The soldiers at the table rose and departed the room until the only ones remaining were Jonas, Brod, and the hawk nosed man standing beside him.

“I hope, for all of our sakes, that you’re capable of doing what you promise,” Brod said.

“Trust me, so do I,” Angel said. “The Reawakening need to be stopped. How soon can we move? My group and I should be ready whenever you are.”

“No earlier than tomorrow morning, and even that’s pushing it,” Brod said. “It’s not easy to arrange for the bombing of such a large area. Our best bet will be the Magitech cannons along the city walls, but the Reawakening will almost certainly have men watching them.”

“And you won’t have long to use them even if you do make it,” Lilian added. “Once the Reawakening figures out you’re using the cannons to obscure the Buried God’s vision, they’ll have the Buried Gods make a move. They don’t want to waste energy, but that’ll call for a counterattack.”

“Which means we have to move incredibly fast. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get things to move quickly when managing an army?” Brod asked. “Our best bet is a multitude of smaller teams, all tasked with the same role. We just have to hope enough of them succeed that our path is truly blocked.”

“But… won’t the Buried Gods have enough time to attack, even with a bunch of smaller groups? You’ll have to fire the cannons multiple times each to cover enough area,” Tilly said, wrinkling her brow. “And even if we set a large portion of the outskirts of the city on fire to obscure our movements, the Buried Gods will still be able to target the cannons. They already know where those are.”

“I’m aware,” Brod said, his lips pressing thin and his sun wrinkled skin tightening in anger. “My men are going to die. That’s how war works, girl. I know it, and so do they. All I can hope is that the losses are minimal. We fight for the lives of our city, not ourselves. If there was a way we could all live, I’d take it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, this is the real world. There’s no solution that saves everybody.”

He nodded to the man at his side. “Geld will be leading the attack on one of the Buried Gods. Work with him to figure out how many of my men you’ll need for your attack on the other on.”

Brod strode out of the building.

“We’ll try to have more detailed plans by tonight,” Geld said. “How much help will you need getting into your Buried God?”

“The fewer the better,” Angel said. “When I destroy it, the whole thing will probably come crashing down. There’s not a good chance of survival for a large group. Our best bet will be to steal a chopper and fly out of it before it explodes, and the fewer people we have for that the better. Could you spare somewhere around twenty men, just to make enough noise at the Buried God’s feet to draw the Reawakening members toward them? That would probably give my group enough time to make it to the core without getting bothered too much.”

“That’s better than I expected. We can do that,” Geld said.

“I can go,” Jonas offered, but Geld was shaking his head before the other man even finished.

“You’re a gunner,” Geld said. “We’ll need you on one of the cannon crews. After that, feel free to aid the closest attack.”

“Understood,” Jonas said.

“Is there anything else your group will need?” Geld asked. “And have you considered the possibility that some of the stronger Reawakening members will be in your Buried God? After the prison break you did for Jonas, it’s possible they’ll all be on higher alert. Can you handle them?”

“Depends,” Silver replied. “We haven’t seen their strength for ourselves, so it’s hard to make a judgement. They killed a Magistrate, but do you know how? Was it all three? Did Shield help them?”

“We don’t know.” Geld shook his head. “I find it hard to believe they’re all as strong as the Magistrate, but that’s what we’ve been assuming to be safe. I have seen them do some serious damage to our troops during the initial fights, but I never saw the Magistrate fighting so I don’t know how they would match up.”

“So there’s a good chance they’re only stronger than a Magistrate while working together,” Silver mused. “So long as they aren’t all on our Buried God, we should be fine. If they are, I think we should be able to hold them off until Angel blows the thing up.”

“If you do run into the stronger Reawakening members or Shield himself, just keep in mind you don’t need to kill them,” Lilian said. “The most important thing is getting people away from the Buried God. Once they’re no longer threats, we can try to regroup and finish off the rest of the Reawakening.”

Geld nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind. Feel free to roam about the camp and get some food if you’re hungry. Be ready to move out, but I wouldn’t expect it until at tomorrow at the earliest.”

He and Jonas headed out the door.

“I’m fighting the urge to tell you two to stay here while we attack the Buried Gods,” Angel said, looking at Alison and Tilly. “As much as I hate it, we’re probably going to need your strength. That being said, I expect both of you to stay out of the fighting as much as possible. Only act if it’s completely safe or you have no other choice.”

“We’ve both got a few levels,” Tilly said. “And I’ve got my gauntlets. I can hold my own.”

“You don’t understand,” Angel said. “Damn the System. It’s unreliable and doesn’t take nearly enough into account. You might be stronger than some of the Reawakening clones, but you don’t have experience. A few months of training does not make a warrior. Even if you know what to do, you’ve never had to fight a man while bleeding out. They aren’t going to stop because you’re wounded or hurt. Can you maintain all of your training when you’re in so much pain you can barely think?”

“How are we supposed to find out other than by fighting?” Tilly asked.

“Ideally, you never would,” Angel replied. “That isn’t a possibility, so we’ll have to take ‘slowly’ instead. Minimize the situations where you can be put in a scenario where you have to find out just how much of your training you can really use. Fight at long range when possible and prioritize protecting yourself over wounding an enemy.”

“We’ll try our best,” Alison said. “But Captain Brod was right. This is a war. We don’t have the luxury of protecting ourselves, so your advice goes both ways. If we get in trouble, you can’t come save us instead of destroying the Buried God. We both appreciate what you all saving us from Reave, but the logical move would have been to completely ignore him so he could never get the Key.”

Angel gritted his teeth, but Silver put a hand on his shoulder.

“They’ve got you there,” he said, tipping his hat back. “And, to be honest, I’m only in this as long as I survive. If shit goes downhill too fast, I’m booking it. I like you folk, but not enough to get myself blown up.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Silver,” Lilian said dryly. “I’m sure you’ll include that part in your stories about all of this once it’s over.”

“Not a baby’s chance in the Barren,” Silver replied with a wide grin. “So best make sure you all survive so you can correct me.”