Chapter 251: Step Up

Kalli messaged the Kalkan Fleet again, and this time she got a message from the Fleet Admiral.

{I can’t send you an Ark, but I can send you an evacuation shuttle from one of the larger Arks. It was meant to hold a thousand people, and while the range is limited in a single trip, it’s got an antimatter generator, and it can recharge overnight. It’s designed with cargo ramps, and that should take the caravan that Miss Yara wants to collect.

The issue will be getting it there safely. You’re going to need to send an escort because it doesn’t have any sort of weapons or shielding, and its maximum speed in the air is three hundred kilometres an hour.

That might be fast enough to outrun trouble, but it might not.

I will personally lead the mission. The evacuation shuttle is tied to only two biometric signatures, and that is myself plus Captain Kovalev, our Strategist.}

Kalli realized the situation. They hadn’t considered it before because Kovalev served a similar role to her own in the Kalkan Fleet. He couldn’t issue quests, but he was the source of their completion statue, and he got all sorts of System bonuses to planning missions.

But the command of the shuttle couldn’t be altered, and the only other person who could use it was the Fleet Admiral, who was not someone you would normally ask.

It was like asking the President or the King to head a rescue mission themselves.

While flying a rescue shuttle through hostile airspace.

However, the Fleet Commander had a class of his own, which Kalli had forgotten. But she knew that he had one, and he would likely need to start working on it.

He had certainly fallen way behind as his work kept him in the Arks, and he wasn’t on the front lines for the battles. He might have come out to do some gunnery detail, but she didn’t remember seeing him at all, so he was likely stuck in his office.

This outing would be good for him.

Even after all this time, nobody questioned his leadership, so he was most likely the best person for the job of keeping order in the city, and managing the populations of the Arks. But that didn’t mean that there were no other requirements on his time.

"Alright, we’ve got a vehicle from the Ark fleet. The Fleet Commander himself will pilot it.

Arrange for six speeders, one flight suit team, if they’re willing, and one ten person security force to fight on the ground. I will send four utility speeders with you to hold the flight suits and the ground force.

That should be enough for the job.

The transport has absolutely zero defensive capability, so you will need to do all the protection. It doesn’t even have a proper shield. That’s why I suggested six speeders plus the flight team."

Kalli’s explanation made Yara’s eyes tear up a bit, and she rushed over to hug the Coordinator, before pulling out her phone to start sending messages.

"Alright, we have six speeders, two heavy assault speeders, and the flight suit team, plus the utility speeders. My team will be the ground team. When will we be able to leave?"

Kalli checked the cameras before answering. "Give the Fleet Commander five minutes to launch the evacuation shuttle. Then, you can give him the briefing. He’s got the coordinates, and understands the situation."

Kalli purchased six of the Utility Speeders, four for the mission, and two for moving people around the area outside Marimgar.

Then, she sat and waited for requests as the team geared up for the trip.

"I don’t think that we are going to need too much. We’ve still got stock for a full-day battle, just in case. So, a day trip out and back to pick up a group of refugees, while flying over nearly everything, shouldn’t be too much harder on ammunition.

Perhaps a few more ammunition boxes that haven’t been assigned? That way we can reload rockets, or give the refugees ammunition for their rifles if they’re fighting when we arrive," Sanchez suggested.

Kalli nodded. "That shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll give you a dozen ammunition cases to select later. That’s two reloads per speeder if you need them, enough that it should get you to the destination at the very least.

The escape shuttle can fly higher than the speeders, so it can likely escape any sort of ground fire, but remember that the gravity plating on your speeders has limitations."

Sanchez nodded. "We remember. We tested it thoroughly during the battle at the Frost Giant City. It’s about a thousand metres above ground level., and that doesn’t seem to be affected by what type of surface we’re over.

Crossing the valley lake didn’t slow us down at all."

Kalli nodded. "I don’t know if it’s something to do with the plating, or a safety measure built into them, but it is what it is. Hopefully, that’s high enough that you don’t pull too many monsters."

"I think that we’ll be fine. From there we have a pretty good view of the area, so we’re unlikely to fly directly over any larger packs or villages.

If we skirt them, they shouldn’t chase."

That was enough for the rescue group to be satisfied, and they loaded all the spare crates into the speeders, two each, before loading the teams into two of the four cargo speeders that Kalli purchased for them.

It might get cramped, but if they had everyone stand, they could load well over a hundred people into the utility speeders. Not that it should come to that, when the Escape Shuttle was expected to do the pickup of the people and vehicles.

Still, better safe than sorry.

The flight suits could make the run, but they would be exhausted if they did. So, the pilots of the cargo speeders would take turns, and the team would nap until they were called upon to fight.

Ready at a moment’s notice, as any veteran soldier would say.

As the group left the city, racing off with the Ark well above them, where it would only attract attention if something was high in the sky, Kalli began to scan the satellite feeds, looking for signs that they might run into unexpected trouble.

The route was a straight line west southwest, past the old city of Danadomeh, which was now gone, lost to a Tsunami wave, and across nearly two hundred kilometres of open ocean before they reached the Tehaquian Desert.

Then, they would have to dodge dozens of monster tribes in the coastal regions, as the first four hundred kilometres of what used to be the desert were now a mix of volcanic ash plains and forest.

After that, they should have a clear shot across empty sand.