Banquet In The Stars II : Dance with the Stars I

In the back of the Bavel estate, under the Pillis Garden was the Bavel family's private hanger, filled with the recent and advanced models, ranging from airships, cargo ships, assault ships, and even more. There is also a model I Dreadnought sitting within the inner area of the hanger.

Stepping into her garden, Nizael quickly passed the many bunches of green and white Pillis flowers, stopping in the center of the garden where she approached the fountain. Pulling out a translucent black card, she held it in front of the fountain statue; Moments later water stopped shooting out of the fountain as it drained the remaining water within it, after which the fountain began to split itself apart; revealing a blue sparkling hallway, although there were small puddles due to the fountain.

Nizael waited a moment, as Helia quickly came down to her side, having doused her flames before entering the garden.

– "General. There are no longer any Frames in the vicinity of the estate, the other soldiers have cleared up the side courtyards and other areas; I've also informed the Shadows to clean themselves up, they will stay and protect your family in the case that something happens to the Karna barrier. What are your next plans of action?" Helia reported to Nizael and waited to hear what her next actions were going to be.

– "As we are now in a time of war I will personally be reactivating you, I will refer to you by your rank from this point forward." She spoke in a stern tone as she led Helia through the hall.

The fountain slid itself back together as they entered, sealing off the entrance, there was a pair of doors in front of them and a card scanner on its side, which Nizael once more pulled out the translucent black card and placed it on the scanner. After a short second, a sequence of clicks and ticks rang out as the door slid open as a mechanical voice spoke out. – "General of the Collective, Nizael Bavel." [1]

With the door open they began moving once more, as they passed through the hall, it was revealed to be connected to many more halls, and Helia saw a multitude of people rushing and moving through them, whether they be soldiers, mechanics, or others, they were moving through the halls.

"Lieutenant General, Urnfox. I will be giving orders to the current assault ships in flight, and those that will be launching soon. Once I've done so, I, myself will set off to assist them – You will continue to assist me as you have been, am I understood." Relaying her plans in front of the door to the hanger, Nizael turned back to face Helia.

– "As you wish General. Just don't rush in on your own; I'm still quite scarred after what you did to the Kritol on N-11." With a slight salute, Helia responded while also jokingly chiding Nizael for one of her previous actions.

– "Sure sure, just don't burn down my ship this time, we don't want to make this the fifth time." With a chuckle, Nizael returned with her own friendly reminder.

– "Hey! Those were all accidents and you know it," Helia asserted.

– "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Lieutenant General," She sarcastically responded to her.

Both of them burst out into a short bit of laughter as they entered the large and gallant hanger. The hanger was about the size of fives football fields, the ceiling went high up enough for twenty or so freight trucks to be stacked on one another It was a truly large hanger. Its floor was a sparkling royal blue and the walls were black and grey with slight blue accents.

All across the hanger were many pieces of machinery and tools, there were large airships, scattered all around with soldiers, pilots, and or machines going all across the grand hanger. As Nizael and Helia walked to the command room, every person they passed gave them a salute and greeted them by their rank. — "General, Lieutenant General!" They all said, greeting them, then immediately returning to their duty after being put at ease.

The presence of General Bavel and Lieutenant General Urnfox reassured and helped put everyone in the hanger's mind at ease; They had complete faith that they would win, but the two assured them of an even grander victory.

The clicks of her heels echoed on the clean floor, as she scaled up the stair to the control room that overlooked the entire hanger. Helia opened the door for her with a slight smile on her face as she shouted out – "Commanding officer Inbound!" Immediately all those present in the room did a salute at the door, or more specifically towards Helia and Nizael.

– "At ease." Putting them at ease, she looked at the lifeline boards.

Noticing how most of their pilots that were in flight were still alive and in the fight, was a great piece of information. Turning to the officer that was in command, Coraline Mellin, she stepped in front of the perspective screens; they were showing the pilot's perspectives as they were in the air or space. [2]

– "Give me a rundown of the situation Coraline." She instructed.

– "Ma'am, yes Ma'am! We have come to the conclusion that the Kritols have required a new tool which allowed them to create Dead Zones within our Tower's Space scans! As you can see on the perspective screen right now, our pilots outside the planet's atmosphere have designated the large ring that is rotating around the Kritol Dreadnought as the cause of the Dead Zones!"

Quickly relaying what they've gathered the man had them display a few screens displaying the Kritol Fleet. Nizael leaned forward on the table as she scrutinized the video feeds, the ring around the Dreadnought being her focus.

It didn't even take long for her to understand, she knew the moment it appeared in her eyes that it was the Ring — she did not need to gander about it. Understanding the situation, she immediately gave out an order.

– "Tell all pilots engaging with the fleet to pull out at once! Do not attack that Ring!" She commanded.

– " All pilots engaging the fleet pull out at once. I repeat, pull out at once. Ships L5-77, L2-28, L9-Y7... Pull back into the atmosphere, I repeat..."

– "Ships T-6, T-1, T-7, and ship G-H7 assist with the retreat of ships L5-77, L2-28, L9-Y7..."

Two of the operators gave out the orders as soon as Nizael issued them, telling them to retreat and the other to support the retreat. They waited as the pilots relayed having received the orders and commencing at once.

– "How much time until the Anti-Space cannons fire?" Asking no one specifically, Helia spoke out.

– "Twenty minutes, Lieutenant General!" One of the operators resounded out.

– "Not enough time, tell the pilots to pull out faster. We don't want them in the Ring's range!"

Helia understood the urgency behind Nizael's orders, she often spoke to her about the Rings and how dangerous they were. Over the many years they've known each other, she's seen Nizael constantly worry about when the Kritol would find the Ring, and she was sure that its parallel was on their planet.

She went across the planet multiple times, searching every nook and cranny to find it. After many, upon many cycles, she finally figured the place that, even she couldn't explore was the only place it could be. Asora's Rift.

She has ventured down said rift many times, her first time delving, she came out with the head of a large-scaled creature, that had a forked tongue, reminiscent of the little Nalis's we find slithering around the forest around the city. The second time she led a squad of twenty into the Rift's depths, hoping the chances of finding it would increase with more people assisting her.

That excursion led to the death of more than half of the squad's members, much to Nizael's dismay. Even though they recovered an ancient Titan of the Old Lords, that could not make the situation better for Nizael and even more so, their families. After this incident, she wholeheartedly blamed herself; So she no longer brought others down the Rift with her — she even banned anyone from ever entering it.

And so, after that she went down numerous times, trying to map it out or at least figure out a definite path, but that was impossible. So she opted for a better plan, she decided to have mapped out on hundreds of maps the various areas and rooms in the Rift; Yet the Rift was enormous, it spanned across half the planet and almost went deep enough to get to the planet's core. It's safe to say that she won't figure out anything anytime soon.

Helia looked at Nizael's face, although it rarely showed much emotion she could tell how worried she was, the thought of the Kritol getting hold of the ring plagued her mind for many cycles. Even if it might seem like she is searching for a weapon to use against the Kritol, Nizael stated the exact opposite.

"I'm not looking for a weapon, we have enough of those already. It's not a weapon I'm looking for, it's a shield."

Nizael had told her this with a gaze of absolute conviction around fifteen cycles ago, and after seeing the look on her face, Helia had no choice but to believe her...

Just as the orders for quickening the pullout were relayed, the connection to the pilots was suddenly cut off, Helia was quickly getting a bad feeling about the entire situation. She turned to Nizael who was quickly having a dark look overcast her face.

– "Get... Get me a view of the situation right now!" Nizael roared. She clenched her fist with all her strength, piercing her palms with her nails, and blood began dripping on the floor.

"Yes, Ma'am!!!!" Hearing the urgency in her voice the operators quickly tried to bring the perspective screen back up... and they did.

Rapidly, the screen was brought up, and the scene before them would have been normal if it weren't for the fact that their ships were frozen in place.

The Ring was Pulsing.