079: Truth and lies
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Well, that rules out the first answer from being "Nobody," and confirms that the "Decades" answer was either random or a lie.  Let's find out who took the bait…

A few Arcane Eye spells quickly tell me where the battle rages, and Tongues tells me that the jets, boats, and uniforms on the soldiers are marked in Arabic, while Knowledge (Nobility) easily identifies Iran's flag.

My summons that happened to be wandering near enough to the battles are fearless: This is an obvious enemy, so they immediately attack to the best of their abilities… which is right in the spell description, come to think of it.

Sadly, I didn't really set these ladies up for war. The Bralani Azatas have pretty good bows… but a 144 skilled archers with very good bows doesn't help much against thousands and thousands of soldiers with assault rifles. Their natural Damage Reduction lets them take a LOT of punishment…but they're outnumbered by a ridiculous margin, and military assault rifles aren't exactly gentle. They don't last long.  The Hound Archons have better numbers, can instantly close the distance, and they wreck havoc with greatswords. There's no cover here, though, so when a hound archon teleports in, the soldiers who live long enough to react step back and cut loose at zero range with machine gun fire. And while I have a lot more Hound Archons here than any other summon… they're still vastly outnumbered, and they're warriors fighting soldiers. They lose quite quickly.  The handful of Lillend Azatas I have here ratherthan crafting for me? They don't even have DR, they're merely meat for the grinder. All my summons I left on this island are gone in a minute or two.

My copies, though? Their first swift action is spent on Greater Invisibility. After that, they spam Disintegrate Blast Calamities from the Destruction sphere of Spheres of Power. With Widen Spell. And Twin Spell. And Repeat Spell. And Quicken Spell. And Maximize Spell. And Persistent Spell. That caster level of 17 they have with Destruction works out to a blast radius of 130 feet where everything simply vanishes… and they get five of them in each round after the first, each of which deals 408 points of untyped damage across four doses… and bypasses all hardness.  Soldiers, tanks, planes, and boats caught in those blasts don't get a chance to fight back: Their first clue that one of my copies has targeted them is when they meet their maker. I also lose a big chunk of island with each blast, and a sizeable chunk of water beneath as well, which fills in with a roar from the surrounding ocean. I lose quite a few square miles of shoreline in this manner. That's OK, it's easy to replace.

My summoned creatures are all out of the fight within a minute or two. The entire invading army is gone in five.

Or so I think, until I see the drone flying under the island… why would they think that would help?  I suppose if they have something that can get through a Wall of Force, or somehow think the flying island is normal stone ….

My thoughts are interrupted by the blast which shatters the walls of force under the island; nothing falls, everything flies upwards as the drone turns into a ball of fire brighter than the sun and a shockwave goes forth from it, destroying everything in its path … other than the citadel:  The prismatic walls deal with the blast just like they do everything else. Evasion does the job, and I’m personally fine.  I expect my clones all are too.

I react by turning the clock back six seconds using the Time domain.  No nukes, thank you VERY much.

Of course, six seconds isn’t much.  At a manifester level of 18, though, with Overchannel to boost, the Temporal Acceleration power gives me three rounds as a Swift action… and I can get three swift actions per round if I don’t mind a little pain, and can get three standard actions in if I don’t mind being a little distracted, which I can also trade for swifts… so in a pinch, I have nearly two full minutes to play with… and a drone doesn’t have anyone inside, so I can affect that during a Temporal Acceleration.

For the first round, I greater Teleport to it, use a spell I don’t normally need - Spider Climb - and set myself on top.  I then start using the Disable Device skill.  It actually has a section for bombs - it’s treated as a complex mechanical trap, and takes 2d4 rounds; with my skill boosts, I don’t have any trouble with it.  There.  No more nuke.  

Wait… that took more than eighteen seconds.  Why is time still stopped?  

… don’t tell me…

Technological Wonders.  And I didn’t use Fleeting SPELL on a psionic POWER, as it’s a meta-MAGIC feat, and I need a meta-PSIONIC feat for that.  Wonderful.  I figured it would be effectively instantaneous, like a fireball… but no, it’s a duration.  Great.  Umm.  What now?

Well, at least I have time to think about the problem.  And I may as well look around while the clock isn’t ticking.

I do a sweep of the area under my island and the surrounding area, and find the boat that launched the drone… about thirty miles away.  A nice little patrol boat with an odd-looking launcher, currently empty.  Small enough that - compared to an aircraft carrier - it doesn’t seem a threat worth mentioning.  Packs quite the punch, though.  Everyone seems to be below decks, and bracing themselves.  The ship itself is turned directly towards the island… I’m guessing they’re expecting some really nasty waves, and… yes, that prow does look reinforced.  Heavily.  Well, it’s not going to be tested by the waves.

I may want to interrogate these folks.  The guys with the big bombs probably got direct orders from their superiors.  Of course, I can’t right now.  I could probably sink the ship, but… ah, there we go.  I wall the ship in with Walls of Force, blocking it in entirely, including underneath and above with the same trick I use to make horizontal walls of force for the island.  I then Dimension Door inside, and systemically go through the entire ship, looking for orders; I want to know who made this really bad call.  Unfortunately, these guys don’t seem to use paper.  At least they have a radar screen up that shows the location of all their friendlies… I take note of where they all are.

I then open up a storage Keyhome, and systemically remove all of the electronic equipment from the ship that I can (I can’t take the radios off the people holding them… I can affect objects, but only if they’re not “attended”) and put them in.  Minus their power supplies, I don’t want them doing anything once I figure out how to make the clock tick again and I can let the computers run.  I suppose a laptop would run in my timestream… as long as I already had all the software I’d need on it.  Which, you know, I don’t have right now.

Rant aside, I then destroy the ship entirely.  Disintegrate, Disintegrate, Disintegrate.  Vehicles only count as attended under fairly limited circumstances - they’re not creatures, but they do have their own saves.  So I turn the entire thing into dust.  When I figure out how to make the clock start ticking again, all of these guys will find themselves in a cage of force, with some black dust and no boat.  

I systemically do the same with every other vehicle I can find - which is presumably all of them, as I check the tactical screens on all of them as I systemically destroy whatever vehicles my time clones missed.  Eventually I do find a ship with actual paper printouts of the orders, signed by one… the name doesn’t mean anything to me, but the title? “Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”  Aha.  Well, that one was right too, apparently.  I take the copy of the orders.  I may need that eventually.  Not that I really need to take them to international court or anything.  Because I’m not in the UN, yet.

Which also, of course, means I don’t really need to stick to formal rules of war, although I largely should.  It’s not like these guys declared it or anything. Well, not that reached me, anyway.  Not that my number’s published… huh.  They may have tried?  Hard to say.  Well.  Still.  I know which country, and the leader within… what to do? Eh, local cleanup first.

A lot of people died today.  Soldiers, who were attacking another country without provocation.  Still people, with mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, children, friends, family, hopes, dreams, and fears - all gone. A terrible tragedy. So many deaths, so much destruction. They were soldiers engaged in an act of war, not civilians, so it was fully justified, and my conscience should be clean.

My conscience SHOULD be clean.  But all the same, I'm glad I don't sleep, as it means I won't be haunted by nightmares.

Oh, and I have a level up notice waiting. Of course, I just defeated an entire invading army.

I still need to figure out how to make the clock tick again. Especially as I can't die of old age….

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