The Pantheon Moves

by Michael Chatfield

  They would take the forces of the Terra Alliance and turn them into the ground forces of the Pandora Fleet.

  What was fighting against a Jukal in powered armor compared to fighting Xelur Grand Demon Lords?

  ***

  Admiral Adams, Commander Sato, and Edwards were all in Sato’s office with depressed looks on their faces.

  After the expansion of the Deq’ual military, the different politicians started to become more aggressive, looking to put more funding toward public works, expanding out different areas and making the various stations more comfortable to live in.

  This was at the expense of the military projects that were underway.

  The refined materials by the military were being used as a public resource and delegated out to new builds instead of the ships, weapons, and platforms that the military complex needed if they were going to have a chance to deal with the Jukal.

  “Seems we got too big too fast. Now the politicians are looking to do what they can now to leave a good impression so that they get re-elected. There’s no care for what’s going to happen in a year, or what we might need to get there.” Adams took a deep drink from her glass, the burning alcohol soothing her nerves.

  Sato let out a sigh. His space suit uniform was open. These were two of the few people he could relax with, go over plans and drive forward Deq’ual.

  “What I find the most ridiculous is that those xenophobes and righteous humans are saying how we’re coming up with such great stuff, and not even adding in the fact that most of the items we’ve created has not come from our own research but rather research that we’ve compiled and developed with the aid of the Emerilians.” Edwards shook his head, anger in his eyes. As a researcher, scientist, and engineer, he liked to be accredited for what he had done. The fact that people were applauding him and his people for what they’d done and it was actually through their work, it was making quite a number of researchers and others annoyed.

  “I saw that there were a few more people taking credit for what they hadn’t done,” Sato said.

  “Interesting how they’re apparently these brilliant people but when you ask about what they’ve made, they can’t give you a straight answer and they’re really good friends with the people who are applauding them for their ‘great work.’” Edwards let out a frustrated huff of air before he, too, drank from his glass.

  “The whole incident with Lisdel didn’t go too well.” Adams looked to them with an expression of disbelief.

  “It’s interesting how much they can twist words and accounts to what they want,” Sato said. “Actually saying that Dave verbally assaulted them and used overpowering methods in order to falsely imprison them with a flagrant disregard for human rights and care for the people in the Deq’ual system. Made it sound as if Dave held him hostage, demanded all of these things from him while Lisdel stood up for the rights of the Deq’ual system and survived an interrogation. When in reality, Lisdel threatened thousands of people’s deaths in order to get a better deal from Dave so that he could look better to the people in the Deq’ual system.

  “There’s little talk of the fact that the deal went through because Dave trusts us and not the council. Seems as soon as they’ve got more power and we’re not just simply surviving here, they’re all about keeping that power and increasing it.” Sato ground his teeth in anger.

  “Well, it might not be going on for long,” Edwards said.

  Adams and Sato, who had been making to drink from their glasses, put them down as they stared at Edwards, who had a fake smile on his face.

  “So, the council—which, in all of its infinite wisdom, loves all of the great stuff we’re doing, taking all the money and resources they can from us because we can create miracles out of nothing but farts and fairy dust—is putting forward bills to reduce production on the items that we are trading with the Emerilians. Effectively, we will have a third less of our production, with the materials instead being funneled to other projects to have windows in more places, different smelling rooms, more chairs in hallways and projects that are a good idea, but don’t make a bit of sense when we can’t support the military that we need in order to make sure that we’re safe from the Jukal in the future. They’re tying our damn arms.”

  “If we lose that production, then our agreement with Emerilia is over,” Adams said. “And you know what, I don’t blame the Emerilians at all if they cut the deal. This is just getting fucking stupid.”

  “How is the training going otherwise?” Sato asked, trying to find at least one good thing for them to talk about in this entire meeting.

  “I don’t know the complete numbers but I think that close to ninety thousand people are either in or have completed the military training program between our people and Emerilia. We still don’t know the capabilities of the Emerilian ships or their fleets, but any crossover to see the inside of the asteroid base has been greatly restricted. Also, their refinery is hidden within an asteroid and we can’t pick up anything inside it. They seem to be using different ways to keep their shuttles from moving between bases,” Adams said.

  “They must’ve got the portals working or they’ve got onos and teleport pads that are allowing them to ship materials from base to base. That refinery is going to be massive, from what we’ve been able to piece together. I’m thinking that it’s probably already beating our own refining numbers, and they’ve got another massive refining complex in Ice City, and across Emerilia, they’re hooked into multiple refineries probably,” Edwards said.

  Sato let out an amused snort as he saw the look on their faces. There was envy as well as respect and relief. Envy because they wished that they were free to do as the Emerilians were, not having their hands tied. But the relief was knowing that the Emerilians were able to do so much with the little they had and that they had a chance of surviving the battle with the Jukal.

  The respect was similarly from their ability to push forward with so little.

  “Convincing the people of Deq’ual will become harder and harder over time. I just hope that when the history books look back on this, we won’t be the ones standing by the side as we watched the Emerilians push for victory,” Sato said.

  “You seem pretty confident,” Adams said.

  “Well, that would be because of this.” Sato unlocked a part of his desk and pulled out a file made of actual paper. He handed it to Adams.

  She put down her glass and looked over the pages. “This—it’s their plan.” Adams read through it. “How were they able to get this information on the different worlds and systems?” She looked up to Sato.

  “I gave them the information I could, allowing them to refine their plan. Dave has also hinted at the fact that there might be a fleet leaving the Nal system in the near future to verify their own information on the Jukal Empire,” Sato said.

  None of them were too shocked at the speed with which the Emerilians were moving. Things on Emerilia were becoming heated and from the fighting, it was becoming clear that the advanced weaponry that they had could be put to good use, ending the loss of life and conflicts.

  It was a hard decision to make, for they weighed the loss and benefits of life on Emerilia.

  It took Adams some time to finish reading over the plan, sharing it with Edwards.

  “If they could do this,” Adams looked at it all, “they’d tear the different supply routes out, take out the military power aspect, disrupt the economy and make the people reliant on the different items they drop. They would need to use the items in order to survive. If they did, then they would be removing the need for supplies across the empire. Planets and races wouldn’t produce one item; they’d be making them all. Allowing them to rely on themselves instead of the empire for their needs. Also, if they do use it, and they will in order to survive, then they’ve already gone against the empire. Are they going to fight for an empire that will be pissed at them for trying to survive, or the people who gave them options and broke the empire’s rule over them and can
fight the Jukal military?”

  Sato nodded slowly.

  “With this, they could win.” Edwards held up the pages in his hand.

  “I think so, and so does Councilwoman Wong,” Sato said.

  “I sense a but.” Edwards’s voice turned somber.

  “It has become clear that this will be political ammunition. So, we will prepare to assist but we will not make this public or give it to all of the council members—only those we can trust. When the time comes, Deq’ual will be in a state of war.” Sato’s voice was heavy as he looked to them both.

  They knew what that would mean for them.

  “In a state of war, then the control of the Deq’ual system, its resources and its people, will all come under the military complex,” Adams said, as if reciting from the Deq’ual’s military rules and regulations.

  “Yes, and at that time, we will move to support Emerilia and our fellow humans. So while these politicians mess about, let them—fight them, but let them. When the time comes, we will be free to fight this war,” Sato said.

  “Well, that is a relief,” Adams said.

  “We’re going to need to focus on building more than development, and ramp up ammunition and fuel production, as well as work on the cargo ships to carry our necessary supplies,” Edwards said, his mind moving ahead.

  “We’re also going to need to increase our monitoring of the different systems, and push out to the inner systems of the Jukal Empire. The more information the better,” Adams said.

  “It needs to be done in a way to draw little attention from the council. If they find out what we have planned, they’ll try to pull control away from us and make it into a mess,” Sato said.

  “And if it was, then it won’t cost votes—it’ll cost lives.” Adams had a fierce and grim look on her face.

  They drank their drinks. There was no celebration as the weight of the air in the room seemed to increase with the thoughts that moved through their minds.

  ***

  Frank and the crews of the different fleets looked over the different groups that were marching into Ice City.

  These were some of the strongest and powerful military units on Emerilia. Yet even their training and their experiences as veterans did not prepare them for what they were seeing today.

  As they stepped through a portal, they were greeted by another planet. But instead of it being filled with aggressive species, it instead held a number of scientists, engineers, mages, and geniuses from the Terra Alliance, as well as a complete city within a world of ice.

  The different crews looked at them, studying the people who would be their drop forces and security details.

  It would be Frank and the others’ job to get them to where they needed to go and support them, while these people of Emerilia, who had never been players and lived their days in Emerilia, would face the forces of the Jukal Empire face-to-face, bringing victory on the ground.

  The different groups came to a stop in front of five thousand dwarves wearing Devastator armor.

  Frank looked at it all, seeing the people who would fill his ship and he would protect with his guns as much as possible. “Let’s get back to the ship—can’t let the Devastators and their new recruits beat us out,” Frank said.

  The others around him heard and started to follow. They made it through the city, which was expanding faster than ever before with more and more people being woken up every day.

  They reached the portal facility that had now three more portals just to connect Ice City to the asteroid bases. The two new portals were not made from metals and Magical Circuits; instead, they were created with soul gem constructs in the asteroid base.

  Under Dave and Ela-Dorn’s guidance, they and their team had been able to make true portals, which they had quickly started to use to expand their network.

  The different asteroids, being hollowed out, all had onos and portals to move the materials to the refinery that had some twenty portals connected directly to the intake tunnel.

  More shuttles and portals were used to move the completed products from the refinery back to the asteroid base, moonbase, ark shipyard, and Ice City. Now, each and every one of the different locations were connected by portal.

  With the refinery asteroid coming online, the refinery within Ice City could concentrate on refining down the frozen materials it received, simply changing its magical coding and a few machines.

  They were producing more fuel than ever, more than enough to supply all of their ships’ fusion power plants and were being held in massive supply tanks. This allowed them to meet the demands of building these new transport routes and keep them open.

  With the advent of memory crystals that Air and her people were now working on constantly, training time had rapidly decreased. With more of the ships being complete, the crews were moving onto them and manning them for real. With the different systems, they could run simulations within their different craft without leaving their slips.

  It had allowed them to figure out a number of issues that they had with the ships that weren’t present in the Mirror of Communication conference room.

  The chain of command had become more firm and they were nearly always on their ships. Jeeves used the system that was inside their bodies to allow them to level up. Doing the same quest again and again was redundant but for getting a higher score on your ship role in a battle or completing different training modules that were also quests, it was possible for them to increase in level.

  Being Level 300, they were also at a level to pick different classes. With the bonuses that they got from that, many of them didn’t need to sleep for days at a time.

  They had come to training as players, they were serious and dedicated to their methods, but their main focus was on mock battles, playing again and again to confirm and improve upon their skills. Afterwards they shared all of the basics as they understood it, and as they talked, they each worked on different things that they had a knack for before coming and sharing it with the rest of the group. Some liked making training modules; others liked figuring out the best mix of classes for stat increases, or speed of advancement. Others developed communications to be simple and easy.

  It wasn’t like a regular military, where everyone was trained a certain way and came up. It was more community based, all of these people lending their support in order to grow stronger together. It had allowed them to advance rapidly and through constant gaming, they had become a stronger team with each simulation.

  Frank exited a portal and moved to a bank of onos, where people were coming out of and moving between. Above them, there were the different names of ships.

  Frank entered the BloodHawk ono, stepping directly from the asteroid base to inside the ship. He said his good-byes to his friends and moved through the ship. He used two more onos within the ship to reach the command deck.

  Moving personnel had never been faster and it allowed the Emerilian fleet to do things that wouldn’t be possible on any other craft.

  As he entered the bridge, he snapped a salute to the captain, who nodded back to him as he worked on the reports his interface was showing.

  “Captain, I was wondering if I might be able to host a shoot with my people?” Frank asked.

  “Go for it. Do a sign-up and see if anyone else is interested. I’ll be on my reports but Commander Richter might be free,” the captain said, talking about his second-in-command.

  “I’ll ask around.” Frank saluted the captain.

  “As you were.” The captain gave him a salute back.

  Frank didn’t know how much time was left till things kicked off but he was sure that his weapons people would be as ready as possible and have the best training that he could offer.

  ***

  It had been three days since Dark’s and Earth’s attack had been stopped and they had been pushed back from Markolm.

  Light had not been seen the entire time. Her angels said that she was heavily injured by the Dark Lord and in deep depre
ssion after having lost so many people—even Khanundra, a person she considered like a daughter.

  Daeundra, who usually had a cold and calculating look on her face, now showed a trace of fear as she looked at Light. The latest doctor burned from the inside out with righteous flames; the golden flames burned through them, healing and killing at the same time, slowly burning their life away inch by inch as their body glowed from the inside.

  The doctor finally stopped crying out in pain after a few days, slumping to the floor and dying, their face stuck in a look of relief at having escaped Light’s torture.

  Light let out a wheezing noise. She wore a golden veil but it was unable to hide the darkness that seemed to be almost alive as it moved underneath her veil across her face.

  Daeundra had seen the damage herself. Light’s face seemed to have been burned away: her mouth and teeth destroyed while her nose had been melted off; her left eye was gone, as was her hair and ear. The other half of her face was in a look of anger. She had stopped herself from feeling pain with a simple spell, but it was taking a truly massive amount of power to stop the corrosion and fight it back.

  “Did you find him?” Light’s voice was distorted and hellish, as if some demon had clawed its way up from the abyss as it came from underneath her veil.

  “We have not, mistress.” Daeundra knelt.

  “Find HIM!” Light’s voice was filled with hatred and anger as her voice rose in volume. Light flashed around her; golden clouds seemed to appear around her body as Daeundra was pushed lower under the pressure of Light’s power.

  “Yes, mistress,” Daeundra said.

  “Leave me and make sure the legions are ready when I call them. And get them to increase their devotions so I might destroy his curse and heal myself,” Light said.