Be our guest?

Dustin took a moment before replying to Aricia’s request. Taking an alien from a civilization that hadn’t reached space along on their journey wasn’t in accordance with protocol, he knew that much - but equally, a lot of what he was doing now was against protocol; the protocols were designed by the very aliens that were pretending the Fractal enemy didn’t exist. “I would need to consult with the vanishing one” he said at last, opting to use Defia to push the problem down the road. “I’ll try and talk to her soon about it, but as you know we are very busy with trying to bring light to your world.”

The butterfly woman sniffed and rubbed her eyes on her sleeve before nodding. “I understand. Just do not disappear without letting me know of her decision, please?” her voice was tired, and Dustin’s better judgment was almost overruled by the presence of someone clearly in pain that he could help. Doing his best not to just agree and focus on what would be best for Aricia, he gestured towards the house and asked the most obvious question. “You want to leave; do you have no wider family or friends? Forgive me if this is painful to discuss, but if I am to present your case I will need all the details.”

Aricia shook her head, turning to stare hauntedly towards the abandoned building. “I had few friends growing up; as to family, all that I have ever known lived here with me. My father spoke of a cousin, once, but… his branch of the family were sent to the great temple when I was very small. As to my friends now, none close enough that they would hold me down here or make me reconsider my request. I am effectively cut off from my people; if the vanishing one refuses my request I will do my best to survive but…” her words trailed away as she ran a hand over the rough side of the building.

With Aricia’s request floating in his mind, Dustin went in search of the people best placed to help him give her an answer. Extracting Meli and Emely from their respective work with the locals on customs and technology, and then finding a quiet place to talk took some time, but eventually he managed to inform them of the butterfly girl’s request. “I don’t want an answer now; we’ve got this war to plan and put into action first in any case, but I’d like you both to have a think about it. We’ll hold a meeting with everyone in the aftermath of our campaign and go over it then.” He said after filling them both in on the details. Emely looked ready to speak, but he shook his head. “Take your time - I want reasoned thoughts, not gut instinct, even if I do trust your snap judgments kitten.”

With the matter resolved for the time being - or at least put on hold - the crew of the Solar Ascent spent the remainder of that day working with the locals on the construction and training in operation of not only more of the repeater crossbows, but also a pair of large ballistae, weapons intended to help deal with the fortifications that Sola’s scans had shown were present around most of the larger temple complexes. Normal ballistae wouldn’t have been much good against stone though, and so they were cheating slightly; Rye had cobbled together something that looked like a ballistae but underneath the main mechanism also had a series of magnetic accelerators. They’d need to take the extra additions away at the end of the conflict, but in the meantime the extra power would speed up the already impressive wood and metal bolts to the point where they could take chunks out of stone walls quite comfortably.

“The most important thing is this first strike.” Meli said at dinner that evening; the entire team along with a few of the local elders had gathered for the meal and so it was being used as a planning session on top of a culinary one. “If we are to drive back the followers of the fallen vanishing ones, we need to take the nearest temple grounds swiftly and effectively. The other temples seem to have as of yet not learned of the situation - whether that is because the people here are confident that we will lose or panicked about how they will be perceived if they reveal the threat we pose is unclear but it works in our favour.”

Her words earned a round of appreciative nods from the gathered elders as the Velca woman continued. “If we can take the temple, the lady Defia will give a speech from it’s summit declaring the official start of the liberation; that should flip the nearby villages over to our side if your assessment of them is accurate. With them, we will have gained a strong position from which to build. At that point, Rye and I will show you how to begin to make use of the resources you will have captured to build an army capable of pushing the followers of the false gods back, eventually liberating the entire world.”

Dustin admired the way the firelight sparkled in his wife’s eyes as she nodded towards Rye and Defia who were sat in deep discussion - admittedly, about microelectronics, but the locals couldn’t understand a word of it so it probably sounded deeply mystic to them. Glancing up, Rye caught her lover’s intent and drained her glass before rising to her feet. “The weapons we have supplied are strong, but not infallible.” She began, before gesturing towards the map that Emely had spread out in front of the assembled group. “We have greater speed of firing, but they have a defended position and longer range with their bows. Now, as ya know, we all come from different stars - mine is a star of engineering, Meli’s one of science. But Dustin’s… Dustin’s is a star of war.”

The group swivelled as one to stare at Dustin as he winced and rose to his feet. “My people were chosen to serve as the right hand of the vanishing ones in this mission for that exact reason. Freedom cannot be delivered - it must be taken, fought for, earned. This is a lesson those from my star learned early on - many years before I was born. We fought one another bitterly, from the time we first developed stone tools until the day we learned to forge our own stars and use them as weapons. The battle ahead may look terrible to you who have known only the peace that is forged by tyranny - but to bring about your freedom, trust when I say that it is nothing new to my kind.”

Pausing for breath, he pulled a set of carved markers from his pocket and set them down on the map. “Each of these represents ten of our men, and these two…” he pointed towards two larger red markers “…the great bows of the sisters. Their blessing will not last long beyond this battle, but it will be enough. Now, the plan is as follows…” all eyes were on him as he delivered what was a remarkably simple strategy - attack under the cover of night, using the fact that they had access to leaders (Dustin and his friends) who could see in the dark (thanks to night vision optics). Get close enough to the side walls, away from the heavily defended main gate, then use the ballistae to punch holes on two sides simultaneously. Rye had cooked up some slightly more explosive bolts to create the initial breech, after which the weapons would swivel to target the main gate turrets. The combined firepower should let the teams armed with the compact repeater weapons breach the compound without too much difficulty, and from there they could seize the main gate.

Once the gatehouse fell, it would be effectively game over for the opposition. It was widely agreed by the elders that all but a handful of the most fanatical would surrender once their walls were taken. That handful would be dealt with personally by Defia - aided and abetted by Yril’k who was as of yet unseen by the locals; the Vex’ess warrior remaining behind in one of the shuttles when the others had disembarked, the intent being that she would stay there until they were ready to launch their attack, at which point she would make her own way stealthily to the rogue Fractal’s side.

It was a basic enough plan, and one drawn from years of actual sieges on Earth. The ability of their tech to create breeches rapidly could have been done with local engineering - there were sufficient resources around to manufacture gunpowder in large enough quantities for cannon to become an option, but that would have taken time, time that they did not have if they wanted to create a beachhead rapidly. Regardless of the simplicity of their decisions, the elders nodded along sagely and it wasn’t long before the assembled diners began to drift away from the meal to their quarters for the night. As the others left, Dustin caught Meli’s eye and nodded in the direction of one of the shuttles. “We’re bunking in shuttle two for tonight” he said firmly, overruling any plans the scientist might have had for trying out the local accommodation when he stepped closer and whispered in her ear. “Tomorrow, we go to war; I’d quite like some alone time with my wife before we go into battle” his meaning quite clear by the way he rested a hand on her backside as he spoke.