They all stood up and filed out of the room except Emory and Shepherd who stayed because Shepherd clearly looked like something was on his mind. Emory shut the door after everyone left and sat back down across from Shepherd. She asked bluntly, "Is there something on your mind, Shepherd? You have a worried look on your face."
"I'm concerned that it won't be enough," Shepherd frowned, "The reports on these Uthid troubled me before, and we were probably fighting their B team."
"That's why the other leaders will be joining us. They should provide the added support we need to win the battle. As a backup measure, we can always call in reinforcements from Yuzuno and Bustrun too. I'm not saying it will be an easy fight, but I've ran the simulations. This is our best chance of success," Emory tried to persuade him.
"Our allies have been fighting these enemies for a thousand years," Shepherd sighed, "Did we jump into this too soon?"
Emory shrugged, "Perhaps. But they would have come to us eventually anyway. The Sol System is in the direct path of their flanking attack on the Elandrian. If you hadn't sent us out, we might have never connected with them, and then we would have been completely wiped out. Remember, we don't need to defeat the whole enemy; we just need to stop their advance."
"I suppose you're right," Shepherd reluctantly agreed, "I also need to apologize. You've clearly studied the situation much more than I gave you credit for. I'm sorry for not trusting your judgment as soon as I should have."
"Thank you; I appreciate the apology. We're all in this together," Emory half smiled.
"Greg is going to brief me on the project he's been working on," Shepherd cleared his throat as he stood up, "I would appreciate it if you were there. You have a sharp mind; probably sharper than the people I've surrounded myself with this far. Of course, what is said in this meeting will need to stay between us and the rest of the outpost leaders, if you choose to tell them."
Emory rose from her seat as well, "I'd be happy to join you. I'm already caught up on the general topics he's being working on since I confronted him about keeping it from me in the first place." The pair walked into the room across the hall which had been cleaned and organized since yesterday. Once they were both inside the room, Emory allowed magik to crawl from her feet to cover the doorway and seal them in, away from curious eyes. Greg was at the front organizing some papers. When they came in, he straightened up and quickly handed each of them a data chip to insert into their wrist communicators.
Greg stammered, "Good to have both of you here with me today. I'll try to be as quick as I can going through this information. As you know, I've been studying the technology of both the Elandrian and the Apleem which are both more advanced than our own in a number of different ways. Let me start with the Elandrian. As you may be aware, we have created analogs to the pills and medicine they sent us with varying levels of success. Our lab tests show the health and stamina pills are virtually identical, which will be the biggest boons we can hope for going into battle. Additionally, by using nanotechnology in the health liquid, we can replicate the effects of their elixir to an eighty percent success rate. However, it should be noted that there is a major difference between how theirs work and how ours do: they use magik to repair and stimulate cellular reproduction while ours uses synthetic chemicals to achieve the same response."
"I noticed you left out the mana pills," Emory commented, "Have we made any progress on those? As I'm sure you know, we will need both stamina and magik to defeat the Apleem."
"Unfortunately, we have not found a suitable replacement for the core component in the mana pills. They're based on a family of plants completely different from all Sol-based organisms. Instead of a double helix DNA strand, these plants have a triple helix structure. We have made some progress using radiation to create analogs, but none of the species we've used have lasted long enough to create medicine out of them," Greg replied with a hint of depression in his voice.
"So, we'll have to use their pills in the meantime," Shepherd rubbed his chin, "I guess if more soldiers are going to be using Meta Form, this should be less of a problem."
Greg clenched his jaw, "Yes, but that leads to a bigger problem. Thus far we have been unable to replicate the elixir that eliminates the effects of magik poisoning. Even though we have the recipes from the Elandrian, we have very few of the ingredients required to make them. Honestly, our biggest problem is that we don't yet have a good understanding of magik besides as a form of energy."
"What can we do to fix that?" Emory asked, "Surely we have a wide range of energy detection devices."
"To put it simply, we need more data. Hopefully, this war will prove useful in that regard at least because each wrist communicator is equipped with the most cutting-edge detection system. Through these and our combat, we should get a more accurate picture of how magik affects a person's internal system," Greg responded carefully.
"Okay, so we're making progress copying the Elandrian," Shepherd grumbled, "What about the Apleem? What do we know about our enemy?"
Greg gulped and paused before answering, "Like the Elandrian, most of their technology has a magik component, but several parts do not. The parts that don't are at least a thousand years more advanced than our technology. Let's take their propulsion systems. They use dark energy systems that allow them to make their ships effectively massless. Although it seems like they can't or won't use them to their full capability within a certain range of celestial bodies, it's quite possible their ships can travel at much faster speeds across interstellar space."
"So, we haven't made much progress with Apleem technology then?" Shepherd grunted, "Is there any good news?"
"Only one thing. We've isolated the containment systems used to harness dark energy; however, it appears they use supercooled magnets that have been enchanted with a different method than we use," Greg winced.
Shepherd balled up his fist and snorted, "Then we have nothing. Do you at least have some useful information about the Apleem?"
"Actually, I do have some news there," Greg smiled, "As Emory alluded to, we have tested hundreds of thousands of Mantoan and can confirm that they are all biological constructs or clones. In fact, there's only a slight genetic variation in one out of every billion Mantoan. However, you may not have guessed that Uthid also have a very limited spread of genes as well. Only one in a million contain a genetic variation, though they do not appear to be clones."
"That means the only difference between them is aptitude. However, I can't say if that's good news or bad," Emory tried to be positive.
"At least we know that physically they'll all be about the same strength," Shepherd pointed out, "Of course, they could have different power levels of equipment or different levels of magik control. But we know that if they do use magik, they will all have roughly the same sized mana pool."
Greg continued, "We don't have any live data on the Laxtros, so all I could do was compile the data given to us from the Elandrian. That being said, we should hope that we don't see any of them on the field. Based on the estimates we have, Miss Reiss is probably the only person in our collective army that could fight one-on-one with a Laxtros."
"What about the data from Proxima Centauri B?" Emory raised an eyebrow, "Couldn't we get any data from the wreckage there?"
"No, it was too corrupted. Believe me, that was the first question I asked when I saw the video footage," Shepherd waved his hand.
"Commander Shepherd is correct," Greg looked at the ground, "Besides audio and visual data, our sensors were all scrambled on Proxima Centauri B."
Emory narrowed her eyes, "Then why don't we use that data to build models? Jask is more than capable of using imagery to generate projections." Greg's eyes widened at the suggestion while Shepherd glared at Greg. "Jask, using the video from Proxima Centauri B, what can you surmise about the Laxtros?" Emory called aloud, "Add in any data we have from the Elandrian to make your analysis."
"Running model. Based on the data available, I can conclude with eighty-seven percent certainty that the Laxtros and the Uthid are actually in the same genus. With that in mind, I've sent projected models of their strength to your portable indicators," Jask chimed after a couple moments.
"It was that easy to find more information, and you did nothing!" Shepherd roared, "How incompetent are you, Greg?"
Greg shivered, "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't think..."
"You never think!" Shepherd cut him off, "After this war, we're going to do some serious restructuring. I'm tired of the excuses. From now on, you are to double check with Emory or myself before you so much as look at a new idea."
"Yes, sir. I understand, sir," Greg trembled.
"Shepherd, using the information Jask sent us, I think we need to send out a bulletin," Emory redirected without looking up from her wrist, "If any Laxtros are seen on the battlefield, we need to withdraw from that area and send out an alert to the rest of the army. If it's only one or two, the leaders I put in place should be able to deal with them. If it's more than that, I'll join with the leaders. Also, I've come across one in particular named Petrine; if someone comes across her, evacuate immediately and call me directly. I'll send you details and special characteristics right now." She clicked a few spots on her wrist before giving Shepherd a nod.
Shepherd nodded in response, "Good thinking. Better than I'm used to getting. I'll send the message right away. Did you have any more information, Greg?"
"No, sir," Greg shook his head, "That's all I have for now." Emory and Shepherd stood up and walked out of the room. They slowly made their way to the training area until Emory stopped.
"Shepherd, it would be worth your time to train as well. You're definitely a cut above the rest of the soldiers, but there are some of the councilors that are stronger than you as it stands right now. I know you'll want to be on the front lines; however, at your current strength, you could fall which would deeply hurt the morale of the troops," Emory mentioned.
"After our little bout, I'm leaning towards agreeing with you, but I have a request," Shepherd admitted honestly, "Would you consider training me yourself? I have reservations that I'll make any meaningful progress with these large groups."
Emory sighed, "I suppose you can train with me, but I have to warn you. My training is much more intense than this, and since I'll be training myself, I won't be able to hold your hand."
"That's perfect," Shepherd grinned, "I don't like my hand being held in the first place." Emory grinned slightly before grabbing Shepherd's hand and teleporting the pair back to the stone tablet. They sat down on the hard rock next to each other. She showed him how to condense magik into a ball in his hand and release it into the horizon, away from the camp. After showing him, the pair followed the training plan, Emory using her Chaos sphere and Shepherd his Storm sphere. Every ten seconds they would release a bolt of magik; they did this through the afternoon and late into the night. When they finally stopped, Shepherd was exhausted to the point that he could barely lift himself off the ground. Emory explained that they would continue this training until Jask detected activity coming towards them, Shepherd grimaced but nodded his head slowly. This was exactly the training he needed to catch up to the rest of Emory's friends.