Chapter 26: Cards on the Table

Alrith can feel the air molecules being pulled and stretched by the tension with every step she has taken, and the amount of stress compressed into the small area on the Galaxy's capital planet is so high that she almost tripped herself, which would have been a rather embarrassing debut for her in this 'scene'. The four representatives of Absolute Being that all of her new friends have been talking about are standing right there at the top of the hill, and everything can see their faces clearly from this far away after the enhancement procedures.

The one standing closest to the approaching group is a handsome young man who's looking rather slim in the white formal suit. He almost looked to be a guest to a fancy dinner party that just happened to be here, and Alrith had no idea about his flip flopping fashion sense. That young man looked to be their age, and Alrith is surprised that someone like that is in charge of the biggest organizations both in the limelight and in the darkness. However, despite what her eyes are trying to tell her, her head is all too familiar with all kinds of procedures and augmentations that affects appearances. He could very easily be over eighty for all she knows.

Right behind her is a beautiful human female with long dark hair that's waving in the breeze. It shined even in the lighting of the setting sun, and her beauty even made Alrith's heart skip a bit. She is dressed in a slim fit red dress with decorative oriental dragon patterns sewn all over it with white patches showing her nearly flawless skin. Around her hip is a belt which looped around what appeared to be a brush pen. This is now looking more and more like a dinner party.

That must be Lady Lily. Alrith told herself, thinking back to all the things the bearers have talked about prior to their arrival, what's talked about most apart from her beauty is her cunning and ruthlessness, and Alrith would never be able to imagine someone like her doing all of those things that she has heard the others talk about.

Or perhaps it's all making sense from the red dress?

Lady Lily is standing to the right of Zero, and there is a giant human dressed in thick dark military gear to the left of Zero. That is for sure Sir Deva the giant, the most physically imposing of the bunch in Absolute Being, though he is also the one that's been taking quite a few losses recently, first against Zel and then Valerie. He is stern like a rock, and is often the one doing most of the dirty work out of the bunch.

The last one standing there right back all of the other three is Sadie Allen, who seemingly possesses an extremely powerful and useful artifact, though those combat abilities are not often shown in combat so far, but Ol constantly warned the rest of the group to be ware of him, as against some of the match ups, his shields are impossible to work around.

Alrith is fairly certain Ol was talking to her when he was speaking, and she has been thinking of ways that she might fight against Shield should the time come. What exactly could her jolts of electricity do against an impenetrable force field?

''Welcome! Bearers! Thank you for answering my call.' Finally, as they got close enough and the atmosphere in between the two groups have become so tense that Alrith has to remind herself to breath. And then Zero talked finally, 'Now, my fellow artifact users....LET'S TALK.'

'Zero...Or shall I say, Senator Zender.' Rydel were the one to answer as the entire group headed towards the top of the hill as Zero backed away and headed behind the lone picnic table in the middle of the field, 'How does it feel to work so many jobs at once?'

'All of this roles are merely means to an end.' Zero replied nonchalantly as he put both hands on the table and leaned over it, 'Now, could you all please relax a little? We might be here for a long while, seeing how the planet is about to go to shit.'

'You should understand our behavior given our...colorful history.' Elmyra spoke up, as her sharp gaze torn into Zero.

'Elmyra...' Zero said with an almost soft tone, 'I am so glad to see you alright.'

'No thanks to you.'

'No...of course not.' Zero said as a smile lifted up the corners of his lips before he turned his attention to Rydel, 'it is thanks to Rydel. Great work.'

Rydel didn't say anything to that, though the slightest of reaction gave away the fact that he was taken by surprsie about Zero's knowledge in their performance in Life Springer's game in the Poseidon system.

'Now...' Zero turned his attention towards the girl with the red hair standing among the rest of the bearers that he already knew, 'you are new, aren't you? Partnering up with Rydel must have been something else...'

Alrith simply looked at the young man in front of her. What the hell is he planning?

'If you are here to socialize, then I am sure a holographic call would have sufficed.' Ol intervened before anything further could develop, 'though I am sure you already have plenty of people to talk to over the past little while.'

'You assumed correct, Ol.' Zero put on an official smile as he now turned to face the tall Aquarian, 'always the soldier.'

'Alright, let's stop wasting the planet's time.' Rydel opened up, his arms crossed, 'spew it.'

'Your new arm looked just like the real one.' Zero remarked before putting both hands up in the air, 'I apologize for detracting, but the small talks are supposed to put you at ease. Miss Uleric, are you satisfied with what you see?'

'No sign of anybody else still.' Cellica whispered in the channel and Rydel nodded in response, 'I will keep looking.'

'I have called you here to put all of the cards on the table.' Zero said, flipping over his wrist as a stack of playing cards appeared in the center of the palm. He then gestured towards the table, 'care to join me for a game?'

'Go.' Ol said, giving Rydel a firm nod, and the human went on ahead and sat himself down at the table. To anyone accidentally overlooking this area from above, all of this would have seemed like high stake gambling, and they won't even necessarily be wrong, except the items at stake is Olympus Prime itself.

'Ah...How nostalgic.....' Zero seemed genuinely happy that Rydel is the one joining him at the table, 'did you remember the last time we sat and talked like this?'

'Good times.' Rydel said with a blank face, as now he is just going to go with whatever Zero is coming up with. Zero placed down the stack of playing cards in the middle of the table, which so far are nothing but thin transparent screens.

'Lily questioned why I let you do whatever you wanted with Valerie,' Zero said, reaching out and swiping a card into him before gesturing towards Rydel, 'but looking at all of the growth you have gone through, I can't say I was wrong.'

'I can't say I am not confused.' Rydel replied, also swiping a card and placing it in front of him. The transparent card reflected the setting sun in the distance and glowed.

'Well, I still stand by what I said then.' Zero said, taking another, 'we all want the same thing, but there are many ways to Olympus. Not the point though, as we have more urgent matters.'

'I must say the timing of all of this is rather suspicious.' Rydel said, reaching out with a finger and pulled another card towards him, 'we need all that you know.'

'And that is what you will get.' Zero said, taking another, 'let's start from the beginning.'

'Everything that Absolute Being has ever done has been preparing the galaxy for the inevitable threat it will face sooner or later.' Zero said, 'you know, the barrier at the edge of where we travel, the bubble that contained our few galaxies, the prison, the greatest mystery of teh space age. We can see what lied beyond, but we can never cross the line.'

'Have you never wondered why even Mr Ol's artifact cannot figure out what lied beyond?' Zero asked nonchalantly, as Rydel seemed visibly shocked by what he is saying, 'and to be frank, neither can I.'

'I see, and I feel information.' Zero explained, picking up one of the transparent cards from in front of him and placed it in front of his eyes, 'and all I have been able to do is to see glimpses. Lapse of vision, still shot, fractions of existence...That was my trial.'

'What was?'

'Seeing the end of our existence, and doing something about it.' Zero said, his eyes darkened as his mind traveled back in time to when he first was in contact with his artifact, 'ever since then, I have been working tirelessly, following that plan. Sure, there were more than one hiccups along the way.'

'You are welcome.' Rydel responded, swapping the positioning of two of the identically transparent playing cards.

'Bumps in the road keeps the journey exciting.' Zero responded with a grin, 'it wasn't long after you made your exit from the Academy that I saw glimpse of another laspe of vision. It was Brakagi.'

'I can see activation of artifacts, and glimpses of other users if I am lucky.' Zero explained, 'but him...I see clearly. As clear as the inevitable fate I have been fighting against all these years. If we were to get to the final battle, we will need to work around him. However, he is different from you and from us.'

'He is eager, quick to act, impulsive, and extremely motivated.' Zero said as a figure of Brakagi showed up on the card in his hand, 'you know...you guyes might think you are the hero of this story, but you know what I hate about heroes?'

'They are always reactive, always waiting for something to happen before they make their heroic appearance. Always there to stop the villains.' Zero said, placing Brakagi down on the table as the cards next to it lit up to show the pictures of Jozzor and Caliditas, 'I, on the other hand, act on the information I have.'

'Heroes also think about how they act.' Rydel said, shaking a head as a image of him appeared on the playing card in front of him, 'they don't go justify their means through the end.'

'Maybe.' Zero said, reaching out to take another three cards from the pile, 'that's why this ain't that kind of story.'

'Enough metaphors now.' Rydel also took another three cards, 'what do you want to lay out on the table?'

'After the stunt I pulled last time, the future that I have been glancing into seemed to have taken a turn for the worse.....' Zero said with obvious defeat in his tone. Is he admitting that he made a mistake?

'What exactly did you do?' Rydel asked.

'I tried to change the destiny of the galaxy.' Zero said, 'Brakagi had five artifact users then, and the Rocky army was armed to the teeth with weapons ready to unleash bloodshed over the galaxy...I thought we needed more artifact users activated.'

'And...' Rydel felt a twist in his stomach as Zero continued to talk about his mistake.

'It appeared my actions only made sure the future is certain.' Zero said regretfully, 'Now I learnt the limitation of my artifact when it comes to looking into the future.'

'Hm...' Rydel looked back at his friends, and none of them said a single word. Obviously they are angry, but they also know whatever happened happened in the past.

'Trust me, I will not make the same mistake twice.' Zero said before forcing a smile as he looked down at the cards on the table, 'I am being honest here. Brakagi initially had the help of four other artifact users, but now that number has gone up to five instead.'

'What's your plan?' Rydel asked, bringing the topic back to the issue at hand, 'right now.'

'So far, our projections are that Olympus 2 is at least on the safe track, settling into a slightly larger orbit so far. Though it remains to be seen Olympus B (the smaller of the binary sun)'s exit is going to do to it. But that is a little later down the line.' Zero continued to lay out the situations that the everyone in the system is currently facing, 'the trajectory of the rock under us, however, is a lot more direct. It has more of a...pull if you know what I mean.'

'The crown jewel of the galaxy pluging into sun, it's a hell of a mission in front of us whether Brakagi planned this or not.' Zero said, looking at the bearers around and pushing a single card from his tile forward, 'there are a few options. Our artifacts seemingly operate in different domains, but we can sometimes influence the same things through use of different artifacts.'

'To move a planet, Sir Deva's mass projection can do it, Elmyra's redirection can do it.' Zero said.

'Nope.' Rydel shook his head before Elmyra could even say anything, 'nothing with Elmyra.'

'Rydel!' Elmyra stepped forward, protesting his seeming overprotectiveness, 'I can speak for myself.'

Rydel grippped hard onto the edge of the table as he apologized to Elmyra, 'I am sorry. Continue, Zero.'

'The planet so far is still not experiencing the full intensity of the sun, but we will very soon. So I suppose we divide our forces into the following categories: We will have groups that will focus on protecting the planet from the storms of Asteroids, bursts of radiation and any other external threats that may be hitting us, that's the protection group.

'We will have groups that will be in charge of slowly budging the planet's trajectory, moving it slowly and slowly onto a temporarily stable orbit. That's the relocation group.

'We will have groups that will join me at the PR, and ensure order on the planet, being the communications group. The last group which will be in charge of coordinating between all of the groups, the management group.' Zero said, as four of the cards lit up in front of Rydel, 'I have inputted the action plan and timeline for each of the groups into the cards in front of you, please have a look among yourself however you wish.'

Rydel nodded before passing on the cards.

'The designation of people to each group was based on however little or much intelligence we have on you all.' Zero said.

'So we will just end up doing the bulk of the work?' Rydel commented, looking over the plans that he had already scanned into his personal interface.

'We will do the most important work together, though they are hardly the bulk of it.' Zero explained, 'Infinity and the rest of the big Ten have been busy setting up orbital protection infrastructures, and we also have hundreds and hundreds of pseudo-artifacts waiting on standby to help.'

'Of course, none of the pseudo-artifacts can even make a dent compared to what Sir Deva can do.' Zero said, looking back at the giant behind him.

'So...that's it?' Ol asked, 'we will simply designate artifact bearers to each of the four groups based on their ability?'

'Yes, and the algorithm that we prepared should handle the rest.' Zero explained, 'our data that's few and far between are the ground zero for the zeroth order models.' (Zeroth order models are the most primitive kind of modelling based off rough estimations and approximations, often used as a starting point in research.)

'And how exactly are we going to perform this "relocation process"?' Rydel asked, finally moving onto the most crucial piece of the entire discussion. How the hell do one move a planet?

'The best way to do it would be on our new flagship the Unlimitary.' Zero said, pointing his fingers up into the sky, 'we will provide full support for the entire duration.'

'And how do we know you don't have any second thoughts?' Rydel asked, 'what would you do after the planet is saved? Cage us up and tear away all of our artifacts?'

'My attitude have changed over the years, thanks to your influence.' Zero said, pushing the remaining transparent playing cards back into the middle of the table, 'I once thought that artifacts are nothing but an accessory, but deep down, I know that's mere lies told through my selfish desires. Have you noticed that most of the exchange of artifacts have come through blood? It appeared that's just the way it is.'

'And yet you still work with Pseudo's.' Rydel responded sharply to which Zero responded with a mere chuckle and no further comment. Despite what Zero is saying on paper, there are still lines that he will happily cross, and those are the lines the bearers need to be accutely aware of.

Suddenly, Cellica's eyes lit up as she caught onto energy signatures dead set in the spectrum of artifacts. She shoved the card in her hand into Valerie's palms before turning her head and looking far out into the distance.

'User!' She gasped, 'they are in high orbit, two of them!'

'What?!' Rydel stood up from the table and spun around before forcing himself to focus his attention back towards Zero, 'now?! What is the meaning of this, Zero!'

'I.....don't know.' Zero appeared genuienly perplexed by Cellica's discover, in fact, there is no way Zero would be able to figure out what's going on from his position, even if he used his artifacts right away. The channeling and processing time for his artifact takes a lot longer than the others, 'Miss Uleric, could you tell us who these people are?'

'....; Cellica took in a deep breath as pulses of light travelled underneath her skin and concentrated into her eyes, Crossing through the vast distance between space, Cellica locked onto the tiny vessel reeking of artifact frequency energy signature that literally appeared in high orbit just now.

Further! Cellica commanded, and her eyes looked through the shells of the vessel, where two Rockies sat.

Right then and there, the Rocky that looked exactly like Brakagi reached his hand forward as he gave Olympus Prime yet another little push forward in it's impending doom.