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?"

Ellie shook her head. "I remember what everything does, it's just doing the right things with them that's harder to remember. I mean maybe I'll only have time to wrap a person in a bandage, I can remember that much, but if it takes something more complicated I'll be in trouble."

Sawna thought about that a moment then glanced to Kay and back "Perhaps a 'cheat sheet' then? A small thing to tell you what to do that you can keep in your pack?"

Kay nodded and found some paper to write on, handing it to Asher because he had neater writing than he did.
Also he had most of the pens. grrr.

"Kay?" Matt asked quietly. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Kay frowned but nodded, leading his brother over to a quieter part of the room while the others messed about with first aid supplies.

"Thalia refuses to leave." Matt told Kay softly, looking fretful.

Kay nodded. And you don't want her to stay right?

Matt nodded. "She can't, she's in no condition to fight but she's stubborn. "

So what do you want me to do? Kay frowned. She certainly won't listen to me.

"Is there a safe way to knock out a pregnant woman?" Matt asked.

Kay's frown deepened. You can't be serious!

matt nodded grimly. "Oh I am. I'll do anything i have to do to get her and that kid to safety. If that means doping her up, so be it."

Kay bit his lip, thinking. I don't approve of this.

"You don't have to approve."

Kay glanced to the shelves. She'll know what you're planning.

"Which is why i've got to be quick." Matt reasoned.

Kay exhaled deeply and handed Matt a couple of sedative patches. Be careful Matt.

Matt smiled lopsidedly. "Always. Thanks little bro." He pocketed the patches.

Kay looked worried, shook his head, patted Matt's arm and went back to the others.

Asher set to work writing up some notes, glancing to Kay and may curiously as they talked.

He finished the notes and handed them to Ellie, who nodded. "Thanks Asher, thanks Sawna." She read the notes carefully.

Kay gave Asher a long suffering, i'll explain later look.

Matt picked up one of the first aid packs, nodded to everyone and hooked it to his belt. "Thanks, this is gonna be useful. I'm gonna... go see if I can be useful."

Kay nodded. Good luck.

Asher frowned, but accepted that whatever was going on, it would be better not to talk about in front of everyone. Sedative patches, hmm. He coached Ellie on something she was having trouble with, and tried to not think about it.
Sedative patches.
Secrecy.
Yeah, someone was probably about to get knocked out and thrown through a portal. Oh dear.

Sawna smiled at Ellie and let them teach her some more, watching and listening.

Kay focused on writing careful notes as neatly as he could to slip into each kit. He was trying not to think about what Matt was going to do. Oh he fully understood, but sheesh...
Poor guy just couldn't deal with Thalia being in danger again.

---

"How much weight can you carry?" Esk asked Ethan.

Asher smiled weakly at Kay and helped him write more notes to put in the kits. He was relieved by Kay's obvious distaste for the idea of drugging someone to send them away, it meant he probably wasn't willing to tase Asher and send him away, with was a relief.

~~
Ethan gave his weight capacity specs. It was a lot, definitely more than an average Terran."Obviously it depends on what shape the weight is in, though," he said. "What are you thinking of?"

"Ammo. We'll be getting though a lot of ammunition, particularly anyone in sniping positions. If you can carry a decent amount of ammo and a couple of guns, it means you can keep shooting longer." Esk shrugged.

---

Kay nodded back to Asher and kept writing. Each note was slipped into each kit and then the kits sealed shut till they'd be needed.
Then he looked to Sawna. [What's your blood supply looking like?] He asked. Her ability to rapidly heal people could come in useful, but they still needed a supply here for triage.

Ethan nodded. "Sensible. Are you thinking of me delivering ammo to people, or just shooting a lot of people myself?"

"You're an android, you have excellent aim. You're better used as a gunman." Esk reasoned. "We can have faster people acting as ammo runners, teleporters would be ideal...." He looked thoughtful. "Just aim to take out the keepers as quickly as possible, repeatedly. They'll probably have servants to throw at us and distract, try to focus on the keepers. If we can take out a chunk of them, their minions might retreat."

"Fair enough." Ethan considered the idea. "The Keepers really are the central force in this fight, I guess. Anamcara can be taken down with antimagic fields and scanners, the bulk of the army likely will just be disposable soldiers, but the Keepers are fast and strong, and they shapeshift and regenerate. The only way to kill them is to get close enough to stab them, which is going to take a hell of a lot of ammo if you're trying to not take any damage yourself."

Tala nodded. "It will be important to be rid of the disposable soldiers, as they will be an inconvenience if left unchecked. People such as I and Ellie and Matt will be well suited for such, we have magic or strength to take out many at once. The anamcara will also pose a threat, but are manageable with superior technology.
"The Keepers will be the largest inconvenience, and we will need all eight daggers to be in use, as well as all the fighters helping to keep the vermin distracted for their slaughter."

Esk nodded. "I say we give the fastest people a dagger each, maybe the Artruvians because they're magic immune and can fly, as soon as we take a keeper out, have them swoop in and finish the job. If we place snipers on the rooftops we should be able to take out a few before they realise where the fire is coming from. Medical scanners seem to stop the Anamcara from being able to do much, if we can keep a low level field focused on them, it'll make them totally useless in the fight. If we arm some of the shuttles, we can get aerial bombardments to scatter their troops and cut off their retreat. This finishes here." Esk nodded.

Tala's ears twitched happily. "This plan is most satisfactory. We shall need to make sure the artuvians will not be shot from the skies; although they are very maneuverable, they will also be highly visible and therefore heavily targeted." She looked to Luka, "You should certainly fly an armed shuttle. Perhaps the mechanics can help you prepare one, and we can search the Guild for other capable pilots."

Luka nodded. "I'll talk to Rigel." Maybe she could requisition the Devil itself, it was small and armed after all.
She went to find Rigel.

"If we have enough of them, only what, eight will be armed with daggers. Keep it so the enemy never knows who has the daggers, makes it harder to pick out the individuals among the crowd." Esk suggested.

"Yes, perhaps keeping the foe confused will be enough," Tala agreed. "I don't believe we should give all eight daggers to the artuvians, however. If the Family finds a way to easily take artuvians down, we could run out of ways to dispose of Keepers very quickly. Better to spread our most important weapon to people of a few different species. Starr had modified the daggers, they may be safe for magical creatures too now."

Esk nodded. "Scatter them then, we just need them with anyone who's quick enough to get in there and end those Keepers before they can heal and get back up."

Tala considered the options thoughtfully. "Perhaps four should go to the artuvians. The remaining four should go to other species. Starr, perhaps. You. Shane." She turned to look at Ethan, "An android mayhap, if your skills are as you say. This of course assumes that Starr's modifications are effective."

Esk nodded, he wasn't sure he'd have picked himself as he wasn't that fast. Shane and Starr though could move pretty dang fast, and take flying forms as well as huge hulking combat forms.
But he wasn't going to argue with Tala's judgement, she was pretty sensible about this sort of thing and had years on him when it came to military expertise.
"We won't know till we stab one of them. Just gotta hope she knows what she's talking about."

"We may have to change plans hastily, should the first one to kill a Keeper also die," Tala said in a thoughtful tone, not apparently overly concerned by the idea. "We shall have all androids and artuvians trained to use daggers in combat, in bayonet and dagger forms."

Esk nodded. "The Guild must have something to kill keepers, weren't they planning to execute Merith? Means they must have access to something too, if not daggers, what? "

Tala thought that over for a bit.

"Maybe they were going to throw him into the sun," Ethan suggested dryly. "That would keep him occupied indefinitely."

"That is a most feasible and intriguing idea. We shall ask Starr to assist in throwing Keepers into stars," Tala said.

Esk snorted with laughter. For some reason that just amused him okay?

"If Starr and Shane can use this method to destroy Keepers, we will have a dagger free for someone else," Tala said, ears twitching ever so slightly. "It is late today, so tomorrow we shall assess candidates for aptitude in dagger combat. The more folk we have ready to kill Keepers, the better off we shall be."

Esk nodded. "We have quite a lot of ammo at least, we should be able to hold them off for a while before we start having to ration it. " He stood up, hefting up the rifle and tucking the helmet under one arm.
"We should eat." He glanced to Ethan. "Or recharge or whatever. "

"Yes, it would be wise to attend to our own well-being. A weakened army is an ineffective one!" Tala stood, collecting her own rifle and ammo. She didn't have any armor yet, they didn't have any in her size. Tomorrow she'd go to town and get some fitted.

Ethan got up, he only took a pistol and a pouch of bullets for it for now, it seemed wrong to take anything bigger before he had been trained to use it properly.

Tala looked pleased. "We have done a good day's work, soldiers. Tomorrow we shall do all the better." She really was in her element here.

Ethan gave Esk an 'is she always like this?' look.