The Tent fell silent as I did my thing; first things first, I picked up the pointer stick used to move figures and such around the table and began drawing lines branching out alongside the inner gates, boxing the two of them in, and after adding a few choke points along the way, I had a full scale, six-walled box drawn before stepping back and continuing to run calculations in my head.
"If this was your idea…then it’s a big ask, Commandant; even given the information I listed on my file, the sheer amount of energy required to make such a massive entrapment is beyond what I would be comfortable trying." Exhaling loudly, my eyes flicked back and forth as I tried to figure out a suitable way to do what was being asked of me, but in the end, even with my processing power, I couldn’t find a logistical or logical solution.
"If it were one, maybe even two walls, I could probably push my limits, but for me to box in a 70+ mile zone…I alone am simply not enough. We would need two, maybe three of me to do so…and given our present company, not one of them has an Earth Elemental Power on par with what you are asking." My eyes drifted to a young lady in light green armor.
Terrestia was another Geomancer, but her Talent revolved around moving rocks, so in theory, if she had enough PC, she could probably push some stuff around. Still, since she couldn’t manifest them as a kinetic would and couldn’t mold the earth into a desired shape, she was pretty much useless.
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"I see….What about making a trench instead of walls? Would that be possible?" Hearing my rebuttal, he quickly devised a secondary plan, one I had practically guided him to.
You see, while I may be temporarily on the side of the government, had taken up an unofficial post and was even sharing certain bits of information here and there; it was never my purpose to give them everything on a silver platter; after all, at the end of the day, I didn’t give two shits about them.
My sole reason for being involved in this whole fiasco was so that I would have a plausible explanation and alibi for being near the tower in the first place…well, that and to keep eyes on Brenden, Emilia, and my father.
I knew the three of them would end up coming here one way or another, so I had to involve myself as Nexus and not Xipher.
"A trench…given the strength of not only the players but any other hostiles that appear from the Tower, a trench would need to be…" muttering to myself as I made a show of figuring everything out on the fly even though I already had done so earlier, I eventually finished and nodded at the Commandant.
"It’s possible, sigh, but I will need HydroLift, Terrestia, and Aquastat’s aid. If they are able to soften the ground, I should be able to complete preparations roughly 10 minutes before the theorized time of the Gates opening.
Hearing their names, Terrestia and Aquastat perked up. They seemed to feel as if their moment to shine had finally arrived, especially since I had a bit of a reputation for giving handouts to those aiding me in one way or another, yet there was a single speed bump in the road, and he was quite annoyingly vocal.
"HAHA, What’s this? The Great and All-Powerful Nexus is asking me for assistance; what a world we live in…."
BANG, BOOM, BAM BAM BAM BAM
I didn’t even humor him this time, as the first thing I did was deliver a spinning heel hook to his chin, which sent him spinning to the ground…loudly.
From there, I jumped on him and rained punches from above. The best part was that not a single person came to Hydro’s aid; instead, everyone looked the other way or busied themselves with some other type of preparation for the upcoming battle.
---
After delivering street justice to HydroLift, I gathered the other Two returners I had mentioned and, dragging Hydro’s unconscious body, we left to begin digging the largest ditch seen since the Panama Canal was built in 1914.
When we got to the location of the first gate, I was surprised to find that my timetable had been off slightly. Based on the runic inscriptions on each gate, I knew that we still had several hours to work on this little project; thus, after loading everyone up with plenty of Alpha Grade Particle water, my little team of four went to work building a massive 800 foot deep, ditch that boxed in over 140 miles of terrain.
Once that was finished, I gave everyone except that bastard Hydro a few goodies in the form of resources and sent them on their way to finalize their battle preparations.
By the way, I know I’m undermining the task we completed, but if I am being totally honest, I could have easily done it by myself in half the time. It ended up taking us a little under 3 hours to complete it.
The reason it took so long when I could have easily sped things up, was me downplaying my own abilities, mainly because I could feel dozens of hostile eyes locked onto me no matter where I went, and I didn’t doubt that Draven and his goons or some other third party were constantly watching my every movement.
What I also failed to mention was that I had gone out of my way to erect a massive 300-foot stone wall on the backside of the gates, spanning the length of the gates and finishing off the box, and had done so using all the excavated earth we had dug through for the trenches.
Basically, I had been a busy bee while the rest of my squad was lazing around teasing each other…nothing new there, I suppose.
(Alright, listen up. Everything up till now has just been my theory, and for all we know, what’s going to happen is the players leaving the gates, stay on guard, and if you need assistance, don’t hesitate to call it out. Otherwise, keep the comms clear, especially you, Sonas.) Giving one last speech to everyone through the comms since my helmet was firmly covering my head, and there was too much distance between us to use my Telepathy; my eyes locked on the gates as the light spilled out in the form of a pillar began surging and pulsating.
(The Stage is Set; it’s time to Usher In a New Future, a New World)
RRRUUUUUUUMMMMMBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE