32 - Do A Stalingrad

“I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I can do at least ten meters by ten meters,” Yosi said.

“That’s not going to be wide enough to send anything through,” George said. He looked down at the tablet before him and frowned. “We’re nearly done with the ships and now we can’t use them.”

“What’s that saying about war and enemies?” Maya asked, she picked up a chocolate bar and chewed on it.

“Bad Blood’s intelligence is pretty much worthless,” Marcus said. “She should have told us of this possibility. Poison that can stop Skills, that’s some high tier shit.”

“To be honest, Bad Blood was a sickly sheltered child among the Tarvana. Her biological mother was a good miner and she protected the kid from being eaten. Plus, I don’t think anyone knows anything about the Mother unless you’re a high ranked SIL.”

“What are we going to do?” Hanna asked.

“I’ve got a ton of big brained peeps here, I was hoping you’d all have an idea.”

“Our plans all rely on you, Maya,” George said. “What can you do? What else besides summoning the threshold and sensing dimensional space was cut off from you? Can you control the Cage as you normally could? Can you control time, the very fabric of this Cage?”

Maya drummed her fingers on the conference table. ‘No,” she said. “I’ve been locked out of a lot of my Skills that relate to this Cage. I can still access the Cage, through the control panel, but it’s like I can’t talk to it and I can barely feel it.”

“Are there any drawbacks from your disconnection?” George asked. “Will the Cage unravel if you’re not ‘speaking’ to it?”

“It’s not a living being,” Maya said. ‘As long as it has mana to power it and the origin point is not destroyed, the Cage should still exist.”

“How are we doing on mana?” Bell asked. He looked tired and anxious. Maya was glad he was there, although he had wanted to rush immediately to his family to see about purchasing a potion for her, even if he didn’t know what was afflicting her. Nan was still running tests and would come back with a verdict, there shouldn’t be too many kinds of poisons that blocked Skills, especially specific skills.

“Zoya and Veskari are doing what they can, but between the need to power the Cage, the factories on the RSH, and Tender’s drones, we’re running really low on mana,” Roci said. She also looked tired, having worked with the human engineers on the ships and then doing her own work within the Cage. Even AIs seemed to become mentally exhausted.

“We can scratch the RSH factories off the list,” Maya said. “There’s no point in trying to fix it if the Flesh Army is going to curb stomp us. We can use that mana to keep the Cage running. I think there’s about two billion gens in tesseracts back on the Hangy.”

“That gives us only an additional fifty hours of Cage use,” Roci said.

“Well, we’ve managed to collect a few million gens from evicting non-essential personnel,” Yosi said. “It appears that even low leveled SIL have dense mana in their auras. We’ve obtained millions of gens, not just proma. But if we keep it at this rate of mana expenditure, we’re going to have to cut everything back, even the thresholds are becoming too expensive.”

“You can’t just buy more mana from somewhere?” Marcus asked.

“We could get batteries, but the sheer amount we need is equivalent to battleships in the multiverse at large. C5 mana cores that are large enough to economically produce the mana we need aren’t sold often, they’re specially made for each ship they’re in,” Roci replied. “There are markets for cores and mana collectors, but we haven’t branched out beyond Asoltolia’s connections and the Union.”

“How about hunting big prey in the RSH?” Hanna asked. “You said all the cores you gained were from that hiveship you defeated, so why not hunt for more of those kinds of things. Collect their cores, steal their black goo, and build up your network.”

“Only the big ass rogue AIs are alive and moving nowadays,” Maya said. She opened a window, showing a recording from the time they had stolen liquid mana from the lake. The mass of high leveled rogue AIs were battling along the shore and taking to the sky. “Not all the big rouge AIs have cores we can take. A lot of them are purely black goo based. We also don’t have the time to go hunting for rogue AIs, not with the Flesh Army on our doorstep.”

“The world seems like a game sometimes, but I guess setting up more energy collectors doesn’t automatically settle your energy problems,” Marcus said.

“It would, but we have to build these mana collectors ourselves,” Roci replied.

“If this mana purge just stopped for a day or three, we’d be back to rolling in all the mana we could ever need,” Maya said, closing the windows. “But it’s not stopping and we’re running low on go-juice.”

“So we’re pretty much screwed, huh?” Hanna replied.

Roci looked to Maya. “I’ve drawn up an evacuation plan.”

Maya’s tablet beeped and information began to scroll across it. Maya glanced at it and sighed. “Good,” she said. “We’ll need to dump everything we can into the Multiverse if things go belly up. The Cage will have to be shut down if the Flesh Army is going to win. In that event, Tender and I will have to abandon the area and try to regroup somewhere else.”

Silence filled the room as everyone digested the information.

“What will happen to Earth?” George asked.

“Hopefully everyone who’ll be on the 4S will have enough materials and supplies to see that they can keep contact with humanity,” Maya said. “They’ll have access to tons of mana and the teleporter, also Ko Sumai will be ready to produce weapons and ammo in large quantities within the month.”

“You’ll be trapped in the RSH again,” Chu said, finally speaking up. “Alone and without the resources and help you have now.”

“I’ll have Tender,” Maya said.

“And me,” Roci spoke. “If it all goes to hell, I’ll be there with you.”

“You know that’s impossible,” Maya said. “We’ve had this discussion far too many times, kid. You know what you’re gonna do.”

Roci sat back down and sulked.

“Then we don’t let those fucking Tarvana take the Hanganathorie,” Marcus said.

Maya gestured to everyone in the meeting. “That’s why we’re here, cowboy.” Maya glanced to Chu. “You came up with some good ideas before, how about now?”

Chu rolled his eyes. “I don’t work well under pressure.”

“You’re a soldier fighting horrid monsters,” Maya said. “I think that qualifies as pressure.”

Chu looked around the table and looked back at Maya. He shrugged. “I don’t know, Maya. I have nothing. I barely even know how this Cage even works or even what the Skills you have do.”

“Can we remove the VLS from the destroyers?” Maya asked Hanna. “Set them up and fire them independently?”

“Eventually,” Hanna said. “But not in fifty hours.”

“Fifty hours is just a guess,” Roci said. “The Tarvana in the RSH might move before then. If they’ve developed a poison to neutralize Maya, then they know what they’re doing. So it shouldn’t be too long before they attack.”

“We’ve managed to obtain more weapons from the Colonel,” Yosi said. “Enough to outfit the Tarvana and use within the RSH.”

“Once the President learns about your thieving ways and the Colonel’s corruption, there’s gonna be heck to pay,” Chu said, grinning.

Colonel Gary Canton had fallen from grace since Chicago had reestablished contact with the west coast. It seemed the Colonel’s totalitarian beliefs were frowned upon by the higher ranked officers that had survived. There were no questions about his efficiency in keeping the population of Chicago alive, instead it was his harsh measures that drew a lot of ire, especially from the President.

He hadn’t been demoted, but he’d been moved to overseeing salvage from various bunkers, silos, and depots that held military equipment. That had been a blessing for Maya, as she was willing to give him credits for the weapons that weren’t useable anymore. He was willing to give them up, since he understood that they were absolutely useless to humanity.

“Don’t worry, she knows how to play dumb real good,” Marcus said.

“Easy there, cowboy. You’re talking to a Tier 2 House Matriarch. Roci and Yosi will take turns disemboweling you,” Maya said.

“We will,” Roci quipped.

Chu raised his hand “I got a question, if you don’t mind. Who is this guy?” Chu asked, gesturing to Marcus.

“Marcus Sullivan,” Marcus said, puffing his chest out slightly, Maya let out a gag.

“Husband?” Chu asked. “Didn’t figure you’d be married.”

“Brother,” Marcus said.

“Plus I’d never take someone’s surname,” Maya said.

“Oh? Maya Chu doesn’t sound good to you?” Chu asked.

Marcus made a vomiting sound. “Who’s this guy?”

“Sergeant Daniel Chu,” Chu said. “US Army and interdimensional spy.”

“Oh, when did you go up in rank?” Maya asked Chu.

“I did manage to worm my way into your graces and have provided the United States with a massive influx of cash to set up settlements and provide safety to its citizens,” Chu said. “They bumped me up a rank for all of that.”

“I’d have asked for a percentage,” Yosi said.

“Spy?” Marcus asked.

“A lot of people are spying on me in hopes to gain all the secrets I know,” Maya said, shrugging. “All apart of the job, I suppose. Along with the attempted assassinations,” Maya turned toward the gathered people. “Any ideas? How can we defeat the Flesh Army with less than five thousand low leveled Tarvana and less than a hundred drones.”

“Can you still build things out of the Cagestuff?” Chu asked.

“Cagestuff? Yeah, but I can’t do it as fast as I used to,” Maya replied. She raised her hand over the table and the material stretched and warped and then collapsed back into the table. Maya sighed. “Maybe not. I can do it with the control panel, but it’s slow and difficult. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Chu said, drumming his fingers on the table. “Some old dead dude once said that you need to fight the battle on your chosen ground, not the enemy’s. This Flesh Army is preparing to fight you at the Hangy and you’re preparing to defend it. You need to change it all up for them.”

“Meaning?” Maya asked.

“Well, make them fight in the Cage, where Yosi and you control pretty much everything. Make them come into the Cage and fight us here, we can pull in some troops from other settlements and have a big ole… Cage Fight!”

“Jesus,” Maya muttered shaking her head.

“Also the Colonel’s got a shit ton of FMG-148 Javelins for sale,” Chu added. “I so want one of those. Especially if I can shoot it.”

“It’s not a terrible idea,” Tender said. “Although allowing high leveled Tarvana into the Cage while Maya cannot control it, is only asking for disaster to occur.”

“They’ll take the Cage if they kick Bad Blood’s ass,” Roci said. “Either way it’s in danger, but at least we have the Cage on our side to even out the odds.”

“We can…” Chu stopped and looked around, “do a Stalingrad.”

“We do have access to Russians who owe us,” Hanna said.

“How do we get them into the Cage?” Marcus asked. “I’m sure they’re not like those landsharks in that video I saw, just wandering in and falling to their deaths.”

“Vodka. We get a lot of vodka and someone who can play the balalaika,” Chu said.

“He means the Tarvana, you moron,” George said in exasperation.

“Oh.”

“I’m not too sure about turning the Cage into a battleground,” Yosi said. “The damage that could be done is extreme and I’m not entirely able to control the Cage as Maya could.”

Maya leaned back in her chair, looking toward the ceiling of the conference room they were in. She had gotten far too use to being able to easily control the Cage and summon whatever she wanted or create what was needed on the fly. The battle with the Hiveship had shown her how overpowered fighting in the Cage was for her. Without being able to access her dimensional abilities and the Cage , things were grinding to a halt.

She couldn’t get any forces into the RSH, not unless they were robotic or AIs. Due to fear of rogue AIs, a lot of civilizations didn’t rely on large amounts of AIs to do their jobs, only as a backup or in areas living SIL could not work. Therefore there were no armies of droids that she could buy up and send into battle. Given enough time, she could probably build up her own army of drones, but right now they were in a pickle.

How many of the settlements and her allies could she count on? There was always friction between her and the other settlements, even though they were technically under the 3S umbrella, they still wanted and kept their own autonomy.

Maybe she should have been more political with them or even cared about being the person in charge of everything. Her avoidance of being seen as the big girl in charge was coming back to bite her square in the ass. Maya sighed, trying to summon another chocolate bar but nothing appeared.

“We fight in the Cage,” Maya said. Heads turned toward her and Chu grinned. “We can’t face the Tarvana army in the RSH, we don’t have the SILpower to do that. So we lure them into the Cage, and then we crush them.”

“How?” Hanna asked.

“I have a plan,” Maya said.

***

“This is an impressive poison,” the woman said. She was lean and her skin was like blue leather, brilliant and creased. She smelled faintly of oranges and her long golden hair nearly swept the floor behind her. Demamala Domokun, the High Poisoner of House Domokun.

The fact that Bell’s family had an official position of High Poisoner wasn’t surprising. Maya supposed that such things were common in the Multiverse At Large, as were potion makers and alchemists. The woman didn’t seem to look evil, instead she looked like a Smurf grandma, wrinkly and blue. It didn’t help that she also wore a lot of white.

“What’s the prognosis, Doc?” Maya asked. “Am I gonna live?”

The woman looked annoyed. She wasn’t Tier 2, but in the high nineties, therefore Maya technically outranked her.

“I would like to talk to this SIL that made the poison. This was tailor made to your DNA and for the powers that you had. Usually a poison that is made to stop a certain Skill is a wide spectrum poison that causes mostly mental issues, forcing the individual to be unable to focus and think coherently to use their Skills.”

“How did the Mother get a hold of my DNA?” Maya wondered.

“Who else, Bad Blood,” Roci said, clenching her fists in anger. “When I see her, I’ll rip her little head off.”

“I really need to find better allies or stop helping people in general,” Maya sighed.

“The poison is not effecting your body, just your Skills. In time, it will wear off. Your Tier 2 gives you a lot of benefits, chief among them the ability to detoxify anything within your system.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“I cannot estimate the length of time that this poison will be effecting you. It may be days or even years.”

“Years?” Maya frowned.

“This is a high grade poison, one tailored for you specifically.”

“Shit,” Maya muttered. “Can I get a de-poisoner from you? Some kind of magical activated charcoal?”

“This poison is tailored to you,” the woman said again. “I would have to have access to the same ingredients whoever made it had and know how they made it, then I could probably create something for you. But even with my Skills, abilities, and levels, I don’t know where to begin. It is a remarkable thing to see, I must say. I wish I could have been there to see it made.” The woman looked impressed and smiled at Maya.

“Well, what can you do?”

“I can recommend the use of detoxification potions to speed up the removal of the poison, but I’m not sure how helpful that will be. I would also recommend the use of a Physical Boosting potion, one that will allow your own Tier 2 status to work faster to cleanse your system.”

“Great, give me a good supply of those,” Maya said.

“I will have my assistant bring them,” the woman replied. She closed the leather case she carried with her and looked at Maya. “If you don’t mind, I would like to study your affliction some more. I could perhaps gain a level if I’m able to reproduce the poison.”

Maya shuddered at the thought. It was bad enough that the Domokun family were the greatest alchemist on their planet, she didn’t want to know what they’d be able to do if they had access to the Mother’s poison to stop Skills. They were in a war after all and from what she heard, it wasn’t going well for the Domokun family.

“I’m pretty busy,” Maya said. “After we win this battle, I’ll give you a ring.”

The High Poisoner nodded and left the room. Maya sat on the medical bed and looked at Roci.

“Any word from Bad Blood?”

“She’s being a total bitch,” Roci replied. “She’s refusing to leave the RSH and enter the Cage, saying that this is her land and she will defend it with her dying breath.”

“When did she become all patriotic?” Maya asked.

“When did the Hangy become her land?” Roci asked. “I think if you ‘abandon’ the Hangy and its surroundings, she’s gonna try and claim it as hers.”

“Can she?” ‘

“We can’t bring the fight into the Cage without her and we can’t let her stay there too, she’ll be near the root of the Cage and can shut it down from there.”

“We’ll set up guards and defenses around it,” Maya said.

“Ugh,” Roci said. “We can’t even trust the people we’re trying to defend. We can’t even trust the people we’ve been saying. We can’t even trust the people who are supposed to be on our side.”

“Welcome to being a SIL.”