FicWad

It had been three days since the blizzard broke and the frigid temperatures have risen to slightly above tolerable. A full week until the invasion should happen, Suki pondered from her seat outside the dojo as she helped the citizen soldiers into their heavy armor that Ko and Yumiko had happened to “stumble across” while “fishing” and“borrow”, as Ko had so kindly put it. They had only needed half of the equipment that they had pilfered off the Earth Kingdom ship just over two weeks prior. The transport ship that they had borrowed from was a common merchant ship that the Earth Kingdom had forced into carrying some of their cargo every so often. And according to Ko and Yumiko, they had even helped the merchant push the rest of the cargo overboard –the merchant ship’s captain claiming that it was easier to say that he never received the shipment that telling them that he was robbed of half of it.

Then again, Yumiko’s love of a good story was renowned by the Kyoshians, and many of them wouldn’t hesitate to place exaggeration on her list of talents.

In the cabins on that morning, Raven was helping tighten the ties on the leather and steel armor as Holly stood rigid with her arms parallel to the ground, allowing Raven free access to finish up the knots. While in the adjacent cabin, Ko attempted to tighten the ties over the shoulders with her teeth while Yuna and Masa, in the clearing outside of the cabins, had already had the stew for breakfast prepared and were already serving it to the farmers-turned-soldiers.

“Hey,” Raven touched Holly’s shoulder after finishing the last knot, already clad in her own lighter version of the armor. Holly looked over at her before taking the opportunity to steal a swift kiss away from her.

Raven gave a weak smile at her after they separated and continued her sentence: “Robin and Cyborg had contacted me last night. They said that they were going to attempt to come into this dimension soon, though they left out many of the finer details, should they succeed…I’m not entirely sure…” “…what will happen with us.” Holly finished her sentence, with the same solemn tone that Raven had spoken in.

Holly forced a faint smile onto her face and attempted to reassure her beloved. “We’ll cross that bridge when it comes, together.” Holly had said, but her own voice faltering and betraying herself.

Raven reluctantly withdrew from the embrace that they had fallen into when she heard her name being called by a certain young girl waiting for them outside. Holly followed her out only a minute behind, intending to join with Raven and Rena, that is, before Suki had waved her over to the racks of chest plates to help her tie them onto the farmers who stood single file waiting to get their armor.

“Remind me again why we didn’t allow them to take their own set of armor instead of keeping them here.” Holly said to Suki as she sat down on the stool opposite her, with the farmer waiting to be fitted in between them.

“Oh shut up.” Suki rolled her eyes. She had been questioned constantly about the decision because of the warriors having to take turns fitting each soldier every day. And she, personally, was beginning to regret the decision for that very reason. “I overheard part of Raven’s conversation last night, saying that they would be coming for her soon.” Holly swallowed hard, she hadn’t been expecting a continuation of her conversation minutes before. “I just wanted to remind you,” Suki continued, “that staying here or leaving with her is your decision, and I don’t want me or the rest of the Warriors getting in the way of it. We’ve all agreed on this.”

“You all have?” Holly asked, looking up from the knot she had just finished on a young man’s chest plate.

“Yep, and something more.” Holly looked up as Suki continued to speak, “While it is your decision, you should make it quickly. If you decide against going with Raven to her world, should it even become a possibility, she deserves to know immediately. Disappointment can be cruel, but hope can be hope can be crueler.”

Holly nodded and stood up, opting out of helping Suki with tying more of the tedious knots.



*



A burly man held a small, collapsible telescope. He peered through it at the lashing waves that battered the coast of the small, rocky island that they would soon conquer. His hands, freezing cold from the long time he had been standing on the deck without gloves, were massive and made the telescope look like a child’s toy in comparison. Another man, a shipmate in his early twenties, had just came out of the interior wearing full winter clothing– leaving nothing uncovered except for his eyes.

“Sir, come inside. Even though there isn’t heating, it’s still warmer than out here.” The young man yelled above the sound of the waves and the wind against the hollow steel hull of the ship. The burly man, the captain of the ship and admiral of the small invasion fleet, nodded in response and followed him through the hatch and into the ship’s interior. The inside of the ship was still cold, with only torches and the men themselves providing heat. The Admiral knew the disadvantage they would be at if the defenders of the island saw the black snow that was so well associated with a coming invasion, and thus decided to have the ships shut down their engines and drift with the currents closer to the island, only to return power to the engines once they had been detected.

Not that it would give us much of an advantage, as an island, it’s damn near impossible to surprise them. Perhaps, though, we have cut them short of some time to prepare for the coming events of the day.  The admiral thought as he stepped into a slightly warmer room, packed to its capacity with foot soldiers armed with short swords, axes, and the occasional spear or javelin. The actual fire benders, the Admiral had decided, will be in the second wave of the attack. For they’re too precious of an asset to waste on the first landing. The Admiral scoffed slightly, cursing at his superiors for giving him such a small amount of fire benders and inexperienced soldiers for such a highly ranked operation. 



*



On Kyoshi Island, two women rushed out into the town center towards an old ship’s bell that was mounted on a small, stone platform. The women, who had been on watch that morning, reached the bell and began to frantically ring it –it’s sound deafening as it bounced against the homes and shops of the villagers. A quarter of a mile away, another two people heard the bell being rung without stop. This time, a young boy and his older sister, began to ring a bell of their own. As did the next people across the valley and those down on the southern coast, each spreading the signal until the cacophony of bells could be heard from every valley and every coast of the small island.

Did Mai lie to me? We should’ve had another week. The thought shot through Holly’s mind as she heard the bells, the signal of an approaching warship. She shared a glance with Raven, who was herding Rena towards her.

“It’s possible. But there’s a good chance that we’ll never know.” Raven said, knowing what was running through her partner’s mind, based solely on the emotions she let off.

Holly nodded and tried to push the thought from her mind. She looked over to the dojo and saw with relief that her fellow warriors were already in action: Ko and Yuna had started passing out the eight and twelve foot spears that had been stolen from the Earth Kingdom’s supply ship, while the rest of the Warriors and many villagers began hauling out the rest of the breastplates and helmets, the leather and steel bracers and the heavy bronze shields, along with the short, eighteen inch swords that could be used when asoldier loses their spear –a common occurrence even despite the extremely dense wood used to manufacture the shafts with. Within a short time, nearly a third of the entire island’s population, all gathered at the dojo and the main village, was armed and ready to fight for their home –as ready as they’d ever be, at least.



*



The last of the children and mothers who had manned the lookout stations across the island had finally scrambled down and join the rest of the villagers. Suki gave the bell in the main village a few hard raps with her fan, a weapon that she wouldn’t be using that day, to draw the militia’s attention.

“You all know what you must do today,” she started, stepping on the bell’s stone platform, “and every one of you knows the consequences if we fail. If you feel the urge to flee when the fighting starts, know that it is natural, and fight it with every fiber of your being. But if you do, then the Fire Nation will deal with you when we have been overwhelmed. We have less than an hour until they reach our shore, bid farewell to your family and pray that it will not be your last farewell.”

Suki spoke with confidence and her words held more weight than any other that Raven could remember. At least she isn’t giving them false hope. Raven pondered as Suki paused in her very short, and somewhat cynical speech.

“Today we will fight in a way that we never have before.”She continued. “It’s an ancient tactic from another world, but effective none the less. We’ll be fighting close together, so remember this: the shield that you hold does not protect you. It protects the man to your left. So if you dare think of fleeing in the middle of what is to come, then remember that you are killing the man next to you; be it your own brother, your friend or a complete stranger. I have no doubt that you will fight well today. I have trust in every one of you, and must hold that same trust. Trust your fellow rank-mate to protect you, as you protect the next down the line. Trust the man behind you to fight hard, as he reaches over you with his spear.”

Suki paused for effect. She and a few other of the Warriors had put together the speech when the blizzard had them trapped inside for several days, and although Suki thought it was a touch harsh, and rather blunt, she knew that it would drive home the point. She continued on with the rest of what she wanted to tell her fellow citizen-soldiers before the enemy could begin to land on their shores.

“The terrain here is too rugged for them to come at us with anything but foot soldiers. We were fortunate enough choose where we fight today –a luxury that not every foe of the Fire Nation has had. We have not let that go to waste, and I ask you to fight with that in mind. The enemy can fit no more than a dozen men through the narrow entrance at a given time, and can mass no more than a hundred on the narrow shore that they landed on. With this, we outnumber then, now we must only out last them. We have done what we could to prepare for this day –even it has come sooner than we expected…”

Raven tuned out Suki for a moment and got Holly’s attention:“What about the komodo rhinos? Haven’t they used those against us before?”

“They’re only good when used in small groups, often for patrols or elite squads, sometimes raids. They used them once in a large battle in the beginning of the war, but the Earth Kingdom’s soldiers found ways to frighten them into trampling the soldiers behind them. First battle that the Fire Nation lost by a huge margin, actually.”

Raven nodded and turned her attention back to what Suki was saying to the crowd: “I urge you, my fellow Warriors –for today you have all earned that honor –to hold fast to what you know and what you have been taught. The phalanx that we will use today can only succeed if we work as one. If we fight as one. To do this, I must ask a great deal from all of you here. I know that you are fighting for your home, and so am I. Be courageous today, for we will need every ounce you can muster –but do not be reckless. Do not risk your life for glory, or even in anger, because in doing so you risk the life of every man in your rank. Stay in formation, and fight alongside each other. Protect the man to your left, and trust the man on your right to do the same for you…” Suki continued on with her speech for another few minutes. Effectively earning more respect from the citizens of Kyoshi that day than ever before. In that single speech, she had proven why she was the one chosen by the generation past to lead the island’s protectors for the coming years.

As Suki stepped down, the rest of the Warriors began to assemble the groups of people who they had personally trained. Holly quickly broke away from Raven and gently pushed her way to her leader. While Raven, unsure of what she was doing, decided to muster the forty or so men that she and Holly had been assigned to train.

“Hey,” Holly said, her voice quavering as she touched Suki’s shoulder, “remember our talk from last week, right?”

“Of course.” Suki said, pulling them both to the side, away from the dispersing crowd. “Raven will be stationed in the back, to help the water benders with healing. She shouldn’t be in too much danger, for most of the day at least. Besides, to pack her in with the rest of us would be to waste her abilities, she could fight with her powers effectively there.”

“Oh, thank the spirits.” Holly let out a sigh, greatly relieved.

“You know, I don’t remember you thanking the spirits for anything before you met Raven. You only used to curse them out.”

Holly rolled her eyes briefly, and gave a halfhearted smile.“Don’t worry, I still curse ‘em out just as much.” 



*



Akiko hugged her mother tightly for several minutes. She was one of the few Kyoshi Warriors who was still very close with her parents, and was worried greatly about what the coming battle would do to her mother. Especially because Akiko’s father and older brother would be fighting alongside her, to say that her mother had the much to lose was not an exaggeration. Akiko did harbor some anger at Suki, for she, as the de facto leader of the island whenever the war comes close to their home, had the power to convince certain people not to fight that day. And she had done so, mainly when it came to amother’s only child wanting to fight alongside his father. Or in the case of several brothers all joining the effort together, a case in which –should they all perish –would be devastating to the parents of the young men.

“If this ends, and we don’t come back to our families,” Akiko remembered Suki saying to her one day, “the villagers will have nobody to lead them. Should that happen, the first people they will look to are those who lost the most. You mother is a strong woman, and I can trust her to make the right decisions.”

Akiko had run the brief conversation through her head no less than seventy times since they had it. She squeezed her mother one last time before pulling away from their embrace. Her mother gave a last farewell to her family before picking a cloth sack that held what meaningful belongings she could gather before she was rushed out of her home by her husband and son. She stepped onto the worn plank that served as the fishing trawler’s gangway. The rickety trawler was one of the dozen of small ships that were being boarded with all the villagers who would not be fighting that day. The makeshift fleet consisting mainly of fishing and merchant ships, along with a few private vessels that were donated to the cause.

The majority of the villagers were only just arriving at the docks, carrying what belongings they had on their backs, and hoping that their friends and family staying back would succeed in their efforts, and allow them all to return back to their rightful homes. The plan, as coordinated with the local leaders of Whale Tale Island a few of its surrounding smaller islands, would be rather simple. The vessels that held the villagers would set a course directly opposite the direction that the invading ships had come from, heading away from the island, thus allowing the mountains that were the west side of the island to shield their movement from the Fire Nation warships. They would set a straight course until they were out of the warship’s reach, and then turn northwardly towards Whale Tail Island and refuge –all the time ready to turn back to their homes if the signal is given.



*



The Admiral cursed as he saw people massing in the town center. Some advantage that gave us. He spat, before he called out the order to start the engines up again. At this pace, we should be on their shores well within the hour, he looked at the mechanical clock mounted on the wall, I’d say no more than forty minutes. He turned his head, hearing the faint squawking of an incoming messenger hawk. The Hawk, carrying the badge of his superior, glided down and landed of the railing right outside of the Admirals window. The large man grunted slightly as he picked himself up and pushed open the watertight door leading outside. He plucked the thin strip of paper out of the cylinder attached to the hawk’s back and went back to the warmth of his cabin to read it, the hawk following him inside.

“A brief reminder of your mission. Kill the witch, the only true threat to our nation in this war. Use any means necessary.” He muttered as he read the note out loud in his private quarters. That bastard still doesn’t trust me to do this right. He shook his head and light the thin sheet of paper on fire, destroying the evidence of his true mission. To think that the soldiers believe that this is a strategic port like the top brass told them, preposterous! He thought, pitying the men in the first wave of troops that would land on the beach. He went back to the hawk and waved his hands at it, until it leapt off the rail and took flight back to its home, back to the Fire Nation.   “An invasion is too excessive” they said, “a waste of valuable resources.” “A raiding party would be more effective.”    The Admiral recalled the criticisms by his peers.   A raiding party? Nonsense! I’ve seen the records, this island has experience with little raiding parties. And a witch, if this threat even is one, could easily stop a few rhinos. Or she could even evade us, hide in the forests or mountains. If that happened, a raiding party would be useless. “Do it right.” Was all the Fire Lord said. And he supported this plan! Take the island and leave nowhere for the witch to run. Raze the forests and scour the mountains, find the witch and kill her on sight. All that we had to do now, was take the island.

The Admiral slowly made his way back to the main munitions bay, where several hundred foot soldiers stood in wait for the ship to beach itself against the shore of the offending island, and the three foot thick steel door that was the front of the ship to crash down onto the beach–providing a path for the soldiers to exit the ship without them having to cross through the near freezing water of the bay.

The Admiral looked down on the munitions bay with contempt, not for the soldiers that occupied it, but for his superiors forcing him to strip the ship of the siege weapons that he was once so proud of. The bay, as its name suggests, used to house five trebuchets, and enough ammunition for them to siege a city for weeks on end. Instead, as his superiors had decided only a few short weeks ago, he would be ferrying soldiers onto the shore to attack the island. Those fools, they are blind to the destruction that a siege can deal out. To invade an island, no matter how small, without the trebuchets is to sacrifice lives without thought. Oh, how I pity those poor souls below me.

He turned and left the munitions bay without a word, not wanting to socialize with men who were living on borrowed time –time that he himself had a part in shortening.



*



Raven watched helplessly as several hundred men, armed to the teeth, gathered in front of her.    Damn you Holly, pushing me to the back guard.    She harbored some anger at her partner, or perhaps it was frustration –frustration that while she knew Holly had meant well by placing her in the back, she hated not being able to fight alongside the people she had gotten to care about. She looked down at Rena, who was adorned in leather armor standing next to her. And while Raven disliked being placed behind the action, she wasn’t blind to the fact that Holly had trusted only her with protecting Rena. Rena, who was too stubborn to get on the evacuation ships with the rest of the villagers.     Although, considering that Holly and I are the closest thing to a family that she has left, it’s understandable that she would want to be alongside us. Not to say that I agree with sending a child into abattle, but I at least see her reasoning behind it.

She gazed ahead at the mass of people forming into reasonably organized rows. The militia of men and a few woman had formed on abarren field –one of the few relatively flat areas on the entire island. With the help of the earth benders on the island, the field was cleared of the boulders that once littered it and walls had been erected several weeks ago. The earthen walls, each several feet thick and a dozen feet high, had sealed off the field from both the thick forests to the north and the mountains to the south. The field, which was situated in between the main bay of the island and the passage, had effectively become the only passage to the interior villages of the island, as the other coasts had few beaches and many cliffs.

A perfect location for the phalanx to work: the soldiers have little choice in where they can land, and the topography gives more of an advantage to the defenders.    Raven couldn’t help but see the benefits that played into the hands of the militia.   For they’ll need any advantage they can get, and then some.

By now, the disorganized citizen-soldiers had formed into ordered rows as they had been trained to do. With nearly forty men in each rank of the formation, and the phalanx ten ranks deep, the mass of human flesh and bronze shields seemed to be impenetrable. Suki stood at the far left of the first rank, with each warrior behind her commanding their own row of soldiers.    Twenty minutes, she estimated, until all our training is put to the test.



*



I knew we should have brought in the armored vehicles.    The Admiral thought as he peered again through his collapsible telescope, seeing the dim winter sun shine against the bronze metal shields of the enemy.        Those bastards don’t know shit when it comes to invading an island. I’ll have the blood of the entire first wave, every man in the munitions bay on my hands because the top brass sees them as numbers.
“Fifteen minutes.” Reported the man next to him, sitting in a rather relaxed position. The second in command sat with his pocket watch in hand, constantly double checking it with the clock mounted on the wall.

“Do you hear that?” The Admiral asked, unsure if he was losing his sanity.

“Hear what, sir?”

“The voices; spirits, it sound like a chorus.”

The second in command lifted himself out of the chair and strode over to the windows. Propping one of them open with a spare helmet, he too began to hear voices. The Admiral tossed his small telescope to the floor and withdrew a much stronger pair of binoculars from a footlocker against the wall. “As if they’ve all lost their sanity,” the Admiral said with his mouth agape, “and began to sing a tune before their death.”

The eerie voices of several hundred men, each one of them having already accepted their fate, drifted through the warship’s bridge and could be heard faintly by the soldiers in the munitions room as the fleet drew closer to the small island.



*



The three warships that made up the invasion force stopped their forward advance when they had reached the entrance of the main bay. The bay entrance, being too narrow for more than a single ship to be able to enter at any single time, forced the small forces flagship to forge onward and head into the bay while the two smaller warships held back.

Only the middle portion of men in in the first few ranks of the phalanx could see the massive hull of the ship as it ran aground only astone’s throw away from the shore. Some small cliffs, formed hundreds of years ago when the island was created, also helped in forcing the Fire Nation to bottleneck while moving from the shore into the abandoned village –with the militia waiting in between.

“Every advantage that you can give us,”    Suki remembered telling the earth benders three weeks ago,  “we’re going to need.” 

Suki grimaced at hearing the huge metal hinges wail as the stem of the ship was lowered down, revealing the scores of men inside. “We’ve prepared as much as we can, the only thing that we can do now is fight and pray.”    She recalled telling her peers when they were all gathered in the village center, just a half an hour ago.   Fight and pray. Fight and pray.     She heard the clatter of the first wave of the enemy gathering on the shore.     I suppose it’s too late to pray.



*



Robin and Cyborg woke up early that morning, and allowed Beast Boy and Starfire to sleep for a short while longer until everything was prepared. Robin stood up and began stretching, the bare concrete floor cold against is thin uniform. He glanced around the empty building, the lofted ceiling of the old warehouse was at constant risk of caving in more than it already had, and the wood walls rotting through in more than a few places. They had been living in the warehouse for three days now, moving the small single person, dimensional transporter that they had built piece by piece into the warehouse.

After Cyborg woke up from his light sleep, he strode over to the small machine and began checking it over for the last time before they put their hard work to the test. The transporter, which had been built based off the dozens of schematics that the Professor left behind during his betrayal, looked exceedingly similar to the Professor’s original one.   Well,   Cyborg thought,   we worked hard enough on it these past weeks, not much else to do now but wait. If only, if only we had got it working. Then we wouldn’t at the mercy of Slade–but thank the heavens he doesn’t know it.  Cyborg hated the idea of having to rely on both their greatest foe and their former ally to get their machine to work.   I suppose that the Professor isn’t all bad. He did, after all, leave us the ability and many of the materials to make another transporter. Well, most of another transporter at least.   He said to himself, referring to the fact that the system for the machine that stabilized the passageway between dimensions had been left out of the blueprints. Robin had realized that the Professor, always suspicious, had probably memorized how to construct it out of fear for someone stealing his technology. With some luck, and the knowledge gained from working alongside for before the betrayal, Cyborg had built another system to the best of his ability. Not one that would stabilize it alone, for that was beyond his knowledge, but one that would use the power released from another transporter to stabilize their own.  Now all we need is the other transporter to start up.  

Cyborg looked over to Robin with a solemn face. The two of them had discovered Slade’s intentions no less than a week ago –for his small army of a few hundred bots create a stronghold in the new dimension, a base to expand and eventually control it.
Perhaps it isn’t feasible, it sure sounds like it isn’t. But then again, Raven mentioned that the technology there was minimal compared to our world –not even electricity had been harnessed yet. Damn you Robin. With the Honorary Titans, we would have a chance at taking out his army –even if we don’t capture him. Why did he have to be so stubborn? “Save Raven, be in and out of there as fast as possible. It doesn’t matter what else is going on in that world. She’s our only objective. Only after we get her will we even consider facing Slade.” Cyborg remembered Robin’s orders for when they went into the other dimension.   Yeah, it makes sense an’ all. I know that much. But what if other people are in danger there? We can’t leave it to their own police force if they aren’t there. Granted, I guess that must be why he wants me to stay back and protect the machine. A reasonable request, considering I know how to fix most of it. But some of the Honorary Titans surely could take that responsibility. At least it won’t be long that they’re in that dimension, and we won’t have to look top hard for Raven. A good thing we can link onto her communicator, then they won’t have to search the whole world when they get there.

Cyborg finished up his final inspection of it, checking for loose wires or bolts even though he knew there weren’t any. Robin roused Beast Boy and Starfire as quietly as he could and the four of them sat in a small circle, eating the remains of their food supply of canned goods. 

“How long must we wait here, friends?” Starfire asked to the group as she finished off a can of mandarin oranges and opened a new one.

“I’m not sure.” Robin answered. “However long until Slade decides to put his plan in action.” Robin pulled a deck of cards out from his satchel and began dealing them out, having already ate.

“The transporter is already on,” Cyborg said to her, “even though it don’t look it. Once Slade’s starts up, our will too. Then you guys can go in and get Raven.” His voice betrayed him on the last sentence. He had hoped to sound positive about it, but his tone was laced with the disdain he held for Robin and his decision for Cyborg to stay back. 



*



“How long until the first group is prepared?” Slade said out loud, despite nobody being in the room.

An automated voice came from the speakers that were hidden throughout the room: “Approximately three hours and fifty-seven minutes. The transporter will start to power up immediately. The operation will begin at ten-hundred.”

“Very well.” He said to himself before lifting himself off of his chair. He walked the paper plate and plastic cutlery that his breakfast was once on over to a small waste bin and pushed it in. Making his way out of his concrete reinforced living area of the warehouse, he worked his way down awrought iron spiral staircase and past the pair of eight inch thick steel doors that protected his base. He went down another small set of stairs that led underground to a short tunnel, ending in the warehouse that had become the Professor’s temporary hell.

As Slade emerged from hatch on the floor that lead into the main room of the Professor’s warehouse, he was greeted by six of his robots, armed and ready for action. Standing upright to survey the room, he saw the massive transporter looming over the few crates with computers set on them, each wired to the transporter. In the far corner, opposite the entrance, the Professor leaned against another crate. Surrounding him, three armed bots stood guard, and next to his feet laid his two “helper bots” –each with the black soot from a blaster discharge burned on its chest. The Professor turned his head away from Slade, refusing to look at the man who had promised him everything, but stole his talents and left him with even less than what he had started out. Slade held no remorse for what he had done to the man –A necessity if I was to go through with my plans. He strode over to a small office like area that had been set up by the bots the night before. With tinted glass walls, it was a small ten-by-fifteen area with only one entrance. Taking a seat in his leather chair, he began thumbing through a few magazines, passing the time as he watched the final preparations for his scheme.

Outside of the glass enclosure, several hundred Sladebots stood in a single file line, marching slowly as they passed the crated lined up on the side of the warehouse. Reaching down the crates as they passed, each one extracted small, pistol like blaster or the occasional elongated rifle. The first group that would be entering the new dimension already stood in wait. “The Pioneers” Was the Slade had chosen as the name for that group, consisting of close to fifty robots. Behind them only the first row of robots stood from the second group. The second group would be the riflemen, twenty of them followed by another forty in the group after. Along with the next five groups, well over three hundred bots would be in the initial stage of Slade’s plan.  More than enough to create a stronghold. And for a world lacking in technology, they’d need an army to stop me –and even then, they’ll have to fight for their lives!   Slade relished in his own thoughts of the near future as he waited for his personal army to be completely prepared.