Awakening the Lightforged

We can activate our spies while lying low. Give them time to find out what we’ll need to escape. And to find a new home.

C. 22 days, 38 hours since the assassination of rebel leadership

Though nerves made Uuchantuu's stomach twist and knot, she relaxed just a bit upon reaching the end of the sloped tunnel and seeing a small crowd waiting outside where she'd asked. After leaving Estingai, Uuchantuu had spent the past few hours finding everyone or finding a way to get word to those she couldn’t. Stepping quietly as she approached, Uuchantuu smiled at Pymduunda, the cleareye on watch, as she stepped up beside him at the tunnel mouth.

"They all here?"

Pymduunda nodded, "Every one. Just make sure you aren't too loud, and keep your heads down below the rim. I haven't seen any Imaia patrols come too close, but they're out there. No aircraft, but two speeders."

Uuchantuu's throat tightened at that, and she had to take a deep breath to relax enough to speak without her voice wavering.

"Thank you. We'll be careful. I'll let you know when we're done."

Pymduunda nodded, then stepped past her and disappeared down the tunnel. Uuchantuu looked after him for a moment, then turned back toward her team. She picked out Luuhuuta and Naruuna and Araana, as well as Edendo and Jaran and their people. They'd helped their people evacuate to Last Shadow, but had returned to Frozen Phantom even when most of their people had spurned Estingai's offer of aid and refuge. She hoped that counted for something with her.

She'd asked them to meet here, at one of Wolfden's larger watch posts. It must have once been part of a settlement or religious site, as the low walls were too smooth and regular to be natural, and the tunnel leading here had been carved out when they'd found the place. Sometimes they used it on Auroradays for those who couldn't trek as far through the canyons or out into the desert—the wounded and what few elders they had. Today, however, Uuchantuu would use it to repair her broken team.

"Thank you all for coming," she said, raising her voice just enough to grab their attention as she stepped forward. "I know you don't have much reason to do so after…" Uuchantuu had to swallow as the words caught in her throat. "After what happened."

"After your lack of trust in us screwed everything up, you mean?" Araana hissed. "What are we even doing here? What could you possibly hope to accomplish?"

Araana was the only one that spoke, but a few of the others nodded, and as Uuchantuu looked to those she'd gathered here, she saw a reticence in their eyes. An uncertainty.

"It wasn't Uuchantuu's fault," Naruuna said, rising to her feet from where she'd sat. "I took too long with the speeder.”

Araana snorted. "You're right. It's both your faults. Doesn't change anything."

Luuhuuta spoke up then as Naruuna shrank back, and the sheltered area erupted into a cacophony of hushed arguments and questions.

Uuchantuu didn't try to stop it.

When it finally died down a bit, she spoke.

"I understand your hesitation," she said. "Your questions, your lack of trust, but you're all here for a reason."

That silenced the rest of them.

"The fact that you all came here even after what happened… that means something,” Uuchantuu continued. “Either you still have faith in me, or you're just curious to see what I might do. Instead of arguing, please just listen to what I need to say. After that, if you don't like what I've said or still don't trust me, you can go."

Uuchantuu let that hang in the air, and after a few frowns and shared looks, everyone nodded, eyes fixed on her.

Uuchantuu took a deep breath.

"I want to apologize. I failed you. I didn't know if I could handle leading a team on my own, without Estingai or Svemakuu or Koruuksi, even though Estingai believed I could. I put too much pressure on you, Araana. And on Luuhuuta and Edendo and Jaran. I saw you as names and abilities on a list, not as people or the parts of a team, just something I could use to prove myself and complete the missions. I didn't trust you to be a team, and I didn't try to earn your trust or respect. It was wrong, and I am sorry for that."

For a while, silence stretched over the watch post. The sun beat down upon them—the walls were too low to provide much shade—but none of them moved. None of them spoke.

Uuchantuu braced herself when Araana finally broke the silence.

"I didn't really put much effort into trusting you or being part of a team, either."

Uuchantuu blinked at the admission, and struggled to keep her expression neutral as the others all nodded or murmured in agreement. She gazed at them in amazement, and when she looked back to Araana, she found the woman studying her.

"I expect you have some sort of plan?" she asked. "We failed the last mission, so we need to make up for it, right?"

Uuchantuu smiled, then shook her head. "Not exactly."

Araana frowned, and Uuchantuu realized how that sounded.

"I do have a plan," she said, "but it's not just to make up for my failure. I wouldn't ask that of you."

Araana and the others cocked their heads.

"I asked you here," Uuchantuu said, drawing herself up, "to help me with a chance at hope. What I want to do won't just help us survive. It will help us have a chance at a better life than this."

Their eyes widened and Uuchantuu's heart swelled.

You still have to tell them.

"I can't give you all the details on what we're working toward," she said, looking around the group to meet their eyes, "not yet, at least. There are still some loose ends to wrap up, and I haven't even been told all the details about that, but I asked Estingai to let me give you as much as I can."

Voranda, one of Edendo's people, snorted. "So this is Estingai's plan. Of course she's holding things close to the chest. How do we know this isn't just another power play? She's the one that caused this mess in the first place by trying to take control."

Uuchantuu let the woman finish, then glared at her.

"You really think that?" Uuchantuu asked, voice low.

Voranda and a few others blinked.

"Estingai is one of the Knights Reborn. The last Knight. She keeps secrets because we were betrayed, and she lost her husband because of it. I lost a brother. You all lost someone who protected you. I lived with the Knights, not just Estingai and Svemakuu. They weren't perfect, but grabbing for power? That way of thinking doesn't come to them. Every single one of them gave everything they had for this world, for all of you. If they take a position of power, it's because they need it to do what is right for those who depend on them. Think about that before you accuse her of being selfish."

Everyone else was silent as Voranda swallowed. Uuchantuu held the woman's gaze and, eventually, she looked down. Uuchantuu allowed herself a small smile at that before looking back to the others.

"Does anyone else have anything they need to say?"

There were a few murmurs, but most shook their heads. Uuchantuu nodded, and was about to start on the plan when Naruuna spoke up.

"Why aren't you and Koruuksi Knights?"

Uuchantuu blinked. No one outside the Knights and her adopted family had ever asked that of her. Yet a few others nodded, murmuring in agreement.

"I've wondered that, too," Araana said. "Both of you… you're not Estingai, but I've seen you fight. You're far above any of us."

"And you were trained by the same people that trained Estingai and Svemakuu and the other Knights, right?" Jaran asked.

Uuchantuu nodded. She thought for a moment before answering, working out how best to explain it.

"It's because we're not Estingai," she said slowly. She let that hang in the air, let them think on that for a moment, before continuing.

"The Knights were something more than just great leaders or warriors or scientists. They were more even than devoted followers of Kweshrima. They gave everything. Being a Knight wasn't just something they did or a code they tried to follow, it was who they were. They had to give up a lot for that. Too much, in our opinion." She sighed. "Koruuksi and I didn't want that for ourselves. We'd seen the toll it took on Estingai and Svemakuu, and on their parents and the others we lived and trained with. Even the Knights that pursued science and things like administration and logistics rather than combat were changed by it, and not always in a good way, though they did great things.

"We thought the war would be over. We wanted to live our own lives, so we chose not to take that last step and join the Knights.” Uuchantuu looked around the watch post with a wry grin. "Obviously, we miscalculated a bit, but neither of us regret it."

Silence took hold of the watch post again for a while. Luuhuuta broke it this time.

"What's your plan? What are we doing that is more than just a raid to keep surviving?"

Uuchantuu smiled and stepped forward, joining the group.

She took a datapad from her side, then knelt down in the middle of the watch post.

“Akseli?” she said, looking to the short, broad-faced Samjati. "You have your blacknodes bright?"

The Samjati man nodded.

Uuchantuu smiled, then brightened her gemcrest. Though she'd memorized it, Uuchantuu looked to the map of the docks on her datapad to make this a bit easier.

She recreated the map in golden light, showing the shape and height of buildings and representations of fighters, boats, shipping containers and other vehicles. Getting it right had taken a few hours of practice even with the foundation of Aiteperit's teachings, but as the others leaned in, Uuchantuu knew it had been worth it.

"That's Djeduu," Edendo breathed.

Uuchantuu nodded. The port city was the only one still inhabited on the subcontinent's northern coast, so the Imaia concentrated a lot of personnel and armaments there, using it as a military outpost instead of just a transfer station for resources and people on their way to and from Darkside.

"This is going to be risky," she said, "but after how things went at Memfoso, it will be the last thing they expect."

"What's the objective?" Araana asked.

Uuchantuu grinned, looking around the group. "We're going to steal fighters, artillery, transports, and a few shipping containers, wipe out their records, and destroy as many of the remaining vehicles as possible on the way out, and some of their magrail. This will be our last raid for a while because of how much disruption it will cause, and we will have to lay low. No more raids, as little travel between the different bases as we can manage, but it will give us more ships. Ones with weapons and better engines and georaural tech."

“That seems a bit out there after we failed so spectacularly at Memfoso,” Muuzuuri said. A few of the others murmured or nodded in agreement.

Uuchantuu was one of them. “It is. But we don’t really have any other options. Estingai needed us to hit the Imaia three more times after Memfoso for her original plan. With the Imaia on high alert after we failed, we only have one chance.” She paused, looking around the group. “We either try something so big the Imaia won’t expect it, or we give up now.

"And what does this plan get us?” Jaran asked. “What will we accomplish by stealing more ships and hitting the Imaia so hard?

"A chance at stealing an even bigger ship."

As eyes widened and a few nervous grins broke out, Uuchantuu knew she had them. Still, she was surprised when Naruuna spoke up. "What's the plan?"

Uuchantuu smiled and looked around the group again.

"I have a rough outline of one, but that won't be enough. This is something we need to come up with together. I know how I would attack this, but I want your approaches. Your perspectives and all of your skills beside your Auroramancy and fighting abilities. I need you to see the things I don't. Edendo?"

Everyone's gaze turned to the pilot.

"You recognize the port. Any ideas?"

Edendo blinked, and his eyes darted around to all those looking at him, but then Jaran took his husband’s hand, and the pilot relaxed.

"I would go for the fighters first…"

As Edendo explained his approach, and those around leaned in and occasionally nodded in agreement, Uuchantuu smiled, excitement building within her.

We can do this.