Ch. 12 Road Trip

Two weeks went by after the raid on the shipyard. During this time, Zelon had his people begin a large amount of tasks.

Zelon first began creating 20,000 more people to help out in multiple areas. 10,000 dwarves of clan Durin were brought in to begin construction on new underground facilities.

Zelon had Dwinley come outside to see the large army of dwarves created.

"Dwinley with these dwarves, I hope you can begin the expansion on the underground base."

Dwinley smiled, his creator juices flowing.

"We will need a large shipyard with a dock to handle the ships we will be creating."

"Also, after I return from my trip I plan to begin my conquest on this planet."

"For my army to succeed in fighting a war of such proportions; I will need you to build a weapons workshop, a medical facility, an information center, and a workshop for the creation of strategic war vehicles."

Dwinley stood before the other dwarves and they all began to kneel on one knee.

"It shall be done."

"I can count on the legendary craftsmanship of the dwarves."

"Also, if you have enough men to spare, I will have some of the dwarves and a few elves begin working on a combined uniform for everyone."

Dwinley nodded then began to scream out orders dividing the dwarves into teams.

Out of the last 10,000 people, Zelon made 2000 more druid wood elves for Sylvas's mission.

4000 Dark elves were then created, they will be trained and then form a intelligence network, that will infiltrate every city, the military, the government, and the rebel groups on the planet.

Because of Roshuni's accomplishments in the raid, Zelon designated her over the intelligence network.

The last 4000, would he high elves to began beefing up the army slowly over time.

Once everyone had their orders and began working, Zelon grabbed a few high elves.

"Take this datapad, there is still 700,000 credits left over on it."

"I need you guys to go around to any shipyards you can, then negotiate a fair price for the building of as many mining vessels as you can get."

The 4 high elves saluted Zelon then began walking out of the base towards the cities.

During those 2 weeks, 6 mining ships had been negotiated for and had begun construction.

The dwarves had already begun the construction of the new area's underground.

Roshuni after taking over her new position, had finished training 200 of the new dark elves and has already assigned them to infiltrate 2 of the nearby cities.

Lady Sylvas and her group of druids had begun experimenting with different combinations of tree seeds, but haven't yet gotten a seed up to their standard.

Everyone had begun their tasks and it would only take time before Zelon's forces began to take a whole new look.

Not wanting to waste time, Zelon began some experiments of his own.

Zelon called Tiamat and Northor and begin to experiment.

"Uncle Northor; when we first planted Tia, how much life-force did she absorb from the environment?"

"From what I could tell she absorbed 10% of the life-force from everything in a 20 mile radius."

"That includes the trees, animals, grass, your family, and me as well."

Zelon's face frowned

"Don't worry 10% isn't enough to hurt you at all, most living things burn that much everyday, then regain it through eating and sleeping."

"Only as you get older, do you creatures start to lose life force that doesn't come back.

Zelon nodded his head.

"Hmm, I want to try something."

Zelon sat on the ground next to Tiamat's tree. Inside of himself, 10 Hearthtree seeds began to form, circling around each other.

With the seeds in place, Zelon then began to pull life force from the area.

From every elf, dwarf, the trees, even Northor, all life nearby lost some life force. A huge wave of life energy came flying into Zelon steadily.

As the energy entered his body, he redirected it towards the seeds. These seeds then began to spin around each, faster and faster, getting closer.

Eventually, they all collided, but didn't combine together. Zelon began to exert a large amount of pressure on the seeds.

"Combine!"

For a while nothing happened, it was almost as if his scream had been ignored.

However, after an hour of continuous pressure and life energy pressing down on the seeds, they finally began to combine.

Slowly; each seed overlapped with each other, slowly but surely moving towards becoming one seed.

Three hours later; Zelon's face was plastered with sweat, however, he had a smile on his face.

"It worked!"

He stood up and smiled.

His hand extended, before a baseball sized seed appeared above his hand.

The seed looked different from normal; instead of its usual brown surface with green etchings.

This seed for some reason was silver with gold etchings. Like a heart the seed echoed with a rhythmic beat of energy.

Northor's face was surprised.

"The purity and density of life energy this seed possess is tremendous."

"If I didn't know any better I would have thought you were holding a mini planet in your hands."

Zelon looked at Northor confused.

"Wait the energy in this seed is at the same level as a planet?"

"If we are only talking purity and the concentration, then yes it's almost similar to a planet itself."

"The only thing it is missing is the large amount of energy planets like myself have."

"Right now this seed is about 2% of my energy with the same level of purity. You can just imagine what it would be like, once it grows into a tree."

Zelon looked at the seed, imagining a humongous tree, overlooking the world.

"I'll call this a Holy Hearthtree seed."

With his experiment done, he pulled the seed back into himself.

"Tiamat I won't give you the seed just yet, we aren't ready for the attention it would bring us."

"When you decide to give Tia the seed, call me I will overlook her changes as well."

Northor turned then melted into the ground below.

"Before I leave for Ossus I will create another Holy seed. I want to try and use the tree to terraform the planet into a perfect base, away from any prying eyes."

A month passes by and the 6 mining ships, he ordered have finally been completed.

Zelon sent some of his men to retrieve the ships, so they could begin mining efforts in the nearby planets and asteroid belts.

"Sir, I was able to negotiate for the ships to all be fitted with a mineral scanner, 2 mining lasers, and a deployable mining drill for planetary mining."

"Good, when they are ready send them out, we need to begin acquiring metals to build our own vessels."

Out at the shipyards, the mining ships all undocked and began flying off planet.

The group of 6 then ships split into 2 teams, 1 group would mine the nearby asteroid field, and the other would begin mining the uninhabitable planets in system.

4 hours later, transmission came back from the asteroid miners, saying they found Doonium, Steel, and Ferroceramic.

The planetary miners also called back saying they found Durasteel, Quadranium, and a small deposit of Laminanium.

They ten began shipping the metals back to base, before flying back for more.

As the weeks went on more metals were mined and ship parts began to get built quicker.

Seeing everything on the right track, Zelon began to prepare a large group for the journey to Ossus.

He first gathered his Royal Guards for their assignments.

"Mordindor and Sirdaer, you 2 will manage my forces while I am gone."

"Continue the construction plans I've set in place. Any credits we get should be used to buy more mining ships."

The 2 guards kneeled.

"Everything shall be in ready when you return my lord."

Zelon nodded then turned to the others.

"Fanion, Horthedir, and Laineth please watch over my family's safety. Gather a group of dark elves to work with you in monitoring the area."

"Also, I've had reports from our spies of the movements of the Jedi on planet, be vigilant of him approaching my sister."

"No harm shall come to your family on our watch."

Zelon smiled.

"Nauthrien, Ninnien, Revion, Gadron, and Calemiriel you 5 shall follow me to Ossus."

The 5 elves all kneeled.

"Yes my lord."

Zelon then turned and walked to Master Valin.

"I will be taking 300 of your dwarves with me, do you have a captain among then you recommend?"

Valin turned then rubbed his beard.

"Dogrula come and present ye'self to our lord!"

A figure ran through the crowd of dwarves before stopping in front of Zelon.

A female dwarf stood before Zelon, a lot taller taller than her male counterparts with red velvet hair, a freckled face, and a large bosom.

"My lord I am Dogrula Brightborn, Me be the best female craftswoman in all of Eä. I'm good at what I do, whether it be battle or the forge, I am always ready!"

Zelon smiled, impressed by this female dwarfs drive.

"Then I will leave the dwarves and the construction of our base on Osuss to you."

Drogula saluted Zelon.

"I won't fail ye me lord."

Zelon nodded his head then turned back to Valin.

"How has the construction of the laser weapons gone?"

Valin smiled.

"We have begun construction on the different types of guns you brought us."

"The Nidavellir dwarves, enchanted the guns with runes to allow them to recharge quickly under sunlight, decreased the time on overheat, and the durability of the weapon has increased."

"We also created some experimental bows that will shoot out laser arrows.

"They are enchanted with runes to utilize sunlight to create arrows and are able to hold a charge of energy before needing to be refilled."

"As of right now, we have enough guns and bows to fit the men your taking with you. I will have my men load those with the rest of the supplies."

"Good, good, I don't know what we will meet out there. Those weapons will be useful in defending ourselves."

Valin bowed his head.

With all the logistics out the way, Zelon they called for Alphani and Ventax.

Quickly 2 dark elves appeared before him.

"You 2 will be leading the soldiers going with me. "Gather up 500 elves of your choosing and be ready to depart."

"Yes sir!"

With the orders out the way, Zelon went to Tiamat's tree to make another Holy seed.

During this time, Vuthinne got the troop transport ready and instructed the other pilots on the formations they would fly.

For this trip they would be taking,. The troop transport, the 2 light freighters, and three fighters for defense.

The next morning, everything was loaded onto the ships and everyone was ready to depart.

Zelon exited his meditation with another seed inside his body ready to use.

He stood and touched Tiamat's tree.

"Take care of my family while I'm gone, you will be playing me for a while."

Don't worry, your family is my family."

Zelon smiled then walked to the ships.

Everyone stood around waiting on Zelon to arrive. Once he got to the ships he turned and looked at everyone.

"Everyone, I leave our home to you!"

Zelon then looked at Alphani and nodded.

Alphani began to scream out orders.

"Everyone to your designated vessel, let's get a move on!"

Everyone began to quickly enter the ships.

One everyone was in the ships began to turn on and lift off.