Once all of the forces were accounted for and any fallen soldiers recovered, The Red Merle warped into deep space where nothingness lies. An area of peace and harmony for Astral to reorganize everything.
Once the hawkeye emptied. Astral and Jaimie walked Cali to the med bay where the members of the disbanded project valor lie in hospital beds outside of Indy. He was helping Doctor Anders with their treatment. The Medical ward was filled with wounded clones as the three entered.
Cali looked over as the team that he knew and loved was injured in front of his face. Falling to his knees in front of their beds he sighed. "Apologies will never be enough for what me and Tex did to you, I am just happy you survived." Indy walked over, sending a hard punch down onto the jaw of Cali, knocking him onto the ground.
Astral extended his hand out as a sign to not push it and let the man continue. Indy looked at the man. "How much of it do you know, the destruction, the reasoning by no protection?" Indy was fuming as Anders tugged on his arm to have him help with Utah's vitals.
Cali sat back up as he nodded. "Tex knew he was going to be the scapegoat of civilization. The government pinned the blame on him for not holding the line. He intentionally did what he did to make it look like the US was weaker to spare more lives." Cali spit out a tooth before continuing.
"I found out what was happening while in safety, anger filled me as our government let us down. I tried to keep you supplied as possible and due to the man behind me. We managed to save many lives." Airsoft had stood in the doorway for a bit at this point.
"He reached out and said I had the manpower to save everyone. True, but it did cost me all of my favors for a majority of the people I knew. Still the best use of my favors." Looking over to Nevada and Minnesota. "I'll take the apology later."
Cali stood up. "Whatever punishment that is bestowed apon me is mine and mine alone, I have to live with the knowledge that I costed our team's lives and so, so many others." Astral nodded to Jaimie to help the wounded as Airsoft went to tend with his men.
"None of us will ever forgive you." Nevada looked up speaking to his leader.
"I will never expect you to, or respect you if you were to forgive my crimes." Cali spoke as he turned his head away and started walking as Astral guided him. Followed loosely by Proto and Omaha.
Carolina looked at the others. "What do we do now?"
"It's your choice, you can help us out or retire back into civilian life." Jaimie spoke as she was wrapping a bandage around a clone. "We can use all the help for captains across the top level if that helps convince you." Jaimie wasn't worried either way as she moved down the medical bay to help others.
Astral stood in the middle of a clear white room with Cali sitting down in a chair. "This is your cell for the rest of eternity."
Cali shook his head and was confused by it all as the room felt weird. "What is this place?"
"Glad you asked? It's only going to get worse for you the more you think about it." Astral pointed to the table. "Water and food will be there for the day. As for what makes this place special, you won't feel the passing of time." Astral watched the horror on Cali's face turn to wonder.
"What does that mean for me?" He asked as he wondered what this was. Some sort of magic beyond human comprehension?
"Well, for now due to the laws of one of my spells, nothing. There may be a use for you later down the line in life." Astral walked to the edge as he was halfway through as he tilted his head back. "Oh, and if I come back it'll feel like it's been a trillion years, even if it hasn't." Astral's head vanished before Cali.
"An eternity alone, forever and ever. I deserve it." He laid down across the floor and closed his eyes, tears flowed from each side as he realized where he messed up, reliving each misstep.
Astral floated among the core. He sealed someone in here, as their own private prison, and due to the gravity, it should properly mess with the perception of time even more along with the spell. Astral would enter the hyperlane and make his way to the bridge. Looking around he smiled as Adam stood there.
"How is my warrior of man doing?" Adam's arms were outstretched as Astral walked over to be slapped by Alexa.
"Rude." Astral spoke to his companion as he looked back at Adam. "So, what are the current reports looking like? Wounded, dead, vehicles and armor lost?" Astral walked over to the holo table as Alexa waved a hand as it popped up.
"Troop wise we started with ten thousand. Including the commanding officers and Zane, the death toll was a staggering four thousand. The twins had two thousand men die on them, with another one thousand and three hundred wounded. Sal and Jax only had one thousand and five hundred." Alexa showed the numbers as each name flashed.
"The other half of Sal and Jax's unit was injured outside of thirty." Astral looked at the screen, Zane walked in and started to read the numbers. "Five hundred died under Jaimie's watch with only three hundred injured." Astral and Zane both perked up a bit at hearing this information, happy that one of them knew how to command.
"Astral technically did the best, after inheriting the remnants of humans, only eight of the Dogpound members were wounded, and not one was killed between the fireteams he found and the dogpound." Astral smiled.
Astrid ran to the table. "The ship count lost was only seventy in space and thirty in atmosphere! All commanded by me, which is thanks to your computing until we get staff to run the ships individually."
"Why would we do that if you did so well?" Astral asked as she froze.
"Well, that much computing over a long enough period could corrupt her files. Out of all of the AI's she has the most to prevent that." Shiro chimed in as Astral patted her on the head. Zane spun around a chair and sat down. His clones did good but at what cost?
"So we need more people, is what you are saying?" Astral asked as the three AI's nodded their heads.
"Could we speed up the cloning by diversifying the clone genome rather than just me?" Zane asked. He felt defeated, like he didn't do his job as a trainer to have four thousand die and three thousand injured.
Astral looked over to his friend. "It would diversify the army, alongside that, and the recruits that your men brought on. We could do really well with it." Astral walked over resting a hand on Zane's. "Your forces did well, sadly while being outnumbered, it was harder to control the situation. Be proud you led a force of a thousand to beat a force of millions."
Zane nodded as Airsoft walked in. "Fireteam's Wolf and Falcon are ready to be screened as clone candidates. As for the volunteer forces, they are signing up in droves. The Australians and Americans especially."
"Thank you, how is the medbay holding up?" Astral asked as Proto and Omaha walked through.
"Well, between the nurses and doctors volunteering, the medical robots, Jaimie, Anders and Indy, all of them are expected to be out of recovery in anywhere from one week to a couple of months." He answered as a tablet was placed in his hand from Proto.
"Good, I am going to make a speech to the civilian masses, I would be pleased for you three to join me." Turning to Zane. "You don't have a choice, you will be by my side." He grabbed Zane's wrist as they started moving. Zane got to his feet and stumbled through it all until they left.
Once they left, Adam looked over to Shiro. "So, how many clones are ready? We have three thousand available and three thousand wounded."
"Thirty thousand, and we are projected for one hundred thousand a day until capacity across staff and ground forces are filled." Shiro responded.
"As for the sign ups and volunteers. What are we looking at right now?" Adam asked. While Shiro cracked a smile.
"Around one million, the medbay is filled with many nurses and doctors, roughly five thousand of each of those. And as for normal civilians rescued? Five million." She spoke swinging her legs on the table.
"Astrid, you have a ship prediction of when we will cap out?" Adam asked as Astral stood on the podium.
"Well, two million carriers, corvettes and battleships. With ten million fighters, we are at half of a percent." Astrid showed a diagram. Smiling, she sat on the couch at the deck to watch the speech.
Proto, Omaha and Airsoft stood to his right as Zane stood to his left. "Hello everyone!" His voice boomed over everyone as they heard him clear as day. "I would like to keep things simple. If any of you want to sign up and join the army of this great battle station, we are taking applicants to the building in the corner." Astral pointed as a light cyan beam ignited it for all to see.
"As for the rest of you who do not wish for conflict and will enjoy the peace of the otherworldly tech before you. Continue on with life as you see fit." Astral took a breath, this felt amazing. "You have the liberties to pursue any passion and goal you put your mind to, life life to its fullest." The crowd began to cheer as Astral waved to his friends that it was time to go.
Once out of earshot Zane asked. "Will the spell affect them?"
"No, but we have a bigger task at hand, finding an army that will." Astral commented as the trio looked confused. "For now, we take down the Sacramentum, the side project is the other piece of the army."