Joseph Stone stared at the data on his terminal with a dumbfounded look while his daughter-in-law paced in his office with worry.
"...Run that by me, one more time?"
"Damn it! Pops, the explanation won't change no matter how many times I repeat it."
The woman's agitation and anxiety grew even more at that question before she explained what they found once again.
"The rifts are atomic in nature. That much we knew from the very beginning, since they were quite different from the regular wormholes used by the Titans, but recent breakthroughs show that these portals are completely different from anything we have even theorized so far."
"They are anchored to our very reality in such a way that they become part of our very physical law, becoming something so immutable that it becomes impossible to destroy, no matter the magnitude of power we or the Titans level against it."
"Even worse is that the rifts are only partially being powered from the other side. The rest of the energy is being siphoned from our own planet's tectonic activity! They are using our own energy to invade us and trying to destroy us!!"
Joseph's shoulders sagged as he heard her explanation once again.
"Any solution?"
"None! The only way that we can think of is to find a way through the rifts to the other side and manually shut it down from there. But there are three problems with that idea."
"One, we simply cannot go through the rifts due to some kind of safety mechanism built into it that prevents anything from our side from even touching the rift. Two, even if we did find a way, who are we going to send through? It would be someone who needs to know that it will be a one-way trip. Three, given how they are opening so many rifts at once, it is clear that they have an extensive network of these rifts on the other side, which means we need to find a way to hit this network all at once to effectively stop this invasion, which is easier said than done since we know literally nothing about what is on the other side."
"Simply put, there is nothing we can do with the current information we have."
"Then, what do you propose?"
Samantha Stone stopped pacing and whispered in a grave tone.
"Project Ark. Lord Green Sun's contingency plan. We need to push up its testing phase. It is the only alternative should we fail in finding a solution to this invasion in time."
Joseph nearly shot to his feet in denial, but his rationality prevailed, making him sigh and nod at his daughter-in-law's words.
Project Ark was something that Rayquaza had once come up with during the initial days of the invasion. A plan where Hoenn would spearhead the construction of spaceships capable of transporting all life on the planet. Plants, animals, titans, hollow earth species, literally everything that was not nailed down, away from Earth, should he, his siblings, and the rest of the titans fail to stop the invasion due to one reason or another.
Of course, this was only a hypothetical scenario since Rayquaza was very sure of his and his kin's abilities, so Joseph and the Hoenn Council had only assigned enough budget for the plan to keep it chugging along at a relatively fast pace, but not enough to make it appear priority number one.
However, looks like they will have to change their stance for now.
"I will pass down the order. Do what needs to be done, Sam."
"....Thanks, Pops. This is just a precaution since we don't know everything about the rifts yet. Who knows? Maybe we won't even need the plan. But, as the Green Sun says-"
"Hope for the best but preparing for the worst. I know."
Joseph finished her sentence and watched her rush off to begin her work, his eyes then falling to the photo on his desk, which showed his son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and himself near the Sky Pillar a long time ago.
A long time before his son died at that strange village called Santa Soledad, which worshiped a Titan called Cai Cai Vilu and wanted to keep its existence a secret, no matter the cost.
Joseph, of course, retaliated later on and ensured that this village's culture was completely wiped off the world and made sure these monstrous people had nowhere to go in the world, reduced to wanted criminals after Joseph dug up all their past crimes, done in the name of maintaining the secrecy of their Titan, but the damage was already done.
His son was already gone, and no amount of vengeance would bring him back.
"What do we do now? Steven? What would you have done in my place?"
The old man sighed and got back to work. There are a lot of things that need to be done and not enough time to waste.
'First things first, I need to speak with Marshal Pentecost and discuss the details of Project Ark. We will need the PPDC's forces and their public relations if we are to carry out such a monumental task.'
'I also need to speak with our allies and convince them to gang up on the rest of the countries. We cannot afford humanity to be divided any longer and take their idiotic, racist, and nationalist views into outer space.'
'I also need to start expediting the process of retrieving every single culturally significant relic across the planet. We cannot afford them to be lost with the planet should we fail to defeat the invaders.'
Then, he hesitated as he spotted another old picture, one that looked like he had once been on the verge of tearing it into pieces but kept it intact nonetheless.
'...And, I need to contact those two fools, Archie and Maxie. Despite our differences, they should still be able to see the big picture at this moment.'
With his plans made, Joseph Stone got to work on gathering old and new allies, friends, and enemies all at once.
All in the name of saving all the living creatures that call Earth home.
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