The carriage arrived at Free City. Guards opened the gates solemnly allowing them to enter the settlement. Looking around, the town seemed to be depressed. They had heard the desperate straights that their leader was in. It had been announced that he was being raced to the city and the time that it would take them to arrive. When the time that was estimated past and there were no signs of them people lost hope. Some held out saying that there could have been any number of delays, but even they, after an hour, gave up hope. None knew that Rina had met them on the way and while it was still a priority to get home as soon as possible, the immediate reason to rush was no longer present. The Scout had slowed the pace she was driving. Jason didn’t need medical attention any more so there was no need to put themselves at risk. Plus, she wanted to give him time to rest before he had to deal with what was to come.

The Scout drove through the roads, seeing what could be if Jason had died just now. To say the least, it was a depressing atmosphere. They pulled up to the capitol building which was in reality a heavily fortified castle with architecture resembling a combination of modern fortresses and the castles of medieval age. While they called it the capitol building it was actually a complex of buildings with its main keep still some ways off. The building they parked in front of was the public entrance and the first of several checkpoints that were built recently to provide as many layers of defenses that could be erected before the war came to their front door so that, if necessary, they could hold out indefinitely against any attack that the Krizians could throw at them.

The occupants of the carriages stepped out of it. First the medic, then Rina, and finally Jason. The moment he came into site the eyes of everyone who was on the streets instantly went to him and they filled with hope. It was like watching people come out of a daze. They saw him step out. Taking a second to process, they would have a look in their eyes like something was processing internally that took a lot of computational power, but then all at once it was like some magical energy was filling them from their toes to the top of their head. All at once the oppressive atmosphere was abolished around everyone who saw. If one looked from above it wouldn’t surprise one if you there would have been a wave of positivity radiating out from Jason that cleared the streets of any foul miasma that it passed through. Shouts and cheers poured in. People abandoned their work to run out and see what the excitement was, joining in when they found that Jason was alive and well. Soon he and his companions were surrounded by a crowd of people. In the decade past it would have taken an entire town to have such a gathering of people, but in Free City the population had gone up so fast that the collection of people that came to cheer his survival was probably no more than one in twenty. No doubt though, with what the city was like just minutes before, there were many that were excited for his return. They just didn’t feel it was necessary or a good idea to wantanly run out into the streets and cause a commotion like those that had. The composition of the crowd that had formed were the young and those races that were more on the emotional side of the spectrum; Humans, Sil`Phane, Tok`Phane, Eaugr’n, and Thisin. Few Nith`Phane joined in the comotion. They’d isolated themselves away from the others for milenia so it was no surprise it took longer for them to be comfortable coming out in public, but there were still a decent amount of them. In their case the members that showed themselves were some of the older and wiser among the species who came out with just a few of the younger and more tenacious among them, making sure that they were trampled on by the larger species. It was hard enough for the Sil`phane to keep from being stepped on at an average height of 5 or so feet. The young Nith`phane were usually no more than 2 feet tall and if they didn’t walk defensively they could easily be stepped on and killed by the enormous, by comparison, Eaugr’n.

As the crowd grew, Jason felt more and more pressure to respond. They had gathered for him and he certainly should return their affection. The problem that he faced, however, was that he wanted to keep their spirits up but their outlook realistic, especially in the face of the impending disaster to come. They were in for difficult times. There was no question about that and for Jason, he had seen the ease with which the Krizian horde had taken the harbor city. He raised a hand to quiet the clamoring as he ascended the steps to the entrance of the security check building, getting to a place that was easier for more of the audience to view him.

“My friends, I thank you for the cheers that the rumors surrounding my life were not true. We owe that to my companions, the good people over there,” he motioned for them to look towards the scout, medic, and Rina. A shout went up celebrating the three. They were heroes in the eyes of those present, even if they’d be forgotten in the news and history records of the day. “Today, is a good day. An excellent day, but it is also a day that lies between days of tragedy and hardship. As you know, I left this city to lead an expedition. As much as I enjoy being revered as a hero, I am no hero this day. We lost the harbor city, connecting us with the mainland, and with it, many thousands of our compatriots who have now been murdered or enslaved to the Krizians. We lost with our best. I lost. As much as I’d like to tell you that they will not come across the channel. That they were content with taking only the territory of the mainland, I am certain that is not the case. This city, I believe, can hold against anything they throw at it, but as we stand, shielded against their savagery, our brothers and sisters will fall and this beautiful grand city that protects us will become nothing more than a prison that one day will fall. Not today, or the next day, but in the time of perhaps our old age, when our children are in their prime, they will be stripped of what we cherish now. I do not have a way to fight back. I do not know how we will do it, but with your help and those who come to us from around this great nation, I believe that we will come up with a way to defeat the enemy and return peace to the land so that our descendants will have nothing to fear from those who now wish to do us harm.”

The audience went from overjoyed just to see Jason to feeling like they were being crushed under the weight of the reality that was the Krizian Empire’s threat. As Jason ended his speech there was silence. They minds were rushing to process what he was saying causing a delay between his words and their reactions. In that time Jason motioned for the ones who’d accompanied him to move. They went into the building ahead of Jason, the last just making in before a cry of victory came from one of the Nith`phane children. It had occurred to the young rat-like creature that it was them that had the most technical know-how and handled most of the repairs and construction that needed to be done and any solution that was going to happen would rest on his kind and his generation and in a most un-nith`phane-like action he rose his voice up in victory proclaiming without words that they were up to the task. Jason turned back to the gathered people hearing this. He raised his fist into the air returning the victory shout. Those in the crowd looked from the little rat to their leader and then unison joined them both. Jason disappeared into the building while the crowd began talking amongst themselves exuberantly trying to figure out solutions to how to defeat the enemy that would soon be on their doorstep.

Each of the people in the crowd took something different from the speech and cheers. The Sil`phane and Tok`phane understood what Jason was saying about the hopelessness of their situation, but the Sil`phane were pumped up from his fighting spirit while the Tok`phane admired his desire to protect everyone. The Eaugr’n were relieved just by seeing the man that had led them as far as they had come so far. If he was unshaken in his resolve they saw no reason for themselves to be worried. They’d fight when it was necessary but until that time comes it was better for them to continue on with life as usual. The Thisin heard tell that these Krizians would put them back in a cage, enslave and abuse them. They’d sworn to never allow that to happen to them again. They couldn’t reclaim their legendary past, but they could still have a future and they’d be damned if they would let anyone take it from them without so much as a fight. There wasn’t a single one of them that would ever surrender to that fate again.

The most affected were the Nith`phane, though. They returned to their underworld and spread word that everything that the Humans and all the others had created in the years past now rested on them to protect and find a way to overcome the menace that was coming. Word spread quickly throughout their ranks. It was a misinterpretation of what Jason had said, but it filled them with pride and excitement to know that they were the ones that the Humans were relying on, that the Humans were giving them the credit and the appreciation that they had long ago been worthy of. They were not some filthy sewer rats but the lifeblood of all of Debris. They had always felt that without them none of the world would work. Some questioned if what the young ones were saying was true, but others shut them up by pointing out that the Humans had brought many novel ideas and ways of thinking about the world. They’d changed how everyone looked at the Thisin, why not the Nith`phane too? With that, the entire community of Nith`phane took to improving anything that they could while the more knowledgeable about all the technology they had access to went to work on ideas on how to defeat the enemy, pouring over every bit of information they had on the enemy and the libraries that they were allowed access to. Late into the night one of the youth came across a mention of a machine that they’d never seen before, but it sounded similar to something that popped up from time to time in the stories of the Humans and the Thisin. In the database it was mentioned that in Human history it had become the deciding factor in wars and that without them Earth in the modern age would be very different. There were no pictures of the machine but descriptions of what it did and how it worked. The young rat didn’t know of anyone having created such a machine so if they could then it would surely turn the tides of war with Krizians, wouldn’t it?