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Before Waylon could respond, Brandon walked into the room, a smile on his face. It dissapeared when he saw Waylon, however. Still peeved about last night, Waylon thought.
While that was fair, he tried not to be a murderer. In all honesty, he never actually killed anyone. He'd seen plenty of murders take place in front of him, but never actually committed any himself. The closest he'd gotten to doing so was yesterday against Ooye'Yar. He believed in the purity of life, despite him being influenced to believe otherwise. Everyone deserved a second chance, although he was not above punishing for crimes. Yet, everyone deserved a second chance.
He watched as Nami walked by herself to the door and back, smiling. She was better to an extent. And that was the only reassurance he needed not to pursue the trader. Hopefully, by taking the wealth of his items and leaving him with thirty quid in his pocket and his pride dragging behind him, it would be enough to influence which side of the morality line the trader would be one the day he died.
"Okay, so what are we going to need in order to get the crystal from the Verbum Dei? Aura, do you have any leads?" Waylon looked at Aura, not knowing where she ran off at night.
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Killed people for money, but it was for her people. If that didn't make it okay then what would? How could she redeem herself?
She left Nala all the time to be raised by those who raised her. After her father died she had been alone, her mother was never in the picture. So, as training leader of her people, Aura had found a trainer to make her a weapon, a killing machine. Somewhere along the way she had lost her own way and fallen for one outside of her people, one who took advantage of her shelterdess. Aaaand...along came Nala. As punishment for being so stupid, her ancestors took Nala's sight and left her defenseless.
Always making the worst choices, Aura pushed Nala and her people away, making the only income for everyone and bringing in the supplies to make everyone last. She had never forgiven herself for missing out on Nala's life, especially right now.
As the sun started to come up, Aura had wandered back to the house, seeing Ara looking out the window then Waylon behind her. She had just made her way back inside when she heard, "Okay, so what are we going to need in order to get the crystal from the Verbum Dei?" Waylon had asked the question to everyone.
Remembering Rorik, Aura looked around the room, searching for the male but was interrupted by Waylon directing her, "Aura, do you have any leads?"
Her focus snapped back on Waylon and with a small from she shook her head, "They were long gone by the time I got there.. Maybe if I was let go sooner I could've stopped them." Her anger is obvious but she continues, "Maybe my friend Rorik saw or heard something? Has anyone seen him around?"
Waylon looked at this with curiosity. How did this guy Rorik know so much? Where did he come from? How did he get Aura to trust him so fast?
"Wait wait wait," Waylon threw his hands in a motion to stop. "So you're telling us that you know exactly how the grounds and facility is outlined, you can name specific guard times and whatnot. How did you even come across this information? I bet it wasn't as simple as getting a Golden Ticket in a Willy Wonka Bar." He hoped that someone read among the group, but with Angel gone, it wasn't looking good.
While Waylon made his decision Rorik continued to draw on the map. He then pulled out a small book and started to copy stuff out of it onto the map.
"No, I didn't mean it like that," Waylon replied. "I'm thinking if you managed to get in by becoming a member, then maybe we can get in the same way. We infiltrate as rookies, then look for Nala, the crystal, and any knowledge about this one shot weapon we can gather. We can escape with Nala, possibly impede on their one shot weapon, and return later with an army to get the crystal back."
He turned to Rorik, "So, is that a good idea? Would it work?"
"We could bring back the resistance."
Everyone stopped and turned to Ara, who never moved but was paying attention nonetheless.
Sores was in total shock by this. "They...they would never come back to fight for us..."
"I think we need to give it a chance." she responded solemnly.
"She does make a point," Waylon added. "I mean we're going to need all the help we can get. Even if they say no, is it not worth giving it a shot?"
Issac had woken up with a thud. He had fallen out of the duel chairs that he had been sleeping in. He stood up rubbing his head and looking around at the rest of the group. "Aw fuck, what time is it did I oversleep again." He looked at his wristwatch that was in his pocket. "12:17." with that he laid back down in the chair and just listened to whatever was going on in the next room. Mark was still out along with Tanya.
"Then we try," Waylon agreed. He heard the sound of Issac waking up and cursing about oversleeping or something. Issac didn't come into the room.
"So is this all the resistance we're going to potentially have?" Waylon looked around. "I mean it's sizeable, but it's like half of the probably required amount and that is IF all parties say yes. So what do we do about the second half? I understand that half a army would make a good enough distraction, but I want that army to be able to hold their own. Any suggestions?"
Mark soon wakes up and walks into the room looking at the plan sheet.
Waylon turns to the sound of Issac, peeking his head in. "That's how many are in the resistance. Or what's left of it."
Issac and Ara walked out together, probably to talk about stuff. Mark walked in and started to catch himself up. "How ya feelin, Mark? A little bit better?"
Aura shook her head. "If we're going to do this, we should just take down the Verbum Dei altogether. I mean...we'd be inside, we'd have a small army and once we freed my people, they will fight for me and Nala. We stop the One Shot from being made...I mean why not? It's worth a try..."
Waylon thought of the anniversary of the rebellion's downfall. "No, it's not. We'd be fighting with half an army against their trained militia at all times, even with the rescue of your people. If we are going to take down the Verbum Dei, we need to be tactical, not direct. Simply going in there and killing every last one of them will either end the rebellion thing we have going here for good or we will succeed at the extreme cost of all our lives, leaving anyone to take power." He shuddered at the thought of his background falling into the Verbum Dei's shoes. "From the diagram, the complexity of this place is remarkable. They know their way around way better than we would. They'll have numbers, organization, and their home turf."
Waylon closed his eyes, caught his thoughts, and went on. "Now is not the time to end the Verbum Dei. We can do it when we have the advantage."
Sores looked a bit more happy but also frustrated. "I think we should stick with the old plan."
"But who will benefit from it?" Waylon countered. "Is this group you want to sic on the Verbum Dei going to be better or worse for us in the long run? Because I know a group too that would destroy the Verbum Dei in a heartbeat, given the chance. But the future of the world would not benefit from their take over." He saw Ara walk back into the room. Issac had not returned.
"I think we should stick with the old plan," Sores muttered.
This gave Waylon another idea.
"Why not both? I mean look at it. We can attack the way we plan to and pin it on this group that Mark was talking about. That give us a cover, so we don't have anyone gunning for specifically us in the end."
Issac chimes in from his chairs he had been laying in. "Tanya has a truck. She used it to get here and transport her scraped titan outside. Might make the adventure a bit more friendly on our feet."
Every second is the time for the verbum dei to be taken down. Doesn't matter who does it as long as it's done, then the secrets of my people are with my people only... Or what's left of us...
She sighs and closes her eyes and opens them slowly.
What are they doing to Nala right now? She must be terrified... What if they've already killed her...
She closes her eyes as tears form.
What has she already witnessed... What if it's too late and her innocent spirit has died...
Aura digs her claws into her closed fists.
I'm a terrible mother. I vowed to be nothing like my father and yet...I'm worse than he is.
Waylon thought for a moment. "Well, that could work. But what are The Masses' motives? How do they handle things differently than the Verbum Dei? In a negative or positive way? Do they go the old merchant style? How would they use the One Shot should they take control of it?"
"Tanya has a truck," Issac added. "She used it to get here and transport her scraped titan outside. Might make the adventure a bit more friendly on our feet."
"Maybe to get to The Masses recruitment site, but not to the Verbum Dei HQ," Waylon recommended. "Stealth will be key when infiltrating, even though it's a frontal assault. The point of getting a larger army involved will be to not make our presence known."
He knew he was sounding like nothing they threw was going to work, but he wanted to keep things in perspective for the group. The risks that would be accompanying each decision. This would be no cakewalk, but minimal risk was optimal.
She knew it was Ara and held still, counting to three in her head before replying, "This is my fault. If I would've stayed with her... Brought her with me... I mean, what if she's already gone? What have they already done to her? Is her pure spirit gone? Why didn't I protect her? She is my child... I'm worse than my own father..."
Mark looked to waylon. "I work with The Masses. They are a good group. I'm a high ranking officer. Have my own squad and all. I'm just on leave for a few days. But with this info I can make sure that the officials get it. Also don't worry about the One Shot. They will want it destroyed. If anyone got their hands on it it could cause a hell of a lot of innocent deaths."