Stormblade 4 C28: Battle Plans

28 - Battle Plans

Angelo Lawrence had no choice but to be patient.

He sat around a conference table deep inside the Governing Council’s bunker, listening as Councilman Nathan Anders outlined the terms of their agreement with a being so powerful that the Phoenix Reborn had confessed to not believing he could fight it, much less win. The rest of the Inner Council was assembled—and so was every S-Ranker in the city. Every seat was taken.

“Now, the main purpose of our meeting here,” Councilwoman Myers stood up and clicked a button, and the lights dimmed. A slide show started up behind her, and Angelo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “We are going to put together a counterattack and, finally, end the Carlsbad portal break.”

“Not to be a downer,” Hugo Martinez said, “but that’s not possible. The Coyotes and Iron Falcons have been working on that for a long time, and we haven’t even gotten close to the portal itself. There’s not a team on Earth that can break through, enter the portal, and kill that boss.”

Angelo raised an eyebrow. The Falcon’s Eye speaking up this early was a bad sign. He was just one S-Ranker, true, but he was a thorn in the GC’s side. The dictator of Tucson ruled with an iron talon, and even worse, the Governing Council would need his firepower.

“I agree,” said an independent S-Ranker. He was a fighter, like the Portal Tyrant but a little less powerful, and Angelo had seen him at work on the battlefield with his long, thin-bladed scythe. Marcus O’Riley. The Reaper Arisen. "This is a suicide mission. We’ve contained the portal before. We can do it again.”

It was time to put his weight on the scale.

“I disagree with your assessment in part, Marcus,” Angelo said. “We do not yet know the Governing Council’s plan. Until we do, it is impossible to say whether their assault has merit. Either way, the portal has been bottled up inside the caverns in the past, and it should be possible to return it to that status quo.”

“Thank you, Angelo,” Councilwoman Myers said. “Our strategy is simple. We will assemble a combined force from Phoenix, the West Coast Cities, and Texas strongholds, which will march on Carlsbad Fortress and attempt to retake it. From there, that force will threaten the caverns themselves.”

The slide changed, showing three arrows closing in on the fortress city. Harriet Myers kept talking. “We expect to need approximately thirty S-Rank delvers for this force, as well as a large number of A-Rank and B-Rank delvers to fill out the ranks. This operation will be coordinated by the Governing Council, and will exist to reclaim Carlsbad Fortress, plug the caverns again at the chokepoint within, and restore that status quo Angelo mentioned.”

“That’s not the real objective,” Hugo interrupted. “If it was, you wouldn’t bring the other cities into this.”

“You’re correct,” the Phoenix Reborn said. He stood up, taking the slide show’s control from Councilwoman Myers. We will also assemble a team of six delvers in the A to S-Ranks, which will not take part in this assault. Instead, they will enter the Carlsbad Caverns complex through an alternative entrance, infiltrating behind the choke point and pressing toward the Bottomless Pit, where we believe the portal is. That team will enter the portal while its defenders are drawn off, attempt to reach the S-Rank portal boss, and eliminate it.”

“That’s a suicide mission,” Marcus O’Riley repeated quietly.

“It is,” the Phoenix Reborn agreed. “However, it’s also our best chance of taking out the portal. The big problem with the Carlsbad portal break is the approach. It’s too hard to push to it; there are too many monsters in the caverns, and we don’t know for sure that the portal’s in the Bottomless Pit. But, in this case, we have an opportunity to show strength while the portal’s forces are at their weakest, and to force a reaction, clearing the way for an infiltration team. This is our one opportunity to enter and destroy the Carlsbad portal.”

“So, you want six S-Rankers to agree to a low-success-chance run into the middle of the most dangerous portal break in North America?” Hugo Martinez asked. “And your plan is ‘send them in and hope?’”

“Correct, in essence,” Councilwoman Myers said. “There are a few details I haven’t—“

“In that case—“

Angelo decided to push his thumb on the scale just a little more, but before he could, someone else spoke up.

“I volunteer,” Sarah Cullman said.

◄▼►

Sarah Cullman had patients waiting at the various hospitals across Phoenix. Some were delvers on the road to recovery. Others were more like Kade’s sister—unawakened humans with inexplicable medical conditions. None of them were crises, though. That was the only reason she’d agreed to this meeting in the first place—and so far, it had gone exactly like she’d expected.

The Inner Council was never a unified front unless it was lined up against a threat to the whole city—a portal surge, the Siege of Phoenix, or something similar. Take away the pressure of losing everything, though, and the same bad actors spoke up. The Falcon’s Eye wanted to position Tucson in a place of strength. The other independent, guildless S-Rankers turned the whole thing into a dick-measuring contest. And the four Phoenix guild leaders weren’t any better. She only worked with Angelo, Terrel, and the others because the city needed her.

And yes, she was very aware of that hypocrisy.

So, when she volunteered for the strike team—again—it wasn’t out of some sense that the team would be a perfect, no-flaws kind of set-up. It was to try to mitigate those flaws.

“Perfect,” Councilwoman Myers said. “Building around a healer makes sense. Who else?”

Angelo coughed. “Yes, who else is going?”

“Well, obviously, Bernard. With Deborah unavailable, he’s the only tank who can do the job,” Myers said quickly.

Bernard the Wall grumbled in the corner, but he nodded. “So be it.”

“And ideally, we’d have Terrel Young and Hugo Martinez as our main sustained damage,” she continued.

Sarah closed her eyes. Terrel was a definite ‘yes’ for her, but bringing the Falcon’s Eye in? That felt like a mistake—the kind of mistake that, if they were lucky, wouldn’t get the rest of the team killed.

But Hugo only coughed once and nodded. “I’m in, provided Angelo Lawrence goes as well.”

The room went quiet. Everyone looked at Angelo, then at Sarah. She shook her head slowly. “Angelo would be best off with me from a health perspective. I don’t trust the other healers to manage what he does to his body when he goes all-out. But…”

“However, you believe that I will be more effective in the open, in a situation where the entire mission does not rest on me,” Angelo said quietly. He nodded. “I agree. My current condition is such that pushing into overload again would likely kill me, and that would not help the mission at all. We need a mage who can survive the run—not one who will kill themselves to make it.”

“Alright, I’m out,” Hugo said.

Sarah rolled her eyes, careful not to let anyone else see. It was the same ego-driven, ‘I’ll do it if these cowards will’ stuff that had kept her from joining any of the guilds.

Then a voice spoke up. “I’ll go instead of Angelo.”

She glanced at Nathan Anders. The big head of the Governing Council stood there, his retired S-Rank body still the match for anyone else in the room, with one or two exceptions. But, while the Phoenix Reborn was a physical, up-front-looking delver, he’d been a mage. A Transfiguration mage, specifically.

Councilwoman Myers shook her head. “You’d also be more effective with the distraction force.”

“I would. But the team you need in there takes priority. It has to be capable of killing an S-Rank boss and an unknown number of S-Rank enemies. The Light of Dawn specializes in massive area damage. I’m more flexible—and more functional in enclosed spaces. I’ll go.”

“Fine, I’m in,” Hugo said.

“You sure?” Terrel asked quickly.

“Yes.”

“That’s good. Don’t wimp out.”

Hugo’s eyes narrowed. “I won’t.”

“Good.

“It is good.”

“Can you two stop?’ Sarah asked. “If it’s Bernard, Terrel, Hugo, Nathan, and me, we still need one more. I’d prefer a support, personally.”

“That would be a mistake,” Angelo said quietly. “You want the boy instead.”

“Who? Kade Noelstra?” Councilwoman Myers’s face went carefully blank, and the rest of the room stared at her. “Why him? He’s not S-Rank.”

“No. However, the last spot should still be his. I recognized it for the first time during a break he responded to and I cleaned up, again when he came out of the portal besieging Carlsbad, then a third time when he fought back from his core break. Since E-Rank, he has consistently outperformed his apparent rank. He is already beyond most A-Rankers, and he is most likely not finished growing. In fact, I do not believe this council possesses the ability to prevent him from hitting S-Rank, even by denying him our path forward.”

“You don’t think so? I mean, we could always kill him,” one of the independent S-Rankers said.

“No, I do not believe you could. Maybe Terrel could. I’d have a good shot at it as well. But you, Walter, could not. He defeated Deborah Callahan in the tournament, and she was S-Ranked at the time. Since then, he has only gained power. He is a match for most of you already.” Angelo breathed in. “I would not recommend him if I did not think he could do this.”

Sarah clenched her teeth and watched as Councilwoman Myers mulled it over in her head. After a moment, the hawklike woman nodded. “I like it. It also separates Guildmaster Gerald from her power base. I’ve been looking for a way to keep her in check—she’s got too much power for a Type Three guildmaster, and that portal core should be in our hands, not hers. Getting Kade Noelstra out of the way might help us outmaneuver her.”

“But is he really the best choice?” Marcus asked.

Sarah nodded. “I’ll take him.”

So did Councilwoman Myers. “I’ll reach out and let him know. He’s expecting the message already.”

◄▼►

Governing Council Message:

Status: Confidential

Delver Kade Noelstra, report to the Governing Council building tomorrow morning at eight thirty AM for a meeting with Councilwoman Harriet Myers, Delver Nathan Anders, and Delver Sarah Cullman. The information to be discussed must remain between you and them, except where express permission is given to tell others.

The message was short and to the point. I read it between sets of nine-hundred-pound bench presses—far beyond the unawakened world record, but something that my A-Rank body could do thirty reps of without feeling sore. It was a warm-up for my real workout, and I was looking forward to it. A-Rank—and any other rank—only gave a delver the potential to be stronger. It was up to that person to take that potential and make it a reality, and I’d been doing it since E-Rank. Since before that.

But when I read the message, I stopped, racked the massive, bending bar, and put the weights back on the rack. The message made it clear that the meeting's agenda and discussions were confidential, but that its time and place weren’t. And I already knew what it’d be about.

So, after cleaning up the bench, I headed for Jessie’s makeshift office in the kitchen.

She didn’t even look up as I sat down on the stool next to her. “No workout today, Kade?”

“I’ll get back to it in a minute. Eight thirty tomorrow morning. Confidential meeting with Myers, Anders, and Sarah Cullman. They want me there.” I closed my eyes. “It’s time.”

“Already?” The laptop shut with a crisp clacking sound, and Jessie breathed in. “I thought we’d have more time. A week or so.”

“I don’t know if it’s time to go yet, but it’s the first move on the chessboard.”

“And you and Dad are ready?”

“We are. As ready as we can get, at least. I’m not sure how much closer to S-Rank I can get before we go, and other than reaching for grains of sand when I can, Eugene hasn’t given me much to work with.” I nodded slowly. “Yeah, we’re ready.”

“Can I see him again?”

“Sure.” I stood up and summoned the Stormkin Avatar.

Jessie stared for a moment. Then, before I could stop her, she threw her arms around the lightning avatar. I flinched and reached out to pull her away as the knight’s electric body sparked and arced, but she didn’t even seem to feel it. Instead, she only tightened her embrace. “Jessie, you good?” I asked, hand inches from her shoulder.

“Yeah.” She didn’t sound good, but she didn’t sound like she was hurting, either—at least not physically. After a minute, she disengaged. “Okay, you’re good. Thanks.”

I nodded. “No problem.” The Stormkin Avatar disappeared, and I got a good look at Jessie’s tear-soaked face.

Before I could say anything, she was talking. “Dad used to have a certain look to him when I was having a bad day. It was, uh, a little like there wasn’t any emotion on his face. Like he was deliberately trying not to feel anything. He’d go through a few routines with me. Meditation. Helping with stretches—the kind you need another person for, pushing on my legs and back and stuff. He learned how to massage specifically to try loosening the muscles and tendons around my knees and elbows. But when he was working on me, he never let any emotion get in the way of what he had to do.”

“I…don’t remember that,” I said.

“No? He never got that way with you?”

“I mean, he did. But it was only when we sparred. Even chess didn’t feel that way.” I took a deep breath. “We were always competing. Always.”

“I never felt that way with him,” Jessie said. Her voice dripped with something like wistfulness. “Dad was always a protector, someone who did whatever he could to help me feel better. He’d be happy or sad or whatever later, after I was as comfortable as he could make me, but when I needed him the most, he was all business.”

It was funny, the difference in how she’d perceived Dad. He’d been a protector for me, too—but more than that, he’d been someone to strive to be: a mentor, and a competitor. Jessie’s experience with Dad had been very different, and we’d never talked about it.

But before I could voice any of that, Jessie’s face hardened. “You’re going to be gone for a while, huh?”

“Yeah. I’ll try to see you guys when I can, but no promises. The S-Rankers are probably going to want me stronger than I am now. They’ll put me through the wringer until we deploy. Might even hit S-Rank if my core can handle it. But once we leave Phoenix, we won’t be back until the job’s done.”

Jessie went quiet for a while. I let her stand there, staring at me and thinking. Then she wrapped her arms around me. “I can’t stop you, Kade. Probably, uh, no one can. But be careful. Come back in one piece, or I’ll make Ellen kill you.”

I laughed as I hugged my little sister. “If I don’t come back in one piece, you won’t need her help to kill me, Jessie.”

“You’re damn right, Kade,” she said. Then she punched me in the arm.