Several minutes had passed since Alex sat back down "I don't know how long I'll be out of commission, I feel weak, almost sick really. I won't be any help in the fight coming up, and that makes me annoyed" he growled.

Gareth focused on driving the boat, Worlds and Society both went quiet as they stared at Alex with smug looks on their faces. The three players were glaring at them, things were slowly growing outside of the game, namely because at the center of the attack on Larian were the two unaffected friends of the four who were attacked by Ultima and his group. This caused the news to even pick it up, and promise updates of the situation. Alex was unaware of how big this really was becoming, continuing to stare out of the ocean. Lapis had a larger than normal chat, mainly of everyone from the Ark. All the players knew what was coming, but they couldn't tell the NPCs anything substantial.

"Alex, any rebels in The Ark Organization have already been captured, they were all sold out by loyalists" Lapis said. Alexander looked over at him "Thank you for that comfort Lapis, but I have a feeling the battle will so much worse, won't it. I feel it" Alex said.

At The Ark Organization, all the higher ups were seated around a large table "We are sure of what we picked up?" James asked again.

Arron gulped and nodded "Yes, there are several UFOs flying right at us, they don't look...friendly" the doctor said, wringing his fingers. 

"Get all the rebelling Lightforms into a room, engage project Frozen Corpse, we aren't dealing with them right now. Outfit all the Lightforms that helped us to find them, we are going to need to trust them right now. Give them our experimental equipment, if it explodes, oh well, useful data" James said, taking a deep breath.

"I say we try and make contact anyway with the aliens, besides, what advanced race would be stupid enough to not have some sort of cloaking or something, unless they were meant to be peaceful" a taller man said, objecting to James' ruling.

One of the female higher ups put her hand down, slapping the table "OR! and hear me out here Gavin, they could be a war ship who doesn't care about being spotted because they think we aren't worth that sort of effort" she growled "We are NOT taking a peaceful stance on this" she said.

The two quickly garnered supporters on either side, Arron wasn't sure what to do, but did follow the order to enable Project Frozen Corpse while they were arguing.

Minutes later, a phone call came in "HQ? HQ! This is officer Gareth, I have news for you, according to the captured Lightforms they have reinforcements coming. Lapis has said that support will mainly be in the form of planes! I've arrived at Ironclad and am using time to call you, please respond!" The officer said, speaking loudly over the phone.

The arguing higher ups stopped, Arron spoke up "Gareth, it's...it's not planes that are coming to attack us...The...The Lightforms have UFOs coming towards the planet at high speeds" he said "We picked them up not too long ago, the closest one will make landfall in one hour"

Gareth went quiet for a moment before yelling "You mean to tell me they're having aliens come to help them! I am continuing to HQ immediately!" He said, quickly hanging up.

With the new knowledge of what these UFOs were supposedly coming to do, those who wanted to be peaceful became quiet. If these aliens were coming to attack them, or try to recover the rebels, they would show that The Ark couldn't be messed with. "Contact other large nations, tell them the UFOs aren't peaceful, tell them that if they seek to help them, they seek to fight against us" James ordered, Arron nodded and finally left taking a deep breath as he ran to his team.

Jackson was grateful for the promotion he recently received, and the fact he got his own unit of the immortal Lightforms. However, he didn't expect his unit and others like it to be needed so soon. His unit was a group of twenty Lightform soldiers, each one had been provided with a standard issue stun rifle, as well as three stun grenades', several rounds of ammo, and combat knives. All things considered, they were rather lightly equipped for the mission, but Lightforms were immortal, so they weren't given so much protection. What they were given was the thing strapped to each of their backs, which extended to a thruster on the tops of their hands and down to their legs. A bulky tank of gasoline that didn't leave place for a backpack, and high energy thrusters. Only a prototype that had yet to actually be field tested, but his unit called the 'Sky Screamers' was built to use these.

It was a large team for just a sergeant, but he wasn't complaining about it. "Alright Lights! We have hostile forces inbound in ten minutes, they're approaching in a high speed interstellar vehicle. I don't think I need to reiterate how much it hurts me to say that and not be joking. Our mission is to intercept them, more are coming, but higher ups think that the smaller vehicles will likely hold less people. We are the frontline of this conflict! Do not kill your targets! We want them captured and detained, do not hesitate though to kill them with your knife it means saving your own life and saving us your respawn time! Any questions?"

A few moments passed, and there were no questions, Jackson took a deep breaths "Let's move!" he said, leading them all out. Like an oiled machine the players each got into a plane. Jackson was trained to fly this thing, and he took off, moving to intercept the UFOs at their supposed landing point. As he began flying he glanced to the direction of the ocean, as much as he hated that monster, he still wished he was here, but he would be arriving soon with Gareth, according to higher ups.

Arron monitored a set of cameras as the rebels slowly fell unconscious in the freezing room, it was cold enough to induce medical hypothermia, along with the addition of chemicals to further slow down the bodily functions before freezing. Once they fell into a coma they were taken to a large room and hooked up to life support just to keep them alive. More and more piled in, this was project Frozen Corpse, if Lightforms were killed they'd just reform, but in this method they were still technically 'alive' and unable to 'wake up' or deform. They were not able to respawn if they never actually died.

Arron was also listening to all of his team contacting other large nations and explaining the situation to them, some of the more chaotically aligned nations immediately showed interest in helping the Ark out, in exchange for military information exchange of course. Saris, outright rejected them, but also said they wouldn't be taking the side of the aliens. Other than those outliers though, some didn't answer and some also didn't talk when called.

The scientist rubbed his head "I'm going to go bald at this rate, do we have the experimental weapons ready?" he asked, turning to one of the scientists who was checking something over. The scientist nodded "Good, you're in charge of outfitting the Lightforms" Arron said "I want them out as soon as possible, we already have the premade units going out in different ways" he said before taking a deep breath and turning back to a camera that displayed an empty room. He had a strange feeling this was somehow Ultima's fault, but also that he could fix it, or help it somehow. That may just be wishful thinking on his part though.

Steve took a deep breath as he watched the TV rolled into his office, the game directors also there while he pushed aside the finished bowl of carrots he had brought up. 

"This just in, a number of players of the game Reality Dive have had their account suspended for trying to rebel against the NPC factions of the planet known as Larian. They claim that they were either frozen, knocked out and kept medically comatose in the game, or otherwise. This sudden change in rebel handling has been attributed to the War Guild's declaration of war on the NPCs, and that their actions in the game have warranted some level of retaliation from the NPCs. It is unknown if this is a pre-programmed choice, or an attempt to control the situation by the company responsible for the game at this point. In any case, the forces of the guild continue to advance onto the game world" the news anchor said, drinking her coffee while sighing, shaking her head "Back to weather, we will keep you updated on this situation as it changes"

Steve began to speak as he shut the TV off "So, what do you guys think of the plan?" he asked, folding his hands "Is it possible?" 

"It certainly is possible to manipulate the system like that, to be in favor of the attackers, and for them to be incentivized to kill Ultima. Though that means taking a stance on our thoughts, which we already have" One of them said "I can have them do that right away, but" he looked to the other directors.

"I think killing him is sudden" one director said "I mean, he's affected people physically sure, but shouldn't that be taken into account? What if he is way more than he seems" they said.

Steve nodded "I know it's sudden, but I'd rather him be gone than possibly affecting more people, dismissed, get it done" he waved them out. The game directors left after being dismissed, heading to the game management floor to get the plan into action. The plan was simple, further incentivize killing Ultima for The War Guild, and once he's dead, delete all of his data and leave an empty shell in his coffin. If there even was one.