The true humanity of Earth doesn’t need half-breeds and these bastard children to prop us up,” Lisdel said with a note of disgust, even as he smiled outwardly at the people they passed. “Look at the two leading us—some large mutated being and one with extended ears and height. They’re good for looking different but when it comes down to it, they can’t be as good compared to Deq’ual.” Lisdel’s words were filled with disdain.
Xue frowned and looked away. He knew a number of people referred to Deq’ual as the true humans of Earth. That the Emerilians were just abominations created by the Jukal. Making them closer to the Jukal than to humanity. Calling into question their heritage, alliances, abilities, and even their intelligence.
They were accustomed to being at the top of everything. Now that there was a slight change showing that the Emerilians were actually quite able, they felt threatened and were lashing out. Many of them talked about the achievements that the Deq’ual system had made over the last couple of years, none of them saying that these advancements would not have been possible without the help of the Emerilians.
The blind and power-greedy leading the stupid and weak-willed. Xue shook his head. He knew that the council as a whole didn’t think this way, but the xenophobic groups were vocal in their arguments and retaliations. Right now, the Emerilians were helping them and requested nothing. They had only been given slight favors by the Deq’ual system, like helping with their stabilization issues on their ships, or finding out where they could find fuel from the ice planet. Their latest request to have their help in training their fighting force was only their third request.
“We showed them where to drill, practically made this place ourselves—we should be demanding that they pay rent to us!” Lisdel continued.
Xue hoped more level heads would prevail. If they don’t, then I don’t want to be part of the Deq’ual system any more.
Xue’s footsteps faltered for a moment as that thought caught him off guard. It was not the words; it was the fact that he actually believed in those words. If the place he was supporting decided to go so against his values he couldn’t reconcile them, then there was little reason for him to stay and support something he didn’t believe in. Captain Xue was wrapped up in his own thoughts as they entered one of the many towers. They passed a number of growing areas before they reached a conference room overlooking Ice City.
Most of the security detail waited outside. A few people brought them food and drink, while three of them came into the conference room with Xue, Lisdel, and his secretary.
“So, to the trade agreements between the Initiative and the group that you represent, we were wondering what your thoughts were on it.” Suzy looked to Lisdel and Xue.
“We ag—”
“The terms that you have given us are a bit too harsh. You’re asking for a lot of resources that we ourselves need and the technology that you are willing to sell us is something that we will arrive at in a few years. I think it would be best for relations if a gift was made to show the commitment between our groups. We have already created an outpost that will give you piece of mind with our capable men and women in uniform nearby and also highly effective ships nearby. I think this is only fair,” Lisdel said with a winning smile, as if what he was proposing was only natural.
Suzy and Dave looked to each other. They used a private chat to talk to each other, the rest of the room unable to hear what they were seeing or read their lips.
Xue had been stopped from accepting the generous terms of the trade agreement as the military side of the Deq’ual complex had understood them.
Lisdel gave Xue a look that seemed to dismiss him.
Xue kept his anger hidden. The terms were generous; the technology was impressive but the Initiative needed different resources and items. They could make them themselves but it would take them time. Whereas the Deq’ual system could make most of the things without too much extra effort. It truly was a win for Deq’ual. However, Lisdel had said that their people weren’t as useful as those from Deq’ual; he had also gone on to say that they were providing security for the Initiative, and also threatening them at the same time.
Xue had a sour feeling in his mouth from it all.
“We had negotiated with Sato and his people and he had agreed to our terms. This was to complete the acceptance of this business agreement as well as sort out trade between our two groups,” Dave finally said. Dave didn’t seem threatened at all by Lisdel and sounded rather bored with it all.
Suzy crossed her arms and sat back.
Xue, who had been pushed to the side, saw Suzy’s displeasure for a split second as she watched Lisdel, gauging him while Dave sounded him out.
“These terms—I can’t accept them. They’re not what the people of my system want and it will put them at a disadvantage,” Lisdel said, as if reasoning with an idiot.
“You seem to think that we’re a democracy over here, Mister Lisdel...”
“Councilor or council member, please,” Lisdel said with a bright smile, talking over Dave.
“This is a business, a subsidiary of the joint efforts of the Stone Raiders Guild, Terra Alliance, and the Grahslagg Corporation. We are building up a military organization but it is run like a business to support that. We cannot start giving away our products for free without any compensation.” Dave ignored Lisdel’s words.
“It is but a token, to show your appreciation of the protection of my system. You should be aware of the protection you should make sure that you don’t do anything wrong, lest that protection is lost. Who knows what you might lose? Lisdel said, his voice light an arrogant smile on his lips as he looked to the exterior of the office with a meaningful look in his eyes. “A city like this is a beautiful refuge, but under new management, it could truly flourish.” Lisdel sighed, as if saddened by the state of affairs.
Dave’s open and calm face changed, turning dark and cold.
Xue’s scalp tingled as a pressure seemed to fill the room.
Dave let out a cold laugh.
“Is that right? You think you can come in here, make your idle threats against this city,”
“Dave,” Lisdel said, his tone dismissive. The gravity in the room spiked as Lisdel’s raised hand slammed into the desk, a look of panic in his eyes as he was forced into his seat.
Xue found it hard to breath and he was on the outside of Dave’s focus.
“This is my city, the home of my wife, of my daughter. You threaten me with taking away your protection, fuck you, fuck your protection. You come for me, I’ll be fucking waiting. You even think about threatening my daughter again,” The pressure in the room doubled again.
Lisdel’s face was a picture of pain.
Suzy placed her hand on Dave’s arm pulling him back to reality.
The pressure stopped as Dave looked to them all, Xue’s guts twisted seeing that expression on Dave’s face, feeling guilty for Lisdel’s words.
“Get the fuck out of my city. This agreement is done.” Dave raised his hand.
Lisdel, his secretary, and the security detail were forcefully transported back to the building with the portal in it.
“That guy is a fucking waste of oxygen. I’m sorry, Dave. What I wanted to say is that we accept your terms. He’s just a politician who has ruled over my system for so long that he thinks he’s some kind of god. He’s looking to get a gift to show off to the people at home, to improve his standing. Sato and the military complex agree with your terms,” Xue said quickly, feeling shame and guilt.
“He threatens Ice City and my daughter again I’ll fucking turn him into paste.” The look in Dave’s eyes and the violent fluctuations in the air had cold sweat fall down Xue’s back. “I’m not in a good mood. Make sure he never steps onto another one of my bases.”
Suzy put her hand on Dave’s shoulder. He looked to her and nodded before he disappeared from the room.
“Koi and the rest of Party Zero are his bottom line, and Lisdel touched it. From now on, we will only deal with you, Adams, Edwards, and Sato. We want this to be a partnership, but it seems that it will be more of a business relationship than anything. Your council is not behind you,” Suzy said.
“We know, it’s an issue,” Xue said. “The politicians were not thinking of the military forces—they didn’t listen to our input. They think of us as a political toy to be used.”
“We want allies, not people we’re going to butt heads with. If you can’t deliver, we won’t either. We’re doing this to survive—it seems your system is in this to gain more strength.” Suzy shrugged.
“I’m truly sorry about today. Here is the information on when we hope different shipments of materials and items will be coming in.” Xue passed her a tablet. “I’ll take my leave.”
“We’ll see you later,” Suzy said. Clearly, she was not happy with how the meeting ended but she understood why it had, knowing that the blame was neither on Xue nor Dave.
Xue left the room and headed for the portal and back to his shuttle, gnashing his teeth as his hands curled into fists at his side. As soon as he crossed the portal’s threshold and entered the asteroid base, he opened up his Mirror of Communication, connecting to the Deq’ual system.
“Get me Commander Sato,” Captain Xue said as an operator was connected.
Moments later, Sato was connected.
“Captain Xue, how did the meeting go?” Sato sounded excited.
“Badly.” Xue went on to send a recording of the events to Commander Sato. All of the armor that they wore recorded the goings-on around them.
“That fucking idiot,” Sato said, sounding not one bit less angry than Dave, especially when Xue highlighted the fact that his daughter was actually living in Ice City.
“I’ll take this to the council and get him removed as soon as possible. We don’t need him fucking up everything we’ve got thus far,” Sato said.
“Yes, sir,” Xue said.
Chapter 10: Consolidate
The leaders of the Terra Alliance were all looking a lot better than they had over the last couple of weeks.
Josh sat at the top of the table with the Stone Raiders leadership around him. Representatives from various guilds, nations, and city states were also around the large table.
Josh cleared his throat as the rest of the members of the alliance quickly became silent. “I know that this meeting was on short notice, but it seems that in the last couple of weeks everything that we’ve done has been on short notice. I have a big announcement to make that I’ll leave to the end. Right now, I want to talk about the situation on Emerilia.”
In front of them all, Shard created a map that showed Emerilia, marking the different portal locations that were contested. A number of them were green, showing that they were under the alliance’s control. Others in red or yellow showed the forces at the portal location had a foothold there, or that they were in battle.
“The flying citadels have proved to be highly effective. It is taking time to move them from location to location but we have already dealt with over half of the contested portals. We have pulled back the forces from the portals that are under our control in order to get them rested, rearmed, and ready for the battle to come. While it should take us no longer than a few months to take all of the portals, it is unknown if we will have this amount of time before the citadels are needed for other reasons. The Jakan have taken on a mercenary role and have moved to fight over two portal locations. They are engaged in a pitched battle at a Heval-based portal right now and are preparing their offensive against another portal in Gudalo. It seems thus far the Jakan have upheld their side of the bargain. We’ve got people watching them and ready to fight them if they turn on the agreement, but it is a risk that we must take in the face of the fight that is to come.” Josh looked around the room.
No one looked away. They all knew what he was saying and what he was going to say.
Air, who watched the meeting, smiled to herself. Well, it seems that all of my maneuvering turned out well. Seems that they have good heads on their shoulders, she thought proudly, looking at the various leaders who sat at the table for the Terra Alliance.
“Water and Fire have already shown their support for the Terra Alliance, as have the merpeople and the dragons. The merpeople are, however, fighting against the various creatures in the seas and other than a sharing of resources, are unable to do much to aid us. We all know that Dark, Light, and Earth have been building up their forces in order to fight one another and try to dominate the Affinities Pantheon. The Dark Lord and Earth Lord are working together; both of them have assembled armies of creatures and people who they could rope into their service. The Lady of Light has turned Markolm into a land of fanatics and her angel legions have returned to her. From our reports, she is working to change all of the angels to her champions. Their training and abilities have greatly improved all of them, fighting to get her power first.
“She has also raised a much larger army from Emerilians who were moved by her words and her people’s teachings. This army is not to be underrated. They are trained by the angels; they are the cannon fodder of Light’s fighting strength; they are many and they are decently powerful, making them a large threat. Every day, all three of them gain more power from their believers, channeling it into their divine wells. Earth’s forces have moved to the south of Opheir, in the forest located near the coast. The Dark Lord has moved his forces to Heval, between Zolu Mountain and the coast. Both of them are ready to hit the Lady of Light. We know a fight is going to happen; however, we do not know when it will happen. The flying citadels will continue to fight off the forces coming from the portals but they are to be stocked and ready to fight at a moment’s notice, to shift away from their targets and move to whatever battlefield the Pantheon decides on.
“To this end, I want all of the people under the command of this alliance to be ready to act at a moment’s notice. Training and skill improvements are at the peak. If there is a need for any resources to increase a person’s combat strength, then they are to be given it. We are going to be fighting the gods of Emerilia—it’s not going to be so simple.” Josh looked to Florence, who looked as though she wished to say something.
“We will also be receiving new technology that Dave has been working on. It’s a type of defensive artifact. It’s called an orb. If you’ve seen Dave and Party Zero fighting, then you’ve probably seen these orbs. They are usually hidden but can create shields, fire Mana bolts, as well as give those fighting with them an advantage within a certain area when fighting others. Production is low but we’re hoping to move some of that to the Aleph to increase speed.” Florence looked to Koza, who was the representative for the Aleph at this council meeting.
“I will pass the information to Frenik. I know that we will be able to free up some space,” Koza vowed. Such an item was invaluable on the battlefield. They had long ago stopped caring about the resources that they were paying out, only caring about how effective they could produce and push them through the industrial complexes of those
in the Terra Alliance.
“Good. I want you to put that all in your minds, but the second part, I’ll get someone else to talk about it.” Josh looked to where Air waited off to the side.
“Thanks, Joshie!” Air stood up like an eager little girl.
The people in the room looked at Air, confused looks on their face. She grinned as her illusion disappeared. Looks of shock appeared on people’s faces. None of them had been able to see through her magic, which meant that she was incredibly powerful or that her level of understanding over the illusions had reached such a high degree that it surpassed magical power levels.
Others, upon seeing her face, looked around as if trying to find someone; their eyes fell on a simple-looking elf who smiled and returned their looks.
“Lady Air.” A dwarf from the war council nodded in greeting.
“Hey, Bobbins.” Air greeted the rough-looking dwarf who had seen multiple battles with a clear “pet” name.
So-called “Bobbins” let out a cough. The part of his cheeks not covered by beard turned red as he shot a look to Venfik.
“Air,” Venfik said, a gentle reminder.
“Fine, okay, meeting blagh, information blargh.” Air shook her head as she moved to the front of the table. Josh and Kim moved apart to allow her room to stand.
There were looks of shock, others of reverence, others of fear. She was one of the people in the Pantheon; if she decided to, she could easily kill them all. She could also report their plans to her brothers and sisters.
Her playful attitude fell away as a serious expression fell on her face. She looked at the people and aides in the room. A powerful blast of air was emitted from her body. The walls, floor, and ceiling became white. The room brightened a bit as they were separated off from the rest of the world.
The Pantheon Moves Page 14