I grab my stuff
"So you're coming with."
Sunny glares at me
"And you complain about not being told"
I put my hands up
"Oh come on sun. I didn't want to affect the negotiations."
He sighs.
"I guess."
I look at the locked up house.
"So changing star is going to be part of valor"
He looks away
"Yeah she is."
The door opens to kai and effie.
"Damn… you two are really leaving?"
I look away
"Yeah..."
I think... that's guilt. Its fine.
"I am."
Effie looks between us clearly wanting us to explain
"And you're still not going to tell us where?"
I shake my head
"Its classified"
Sunny nods
"Ah, I'm not at liberty to say. Don't worry, though. You'll probably learn in about a month."
Wait I forgot my normal clothes! I quickly go to grab it.
I run down stairs and sunny seals up the house. I glance at him
"Well. Let's go then"
He glances at me
"Go without me I'll catch up."
I nod then stop. I take out a bow from my satchel. I had put a lot of effort into it.
"Give this to the kid"
He nods and I start walking. Soon Sunny appears from the shadows.
"I can't believe this"
He nods
"Going to leave the city"
I shake my head
"No joining the goverment"
He looks me up and down then shrugs
"yeah, I didn't either"
Me and sunny, doll is here too of course, get a whole cabin to ourselves. Doll sits watching the world pass by. I reorganize my satchel, I had stocked up on all of the basics now I need to reorganize.
"Hey"
I look up at sunny who's looking out of the window, his face is almost melancholic as he watches the world go by
"What.... do you think about being a slave"
I go back to what I was doing
"Its better to be dead then a slave."
Nothing much happens on the ride. When its done I look out.... at the.... sea
"Oh.... oh yeah"
Sunny clearly judges me
"Are you scared of the ocean?"
I scoff
"I spent 5 years in the forgotten shores i have the right to."
I look at the massive ships. Impressive I have to say. How much money was used to make this? Must be a lot.
"Hey, Sunny, and hey ■■■■! And uhhh hey... you. Welcome to our small port."
Hey you? Oh
"I forgot. I can clone myself, thats a clone"
J nods before looking at doll
"Oh. Two of you."
I do finger guns
"Yeah"
She looks at the ships
"Impressive, aren't they?"
Sunny glances at the ships too
"Yeah… now that I see them, I am starting to understand how we are going to evacuate eight hundred million people from Antarctica."
J shakes her head almost entertained
"Don't be so sure. This is just one of the several convoys that is going to sail to the Southern Quadrant. They are going to deliver the First Evacuation Army to Antarctica, load up a few millions of refugees, and sail back. If everything goes well, by the time the ships return, the mobilization would have already started. The fleets will bring us reinforcements, take more civilians aboard… and repeat the process as many times as it takes."
She sighs deeply knowing this will take some time
"Of course, there's more or less zero chance that everything will go well. Even if it does, it will take us at least a year to gather everyone… if we are still alive by then. Who knows, maybe we will be all overwhelmed and devoured by abominations in the first few months."
Sunny does not seem very entertained by this
"...You really know how to raise morale, you know?"
I keep casting quick glances at j as I get into the PTV. As I do I write a message
[get ready.]
Doll glances at me and nods. We both grab onto the PTV. The PTV starts rolling almost smashing into things.
"Why are you so calm about this?"
Sunny looks back with a confused expression
"Because I'm mentally prepared?"
J takes a sharp turn
"How do even do that for this kind of driving?"
Sunny looks surprised
"Oh the driving isn't that bad"
Did he think i meant something other then this kind of driving.
I almost fly out of the PTV, very happy to be on the ground.
"Actually, you two arrived just on time. The officer roster of our company is more or less full as of a few days ago, so we were about to hold our first briefing. It was supposed to start half an hour ago, but I postponed to come grab you from the train station."
Sunny glances over with a eyebrow raised
"Oh?"
J nods going on
"Everyone more or less only knows as much as you do, so I'll bring all of you up to speed in one go. Granted, the rest had more time to prepare, not to mention the fact that they have been with the government for years. Don't let those old dogs intimidate you, though."
I pat myself off. I am a divine aspect user nobody and I mean nobody is going to intimidate me..... except healer she's scary.
I summon my helm just before we get to the room, have to have my signature. We walk into a room with 5 people already there. J waves her hand when they stand
"At ease. We are all Ascended here. There's no need for ceremony."
Their all in bodysuits. Not putting that on. Hell nah, just no, respect to them but I'm different. They recognize my helm, but not sunny
"Excuse me, ma'am. Who is this… young man? Is he your new adjutant?"
Something about that clearly slightly amused j
"He? Gods, no… this "young man" is Master Sunless, the latest and final additions to the command structure of the First Irregular Company. He is not only one of the youngest humans in history to reach the Rank of an Ascended, but also has a kill count higher than most of you combined. So… give him a warm welcome, I guess…"
J introduces everyone, wow so nice of her to do that for sunny. I am not remembering all that.
"We will get to know each other's Aspects and combat capabilities later. It is not too important for now, anyway, since I expect all of you to act independently of the rest more often than not. Now, let's get down to business. Today, I will bring you up to speed about the projected composition of the First Irregular Company, our purpose, and guiding military doctrine…"
She presses a button and a projection of Antarctica appears on the table.
"But to do that, you will have to understand the general shape of the upcoming operation. As all of you already know, this is Antarctica."
She waves her hand at it.
"All Antarctica is divided into three parts…"
I finally leave with sunny. So much information.
"I am not going to lie… all of this seems a bit overwhelming."
J shakes her head like this is all fine and normal
"Don't be too concerned. You already have the necessary experience and qualifications to make things work. It is not like the others are better prepared to deal with something of that scope… above all, we will need the ability to swiftly learn and adapt. That is how we will survive this unprecedented mess of a disaster."
She then gestures at the exit.
"Come on. Let's get you settled."
Me and sunny sit in his room together. We are trying to coordinate our teams. We had already look at what we will drive. I'll need someone to help with repairs.
"Hm. There's a guy with portals"
We had both agreed on one thing we bring the power they will bring the utility.
"I could use that to portal into the middle of the swarm and go full crazy from there."
He nods, its a both stupid and smart plan, my aspect is one of the few that could pull it off. I put that on the list he will be really useful. Next I'll need a long range fighter.
It takes a while before we are both done. I stretch.
"Well we will meet them soon I guess."
He nods then sighs
"Well they'd best be cooperative" I snicker "yeah you'll need it"
He shoots me a nasty glare
"What does that mean"
I gesture at his... well everything
"You look even more doll like then doll"
His face scrunchies up
"I...."
He gets visibly defeated as I'm right and to disagree would be a lie.
Me and sunny go to meet our new cohorts
"Feels weird"
He nods
"Yeah. Whole new cohort"
I nod
"Yeah definitely weird."
He then gets a look. He sent his shadow forwards and is hearing something isn't he. I hear talking once we get close sunny smiles a little evily and disappears into the shadows. I swing open the doors
"Yes yes get that all out of the way. Yes I am Ascended Heat Seeker. And yes sun did all of those things. I personally saw him do many of those."
Sunnys team looks more then a little scared. My team seems to mostly be very very nervous, it may be because of my still off reputation.
Me and sunny take the same method to test things. Get the new cohort to fight me one by one. Portal is quite a devious fighter using the enemies blind spot against them, it does not work on me of course.
Ranger is our healer, less devious and more direct their also the healer so that works.
Fighter is able to make thin strings that are quite sharp, a faster more speed based fighting style.
Shielder is almost as tall as sunny but can change size into someone bigger then effie they have a calm and steady way of things.
Rogue has the ability to speed things up and go invisible, it will work well with me gaining all of the attention.
Lastly beast can lay out strong mind attacks, even then they fight like a wild animal, a shame they lost to me within a second, I fought like that before. Do as much damage as fast as possible while minimizing injuries but not stopping them. He isn't stupid however as he is actually our driver and repair specialist.
As we are studying a map sunny grins finding something very funny. I shake my head, listening in on their conversations? To shame! He then cracks up and starts laughing loudly
"You should break that habit."
He slowly calms down
"Oh come on you get some real gems when you do, I'd say you should try but you can't"
I sigh shaking my head. Later me and sunny finally use all of those points the government gave us. He upgrades his PTV making it a real beast. I do some of that but mostly I use that to get a few memories. Most importantly of all something that helps boost essence recovery, that and holds essence to later release. I give that to the healer of course.
Finally its almost time to move out! Finally man finally! We meet up with the other captains
"What's up with you? You look like you're about to topple over."
Sunny waves his hand as I stretch. Doll does different stretches.
"....It's nothing. I'm just tired because of all the stuff I have to do before we depart. Being an army officer is not a breeze, as it turns out. Who could have thought?"
She grins like this is the funniest thing ever
"Oh, right. I forgot that this is your first command posting. You have yet to discover the wonders of delegation!"
That wont work with everything but okay
"There are many things that can't be delegated. Plus, you have to know what your subordinates can handle to assign them tasks. I think that you are doing fine, kid."
They talk for a bit about what everyone went for then they look at me
"I frankly dont know what your team is"
I shrug
"Distraction while certain members pick off stronger ones."
She nods then stops
"dont tell you!"
I shrug
"I'm going to portal into the middle of the swarm and cause utter hell"
She laughs
"Thats insane"
I shrug
"I guess im insane then."
I dig in my bag
"You all want weapons"
Everyone but sunny stares at me the big guy speaks
"Wait you actually hand out weapons?"
The cohorts are talking about injuries they look at me and sunny he shrugs
"Oh? Let me think… I had my ribcage crushed once, I guess. I was also disemboweled, poisoned, burned, and drowned. One time, I was even burned and drowned at the same time."
I keep on with my fiddling
"I once fought a fallen beast while a sleeper. The thing tore my arm leg and side open. I was able to rip off its leg and take its eye out"
The group looks between me and sunny then scoot away.
When the time comes me and sunny separate.
"Well I think for one this will be real easy!"
Beast is as confident as ever heard puts his arm around Ranger who glares at him
"Well may have a member of changing stars cohort on our team but that doesn't stop us from dying from one mistake."
Shielder just as realistic as ever, a shame she's tiny. Ranger pushes beast off
"Well its better then not being on a team with heat seeker"
Fighter finally comes down from the clouds
"Doesn't that mean we will go to the most dangerous places?"
Rouge sighs heavily
"So much work and nonstop too"
I clap my hands
"Okay idiots and fools we will be leaving today you'd best be ready!"