They waited for a full minute in silence. A small frown formed on Camryn’s mouth. She cleared her throat.

“This is Colonel Thatcher, calling from the Solstice flagship. Please come in. Over.”

Silence followed once again. The colonel groaned and tried again. 

“This is Colonel Camryn Th—”

“Colonel Thatcher,” a voice from the speakers responded. Camryn’s lips curved up into a wide smile. Finally, they were getting somewhere. “This is Mayor William Hemmings, to what do I owe the pleasure?” the voice continued. 

“Mayor Hemmings! I have a proposition.” 

“Yes, I’m sure you do. I’ve been hearing about what’s happening up there, my deepest condolences to those who lost their lives. It seems like things are getting bad, we dantenites could feel the city rumble above us. I can’t imagine what horrors have been done.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go into detail. All I can say is that it’s not exactly a quiet night.” 

“Well, I assume you’re not calling to tell stories Colonel. What do you want?”

“Your help.”

A short silence followed. Camryn bit her lower lip, she already knew what the Mayor would say. It wouldn’t be all that surprising of a reply either. Considering the history of discrimination and silent hatred from Lunduneers. Still, the plan relied on the help of Dante. She had to try. 

“No. I’m sorry, Colonel.”

“I knew you’d say that. May I know why?” Time to employ that silver tongue. She thought.

The mayor cleared his throat and sighed. “Dante is not obligated to help in any way. The sovereign neutrality act states that should conflict happen in Dante or New Lundun. Neither is required to offer aid. We were given control over our city as a sovereign body, despite still being part of New Lundun; under the clause that we cannot interfere with your affairs. That goes for you too. You cannot ask anything of us unless it involves the safety of Lunduneers regarding Dante’s actions.”

“Yes,” Camryn hummed. “But Dante itself may be directly affected by this, especially if all of Anglestan goes to war. You would be dragged into it either way whether you like it or not. Do we really want things to escalate first before we get in on the action? If I remember correctly, there are also humans living in Dante, some of which have relatives here. Wouldn’t that be a predicament?”

“That may be true, but my priority is of my citizens here, and not of our cousins, brothers, or sisters that are somewhere else. Aside from that, we don’t want The Crescent Moon to invade us too. I cannot risk it, I’m sorry. I hope you take the city back for yourselves, but come what may, Dante wants no part in it.”

The colonel walked around in a circle, keeping her eyes to the floor. “William,” she began. “I understand where you’re coming from. Really, I do. But… what would Amelia say?” 

Soft murmurs were heard on the Mayor’s side. “Excuse me, colonel?” he said, surprise evident in the tone of his voice. 

“I asked,” Camryn said, her voice level and steady. “What would Amelia say? Sir William Hemmings? Aren’t you the son of the late Amelia Hemmings?” 

A low growl emitted from the Mayor’s side. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, Colonel. But I advise you to keep my mother’s name out of your mouth.”

The colonel’s lips curved into a sly grin. “But why? Is it a crime to invoke her name?” She placed a hand on her chest in mock offense. “The founder of Dante deserves recognition, does she not? I ask you, Mayor, what would she think? That you’re denying aid from people who are asking for it.”

“I don’t know what she would think. She’s been buried for eight decades!” the mayor cried out.

“Yes, but I doubt you’ve forgotten what she was like. The great Amelia Hemmings, savior of the rejected. Founder of Dante. The redemptor. The heart of all duskwalkers. That’s quite a title she has, you know?”

“I advise you to be very careful with your next words, Colonel.” 

“I have nothing but admiration for her, Mayor. Don’t get me wrong. Though, all I know of her are from the history books. You knew her personally, and so I ask you what she would think. Do you know why Dante was founded, Mayor? Why it stands today?”

“Don’t try to lecture me on history, Colonel. I was there,” a soft snarl escaping his words. 

“Just humor me, Mayor, please?”

Silence followed for about a minute before another sound was heard. Mayor Hemmings took a deep breath, exhaling into a low sigh. He took a pause to collect himself and remain civil. “She wanted those strigoi who fled the Crescent Moon, those who willingly surrendered themselves, and those citizens and innocent strigoi who were caught in the aftermath of the war, to have a safe place to live,” he said. “All without feeling alienated, threatened, or rejected. She gave us a place where we could be ourselves and live peacefully alongside humanity.”

“That’s right.” Camryn smiled. “It even included prisoners of war who sought to change their ways. Relatives of human families who were turned against their will. True borns who felt they had no place in the world. Amelia Hemmings gave that. She lobbied the Angles Government and fought tooth and nail to give your people rights, despite the still heated tensions after the War of Darkness.” 

“Why are you telling me this?”

“What was she, William? Was she strigoi?”

“No… She was human.”

“Why would she do that for the strigoi? Knowing full and well the horrors they’ve committed during the war. Knowing just how different they were from humans. Why would she ‘stick her neck out’ for bloodsuckers? History books gloss over this, saying she was a radical. But I think I know the reason.”

There was silence on the other end. Camryn cleared her throat, and looked toward her crew. All of which were silent as well, both interested and intrigued by the exchange. She allowed herself a small smile before crouching down and sitting on the floor. 

“It’s because you were turned. Right?” the colonel asked. 

“I—” the reply came almost immediately, and stopped just as quickly. A sigh emitted from the call, a soft rumble, and the creaking of an office chair. “I was captured by The Crescent Moon during the war, just a few days before it ended.” He started. “They turned me. Planned to use me as another pawn to fight for them. They knew no human would listen to a strigoi’s pleadings for peace or shelter in the battlefield, so most of those like me had no other options but to fight old allies. We were caught between being killed by the men we used to call our brothers, or silenced by our new masters.”

Camryn listened in silence, allowing the Mayor to recall the events. 

“When the war finally ended, and New Lundun opened their doors to everyone, I went home. But… it was no longer the same as the one I lived in when I was human. Everyone hated me. Looked at me with disgust, fear, contempt.” He cleared his throat. 

“But when my mother saw me, she was overjoyed. She said, ‘my son is alive’. She was the only one willing to listen to my story, care for me, and see me as her son underneath the creature I had turned into. Empathy. If there was something that set humans apart from The Crescent Moon, it was that one trait. My mother, most especially, had plenty to spare.” The mayor let out a soft chuckle. 

“She not only listened to my story, but countless other strigoi without fear. She became convinced that we were simply misunderstood, and should be treated the same as anyone else. She wanted to build a safe haven for us. The rejected. The disgraced.”

“And she succeeded,” the colonel replied.

“Yes. She fought for twenty years to found Dante. Up until her death. The approval was granted a day after she died, and I took over all the proceedings. All the groundwork. Construction. Laws. Economics. It transformed from a safe haven to a city. She never got to see what she had started, but her legacy lives with every single soul in Dante.”

Camryn smiled. “She really is an amazing woman,” she said. “I wish I could have met her. Sadly I was born eighty years too late. Though, without a doubt, if she saw Dante now, and what you’ve done? She would have been very proud, I’m sure.” 

“You may as well have won me over already, Colonel.” 

“So we return to my question. What would Amelia Hemmings think?”

A soft sigh emitted from the speakers, followed by a short silence. “She’d be disappointed in me,” he replied. “She’d say ‘damn all the neutrality, and all your laws. There are people out there who need your help. If you could lift a hand to pull yourself up, why not offer to one who needs it?’, then lecture my ears off about changing the system.”

“That sounds very much like her.”

“Colonel Thatcher,” the mayor rumbled from the other end. “What do you need of us?”

The colonel smiled, pushing herself off of the floor. She clasped her hands and whistled a long tune. “Well,” she said. “I need you to extend Dante’s purpose to some human refugees. Provide a safe haven, offer asylum, whatever. Protect our people. I got word from the higher ups that Westminis’ border is closing in an hour to halt the ground forces’ advance. An hour is not enough time to evacuate even half of the city.”

“And Dante is closer, I understand.”

“Not just that, but you’ll be our trump card. The Crescent Moon doesn’t know Dante exists. They have no knowledge on any developments after the non-aggression pact.”

“You’d have us join the fight too?”

“Not exactly, the Angles army will be the brunt of the fighting force. I have other plans for your assistance, but I feel that a formal meeting with the president and his generals would be a better way to communicate it. But if you’d like to, you could spare anyone from your police forces, we’re a little outmanned at the moment. We’ll be deploying the Jotunn Squad and Icarus Brigade. Our goal is to escort as many survivors as we can into Dante before we block off half of the city. Then we strike, and completely obliterate the main force.”

“And what of the surviving enemies on the other side of the blockade? Won’t they try to just climb over?”

“Not if they hear the screams of their brethren and the deafening silence that will follow after. No. Obliterating such a large force would deter them enough to rethink climbing over the debris blockade.”

“You’re using shock and awe.”

“It only works once, Mayor. So might as well throw in something to make them lose their minds.”

“I’m not sure about this.”

The colonel smiled to herself and walked over to her seat. “Don’t worry Mayor,” she said, plopping herself on her chair. “Humanity has more than a few tricks up its sleeve. We’ve been very, very busy lately. We just need time to properly prepare them. A patient hunter is a successful one.”

“You’d be letting the enemy establish themselves, though. With that time, they might as well have built their bases on the other half of the city.”

“That’s what I’m betting on. Let them bite, before I reel it in.”

“Hmm,” Mayor Williams hummed in deep thought. “You can count on us to take in the people, but I’ll have to think about sending my people up there, Colonel. I’m sure you understand. Though, rest assured, any Lunduneer coming through our doors will be met with open arms, and well cared for.”

“Thank you, Mayor.”

“No, thank you, Colonel.”

The line was dropped and the call ended. The colonel yawned and stretched her arms. “Well!” she exclaimed. “We now have a failsafe, and an ally on our side. Now it’s our turn to show these leeches who they’re messing with. Deploy the Jotunn, and get the Icarus Brigade ready to drop. The strigoi are up for a big surprise.” 

The officers and operators quickly went to work, they were going to deploy a few of humanity's newest toys. It was time to test just how effective they were on the battlefield. Though rescuing civilians would be the main priority, it wouldn’t hurt to put on a little show.

“Icarus brigade is ready ma’am.” 

“And the Jotunn?”

“Five minutes before deployment, the operators are doing final checks.”

“Good.”

“Colonel! We have an incoming broadcast signal,” Chester said, raising his hand. Camryn smiled and got up from her chair. “Splendid! From who?” she asked. 

“It’s… it’s from the U.N.A navy.”

Well then. Things just got a little more interesting.