Moving spheres

[Ebiris]

"I'm thinking that our strength as a deterrent isn't to be underestimated right now," Alicia says as she sits at a round oak table with Strength of Light and Syala, its surface varnished to gleaming. "If we're asked for direct support we'll of course give it - I've no love for the efreet and our friendships with the Cauldron and Celestia are worth that much. But other forces are going to be looking to prey on their weakness and strike while they're distracted elsewhere. Simply knowing that Sylica has a large reserve that we will commit to their defence could keep other swords sheathed."

She pauses a moment then adds, "Of course if the efreet actually look to be winning that changes the calculus..."

[Anastasia]

"Of course," Strength of Light says, "We also need to make sure that all of the forces involved understand that." He leans forward, elbows on the table as he adds, "Some sort of demonstration, not anything to drag us in or get a war declaration, but to firmly point out we protect our friends."

[Ebiris]

"A show of force, or at least capability," Alicia agrees. "Appearing at a battle would be too provocative even if we only intended to observe I guarantee we'd get drawn in." She drums her fingers on the table softly. "Perhaps an unrelated target on Fire or the Astral that we could attack and destroy as a means of showing our reach and decisiveness? I remember years ago I helped take down a fortress of demons loyal to Jubilex on the astral plane to help Jamais with his crusade, something like that?"

[Anastasia]

"Carefully chosen. Appearing on Fire may be taken as enemy action if the efreet get wind of it," Syala remarks, "Or could be depending on how much the Grand Sultan expects us to intervene."

[Ebiris]

"I was thinking the astral may be better for that reason," Alicia agrees. "Though it needs to be visible, which given how empty the astral plane is presents its own challenges..."

[Anastasia]

"Are the gith an option?" Strength of Light says, "Seira maintains a balancing act between her realm and Vlaakith's on the Astral. Pushing the gith into the war against the Cauldron is risky." He hums a bit, "But the gith are hardly the only Astral residents."

"It's probably better if we don't upset that. Sharess has told me that she's keeping an eye on the balance of power. Vlaakith is disgusting, but she's also not our primary enemy right now." Syala says, "So she can wait a little longer to get a hammer to the face."

[Ebiris]

"They're not involved, but us attacking them would absolutely draw them in on the efreet's side. Not an option," Alicia shakes her head. "Something like demons or unaligned undead, maybe? Actually we're overthinking this," she decides. "A war game is easily arranged without needing to worry about picking the right foes. We can send a strong force out to do some mock battles... hmm, perhaps where Aurora and Hell caused that planar rift to Hades? It's still monitored by a lot of groups so it should send the right message."

[Anastasia]

"We have our own monitoring there, just a small handful of celestials cooperating with the other celestials there," Syala remarks, "I like it."

[Ebiris]

"I'll have my avatar oversee the war games directly, to make perfectly clear the level of commitment we're willing to put on the astral or anywhere else we need," Alicia decides, nodding as they gravitate towards this plan. "We'll have to dig into our reserves and slow down our expansion into the new portions of Sylica, but we can put out a force similar to what we have on Aurora and have it ready to go at a moment's notice, while still having a solid core in reserve to draw on if things escalate further."

Which amends the realm calculus, subtracting 5% from Realm Production and 5% from Rest to make a 10% commitment to Efreet War Reaction Force.

[Anastasia]

Technically it's grown a bit since then, but yeah, close enough. Go ahead and post this intent over in that thread.

[Anastasia]

"Then how fast will we put this together?" Syala asks, as...

Really just asking how fast you want to get this moving.

[Ebiris]

"Lets prioritise it," Alicia says, as indeed her avatar is already getting to work mobilising forces and pulling them off other duties or cutting into their leisure. "This war's already gone hot, we need to make our position clear before any opportunists can take advantage."

[Anastasia]

"Then when do you want us ready to go?" Strength of Light asks.

[Ebiris]

"As soon as possible, I'm organising it now," Alicia says, her avatar being handy for that.

[Anastasia]

Thus all of you arrive.

The former battleground is largely a field of debris now. A free floating field, watched over by occasional groups - including the devils, as you know from Ebony's reports. It is silent and peaceful as the Silver Sea usually is as...

Go ahead and make your big entrance here and describe your plans, we'll go from there.