Jason convened a meeting the moment he got back to his office in the capital, sending out a message to all the heads of the city to discuss the current situation and their next course of action. The council assembled quickly along with several other members of the Free Nation’s society that, while they didn’t hold any official title that said they were a high ranking person, they were still considered core to the Free Nation and its founding. Some of them had been there since the beginning, but others were relatively new faces to the group. Mainly the council members that were elected. Jason held his position through election as well, but there was never an individual that challenged to take his place. Not everyone liked every decision that he made, but for all the flaws that his various detractors saw in him he was still the glue that held all this new civilization together. Without him it still wasn’t certain whether it would all crumble or if it could sustain itself. Among them were Mya and Mittana, the Sil`phane sisters that had supported Jason on a tech level from the beginning of his journey, or close to, Xev, his former mentor, Rina, who just wouldn’t leave Jason’s side at the moment, and a council of at least 10 members representing regions of the Free Nation.

First on the agenda was to report what had happened and what he had witnessed on the battlefield. All but Xev and Rina had trouble believing what he said was true. Jason was one of the most powerful people they’d ever known or heard of. It was beyond their expectations that there were others that could remotely challenge him, even in a group. Moreover, the Krzian Empire had begun building its technology after the Free Nation had and with less efficient ways. It stood to reason that their abilities were still far behind their own, but it seemed from what he told them they had equaled or even possibly surpassed them. Rina wasn’t surprised only because she’d known Jason since she was little and seen the rapid growth that he had. She knew given the right circumstances a person could develop far beyond what one would expect them to become. Xev on the other hand had been all over Debris and ad a much more clear state of affairs. Jason was definitely strong, but there were better out there that she had run across in her travels and, not to mention, she was still superior to him, She just wasn’t the type to wish to govern.

The facts, however, were the facts. It made no difference how they had become more advanced than expected only that they had. Jason pushed through to the next topic. It was more important to figure out what to do than discuss things that could not be changed. He changed the topic from his report to plans for how to prepare the city and what they could do to increase the defenses as well as increasing the living space that they could protect. In the worst case scenario the city would have to increase their ability to house all of the nation’s citizenry. There wasn’t much to discuss. All possible means for expanding their territory and defending it were being explored and implemented by everyone that were not needed to do something else.

The next topic was of the most import; how they were going to retaliate, reclaim their fallen territory, and end the Krizian threat. It seemed a bit unreasonable to even attempt to speak on the topic considering that every one of their cities that the Krizian Empire had attacked fell within a few days. If they couldn’t even bring to bare a reasonable defense it seemed pointless to even discuss how to turn the tides, but they had to try. There may be some way that they’d missed and had they not discussed things they’d never find. What they needed was someone that was good at strategic planning. Jason and Xev were certainly good fighters, but at the end of the day they were all about brute force frontal assaults and methods of fighting individuals, small groups at best. War took so much more planning and maneuvering and none of them had any true practical experience with it.

As the meeting was at its height with little being found that they could find to improve the situation, there came a knock, not at the door, but from the wall. Little did anyone know, tunnels were built into many places of importance so that Nith`phane could travel quickly and easily between them. People never saw them so they were out of mind, but now, Jason was perplexed by how a wall was knocking at them. A dot appeared at about 5 feet above the floor and then split apart, forming a crease to its left and right about a foot before turning vertical, running to the door. It was like someone had just cut out a piece of the wall neatly. Afterwards it pushed out of the wall and moved aside revealing the tunnel and what was knocking. It was the Grand Master and his apprentice, Fremel Fri Frick. They stepped out and bowed their heads in respect.

“We are sorry for interrupting your meeting, sir,” the Grand Master spoke. “My apprentice believes that he has the answer to your problem. I don’t know if I believe that to be the case, but it may have merit.”

Jason put a hand up, “I don’t know why you weren’t included on the list to contact, Grand Master. You have always been a great help in matters that needed an inventive mind. Please, forgive this.”

“It’s all good,” the old rat-like person chuckled, “My kind is used to being overlooked, but I’m sure I was removed from the contact list out of respect for the privacy we like to keep.”

“Yeah, I’m sure…” Rina said sarcastically glancing at Mittana. Rina and Mittana were no strangers to the prejudices that still existed between several of the species. Rina had discovered many of them as she founded the medical organization and facilities in the city. Every time she’d turn around there was another fight about who could be seen and treated and who would see them and who a patient was comfortable with. It’d taken a long time and it still wasn’t completely worked out, but, for the most part, prejudices were put aside so that the best care could be given and gotten. There were little flare ups, but those had become a lot rarer over the years. Mittana, on the other hand, had faced much prejudice as she grew up and even now. The Sil`phane largely saw the Nith`phane as beneath them and servant class so Mittana working for and under them in a field that most Sil`phane would ever dream of taking up earned her a fair bit of hatred and scorn. To many, she was the same as the Nith`phane and was treated as such. The look that rina gave to her was look of acknowledgement and a wordless message of, “we’ll have to deal with this later.”

“There are more important things at stake at the moment. Allow my apprentice to tell you of his idea,” the Grand Master sad.

The young rat stepped from behind the Grand Master. He was still only a child, no more than a few feet tall. His nervousness poured out of him. His hand squeezed what appeared to be a model of some sort in his hands. Despite his fears he placed himself in the room at a spot where everyone could see and then began, “Y-You see, the-there’s a th-thing,” he stuttered trying to get out what he wanted to say. He took a breath, closed his eyes and centered himself. The room silently watched him. After a moment he got a determined look in his eyes. “There’s a thing that comes up in the stories that Humans talk about and that exists in the myths of the Thisin. They’re said to give a huge advantage to people that can use them over people who can’t. Humans call them airplanes. They’re a sort of flying machine. Here’s a model I made of one,” Fremel said as quickly as he could get out before holding the model he had in his hand that he was previously crushing out for the others in the room to look at.

Most of the people in the room had never seen a plane before and were curious, “You mean this thing can fly?” one of the council members asked.

“I think so.” Fremel responded.

Mya eyed it model, getting as close as she could to it, putting her head at eye level with Fremel’s hand. “Hrmmm.” She swiped it from his hand and held it up to look at it from another angle, “it doesn’t look like it can fly.”

“That’s because that thing could never fly,” Jason spoke up, “I suppose its a nice first attempt from someone who has never seen one before, but there are things that you don’t seem to understand, fundamentally, from this design.” Jason took out a sheet of paper and folded it into a paper airplane. He then threw it towards Rina as most of the rest of the room looked on in awe as it glided smoothly through the air. “What you’ve created is basically a brick, but it might work given the tech we have access to, however when we’re talking flying machines, if you understand the principles it requires very little advanced technology… At least not at the level of just getting it to work.”

“How could anyone ride in something like this?” Fremel asked excitedly?

“Couldn’t. At best, that’s an example of a glider,” another council member that happened to be Human chimed in. “But Jason is right, a glider still displays the fundamentals of powered flight. So, what did you ‘ave mind, or was this it?”

Fremel had been caught up in just trying to explain a flying machine without being looked at as if he were crazy that he almost forgot what his idea was. “The history I’ve read says you can gain air supremacy with these machines by dropping bombs on the enemy.”

“Not happening,” Jason said curtly. “I remember the horror stories of World War II. We want to stop them, not replay Human history. Maybe we can come up with a better plan for its use if we can build one. Do you think we can, Mya?”

“I’ll need a team to build something. We should be able to get it done before the Krizians get here,” she responded, “but I don’t know what we’ll be building.”

“I’ve got an idea. What if we bypass the army?”

“What do you mean?”

“It strikes me that the motive behind all these attacks is their leader. Why don’t we fly over the army and take him out?”

“So you’re suggesting that we put together a strike force to parachute in?” Jason queried.

“Why not?” the councilman rebutted.

Jason thought for a moment before he turned to Mya, “We’re going to need something that can carry 5 people over that army and allow us to jump out of it without getting in our way. Think you can design something like that?”

Mya nodded excitedly before turning to Fremel. “Let’s go,” she said before grabbing hold of him and dragging him out of the room to start work on something that would be hopefully finished by the time the Krizians arrived and safe enough to actually use.

“I’ll assemble the strike force that I’ll take with me to handle the mission. Is there anything else that we need to discuss?”

With that, the plan of attack was set and the council had nothing more to discuss. It was time to get to business making manifest their designs.