Astral's Rise Part 44: Rally

Astral would note it to never miss an Astral symbiote as Lucky warped next to him and tugged on his shirt. "In that case, we just gotta make sure we are ready." Astral would call Zane. "How is the first batch of clones coming along?"

"Really good, you have your commanders for as many legions as you need. Still need a little training around the edges." Zane spoke through the phone as Lucky kept pulling on Astral trying to get his attention.

Jaimie would tap on Astrals shoulder while having Zane on the line still. "What?" Astral looked over to Lucky and Jaimie. Lucky would do some charades. Drawing a house. "Home?" Lucky nodded, holding out one arm and motioning under it. "Under" Lucky nodded and would swing his arm with an imaginary sword. "Zane, how many clones are battle ready?"

"Roughly ten thousand. Shall I gear them up?" Zane spoke. Zane heard the tone of duress. "Wait is it go time?" Zane had his two captains he was working with next to him. They all looked into the phone and were shocked.

"Get Adam down there and prepare them for earth, it seems like it's being invaded. Send any commanders to the bridge." Astral spoke as the four of them all raced to the bridge. Astral would hang up as they got to the bridge. Seeing three Zanes and Adam drawing up a storm. "Well, let's get ready. Shiro come up with a plan." She nodded as Red Merle flared to life.

"Where do you want me to warp us sir?" He spoke as Astral and Lucky pointed to earth. "Right away sirs." Astral's armor flared to life as Lucky gained a light layer of armor, mimicking Astral's looks. Shiro came out with a layout. 

"Adam, Alexa and I will stay up here and disturb their support from space. Planet side it falls into four segments. Sal, Jax, and Lucky go in the south east quadrant. In the Southwest shall be James and Angel. Jaimie and Zane shall take their units to the Northwest. And Astral will take on the north east by himself. Utilize Zeta when need be. Astrid is too busy programming all of the fighter ships still."

Astral looked over to Astrid as he sat next to her pulling out his digital laptop to help her out as much as possible. The travel time for them is less than a minute. Astral knew all hell was bound to break loose after their arrival.

 Shiro laid out the plan. Even with all the years they had to prepare there is still plenty to do. "With Zeta on the planet still it allowed him to save the people from the tea shop. And the northeast is the one with the main resistance. The rest are small pockets holding out." They all nodded, the stakes were high as Zane, Sal and Jax suited themselves out. 

"So, how fast are we moving from zone to zone?" Angel asked the rest of the table.

Alexa turned over to the owl. "As fast as possible, if the zone is clear we will send down carrier two's to get the civilians to safety. Only after we have won the skies, until that point, you will have to go zone to zone and hold them with few troops."

James pointed at Alexa. "Point defense? Are you sure it's the best option? I think rallying the humans to keep with me, behind our forces with flank protection is safer than dropping fifty to one hundred troops off at each dot, not including the locals who know the terrain."

"You would move slower and not fast enough to save everyone." Adam spoke as Angel slams her hand down.

 "We are fast enough to travel between these dots, right James? Use these dots as rally points, drop as few people as possible depending on the zone, divide it equally and if any place needs reinforcements, have them merge with others, or we swoop in and help out?" Angel pointed to Astral and Jaimie "Those two can do the same thing as us, Astral has different ideas but it may work best."

Astral gave a thumbs up to their idea. "Wait, you think I can be that fast to cover all of Russia at once?" Jaimie asked James and Angel. Their heads bobbed in approval. "You two have a natural talent for this." Jaimie outstretched her arms, scratching their heads.

"Sal, Jax. Your thoughts?" Zane asked his two men on their zone. They sat back and thought about it before counting their four yellow dots across Australia as well as a purple dot in the desert slowly forming.

"Lucky, you feeling destructive?" Sal tilted his head as the clone tossed his dice up with a nod of approval. "Good, Jax, we each get half and rally here, in the ports evacuating on the same transports we bring down with us?"

Jax saw the plan as Sal spoke. "Have us on gunboats protecting the civilian movement to the fortification? Deal, we prep the rest of our detail on the way down." Jax had his plan in his head. It worked in their minds, they just got to execute. Their true test no training can simulate.

Astral rested his palm on the middle terminal on the table. The battle map of earth blew up for all of them to see. Two zones glowed blue. Handful of places were yellow, but most civilized places on the planet glowed red. California was a green color. "I will rally from here and move to the other yellow pockets." Astral pointed to the blue dot in the northwest.

"Remember, this is about saving people, if there is no red space there is no people." Astral informed them as Shiro nodded along. He was busy programming the necessary programs for the drones. Realizing they could just overwhelm in numbers. Using the tetra three models as hits and sticks. 

"You three get three thousand three hundred and thirty troops. Be wise with it. It's all we have for the meantime. Astral, that human holdout has three trained military battalions left outside of militiamen. You do your magic. Ship out everyone." Astral would launch himself as Red Merle warps perfectly into place. 

Zane and Jaimie walked down the hall. "Well, We secure zone to zone and lay out every force in our way, fanning out thin to be secure?" Jaimie asked Zane as he nodded in agreement.

"I'll provide aerial support using the fortress." Jaimie agreed as they were ready.