I ran out to the main battlefield, pack in tow. The grey-barked trees surrounding whirled past me, blue leaves slashing at my face, which was giving me more than a few cuts, but when you’re running 30 miles an hour, hey, things happen. I slowly began to levitate out of the run however, and soon I was flying at insane speeds. Suddenly I was there. Things did not look good. Juncathari corpses were covering the ground, with all manners of bodily harm. Many had scars from their own weapons, and I could see why. Many of us had figured out how to deflect their beams. I jumped into the air, and began to punch them out of the sky, and throwing their bat-like forms around in the air with gusts of wind. It was a blur of orange blood and bodies falling but, eventually, it ended. As my rage died down, I witnessed the damage we’d caused. The ground was covered in bodies, with eight of us among them. None of us had died, but three were close. Except for Zin I suppose. Walking on the ground, I found it to have turned to mud, but an evil kind, that tried to grip at my feet, and pull me to where I’d never be seen again. Bloodied mud. Occasionally I would feel the crunch of some form of bone, or maybe even proboscis stalk. The ground was covered in magma, dried molten material, and scorch marks. I could feel the enchantment in the air, like that after a large magical battle. The bodies were sprouting all forms of fungus and plants, and others began to dissolve. Ether and mana condensed into foamy substances, that melted through the ground under it. There was a hum in the air, of the revertabration of mana. The discharge of it all was so strong that our reader Iod, was passed out on the aqua grass. Too much mana/ether in the air is my guess. How long have we been here? 10 minutes? An Hour? Two Hours? I can’t tell. Most of the awake originals gathered. “What will we do?” I asked, taking a look at the blood dripping off others, and the new scars a few of them sported.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Wrang responded.

“I vote we hit the Juncathari hard and fast, preferably now. With everyone.” Oxy said.

“I agree with that. People just keep pushing us around. We need to show them we are worthy of this title. We need to stake our claim as badass conquerers, but not butchers.” Buo agreed.

“Should we bring out the Kyper Bikes and Oort Fighters?” Sulf asked.

“Hit ‘em with everything, and hope to intimidate others. We need to be able to seriously weaken them.” Jewel stated. I began to smile deviously. An idea was floating through my mind, it would give us a capital, an industrial powerhouse and seriously put us on the map. It would weaken the Juncathari, maybe fatally. All we had to do, was capture, then hold it, which would be the greatest challenge The Infinite Councils have ever undertaken, but a horrendously good idea nonetheless. We would have to bring out every toy, and every soldier available. It would halve the assault the Rissi were undertaking.

“What are you thinking about Rade?” Chrom asked. I looked up at one of the gleaming, pale white, towers that scratched the sky. It was visible over the treetops, from quite a ways away. Hydro’s eyes became the size of a large donut.

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“OH HELL NO!!” He yelled.

“OH HELL YES!” I REPLIED.

“What are you guys screaming about?” Oxy asked. Wrang realized what I was thinking about.

“It could happen… We have the materials, but it’d be a bit of a stretch. I don’t know if we could hold it, but, it would allow the Rissi to be absorbed. I’ve heard from a few ambassadors that their leaders are worried about our participation. Let’s show them what they’ve been ever so patiently waiting for. We can even organize a powerful offensive into Juncathari territory, and it might even get an immediate white flag from The Alliance. They only control two, and as is we’ve been beating them, add a tower into the equation…”

“Let’s take a fuckin’ tower!” I yelled.

12 Days Later…

“We only got one shot at this guys, make it count!” I yelled into the radio. As we heard the railguns hit the wall they’d built, and the Oort fighters hover around destroying the wall in other places, I began to run. Heiive, Human, and all sorts of magical creatures ran into the fray. It was the middle of the night, and as the Kyper Bikes zoomed into the city surrounding the behemoth of engineering and began to tear through what troops there were, we followed. We ran through the strange city, designed for large avians. Mantis was already pounding into turrets and taking them out, while the rest of us found the door to the tower, and kicked it in. The city would be ransacked and demolished, with the Juncathari hunted down. We would not be mass murderers however, and sent an option for surrender.

It was refused.

We broke through the door, shooting and shielding molten beams. Our Wrath guns tore through the enemy, and magical shields worked decently. We didn’t have enough magical beasts for everyone, so they were all outside the tower. From what we knew of this tower, it was a hub for military operations and research. We ran through the tower, capturing all of it within the day. As our Oort Fighters landed, I got to take a good look at them. I hadn’t personally designed them, but I kinda knew what was up with them. We were gearing for the battle that was sure to come, but I could spare a few minutes. It was painted black, to make it harder to be spotted at night. It could fly at insane speeds, and could also hover, which meant that there wasn’t a need for a runway. It had two large railguns to pound away at bigger targets, and Wrath guns with extreme rates of fire to take out infantry. Also, it had two anti-aircraft torpedos, in case other air vehicles decided to get into a fight with this beast. They could follow, make sharp turns, and go at extremely fast speeds. The missiles that is. Someone jumped in the jet, helmet on, giving me a thumbs up, before lifting off, and flying somewhere, probably doing patrols around the city or scouting. We lost many in the invasion of the tower, almost half our Kyper Bikes, a third of the soldiers, and a third of our Oort Fighters. However, it would have been more if not for the surprise attack. I went to a viewing area from the tower.

“Well there is no way in hell that this is going to be easy.” I looked out towards the mountains in the distance. The Juncathari would come soon, no doubt. However, while we could, we would build up, turn this into an industrial powerhouse, and use it to our advantage as best we could. We’d already found 13 keys and two fabricators, and there was still much more to search. For now, we could rest.