“Eidolon of the Fourth on deck!”

Salutes went out, and Gabriel looked around skeptically. Ren stayed slightly behind him and on his right, and as he approached the First, he looked on carefully, “Where to? Your usual meeting room?”

“She’s coming as well.” Rylen nudged his head towards Ren, “You’re acting Captain and I need you in.”

“Yessir.” She answered with a stoney demeanor; Gabriel had no doubt she was screaming internally.

Ravan looked a bit surprised, “…Where’s Captain Rydell?”

Ren just waved a hand down to make her be quiet, and the woman grumbled slightly.

“By the time the meeting is over, Sirs Jense and Corbin should be close.” Rylen added, then turned slightly, “I’ll meet you two up there.”

Gabriel turned to look over his shoulder, “Shall we? Captain Nibasai.”

She practically vibrated with excitement, “Wait, wait…” She frantically enabled her wing-effects, and squealed with delight when she saw that her wings had updated already; the two massive extremities were now joined by a second smaller pair lower on her back, “Oh my god it’s happening.”

“What happened to the Captain though?” Ravan asked again, “Why won’t anyone even mention him?”

Ren stepped closer and set a hand to her friend’s arm, “It’s bit of a story, but he’s fine…he just can’t fly or fight right now. Armor was damaged.”

Ravan could only blink in confusion, “…What? His armor is broken but he’s fine?”

“I can’t explain it in detail, I gotta go!” Ren puffed, and quickly followed after the Fourth to find Rylen’s meeting-room on the bridge-deck. She kept her wings on as long as she could before finally turning off the solid-light effect, “It’s going to take a minute to get used to the second set…”

“You’ve mentioned before that you can move them like they’re extensions of your physical body, right?” Gabriel wondered, an arm over her shoulders as they went up the elevator.

“Yeah! They can be really emotive, too, like a cat fluffing-up its fur when startled.” She answered, “But I have no concept for the second pair yet. They’ll follow-along with the big ones until I do.”

The elevator opened again and the duo made their way along that familiar path; although most SkyFortresses had a unique external design, the core floor-plan within was largely the same, making it easy for crew to get around no matter which ship they found themselves stationed aboard. The meeting room itself was identical on every ship, and when Gabriel stepped through, he glanced back at Ren with a tense ‘here we go’ kind of look. She pressed a hand to his lower back to nudge him through, and followed after.

Rylen was there waiting, with the holograms of every Captain – save the Buckler, who was there in person – already present. To their surprise, Ren immediately made her way to the Aegis’ empty spot, and the light above it dimmed to indicate the system’s recognition of her rank.

“Dame Ren is acting for the Aegis while Captain Rydell is out of commission.” Rylen explained, “He will be coming to the Buckler soon but is still presently in Trazad. In any case…there are some other updates to give before we discuss the plan for specific movements. First, Lord Xanarken is dead; Lord Gabriel is now the full and sole Eidolon of the Fourth.” He didn’t wait for reactions; the Captains were fairly disciplined, even if Tarrock Gallifey – on the diagonally-opposite end of the horseshoe-table from Ren’s spot – sneered disapprovingly the whole time, “Second, both Emperor Iresha the Elder of Sargon, and Duke Mardu of Kitez, are also dead. As noted in the pre-meeting summons, Prince Iresha is a hostage of Duchess Far’nah and is a top priority for retrieval. The Fafnir will be moving out solo in an effort to retrieve him before the main host arrives. Third, Lord Gabriel will be going shortly ahead of the fleet to give Far’nah one last chance for unconditional surrender – of both Kitez and the Tuonela.” He looked directly at Gabriel, “Unconditional surrender being the operative terminology here.”

“It’s understood.” He answered.

Rylen stared for a moment anyway, and his eyes narrowed in brief skepticism, but he turned back to the Captains, “The World Cloud has already been allowed to flow into Kitez, and will flood the country within hours. We shouldn’t have any issues with accessibility as we follow it. The primary target is Oceanside; any resistance fielded along the way will be dismantled and bases destroyed. If the Magistrates and their subordinates unconditionally surrender, then we will deposit a token force to secure them and their vessels until the conflict is over. Lethal force is preauthorized throughout this campaign. You need not make the offer to any of them twice. Hold nothing back and offer no quarter. If we are successful in retrieving Prince Iresha, he will be crowned Emperor Iresha of both Sargon and Kitez, and we’ll be leaving him a clean slate. I’m not taking anymore bullshit from this place.”

Gabriel and Ren listened quietly as the First – rather, the Sixth – made his battle-plans clear to all present. Maps of attack trajectories were shown, locations of all known hostilities marked, and reminders of the capabilities of the Kitezan fleet given. Finally though, Rylen turned his attention back to Ren, “The Fafnir’s advance-role will be to locate and secure the Prince. Unfortunately, because of the size of the Tuonela and its position sitting above the palace, we couldn’t tell what happened with him once his ship passed beneath the shadow. You’ll need to go in stealth-mode and report back whatever you find as you’re looking for him. Can you four manage?”

“It’s just normal people with artillery, sir. We can do this easily. The hard part will be navigating the palace; we’ve never been inside, so we don’t know the layout, and if the Fafnir depart immediately, we’ll arrive there before the World Cloud does. A cartography node will be rather obvious.”

“We can safely assume the Duchess is going to hold the Prince captive.” Gabriel interjected, “Keeping the Tuonela parked above the palace, and leaving us in the dark about where the Prince is located inside, she’s creating a double-layer of security redundancy. It seems insane to me, but it looks like she’s ready to sacrifice most of the rest of the Kitez in order to protect Oceanside.”

“Sir, if I may…” Ren jumped back in, and stood up from her seat, “I believe the Duchess is setting a trap. She’s practically rolled-out a red carpet for the Council’s invasion…and kicked it off with a spectacular display.”

“What could she have possibly arranged that could withstand against the Sixth?” Rylen wondered, “We’ve kept abreast of their technological developments this whole time.”

“I don’t believe the Tuonela is as benign as appears; I have serious doubts that they’re simply using it as a shield. We know it’s flight-capable because it’s been outfitted with Kitezan anti-gravity drives, but I think it stands to reason that it’s been given a weapons system of some kind, too.”

“One that would only be useful once we’re in range of Oceanside.”

“Even so…I think we should be cautious about sending too many SkyFortresses at the same time.” Ren noted, “The application of waves is sound, but we should consider holding ships back until we know what she wants to do with that thing. The Duchess is expecting us to just throw the fleet at her…we probably shouldn’t give her what she wants.”

Rylen stared at her for a moment, unsure whether to be offended at her suggestion that he was being short-sighted, or heed the advice. He glanced briefly to Gabriel between them, and the obvious, resolute agreement he had with the comments. For a change, the Sixth didn’t argue, and looked instead to his strategy-maps again, “…Then we’ll bottleneck the approach a little. Spread the assault out a bit and make our forces harder to pin-down. The Guardian will approach first from the north, followed by the Conservator and the Crusader. From the east, since it’s already in the lead, the Ward will lead the charge, followed by the Buckler and the Dreadnought. Coming in over the Exclusion Zone, the Rampart will advance, followed by the Warden and the Fulcrum. The First will trail a ways behind at equal distance and go in at the same time, protecting the rear line so the Fifth can come in. I’ll send out co-op orders once we get a list from our allies about who and what they’re sending. They may end up in the second wave if they don’t get here quickly enough. The point of this spear will pierce whatever defensive line-up the Kitezans have mustered, and the second will crush whatever is left behind. If we can extract the Prince quickly, then we can disable Oceanside in short order.”

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“What about the Tuonela?” Captain Greenseer wondered.

“An Inquisition ship is coming from the north and will advance with the second wave. I want that colony vessel boarded, commandeered, and moved out of the way, so they’ll take care of that. The sooner, the better. If I can get a clear shot with the orbital, we may not need the rest of the fleet to get too close.”

“What if they can’t get aboard?” She followed, “We have to consider that the Duchess is actively going to protect that ship from whatever we do to take it away from her.”

“…What could she have possibly done with a civilian colony-ship?” Rylen wondered, somewhat aghast that it could be perverted that way.

Eyes at the table warily turned towards Ren; every Captain in the Sixth may have had tactical training and insight, but Ren was the one sticking her neck out to challenge the Eidolon. She was up for it, however, “I would approach that ship as though it’s the most dangerous weapon she has at her disposal, sir. Shielded, armed, and waiting for the right moment.” She said simply, “The Duchess will count on us either focusing on it, or ignoring it completely because of our worry for the passengers. I’m certain that part of her scheme is to make use look inhumane or inept. There’s a very real image-problem we’re going to have when things start to get messy, and there are – unfortunately - far too many unknowns and variables for us to come up with a single strategy against her.”

“Then we advance and adjust.” Rylen acknowledged, “Everyone here needs to be paying close attention to everything that happens as we begin to engage. There’s roughly an hour before our first wave makes it far enough into the country to start seeing major population-centers, which is where we’re seeing the biggest build-up of Kitezan resistance. Get whatever rest you can; it may be the last chance you have before we’re seeing combat. …Dismissed.”

The images of the hologram-Captains started to flicker out, until only Captain Landon and acting-Captain Nibasai were left. Gabriel stepped back to get around the chair Ren rose from, but just as he was about to follow her and Landon out, Rylen commented for him to stay. The Fourth looked back quizzically, but Captain Landon grabbed Ren’s attention rather quickly, and they left, putting Gabriel alone with the Sixth, “…What’s up?”

“You said to the Accord that you used your affliction to stop Aamin.” Rylen said simply, staring at that large, horse-shoe-shaped table, “But I didn’t see a body. What did you do, exactly?”

Gabriel felt a pit open in his gut, “…I…crushed him.”

“There was no blood.”

“There was. It was on my face, as you may recall, before the Sargonians let me clean up a little.”

“It was his?”

“…Yeah. It was.” He answered, and felt his shoulders tighten a little, “I know you never wanted me to use it, and I get it…because now that I am, it’s amazing to me the difference in potential that I have compared to any other Limitless user I’ve seen or heard about.”

“The overwhelming majority of those who develop an affliction in the womb do not see the day of their own birth.” Rylen explained carefully, “One doesn’t need a vivid imagination to understand why. Those who do, often don’t see the end of their own childhoods, for the same reason. The odds of someone making it to adulthood without any of those tragedies befalling them…is so astronomically small, that in spite of the billions of people who’ve been born in that timeframe, only two in the last 370 years have come of age. You…and-”

“…Caeros.”

Rylen gave a subtle nod, “When I first heard from the previous Captain Rydell that they’d found a boy with the affliction in the Exclusion Zone, I wondered if he himself had been put under the influence of some illusion, just as Dame Ren had been some decades later. Seeing you with my own eyes – seeing your eyes glowing with that bright golden light, as only the affliction does – put me at such unease, that Xanarken and I didn’t speak for weeks after he took you in. I still don’t really understand why he wanted to keep you.”

Gabriel was completely unsure about the line of dialogue Rylen was drawing, He’s either about to say he’s proud of me, which is extremely unlikely, or he’s going to talk me down…

“Xanarken died because he didn’t properly respect the threat the Limitless poses.” The Sixth continued, “That void-power that Seth is convinced fuels both the Limitless and Scyrexian. If it’s true what Dame Ren said at the very start of that fight – that Aamin’s state of being was a gift from Scyrexian - then it stands to reason that he was somehow involved in Scyrexian’s escape from the Magistrate Laurier’s research facility. We know it’s where the beast came from, and we know it’s the last place Prince Aamin went after he escaped through the Connington Fragment. Perhaps he got in the creature’s way, perhaps he was used somehow…whatever the case may be, the Duchess clearly knew the devastation he could inflict, and packaged him up to gift back to his brother. …You have at your disposal a truly terrifying power, Gabriel. I’ve warned you for most of your life that you shouldn’t try to develop it, lest you walk the same path Caeros did. You clearly haven’t listened to me, so I need to know…right here, right now…what are you capable of?”

That set the man’s nerves on edge, and he shook his head, “I’m…apparently capable of manipulating physical reality? I guess?”

“You don’t know?”

“It’s hard to describe… I can’t control it expertly, but my accidents are proving the point more than I ever could.” Gabriel held his hands out helplessly, “Ever since I cut the arm off Laurier’s mecha, I’ve been wondering what I could do… I know I can cut things, but I had always needed to be touching what I was cutting in order to do so. I didn’t have to do with him; I just reached, and it happened, even from that distance. Now I can manipulate objects from different sides of the same room…pick them up, move them around, and…break them. With Aamin, I can’t fully explain what it was that I did…but I crushed him so completely that his body was encased in a space no bigger than a chickpea. Only that one spatter of blood got out…from the initial pressure…”

“And you can’t do that on command.”

Gabriel shook his head, “No… Most of what I’ve been able to do lately has been unintended. I only noticed after the fact and have tried to understand it.”

“So, if you saw the Duchess when you get out there to offer our terms of her surrender, you wouldn’t just be able to reach out and crush her the same way.”

“…I…only managed to do it with Aamin because of external factors. I could not guarantee the same results on demand, least not if she isn’t directly in front of me.”

“…I see.”

The Fourth crossed his arms, “Is that disappointment I hear on your voice?”

“Opportunity lost. Get some rest, Gabriel.” Rylen said, and turned away to start pacing, contemplating everything to come.

Gabriel wasn’t quite ready to go yet though, “…Rylen, can I…”

Those orange eyes glanced back curiously.

“…How exactly did Xanarken die?” He asked, “I know Aamin got a hand through his mantle, but…his real body…? Did he suffer?”

The Sixth pulled his arms away from where he’d wrapped them across his chest, “You don’t want to know those details. It’s unfortunate enough as it is.”

“I know, but…how am I supposed to accept that he’s really gone if all I have to go by is the fact that he never signs-on again?” The Fourth noted soberly, “You can’t just leave him to rot in his pod, either…will I be allowed to see him when you get him out?”

“That chamber hasn’t been opened in 300 years, Gabriel. It’ll take a long time to open. His pod is set to cryo-sleep right now, so he’ll just…remain that way.”

“…Oh…” Gabriel could feel his whole body sag where he stood, “…Okay…”

Rylen stared for a moment, but his expression betrayed him, and he put his hands on his hips, “Wait a moment. I’ll share my sights with you. If you really want to see him…”

Those eyes looked up, and Gabriel nodded.

“Very well…” Rylen said, and dissolved his mantle.

A few seconds later, Gabriel saw the invitation from the Sixth, and with an anxious swallow, accepted it. His sights completely exchanged – as though he was in a meeting with the Accord all over again – and he watched through Rylen’s own eyes as the man stood in the Eidolon System’s pod-room. Rylen didn’t spend much time looking around though, and had his eyes down on just the one container. It was already frosted-over, and Rylen put his hand against the glass to clear the fog. It was barely enough to make-out a shape underneath, but the Sixth leaned down slightly, propped up on his elbows as he looked carefully down into that frozen stasis-fluid. Gabriel could see the faint, pale image of a face, eyes half-open and staring straight back up, as though looking back at the eyes staring down at him. Other than the gauntness left by three centuries of atrophy, and black hair instead of dark purple, the man within that frozen space looked identical to the mantle he once wore.

Gabriel could feel the breath leave him, and he collapsed to his knees, “…Xanarken…”

Rylen looked on for a few more seconds before ending the visual-feed, and pushed back up, hands on the pod’s edges, “Etienne did what she could, but there was nothing we knew to do that could save him.”

“…I understand.” The Fourth answered, unable to wrest himself from where he’d found himself. The shock hit him all over again, but this time, with that vacant, unmoving face as evidence, the truth of it really stuck, “Uhm…thank you, for…showing me.” He managed, before he completely disconnected the call.

Gabriel saw the drops of red fall from the tips of his hair before he realized he’d even begun weeping.