MickeyAdaptus

Jack looked at Maple a bit confused. "Well, it does burn a bit, but I don't think its that bad, I mean, I have been stabbed, burned, shot, at one point my legs had been burned to the point where they had gotten paralyzed for a long time, surely this wound doesn't compare?" Jack said to her, not realising that for all they knew he could now be infected. "I am glad you are here, but it isn't over yet, atleast I think, there could still come more, this was a bit small for what you would normally encounter." Jack said to Evelyn. He then climbed from her tail straight onto her back and placed himself on the saddle. Jack did put a strong grip on his arms on the saddle, and placed his legs tightly around it, in order to get a good grip on the wind.

Well, it was one heck of a *switch* alright! Haha, eh.... bad pun there Anyway, i sadly don't own a nintendo switch, but one of my friends does and he showed me Zelda breath of the wild, and i have to say, the console itself plays very smooth it seems as far as i have seen.

When Maple had knocked them on the ground, he fired his spell, a strong magical blast impacted straight into the pile of infected, incinerating all of them, which was very effective it seemed. He stood there panting, no longer keeping focus on his surroundings. "That takes care of that... We still have to watch out, I can't say for sure if they have all spotted us or if these happened to just wander by..." Jack said a bit absently. He looked at his wound, it was still giving off a dark yellow vibe, which didn't look good. Jack gave a deep sigh and covered it with his hand, but suddenly his ear twitched, and he heard something in the distance, which made him tense up, he did not know what it was, but at this point he was just not able to identify it with the sandstorm going on, which he was already busy with not being blown off his feet by the wind again.

"Got it!" He said to Maple and started to look closely at what she was doing. After a few moments, he realised what she was doing to do for the most part, and knew it would take long to group them all up by just herself. Using this moment when they were not attacking him, he started small spells of magic that were meant to force someone back, he didn't have to use alot of magic in these as the sandstorm was giving the necessary boost that he needed. He managed to blow back atleast 2 of the infected with his spell. "Alright, whenever you have rounded them up, I will fire my spell!" He told her. Jack clenching both of his fists as he started gathering magic in them, for a moment he was focusing, but then the sharp burning of the wound on his shoulder forced him out of his focus. But he was not going to give up, focusing his body to his very limits, he focused on the spell while the pain was still going on. "Please hurry! I can't hold this for long!" He called out to Maple, as he knew he would lose his focus after 12 seconds.

"I can't use telepathy via my own magic but... I know a way which doesn't require magic..." Jack said quickly. He then stabbed the infected he had been fighting straight in the head. 'Evelyn, we are in trouble, a group of infected had started attacking me and Maple, we are surrounded, I can't say for sure whether they had spotted us and send these infected to us or if they just happened to be around here during the sandstorm. If you could come help us or send help, please hurry!' He thought to her with big desperation. As he was done thinking, he didn't have much time to react as an infected was about to attack him from behind again. Knowing he wouldn't be able to turn around and react fast enough, he headbutted the infected with the back of his own head and then taking the opportunity to finish the infected off while it staggered. The wound on his shoulder was giving off a burning pain, the colour of the wound itself had gotten a dark yellow and light orange mixed colour, which didn't look good, but Jack decided to bite through the pain and carry on regardless. 'Geez, I better hope that the colour is not what I think it is..' he thought. "I contacted Evelyn, I figured this was the right call as me and her's thoughts are connected, and we can locate each other's life forces, by extension each other's location, so I presume she will either will try to get help, which will take longer, or ends up coming to help us, either way, they know what is going on!" Jack said to her as he walked closer and then shot a magical blast to one of the approaching infected.

"I am alright, it is just this one time I wish I wasn't so light weighted, barely eating really is at fault there." Jack replied. The main group was still moving, but not at a fast pace, more trying to stay together rather than to take up the pace faster. But Jack suddenly heard something. "Hold it... I can hear something, it is feint, and with this sandstorm is hard to listen..." he said. "LOOK OUT!!" He suddenly screamed as an infected suddenly jumped at her, it had not able to been detected due to the sandstorm, and it was not capable of seeing them through the normal means of eyes, however... it had found them in a rather known fashion, they had smelled Jack's blood, which was still there from where he had burned his the fur on his left hand and had reopened a bit during his training. The infected jumped on Maple's back and started clawing at her plating, it was not having much success of breaching it, but that did not mean it was incapable, they where the unpredictable creature's after all. Jack reacted fast and shot an magical blast at the creature, blowing it off her, however, after he did that, a infected slashed him across the shoulder, it then tackled him to the ground, but was both Jack and the infected where blown away by the wind, wich did work a bit in Jack's favor at that moment. They where getting attacked from around 14 of them, who had been sent in the sandstorm as shock troopers, and scouts at the same time. 'Damn it, this is just great!' Jack thought. He then jumped at the infected who had attacked him earlier and started slashing at it like a wildman.

"Yes I am, just returned after my latest assignment, but I am still a bit of a rookie here." Ajax replied with a laugh. 'How am I going to work this out?' he thought. 'Hmmm, I might perhaps have to hope that she ends up leaving, or at least walks out of sight, if not, I might have to look for another.' "So, what is it that you do around here? I haven't seen you before." Ajax asked her

Jack nodded "I guess we will see what happens, if only it all turns alright." He said. Karthspire held up a bit, mentioning for everyone to be quiet for a moment. He stared into the distance, listening for any sounds, the mechanical stomping in the sand started to grow a bit louder. "NOW!!" He yelled as he drew his pistol and started running straight ahead, into the coming sandstorm, everyone followed him in there. It was a very strong wind, most would almost be blown off their feet by the sheer force of it, except for the ones who had a more stronger grip, in which the Dragons excelled. Jack at one point got blown off Luna's back and got thrown a couple of meters into the direction the wind was blowing, his very lightweight was now proving to be his weak point. But he was not the only one, others had problems with this too, but most would just lose their balance or at the very worst tumble back a 2 meters. He managed to regain his balance at one point and planted his feet thoroughly into the sand, attempting to hold a grip on it. 'Where is everyone?' he thought Deciding that it was not worth standing around while everyone else was moving, he decided to move forth as well, with alot of effort but managed bit by bit. he then realised he might have gotten further away from the group. 'This is just great...' He thought with a growl.

Karthspire nodded. "Of course, you aren't exactly considering a simple plan, you are in theory saying that you want to blow yourself up to take thing a big war machine, normally that would sound rather extreme unless you would want to die, but you do have a reason for considering doing something like that." Karthspire admitted. "Still that is not meant in a bad way, rather a heroic one if you ask me, but do not worry, that will be a final solution." He reassured her. Jack shifted a bit until he opened his eyes and shifted his head a bit towards Maple's direction. "I heard the plan, I was lucky to already be mildly awake when you told me of your plan, and I do have to say, that is a rather extreme last end solution Maple, Even though you are getting a new body soon, it still seems a bit hardcore that you are throwing away your robot body so willingly, even if it might not happen, still... the idea that you are even considering this, but then again i shouldn't be talking here, i have been similiar things in the past alot, even if they have failed, i still attempted them." Jack said. "But i do have to ask you this first before I agree, how would i join you in this, going on foot is really out of the questions, and no offense here Maple, but if I would be sitting on your back i wouldn't feel very safe, you fly a bit too fast with those yet engines of yours, those things aren't really meant for passengers. I feel it is important to mention, i have already discussed the safety topic with Evelyn and she wouldn't be very happy if i end up getting hurt like that, especially from something that could have been prevented." Jack mentioned. 'And here i am talking about safety, yet back in my surviving days, i treated safety like it was just another thing would just flow along what I did. I just hope they really think about a way to keep it safe, and i mean by everything in general, i can remember that time when i was shot in the chest and they where to focused on Fluttershy to notice that, and Festus being the hero that he is by literly *slapping* some sense in them, i cannot imagine how angry Luna would have been if she had seen me just bleeding there, she be furious without a doubt.' Jack thought.

Karthspire thought for a moment, and then he responded. "Well, I would like to hear your plan, and I do think Jack could help." He gave a quick glance to Luna. "He seems to be sleeping at the moment, but you could try to waking up, not sure if it is appropriate, but I doubt he would be capable of sleeping through a sandstorm." Karthspire mentioned.

I disagree with that, my cousin's name is Robert and many don't think of his name like that, infact many seems to like it

"That plan does sound good in theory, it would surely aid us if they have one less of those things," Karthspire said. "However, there are some problems, first comes the problem with getting inside, those things have no form of entrance since it is too big to even be capable of manned by a crew. This would mean it acts in a similar way as a drone, and then comes the problem with its armor itself, it is very strong, should someone be able to penetrate it, it won't really matter much because you would be spending around 2 hours to get deep enough, a time that you don't have when in the thick of battle." "And with freezing, that is a rather hard gamble, on most machines it would work, but on this one I doubt it, if you look at its bulk, its size and heigh, you would be spending so much magic freezing that thing, while all it would take for that thing to get free is apply a bit more force, and all of your efforts would be for naught" "And here comes the most important one, we don't want to get spotted like at all, my reason for going trough the sandstorm is so that they won't spot us, because if they do spot us, they will be following us, and lets just say should we by some reason be able to take out that strike force and that warmachine, it wouldn't garantee our safety at all, then they know we are traveling with a masive army, and are aware we are going to siege something, they will keep attacking us to a point where we no longer have enough soldiers in order to carry out the assault on that conversion center." He explained. "But at the same time, let's just say if we end up getting spotted while in the sandstorm because one of us got lost or did something that draws their attention, then we need a backup plan, and that is where your plan can come into play Because if we are spotted, then we no longer have a reason to go trough the sandstorm in the first place, tough instead of trying to destroy it, you 3 might rather want to distract that Machine, I will send out some of my troops to stall that vanguard that surrounds the machine itself." "I wouldn't recommend using ice on that thing though like I said, won't slow it down due to its size, hit and run attacks are better to do for you 3 against such a thing. I will have to tell you this, the war machine's rockets fire in a mortar swoop rather than straight, I would advise you to tell your friends to fly above cloud level and stay there, higher if need be, because that is where the war machine cannot hit them, on the ground however... you can consider your friends dead once that thing fires its payload, not even that sandstorm will save them from it, if you care about their safety, head that advice, because it will become a warzone ones fighting erupts against them." He mentioned, knowing how dangerous it will become. He then looked into the distance. "We have got about 6 minutes left, Do I need to know anything specific, something about your friends? If you feel like something is important to mention now is the time." Karthspire said.

Jack was too tired to ask any further, or be aware of what was going on for that matter, and close his eyes again, normally he would have gotten up and checked his surrounding, but he was now sleeping on something so soft that he really didn't want to get up. Karthspire looked her with intrigue "I am interested in the sound of that, and always open for ideas, so please do tell." He told Celestia. It was busy among the large group itself as soldiers where all muttering and talking to each other while preparing themselves at the same time.

"I am afraid we don't have much choice regarding the sandstorm, if there is one of those war machines around, you can bet they have a good army around it. And then for the matter when they spot us, we have a very large army, they will send in reinforcements when they size of what we currently have, retreating in the desert is not easy because of the terrain. This sandstorm is big enough to hide all of us, it is our only way getting past this obstacle without turning it into a slaughter." Karthspire said with a sigh. "But you are right regarding the escape plan, sadly there isn't much we can escape to, its all desert around us, our best bet is staying close together and guard all our flanks, we keep moving forward, while our enemies can't see us and get lost in the sandstorm." "We just have to stay together, not going out of formation, and if necessary, cover the less capable ones from the sandstorm. I admit, going through a sandstorm is dangerous, but it is far safer then throwing ourselves into an avoidable battle that won't get us anywhere if I can preserve lives I take that chances." "Everyone should get ready now, I will give the signal once we can move, spread the word around!" He called out to everyone, but he knew there was no other option as far as he knew in this situation. Jack suddenly woke up from all the sounds that were going on. "Huh, what is going on?" Jack asked Luna half asleep.

'Hmm, yes it does, while I personally think you are calling is perhaps not leading entire armies, but I think what you would be more suited at is leading small individual teams, who is capable of sabotage missions, infiltration, or performing separate attacks during an invasion. From what you told me, you would act really good in such task, and from what i can remember of Jack's memories, the, what was it called... Nightguard is mainly a night operation force am i correct? If so, then you should already have a fair amount of experience regarding these things i mentioned.' 'And even if that doesn't work, leading doesn't necessarily mean having command over others, but being part in one of those operation teams already has an act of leading, not only are you performing your task, you also need to lookout for your teammates as well, i have done this before a good amount of times, and i can assure you, you will end up leading your teammates even without realising in the thick of combat, it is up to you if this appeals, i am going to teach you regardless, but while you are here, you might want to think about it, since its not we who could use the help, but all those out there, the main reason why i still am fighting to this very day.' He said. ' I sadly cannot teach you completely until i got my own body, but along the way i can give some good pointers, who knows. But anyways, i cannot talk much further, apparently, Jack is sleeping and it is interfering with my own thoughts, so I need to keep it short here, just think about what I said, once i got my body, we have deal. I will speak to you soon.' Kiran said as then after that his voice faded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Karthspire was standing there for a while until he suddenly called to everyone. "Listen up Everyone, a massive strike force of our enemies are nearing us, we cannot risk attacking them because the casualties would be enourmes, and what is worse, they are being accompanied by a massive warmachine, wich means we need to move fast, before it can spot us, they are still about 10 minutes away, but i need everyone to gather up, there is a sandstorm nearby, we will be using that as a means to cloak ourselves and to make sure they don't spot a single one of us, so stick togheter and follow my lead once i give the signal. Gather everyone around!" He called out, concern could be heard in his voice.

'I think it is a bit of a shame if she decides that, a machine is strong and alot more durable then flesh, yes, but it can never grow physically stronger, unlike a body who can develop over time and grow stronger and increase its muscle size by training. At first, the body will be weaker than the machine, but given enough time and fighting, it can even become stronger than her current mechanical body, not an easy feat to accomplish, but not impossible. And from what I know about her, she wishes to become stronger than her enemies.' He said. 'And i do need to know this specific thing, is she capable of leading things or does she want to start leading? Those are 2 different things, wanting is something else then having a neck for it, by what she is saying, it doesn't sound very reassuring by that she tends to fight alone against her enemies like that, leading requires teamwork, and with teamwork you usually are togheter. I think she sounds more like a solo type of fighter rather then an a commanding leader, from my perspective that is, i can know, because i work solo myself. I can learn her how to lead but it will really depend on how well it will work out in the end. In some societies, leaders are chosen by strength and success, but i fint that kind of approach a waste, better have a leader that is chosen for his/her capabilities of tactics and planning rather than accomplishments and overall strength in the battlefield.' 'To be honest, i am not even sure in wich of those 2 Karthspire was chosen by, he is a tactical expert, i admit that, but given his overall past the strength part might also be there...' 'I think i would require to hear her answer first before i can do anything.'

'You was of course not there when Jack was talking with Maple, but he already told her about me, in fact, I am planning on teaching her, and it seemed a rather good start for me to begin here. But you can tell her anyways, although my better answer is, tell her that I also vote and encourage her to get that new body, a metal body like she has now is an extremely good thing to have on the battlefield, but is not exactly the most appealing thing to have when it comes to sociality. I do, however, need to explain her a few things if she ends up doing it.' He thought to her.

"Thanks, I may be tuckered out for a pretty long while, I don't sleep often but when I do I can sleep really long." Jack said with a smile as he made himself comfortable, resting his head on her right wing. He fell asleep after only 5 minutes, which meant it working alot better than sleeping on bare ground. 'Yo, Evelyn, did Maple wanted to speak with me? If she wants, could you relay my messages to her? If anything, now is a good time if you guys are talking about that body thing.' Kiran's voice suddenly said.