Chapter 50: Artifact User Assemble

'Is that what Zero really said?' Valerie questioned as Cellica calls into the living room of the bearer's compound on Athena 3 with everyone gathered around, 'he is willing to do what we asked?'

'Within the boundaries of the general plan to take Brakagi in, yes.' Cellica said, 'I am also quite surprised, but they needed our numbers, so it's a reasonable compromise.'

'What do you think?' Rydel looked to Ol and asked, and the old Aquarian thought for a long time before throwing the question back to the group.

'We will begin the formulation of a plan, but before that, I would like to give each and everyone of you a chance to opt in or out of this operation.' Ol said, looking around at the roomful of bearers around him, 'this mission is different from anything we have done before, so please let me know here or in private if you don't want to participate in the mission. Cellica and Zero will formulate the rest of the details and send it towards us, by the actual division of squads will be based on who will be going there.'

That was the end of the quick meeting, as it is just to get a general idea for the bearers. The consensus was that some form of intervention is necessary, though the degree of intervention is the one that's hanging on the balance for the group. For all of the times before, the bearers have only acted in reaction to Absolute Being's activities, albeit it always came down to some sort of rescue mission in the end.

This time, they are on the offensive, and to be frank, they are basically acting as lackeys for the government, while most of the credit will fall onto the head of Zero as a result. This will likely bolster Zero's influence, and possibly lead to some of his more shady activities later down the line, just another thing that needs to be put onto the table for Cellica's planning.

'Are you sure she will be alright?' Rydel asked Ol as the rest of the bearers left the living room, 'Cellica alone with Absolute Being?'

'Don't underestimate her.' Ol said, 'she has also been working hard since after the whole Falling Star incident, and the GBI's condition for Zero's free movement is contingent of her being there. She won't be manipulated so easily.'

'...I am trusting you on this.' Rydel said.

'Please do, or else my daily usages would have been wasted.' Ol said while giving Rydel a knowing nod. So that's why he is so confident...Looks like Ol would be backing her up all throughout this process.

When Rydel has headed back into his room, it turns out both Alrith and Valerie is there waiting for him. Alrith is sitting on the bed while Valerie occupies the chair,. And though they are exchanging nothing but casual small talks, there is a sense of sexual tension through the air that peaked when Rydel entered the room.

'So?' Valerie asked, 'you going to come?'

'Of course.' Rydel said, looking back at her, 'and I know you will be there too, Val.'

'I will too!' Alrith said eagerly, and Rydel smiled at her before taking a seat on the bed too, seeing there is only one chair in the room. Alrith shuffled her body towards Rydel, but Valerie locked down a block of air like a brick wall and separated the two. She sure is acting nonchalant when doing it though.

'It's not just about Brakagi in this case.' Rydel continued, 'having more of us being there and being together means that we can also keep Absolute Being in check.'

'I never thought about that...' Alrith said, looking down while trying to push her way towards Rydel to no avail.

'I am not surprised.' Valerie said, glancing over victoriously at Alrith who stuck her tongue back at her, 'the whole conversation is phrased to be a direct battle with the six artifact users that Brakagi has, but...'

'Yeah, the whole of Geb 4 could be done for in that case.' Rydel said, 'and I am sure that Cellica knows of this too. It is up to the both of us to formulate this plan...all we can do is to do our best and trust in her judgement. If there is something glaring, we can fix it up later too.'

In the meanwhile in another room, Zel and Elmyra are cuddling with each other behind close doors as they whispered with each other. The warm air current from Zel's mouth gently tickles the edge of Elmyra's ear, and her strands of short black hair occasionally found its way into Zel's prosthetic eye. Though, of course, it doesn't sting in the slightest.

'Are you going to go?' Elmyra asked, 'actually...I am so stupid. I never should have asked.'

'You know it.' Zel said, chuckling while rubbing Elmyra's warm stomach. She moans slightly before turning around to face him.

'I will also go.' She said, her eyes darkened as the memories of Zero's violation on her mind comes back yet again, 'the current state of the galaxy...'

'It's not your fault in the slightest.' Zel said abrutly, and Elmyra nodded lightly, 'and there is no point chasing the chains of guilt around.'

'I know. But now there is something we can do about it, and there is no way that I wouldn't do something about it.' Elmyra said with a determined look.

'And this time, I will protect you til the end.' Zel said, gribbing tighter onto Elmyra body and pulling her closer towards his body. Elmyra knows first hand how much her capture weighed on Zel's mind, and she gently massaged the back of his tightened neck and made him relax ever so slightly.

'It's okay...I trust you...' Elmyra said before kissing Zel on the lips and shutting him up. Then, the entanglement of the lips expanded out towards the tongues and then the bodies.

Torelamri is especially quiet after the meeting today, and he went directly back towards his workshop, though Ol noticed something with his posture. Knowing that all of this must have been weighing on Brakagi's mind, as he is a Rocky after all. Knocking on Torelamri's door, Ol waited for the response of his oldest friend here.

'Is that Ol?' Torelamri's voice pierced through the noise cancelling layer of the door.

'How did you know?' Ol asked, placing a hand on the door which slid open.

'Super seeing! A new ability that I got.' Torelamri joked before turning around in his spinning chair which elevated him up to the work surface, 'no, I have camera.'

'Ah.' Ol said, looking at the workshop that appeared unexpectedly tidy, 'are you okay?'

'Rockies strong.' Torelamri said before pumping his arms, 'Rockies tough!'

'I know.' Ol said, approaching his friend before kneeling down towards his levels, 'but all of the news around, it must have been hard, right?'

The doors were slammed shut, and it is then that Ol realized that Brakagi has installed his own mechaism for the door frame, the lights and the rest of the interior. A pair of red lights from the worktable were all that remained in terms of illumination. Torelamri spun around and faced yet another failed construct in front of him.

'Ol.' He said, 'it's not easy, is it?'

'No.'

'All the damn news...All of the hate...Brakagi...he only brought more hate onto us.'

'At times, it's the same people that wanted to do good who are the ones doing it the wrong way...'

'There is the wrong way, and then there is destroying an entire system.'

Ol looked at the shoulders of his friend, and the first sign of age is starting to show. He is tired, and it isn't easy being a Rocky in this galaxy, be it before the entire Falling Star ordeal or after. Especially if Brakagi is revealed to be really the one behind the falling star conspiracy. The standings of the Rockies living in the galactic community is only going to decline ever further, and Torelamri can feel it, despite living around a group of friendly beings.

'I don't want to fight my own people, whether they are right or wrong.' Torelamri said, and Ol placed an arm on his shoulder.

'I understand.' Ol said, 'feel free to do what makes you feel comfortable.'

'Please...don't hurt the people.' Torelamri said, 'don't hurt them.'

'For as long as I am there, I promise.' Ol said, and Torelamri nodded before the doors flung open yet again.

'I must try to work now.' Torelamri said, and Ol stood back up.

'I understand.' Ol said, walking abck out of the room, and before the doors shut again, Torelamri spoke once more.

'Thank you, friend.'

The bearers took a few days to come to a coordinated response before heading off towards a lone star system named the Chang E system. It is a system stuck in between the central clusters where Olympus reside and the space borders of the Rocky's system. The reasoning behind the naming convention is the shear amount of moons present, as the system features a lone sun with a couple of gas giants orbiting around, each with countless moons about.

Several basic research and mining outposts are located in the area, and there are plenty of space and resources around for the bearers to practice should that be necessary.

The groups of bearers that will be heading off to the Chang E system are as follows: Rydel, the owner of the Glove of Summoning; Valerie, the owner of Lock Down; Alrith, the owner of Lighting Knife; Zel, the owner of the Pocket; Elmyra, the owner of Dagger of Fate and Ol, the owner of the Scroll of Truth. This totals up to six artifact users. Meeting them at a space station courtesy of the GBI in the Chang E system are the four artifact users of Absolute Being: Zero; Lady Lily, the owner of the Pen of Rearrangement; Sir Deva, the owner of Mass Projector and Sadie Allen, the owner of Shield.

The last of them is one of the bearer's own, Cellica, the owner of the Eyes.

This second meeting is a lot less hostile when compared to their first one on Olympus Prime, as Zero has indeed shown an ability not to mess shit up for once, and he actually faced consequences for his earlier actions. This doesn't mean what he did before can be excused fully though.

'Now that we are all here, let's go through our plan.' Zero said, looking all around at the eleven artifact users gathered in the room. In terms of raw numbers, this gathering nearly doubled what Brakagi could muster, so that means the battle should be heavily tilted in their favor before it ever begins.

Zero looked towards Lady Lily who was part of the planning group alongside Cellica and she leaned forward before bringing out a hologram with nothing but a few lines of texts in front of it. A more personal version of the same hologram also appeared in front of each of the bearers present in the meeting.

'Our first winning condition, which is our main objective as well as our method of achieving our objective, is overcoming Hong Fu's artifact.' Lady Lily said, 'and in good faith, I am going to share all that we know so far about four of the six artifact users with Brakagi.'

Then, Lady Lily went on to outline the histories of Hong Fu and Vindy with Absolute Being, about how they played the role in what they did to Elmyra as well as their broken apart. Zero chimed in about the mission that he offered Hong Fu as part of a deal with mutual interests, though that seemed to have fell through. The abilities of both Probable and Wavestriker are also mentioned, but Lady Lily repeatedly reiterated about how their abilities will naturally develop as a result.

'In the same vein, it is better for us to operate off Hong Fu telling Brakagi all of our abilities too, and that includes all of us from Absolute Being and those of you that participated in the raid against us.' Lady Lily said.

'Like you said, we also developed our abilities.' Rydel said, and Lady Lily nodded in response before continuing.

'Going back to Hong Fu's abilities, he is able to view the probabilities of each of the futures pertaining certain people, and be able to make choices off his reading of the future.' Lady Lily explained, 'this power alone makes any sort of sneak attack impossible to predict, as he know that it will be us launching the attack. And then, there is Brakagi and Jozzor's abilities...'

This is where Cellica comes in, and she provided the group with all that the GBI has gathered. With those explained, Zero then talked about his vision of six artifact users standing amidst ruins, and the fact that the last two are unknown to him at this point. Both Cellica and him then showed pieces of footage of Miss D in combat against Brakagi. The little human is likely the fifth one, and the sixth one is another unknown Rocky.

After the groundwork are laid down regarding the participants of the battle, the topic of discussion flowed back towards that of the winning conditions.

'If that's the case, how can we ever make a move?' Zel asked, 'we are fighting against someone that can see the future, no?'

'Indeed, but there is a way.' Lady Lily said, looking towards Elmyra who's zoning out at the hologram in front of her. Zel poked her in the arm, and she came to her senses.

'He is able to see the various possible futures, but only one out of all of us can make certain futures a reality, am I right?' Lady Lily asked, and Elmyra was put on the spot.

'What are you saying?' Zel asked with a sense of threat and alarm in his tone.

'With your help, Elmyra, we will be able to be totally certain in both the locations and the combatants involved in the battle.' Lady Lily continued, 'all of our battle plans will be basing off your move. Can you do it?'

Elmyra looked at her fingertips where the Dagger of Fate resides. It pulsed with her accelerating heartbeat, and it stings a little for some strange reason.

She remained silent in thought for a moment before nodding slowly and adamantly.

'I can do it.' Elmyra said, 'This time, I can do it with my own power, without your needless meddling.'

'I am counting on it.' Lady Lily said with a plain expression, 'now, for those of you that will be engaging in active combat, let's go through our plan.'

Out of all of the bearers present, both Ol and Cellica will be staying back and be in charge of communications and directing the forces alongside Zero from afar. The users in active combat will be Sir Deva, Lady Lily, Sadie Allen, Rydel, Valerie, Zel, Elmyra, Alrith. That will be a total of eight users in combat with three in support, and Infinity and Absolute Being will also have lots of soldiers with support gear and a handful of pseudo-artifacts standing by just in case.

The battle plans are then went through by Lady Lily as the rest of the days are spent on rehearsing the plans and memorizing the various back up options. Though you can only prepare and rehearse as a group so much before the scenarios become overly hypothetical and unrealistic. All that it will come down to in the end, is the execution on 'game day'.

In the mean while, Brakagi is doing the same for the group of artifact users underneath him. The special potion courtesy of Anozee really came in handy this time, as Hong Fu, Vindy and Miss D obeyed his orders without a single hiccup, and all of the worries of betrayal are thrown out of the windows by Brakagi. Jozzor, however, is a lot less trusting and are always keeping an eye on Hong Fu after what has happened with Miss D.

The aforementioned human settled in rather quickly, however, and she seemed to have developed special interest in Vindy, which is a little uncomfortable at times for the musician. But that affection didn't go beyond the occasional snuggle and playing with her fur.

As time continues to go by with the galaxy being more and more on edge by the day, with the One Rock government continuing to ignore the warrants and suggestions coming from the galactic government regarding a hearing with Brakagi, a palpable tension is felt all throughout the settled region with every passing day.

And finally, the day of action is here. All of the battle ready bearers know, and so do Brakagi's group.

'You ready?' Standing atop one of the many larger moons of Chang E 2, the second gas giant in the system, Zel asked the girl that he loved and cared for next to him. She nodded to him with a smile, and he gave her a kiss from afar.

'Artifact Avatar form...Dagger of Fate, ACTIVATE!' Elmyra commanded inside her mind, and the light glow from her fingertips spread throughout her body like a wild fire, turning herself into a being of pure light and energy. Her clothing adjusted to the heat and radiation thanks to the latest tech from Infinity, and suddenly, her mind is out of her body.

The singular focused will traveled outwards from the moon, away from the gas giant, beyond the bounds of the system and it swam among the billions of paths all throughout the system.

Then, she drew her mind towards Geb 4, focusing inwards gradually and zooming into her target.

There are millions of paths on Geb 4, and hundreds of thousands in the main city. Then, it shrunk down to thousands in the governing district, then hundreds in the tower, and tens in the higher floor. Then, she found the one.

With her outreached hand, she felt the trajectory of Brakagi. At the exact same moment that her dagger touched his fate, he is also looking directly at her too.

'So it begins.' Brakagi mouthed, before his body disappeared from the air.