“What’s got you all worked up?” Induca pushed Suzy’s hair behind her ear.
“I’m scared about losing you. I’m scared about losing everyone.” Suzy’s eyes misted.
“Come here.” Induca’s heart hurt, seeing Suzy under so much stress as tears fell down her face. Induca hugged Suzy, who wrapped her hands around Induca tightly.
It was not lost on Suzy how close Induca had come to dying. It weighed heavily on her, to the extent that she found it hard to leave Induca on her own. She had proposed the idea of taking some time off because she just wanted to have some time with Induca outside of fighting.
She didn’t know what the future would bring or that they would survive what was coming.
***
Dave, Malsour, Steve, and Bob all stood in the main area of Pandora’s Box. The workstations had been moved to the ice planet and Steve’s workshop had also been moved to the asteroid base.
His workshop had been right next to the teleportation array room. Now the wall had been knocked out and there were cranes attached to the ceiling that ran from Steve’s workshop, into the teleportation array room and back to Steve’s old workshop.
Through the door to the power station, people were filing through the secret doorway, all of them looking to their guides who greeted the four at the front of the room.
They looked around the room with curiosity. They had been given a brief description of what was going on but then the rest had been kept from them. For most of them, this was a leap of faith and a hope for their families to be protected from what was going on in Emerilia.
Over the space of an hour, more and more people funneled through the secret doorway and into Pandora’s Box.
Dave wasn’t scared that anyone would figure out where they had gone. Thousands of people moved through Terra all the time; it was hard to sense what was going on in the rune-covered city and the Jukal’s signal there wasn’t too strong.
Once they reached the power station, the fluctuations of Mana running through the place was good enough to cover up most signals, and in Pandora’s Box, there was virtually no way that the Jukal—or anyone else, for that matter—would find out where these people had gone.
There were nearly four hundred people within the workshop when the door to the power station was finally shut and secured.
“Has everyone signed the contracts?” Malsour looked to the guides.
All of them nodded. These people had been checked out by Air, Lucy, and Bob, as well as Fire and Water. They were all verified and had been trusted with guiding everyone here and would guide later groups through Pandora’s Box as well.
“Good. Then I think it’s time to tell you what this is all about.” Dave clapped his hands, a smile on his face.
Everyone became silent as they looked to the four people at the front of the room. They looked to Bob out of curiosity. Most of them knew about Malsour, Steve, and Dave, but Bob was an unknown.
Bob smiled to himself as Dave started to talk.
“Okay, all of you were invited here as we need help on multiple different projects that we’re working on. Though most of you were told that already, what these projects are for and what they will do—all of that will come. But I can promise you that the work that we do here will change the future of Emerilia forever.” Dave’s smile faded away as he looked at the people facing him. “First, let’s get you into your new homes and we can start going over what the different projects are and see what works for you all.”
Behind him, the wall fell away to reveal different portals to the various locations that Pandora’s Box was connected to.
There was excited mumbling among the Aleph and those from the mage’s college and guild who knew more about portals. All of them looked at the portals and the four people in front of them with stunned eyes.
“This is only the beginning,” Bob said with a teasing smile.
“We’ll be going to a place covered in ice. Don’t worry—we’ve heated it up a bit and it’s filled with breathable air,” Dave said.
Bob had been working for weeks to make sure that people could live within the ice planet city without needing clothes that had heating circuits in them or needing to capture air in a Mana shield every time they moved through the city.
This would serve as the base for all of their projects and the new nucleus of Pandora’s Box.
***
Dwayne watched over his different castles. He controlled the outer castles around the portal but the interior castles were controlled by the expansionistic race called the Jakan.
The Jakan were an overpopulated race that practiced war as a measure of population control. They weren’t like many of the other races and had a true military structure, from generals down to privates. They were also well versed in offensive and defensive tactics. However, their healing abilities were nearly nonexistent. Dying in battle was a great honor; healing one another up would be going against that warrior code.
Although the Jakan wished to die on the battlefield and attain honor for themselves and be risen up into the planes of the Oidf, their version of Valhalla, they weren’t going to sell their lives short. Just going in waves and waves of attacks was seen as cheap and useless and their gods wouldn’t look down on them with favor if they did that. So, instead, they were building up their strength; their various leaders communicated with one another and made plans to attack the Terra Alliance that held the outer castles. They were constantly sending out probing attacks that would check to see whether there were any weaknesses within the Terra outer castles.
Dwayne had been posted to the outer castles with three other highly decorated veterans who had taken command of the other four castles. Dwayne had been named as the commander of this location but after meeting with the other veterans, Dwayne— who had been a sergeant when he was with the military on Earth— turned to them for their opinions and they worked together in order to deal with the Jakan.
They used a combination of swords that could cut through nearly anything—but dulled really quickly and were fragile—and their destruction staffs.
The Jakan used to use rifles but after coming to Emerilia, over time they had come to learn about destruction staffs and their offensive abilities. They’d incorporated it into the battle plans and through fighting with one another, they’d come up with tactics in order to deal with being attacked by destruction staffs.
The Jakan were also not just warriors but builders.
From their castles, they had made networks of trenches that spread outward, making it so that they could hit anyone who tried to attack them face-to-face. This network of trenches also made it impossible for the Terra Alliance to simply attack their walls.
They had to get into the trenches and clear them out, which was a process in and of itself. The Jakan made them fight for every inch in the trenches and used traps and tricks to kill as many of the Terra Alliance as possible.
Until the flying citadels came online, the leaders of the four outer castles had agreed that they would defend their positions. Attacking the Jakan would take a lot of resources and lives with little gain. Only when they had overwhelming superiority would they hammer the Jakan and attempt to remove them from Emerilia.
Dwayne didn’t understand the Jakan’s reasoning but he respected them. They were one of the few aggressive species that had come up with plans of how to fight. They were one hell of an enemy not simply because of their numbers but because of their actions and tactics.
They had sent messages to the Jakan, asking whether there was a peaceful way to resolve their issues. The Jakan had respectfully declined and then gone on to say that they would make a good sacrifice to their gods.
Apparently that was pretty high praise from the Jakan. That or Shard was pulling my leg with translating their message.
Even though he respected them, Dwayne knew that there would be one victor and one loser. If he lost, then Emerilia would be opened up for the Jakan’s advance, which would turn into a war simi
lar to World War Two, but with creatures coming out of the forests and wilderness that could easily wipe out entire battalions of people on both sides.
“We need those flying citadels,” Dwayne said to himself. Eight of them at Goblin Mountain had been altered already and would be ready to move soon enough. The castles that had been defending against the Erach invasion to the northeast of the Gudalo continent were also being converted.
Dwayne shivered as he thought about that portal location.
The Erach hadn’t stopped trying to come through the portal to reach Emerilia. The lake around the portal was filled with their bodies. If they had been allowed to spread across Emerilia, he couldn’t even start to guess what the damage would have been.
As the different engineers, mages, and the Blood Kin worked on the floating Citadels more forces were being pulled into training, ready to man the citadels.
Each would have heavy long-distance mages, as well as archers and dwarven artillery crews. There would also be dwarven War Clans and quick-reaction mounted forces and DCA or aerial forces.
As they prepared, then it was up to the forces that were left in the castles to keep the creatures that were coming through the portals back. If they could just hold them off for a couple of months, then the citadels could come in with their heavy support and push them back, holding over the portal to make sure that they weren’t capable of coming through again.
The portals were nearly indestructible but they could still fire cannons down onto those that came out of them, wiping them out.
“Just need to hold the line.” Dwayne looked out over the castle walls. In the distance, he saw light illuminating the sky as two beings from the event clashed in the air.
Blue water Mana clashed with green Mana, creating thunder-like explosions as the trees shook with the impacts of their attacks or misses.
This was the new world that Dwayne lived in.
***
Lox, Gurren, and Steve looked over the various War Clans that were all lined up within Terra. Since the summoning hall had been made available to the public and those who were part of the Terra Alliance, the dwarves had been the first group to work up a strategy to use the summoned creatures. Each of the dwarf shield bearers were to get one summoned creature. It was supposed to be able to hit at range and fly if at all possible—but not too high.
Many of the dwarves were getting some kind of magical flying beast that could change shape and rest on their shoulders and could give overhead cover when possible.
The dwarven artillery crews were, in turn, getting creatures that didn’t fly but were strong and could move heavy loads and fight. If they got into a battle, the creatures could fight for them while they continued to man their guns. The summoned aerial creatures would allow the dwarven shield bearers to gain a ranged attack ability that they had not had before.
The dwarven formation with them already had showed that they were to be feared in the practice that they had carried out. The summoned creatures needed to be trained but within the Terra Alliance, the number of summoners and the beast tamers was the largest in recorded history. They had been lent out to the other races and groups that were a part of the Alliance to foster better relationships and to increase their military might.
Now was not the time to care whether their neighbors had a better fighting force or not. Here they were all people of Emerilia and they were fighting for their home.
Gurren, Lox, and Steve continued onward, moving through all of the people in Terra. Even with the third section complete, there were still more people who wanted to move to Terra and there were military barracks throughout the city. Many of them weren’t filled but ready in case forces were pulled off from the castles and reinforcements were slotted into the castles that they had been manning.
“So, what are we going to be doing exactly?” Gurren asked.
“Training,” Steve said in a glum voice.
“We’re going to be working on the doctrine for using the flying citadels,” Lox expanded.
“Okay, so that’s not too bad. Still wish that we were fighting more, though,” Gurren said.
“Well, it looks like most of the groups are building their strength up or that the ones that go for wave-like attacks to try to overpower us are already dead or there just aren’t enough of them to be a threat,” Lox said.
“But I miss axe golf!” Steve complained.
“You just kept saying fore and smacking people with the side of your axe!” Lox yelled.
“I know! It was great!” Steve waved his hands in the air.
“Give me strength.” Lox looked to the other side of Terra.
“Now that you say it—you could use a few gym sessions,” Steve said.
Gurren cleared his throat, trying to hide his laughter.
“Let’s just get to Goblin Mountain before I can see how far I can boot your shiny ass down the street,” Lox said.
“Does this armor make my crystal ass look big?” Steve looked back at his ass.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Lox asked.
“Well, I saw these hot pink pants that Clara was wearing and I have to say she can work it. I’m just not sure if I have the kind of figure for it. You know, I was wondering about updating my wardrobe,” Steve said.
“It’s a set of armor, not a bloody handbag!” Lox yelled.
“You seen my handbag?” Steve said in a squeal of excitement.
Gurren looked as if he were going to burst a blood vessel listening to the two of them.
Lox let out a noise of frustration as Steve pulled out a handbag made of pink hide. To most, it would have looked like a duffel bag but in the crook of Steve’s arm, it did indeed look like a handbag.
Gurren couldn’t stop himself from laughing as Lox simply stopped in the middle of the road and stared at Steve as he moved the handbag around from the crook of his arm to his shoulder to the other arm.
“Pretty styling, right? All the crystal constructs are doing it.” Steve smiled.
“I wish all of the soul gem constructs were buildings.” Lox walked onwards.
“Aww, come on—I’m much more fun than a building!” Steve said.
“Yeah but the fecking buildings don’t talk nor do they have vibrant flipping pink handbags that look like they’re big enough to hide a ruddy elephant in!” Lox yelled.
Gurren laughed as he followed behind them, tears in his eyes.
***
“Where are the others?” Deia looked to Jung Lee and Anna as they were waiting within Goblin Mountains’ southern Citadel number one.
“They’re on their way. They went to check out the dwarves at the summoning halls and get a look at what kind of creatures they have so that we have a better idea of what kind of abilities the new War Clans will have,” Anna said.
“Why do you have a sequin top! How are there that many sequins in all of Emerilia!?” Gurren asked.
“Fashion has no limits!” Steve replied. Lox, Gurren, and Steve had walked out of the ono that was underneath the tower in the inner castle.
Deia didn’t know what to say.
Steve wore a pink hat with a rim that extended outward nearly three feet and had a bright green feather in it. He wore a sequin-covered crop top in blue and that was so shiny that Deia thought of investing in sunglasses.
Coupled with his Devastator armor he was still wearing underneath and the pink handbag, all of the members of Party Zero waiting within the castle just looked at the scene without knowing what to say.
The others walking through the area stopped, their minds misfiring at Steve’s ensemble.
“What’s up, homies!” Steve said.
“Anna,” Deia said, her voice monotone as she continued to look at Steve. “The hell did you create?”
“I don’t know, but something went wrong—horribly and utterly wrong,” Anna said, also unable to take her eyes off the train wreck that was Steve.
“Heeeey!” Steve waved his hand daintily.
“I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit at his style sense,” Suzy said.
“I think it’s snazzy,” Induca said.
Suzy looked at Induca as if she had just declared she was the devil. “Dear, we’ll talk about this later.” Suzy patted Induca’s hand.
“We’re here. Now please give me something to do before I lose my mind,” Lox said in a pained voice.
“Uh, well, we need you, Gurren, Suzy, and Steve to teach all of the War Clans as well as units with ground forces how to use the flight drives that will allow them to jump from the citadel and reach the ground,” Deia said, still sounding pretty shell-shocked from Steve’s appearance.
“I can do that,” Lox said.
“Anna, you and I will work with the different casters and get the DCA situated. We’ve dealt with them before and so we should be able to get them used to what’s going on pretty easily. Induca, you can deal with the Dragons as well as help out with the casters. Jekoni and Jung Lee can get with the mages and make sure that they’re all sorted out as well.
“Dave and Malsour will be around later to check on all the major systems of the citadel and to make sure everything is running well. We have one week to get everyone used to what they’re doing. Another week to go through any problems and then we’re going to be doing training drops and scenarios.
“Steve, why are you wearing what you’re wearing? Is there a reason for it?” Deia asked, unable to hold back any longer.
“Made Lox uncomfortable?” Steve shrugged.
“I’m going to go jump off really tall things now.” Lox walked away quickly.
The rest of Party Zero couldn’t stop from laughing at it all.
***
Ela-Dorn found Dave in the asteroid base, working with the different slips where one of the first massive miners was launching from and heading toward the end of what would be the main thoroughfare of the asteroid shipyard.
“Hey,” Dave said over a private chat with a smile on his face.
“Hey, Dave,” Ela-Dorn said, her voice subdued.
“Something the matter?” Dave looked to her.
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