The Bunvorixian Freedom Initiative sure put a lot of thought into not causing destruction for this demolition project. Maybe if I got good at that, the Power Brigade would let me do something similar in New Bay. If I could take down just an enemy base, that wouldn't be collateral damage now would it?

Except those were often underground, and collapsing tunnels would usually cause trouble above and Meteor Swarm wouldn't work well inside. Spatial Rift would probably do a lot, but not always in a good way.

So it looked like I was probably staying in the 'minimize collateral damage' crew, which was everyone since if you only affected your target it wasn't collateral damage.

"If this tower falls on the surrounding buildings…" Flopan was reviewing the assessments. "It shouldn't cause a chain reaction, assuming they are up to code. However, that depends on how aggressively the top crashes down. It might still harm innocents within adjoining buildings, so we must be careful to complete the demolition precisely as intended. Do you think you can actually do that magic you suggested?"

"Absolutely," I said. "The biggest issue will be coordinating with the timing of the rest of the crew."

"If everything goes well," Flopan commented. "Then we shall have significant warning."

He must not have done many practical missions. Everything going well was the least likely option. People had shot at us on our last stealth mission to try to subtly disable things.

-----

I took a good hard look at the rock in my hand and the image of the planet it came from. In theory, nothing should be there which made it perfect for our plans. It was also one system over, which should be vaguely optimal for Gate.

I hadn't felt the strain of Scrying on my Nondetection spell in a while. We had to hope that nobody knew any of the specific resistance members, but Midnight and I were keeping the Earthlings protected as well. Currently our whole crew for the same price, actually. Multicasting was a three to five ratio at the moment. I expected it to take a long time to reach three to six at the current rate of improvements there.

Invisibility would be good. We should have had Bolster with us. I certainly wasn't trying to learn every utility spell myself. But of course, our departure had been somewhat… spontaneous. The Power Brigade tended to keep most people busy, so not having her available at just the right time was expected.

The six of us- myself, Midnight, Honey Badger, Kick, Flopan, and a spaniel named Kirk who was our explosives guy- all snuck through various tunnels only to pop out in a different place from before, a few blocks down from our target. Those of us who were humanoids had disguise spells that would work unless someone actually looked at it. Not really a resounding endorsement, but that was what we had.

We were moving at night, with the idea that people would be less prepared- and there would be fewer people in the surrounding office buildings if something went wrong. Just because the Bunvorixians wanted to blow something up didn't mean they wanted people to get hurt. It was a bit naive, but I imagined they would at least take down leadership like Spot. If not, I would do it when I got the chance for my own reasons.

The few 'cars' that passed us were fliers far overhead, and there wasn't anyone walking along our route. We did glance a few people several blocks down, but they didn't seem to be looking our way.

Then, we were close to our target. I cast Fly with Multicasting, using the normal maximum value. I almost overshot, but I kept the spell nice and predictable. Hopefully, it would work as expected- the last time I'd done it we had too much downward momentum to overcome in an instant.

A moment later, we were floating off the streets. Those who hadn't experienced it before floated a bit off target, but the rest of us were holding onto them as they got used to it. We were about half a block away, angling up towards the roof of the building that was the base of the radio tower adjacent target.

We didn't run into any immediate trouble as we drifted upwards above the fortified section. At that point, Honey Badger, Kick, and Kirk all latched onto the building. Our explosives canine began to direct the other two on where to cut into the structure- one with a slightly upgraded axe, the other with some recently installed laser improvements.

Kirk flew around marking further points with different colored sprays, until he had circumnavigated the tower. "Flying is great," he commented.

I nodded in acknowledgement of the curly haired spaniel. "It's pretty convenient. We don't have forever, though."

"It's a tight timeline," he acknowledged. "But I'll get things set up as quickly as possible."

Soon enough he began shoving explosives packed around him and carried by the rest of us into the various incisions. We were about halfway around when something started shooting at us from the ground. A squad of grounded soldiers, fortunately over a hundred feet away. I didn't have a good way to take them down without risking killing some- not with my spells being unstable.

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Midnight served as a distraction, casting Energy Ward on himself and flying tantalizingly close. They were causing some collateral damage which might be blamed on us, but there wasn't much we could do about that. Flopan was recording things for some anti-propaganda measures, but it was a tough thing for them to manage, with most of their videos being taken down swiftly. Still, the more they did that the more the government was destabilized- at the very least their censors would be exposed to the truth. The Freedom Initiative was capable of overcoming all of the automatic responses, at least.

"We've gotta hurry," I commented. "I'm sure they've called for backup."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Kick complained. "This outer layer is pretty durable."

"Just think about the incoming flying saucers," I said.

I wasn't sure if people actually got faster. Kirk announced he was ready just as the first saucer shot at us… hitting the tower and setting off all of the explosives. People were blasted away- I was far enough back to only be slightly shaken. "Midnight! Alter Portal!"

This whole thing was going to come down. Before I even finished my words, my mana was channeling into a Gate spell as I called upon my connection to a specific planet through a rock sample. In a way, my allies being blasted away was the best possible result- I couldn't accidentally clip them with the edge of the Gate. The safety was very much in question as it tried to fill empty space.

Then the tower began to fall- into the Gate. Midnight had been on the far side of the tower distracting the ground crew, and now he was using his own mana to stabilize the spell as we shifted around to not be on the side with the flying saucer.

Honey Badger was charging straight for it. They probably didn't know what to make of a dog holding an axe- since the disguise only went so far, it was an amusing sight. They also probably didn't expect anyone to seek melee combat with a warship.

But that was precisely why he was effective. They didn't have weapons meant to take out people standing on their roof. As he began to chop into it, the ship spent more time swerving and spinning than shooting at us.

I'd looked away for a little bit too long, and hadn't noticed that the tower, while it was falling into the Gate, wasn't keeping a perfectly vertical angle. It was leaning- and that lean was accelerating.

"Midnight! We're moving the portal!"

My best buddy just latched onto my shoulder with his claws and directed his magic in the direction I pointed, even though I said something insane. Gate created portals locked to a location. They didn't move.

But it had to move. So it did. I angled it up and to the side, trying to catch the tower. I could see beneath it now, which was good. Technically, we'd succeeded in our mission. It was down. But the collateral damage…

My portal scraped against the edge of the tower, peeling off layers of reinforced metal and various other stuff. It shot off with massive force, crashing through windows- though to be fair, the flying saucer hit some of the nearby buildings first. Our collateral damage was less than the local government.

"I-I've got it!" Flopan was saying to someone. Later, I learned that he was streaming the whole incident. He picked good angles that made us look quite good, and managed to catch all the lasers that we weren't shooting.

Kick was, for his part, trying to pull the tower vertical. I don't know if he helped, but his heart was in the right place. He repeatedly had to let go as it kept pulling him closer to the portal, and his own mass was nothing compared to the building, but he might have slowed its fall.

The portal continued up and to the side at an angle, moving into the fall of the tower until finally, the last fifth of it was too far over, crashing against the edge of the portal that I overshot into it, bouncing back, tearing, and dropping.

As one, Midnight and I rapidly called upon new mana. Somehow, we created a new Gate that caught the falling tower. That was the good news. The bad news? Somehow, it connected to the Gate that hadn't quite faded as I released control, launching outward and spraying bits and pieces everywhere. But the overall momentum dropped as it went back up in the air far less than halfway to the height of its arc. With pieces torn off, it wasn't as heavy as it would have been and we just barely maneuvered our remaining Gate into the middle, where it cracked in two over the portal.

"Retreat!" Flopan called. I really hoped he wasn't recording that building. It looked bad. A hundred times less bad than if the tower had directly fallen on it? Almost certainly. But it was on fire- not our fault- and had a whole corner caved in.

"Raaagh!" Honey Badger hadn't really won his battle with the ship. It was still quite functional, and it took shots at him as he flew after us. It seemed they didn't care how much they damaged their own city. That was the grip of tyrants, I supposed.

Two Gates in, I didn't have a ton of mana left- but I had enough to Haste us all an uncomfortable amount as we reached the ground, darting down alleyways. As in, our movements outsped our mental processing. Our barbarian companion helpfully tested the turning radius by smashing into a brick wall, and we slowed down a bit on the corner.

Back into tunnels, Flopan expertly covered our traces. We even dropped down to a deeper layer. Why did Bunvorixians have so many convenient tunnels? Why were they so short?

Oh right, dogs. But hey, Hasted crawling wasn't so bad.

-----

I could really grow fond of this sabotage business. I hit level 43, getting about half a level all at once. That was supposed to be more difficult as levels went on, but maybe it was the combined durability or the total damage caused or going up against high tech stuff. Maybe it wasn't because 'mass property damage' was a new enemy. Either way, I got a lot. Midnight got less, but was getting closer to his own level.

Oh right, and mana recovery was correct now. Or at least, not suppressed. I wasn't sure if it was correct, because there had been a huge burst and I was practically flooded with it. It mostly happened at the very end, when we busted the top of that tower.

I hoped the Bunvorixian Freedom Initiative was as pleased as I was. If not… well, we were leaving soon anyway. It would just affect how eager they were to retain future contact.

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