[X] Plan: Battle Plans
After dinner you, Archer, Oriko, Kirika, and Aunt Illya all said your goodbyes to Mom, and left her to finish packing her things for the visit with her parents. You made sure to make an extra stop in the Mikuni guest bedroom before leaving, to say goodbye to Amy as well. She was absent all throughout dinner, and you want to make sure you get to say goodbye to her before you head off into the unknown that is tomorrow.
"Be a good girl for mom, okay?" you say, cuddling Amy close to your chest. She gives off an obstinate "Mew" as though she doesn't want you to leave – you aren't fooling yourself; you know she's smart enough to know that you're leaving – and it takes all your willpower to set her down rather than to stay with her like she would prefer. "I have to go," you say amidst her protests. "I'll see you tomorrow, Amy, I promise. So just be a good girl for Mom until then. Get in your travel cage when she needs you to, and be nice to grandma and grandpa."
"So, dad, you planning on coming back here again after we're done?" Kirika asks. With a sly look on her face as Archer turns to her, she nudges him with her elbow, adding "I'm sure mom would love it if you could say goodbye to her before she has to go."
"I know she would, pumpkin," Archer says, never once giving Kirika the footing she needs to keep going. "We'll see. It'll depend on what things look like when we're done here tonight. I'm not sure I'll want to keep making trips back and forth, back and forth, but if it's for your mom…"
"Speaking of, Akemi-san?" Oriko addresses you, and you turn to her when she asks for you. "What will we be doing about sleeping arrangements? It's a bit far from my mansion to Downtown where the fighting is likely to be; will we be staying at your building, perhaps? Tomoe-san's building, if she allows us?"
"Whatever will put us closest to the action tomorrow, I'd imagine," you say. "Actually, earlier I had brought up to the Saints the idea of making camp in proximity to Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed, so we'd have a better chance to intercept Sidonia before she could make her move."
Oriko shakes her head. "I would advise against that," she says. "I think it's a good idea, on paper, but in practice the idea scares me. It's very possible that Sidonia has rigged the entire site with explosives; she would have to have, unless she has some other way of bringing Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed to the surface to perform her ritual. We should be very careful about how close in proximity we make camp, if that's what we end up deciding, or we may be taken by a fatal surprise before we're actually able to intercept Sidonia."
"We might not have to worry about that," Archer says. "When Rin and I went into her workshop the first time, I saw an eight-pointed array of unknown origin lining the floor in the chamber where she was keeping Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed. It might have just been used in refining the Grief, since she had massive glass tanks of Grief set up on each point, but if it's not she might not need to bring it to the surface to complete her ritual."
Oriko's eyes go wide, and she nods her head. "Still, I would be too afraid of explosives Sidonia had planted beforehand to be comfortable camping out in close proximity," she says. "I wish I could tell you what we're in store for tomorrow, Akemi-san, but… If I could just get over her perception-blocking, none of this would have had the chance to happen in the first place."
"Don't beat yourself up over it."
You've made sure to text Hitomi and Tomoe-san, and Oriko has texted Nurse Ortensia, and everyone is going to be at the warehouse tonight for one final team meeting. SO, this is it, the moment of truth. Silence falls over the warehouse as you take up a seat at the head of the operations table, and here we go.
"Good evening," you say. "Tomorrow is the big day, and I wish I had getter news to give. But, at least we know what we're up against." Courtesy of Hijiri Kanna, who is sandwiched between Wakaba Mirai and Kanna Niko, kept from leaving the table and squirrelling away to some corner where she can self-hate. "Before we get started, I think it's appropriate that we remember to keep things simple, and flexible. We may know what we're up against, but even still we don't know what we're up against is capable of, so we need to be able to adapt to a changing situation on the fly."
"Well, we know one thing we'll be up against, "AsamI Saki says. "What should we do about Saber? At the moment, he's still her heaviest hitter, and even if we assume Sidonia's made some changes since the last time we saw him, we still have a general idea of what we can expect. So…?"
"That's easy," Kyouko says. "Just let Killer take care of'em. Killer's fucking invincible; and I ain't just exaggerating, either. Unless his heel gets nicked, ain't a single fucking thing your old Saber can do ta touch him."
Asami Saki stares; "And if his heel gets nicked, then what?" she asks, which causes Kyouko to back down from her previous bluster. "I don't imagine you'd be too happy if your overconfidence got him killed, would you?"
"To say nothing of the fact that Sigurd is a descendant of Odin," Oriko says. "He'll have the necessary divinity to cut through Rider's protection, regardless; wouldn't he?" And again, Oriko's words cut Kyouko's former bluster down to size. "Let Lancer handle Sigurd. She's the one he wants to fight, first and foremost."
"Right, but what if Sigurd manages to kill her, too?" Aunt Illya asks. "I might not know much about what his parameters are like, but I imagine he'd be pretty strong; maybe even equivalent to King Arthur. Can your Lancer take him when he's being backed up by whatever shenanigans Sidonia has at her disposal, and are you prepared to let your servant die to take him down?" When Aunt Illya's words cause Oriko to back down, she offers up another proposition. "Let Berserker handle Sigurd. He's the strongest hero there is."
"I'd be inclined to agree," Archer says. "At least, on paper. The problem is Sigurd's Noble Phantasm, Gram. It's as strong as Excalibur at full throttle. If Sigurd unleashes Gram on us, first, there will be a chunk of city that simply no longer exists. Second, there's a good chance that a full-power strike from Gram will take multiple lives from Heracles. He might be able to defeat Sigurd, but I'd prefer that Heracles keep as many lives as possible going into the fight against Sidonia's Beast. I have a feeling we're going to need them there."
"Well, if one Berserker's no good, how about two?" Kirika and Maki Kaoru have teamed up, and Maki Kaoru says "Both Kure and me have pretty strong Berserkers, stat-wise. Maybe if you're worried about conserving your aunt's Berserker for Sidonia's Beast, you could let me and Kure handle things?"
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Archer asks, more to Kirika than anything else. "It's going to take a lot of mana to keep those two fuelled while they're fighting Sigurd, and I'm not sure if our eggheads would be able to throw together any more Mystic Codes to keep you both at capacity. Are you sure you're both up for that?"
Maki Kaoru gives an affirmative nod of her head, but Kirika looks unsure. If you had to guess, her ability to keep Berserker fuelled will depend on how much mana Oriko is able to top her off by when they reconvene in private later tonight. Why you didn't just insist that your eggheads make another transmitter and receiver for Oriko and Kirika specifically, you don't know.
Maybe they'll surprise you and pull one out of thin air before tomorrow.
"Not to mention," Archer says, not just to Kirika and Maki Kaoru, but to everyone, "I'd like to reiterate the important part of fighting Sigurd; that he not be allowed to fire off Gram. Whoever fights him, needs to be tanky enough, or have enough means of erecting magical defences, that they can stop Gram or survive a hit if we're unlucky enough and he gets one off."
"If Sigurd's Noble Phantasm is a problem, then why not, oh, I don't know, make use of me?" Assassin pushes her way past her master, who shoots her a glare but is cut off before more than an annoyed "Assassin, don't-" which is promptly shut down by Assassin. "Since all of you have been holding me back from actually doing any of the fighting, I suppose you'd all forgotten that I have a Noble Phantasm that is specifically designed for breaking swords. Caster's attack merely took the tip off, the last time they fought, if your report was accurate, but my Sword Breaker will destroy Gram. I will render it unusable in his hands, and free Lancer up to kill him a second time."
"Sister, are you sure?" Scáthach asks. "You could die. I- I just got you back, sister. I know you've said you don't really enjoy the modern era, but if I lost you, so soon after finding you again, I'd-"
Despite the annoyance on her face directed towards her servant's rudeness, Nurse Ortensia has no choice but to agree with Assassin. "I'm confident that Lancer and Assassin, if they work together, can defeat Sigurd," she says. "Maybe even without suffering any casualties, with a little luck. I would prefer to have one additional fighter held in reserve, in case we're right and Sidonia is able to summon Gudrun alongside Sigurd, but if not then those two should be enough to do it."
"Yes, but what about the shard of Dáinsleif?" Tomoe-san asks. "Caster and I are safekeeping it, but assuming Sidonia is able to reclaim it, Assassin's Noble Phantasm would be greatly appreciated. However, if we show it off against Sigurd, Sidonia might not give her a chance to use it again against Dáinsleif."
"Well?" Asami Saki asks you. "You're the one coming up with our plan for tomorrow. What do you think?"
[ ] Let Rider handle Sigurd
[ ] Let Heracles handle Sigurd
[ ] Let Berserker and Boudica handle Sigurd
[ ] Let Lancer and Assassin handle Sigurd
[ ] Come up with another plan, and have someone else handle Sigurd
"Now, Oriko, as we were walking over here, you mentioned being concerned about Sidonia having mined the area around Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed as a reason against making camp in its proximity," you say. Oriko nods her head, and that's when you say "So, on the topic of that, next, I think it might not be a bad idea for us to do a round of mine-sweeping in the area, just in case your hunch was correct."
Again, Oriko nods her head, and says "I think that would be agreeable," to you. "I could use my drones to make barriers around any mines we found, and remotely detonate them from a safe distance."
It's now that Misaki Umika raises her hand. "It might be dangerous of us to do this," she says, telegraphing her idea into all of your heads, "But maybe, after we're done minesweeping the area, we could take all of the explosives we've got sitting in our old base, and counter-mine the area? With enough magic-users on our side, we could probably figure out how to hijack the fuses and detonators away from Sidonia. That way, if she tried to get to Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed, we could just try blowing it up on her?"
"Yeah, but then we'd have to actually move them from our old base to here," Wakaba Mirai says. "Those things are pretty touchy, and if we mess up transporting them, there goes a few city blocks. We'd need my bears to move them, since I don't really trust any of us to do it and not get blown up first."
"Except, a big chain of bears moving almost two-dozen explosives from one city to another would certainly draw Sidonia's attention," Hijiri Kana says. When eyes turn on her, she shrinks back into her creator's shadow, as if regretting she had even spoke up at all. "Trust me. I know how that woman operates, and I'm positive she'd spot us if we tried moving all those explosives."
"Well then we'll just make you move them, how about?" Wakaba Mirai says, nudging Hijiri Kanna, perhaps more roughly than she perhaps deserves, for simply sitting there and trying to contribute. "You put them there in the first place, right? Nobody'll care if you get blown up."
It takes glares from Kazumi, Asami Saki, and Kanna Niko to make Wakaba Mirai back down. "Anyway, with that being said, and I know we asked you this before, Akemi," Wakaba Mirai says, "What are we going to do about keeping our squishier people safe?" Again, Wakaba Mirai gives Hijiri Kanna a stronger nudge than she perhaps deserves, for sitting there and doing nothing. "I mean, personally, I'd be fine if we chopped off her remaining limbs and stuck her in a backpack so I could carry her around with me. That's all she's good for, right, being my battery?"
"You can't!" Kazumi shouts. "Why are you being so mean to her, Mirai? I know she's hurt us, but that's just so unfair to say to her! She's already suffering just from having lost her arm, and you want to chop off her other limbs, too?"
"Why are you sticking up for her?" Wakaba Mirai snaps back at Kazumi. "She's the reason all this happened! So what if I'm being mean to her; it's still better than she deserves! She's lucky I'm even okay with using her as a battery, and that I don't just-"
"We're not going to chop her other limbs off just to make things more convenient for you," Kanna Niko says, changing the subject back to the task at hand. She hesitates, but Hijiri Kanna doesn't push her away when Kanna Niko lays an arm on what remains of her right shoulder. "Frankly, aside from it being… Kind of embarrassing, I'm sure, I don't see a problem with stuffing her inside one of your teddy bears, and then using our magically-inclined servants to up-armour that. Maybe, if we put a little extra something in the right arm, she could even contribute to the fighting in her own way, like that."
"Actually, why don't we just use Rider?" AsamI Saki suggests. "I mean, you're finally able to support him now, right Mirai? He'll already be out and fighting, so why don't we just stuff her, and anybody else that's too squishy to fight, like Shizuki, into Rider's big flying boat and have him keep them safe?"
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that," Kyouko says. "Fucking bullshit is what that boat is, but if it'll keep Seaweed safe while we're all wailing on that Sidonia bitch, more power to him."
"Perhaps, Wakaba-san, if you were willing and able to support him, you could also have Ramesses engage his third Noble Phantasm on top of Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed?" Tomoe-san asks. "It would be an added layer of protection on top of all our other means of keeping it away from her."
An "Uh…" escapes Wakaba Mirai's lips. "I should be able to provide for him, since I'm drawing mana from Kazumi and her," she says. "But, I've never tried supporting Rider while he has his whole temple complex thing up before, so I don't know… I'll certainly give it a try, but I can't really guarantee it'll last the whole fight, so we should probably be careful about when we have him deploy it."
"Please do," you say to Wakaba Mirai. "Now… Oriko, I believe, you and Lancer were the ones working on those Luck charms, correct? How are those coming along?"
"I believe that Lancer is making good progress working on them," Oriko replies. "I can't guarantee that we'll be done with all of them tonight, but we will definitely be done before tomorrow morning, and we may even have a handful ready to go in a couple of hours." Oriko nods her head towards Hitomi, who has so far remained rather quiet throughout this meeting, and she says "I believe we would go quicker if we had Shizuki-san working with us."
"That shouldn't be a problem, Mikuni-san," Hitomi says. "Perhaps if they aren't busy either, I can ask Tohsaka-san and Matou-san if they would also be willing to help."
"Please do," you say. "As long as they're ready to go by tomorrow, that's fine, but the sooner that we know they'll work, the better."
Hitomi lets out an affirmative-sounding grunt as she nods her head, when a thought strikes her "Archer, if I might?" she asks, drawing your father's attention. "Earlier, you gave Saber a pair of spears that belonged to his Lancer incarnation, yes? Perhaps you would be willing to do the same for some of our other servants as well?"
"Yeah, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Archer replies. "Did you have anything specific in mind? I doubt I could outfit Saber with anything better than those, or at least not with anything that he would be more familiar with. But if you or anyone else had anything in mind for some of our other servants…?"
"How about something for Berserker?" Aunt Illya asks. "For, uh, obvious reasons, we weren't exactly able to bring his usual stone club with us on the flight over. So if you could outfit him with something better, I'd really appreciate it."
"What about my Berserker?" Kirika asks. "He can use anything, right? So maybe you've got something in mind that'll burn through less of my mana than his sword will?"
"I'll see what I can pull out of my hat that might be appropriate," Archer says. "Are you sure the rest of you don't want anything in particular? I promise you, I'm very flexible."
"Perhaps shoving unfamiliar weapons into our hands isn't the best idea this late in the game," you say. Turning to the rest of the team, you ask [ ] "Now, is there anything else we need to cover?"
If there isn't, [ ] What do you do afterwards? (write-in)
