“Hmm, I dare say, when was the last time we all met like this eh?”
“Seventeen thousand for most of us, if I’m not mistaken.”
“It feels good to be back together like this eh, even if it isn’t all in person just yet.”
“Hmm.”
An ominous blood red moon sat in the skies above an ancient forest. The wind whistling silently with the smell of blood, the trees rustling with maple leaves drifting in a dance across its whisper. The forest stretched out before the lunar eclipse, the trees red. The animals gazing up into the heavens themselves it seemed in awe though not all. Owls flew overhead and crashed through the trees.
Wolves and Coyotes moved through the woods and stopped at a clearing. Their howls were heard as they pranced forward. A scar in the land lay before many as they gathered. Down within it looked like the inside of a cave with stalagmites all around and rocks basic. The large mouth of a cave with many tunnels within twisting and turning.
Gathered round though were the figures of more than forty people though the figures themselves were odd. Many standing were simply black in color with a small blending of various other darker colors. One stood all black with dark green mixed in, another with dark red mixed with the black. All that truly stood out were the red stars of their coats and then their eyes, all else simple light a phased black aura.
“How can you say we are together when many of you are here via Astral Projection, eh?” one of the individuals replied at last.
“Pft, Astral Projection. It’s only a damn hologram on steroids,” barked another.
“Shut up Xander. A hologram is simplistic showing of an image. An Astral Projection is a casting of one’s spirit mixed with their energy. Completely different if you don’t mind me saying,” replied another.
“Shut up Tadashi,” Xander barked.
“Enough,” a low pitched female growled.
Many of those standing were these Astral Projections though twelve were solid people all dressed in the uniform of The Hive. All eyes shifted to the projection of one who stood atop a rock at the front of the cavern, his pupils purple and iris red.
“Milady?” came the voice of Leon.
“Your petty squabbles do not interest me,” was the response, low in pitch though definitely female, “Now Leon, update me on your progress if you would.”
“Right. Thanks to the work of Cylux and his Shadow Partners, we have managed the destruction of Nospheross. In turn we have freed multiple of our allies from Tribe imprisonment,” he began with a glance over to the South of the cavern.
Nine approached, eight of which moved in unison. They all appeared identical minus the ninth, their hair white and their eyes icy. The ninth was Cylux, the masked warrior, heading this group. All stopped at once and stood at attention, Cylux’s eyes focusing on what transpired before him.
“Cylux? I don’t recall such a name among my empire when I last saw you all,” the female replied.
“I am the child of Galovan, if you recall him milady,” Cylux replied.
“Ah, yes, Galovan. I remember his service well. Still rather unfortunate that he died in battle against Wesley of all people.”
“Indeed. My mission to this point has been infiltration of Tribe operations and obtaining any and all data. Thus the mask, just in case any of our own associates are captured and have their minds read. Shadow is my partner, acting alongside me.”
One of the eight stepped forward, eyes shut, bowing, “A pleasure.”
“What’s the purpose of those backup dancers. Replications?” one of the twelve barked out.
“You’ll find out in time Dustin if you press hard enough,” Shadow replied, “And it won’t be pretty. Now I’m certain that is not the purpose of this meeting. We all know why we are here, right?”
“Yeah,” came the voice of another male.
All eyes shifted once more to the masked man known as Xander. He stepped forward with eyes curved as he let out a slight chuckle, “To take over everything,”
“That’s the plan,” came the voice of another from the Astral Projection crowd.
“What I want to know is why we’ve waited until now to carry this out, hmm? We waited what feels like twenty-thousand years to pull this off, eh?” spoke another.
“You have no idea how many steps it took to get us to this point Andrei. Following our defeat we lost many assets. It’s been a real hassle waiting it out, a pain slowly rebuilding our might. Now we have the numbers we need to move forward.”
“That’s all well and fine Shadow but care to explain the situation proper for us noobs? We haven’t exactly been filled in on anything you know,” barked the metallic voice of another.
“Basilisx, might I ask just what it is you think we’ve been facing?” came the response of Leon.
“The Hive has faced more than just the Tribe in these modern years. For the first few thousand the Tribe was a major contributor, then later on it was the select societies of humanity they would prepare. Even now they have many nations ratified to hunt us via Specialized Black Ops Units. Were it only the Tribe alone anymore we might have had a chance but no, it grew beyond that. This is why we have our assets readying for war,” Shadow concluded.
“War? Isn’t it a little too soon for all of that?” came the chuckle of one present, his voice a bit elderly yet well pitched despite this.
“Normally yes,” another spoke, this time a female projection, the color of red surrounding her, “But now that we’ve made our move the Tribe will be mobilizing to stop us.”
“Heh ha ha, let them come. I’ve got something for them all, something called payback!” one laughed.
“While I appreciate the motivation Tadashi it is still not in our best interest,” Shadow spoke again.
“How so?” Nightmare questioned.
“The technology of the humans has changed drastically in but a few thousand years. While it does not necessarily match that of what is on Sillith with the homeland, it easily surpasses what we have our hands on now. Even our powers alone might not be enough to take out all of the possible onslaught,” Shadow replied.
“And that’s why we’ve got people like Dustin or Szayel working for us, right? They provide the Undead arms to back us and we grant them the power they want,” Idontis commented.
“Correct,” spoke Shadow, “We will use the Drachen, the Vampires, and the Zaherian to our advantage. They will assist us as we move forward; however there is much more to it.”
“How do you mean?”
Shadow glanced to the right and then to the left before refocusing his attention at the middle of the group, “A long term war is not in our interest. We do not have the might of our people backing us like we did in years long ago, which is why we are progressing with caution and careful precision. The attack on the compound to break Cortez and many others out was planned for over a decade.”
“A decade for that job?”
“For the last twelve thousand years we’ve been moving cautiously trying to not alarm the Tribe. We’ve gathered intel, we’ve gathered resources, we’ve worked to establish allies, tracking the best of the Tribe, and we’ve worked to figure out what to do. The last two centuries alone have been more than ten times the work one would think,” Shadow replied.
Leon nodded, “Once more, correct. Tracking their elite and putting people in position, carefully calculating every possible outcome. We waited until their guard had finally lowered enough to break out our allies, which succeeded. We got who we needed inside and made our move to get us to our full potential.”
“We worked under the radar and made our strikes. Our units confirmed the deaths of at least three of their Generals and several of their Commanders. Many dozens of others have also been exterminated at the same time we made the assault. Now we’re playing the crunch card,” Shadow spoke as he slowly began to walk forward, “They will be looking for us, trying to stop us again. It is this moment that I have planned best for.”
“Why?”
“Because Sora, in the end it wouldn’t matter what we did. We couldn’t logically take them all out at once and we couldn’t logically hit them and expect to stay under the radar. The next steps we take are crucial.”
“Heh ha ha ha ha ha,” laughed another, “Oh man, I can’t believe this. You planned out to this extent?"
“It’s necessary until we reopen the portal to Sillith,” he spoke stopping.
It grew silent as all eyes shifted to one another, all eyes except those of Leon, Cortez, Nightmare, and four of those surrounding Nightmare. Shadow glanced around as he continued pacing, “We’ve drawn out the King, we’ve drawn out the Knights. These next few weeks will be vital for us to move as precisely as we can.”
“I’d say we already failed then. The Temple of Light is going to be surrounded before long and it takes far too damn long to break a Level Five Barrier.”
“Who said anything about that being the plan? We’re going to draw the Tribe’s attention to execute what comes next. Their elite are the problem while the nations scramble to most likely prepare for future conflict. Their priories will be the people and considering how slow the human political system is, I’d grant us no more than two months to pull off what we need. So listen up, I’m only going to go through this once. Follow what Leon and I have calculated and it will at last spell the end for The Tribe!”487Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbthJAkG2Kq
