The reports of the battalions being wiped out reached the capital. They were the bulk of the main forces that had been trained and equipped to defend the Free Nation. Without them the Free Nation’s ability to hold itself together was weakened to the extent that if something wasn’t done soon they didn’t have to fear the Krizians, because the internal conflicts would rip them apart. Jason, the leader of the Free Nation, decided to take drastic action. He would take a company of personally selected soldiers to attempt to do what the much larger force he had sent before could not. In the history of Earth military size wasn’t necessarily the deciding factor of any given engagement and sometimes having superior numbers were in fact the participant that was in the more disadvantageous position. This made it not a suicide mission. That was what he told himself and those that agreed to go with him.

They were able to organize and take off from the capital in much shorter order than the forces before. It took all of a day after reports reached Jason for him to make his decision and call up a list of soldiers to bring with him, contacting them through the communication networks that existed on Debris. They were told to get ready and meet at the main square. The people there were going about their day as though nothing was happening. They hadn’t even heard of the tragic end that befell the battalions when the soldiers that were called to serve started flooding into the square. Before long the square was full of the troops preparing for this next expedition, their families, and people gawking, wondering what was going on. They didn’t have long to wait. Jason and a procession of several other famous politicians made their way to the center of the square where there was a raised stage that was used for events, auctions, and a number of other activities that were served well by having a centrally raised platform. The politicians and Jason stopped before the steps. Having seen him, the troops stopped what they were doing, kissed their partners and children giving their goodbyes before lining up in perfect columns and rows in front of the stage to the perplexed shoppers.

Jason ascended the stairs, walked to the centrally located mic, and took a long deep breath. The microphone and speakers system was one of those things that Jason and the Human engineers were proud off, By no means was it the best mic that any of them had ever heard, but the intricate wiring that was required to make it and the wiring it up to speakers placed all over the square without having visible cables everywhere was something of a small feat with the tools that they had. It was one of the first things that they had made, knowing that as time went on, things would get built up and it would be harder to implement, and if they didn’t do it early in the construction of Free City it would have limited usage, but putting it in place allowed many projects and events to be much more easily organized which, in turn, sped up the process of constructing the city and completing projects with many times fewer errors.

When Jason was ready, he began to speak. “In the following days you will begin to hear that our army fell without doing any damage to the Krizians. You may even hear of the terrible things that they have done to those whom they have conquered. I ask that you not panic. It will do no good. They are coming and if we do not wish to end up like those who have passed from this life or suffered a grimmer fate then we must resolve ourselves to doing what we must to survive; to fight one and all till we have no more life to give.” Jason stopped and took a breath. “I and these brave men and women will soon be departing from our city that we have built over these last few years. And I do not just mean the walls, but rather, the bonds that we have forged. We go to engage with the enemy to attempt to end their attacks on us. Our greater forces have failed against theirs. We outnumbered them and still we failed. Now our numbers are smaller than theirs but we will still attempt to succeed. If we cannot claim victory the enemy will continue to push forward. This city is the most well defended place, likely, on all of Debris, but we are not prepared for what is almost assuredly to come. I ask, that when we depart, you all prepare for a siege like none of us have ever experienced, a siege where this great city will be the last bastion for refugees that will come from all over our great nation. You can do it. Whatever the end of this campaign I believe that you can do it. Survive against the madness that is to come.”

Jason once more stopped. He stepped back, his head lowered. He didn’t want to lead these men. He didn’t even want to leave the city or fight with Chris and his Krizian empire. He didn’t have to. None of these people would force him to go or say he was a coward for not. They’d probably even praise him for making the right choice, staying with those who needed his leadership through the darkest times they could imagine, but he knew those were all just excuses. He was afraid. Since coming to Debris he had relatively good luck compared to the average Human and while he’d like to claim that all that he had accomplished was due to some innate skill of his, the reality was that had any of the elements that just happened to be there were different then he probably would have been doing some meaningless job in Gondaluke for the rest of his life just trying to get by, or worse, dead like thousands of other humans when they first arrived. In the end, he had a choice, not a great choice, but a choice nonetheless. He could either stay in Free City and probably be safe within its walls till the day he died a natural death as the world outside descended into some madman’s dream world or he could lead these men, likely to their deaths, in a fight against that madman to try to root him out before it was too late to do anything.

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Stepping back up to the podium with the mic on it Jason spoke resolutely, “Men, let’s go.” In the end, there wasn’t actually a decision to make, or rather, he didn’t decide he just acted before he came to a conclusion. It was reckless, but one couldn’t fight their nature. Acting before thinking had led the way since the beginning of his time on Debris, from saving Rina to freeing Thisin slaves and establishing a nation. Though, he had to be honest with himself, the same jumping head first into things that led him to forming the Free Nation also lead to the construction of the Krizian Empire. Had he tried a little bit harder to get along with Chris and maybe reform him this all could have been avoided, but that’s life. You make the best decisions and take the best actions that you can think to take in the moment and hope it all works out in the end, but you’ll never know until after you’ve already done the deed and it's too late.

The troops began moving out, funneling out through main street towards the southern gate, marching in an orderly fashion. Those around watched them, looking on with pride. The children, many of whom had lost parents or had parents among these soldiers waved good-bye not understanding that it would probably be the last time they’d see their mother or father. Every one else had tears in their eyes, both due to the pride they felt and the sadness that welled up from the bottom of their hearts. About a quarter of all Humans that they knew of had died in this conflict and more were to follow. Rina had once wondered aloud how so many of the species that were on Debris had forgotten their past when all they had to do was tell stories, write them down, pass it on, but what she failed to realize is that when displaced to a new world, having to set up a new society, there is precious little time to do any of those things, even when it has become an intricate part of your new culture and no one can tell all of their stories or write down and pass all their knowledge to the next generation. Without fail, there will always be information that is left out, never told because it wasn’t important enough to bring up or tell in the first place. Sometimes it’s just a slip of memory that never gets fixed in the time we have. Whatever the case may be, that information is lost and if not properly kept in check, eventually, the species forgets its culture, history, technology, everything that it once held dear. Humans were already starting to see this. How much important information that would prove important to the future of the Human on Debris was held in that quarter of Humans that is now gone forever. They’ll never know. All they can do is work to make sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

Jason lept from the stage and quickly made his way to the front of the troops by the time that they left the city walls. He’d lead from the front. If these men were going into combat then he’d be the first one in. If they were going to march to a place, he’d be ahead of them, covering the distance before them, making sure that he, as the leader, knew just how much he was pushing them. They were a few days from the harbor, but they knew they had to move quickly, not knowing how much progress the Krizians had made. They pressed themselves to make it there, knowing that they could get some rest on the boat ride over the sea to the continent. They didn’t have much trouble crossing. No one was travelling towards the fighting other than them.

When they arrived on the continents harbor, in the morning, they left the ships and continued on toward their destination. As all the soldiers couldn’t ride on the same boat they crossed over on several during the night, causing them to become a bit disorganized, but they had orders to meet at the gatehouse of the city so that they could reform up and set back to marching towards their target city. As the soldiers gathered just outside the gate a shout came down from the watchtower. The Krizians were on their way to attack. Jason ordered all of his men back inside the walls, for the gate of the city to be closed, and for the defenses to be activated. He didn’t know if the other cities had tried to use their defenses and failed or what. It didn’t make sense to him that the defenses hadn’t been damaged and the only way that could be the case would be either if a traitor took them offline or they were never activated in the first place. Either way, they had the standard defenses and it would do no harm to have them activated to aid in whatever battle was to come. Jason’s men took up positions along the wall, armed with rifles that could eliminate most threats. They’d been lucky to be on the defensive side of this battle, but he wasn’t going to rest on that. He sent out one more order, this time to the civilians of the city. evacuate and spread word that all settlements were to do the same. Activate their defenses and abandon their city. Flee to the capital until word came that the threat had been vanquished.