Beth managed to keep it in her pants, or out of her pants, however the case may be, for the next two days. They arrived at the planet without any delays, thankfully, though Beth wasn't sure what could really threaten them with Baelvyr onboard. He wasn't as strong as it was possible to be, but then again, Beth had watched him walk into a person and kill them, so she was pretty sure there wasn't much out there that could challenge him. If Megoria, an Ascended, could fly around this area with little fear and didn't seem upset by the prospect of facing two monsters, then she wasn't worried. Based on that, Baelvyr was a bit overkill, but he had brought them along to get some merits, so she wasn't going to complain.

"We're here, girlies," the man himself said, sticking his head into the rec room where Beth, Sera, and Blood were lounging.

"We landed yet?" Beth asked.

There was a thump and Baelvyr said, "Just did."

"Thanks chief, wouldn't have figured that out myself," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"Come on," he grunted, turning and stomping off down the hallway.

The other three followed him, finding Megoria already at the airlock, which at this point just let out onto a ramp. Beth looked out from behind the Exalted and Ascended to see a dark gray world, with a thick, heavy cloud cover blocking out the light of the sun. The place was cold and wet, with a mist of rain falling and coating everything in a slick shimmer. Beth could feel the cold in her lungs as she walked down the ramp ahead of Sera and Blood, feeling the damp wet start to seep through her armor and clothes.

"This place is going to be fucking miserable, isn't it?" she asked as they walked towards a small group of people approaching them across the open field where Megoria had landed.

"CRA?" asked the leader of the group, hand on the sword on his hip.

"That's us," Baelvyr rumbled, showing his emblem. The person did a quick scan of it, though they weren't a CRA member themselves. At least, Beth assumed so, considering they didn't recognize Baelvyr, didn't show an emblem themselves, and didn't have any pre-determined coordination with the others.

"Checks out," said the man, turning and gesturing for them to follow.

"Bit rude," Sera said behind Beth under her breath. Beth grunted and walked with the other CRA members, giving the man leading them a quick scan.

Baan B'Del, Level 180[3], Elven Swordsman

Beth couldn't be sure, as anybody could hide their status with any number of tricks, but the man didn't appear strong. Her eyes had hit Gold a little while ago, allowing her to see the rebirths a person had, and the man leading the way was the strongest of the local group. She was sure he was not the strongest person from his faction or the planet, but it was a stark contrast to a powerful faction. Somewhere like the CRA used people like her, Empowered, just to man the front desk. The locals of Red II had sent an Awoken, leading a group of weaker Awoken, to bring the CRA personnel, who were there ostensibly to rescue them, to wherever their base was. It didn't necessarily mean something significant, considering the situation, but Beth was getting a feel for the place and people already. Not a terrific first impression.

They moved across the muddy field onto a gravel path, the small chunks of rock crunching under all their boots as they followed the path through a section of dreary trees. She supposed that the lack of sunlight wasn't that great for the plants, but they had at least managed to survive until this point. The addition of mana did mean that life was even more adaptable than what one would expect from a world without magic, and the trees had clearly adjusted to the much lower levels of sunlight. Photosynthesis wasn't the only way to process nutrients and grow, or not just with sunlight, and it was clear, based on the vast number of trees and thick grasses, that the local flora had adapted.

Eventually, they were led into an area that was more a set of bunkers than even a garrison or outpost. There were two buildings of stone half-sunken into the ground with stairs leading down to each entryway. There was a third building that was sunk into the side of a hill, covered in dirt and grass and lacking windows, built of what looked like concrete. The whole place screamed dreary utilitarianism, and it made Beth depressed just walking in and heading into the stone building on the left. It was, thankfully, warm inside, though the temperature outside wasn't enough to do more than make her a bit peeved. It would take some type of cold mana affecting her body to really make her uncomfortable or injure her, but the low temperature was just annoying.

"Wait a moment," Baan said. "I'll see if they're ready for you."

"Hurry it up," Baelvyr said gruffly, shorter than she was used to him being.

"Didn't enjoy the ride?" Beth asked him.

"Don't enjoy people who beg for us playin' dumb games," he replied. "At the CRA, I relax and take it easy; when I'm dealin' with fools who can't be bothered to use their damn brains, I'm a lot tougher with them. Gotta make sure these idiots don't take even an inch."

"He's just grumpy. He hates the damp," Megoria said with a very toothy grin.

"Hate bein' wet. Makes my skin feel weird," Baelvyr grumped.

Baan came back at that point, asking for them to follow him deeper into the building. They went down a hallway and then through a secured door, only to find another hallway on the other side. They went down this hallway before entering a meeting room that had two tables within, though people were only seated at one. Baelvyr looked at a chair and then decided to remain standing, arms crossed over his chest as he looked at the people at the head of the table. The rest, including Megoria, sat down at the table across from five people. Beth noted that Baan stood behind the people at the table along with several other men in a guarding stature, hands on weapons and eyes on a swivel.

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"Thank you for coming," the man in the center started. Beth gave him a quick scan as well.

Alden B'Del, Level 205[8], Elven Sworddancer

If this guy was the leader, he wasn't that strong. Beth wasn't sure if he was disguising who or what he was or his level of strength, but she found she couldn't detect any of the signs she was learning to associate with a Mana Physique from him. If that were really the case, he might not be any stronger than her; in fact, he might be just a touch weaker than Beth, which made her excited for the prospects of the enemies they would be facing. If someone at this level of strength had to call them in for help, then there would definitely be beasts that really challenged them here.

"Right, we gonna get the details?" Baelvyr asked.

"Yes, of course," Alden said, waving to an aide.

An overlay was brought up hovering over the table that showed a vast section of land with a wave of red over it. Beth realized after a moment that it was markers, hundreds of thousands of markers, for enemies. What she was looking at was a representation of a battlefield, or a slaughter, not that there was often much difference. The red markers were all beasts, beasts that were inspired into a frenzy by a pair of monsters. The monsters were not there, of course, as they were moving around to different parts of the world and provoking more beasts into frenzies and tides.

"You can see the situation laid out before you," Alden said. "The monsters are powerful and refuse to engage in direct combat…not that we could even face them. They are mobile and fast, hitting locations all over the planet and inspiring the beasts into mini and full-blown tides. We're on the ropes, even having agreed to a joint peace with those bastards of the Republic, and we don't see a chance of recovering from this without the monsters being taken out. That's why we reached out to you, though I'm unsure if you can do it."

"Real cute, callin' us into question when ya can't handle yer own shit," Baelvyr grunted at the man.

"It does not inspire confidence that you have brought these children into this conflict," Alden retorted.

"Bet I could beat your sorry ass," Beth fired back.

"You have no idea, child," Alden said coldly, glaring at her and flexing his power a bit. It was like a child trying to intimidate an adult, as it made it very clear that he did not have a Mana Physique. Beth just snorted and shook her head, not bothering to counter him, but also making it very clear that she wasn't affected in the least.

"Enough," Baelvyr said, a wave of intangible power spreading from him, shattering the power Alden was still trying to release and causing all the assembled locals to jolt and sway.

"We'll take care of the monsters, they'll help with the beasts," Megoria said, gesturing at the girls. "Where are the people from the Republic?"

"They all deployed to the frontlines," Alden said after a moment, trying to recover.

"Then I think that's where they should be," Megoria said, nodding at the girls. "Have someone escort them there."

"The meeting isn't-" Alden tried but was overridden.

"I wasn't making a request," Megoria said and, unlike Baelvyr, she crushed down on the others with the power of a peak Ascended. The two guards behind Baan dropped to the ground, frothing at the mouth with their eyes rolling back in their heads.

"Y-yes, right away," Alden managed to grind out, signaling Baan. At that, Megoria stopped crushing them, acting as if nothing had happened, though her smile as she stared at Alden was very large, ably displaying her huge teeth.

Baan came around the table and took the lead, escorting Beth, Sera, and Blood out of the building and then out of the compound. They headed east, away from where Megoria had landed her ship, and Baan started to accelerate. Beth grinned to herself, as his actions were pretty clear, and she knew that he was in for a bit of a rude awakening. As he moved faster and faster, Beth and the others eventually had to assume a jog, though they didn't need to move any faster than that. He glanced back after two minutes with a smirk, only for his face to go blank upon seeing the three girls right behind him, all appearing as if this were a Sunday stroll and not a sprint to the frontlines.

Baan turned away and continued to run, as if he had something to prove, but the three girls just shared glances with raised eyebrows. They kept going like that for another twenty-five minutes, covering quite a bit of ground until they came to an area set up with tents and small shelters. This was the backlines of the joint army, with supplies, healers, sleeping quarters, and several other facilities to assist in what had become a new war. Some of the camp was built on the bones of the old, a callback to the war that had been brought to a screeching halt three years prior by the emergence of the monsters and their sudden rampage. Thousands had been killed in just a few hours, a huge casualty toll for a planet already ravaged by a long-running war, and in the intervening years, hundreds of thousands had been as grist to the mill.

"This way," Baan said, having slowed down to a quick walk. "The Republic soldiers are in charge of this front and their command tent is to the north."

The elf led them to a tent in the northeast of the camp, at a point that was close enough to the ongoing battle that they could faintly hear the conflict. Baan just gestured at the tent and then turned and stomped off, clearly not thrilled with having to work with either the Republic or the girls. Beth just shrugged and walked up to the tent entrance, which was currently propped open, though she was stopped by two guards holding out their arms to block the entrance. They were giving her a look, clearly scanning her in several ways, and weren't exactly overjoyed to see her.

"Hold it. I don't know who you are, but anybody those Hegemon assholes bring over isn't welcome here," said the woman on the left.

"Yeah, you Heg assholes aren't welcome," the man on the right added.

"We're not with them. Not exactly," Sera tried to explain.

"CRA," Beth interjected, presenting her silver emblem. "We were requested."

"Hold on," said the woman, the emblem changing her stance. "Let me check."

The female guard headed inside the tent and that was when Beth realized that she couldn't hear anything from inside. They had some kind of enchantment blocking anything from getting out, which also blurred what was happening inside. Beth couldn't get a good view of the inside even though she was staring directly through the open tent flaps. She frowned at the remaining guard who simply gave her a steely glance before he resumed checking around, his eyes landing back on their group several times. Beth had started checking out the rest of the camp, though she stood in place, when the woman returned, gesturing into the tent.

The three followed her in, finding the immediate area to be a large room, though it was clear from a doorway at the back that the tent was larger and sectioned off. There were six people in the room, three of them holding a discussion off to the side who barely glanced at Beth's group, and three standing around a table and talking about something. Now that she was inside, she could hear what was happening, finding out the conversation at the table was about the deployment of the warriors on the battle line.

"We need to swing more to the south," the only woman in the room, apart from the guard and Beth's group, said.

"We don't have enough reinforcements to sustain it," said one of the two men. "We need to consider pulling back."

"We can't abandon this line," said the second man at the table in a gruff voice. "We hold here."

"Sirs. Ma'am. The CRA Enforcers," the female guard said, saluting before returning to her post at the door.

"So, here at last?" said the woman, turning to eye Beth's group.

"Hey, we only found out about this four days ago and had to travel to get here," Beth replied with a shrug. "Sorry if you've been waiting, but we're not lead on this."

"Wait, then who is?" asked the first man.

"My mentor, Baelvyr, is in charge of the group," Beth explained.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" asked the man with the gruff voice.

"He's an Exalted, so you might have heard the name before," Beth replied with another shrug.

"An Exalted! Blood Stars," the woman said.

"He's here for the monsters. We're here to help with the beasts," Beth said, trying to refocus the conversation.

"Right, sorry, let's get down to it," said the woman, shaking off her wonder.

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