FORTY
“This is going to be our final planning meeting before we begin our assault on Oasis,” Benny started their meeting and every head leaned forward. For this final gathering they’d roped in every single person they could. Holograms filled the center area, dozens of heads as professional soldiers and sailors all got ready for what was to be the greatest battle of their lives.
“If Lero’s information is correct, the Oasis should be anchored to a gas giant in an empty system. The vast majority of her support fleet will not have made the jumps with her, but there were plenty of secondary craft lodged in the hangars and you can be sure that the Lion has called forward all their reinforcements,” Benny said.
“That’ll be our job,” Commodore Perry said, the older man was the ranking officer left who had survived the attack.
“Thank you, Commodore. Our capital ships should be more than enough to suppress what few hulls they have, in the meantime an agent aboard the ship will lower the Oasis’s defense grid allowing us to land,” Benny explained.
“I’m nervous about this. The Oasis isn’t a warship, but her sheer size and the population aboard changes how we need to proceed. We can’t just blow a part of the hull and insert there, we’d kill tens of thousands of civilians," Commander Hurin cut in and Benny nodded.
“Inquisitors will be provided a code. Inquisitor Ran isn’t in shape to lead the attack himself, but he still has agents aboard who will be able to act. We will land at multiple points, which are being sent now. Each team will be assigned critical areas that will secure key areas.”
“Is it confirmed that Sommers is off ship? If he’s there we all die,” Hurin said dead pan as everyone paled a bit and looked toward Benny.
“We don’t have two source confirmation, but Lero Ran said he was off ship. If he’s aboard, I will engage him myself,” Benny promised.
“No offense, sir. But he’d eat you for fucking lunch and still have room for desert if your files are correct,” Hurin said and Benny blinked at the commander once before nodding in agreement.
“You’d be correct. I will still engage him and suppress him to the best of my abilities while everyone retreats.”
“You wouldn’t unseal yourself?” Hurin asked, frowning as he leaned in close enough that his face took up the entire of his emitter.
“If I unsealed myself to fight a Knight as powerful as Sommers, it’d take awhile for my strength to reach its former potential. My life would be measured in minutes then, but that doesn’t matter so much as that the fight would destroy the Oasis in its entirety. Which, I don’t think I need to remind you all is a terrible idea.” Everyone just stared at Benny for a moment before they realized he wanted them to verbally confirm it.
“My team will head toward the central bridge. At the same time there’ll be two squads of Dragons attempting to reach it through different paths. Our limited numbers will make this a struggle as we will need to secure primary and secondary life support systems, primary engines, and the three main power cores. All of them will be heavily defended. Casualties will be high. Making this even more difficult will be the civilian population,” Benny said as he continued to send instructions to everyone.
“Have we received word on any reinforcements?” Alice asked, looking toward the Dragon Knights who dominated the group. The grim looks everyone shot each other gave Kon a bad feeling that Hurin confirmed.
“Almost none. Our entire Order is under attack across the sector. Few have troops open to move to reinforce us as they’ve already deployed to reinforce each other. Without alerting everyone that the Oasis is missing, I don’t see any possibility of rallying numbers fast enough.”
“We’ve been over this, if we report the Oasis as under Lion control it’ll be a major coup for them. The PR disaster could convince fence sitters on flopping over and give the Lion more support. We can not embolden the Lion in any way. We recover the Oasis and then start spreading the news,” Benny reconfirmed to them.
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“This entire sector is filthy with Lions. We’re outnumbered two-to-one. Any broadcast we send will allow the Lions to reinforce the Oasis. We’re in a time crunch, we have to get to the ship and recover it before any Lions get there,” Hurin said, disgust in his voice as he talked about the traitorous Order.
“Hurin is correct. We must attack quickly and use speed and surprise to turn the tide. There may be some loyalist forces still onboard, but we can’t plan for that to happen. Once we’re on the Oasis, we’re on our own till we take it,” Benny confirmed.
“At current numbers we have twelve thousand light infantry who will make up the bulk of our attack. The speartip will be of course our Knights, which we are admittedly thin on,” Hurin said as he took command of the meeting. Benny sat back as the talk dissolved into logistics and numbers that Hurin had better grasp of than Benny would.
“Do you think it’s enough?” Kon whispered to Alice, not wanting to break into the meeting.
“It’ll have to be. We don’t know how many troops the nobles smuggled aboard or if the local security forces kept their allegiance or not. Knights will have to do the majority of the lifting. Which means you now,” Alice whispered back, giving him a slight shoulder bump.
“Can’t say I’m not nervous. It’ll be good to be in steel though,” Kon said, thinking of the suit of armor that Bob was making for him.
“That old bastard has a new suit for me ready to go but hasn’t let me play with it yet.” Alice’s smile was wide as she looked at him and Kon thought about why there was so much mischief in her gaze.
“What you got cooking?” Kon asked, stealing the phrase that the old ones threw around.
“New full rune. I got the treasure from Benny’s treasure and the rune from the mages. Finally got some firepower,” Alice said and Kon couldn’t help but feel a shiver of fear at that. Alice was a defensive juggernaut with her abilities, particularly Resonance and Regrowth which kept her moving through damn near everything.
“What is it?” Kon asked, throwing away propriety as Alice was nearly vibrating with excitement.
“No, no, no, I’m not telling. But it suits me and my fighting style. Bob had to do some slight alterations to my suit, which is why I haven’t been able to try it out,” Alice explained.
“Feels like this was just a way to tease me,” Kon said, drawing the words out as Alice looked over toward the meeting which continued to be a long list of logistics and planning they should have been listening to.
“A little bit. Have you started working on yours?” Alice said, steering the conversation the direction she wanted.
“Not really.”
“You were moving fast, it can be a good idea to let the power settle. Grow accustomed to your new normal. Stagnation is its own fucked up momentum,” Alice warned.
“I think I figured out how to push my body cultivation further, but I’m worried if I settle more greater runes it’ll make it harder. I want to talk to the Alchemist and one of Daniur’s contacts a bit more. I do have my next set of lesser runes planned and how they’ll tie into my greater rune.”
“I’m glad that you’re being diligent in that at least. I taught you well,” Alice said with a straight face.
“We have very different memories about your teachings,” Kon muttered as he looked over to see Benny glaring at them. Kon focused on what
“Ohhh, you’re in trouble,” Alice’s voice was so quiet that Kon could hardly hear it, the whisper of a sigh. He did notice that she didn’t look away from the briefing though, green orbs locked onto Hurin as he continued to talk.
“You’re a bad influence,” Kon said as well, trying to keep his voice just as soft. He failed as Benny’s brow scrunched a bit further and Kon stopped talking. An hour later the meeting was dismissed, holos cutting off as the Puca became a little less crowded.
“I know the Knights have become less disciplined, but that was something else,” Benny growled, anger in his voice as he glared at the two of them. Alice and Kon both stayed quiet, bracing for a tongue lashing, but it didn’t come as Benny just shook his head.
“Sorry, Benny. I’ll be better,” Kon promised.
“Everyone likes to hear about the tactics or strategy being utilized. You’ll lose the fight before it happens if your logistics aren’t in place. Armies starve or run out of supplies or never even reach the battlefield because the shuttles they’re supposed to ride on don't have fuel. Our future expedition after this over will require a great deal of logistics. Food, men, weapons, water, air, and more things than you can think of.” Benny fell silent as both Alice and Kon nodded toward him, not daring to speak as the ancient warrior rubbed at his face.
“I’ve recorded all of it. Go over it again and make sure you missed nothing. You’re leaders now, not just fighters. People’s lives will depend on you. Don’t let them down.”