Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-One

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Luka made a face. "gross. Computer, regular clothes please." She looked relieved as the gown disappeared and she was just in her usual cargo pants and vest. "Who should we go annoy then?"

Web nodded. "We figured the place we grew up would be the safest. It's in the middle of Imperium space which if nothing else gives a degree of security should the worst happen." He frowned, entering the ship and looking around curiously. "It's in the middle of nowhere but with a little work to get everything up and running again, it should be self sufficient. The Satare are pretty much blind to magic, so teleporting in and out won't be a problem in that respect, they won't even know we're there. The only problem is that I can only take a few individuals with me when I shape space, more than two or three and it becomes not only dangerous for me, but there's a real risk of losing grip and losing them en route." He sighed. "Which is why a physical portal would be safer. Though to avoid the family following, Asher suggested something that could be destroyed as soon as everyone was through. "

---

Armin nodded. "I will get to work on that then. Anything you find you are in need of, do not hesitate to ask. " He bowed his head. "May the weaver protect us all."

Esk went back to tinkering.

Luka smiled softly. "Thank you Armin." She nodded.

"Will you fight?" Esk asked, glancing up.

Armin frowned, hesitating. "I... will not run." He nodded decisively.

"Then you better learn to fight." Esk told him.

Armin bowed his head. "I fear I will not have the time. But I will do all I can to ensure all of you are as well armored as possible with the time we have left. Do not worry about me my friend, I trust the Weaver's will be done. "

"We are most grateful for your assistance." Tala looked thoughtfully at Armin, remembering the guy's panic during the battle in the mirrorverse, "You would do well not to fight. We will wish you to weave many bandages in the aftermath."

Armin bowed his head. "Weaver willing, you shall have all the bandages you need."

Luka frowned, she was worried about the guy. Oh sure he was scary as all heck but underneath the whole giant spider thing he was such a nice guy, and so totally pacifistic. She knew he wouldn't last long in a fight.

Esk nodded. "try not to get shot."

"I will do my very best." Armin bowed his head again and left them to it, going back to his sewing.

Starr nodded then frowned a little in thought, finishing the dagger then setting it aside. "You may have to take me there and back here then, so I can make something to go to that one place with more passengers and without fear of losing them along the way. If that will not work, I can tweak a shuttle to feel like one being, with everyone inside that needs to go, but a portal to that place with one of you taking the item with you to prevent followers should work well enough."

Web nodded. "The guild have given me free pass to come and go, we would need to get your permission as well. believe me, it's not pleasant being hit with their security measures." He smiled softly. "Thank you."

Tala went back to checking over the helmet, before moving on to a huge automatic rifle, which she carefully made sure was unloaded before taking it apart to clean. "I am rather curious to see how many in this crew can be made into competent fighters," she said. "Many are terribly silly and impractical."

Esk smirked. "Well they haven't died yet."

Luka shook her head. "maybe they'll surprise us."

Esk shrugged and set his helmet aside, picking up a rifle and almost absent mindedly field stripping it.
"At least we're well stocked for ammo."

"But the keepers regenerate." Luka pointed out.

"Doesn't mean we can't keep putting them down. We've got about a minute between them dying and getting back up if Merith's anything to go by. That should be enough time to stab them with one of those daggers."

Luka nodded grimly. "So just keep laying down suppressive fire and hope for the best?"

"isn't that the usual tactic when you're cornered?" Esk shrugged.

"I hope Acus got somewhere safe..." Luka mused fretfully.

Esk rolled his eyes. "Who cares?"

"people with hearts care." Luka snapped.

Esk snickered. "Now Lieutenant, where did having a heart ever get anyone?"

Tala snorted. "Speak with respect of your former commanding officers, Esk. To do otherwise is to court disorder and unrest." She shook her head, earring swinging, "We shall require most exceptional quantities of ammunition to control the Keepers until we can find someone to end their lives. It shall greatly weigh down the smaller fighters in battle."

Starr nodded and stood up, gathering the daggers into a basket even though she kept one on her, having made a hidden sheath for it. "Alright, let's drop these off with the other weapons, get permission for me to come and go with you and get this portal made." She chuckled softly, it was quite a list.

"Commanding officers still need to earn their respect." Esk replied flatly. "He abandoned his post, he deserves nothing."

Luka bowed her head. Esk was right, but their culture Acus had been a terrible captain, unfit to lead and undeserving of respect but she still felt a sense of loyalty to him regardless. "If it wasn't for him, i'd still be lost out there... " She spoke quietly.

Esk shrugged. "He'll be fine. Much as he acted like a pathetic useless sack of feathers, he was a soldier. He can handle himself."

Luka nodded and looked to Tala. "We'll need ammo runners then. Snipers? Regimented artilleryman?"

Esk nodded. "It's likely to be complete chaos once the enemy engages, magic and gunfire everywhere. Keep behind cover, conserve ammo and try to get clean head shots. Heck, worst comes to worst, we can slow them down by making them climb over our corpses."

"That's morbid." Luka shuddered.

"That's war sweetheart."

---

Web nodded. He didn't much like leaving these people to fight while he ran, but he accepted he had no real choice. The children needed to be kept safe, and his people needed their leader. It sucked though.
He followed Starr, looking grim and worried.

"You decided to serve under him. You could have left if you scorned him so deeply, but you never left, and so you should cease to whimper over his flaws," Tala told Esk. "Yes, people of speed to supply ammunition will be most excellent. Perhaps those of the Artuvian breed, there are many of such who are fast and capable. Androids might well make satisfactory snipers, their aim is often good."

Esk laughed. "You got me there Tala. Maybe i'm getting soft, or just too desperate for a pay cheque."

Luka nodded. "I don't think my aim's that good."

"mine is." Esk shrugged and nudged the helmet. "the optical readouts help."

Starr nodded,leading the way to where they were stockpiling guns and ammo to be divided among them. She saw Esk and Tala and waved to them "Here's the daggers, they only have a small gem on them, but anything it absorbs will be sent to a larger gem so there's no chance of the magic affecting our people." Of course this was in theory since they couldn't kill anyone until it was time.

"We do not know the Family's attack strategy, whether they plan to bring in only infantry, or air force, or something else," Tala said. "If they fly, we shall need pilots as well as winged creatures. If they do not, we shall have to fight on the ground or from the rooftops." She thoughtfully cleaned and checked the sharpness of a knife, "You could be a pilot or on the ground as a soldier, Luka, depending on how they attack. We should plan for both instances."
Tala looked at Starr as she came in, and cow-smiled. "That is most excellent, Starr, we are glad for your assistance!"

"thank you Starr" Luka forced a weak smile.

Web bowed his head and tried not to look at the ammo and guns. yeah, stripping guns and putting together bayonette fixtures earlier had been quite enough for him.

"When are you leaving?" Esk asked Web.

"As soon as possible I suppose. " Web replied weakly. "There's just a few loose ends to tie up. "

Esk nodded.

Web looked awkward. "I'll... i'll let you know when we're ready to leave alright?"

Esk shrugged. "I'm busy."

"yeah... " Web nodded. "I know."

Esk examined one of the daggers, turning it over in his hands. "You sure it'll work?"

"The only way to be certain is to kill a keeper, and we don't have one of them to find out, but my calculations say it should work with plenty of safety for us." Starr replied then looked to Web "Alright, let's make sure I won't trip any security by going with you so that I can set up this portal."

Web nodded, hesitating and looking to his younger brother.
<<Be careful, please.>>

Esk looked bored and waved a hand. "Stop wasting time."

Web shook his head, yeah, no time for sentiment, Matt had said as much about their youngest brother.
He bowed his head to the others. "good luck."

He went with Starr to find someone who could whitelist Starr.

When the magic dampening beacons were set up, Asher went to look for Kay. They needed to talk about how to break the whole 'you're being sent away to the Imperium and your parents are going to war' thing to Danika omg.

Kay was prepping the med lab for triage and looking pretty stressed when Asher came in.
He forced a smile but it didn't work very well.
[I don't know what else to do.] He admitted, everyone else seemed to be being productive, he very much felt like he was just killing time till people started dying. It sucked.

Asher forced a smile of his own. Unlike him, Kay had a pretty specific purpose in this war and didn't have lots of building/modifying projects to keep him distracted. That had to be rough. "I'm not sure what needs to be done here either," he said. "I really don't know how to prepare for a battle, and maybe we already are as prepared as we can be." His smile faltered as he looked at Kay and remembered the last time they had encountered the Family. If the Family caught them again and forced Asher to hurt him again... He pulled himself back to the present hastily. No, he wasn't going to think that way. "Did you find any supplies we needed?"

Kay shook his head. [We're fully stocked as far as I can tell. ] Curse their proactive stock checking. He chewed his lip. [I put together field first aid kits for everyone... ] They were little parcels that clipped to belts, lined up on his desk. [but even making those up we seem to have surplus of most things. I suspect we may have both ordered some things at some point, giving us duplicates.]

"Well we've certainly done our job well," Asher said, a bit disappointed. Poor Kay had nothing to do. He asked after a moment, "Kay, have you thought about how we're going to talk to Danika about this?"

Kay flinched, shaking his head. Damnit, he'd been so distracted he hadn't even thought about explaining to the kids. [She can read my thoughts, I can't lie to her. Not easily. They must already be able to pick up on the anxiety across the ship. ] He bit down on his lip, worried. [I think we have to be honest, with all of them. ] He felt a surge of guilt. Poor little Danika, all of them abandoning her to fight what could very well be a hopeless fight.

Asher nodded. "I think you're right, we can't lie to her, any of them, about this. It's going to be awful for them, but it's best that they know what's happening." He sighed, "The children are supposed to leave as soon as possible. We should talk to them as soon as we can, maybe when Starr comes back."

Kay nodded grimly, he looked awkward and uncertain for a moment, then pulled Asher into a tight hug. He was trembling a little, he was really really frightened.

Asher hugged Kay tightly, noticing how he was trembling, and feeling awful about everything the Family had already done, and everything the Family would do before this was over.
Danika was being sent away.
The odds of them winning against the Family were painfully bad.
And if the Family caught them...
Asher kept trying not to think about it, but he could imagine how much worse it was going to be this time.

Kay burried his face in Asher's shoulder, trying to steady his breathing. He couldn't stop thinking about the family and what they'd done to them last time, and he knew most of them couldn't survive that again. He knew he certainly wouldn't, in fact he'd decided he'd do what any Imperium citizen would do, die before he let them break him.

Danika didn't deserve to lose all her family, not like this. He pulled away. [Go with her Asher, please. Go with her.]