Solsabre
The Reforged Soul
Henry/Michael/Theo/Pyra/Galic
Theo gingerly massaged his right shoulder, nodding in acknowledgement to Henry and the Paildramon, Pyra, he believed her name was.
“I assume we’re all caught up on our,” Michael frowned and thought carefully for the next word, “misadventures. Correct?”
“Misadventures is certainly one way to put it,” Pyra said with a deep and heavy sigh. “It’s staggering to think that Lancelot could defeat us without breaking stride and then go and do the same to all of you.”
Theo hadn’t really been surprised...to a degree anyway. He’d fought in mock battles with his former platoon against Sir Lancelot numerous times for training, but even his experiences paled in comparison to what they had just endured.
“Tremendous power, tremendous training, and the ability to adapt to most any fighting style,” Michael acknowledged. “At its root, that is what we’re facing. And if we are to triumph we cannot be as…cavalier in our efforts and actions as we have been.”
“Agreed.” Henry said. “Kaladesh, Glen Elendra, Greystone, Meletis,” he counted the cities off on his fingers, “The Knights keep fighting us in cities and the cities end up taking far too much damage. The citizens wind up scattered, demoralized, or worse, actively rallying behind the Knights. I don’t think this is coincidental, the Knights have been choosing the battlegrounds from the beginning. Setting a stage for us to perform on, so to speak.”
He motioned towards the map. “Until we can make them fight us on our terms, they will continue to have the upper hand. And, as Michael so eloquently explained, Lancelot and his like are too powerful for us to fight head-on, on their terms, especially when we have collateral damage to worry about.”
“But what are ’our terms’?” Pyra asked. “The knights target areas where Tamers are plentiful. Do we just ignore their plight? Or the plight of our allies under attack?”
“That’s what we’re here to figure out, isn’t it?” Henry asked. “Our next move? The Knights have their own goals to achieve, but what are ours? Are we content to show up wherever tamers are gathered and give it a gentleman’s try, ‘cause that doesn’t seem to be working out too well for us so far. I agree the tamers need to be protected, but what exactly does that entail?”
He looked around the table. “If we have to sacrifice another city to save a group of tamers, are we ready to do that? How many civilian’s lives are we willing to destroy in exchange for moving
the tamers to a new place to be attacked at a later date? If stopping the Knights means ending them permanently, are we prepared to do that? If it takes their deaths or our own to put an end to this, would you hesitate, even for a second, to go through with it? We cannot afford to waver. Whatever course we choose to set, we have to be ready to commit to it wholeheartedly.”
“Henry’s right,” Theo said finally, after studying the map for a long hard moment, “because I fear we may be running out of time. I’ve taken enough orders and briefings from Sir Gawain and his predecessor to recognize some of the Knight’s patterns.” Theo turned to face Galic. “You asked earlier whether or not the Royal Knights would wage war with every city or government that would oppose them. In truth, they couldn’t, not without exhausting their own forces, but they could very well overtake a single city with precise planning.”
The black dragon pointed to the center of the map, “Axis Mundi. I’m still convinced this is their long-term objective. Our previous battles have devastated council-aligned cities, dissuaded other cities or nations from supporting our cause, and concentrating the majority of the tamer into one location, and keeping us preoccupied in the meantime. With that many tamers in one location the Knights could focus all their forces in a single campaign to gain the upper hand quickly and assume control over the capitol.”
The BlackWarGreymon snarled to himself on the inside. The old dragon should have paid more attention from the start. He went over the battles of the last few days in his head. Herd and drive the enemy into a single location. Isolate and cut off chains of support. He’d utilized these methods plenty of times, but only on a smaller scale. But… He scratched at his chin uncertain.
“It is the logistics of moving such a large force without attracting attention that escapes me,” Theo admitted, “though inserting infiltration teams as an advance force would be easy enough to do with the hundreds of refugees entering Axis Mundi on a regular basis.”
“The Royal Knights also do not have a large enough force to properly lay siege to Axis Mundi,” Michael said. “Even should they call in every reservist in Avalon and each loyalist faction throughout the realms, they are still outnumbered ten-to-one by just the Council’s forces alone.”
“You’re also talkin about open war. Not just contained battles,” Galic added. “Dey’ve been careful with how far dey escalate each battle. Your fight in Greystone being a notable exception.”
“And that will mean engaging the Council directly,” Pyra notes. “They defeated the gods of the Council early on, but there’s no guarantee they could do so again. Right now they’re prevented from interfering because the Royal Knights have two of them held prisoner. But this would force the Council to action.” She glanced to Michael, “the Host, too, I assume.”
Michael nodded, hesitantly. “Presumably. The Great Archangels have seemed hesitant to engage in open war.”
"Surely the Knights have considered this as well?" Henry said. "If things continue as they are, it's only a matter of time until the tamers have all rallied to Axis Mundi for one reason or another. The tamer settlement near Valeron aside."
The pirate scratched his chin. "What then? If attacking Axis Mundi is out of the question, what's their next move?"
“We’re missing something,” Michael mused. “A piece of the puzzle.”
“Regardless of how we see things, the Royal Knights still consider themselves the protectors of this world,” Pyra said. “War at the cost of Digimon lives would be something they’d avoid.”
“We need more information,” Theo sighed, rubbing a claw over tired eyes. He paused for a moment, as if remembering something. “Lord Michael, you mentioned something about Ixalan, when we were still in Axis Mundi. What intel did we have on that location again?”
“Essentially none,” Michael admitted. “Just some strange energy readings that one of the Council advisors had suggested looking into.” Michael frowned. “Unless we can get word to and from Axis Mundi there’s no way for us to verify those readings are still active, or even where to pinpoint them.”
Theo gingerly massaged his right shoulder, nodding in acknowledgement to Henry and the Paildramon, Pyra, he believed her name was.
“I assume we’re all caught up on our,” Michael frowned and thought carefully for the next word, “misadventures. Correct?”
“Misadventures is certainly one way to put it,” Pyra said with a deep and heavy sigh. “It’s staggering to think that Lancelot could defeat us without breaking stride and then go and do the same to all of you.”
Theo hadn’t really been surprised...to a degree anyway. He’d fought in mock battles with his former platoon against Sir Lancelot numerous times for training, but even his experiences paled in comparison to what they had just endured.
“Tremendous power, tremendous training, and the ability to adapt to most any fighting style,” Michael acknowledged. “At its root, that is what we’re facing. And if we are to triumph we cannot be as…cavalier in our efforts and actions as we have been.”
“Agreed.” Henry said. “Kaladesh, Glen Elendra, Greystone, Meletis,” he counted the cities off on his fingers, “The Knights keep fighting us in cities and the cities end up taking far too much damage. The citizens wind up scattered, demoralized, or worse, actively rallying behind the Knights. I don’t think this is coincidental, the Knights have been choosing the battlegrounds from the beginning. Setting a stage for us to perform on, so to speak.”
He motioned towards the map. “Until we can make them fight us on our terms, they will continue to have the upper hand. And, as Michael so eloquently explained, Lancelot and his like are too powerful for us to fight head-on, on their terms, especially when we have collateral damage to worry about.”
“But what are ’our terms’?” Pyra asked. “The knights target areas where Tamers are plentiful. Do we just ignore their plight? Or the plight of our allies under attack?”
“That’s what we’re here to figure out, isn’t it?” Henry asked. “Our next move? The Knights have their own goals to achieve, but what are ours? Are we content to show up wherever tamers are gathered and give it a gentleman’s try, ‘cause that doesn’t seem to be working out too well for us so far. I agree the tamers need to be protected, but what exactly does that entail?”
He looked around the table. “If we have to sacrifice another city to save a group of tamers, are we ready to do that? How many civilian’s lives are we willing to destroy in exchange for moving
the tamers to a new place to be attacked at a later date? If stopping the Knights means ending them permanently, are we prepared to do that? If it takes their deaths or our own to put an end to this, would you hesitate, even for a second, to go through with it? We cannot afford to waver. Whatever course we choose to set, we have to be ready to commit to it wholeheartedly.”
“Henry’s right,” Theo said finally, after studying the map for a long hard moment, “because I fear we may be running out of time. I’ve taken enough orders and briefings from Sir Gawain and his predecessor to recognize some of the Knight’s patterns.” Theo turned to face Galic. “You asked earlier whether or not the Royal Knights would wage war with every city or government that would oppose them. In truth, they couldn’t, not without exhausting their own forces, but they could very well overtake a single city with precise planning.”
The black dragon pointed to the center of the map, “Axis Mundi. I’m still convinced this is their long-term objective. Our previous battles have devastated council-aligned cities, dissuaded other cities or nations from supporting our cause, and concentrating the majority of the tamer into one location, and keeping us preoccupied in the meantime. With that many tamers in one location the Knights could focus all their forces in a single campaign to gain the upper hand quickly and assume control over the capitol.”
The BlackWarGreymon snarled to himself on the inside. The old dragon should have paid more attention from the start. He went over the battles of the last few days in his head. Herd and drive the enemy into a single location. Isolate and cut off chains of support. He’d utilized these methods plenty of times, but only on a smaller scale. But… He scratched at his chin uncertain.
“It is the logistics of moving such a large force without attracting attention that escapes me,” Theo admitted, “though inserting infiltration teams as an advance force would be easy enough to do with the hundreds of refugees entering Axis Mundi on a regular basis.”
“The Royal Knights also do not have a large enough force to properly lay siege to Axis Mundi,” Michael said. “Even should they call in every reservist in Avalon and each loyalist faction throughout the realms, they are still outnumbered ten-to-one by just the Council’s forces alone.”
“You’re also talkin about open war. Not just contained battles,” Galic added. “Dey’ve been careful with how far dey escalate each battle. Your fight in Greystone being a notable exception.”
“And that will mean engaging the Council directly,” Pyra notes. “They defeated the gods of the Council early on, but there’s no guarantee they could do so again. Right now they’re prevented from interfering because the Royal Knights have two of them held prisoner. But this would force the Council to action.” She glanced to Michael, “the Host, too, I assume.”
Michael nodded, hesitantly. “Presumably. The Great Archangels have seemed hesitant to engage in open war.”
"Surely the Knights have considered this as well?" Henry said. "If things continue as they are, it's only a matter of time until the tamers have all rallied to Axis Mundi for one reason or another. The tamer settlement near Valeron aside."
The pirate scratched his chin. "What then? If attacking Axis Mundi is out of the question, what's their next move?"
“We’re missing something,” Michael mused. “A piece of the puzzle.”
“Regardless of how we see things, the Royal Knights still consider themselves the protectors of this world,” Pyra said. “War at the cost of Digimon lives would be something they’d avoid.”
“We need more information,” Theo sighed, rubbing a claw over tired eyes. He paused for a moment, as if remembering something. “Lord Michael, you mentioned something about Ixalan, when we were still in Axis Mundi. What intel did we have on that location again?”
“Essentially none,” Michael admitted. “Just some strange energy readings that one of the Council advisors had suggested looking into.” Michael frowned. “Unless we can get word to and from Axis Mundi there’s no way for us to verify those readings are still active, or even where to pinpoint them.”