confrontation

Gerand arrives back before the day ends. His face tells the story before he could. The situation has gone from bad to worse. The Eth-Hiem military is being pushed back and has little time before the front lines break a few weeks at most. After telling this to his wife, he immediately heads to Carlos's cave to see if he's developed anything to help. Sharin, knowing that he’s going to be angry, convinces him to let her follow.

They reach the cave and are met with a Sentinel. Not knowing what or who it is, Gerand takes out his sword and tells Sharin to stand back. Gerand sees the Sentinel digging away at the ground, collecting mud. Carefully, Gerand approaches the Sentinel, making himself known to it. It keeps working, practically ignoring his existence. Upon closer inspection, he sees the faint glow of Carlos's runes and realizes that this is one of his creations. Gerand is excited to see such a massive development in such little time.

He sheathes his sword on his back and excitedly heads into the cave. Sharin is also excited by the creation but doesn't let it stop her. Going through the cave the sounds of mining become louder and louder. They follow the noise and eventually find even more Sentinels mining away at the rock some using rod drillers and others just mining the stone with crude-looking but surprisingly strong pickaxes. They both head further inside and see Carlos...and Rey.

As soon as Gerand sees this, he feels intense anger and walks up to Carlos. Carlos is drilling for more rods and hears footsteps behind him. He turns around and sees Gerand walking towards him. Carlos greets Gerand, and Gerand gets very close to Carlos. He violently whispers in his ear. “I told you NOT to be with my daughter alone.” Carlos is shocked at first and then pleades with him. “Im ger, very sorry ok. But she came here on her own and has been a massive help. Next time I'll tell you if I need her but for now just accept my apology please.” Carlos takes on a meek demeanor to try and calm down Gerand. Gerand then lets a big huff and walks up to Rey and suprises her. From behind he gently but firmly grabs Rey's shoulders. She looks back and sees her father staring her down. Rey is sweating profusely and makes a an attempt to smile. "Your in luck young lady! I really have to talk to Carlos, alone. I'll let this go for now." Rey only nods and wipes the sweat off her forehead. Carlos on the other hand raises and eyebrow. He motions Gerand to follow him and he does. They both go to a secluded spot in the cave. Sharin understands why he wants the two to be alone and distracts Rey with small chit chat.

Both Carlos and Gerand are alone. Gerand begins. "Its bad. The front line is collapsing and the military is being pushed back. At this rate, I'd say that in less than three weeks the line will be fully broken. I really hope you've come up with a plan." Carlos goes wide-eyed. Hearing the bad news but he takes a deep breath. "I...don’t have one." Gerands face doesn't change instead he tries to think of something himself. Carlos then remembers about john. "My opinion, we don't have enough information to make a plan of action just yet. Let my Sentinels make more Sentinels and we'll see what we can do with them." Gerand stands there deep in thought. He then gives a single nod and says. "You make a good point. We need to hurry but I think we can waste one day on planning." They both nod at each other in agreement. 

The day goes by, and all three go hard at work making more Sentinels while Sharin goes to the house to make a big delicious meal for everyone. As night comes, all three head back home, leaving the Sentinels to work through the night. They all eat and go to bed.

As Carlos goes deep into sleep, he finds himself in a familiar white place, John's office. He takes a seat, and John is the first to say anything. "You've been very hard at work Carlos I knew I chose you for a reason! Making living statues with the runes, I wouldn't have come up with such a plan!" Carlos gives John a contemptuous look, and John coughs. "No need to worry; I've already devised a plan." John snaps his fingers, and a map appears on the table. He points to and circles an area. "Right here. This spot has everything you need. It’s close to the gap and has no pests. You even have the height advantage on your side you can shoot down on the pests without them having any way to fight back. You'll be able to close off the gap and let the others regain there ground and push the pest back!" 

Carlos rubs his chin and asks. "What’s the catch." John sighs. "Getting there is going to be extremely difficult. Gerand probably knows the danger he'll explain it better but know this. You can make it and Im fully confident that you can deal with the problems as they come your way." John gives Carlos a reassuring smile.

Carlos sighs. He was hoping for more info but just nods and walks away. As he leaves, John takes off his opaque glasses, showing his eyes full of sorrow. There reddened and tired; he's struggling just to keep them open. Exhaustion gets to him and he collapses onto his desk. "Im....sorry...zzz"

 Carlos wakes up in the morning and hopes that Gerand can be of more help. Carlos sees Gerand and Sharin awake and making breakfast. Carlos walks in and announces that a thought came to him and he needs a map. Gerand looks through his satchel and finds a map and rolls it out on a table. Carlos takes a minute to look through the map and eventually points to where John pointed him towards. Gerand shakes his head in disapproval. "Aye that area would be a great place to attack from, but it’s not called the lava lakes for nothing."

Gerand then points further up and makes a line with his finger. "All the way from here to there is a massive lake of lava, making it impassable. There is a way through, but it’s just walking up the lake until you find an opening. Said opening would probably take us around 2 weeks from here to there and then another week just to get into position." Gerand folds his arms, rubs his chin, and closes his eyes trying to come up with anything. 

Carlos shakes his head and adamantly says. "It’s the only way. I'll come up with something once we're there but I need to see it for myself to see just what we’re dealing with." Gerand looks at Carlos and rolls his eyes. "We don't have enough time for if’s or maybes. I say, we each the front. We can get there in less than 2 days. maybe we can slowly push them back?" Carlos slowly shakes his head and responds. "No! We're out of time we need to do something drastic or else the situation is going to get really out of hand. We pack up and head out as soon as possible!" Even though Carlos has no guarantee that he can overcome this challenge he knows he has too. 

Gerand reluctantly agrees. He's not used to being led around but knows Carlos is right. Its something big and soon, or else.