The survivors had decided that they would fight the hive by at the end of February, in 7 days.

The decision to finally attack the beetles was brought on by many factors. The first and most influential factor was the rapidly degrading school due to the beetle colony digging through its foundation. Even Velysium hall had begun getting cracks all over its wall, a clear indicator that it might collapse soon. The second factor was the rapid improvement in their usage of not only Sev, but magic. Healing magic played a major role as well. The third and most terrifying factor, the more they waited the stronger the hive became.

So it was no joke that all the groups within Velysium hall, the VFO, the OHS, the Magisterium, the Artificerium, and the Alchemisterium all had to get right to work preparing for the attack.

The VFO under the dutiful watch of Coach McConnell and the 2 officers, Sparred with each other, in full armor, and weapons. They pushed the limits of their Sev pull as they fought against each other. Of course, they were to be careful when sparring with each other, but accidents still happened. It is also important to note, that they were also reviewing battle formations and how to effectively utilize all portions of their group.

Any injuries gotten from the VFOs' harsh training were turned over to the OHS to heal and close them. It was good practice for the team, as they got better and better, somewhat breaking through the ever prevalent incompatibility in Mana signals.

The Magisterium, in all their glory, were doing much like the VFO, drilling their magic and perfecting other spells that would prove useful in the upcoming battle. The principal had told them to drill Levitation and their ability to mold objects as well since it would be a crucial piece in the plan she had in mind.

The Alchemisterium had gotten a few more members, apart from only Mr.Val and Ms. Stillwater, all of which were at least versed in chemistry. These people were busy making more molotovs, as well as a metric frick load of the bombs. Mr. Val, thankful for the help, was working on something else while directing the manufacturing of these items.

The Artificerium had by far the busiest of rooms. They were working on overdrive, Sharpening weapons, improving weapons, making arrows, crossbow bolts, and the casing used for both the Molotovs and the Bombs that the Alchemisterium needed. Along with this, their design team had improved their armor, made from mostly Mega beetle chitin. They broke the legs off tables and fused them together, if needed, to make tower shields out of them, before further reinforcing their fronts with metal plates.

People had to be rotated from team to team. The people from the Artificerium, Alchemisterium, and the OHS had to be given time at which they would go train with Coach McConnell as they would be fighting too. The Magisterium was not spared from this training either, but it was put to a minimum for them as they had to get a better grasp on their magic.

There were times when people would start shaking from fear every now and then, others hiding behind smiling faces. It was at times like these that having their parents and other loved ones or family would have helped, but they didn’t have that luxury of their past. Instead, they had to do with each other for comfort, which at this point, with all the hell they had endured together, they had all become nothing less than family.

[Day 78 {week 9}] - Gammaday - February 37, 0000 A.A

~

~~~~~~~~(23:58 PM)~~~~~~~~

Tension was high Anxiety was peaking. Things, from what Coach McConnell could tell, had not looked good in terms of morale. But Coach McConnell had fixed it and was glad it was working out fine. The stash of snacks, like M&Ms, skittles, Chips, sodas, and candy bars accumulated from their scavenging, all of which the student had run out of eons ago, were used as prizes in the games the coach had set up. It ranged from a very intense game of tug of war with a rope that was definitely going to snap soon, to a limbo contest, to a chess contest, to even a basketball throwing contest, and more. Needless to say, everyone, even the adults, were having a lot of fun.

“This was a good idea.” Said the Principal, even with her regressing appearance she could’ve sworn that the past few days had given her a few wrinkles.

“Yeah well, they need this, they can’t dive off into battle without a few happy moments.” He replied,” Bad morale can affect battle pretty heavily.”

The principal fell silent as she watched her students laughing and enjoying themselves with what they had set up. Behind all this, she could still tell that they were all still worried about their battle tomorrow. “You know what.” She started up again, catching the coach’s attention,” I was going to go over the plan with them again but I think I’ll tell them tomorrow. Let them sleep on a good note.”

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Coach McConnell nodded thinking it was for the best as well while he took a bit of a chocolate bar. At his age, he had to watch what he ate, but now, seeing as he looked, and felt much younger, he was glad he could enjoy the tasty treat once more. “ On that note, I’ll let them have some fun for 30 more minutes before sending them to sleep. We have a long day ahead tomorrow.”

“Long indeed.” Said the principal wondering just what horrors the next day would hold,” Seeing as you got things over here, I’ll head off to sleep first.” She said turning to leave as Coach McConnell nodded.

[Day 79 {week 9}] - Voltday - February 38, 0000 A.A

~

~~~~~~~~(8:00 AM)~~~~~~~~

It was early in the morning when the watch switched out to get some rest while everyone else gathered to listen to the attack plan on the Hive.

The principal stood on one of the few remaining tables ready to refresh the minds of the student on how today was going to be played out. All the adults and even a few students had pitched in to devise this plan. It was a collection of problems that need to be addressed before the queen could be taken out.

Before they had gathered, they had all worn their armor and equipped their weapons. On top of this, everyone had at least 5 bombs to use. The items they were going to use for the attack were all packed up and ready to go.

Dale Barton, a part of the photography club attached the last of the go pros he could recover to willing people to take a video of the whole thing….in case they lost and someone wondered what had happened to this place. But it could also be an epic reminder of their first big battle.

“Let’s recap on the plan in case some of you may have forgotten it.” began the principal,” there are 197 of us within Velysium hall. So to begin with, 2 groups of 50 people each, Alpha and Omega, will be in charge of clearing the bulk of the beetles on the first floor. Each will be in charge of one side of the school. Alpha will take the backside of the school, their goal being the cafeteria. Omega will that the front side of the school, their goal, the Foyer. They’ll go through every hallway taking any beetle they see down.” she said, letting that sink in.” If you fall into either of these teams, you’ll be at the front of the action taking the brunt of it all. This will be where most of the shield wielders will be.

“Coming after them will be Beta and Delta, 2 groups of 25 people each. Their job would be to clear any beetles that the first group have missed. They would be checking the classrooms making sure there are no holes for beetles to crawl in and out of. Beta will go after Omega, while Delta will go after Alpha. While they do this, Zeta, a group of 10, would be heading up to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors to take down any beetles there. While we don’t anticipate any up there, we can never be too sure.” She said, taking another pause.

“Epsilon will be a team of 12 Wizards, in charge of closing all the holes, all apart from the bigger ones in the cafeteria and the Foyer. So it is very important that we learn of any holes you find during this expedition.”

“The next step would be phase 2. And it is crucial that before this phase begins, we need to be absolutely sure there are no beetles or tunnel entrances anywhere on the first floor. We can’t risk the ambush experience by when Haron attempted it.” she said as her face darkened at the mention of their ex-coach,” In phase 2, Alpha and Omega will guard the entrances to the gyms as well as the holes before them. The objective here is to smoke out as many beetles as we can from their tunnels, by sending anything flammable into them. Alpha, Omega, Beta, Delta, and Epsilon will kill any beetle that makes its way out of the hole.”

“Once that's done, we take a break before passing on to phase 3. 20 people from Zeta, Beta, or Delta will merge with Alpha and Omega. The rest will split into teams of 5 and go into the tunnel to clear any beetles that may remain. I want to stress just how dangerous this will be so be very careful…we have no idea what could be down there so it may be much more dangerous. ”

“Finally. Alpha and Omega, both with 60 members, will head through the doors and confront the gyms until they both reach the gymnasium to attack it at the same time to kill the queen. Any questions?” Asked the Principal, looking out at her students. Many of which were shifting nervously where they stood.

“There’s bound to be other tunnel entrances outside the school, what do we do about those?” Asked someone from the crowd.

The principal had already thought of this so her answer came quickly,” We have no idea where the exterior tunnel entrances may be, however, the goal is to not have any beetle come back into the building, except for the 2 holes that we will be at to intercept them.”

“What do we do about the Giga beetle?” said another in a fairly wavy voice.

“There’s nothing much we can do about them but take them down as well. To clear the hive, they’ll need to go as well. We haven’t faced them yet, so everyone be on guard if you see 8 ft tall beetles or their magical counterparts the 7½s.”

“The more perceptive of you all would note that of the 197 people only 172 people are actually inactive battle. The other 25 people will be delivering ammunition when needed. We’ll be rotating these people with the most injured so they have time to rest their wounds. “When nobody said anything else, she stepped off the table, allowing Coach McConnell to take her place.

“This isn’t a game.” Said the Coach, looking down at the student who slightly shied away at his stern gaze,” I don’t want no horse playing, no arguments. You watch each other's backs. If you see someone struggling, call on it to have someone take their place, or do it yourself. None of this will work if we don’t work together,”

“I’m gonna be real with y’all here.” he said, softening up a bit,” I have no idea how this will turn out. Someone may die or no one at all. We might even fail despite all the preparations we’ve made. But I’m going to say this. It's been 2 long months. 79 days. We’ve all become so much more than our previous selves. This is a new stage for us. This may very well decide our survival in this new and changing world. We can either surpass our challenges or roll over and die.” After a pause, he continued,” do you want to die?”

To his question everyone shook their heads,” I can’t hear you!” Shouted the Coach earning a loud and very depressed “NO!” from the crowd. “ Then when you get out there, do whatever you can to survive, so that one day you could meet your parents, your siblings, your pets, people you care about….Did I make myself clear!” He asked.

“YES SIR!”

“Then no time to lose! MOVE THE HELL OUT!”