Planet Genesis -- The Capitol

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She chuckled, "It is, trust me I been there." Softly her face faltered before returning back to normal. "anyway... i uh have no clue what else to ask." Thaila said sheepishly.

Kay just shot the managers a glower, exactly like the one Matt would often claim made him look just like his mother. That made them wilt fairly rapidly.

Taking charge certainly took Kay's mind off his grief at losing Danika and the other kids. He absolutely embraced it.

Asher was somewhat distracted from his own sorrow and fear by Kay's bad tempered bossiness. It was nice to see Kay acting like himself. Well, like his more grumpy and frustrated self. Still, better than moping.

By the time the hour before the meeting was up, a lot more hospital preparations would be under way. So that was good.

The meeting was called in the big important guild administration buildings. Those of the city willing to stay and fight should all gather there.
The inquisitors had ideas for defense of the city, as did many others so it become a bit chaotic but eventually a consensus would be met and the various groups would separate off.

Luka and the other pilots gathered to discuss tactics.

Mourn lectured the other engineers.

Kay clearly hadn't done bossing around medics and continued to do so.

Matt explained about improvised weapons and using anything you could.

Kasi volunteered to be a runner, using his ability to shape space to get ammo, supplies and the injured where they needed to be.
Matt would do similar, while still trying to offer defense.

Swarm would act as a sort of surveillance system, they could keep track of rather a large chunk of the city and alert the rest of themselves to any attack.
So they spread out across the city and waited.

Esk was much happier not taking charge, but as one of the snipers he accepted his role and would take up his assigned position when required.
He seemed to have completely accepted Tala as his commanding officer and Rigel as his Captain, he didn't even argue with anyone, or have any snide remarks. He remained quiet, only speaking to clarify things.

Tactics would be discussed by everyone, an overarching plan decided. And then everyone would settle in to wait for an attack, nobody totally sure when, where or even how it would happen.

Tala was delighted by the meeting and offered her opinions very loudly, including making sure her friends/troops from Vestia had their opinions heard. She assigned herself as some sort of commanding officer on the front lines, because she was pretty good at giving orders and bashing heads.

Orel went to join the artuvians, and waved for Skye to come over too. They'd probably go talk with the pilots as well, the different air forces needed to be working together, not as separate units entities in conflict.

Asher ended up being assigned a position as a sniper. He wasn't sure how he felt about this. Or how Kay would feel about it. Ugh.

Ethan flatly refused to be a sniper, for some reason. He was perfectly fine with wielding a bayonet though, and Tala proclaimed that judging by what she had seen that morning, he should have a dakkon dagger bayonet to use.

James was judged way too flighty to be a sniper, so he got to fight on the ground too. Only he didn't get a dakkon bayonet. He didn't know whether to feel relieved or insulted to not be on keeper killing duty.

Ellie talked with some other mages about magically ruining bad guys' days.

Skye went over to train with the other Artuvians, glad to have the distraction from not having her sister be close by.

Starr, Shane and the others would do what they could to help and train, though Shane was better as a shooter than he was with a blade, so he did not get a dagger. Starr kept the dagger she had taken earlier because she wanted it and was decent with it.

Rigel was good with a blade, but a bit slow. He would stick to flying and shooting instead.

Dawn was helping the medics that knew how to fight to get trained as a last line of defense type for the injured.

Sawna stayed out of the sun, filling up on blood drinks as she trained with whichever group would have her at the moment, moving from one to another to learn a bit of everything.

Though Tala had declared Esk should have a dagger, if he was sniping he wouldn't get close enough.
He would however have a chat with the Inquisitors about what they used to execute Keepers, they had been planning to execute Merith right? So did they have access to some of this metal or was there something else that hurt them?

Luka and the pilots and Artruvians drew up attack plans.

Hewitt wasn't much help in a fight. He was slow as heck, but he was really hard to kill. He didn't seem overly enthusiastic though, too much magic and savages with sticks and guns, pah.

He read news reports on a tablet instead, learning about the attack on the Aketi and how they were talking about it. Mostly they were just annoyed at the loss of a research station, it was working on some promising stuff apparently.

Armin overslept. Oops?

Tala was a bit disappointed that Esk wouldn't get a dagger. She thought he would have been a very skilled and willing keeper stabber. Oh well, she started scoping out new dagger-wielding prospects. Hmm, maybe Mourn. He was aggressive but smart, he could probably keep himself alive while still dealing a lot of damage.

Two artuvians were selected to use the daggers: a peregrine falcon, and a gyrfalcon. Skye and Orel were also offered daggers if they wanted, since as smaller hunting bird types, they would be well suited to dropping from above to kill keepers.

It turned out the Guild's method of executing keepers was throwing them into stars. Apparently a couple billion years of having your atoms used by a star made even your arcana presence eventually melt away entirely. Worked on anamcara too.

Esk smirked, now that was useful to know. He'd pass that information on to any Star Dragons, maybe they could use it.

He also suggested maybe letting Merith fight, though perhaps taking the evil axe off him would be an idea first, before it consumed him and he switched sides.
Yeah, Esk didn't trust that asshole.
But he knew an asset when he saw it.

Mourn would quite happily take a dagger, declaring that he would kill many keepers and cackling merrily.
It still hadnt' quite occurred to him how dangerous this was. In his mind they'd taken on the family before and sure they'd been captured, but they fought well and gave them trouble, and that was only with the few of them. Now they had a whole army, and time to prepare. The family wouldn't know what hit em.

Luka suggested getting word out to any near the guild who might be able to either lend assistance and troops, or could bottle the Family in and prevent retreat.
Once they had them here, they didn't want them getting away, they wanted them all destroyed.

If there were any daggers left, Matt would take one. His ability to teleport meant he could fairly easily get to incapacitated keepers and stab them. Besides, he had a personal grudge to settle with these guys okay? Failing that, he could teleport, incapacitate, give one of the artruvians a chance to finish them off.
Whatever happened, he was pretty determined to kill as many of the Family as possible.
He looked stony faced and grim as he paced around, lending a hand where needed. There was a murderous glint in his eyes.

Esk watched his brother warily and edged over to Tala. "If he starts becoming a liability, shoot him in the leg will you? "

The Inquisitors had apparently talked Merith's options over the night before, and decided that with his sickness, he was too unstable to use. Even without his axe, he was unreliable and prone to violent mood shifts that could be directed against the wrong people. And if he was consumed with rage, then who was to say he wouldn't just blow up this planet too? Not worth the risk.

They'd be shipping him off to somewhere far away, ASAP.

The Guild didn't have many neighbors who actually knew about their existence. Still, the Guild would notify the few who were aware, and see to it that they prepared as well.

There was a dagger left, which Matt was given. Teleporting assassins sounded like a great idea.

Tala swished her tail at Esk's remark. "You know that I shall do as is necessary. If his leg must be shot, it shall be done. His fury is likely to make him a most excellent asset, though."

Starr would go to the peacekeepers and make sure Matt was on the approved teleporting list. She didn't want him getting hurt for trying to help, even if Fate sent him somewhere else. With that done, she would go to find Matt and ask him to take any of their people that were too hurt to fight to his home

Skye would totally take a dagger if one was offered to her. Without her sister here, she wanted payback for them capturing and hurting them before.

Skye was given a dagger because she was a hawk, and therefore pretty much perfect for this job.

Orel took a dagger because Skye took a dagger. If she was brave enough to dive bomb keepers and stab them, then he wanted to not be a coward. Was that stupid? Probably. Did he care? Not really.

Skye looked to Orel and gave him a sad smile. She was scared, but she would do this. "We need to practice, with wood daggers or something."

Orel nodded. "I'm sure they must have weighed training daggers we can use. Or they can magic some up. It's going to be important for us to know how to use these things before the battle starts."

Skye nodded and put the dagger on her belt in the sheath someone (probably Starr) had made for them then looked around "So, let's find someone to ask about training with them, we can likely get some others to train with us too, so that the keepers won't find out it's just us but the others would have regular daggers to kill them with."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Orel agreed. There were a few people here who knew how to use knives, before long the two hawks would probably be able to schedule some classes for themselves and the other artuvians, so they'd be able to learn how to attack from the sky, and also how to stay alive if engaged on the ground.

The holodeck on Vestia could be requisitioned to run some combat training programs for people.

Esk nodded to Tala. "I know, That's why i'm asking you." He trusted Tala's judgement, she'd proven to be quite sensible after all.

--

Matt nodded grimly, he'd do what Starr asked.
He hoped they had a decent supply of medical stuff where Web was.

--

More daggers, not Dakkon but similar in size and shape, would be obtained and distributed to mask the true wielders.
Also having daggers was useful anyway, they were an effective weapon in the right hands.

Esk scoped out rooftops with the other snipers.

Asher helped the other snipers too. He didn't have much experience with this, but he figured the best way to learn was to see the sorts of spots they thought were best to hide and fire from, and of course to train like crazy until the time of the battle arrived. He was already a very good shot and could probably adjust to using a rifle with not too many issues, so the strategy was a major priority.

~~
Ethan went with a group of fighters who were learning to use bayonets and other weapons. They practiced in a holodeck supplied by the Guild, and fought a variety of opponents in a perfect recreation of the Guild's streets.

Ethan tried to teach James to not stink at hurting people.

James sort of improved.

Ethan froze up when someone grabbed his hand while he wasn't wearing gloves, so he decided to wear thick gloves, which seemed to solve the problem. He was fine, dammit. As long as he could keep his blade between himself and his opponents, there was no problem. And if he couldn't do keep the blade between him and them, well, they were magical shapeshifters and were probably going to kill him easily even if he didn't freeze up. So there.

Tala showed up to help train people, when she wasn't busy bossing Guild officials around.

~~
Ellie found a couple of other magic users who could donate magic to her, so she could infuse plant seeds with huge amounts of energy. Hurrah, more thorn grenades!

(lol, fake Dakkon daggers for everyone!)

Starr had send medical supplies on one of the boxes, though using them was up to the people there.

Sawna, Shame, Skye, Rigel and Dawn spent the time training in every form they could, both with the fake daggers in most cases and with guns and the tech they had here.

Rigel wanted to make scanner-blockers for the amanacara on their side, so would look for Guild people to help with that, so their people didn't get knocked down on the first wave.

Esk went off on his own and drained a couple of the remaining goats while nobody else was around to watch. He didn't much care for an audience okay? but he needed to be in full health to fight.
He gave them to the bots to butcher for lunch.

Some scientists from the Guild would help with Rigel's scanner blocker project. It might not be possible to make portable ones, but they should be able to create ones that could be installed in safe houses throughout the Guild capital.

Rigel would take what he could get, though he would still try for portable ones, hey it was something to keep him busy after all.

Even had Dawn known Esk went to get some goats, her only concern would have been him getting hurt by the herd. They could always get more goats after the war if they needed to.

(Are we about ready to start fast forwarding?)

(nods)

(yeup)

(All right, any preferences about how far and how fast?)

(Uh... battle! combat! maybe set the scene of the initial invasion and go from there? )

(Okay! Gimme a bit of time and I'll get a post together)