103 To Plan (1/2)

She ran up, grabbing towards the rifle. I lifted it up, grinning at her,

“Come on you gotta try harder than that.”

She morphed her arm, the oversized arm grasping the rifle. The strength of her grasp was tremendous. She leaned towards me, a full grin on her face,

“It’s good to see you too.”

I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up in a single armed hug.

“I missed you too.”

I set her down before she blushed, her blue gray skin turning purple. I released the rifle, letting her inspect it. As she looked at it, I analyzed her, discovering her level. I was worried that she wouldn't meet the level requirement. It was good to see that worry was unfounded.

At level 1554, it wouldn't be a problem. I raised an eyebrow,

“So how did you gain so many levels?”

She rubbed her hand across the metal on the rifle, “I haven’t just been getting intel. Torix has me making assassinations all the time.” She looked up, a teasing grin on her face, “What about you? 2000 already?”

I raised a hand, clamping it into a fist, “We killed Dakhma Wike.”

Her eyes opened wide, “What? How?”

I lowered the hand, “By kicking his ass.”

She nodded, “That does sound like how you would do it.”

I waved my hand, “Not anymore. We almost all died. I’m planning out the next fight with a follower.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’m sure it’ll be way different than us just kicking their ass.”

I pursed my lips, “Come on, give me some credit. I’m going to come up with something clever. Just you wait and see.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Uh-huh. Sure.”

I pointed at the rifle, “Well John and I had some other goodies planned out too. If this keeps up though, we might not find the time to make them.”

Althea raised a hand, “Wait a minute. I didn’t mean that...Wait a second, who’s John?”

I pointed at the rifle, “He’s an engineer who helps me design those cannons. I’ll introduce you some time.”

“So you’ve been taking all the credit this entire time? I was expecting more from you.

I turned around, a teasing tone in my voice, “Oh well, I suppose you’re right. I guess I’ll just go eat lunch by myself.”

Althea shoved my shoulder as she laughed, “Oh come on. You owe me a lunch. I’m so tired of rations.”

As Althea shoved me, she pushed herself backwards. She frowned, “What happened to you? You’re heavy as a house.”

I weighed my hands back and forth, like they were two scales, “More like a tank. A house is the next step up.” I pointed at her, “What about you though. You’re still stronger than me.”

She shrugged, “It’s useful for up close combat. I’ve been working on my knife skills recently.”

“Really? I can make you a knife too.”

Althea gripped her hands together, her chin resting on them, “Really?”

I started walking towards her tent, “Come on. Let’s walk while we talk. I’m starving.”

She slung her new rifle over her shoulder, “That sounds nice...and so am I.”

We paced through the camp, our walk slow and steady. It was like neither of us wanted the calm to end. By the time we reached our camp, she and I gushed over the new parts of our builds.

“Once I got a new unique skill for knives, it let’s me get bonus damage on targets that don’t know I’m there.”

“So it’s kind of like a stealth critical?”

She nodded with vigor, “Exactly! I really prefer firing at people. I’ll kite them back until they close in. I disappear all of a sudden, then I finish them off with a critical strike. It’s worked like a charm so far.”

I shook my head, “It sounds brutal. I’ve been sticking to my guns.”

“Keeping things brutal?”

I shrugged, “I mean, you can say it’s like that.”

She giggled, “I don’t think you can say it any other way.”

We reached her tent as I raised my hands, “I think of it as poetry made into violence. Painters draw out their work. Musicians compose their music. My art is made with violence instead, like a dance of death.”

I scratched my nose, “Eh, I don’t know. It sounds silly when I say it like that though.”

Althea shook her head, a knowing smile on her face, “No, I don’t think so. It sounds a lot like you. I think it’s perfect. You’re one of those people everyone thinks is some brute. Once someone get past that, you’re just a big old teddy bear.”

I raised my eyebrows, walking into her tent, “Sureee.”

She frowned at me, “What? I’m serious.”

I waved her off, “I’m as fluffy and huggable as a metal cactus.”

She crossed her arms, “So why did you make me the rifle then?”

I looked at her, then I glanced away, “I uh, figured that it was a good way of making my new strike team better.” I pointed both my hands forward beside my face,

“You know, offensively speaking.”

She smirked, “Uh huh.”

I nudged her side, “Well then why do you want lunch with me huh? So we can discuss tactics?”

She blushed, “You make good food. That’s it.”

“And you say I’m transparent.”

She shoved me, “Whatever. Go make some food.”

I stumbled towards her fridge, laughing the whole distance, “At your service, madam.”

We chatted away as I prepared us a salad with a sandwich. I always liked my sandwiches with a bit of kick, so I’d put arugula instead of lettuce and some caramelized onions. It took a bit more time to prepare, but it was worth it.

Althea’s glowing grin through the entire meal meant she shared my thoughts. At one point she laughed her ass off because I accidentally smeared mayonnaise over my face. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

At the end of the impromptu meeting, I stood up as I said,

“I missed these lunches. They’re always so refreshing. I have to go though.”

Althea deflated a bit, “Can we do this again tomorrow?”

I tapped my chin with my hand for a bit, “Hmmmm, yeah, I think so. I’ll be planning out the assault on Elijah over the next few days. A few breaks sprinkled in their shouldn’t be a problem. It may help me keep my mind clear anyways.”

She clapped her hands together, bouncing on her feet, “Good.” She lowered her hands, looking down towards the ground. Her left hand tapped its fingers without her knowing. She was nervous.

“What’s wrong?”

She looked up at me, “Uhm...what are you going to do after we get rid of Yawm.”

I tilted my head, staring off, “I’ve been asked more than once about that. I don’t know for sure, but I’m thinking of helping people rebuild. I know right after I finished BloodHollow, I kind of just went out on my own. If Torix hadn’t reeled me in, who knows where I’d be.”

I met her eyes with mine, “I sort of lost everything because of that. I never had much anyways, but I could have built something up. You know, made myself a new home or something like that. It’s weird, this place has turned into that for me.”

I shook my head, “But it’s just...it’s not going to last forever. Not unless someone gets everyone together and makes it happen. I could be that person. Not forever, but for a little while. After that, I don’t know...I’ll probably just go out and explore the galaxy for a bit.”

She nodded. She bit her lip before saying, “Would you mind if I helped out?”

I creased my eyebrows, “What? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you can. I could use a shapeshifting assassin anyday.”

She sighed, all the tension leaving her, “Ok, great. That’s all I needed to know. Good luck with your plans.”

I grinned back, “Good luck kicking ass, though I know you won’t need it.”

I paced away from her, walking back towards the center of the camp. Of course I’d rather plan this all out without other people watching, but I didn’t have a desk in my tent. I reached one of the standing desks before picking it up, papers and all. With it held over my head, I carried it to my tent.

I mean, if Yawm had spies or something like that, I didn’t want it to be that easy to figure out our secrets. With my unique skill, Knowledge Maker, I could hold the information in my head forever. Anytime I needed that information, I could sift through my memories for it. It was kind of like a library in my skull.

With that goal in mind, I reached my tent before getting to work. I needed knowledge first off. Torix sent us progress reports about the activities of each Follower, so I sifted through them for details. It didn’t take too long before I got an idea of how Elijah spent an average day.

He was a fallen seraph, a converted eldritch that worshipped Yawm as a god. He worshipped Yawm before he went to sleep and right after waking. He organized the named ones that Yawm assimilated from his plague.

They had three ranks, seekers, fighters, and researchers. Seekers sought out people hiding in the quarantine. Fighters fought intruders. Researchers experimented with abundant eldritch. Elijah would give each them sermons before they went about their daily duties. Since most of the named were rather young and inexperienced, this process took time.

While Elijah guarded the untrained recruits, Ajax was the exact opposite. He controlled the veterans that travelled with Yawm from world to world. If Althea, Kade, and Aatrox weren’t tearing their ranks apart, then Ajax would have already dismantled the steel legion. We lost Aatrox during the fight with Dakhma, so the pressure was on Althea to bridge that gap now.

That’s why Althea was so busy. She stopped most of Yawm’s denizens from retaliating against our bombardment. The more I looked at Torix’s plan and info, the more impressed I became. No matter how many moving parts there were in the plan, Torix worked it like a well oiled machine. It was a tremendous feat of willpower and intelligence.

My goal was integrating my own plans into his without missing a beat. I found my chance fast. Elijah held a weekly sermon, something like a church gathering, with all the named ones. During this time, Ajax meditated throughout the day, reflecting on the prior week. Ajax seemed strained during these meditations now.

Torix hypothesized it was due to a crisis in his conscious. Ajax’s activities were restrained, like he wasn’t giving anything his full attention. I figured this would be the perfect time for attacking Elijah. It might seem counterintuitive at first glance, but I justified it with a few facts.