novelraw Chapter 246 246: The Plan Solidifies
Chapter 246 246: The Plan Solidifies
They decided to go with the plan. It was not the best option, certainly not the most safe or foolproof strategy they could have devised, but it was the only one that felt achievable given the constraints they were working with.
The barren wasteland surrounding the West, the surveillance systems, the automated defenses, the force field itself, all of it conspired to make any conventional approach impossible.
So if they wanted intel on that barrier, they were going to have to do something unconventional.
And this plan, crazy as it was, at least had a chance of working.
"By the way," Riven said suddenly, her tone casual but with some amusement, "We're not the ones risking our lives now, right?"
She looked around at the others, her expression innocent, and then her lips curled into a grin.
The room exploded into laughter.
"Lollllll!" Torvan said, his voice breaking into a roar of genuine, unrestrained laughter. He leaned back in his chair, one hand clutching his stomach, his face flushed with the kind of joy that only came from the realization that you had just successfully delegated all the dangerous parts of a mission to someone else.
Tatehan was grinning too, shaking his head, and even Lyra could not suppress a laugh as she covered her mouth with one hand.
It was true. Torvan would be perfectly safe. He was not going anywhere near the battlefield and was not stepping foot outside his workshop unless it was to grab food or materials. His role was research, analysis and technical support: all of it done from the comfort and safety of Waython Hollow.
And now, with this plan, maybe Tatehan, Riven, and Lyra did not have to risk their lives either. Not directly, anyway.
The super speed guy would be the one doing the actual infiltration, the one hiding in the vehicle, the one making the dash back to safety when things inevitably went sideways. And the battle commander? He was the one driving the vehicle, the one approaching the force field and the one putting himself directly in the Obscuron's line of sight.
In fact, when Tatehan really thought about it, the battle commander was the one taking the biggest risk by far.
The man had been sent on a mission: one that was supposed to solidify the Obscuron's expansion into the North, and he had failed. Not because he was incompetent, not because he had been careless, but because an alliance of cities had descended on his base, destroyed it, captured him, and tortured him until he broke.
And now? Now he was being sent back to the very territory he had failed to protect, carrying a scanning device designed to steal intelligence from the Obscuron's most critical defensive system.
There seemed to be some kind of punishment for failed commanders in the Obscuron's organization. Tatehan did not know the specifics, but the battle commander's absolute terror during the interrogation suggested that failure was not treated lightly.
Maybe commanders who failed were executed. Maybe they were demoted, stripped of rank and thrown into the worst, most dangerous assignments until they either redeemed themselves or died trying. Maybe they were subjected to something worse: experimentation, reprogramming and turned into examples for others.
Whatever the case, the battle commander had to know that returning to the West in disgrace, without his forces, without his base, and in the company of a suspicious vehicle carrying unknown cargo, was almost certainly a death sentence.
Risky as fuck did not even begin to describe it.
But the speed guy? He was practically bulletproof. His entire role was to hide inside the vehicle, stay out of sight, wait for the signal, and then run like hell the moment things went bad. All he had to do was be fast. Faster than the Obscuron's patrols, faster than the automated turrets could track, faster than anyone could react.
And if he was good (if he was really good) then he would not even be at risk.
Just a blur, a shadow, gone before anyone realized what had happened.
Tatehan leaned back in his chair, his grin widening as he thought about it. "Yeah. The speed guy's basically got the easiest job here. Hide, wait, run. That's it."
Lyra nodded. "And if the battle commander cooperates, then we're not even putting our own people in direct danger. Just someone who was already on the enemy's payroll."
Riven tilted her head. "Do you think he'll actually cooperate, though? Or will he try to sabotage the mission the moment he realizes what we're making him do?"
Tatehan shrugged. "I think fear's a pretty strong motivator. We make it clear that he's got two options: help us and maybe live, or refuse and definitely die. And we make sure he knows we're serious."
Torvan, still grinning from the earlier laughter, leaned forward and rested his elbows on the workbench. "Alright, so let's finalize this. We've got the basic structure. Now we need to work out the logistics."
Tatehan nodded, his tone shifting back into something more serious.
"Right. So here's how I see it playing out. We get the battle commander and the speed guy into the vehicle, send them toward the West. But Riven, Lyra, and I don't just sit here waiting. We go too."
Lyra raised an eyebrow. "What? I thought the whole point was that we weren't risking our lives."
"We're not," Tatehan said quickly. "At least, not the same way. We stay far off. Like, really far off. Out of visual range, out of sensor range, way outside the danger zone. We take a Skyblade, or maybe something even faster if we can find it, and we position ourselves far enough away that the Obscuron's forces won't even know we're there."
Riven frowned. "And then what? What's the point of us being there if we're too far away to help?"
"The point," Tatehan explained, "Is that when the speed guy makes his run back, when he's carrying the device and maybe being chased by whatever the Obscuron throws at him, he needs somewhere to run to. We're the extraction point. He sprints to us, we grab him, and then we go sonic speed back to HQ before anyone can follow."
Torvan nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful. "That actually makes sense. You're not there to fight. You're there as insurance. A backup plan in case things go wrong and the speed guy needs help getting out."
"Exactly," Tatehan confirmed. "And if everything goes perfectly, if the speed guy gets in and out clean without anyone noticing, then we never even have to move. We just wait, pick him up, and head home."
Lyra considered that for a moment, and then she nodded. "Alright. I can live with that."
Riven grinned. "So basically, we're the getaway car."
"Pretty much," Tatehan said, grinning back.
He had watched a lot of gateway movies back on Earth, the idea of executing one felt so cool.
They all looked at each other, the pieces of the plan finally falling into place, and then Tatehan raised his hand. "Alright. Let's seal it. We're doing this."
Torvan raised his hand as well, his grin returning. "Hell yeah."
Riven and Lyra followed suit, and then all four of them brought their hands together in a simultaneous high five, the sound echoing through the workshop like a declaration.
As they pulled their hands back, Tatehan glanced at Torvan, and he felt a strange, warm sense of camaraderie settle over him. The guy was usually so secluded, so focused on his work that he barely interacted with anyone outside the workshop. But right now, in this moment, he was social, lively and fully engaged in the planning and the excitement.
It was nice. Really nice.
Tatehan smiled. "Alright. Let's make this happen."