Order of Magnitude

LV. This is It

      General Carlisle nodded his head, and dismissed his scouts. This was it, the time had come for war. Deep down, Carlisle hated having to put his army in danger. Even though he had only been leader of the Lost for a little while, and even though he never truly felt at home in this place, he had come to care about these parvs. But he could never forgive himself if he didn't at least try something.

      "They're on the move," Carlisle said to Turner and Chandra. "They're heading for the hospital, Edison is with them."

      "Is he alright?" Turner asked.

      "He's not going along willingly, it seems, but he appears to be alive. Knowing what they do, they'll be careful with him. For now, at least."

      "If I get my hands on Jacques..."

      "There's no time for that now. We have to call our army together. Dana?"

      "Yes, sir?"

      "Get everybody to the training area. It's a big open space, it should be big enough to hold us all." Dana started to leave, and Carlisle called after her: "I do mean everybody, now!"

      "Is it going to be enough?" Chandra asked. "Jacques has almost all of SubTerra behind him. That's almost 3000 parvs."

      "3000? Are you sure?"

      "Pretty sure."

      The General cleared his throat. "It's not going to matter anyway. Most of them are just bodies, right? No formal training?"

      "I don't know," she said. "When I left, we only had a handful of soldiers, but who knows how many more Jacques created."

      "My army is highly trained, and we have the advantage of mobility. Every parv down there knows how to train and ride large insects. Spiders, caterpillars, centipedes, some ants. We can move in quickly and take as many out as we can, then be far back before they even know what hit them. We could kill a lot of them before we even lose a single soldier."

      Chandra winced. "It's tough," she said. "I still feel like these are my people. I really hate to see them slaughtered."

      "They made their choice," Turner put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But I understand where you are coming from. If it were up to me, we would just take Jacques out and that would be it."

      Chandra brushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes. "And Hagen," she said. "We're not going to let him get away with this either."

      "This is war," Carlisle reminded her. "Nobody likes it, but if we take it easy on them, they'll win."

      "I'm not saying that," she said. "I just wish there was another way."

      "Trust me, so do I."

      Dana ran up to her general. "They are ready for you," she said.

      "Good, let's make our way to the training area." The four walked out of Carlisle's private chambers, and stepped into the light. The General looked around at his subjects. Some of them would never return home. He might not either. It was a lot to take in, but he couldn't show any sign of doubt. This was what he had worked so hard for. This is what he murdered Petar for. This was the moment he was preparing for.

      This was it.

      "Good morning," he said to the crowd. "I just received word that SubTerra is on the move. Their goal is the hospital, but right now they are moving through their elaborate tunnel system. The only outlet that is near their target is on the edge of our woods." Where I killed Petar, Carlisle thought, then quickly chased the memory out of his head. "This will be our only opportunity to intercept them. If we try to face them in the tunnels, they will have the advantage, but when they are on the surface we will be able to stop them. I understand that their size may worry a lot of you. But remember this: you are trained soldiers, they are simple zealots. They may have the largest army in the country, but we have the finest army in the world! This will be no contest; just another day of training!" He threw a look at Chandra. "As you are conquering them, remember that they are not evil. Just misguided. Our target is their leader. Without him, they will have no direction. Without him, they will be lost." He let the last word hang in the air, hoping that they understood what he was trying to say. After a significant amount of time passed, he addressed them one final time.

      "Good luck, ladies and gentlemen. Mount your rides and prepare to move out. This is it!"