October 9, 2152
A pale red light slowly lit up the screens around Emory's room as dawn broke over the horizon on Yuzuno. Since neither Cath nor Tethys knew Emory had returned, she was able to stay in bed and relax for an extra hour in the morning. While she lay in bed, she thought about why she had really come back to Yuzuno: to check on Tethys. Perceval may have been the first human with a fully grown magik core, but Tethys was the first human to have a core of any kind. Unlike Hexbloods, who got a core from the caster of Contact, she had been growing one all on her own as a result of elevating the Void sphere. But this was fundamentally different than Perceval whose vessel had been converted into a core. What did all this mean; Emory let out a heavy sigh.
After she finally got out of bed, changed, and prepared for the day, she left the room in search of Tethys. Emory started by heading to the Command Center, passing by troops either patrolling the outpost or heading to training sessions. But when she got there, Tethys was nowhere to be found. Instead of looking all over the base, she used Jask to send her a message to come to the Command Center. While she waited, she looked through the reports she had missed while she was away.
Tethys squealed when she opened the door, "Emory! How long have you been back?"
"Last night," Emory smiled, "Things look to be going well here. You're doing a good job managing the army's schedule."
"Well, it's just been training and guard duty, so it's been easy. I read the reports from the front; we've done really well defending our outposts, no doubt because of you, Lord Perceval, and Myrrh," Tethys grinned.
"Thank you for saying that," Emory sighed, "It's been a grueling couple of days. The realities of war are beyond what I expected. It will be some time before I can get the sights and smells out of my head. But that's not why I came back."
Tethys raised an eyebrow, "Now that you mention it, I am finding it a little odd that you didn't join Gatrie's team. Why did you come back here first?"
"I wanted to check on your progress with your Void sphere and your magik core," Emory admitted, "Are there any new developments?"
"Not really. See for yourself; I think it's about halfway complete," Tethys raised an eyebrow. Emory blinked and revealed her golden eyes to look over Tethys. Inside her body, Emory could see a half-sized magik core in her chest, maybe a little more than half. It looked like a smaller version of the same kind of core she had seen a dozen different times in her Hexblood friends, the Elandrian, and Ninian. Maybe someone more experienced could have seen the differences, but to her, all magik cores looked the same. However, the more she stared, the more she realized a certain swirling nature to Tethys's core that she hadn't noticed with other cores. It could be because it wasn't completely formed; after all, all the people she had seen had fully formed cores. After about five minutes of staring, Emory blinked again and reverted to her normal eye color though a puzzled look on her face remained.
"Well, did you see anything strange?" Tethys asked, "You looked at it for a long time."
Emory frowned, "Honestly, I don't know what I'm looking for. Yours is a unique case because all the other cores I've seen have been fully formed. Even the others who have borrowed cores still have fully formed ones. But you are quite clearly creating one from scratch."
"It's not a bad thing though, right?" Tethys pressed, "I haven't hurt anyone or anything around me."
"I think I just need to learn more about magik cores or maybe the Void sphere. It's like I'm missing pieces of the puzzle," Emory assured her.
"How would you even learn more about the Void sphere?" Tethys laughed, "I mean, Athos said he thought I might be the first non-Laxtros being to have it."
Emory rubbed her chin, "Maybe, but even the Elandrian don't know everything about magik. I mean they know a lot, but it seems like Ninian can do things they've never seen before. So, there are still mysteries out there."
"You should ask her then," Tethys suggested, "Otherwise, there is another option, now that I think about it. Though, I don't think you're going to like it." Emory stared at Tethys expectantly for a minute.
"Well, are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?" Emory teased.
"As I mentioned before, the Commission did some research on the Void sphere," Tethys grimaced, "I mean, they didn't know it was the Void sphere or at least they didn't tell me if they did. But they've been studying it since the first war since it powers Apleem technology."
Emory gulped, "I had hoped never to talk to them again. Then again, you do have a valid point. I'll see what Ninian knows first and go from there."
"I'm interested to find out more about it as well," Tethys grinned. Emory told her about the battle she had with the Apleem, the fine details that were missing from her report. She left out the part about her getting magik poisoning though. Then Tethys caught Emory up on the base, though there wasn't too much to tell. Training seemed to be going very well, and the surrounding area remained as calm as ever.
"There is one thing," Tethys mentioned, "Greg seems to always be around. I don't mean that he's in the way or anything; I just mean out of the three million people on this outpost, I seem to see him in passing multiple times a day."
Emory raised her eyebrow, "That is odd. Are you doing anything in particular when you see him?"
"I guess I see him most often after I've finished my private training with Cath," Tethys considered after thinking about it for a moment, "Otherwise, it's normally around here, where he spends most of his time. Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't come in here yet."
"Strange. Try to keep a mental record of anything else you see him doing. I know Shepherd sent the High Collective to keep an eye on us, but I don't want him revealing all our secrets," Emory said firmly. Tethys nodded before leaving the room. Only minutes later, Greg strolled into the room, seemingly unaware that Emory was in the room already.
Greg jumped when he saw her, "Miss Reiss! I didn't know you had returned."
"Hello, Greg," Emory stared cautiously, "Yes, I just got back. How are things going?"
"Quite well. Your teams on Temia and Vostea have defied expectations with casualties much lower than our engagements during the last war. Though some of that can be explained by the new weapons and our new allies, it's clear that your training protocols are living up to the hype you showed back at the school," Greg congratulated her.
"Thank you; the troops have taken to it quite well," Emory acknowledged, "What have you been working on the last few days?"
Greg answered quickly, "Just gathering more data from the outposts. Jask has been keeping track of the power level used on each planet, and I've been using it to plan our next steps. Of course, nothing is set in stone until you sign off on it since you're the lead commander on this mission."
"Interesting," Emory replied as she stood up, "Why don't you show me what you've put together so far?"
"With pleasure. Jask, can you pull up the data we've extrapolated about the Apleem so far?" Greg ordered as the screens around the room began lighting up with charts, diagrams, and star maps. He walked over to one of the screens and enlarged a star map of the local star systems. Pointing to it, he started, "Based on all the data we pulled from the enemy's movements, I've identified the system they most likely came from: the Trappist-1 system. However, they seem to have forward bases in a few of the surrounding systems as well. Once the remaining chunks of the army arrive, we will want to flank them from either Gliese 12 or Wolf 1069 where they have some sort of presence."
"That's a solid plan, but it excludes the Elandrian," Emory pointed out, "And what about the Apleem's strength? Surely, they'll have a much stronger force that close to their home world."
"Perceptive as always, Miss Reiss. As I said before, this plan is still in its initial stages. But as this war progresses, our forces will continue to grow stronger, which is especially true for our young leaders who have a lot of room left to grow. It will be several months, maybe a year before we are able to make this kind of move," Greg admitted.
"I suppose you're right; this is for the somewhat distant future," Emory agreed, "And in the meantime? What's the plan when the rest of the army arrives?"
Greg nodded and motioned to a different screen, "That largely depends on how fast the Apleem can strike again. I'm not so arrogant to believe that they sent a large portion of their forces in this initial attack, especially not when they're in active combat with the Elandrian. It seems likely that they are rebuilding the numbers they lost before attacking again. Based on the data we received from our new allies, we only need to be particularly worried if they move a mothership into the area. Otherwise, it seems their general strategy is to overwhelm us with brute force. We'll need to shore up our defenses before we can proceed with any kind of attack. Luckily between the technology we sent you with and the training methods you've prescribed, we have the resources to adequately sustain this type of offensive."
"Well, I'll let you get back to work then," Emory replied as she headed for the door, "If you need anything else, please just let me know." Greg bowed before returning to stare at the screens while Emory exited the room and walked down the hall.