<h4>Chapter 1224 1224 The Big Picture </h4>


    ?On Rae 5, the situation was slowlying under control. With the help of the Arisen and the Darklings, the human''s home Gxy was now rtively stable, and able to keep up with the constant influx of new battles that the Great Enemy wasunching at them.


    The advantage that they had, in that the Greater Energy Beings couldn''t or wouldn''te to them, was enough that they could essentially kill without fear of retribution. There was no force that they couldn''t handle.


    So, Mary Tarith was busily organizing more forces to go through the Alliance territories in preparation for the battles that would being there soon, and one newly created world ship to go near the strange in the Gulf, where she knew that arge human and Alliance force was fighting.


    Perhaps if she got a ship close enough they could find a way tomunicate directly with the, and then they could get some proper updates, or even reinforcements there to help.


    She had managed to get a team of Illithid to join the crew of the World Ship, which was mostly androids, but which they had also staffed with what few Alliance soldiers and human Mecha Pilots they could spare.


    That was bing a scarce resource these days. There were too many battles on too manys, and there hadn''t been time to fully train another generation of soldiers to take over. Once the battle had been raging for a few more years, they would have all the pilots they needed, every kid on every world was determined to be one or support staff for the Mecha at this point, but in the short term, the best that they could train was infantry and cannon fodder.


    You could learn to pilot a Mecha in under a week with the learning devices, but your body wouldn''t be ready for the extreme forces it was going to undergo, and the risks of injuries so severe and permanent that they would require a cyborg conversion was high.


    Somes had embraced that fact, and had been encouraging crippled citizens to undergo the process in exchange for a term of service. There were a lot who were willing to risk it, including many old soldiers who would rather take up the task themselves than leave it to their children and their grandchildren.


    Cyborgs lived a long time, as long as the brain was healthy, so it didn''t really matter if they were getting close to retirement age. The Government would convert their crippled and aging bodies, and they could be the front lines against alien enemies again.


    Mary wasn''t a fan of the idea, but then she also didn''t approve of using poorly equipped infantry inbat in the first ce, and that was where almost all of these older volunteers hade from. If it made them feel better about themselves, she wouldn''t argue about it. Most of the infantry had dreamed of being in the Mecha in the first ce, and the army no longer used the Line Mecha, which had always been viewed as disposable by the veterans who had seen actualbat.


    Being in a Crusader ss Mecha, able to face down entire waves of enemy infantry and vehicles sounded like a much better way to go to war than slogging through the mud as an infantryman, especially with the Corvette ss units being piloted by the Androids, whose reflexes and response times were far superior to the average soldier, making them more suited to the fast attack role.


    [How are the deployment arrangements going?] Mary asked her advisory team.


    [We have seven percent of active military units in reserve at the moment. Thirty percent of Reaver vessels have been returned tomerce duty to keep the trade supply lines open, and both the Arisen and Darkling fleets have spread through the Alliance ording to the predictive targeting maps that they shared with us.


    From what our numbers are showing us, it looks like we''ve almost got the situation under control, we just need a way to destabilize the other side of the Anomaly without causing a cascade effect to our side.


    The Arisen have sent data suggesting that using antimatter to close it could cause an ovep of theyers from the other side, which would allow the Greater Energy Beings to gain purchase in our Gxy, and begin to normalize the otheryers here.


    So, presently, we can''t actually close it without the risk of making things worse when they open the next one. Estimated time to the next anomaly opening if we close this one is seven hours, by the way.] The advisor replied in a dry and slightly sarcastic tone.


    She had gotten used to that now. The man had an augmentic voice box which had been damaged for over a decade, and he simply refused to fix it because he liked the sarcastic monotone that it spoke in. It made it impossible to tell his actual feelings about anything without actually seeing him, and he could use that to keep his Reavers in order, even when he was secretlyughing along with them.


    [Understood. It''s better to keep the status quo for now. Until they start changing to a tactic that we can''t handle, or the casualties begin to increase to an unsustainable level, I don''t see a reason not to go along with the n.


    What is the status of the World Ship that we were preparing to examine the strange?]


    There was a short pause as the advisor double-checked his notes.


    [We are waiting on two more shuttles from the Alliance to deliver crewmen, and then we are ready to depart. They should be in position above the within the next six hours.]


    [Did the Illithid make it? Commander Max should be there, and he canmunicate directly with them if there is no outside force blocking them. That will give us an actual update on the if we can''t get a sensor reading from up close.] Mary asked.


    [They did. We believe that they will be able to get full resolution scans once they are in range, it is mostlymunications that are blocked. We do have some updates on the as well. The forces havemitted to a redeployment after the Great Enemy''s first base was overrun, and they opened two more portals.


    The Myceloids seem to have an understanding with our forces, in that they are not actively hunting each other. They attack when they get close, but the situation appears to be a two on one against the Cathedral Ships. That''s all that we can tell from this distance.]


    [Thank you. I will talk to you for tomorrow''s update, same time and frequency.] Mary announced, ending the meeting.


    Finally, she would get a proper update on her daughter. Hopefully, nothing irreparable had happened to her while their ship was out ofmunications with the world and fighting alone on that artificial world.


    Mary''s thoughts on the matter were far different from Nico''s. Like the Myceloids, she was having the time of her life at that moment, and was just fine with the way things were. Another few days like this and her experiment might even be sessfullypleted.