Chapter 250: An Intense Debate

Kalli sent the message to the Arks in the underground hangar, and set off an intense theological debate that she had never intended.

The Commanders all remembered the early stages of the trials, where every movement that they made with the Arks attracted unwanted attention. The more people and equipment that you moved, the more monsters that would be attracted to your position.

That had been at sea, as they hadn’t realized that the Arks were not intended to be naval vessels.

But the premise held.

They would have to fly over a stretch of ocean, and even the smallest of the Arks was hundreds of metres long, impossible for anything to miss, and it would attract aggression from everything that they flew over.

Worse, the satellite feed showed that it was entirely clear from Marimgar to the destination.

They wouldn’t even have cloud cover.

So, was it worth it to risk having an Ark ambushed to go rescue other humans? How much were the Arks objectively worth, even if they had moved most of the most people out?

Could they pool points to convince the Coordinator to find a flying transport vehicle to rescue the people instead?

That sentiment stuck.

Why should they risk their lives and their Arks when it was only a few dozen cars? If they could get a speeder with the capacity of a transport helicopter, wouldn’t that be better? Surely, they could find a way to move fifty or sixty people without moving an Ark designed for tens of thousands.

Yara was still nervously bouncing her leg as she drank bubble tea in the Hall of Heroes when the message came back.

"We have no volunteers to go with an Ark. They view it as too high of a risk to send a whole Ark, as they attract attention from monsters. The Commanders have requested that I look for a speeder that can do the job."

"Does that even exist?"

Kalli shrugged. "Probably?"

Kalli searched through the expanded store options that she had gotten after the last trial, and found that not only was there an option, there were multiple, and one of them was actually impressive in its opulence.

{Marimgar Class Landing Craft} 6 metre x 20 metre internal cargo area, 6 twin linked laser cannons, 2 turret-mounted Plasma Cannons. Maximum lifting capacity 50 tonnes. Full operations require 4 crew members. 500 mana per hour consumption at full flight speed.

{Cost} 250,000 points

It wasn’t armoured, it was designed for maximum cargo capacity. But 500 mana an hour? If they didn’t charge that in advance, they were going to struggle hard to feed it.

Perhaps there was something smaller than that?

Her wallet would appreciate it.

{Mercy Class Utility Speeder} Seats 20, can be reconfigured as an air ambulance or cargo freighter. Maximum lifting capacity 4 tonnes.

{Cost} 5,000 Points

The Mercy Class speeder was an ugly thing. A box with an angular slanted nose, and stubby wings with tall tips to house dual rudders, plus a canard near the nose.

It really did look like someone tacked rudimentary wings onto a delivery van, but it would do the job.

As the listing said, it was also an air ambulance, and it was well sized for that, with room for two or even three patients, plus attendants and storage cabinets.

But not much more.

Getting a full twenty people in there would not be a pleasant or comfortable experience for anyone involved.

Though, they could stand if it was set up for cargo, and that would let them fill the speeders much closer to capacity, while giving them comfortable room to hold a ten-person strike team in the back, with a pilot and navigator in the front.

That seemed like how they would usually be used, but Kalli was planning to send them empty on their first mission.

The rescued family members might miss their vehicles, but Kalli was shocked that they had made it as far as they had while travelling overland. It might have only been because they were in the desert, where there wasn’t much to begin with. But to get to Marimgar, or even to the shore, they would have to go through some real danger.

Going over it in a speeder was a much better call.

"What about these? If I send four of them, that will cover eighty people, or sixty plus four tonnes of supplies and gear. They won’t be able to take their buses and other vehicles, but it’s a good start.

Or, they can load in standing, and likely get twice that many people inside.

They’re also fast enough that they can make it out and back in a day. I know that you’re eager to get there, and if you can arrange a team to leave soon, you should make it there in time to make it back before dark, if they don’t fight you too strongly about abandoning their convoy."

Yara nodded. "That’s the part that I’m worried about.

The vehicles that they are in are from before this all started. Armoured family security vehicles. They’re not going to give that up easily. That’s why I thought that the Ark would have been such a wonderful idea, since it could bring the vehicles back."

Kalli sighed. Even the stupidly expensive landing craft couldn’t take their full convoy of vehicles in one trip.

However, it could do two trips in one day if you had enough mana.

"Give me two minutes and I will try to impress upon them the gravity of the situation, but I don’t think that they’re going to agree. At best, you can likely grab the civilians that they’re escorting, if there are any, and leave the rest with the convoy.

I’m assuming that they’re heroes, or at least mostly. If not, it doesn’t make much sense for them to still be alive.

No offence."

"Some taken. But I get your point. My family were actually quite formidable before all this. I suspected that there were still some alive, but we hadn’t found any proof of it. I think that they were in one of the family compounds, and simply not visible from satellite views."

Kalli smiled softly, downplaying her harsh words. "Should I message the others? Perhaps they are willing to set up a larger mission. However, getting there with APC convoys will take three or four days at the very best, and the round trip might take the whole month with heavy casualties at the worst.

I don’t know if we can ask that of the others."

"I will talk to them. If we can’t get an Ark, we will at least send a team to help them. I know I have that much support."