Morgan and Mara exchanged glances.

  The announcement was followed by another requesting all Sector leads, and the meeting would be in ten minutes.

  “I guess I should get going then,” he said.

  “Well,” she replied, giving him a peck on the lips. “You have the time to change the look of that ridiculous armor you are wearing.”

  “Hey,” Morgan said, hand on his chest, overacting his outrage. “I couldn’t actually think of anything better.”

  “You have this awesome new sleeve thing, and your shiny weapon, you need a cool look for your armor as well.”

  “I am guessing that you have some suggestions?”

  “Of course!” she replied, grabbing him around the arm and spinning him towards her bench.

  The bench had a few diagrams of armor designs sketched out on a pad of paper. The sketches were rough shapes and designs for full suits of armor. One page that she handed him had a sleeve that looked suspiciously identical to the one from Annabelle. He held it up and pointed. Mara blushed a bit and grinning said, “I might’ve had a hand in its design.”

  She even thought of adding the helmet. Her designs were very futuristic and gave him the impression of a superhero. He decided on one where the chest piece had the same articulated band appearance as Annabelle’s armguard and commanded his armor to change. Mara clapped, a gleam in her eyes.

  “I love it,” she said, holding up a polished square of metal as a mirror. “The splint mail looks great with the armguard.” He looked in the mirror. It looked much better than his poor samurai impression. He adjusted the colors of the metal bands and material underneath to match the black of his shirt and the blue Aethril. As he was inspecting his new armor, he noticed the welt on his arm where the fang had been now was a slim needle of a sword with a long handle. Placing the Faceless Bastion on his head, he looked at himself. He was imposing without being able to see his face. The smooth black helmet matched the darkness of the armor perfectly.

  A young boy in a red messenger’s cape came running up, panting as he stopped next to them.

  “Ma’am, are you Mara the engineer?”

  “Yes, what can I do for you?”

  “The Commander would like you to attend the meeting with the operators and section leads in the citadel as well.”

  “Very well,” Mara said, thanking the boy. “Guess I need to get ready too.” She checked that her hair was still neatly braided, then brushed off her leather apron. “Let’s go.”

  They met with Frank and Katherine as they were leaving the sector. No one had any idea what the summons was for. As they entered the courtyard in front of the citadel, they merged with a small stream of people entering the gates. Just inside the looming gates was another courtyard. This one had a cluster of chairs and an usher was directing people to their assigned sector seating.

  “Sector?” The usher asked officiously.

  Katherine stepped forward, “Academy Sector.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I only have two names for the Academy. Katherine and Frank.”

  “I am Katherine, and this is Frank.” She said, pointing. “These…”

  Mara interjected. “I’m Mara, the engineer. The commander wanted to see me, and this is Warden.”

  “Oh,” The man was startled. He gave Morgan a quick once-over. “Sorry Sir. We haven’t met.”

  “Not a problem. I’m kind of new here.” The man nodded once.

  “The Academy seats are Bravo 6 and 7,” he pointed over to the front of the stage. “You have a seat on the stage near the commander,” he said, showing Mara. “Warden is with the other Operators on the far left of the stage. Thank you.” Then he was marking his sheet and walking past them to the next group.

  “We’ll catch up later, lad,” Frank said, escorting Katherine through the seats.

  Morgan and Mara walked together up to the stage, then she left him with a thank you and walked over to Commander Burns. The older woman no longer had books constantly delivered to her. She greeted Mara with a handshake and gave a small nod to Morgan as he walked past to the side. There was a small section of chairs right beside the stage. In this section there were already three other people. An older, wiry man in dark gray leather armor with a pair of slender daggers at his hips lounged in the first chair. He had long, dark hair tied back in a red hairband, framing his scarred and pockmarked face. Behind him, a woman with long, blonde hair wearing a thick suit of metal armor, leaned on the handle of a gigantic war hammer, talking to another woman wearing a leather skirt and a stylized leather cuirass with wings on it. It looked like she had been pulled directly from a movie about Amazons. They stopped talking and turned to him as he walked up. Both women were sweaty and panting as they talked to each other.

  “Here’s a new one,” the man said, standing. His voice was a harsh whisper grating over his vocal chords. “Haven’t seen you around.”

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  “I only got here two days ago.” Morgan replied, walking past the man to the open chairs. “I’m Warden.”

  “Reaper,” the man said with a nod. “I heard about you. You’re that nut who killed the wyverns with Remy.” He held out his hand.

  “Guilty,” Morgan said, shaking the man’s hand.

  “Welcome, Warden. I am Valkyrie,” the amazon woman said. “This is Crusher.” The blonde woman gave a small curtsy, Impressive in plate armor, then grabbed the handle of the massive hammer and swung it onto her shoulder. “Pardon the sweat. We were training when we got the call.”

  “Am I Late?” a deep voice asked from behind him. Morgan turned. Remington stood there with a huge grin on his face. “Was beginning to think I dreamed up that night with you flying around. Was looking for you, but no one knew where you were. Didn’t recognize ya with that badass armor, and that helmet. Damn brother.”

  “It wasn’t a dream. I would have been plastered all over the bottom of the wall if you hadn’t caught me.” Morgan said, shaking the large man’s hand. Then, looking down at the armor, “I was just going to watch that night, wasn't really planning on jumping in.”

  “Ha…” Remy let out a barking chuckle. “Jumping in, he says… jumping” Remy dissolved into chuckles as he picked up the chair, looking like a toy in his giant hands. He set it back down, disapproval written on his face.

  A gavel was struck on the stage. “Please take your seats. We will start in one minute.”

  There were murmurs as people showed up and were hastily directed to their seats.

  Morgan sat next to Reaper, who smelled of rusty metal, and the two women sat at the end. Valkyrie had a large shield and spear at her side. Remy was large, so sitting in the small chairs was uncomfortable. He just stood at the back of the section.

  Burns stepped up to the podium. She spoke into a small stone, which amplified her voice to fill the courtyard. “Welcome. I’m sure you are wondering why you were called here. I had planned to make this announcement at a later date, but circumstances have forced my hand.” Someone in the audience raised their hand. “I see your hand, Percy. We will answer all questions at the end.” The hand slowly went down.

  Burns cleared her throat and then continued, “We will be changing the governance structure of the Citadel. Currently, the Army has been in control of everything. Taking guidance from our forefathers, we will establish a representative body. Each Sector will have two elected representatives. They will also be given several reps based on total population.” There were some murmurs as people talked amongst themselves. “Now, now, please listen. This will not take effect immediately. I just wanted to make you aware of the implementation.” The noise quieted down. “How we vote is still being finalized. But it will happen in a week. In addition to your representatives, we will also vote for a Governor to oversee the entire Citadel.”

  The voices now reached a quiet crescendo as people whispered to their neighbors. The Commander banged the gavel twice. “But that was not the reason I called this meeting.” She said, waiting for the noise to die down. “We received a messenger. A carrier group is stranded dead in the water off the coast. They lost all electronics, just like we did. That means engines, navigation, everything. There are roughly five thousand Sailors and Marines limping through the Atlantic. At half rations, they have another two weeks of food. We will perform a recovery operation. What the recovery operation consists of will be determined directly after this. Just be aware that I may ask for volunteers in the next few hours.”

  She looked out over the crowd. “Now, if you will excuse me, My deputy will try to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.” Stepping away from the podium, she left the stage, motioning to Mara and the operators to follow her.

  In addition to the operators and Mara, three other Soldiers walked from the group. In the war room, there was a thin boy, Morgan’s age, who leaned over a small table in the corner, shoveling food from a plate into his mouth. He had on a tattered marine uniform and huge dark bags under his eyes. As Burns entered, he jumped up, standing rigid.

  “Carry on, Marine,” Burns said. Then she indicated that everyone should sit at the large table.

  “The situation is bleak. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it,” Burns said. “There are five ships out there. Corporal Nolan,” Burns pointed to the Marine who looked up from his plate of food. “Was dispatched by the Captain of the carrier after they determined this wasn't going to be a temporary thing.” She sat down heavily in her chair. “He is able to transform into a bird. It was four days of non-stop flying for him to get to the coast, and another two days to find the Citadel. Did I miss anything?” She turned, looking at the Marine.

  “No, Ma’am, other than the pebble.”

  “Oh, yes, of course. He had this,” She held up a small stone angled on one side and rounded on the other. “It acts as a compass, pointing to its other half on the ship. We will launch a large vessel from the harbor with the help of our lead engineer.” She pointed to Mara, who gave a small nod to everyone. “She will create one of her steam engines to move the ship, to help take out supplies and possibly help bring back the survivors.”

  “What I need from you are ideas and solutions.”

  Morgan asked Sophia.

  She responded.

  Morgan raised his hand. With a small nod, Burns pointed to Morgan. “Warden, what do you have for us?”

  “Well,” Morgan started, paused, then steeled himself. “I think if we could get a kiosk out to the ships, that would help provide them with food and water until we can get a ship to them.”

  “Great idea,” Burns said, “but Nolan cannot fly like that again for a few days at least. He was… is a skeleton.”

  “I can… basically fly. If I need to take out a kiosk, I will.” He glanced at Mara. She gave him a slight nod.

  “Does anyone else have thoughts or ideas?” Burns asked.

  “What about the rest of us?”

  “Three other operatives are currently engaged in the city in rescue operations. I will reach out to them to see if they have any input before we execute any further operations. Remington, it is always good to have you on the walls amplifying the archers. I would like to keep you there as much as possible.” She sat thinking for a minute. “I don’t have a better idea. I thought having a steamboat retrieve them was the best plan. Warden’s is a faster solution. We will still need to send a boat. Corporal Nolan said there are large sea creatures and flying monsters in the oceans. I will probably want to send at least one operative with the steamboat.”

  She addressed Morgan, “How soon will you be ready to leave? And are you one hundred percent sure you can fly thousands of miles?”

  “I can leave im…” He had almost said immediately. But glancing at Mara, he changed it. “I can leave in an hour. Maybe sooner, just need to get my gear ready.”

  “If we give him the stone,” Valkyrie said. “How will we be able to find them with the steamboat?” Everyone looked at each other for a moment.

  Sophia said.

  Morgan relayed the plan. Burns was not entirely convinced, but it was better than doing nothing.

  “Very well, go get your gear ready. We will send you as soon as possible. Unless anyone else has some input, this meeting is over.”