The Everlast came out of speedspace, it docked in its hangar of the Red Merle as everyone unloaded from the ship. Jaimie shooed away the Dog Pound by having them show around the Peons. Fireteam Falcon and Wolf made sure the clones were safe and emptied the hangar as Fireteam Angel kept everything organized.
As per the request of Astral two tables were set up. James and Angel were playing with Indy's kids as his wife watched in amusement. Airsoft sat at the one table alone as Astrid stood next to Zeta. Once the hangar was clear Astral looked at his mech as Jaimie sat down next to Airsoft.
"Why the private meeting?" Airsoft asked Jaimie as she shrugged.
"You read the library and are up to speed on who we are?" She asked and glared at him softly. He nodded as Astral put on new arms onto Zeta with relative ease. Indy embraced his family as they smiled seeing their dad. The warmth of that filled Astral with glee.
Astral sat down at one of the empty chairs next to Jaimie. "Indy, you are the elephant in the room, your family is here and I have to explain something. We have a spell that stops aging in place right now for select members of our military." Indy sat down at the table as his kids sat in his lap.
"Meaning your kids will age and you wouldn't if you choose to, we didn't apply it to anyone outside of this room, oh and Zane. If you want we can affect your entire family or you can become an officer of a high rank and once you get too old for active combat. Move into a strategist type role." Astral went on as the twins twisted their heads over.
"I see, what about the rest of the Dog Pound? Is there any chance or time soon they will be affected?" Indy asked as the kids looked up in awe. Airsoft and Jaimie nodded no.
"We are forcing them under the spell eventually, Airsoft's fireteams are all getting questioned after our vacation. We are taking a three month break before we travel anywhere that has active combat." Astral explained to them.
"So, if you don't have a decision right now, you have until then to confirm, and we can pretend when we ask the rest of your fireteam that it's your first time hearing it." Indy nodded agreeing with that statement. "This is a family matter, hence why I asked the misses to be here with you as well." Indy smiled as Astral was being as thoughtful as possible as Adam and Achilles came barging in.
"So, seeing how these two entered, you can leave if you want. Enjoy time with your family Indy." Astral extended his hand as Indy shook it. His family walked out of the door that Adam and Achilles came from, taking their spots.
"So you filled him in like how I filled in Airsoft?" Astral pointed to the man next to him.
"I have other issues right now, we still need a way to defend the earth still, and besides that we need more leaders." Adam spoke.
"Besides, why do you want me? Just for my people or because of me?" Achilles followed.
"One at a time. Adam, the earth solar system has a passcode to enter, if not, the peon's, earth and polemistis can help along with us. I still need to teach these two to not tap into their energy and into their aura as their first response. And the more leaders?" Astral leaned back in his chair.
"You have three more Adam, Proto and Omaha read everything in there besides the battle tournament. I held that from them." Airsoft spoke. "They will follow me to the ends of the universe, if I tell them to lead their own armies they can, they don't work well together unless I tell them to, splitting them up is the best move." He pulled up battle reports of the two and handed it to Adam.
"Achilles, your people will follow whoever is more powerful, in their eyes it's still you, use that to your advantage, there is so much potential with you and we can untap that." Jaimie spoke to him. "During our fight you seemed to only improve the more it went on until you were knocked out fully."
"So you think I can become one of you three being able to beat gods?" Achilles asked Jaimie as his tone was harsh.
"No, they are hoping we can handle everyone below the magical tier, just the ones who use special abilities, not the ones with broken ass magic." Airsoft defended the two of them.
"Why are we here?" James asked as they all turned to him.
"Using our aura vs our energy is a choice we make at the moment, using our aura allows for a higher ceiling, but our energy has an immediate impact without sacrificing our aura for defense." Angel pointed at Astral as she wagged her finger. "It's why I choose that against Alice since my aura would have dipped beneath halfway."
"But one of our abilities is the regeneration of aura. Prestack and rely on that!" Astral spoke as the two looked over at each other. Both wondering why they haven't done that. "Oh you have got to be kidding me. Neither of you two thought of that?"
"Why would we, it seemed like a waste, adding to our aura didn't seem to do much." James explained to Astral.
"Sure, not on a surface level, but in stamina fights where you have to fight for hours and not minutes it will make an immediate impact." Astral showed them a chart of what happens with their stacks and aura regeneration with projections.
"So, earth is defended, those two know how to use their abilities correctly and we are getting more leaders? Achilles do you have anything to add?" Adam handed Jaimie a notebook as she started to read through his notes.
"I challenge you to a duel, Astral." Achilles spoke with such conviction.
"Deal, right now with this as your audience?" Astral looked over taking a sip of his tea.
"If I win, we go back to my planet and my people can go back to their normal life." Achilles voice was demanding.
"If I win, you become a servant of the station till you can usurp me? Meaning you would fall under the time spell, halting your already slowed aging." Astral added in his part as he extended his hand.
"Deal. Begin" Achilles shook his hand as he pulled Astral to him. Lifting him over the table as Astral twisted his arm. Pinning him to the ground in one move, Achilles was immobilized as he tried to struggle out.
"We will go on vacation shortly, I recommend asking Shiro about the training room." Astral spoke as Achilles tapped out. "As for you Adam, send a message to all facility staff, three month vacation starting tomorrow." Adam nodded.
"That should give us plenty of time to work on these new additions and upgrades Adam has here." Jaimie tossed the notebook to Astral who caught it.
"I will be better than you someday." Achilles walked off to talk to Shiro.
"Well isn't this familiar?" Astrid chimed in.
"How have the combat programs been doing?" Astral looked behind him as he read the pages of the notebook. Adam is waiting for his approval.
"Really well, we suffered no casualties and our ships were not damaged unlike someone else's." Astrid blew a raspberry at Adam who growled at her.
"Hey, he lost none of his forces either. Adam, this notebook looks really good, give it to Alexa, and she could start the rollout of all of this." Astral stood up.
"James, Angel, come up to the bridge with us, you need to meditate and reflect inwards before we go on vacation." Jaimie waved her hand for the two of them to follow her, Adam and Astral as Zeta and Astrid took off for the bridge.