Chapter 1006 – Swept Away

Chapter 1006 – Swept Away

‘And I was having such a nice day,’ John thought as he hurried over to the military base on Guild Hall territory. Rather than have Ted give him the entirety of the intel immediately, John had called for an emergency meeting with the generals. A select few other individuals were also in the room. Advisors, governors of affected areas, and high-ranking officers, for the most part.

It took over an hour to cobble all of that together. The most notable people in that room were John, Nia, Scarlett, the generals Chemilia and Ted, Alice, and, joining them via video conference, Ahanu, Elu and Wendy. All of them were looking at a map at the centre of the room, showing the border of the Death Zone. It was layered, courtesy of the exact line across which people started disappearing being unknown. John wondered how far they would have to adjust it today.

“Alright, everyone is here,” he started the meeting. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Step by step,” Scarlett added, blowing smoke out of the window she was purposefully seated by. “If you want the best analysis, give us the facts.” That ruffled some feathers with the present military intel team, but Scarlett had never cared much to be agreeable. “Stop your grumbling, this is about effectiveness. Lives are on the line.”

“Just start,” John demanded, before any time could be wasted.

Chemilia took the lead, moving over the table. It was, essentially, one large touch screen and it was hooked up to several other screens that hung from the stone walls of black and deep red. The Fusion Fortress was equipped with all kinds of modern gadgets that made planning an easier affair. The people witnessing the planning could do so via one of several cameras in the room. Scarlett's personal programs were ensuring their cyber security, and if that failed, there were always covers and mufflers applied to the appliances between uses.

There was one potential security breach, however, and that was Undine. Unlike John and Salamander, who had removed the Lorylim infection in their own ways, the water spirit was still contaminated to some minor degree. For all they knew, the parasitic horrors could still listen in through John, even if they could no longer manipulate him, but it was prudent to isolate Undine for the moment. The abysstide elemental was out of hearing range and kept her mind to herself just as much as she was shut out by the others.

With a stylus in her hand, Chemilia tapped on an area beyond the eastern border of the Death Zone. “Ever since the Gestalt affair, and especially after the New Libraria conflict, Fusion had troops alongside the Death Zone borders. The majority of the forces have been stationed more than fifty kilometres away from the border, but a subsection was placed a mere one kilometre away. That subsection was our scouting force and they were to report any developments in their areas that seemed out of the ordinary.”

John and most of the present people nodded along with the reminder. This was the formation they had agreed on and it had been without issue since they put it in place one and a half months ago.

“Last Wednesday this changed; a contingent along the Florida border stopped reporting.” Chemilia circled the corresponding area on the map.

“Why was I not informed of this then?” John demanded to know. On Wednesday, he had done absolutely nothing aside from playing video games. “This is exactly the kind of crisis that justified interrupting my vacation.”

“There was no need to,” Chemilia told him, brushing her pale pink hair back. “This was a situation outlined in our emergency protocols in regards to the Death Zone.” John was ready to complain further, but ceased when the general raised her hand. “Please, hear us out first. You can decide afterwards whether you being in the know would have changed anything.”

“...Fine,” John conceded. Little as he liked it that there were important ongoings in his realm that he didn’t know about, this was the unpleasant reality of a growing nation. As long as he was clued in when it became an issue, that was all he could ask for.

“Because it was only a specific group along the border that disappeared, we followed three different segments of the protocol. First, we stayed tuned for any attempts of the group to reach out to us besides the dedicated channels. It could have been a mere equipment failure, after all. At the same time, we sent another group to check on the last documented location of the missing soldiers. Foreign meddling was the second option we were worried about.”

“Yeah...” John agreed and looked at other markers on the map, “...give me a geographical map.”

Scarlett switched and they both clicked their tongue at the same time. “What?” Chemilia wanted to know.

“The disappearing regiments were all close to sizable rivers. The Death Zone is going upstream.”

“Except the first expansion,” Scarlett added. “Looks like that one is going along the coastline. It’s attracted to the ocean.” The Technomancer took a long huff of her cigarette. “Seems like we identified one of the reasons for the Death Zone’s odd shape. Whatever magic it uses orients itself on water.”

“Yes...” The Gamer rubbed his chin. “The speed of expansion is not exactly worrying. At one kilometre every couple days, it will take it forever to get anywhere important. Regardless, we should act as early as possible. It will only become harder to get further inside the more we let it grow.”

“You are proposing we take care of this immediately?” Chemilia asked.

“We have to, I won’t let this threat resume and run the risk that its growth may accelerate.” John told her. “More specifically, I will personally lead an attack on the Death Zone.”

“Mister President, are you sure this is wise?” one of the advisors asked. “Your power is what keeps Fusion secure and unified. If you get lost charging into unknown territory...”

Scarlett extinguished her cigarette by dropping it on the stone floor and stomping it out. “There’s no option for proper scouting operations, so the only option to even hope to get any intel is for John to send the Mandala Sphere in,” the Technomancer reported.

“What she said.” John nodded. “I won’t invade personally, at least in the first wave. I’ll send my double, Aclysia and Beatrice. Perhaps they can gather some intel and teleport in, before I take the rest of my girls with me to lead the proper attack.” He sighed and rolled his neck. “I don’t like jumping headfirst into danger and, yes, Fusion will probably collapse should I die. More than an obligation to maintain our new nation, we have an obligation to leave an habitable continent, though. The last thing we want is the Death Zone to cover all of North America.”

The advisor lowered his head and conceded the point.

“Alright, Chemilia, Ted, Elu, I want you three to draft a strategy that keeps our army as an observation ring around the Death Zone and keeps them retreating in accordance with expected expansion. No storming of the area until we know just exactly where these teleports go.” They nodded and he rose from his seat. “Inform every member of Parliament that we are having an emergency session tomorrow. Include a breakdown of the chain of events in the mail. Send the information to the press eight hours later.”

“Yes, sir,” the leader of the military’s intel team answered dutifully.

“I’ll send Jack out right now. We’ll have another strategy meeting in roughly two days, to discuss what my double finds. Until then, dismissed.”