The next morning it was back to the usual schedule as the lilin woke at 6:58 AM, with the crack of dawn. It was rush hour traffic for everyone as the assembled troops and other personnel of the allies made a line to use the bathrooms for morning grooming but people were getting about their day by 7:45. Good thing too as that's when the leadership arrived to start going over the days activities.

Norson was addressing the assembled crowd with his booming drill sergeant voice. "Alright people. Now that the local situation has stabilized we can return to the previous task. We shall be dividing personnel up into 2 platoons. 1st platoon is tasked with setting out and collect the missing vehicles which the Former Neon Lights stole. Intelligence suggests that they are being stored here." The vet indicates a spot on the admittedly well hand drawn map.

Another man Maik didn't know the name of stepped forth just as Norson stepped back. "Second Platoon will be tasked with heading down to the sight of the original attack on the convoy, performing any needed repairs on the vehicles on sight and then returning them to this location. Once the full convoy has been recombined and is travel worthy we shall resume dispatching local members of the national guard to the nearest military base of operations so as to report to high command."

The second man stepped back just as Norson once more stepped forward. "We do not anticipate much resistance. If the locals give you any push back over the supplies that the convoy had been transporting, let them have it. Local police forces are quickly being reestablished and will take over that matter. Your objective is procuring those transports so that the recalled members of the armed service can report for duty. Any questions ?"

There Were in fact questions. The first one coming after Norson pointed to one soldier with a raised hand. "Sir, not meaning to sound like a deserter but uhhh, perhaps it would be best if we stuck around ? You know, at least until the local law enforcement was brought up to speed with Chi skills, at the very least."

Norson addressed this question with the same professional tone as he had outline the plan with. "Higher authorities than those at the local level will be appraised of the situation at O Nine hundred hours. It is believed that they will be understanding but rightfully pissed over the loss of life at the hands of these gangs and will further urge us to expedite the recall of all active military forces. My aim is for us to be ready in the event that our superiors prove to be especially upset with our tardiness."

The answer pretty much answered most follow up questions and the instruction was concluded with Norson's parting words. "Alright then. Grab some chow, gear up and then meet back here to depart at O Nine hundred. Dismissed."

Not being an official part of any military like force, Maik and their friends sat together while having breakfast. They were just digging into the oatmeal when an aid came by to request Maik's presence at the Mansion which acted as the information hub for the mayor. Maik turns to the others who wore buzz kill grimaces now that their morning meal had been interrupted by the summons.

The lilin gave them a mischievous smile. "So. You all wanna come see the mansion ?" The others looked at Maik like they were talking nonsense and the lilins smile only got wider. "I mean, there wasn't anything in the request that said I had to come alone..." The smile got wider still. "And, Ha ha. Its not like none of you Hehh, haven't contributed plenty..." Then the lilin shrugs. "So why not ?"

It was actually Eugene to speak up first, just shrugging at the thought of the impropriety of the whole group going to visit the mansion. "Sure. I'd like to see a mansion. You think well get a tour ?" laughter went All around the table and the good mood was back as they enjoyed their meal.

The aid was not in such a good mood when Maik informed them that all 9 of them would be coming along. The guy had to go and barter for the use of a bigger truck to transport the lot over, but Maik wasn't too bothered by that.

Do you guys think were letting the power go to our head again or is this just how were coping with the near death experience ? Its coping. We're fine. Its concerning, though there is merit to bringing the others. They have all proven capable and we did vow to help them gain power.

The mayor gave the assembled group an odd like when they arrived though Maik ignored it in favor of giving the tour. That was until the lilin spotted Elisha and Boyd. Spotting the one missing member of Maik's friend group wasn't what stopped the lilin mid sentence but the haunted look in her eyes. A rage began to build in Maik chest as the lilins gaze slowly turned to regard Boyd but the man sported a look that was just as haunted. Something is very wrong. No shit. So it would seem.

Zolinski addressed Maik's group as a whole. His tone was diplomatic but carried an undercurrent of reproach. "Perhaps I should have been more specific. I don't believe that there is need for all of you to present yourselves at this time." He eyes each of those within Maik group in turn.

The lilin, sensing the heavy air in the room and shifts into Analytical mode to give the logical reasons. The act immediately gaining Maik the full attention of everyone on the room, including a few aids for some reason. "I had deduced that you wanted to see me with regards to either advice on Chi skills or to aid in passing Chi skills on to others."

Maik gestures behind them at their companions. "4 of those with me are experts in their own right, having worked on creating Chi skills and developing better understanding of the interface. another has aided me in imparting Chi skills before and the other 3 are higher tier Chi skill users who can certainly offer some guidance and direction as well."

The lilin shrugs. "Its not as though we had any other assigned tasks and 9 heads are better than one. We're all here to help."

The mayor and several other representatives from the various Militia exchanged glances. Zolinski sighed heavily while reaching up to remove glasses he no longer wore and apparently no longer needed. The younger looking man snorted a laugh. A short lived thing that almost brought the shadow of a smile to his face before the scowl returned. "Phahh.... Fuck it. Boyd. Tell them please."

It took the math teacher a moment to compose himself but he managed and turned to address Maik's group. "We.... That is me and uhh others specialists around the country have been studying the... Moon, ever sense it was noticed that it had changed."

Boyd took a sip of water before continuing. "Parallax. Its a technique where to look at the same point on an object from 2 different angles at the same time, measure the degrees of angle with relation to one another and the distance between the two points. With the right equation you can use this data to calculate the distance between you and another object even at extreme distances."

The math teacher looked up at the gathered group to see if they were following and they nodded for him to continue. "Right. So we've been collecting this data with the use of high powered teliscopes and uhh.... we've run the numbers... a lot of times now. And, yeah, the moon is coming closer to earth."

The math teacher actually paused and started to tear up at this point but the mayor motioned for him to continue. "At uhh..." he sniffs and wipes his nose. "At a speed of... Five Hundred and Fifty Three miles per hour.... Which means that uhh, it should reach earth.... in about... 12 days..... Yep."

Boyd was just kind of nodding and rocking back and forth in his seat at this point. None in the room able to find their voice. Except Eugene. Nothing seemed to phase that guy. "Okay. You saying its going to hit us ? Pass us by maybe ? Change orbit ? Fly off into space ? I suppose what I'm asking is, will it actually hit us ?"

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The frankness of the question pulls the math teacher back to the moment and Boyd takes a Deep inhale as though he could banish is despair if only he could pull enough air into his lungs. "Well, pretty much all the up to date data for the motion of astrological bodies was stored digitally before magic was a thing so.."

Jose spoke up with fervor. "Stored ? Stored where ?"

All eyes were suddenly on the young man and a spark of some hope flashed in the math teachers eyes when he responded. "There are servers. Located at the observatory, but they don't work any more."

Jose, skip and Sara were all smiling. The Spaniard shook his head. "Chi data packet wasn't the only skill we developed. Another skill is called Chi data reader. One can read the information off a hard drive with the skill, so long as you have Chi projection. We actually figured that skill out first and it was the basis for making the Chi data packet skill."

Boyd grasped that life line for all it was worth. "Okay. Okay. OKAY. If we can procure recent data on the movements and mass of our systems astral bodies then we should be able to calculate the moons current trajectory." he holds his hands up to caution the others though. "This guarantees nothing mind you." But he wasn't the only one grasping at straws and Maik wondered how long this news had been hanging over the heads of the local leadership.

The new problem they faced was that the closest observatory was in the next county over, in the middle of nowhere. That made sense so that they could avoid light pollution but rather inconvenient for their purposes at in this situation. There was also the astronomy class or the astrophysics class at the local community collage but it was iffy as to whether or not those computers would have the data they were looking for on their hard drives."

Boyd went on to sum up the problem perfectly. "We could take reading, and take measurements. You know start from scratch and do all the math required to figure out the orbital mechanics... If we had a whole decade to take various readings and collect all the data from different points as we orbit the sun. Then calculate the effect of the other planets gravitational on the moon and the earth. But we don't have that kind of time... Maybe. I mean hopefully we do... but if we do, we wont know it until after the moon passes the earth by...."

Maik brought up several points with the leadership arranged at the hub with regard to those options. "I've taken the liberty to look over the collective data you have assembled here, and the trends I have noticed concern me. There seem to be an exponentially increasing number of reports involving animals changing, with the first report of an animal with what seemed to have been a Chi skill popping up yesterday. Adding to this is the fact the people seem to be randomly acquiring various Chi abilities, regardless of if they have received any formal training or not. Throw the who race and even species change issues cropping up with ever increasing frequency and things are becoming chaotic."

The mayor was scowling at Maik but didn't interrupt so the lilin continued. "Its clear that our world is undergoing massive change and at the rate its changing I don't feel comfortable leading an expedition to over 30 miles away and into the wilderness at the edge of civilization. Why not just select a group of trained soldiers that we can pass the skills on too and then have them go collect the data ?"

A discussion ensued where the pros and cons of both approaches were weighed. Ultimately the lilin just wound up showing their lack of experience as such a trip was basically a hour and a half round trip. At least it had been before magic was a thing. As a last ditch effort Maik asked why they were only sending 12 people for such an important task. Why not send all of first platoon ?

The core reasons were more political and Zolinski was all too happy to point them out. "This kind of information will cause a panic, if it gets out." He pointed looks every one of Maik's group in the eyes. "If we send a whole platoon then people will want to know what its all about. I would have preferred to send just a single fire team with you but sense you've done gone and brought your full entourage into this, then I guess your all going. We can play it off that your using this as an excuse to play favorites with your friends."

Now it was Maik's turn to scowl at the mayor while saying nothing. Zolinski went on to introduce the expedition leader, David. The guy looked every bit as though he should have been joining the others to head to the nearest military base with his buzz cut, square jaw line and clean shaven face. With him was Duke and Chase. "We need that information as soon as possible. People are already starting to talk and the moon isn't getting any smaller."

David, the new squad leader, showed the group the route they would be taking and explained that they had radio communication with some of the locations along the route but not all. "The mayor will have negotiated safe passage for us with all forces that have responded via radio. I will handle all negotiations. You will follow either my orders of the order of either of the 2 fire teem leaders you are assigned to. Is that understood ?" The group gave their affirmative and prepared to depart.

Jose provided Maik with the new skill before the left the hub to gear up so that Maik could practice and actualize the skill on the drive over. Once geared up they were formerly placed into their fire teams and assigned roles based on composition.

David, James, Maik and Eugene would make up fire team Alpha. Designation Engagement. Chase, Zak, Nathan and Stacy were fire team Bravo. Designation medical and support. Duke, Jose, Skip and Sara were tire team Charlie. Designation communications and research. Alpha would be in the lead truck, Bravo in the middle and Charlie would bring up the rear.

By 10 O'clock the squad was ready to roll out. Provisions were already loaded into 3 duel cab pickup trucks and the cargo double checked. As soon as they headed out the lilin began focusing on the new data packet and practicing the Chi flow patterns until the notification came up.

Tier 3 skill acquired - Chi data reader - Beginner

Allows one to link ones interface with the Chi projection skill, granting the ability of the user to read digital information from a storage devise while device is being scanned with Chi projection.

The first leg of the journey went fairly well and sticking to the highway turned out to be a smoother ride than Maik had initially expected. It seemed that most people on a big 4 lane highway like this instinctively tried to pull off the road when they were hit with the effects of magic becoming a thing, so the highway was actually easier to traverse then the regular streets had been.

That was until they reached a certain point. Up to that point it had been clear that people had abandoned the vehicles that no longer worked and made their way towards the nearest neighborhood or back into town. That started to change when they the distance between them and the last neighborhood exceeded 8-9 miles. After that the vehicles no longer looked abandoned but broken into.

Then they started seeing evidence of old blood on some of them followed by a few that had been burned. Because of that everyone was on guard as they approached the first gas station. It was situated right where one main street connected to the highway they were traveling down in a T-junction and it wasn't the only structure at the junction either.

There were people out at the road, but the road wasn't blocked. This was a good sign. they slowed and greeted the pair of armed fellows who seemed to be keeping an eye on the road and one of the David, the man Zolinski had put in charge of this expedition, spoke with them. He started by speaking the first half of a pass phrase that the guard completed. Maik's group offloaded some freeze dried food stuffs for the church that sat on the corner of the junction and nobody commented on how the gas station across the street looked as though it had been raided by a swat teem going after cop killers.

Once the exchange was made they were allowed to pass but the guard warned that things had been getting strange, especially the further out one got. Maik's group took the advice to heart, especially given how that seemed to have what amounted to a motorcycle gang out front. Then again motorcycles didn't run of electronics either so who was to say they weren't just making due.

One thing was for sure. The state of things did get stranger the further out they went. It was 5 miles later that they ran into the next intersection on this highway and this time the road was blocked. Someone had moved vehicles into place to block the way through the intersection and there were people behind those trucks with guns.

Unlike the previous stop, there had been no radio communication with whoever this group was and thus, no prior agreed upon fee to pass by unscathed. The front truck advanced slowly as 2 men came out from behind their barricade and it was instantly obvious that there was something off about them. First, they were both shirtless and second they were both kinda green. No not that really dark green that was kinda black. They were forest green.

David quickly passed instructions around the cab to James, Maik and Eugene. "Alright were going to pull ahead of the others and approach this group, slowly. I'm not going to park. I'm going to put the truck in reverse. If I start shooting, they are about to attack us and we need to put them down. Fast. If I start backing up quickly then their trying to rob us and you need lay down suppressive fire so we can get away. But if I back up slowly don't you do a fucking thing unless it say, got it ?" The three responded in the affirmative.