Chapter 7 Part 1 of 3 (Patreon)

Major Wazny walked into the hangar located in the sprawling Alva military training compound, shared by the Army and the Air Force, on the water floor.

“Attention!” one of the soldiers called out. The group that was loosely gaggled between the different displays of systems snapped to attention.

“Got some situational awareness,” Wazny muttered to Captain Xia. Her left sleeve was empty, still regenerating with the scars on her face and patch over her eye.

“Maybe they can see better than me?” she asked wryly.

Wazny let out something between a grunt and a laugh as they stopped before the group.

Wazny saluted the man out front. “At ease. All right, so all of you want to be Sparrow pilots,” Wazny muttered, finding them lacking.

“Reservists raise your hands.” They did so.

“Reg force?” They did so.

“Nice fifty-fifty split nearly.” Wazny leaned on his cane and pulled out a folder and read it. “You lot are one fucking mess of training. Got riflemen, scouts, mortars, a few engineers and some mages in there as well. You all tired of using your feet?”

“No, sir!”

“Hmm.” Wazny checked the file again and put it away. “My name is Major Wazny, this is Captain Xia, together we make a functioning human.”

There were some moving lips but no laughs.

Wazny raised an eyebrow. “I’ll cut the shit. The air force got hammered. We lost,” Wazny worked his jaw. “A lot.” He sniffed. “And you lot are going to be my new fliers. The Air Force struck the fear of sparrows and kestrels into the enemy and proved the concepts originally created by Colonel Kanoa. Sparrows are highly maneuverable and quick. They can hit the enemy before they know what’s happening and fuck off before they know they’re dead. Weapons include spell scrolls, spells, repeaters—which will be upgraded to rail guns and bombs. Your defenses are your speed, your connection to your bird and outsmarting the enemy.”

A hand shot up.

“We have a question, go on.” Wazny rested both of his hands on his cane in front of him, pushing off of his right leg.

“Don’t the sparrows have mana barriers?”

“They do, but in the air there’s all kinds of shit coming at you and going out. Best to rely on the things that work. You never know if a spell is gonna give you a light display or tear through your cabin, your bird, and you. You ever seen Lord West use his ‘Finger Beats Fist’ move? Shit looks like nothing but can blast a hole through a mana barrier and a block of buildings in a straight line and still kill you.” Wazny surveyed them all.

“You might think that you’re close to your battle buddy in the army, but the people in your wing, you have to be closer and understand what the other will do as they do it. You have to anticipate one another.

“You might have noticed that things are a little thin around here. The fact that we’re running training and I have half my body fucked up and Captain Xia looks like she got into a fight with a fucking fire mage and lost, should tell you something.” They were all focused on him now, hard faces. They think they’re ready, but it's my job to make sure they are.

“I crashed, right into a building, sparrow dead, cabin cracked; we’d just evacuated the outer wall and were trying to break up the enemy hitting the towers before the inner city. Captain Xia took on three aerial fighters that would have blasted me into an early retirement. She pulled paper, her sparrow was dead.

“She’d lost an arm and wooden shrapnel from her cabin tore up her face.” Wazny shifted his stance. “Still, she pulled me from that wreck, with one fucking arm and half a face, and carried me two kilometers to the nearest evacuation point. The reason we are thin is simple. Of our eight sparrow wings, we are the only survivors.

“Sparrows strike fear into the enemy’s hearts. The sects cursed us as they died. Those that survive will remember us till the day they die. Sparrow pilots are some of the ballsiest, bravest, and stupidest motherfuckers you have seen. It is not expected that many of you will retire any other way than to add your name to that wall. Mark my words, we will not forget Vuzgal. We will go asking for payment from the sects and from the Black Phoenix Clan. A debt of blood and bodies. I cannot guarantee your safety. What I can guarantee is that we will train you to strike fear into your enemy’s hearts and destroy them. Nothing can stop a determined sparrow pilot. We own the skies, so the army may own the ground.”

Wazny watched their reactions as the cold wind from the water floor passed through the hangars, past the railgun models, whistling over the cabin cut outs, causing the spell scroll ribbons to flutter.

“You have all passed the physical standards and earned your place to be here. Many of you have been on the sharp end in Vuzgal. Take a day, think it through and talk to your families. Those of you that choose to stay, I will see you in two days, five a.m. here, dismissed.”

Wazny turned with Xia and he limped out of the hangar while the void of her combat sleeve flapped in the wind.

***

“So we’re disbanding the Adventurer’s Guild?” Derrick smacked the table as he glared at Blaze. The other Guild’s Branch heads and administration were looking to Blaze as he shook his head.

“We’re not disbanding, we’re separating into cells so we can continue to train, to live our lives and gain strength.”

“You all saw the power of that sect. A ship made of stone and iron that stood in the air,” Emilia said.

Stephen raised his hand.

“Go on.” Blaze opened his hand towards the other man.

“I would like to apply for leave to go and teach in Alva.”

“Teach?” Lin Lei asked from beside him.

“My teacher died and all of Alva is developing pure magic. I am fine with this administration thing. But with fighting I am best used in large assaults, in handling a small guild I will just want to get back to larger battles or train,” Stephen said

“You would leave us?” Joan slammed her hands on the table, her chair falling behind her.

Kim Cheol reached out a large hand and placed it on her shoulders. “Stephen is not leaving us. We are Alva and Alva is us. Or, do you forget who trained you, who made your weapons, who supported and taught our people to take cities?”

Since he returned he’s only become calmer, looking at the bigger picture.

“People can do as they want; stay here in Alva, leave to pursue their own lives, or join one of the guilds. Our task is with the guild,” Jasper said. “Breaking into guilds we can spread out and build up in different areas. When our groups interact then we can start to build alliances; basically regathering our strength but it changes our origins.”

“What of the Willful Institute and this Black Phoenix?” Emilia asked.

“The Willful Institute has surged forth and retaken some of their cities. But they have bled for them. Now they are consolidating. If they get the support, I do not doubt that they will push to take more land. Elan reports that everything is not as it seems behind the scenes. The sect is pushed to their limit. They have gained some wealth but they still have fewer cities than they started with. If they do not want to fall apart, they will need to consolidate what they have and reinforce it,” Blaze said and then rubbed his face.

“The Black Phoenix Clan is a larger, less immediate, problem.” He rested his head against his outstretched fingers. “They normally do not go into the lower realms. They have few contacts here and other dungeon lords have arrived as well. They’re squabbling with each other over hunting us down. Following a trail that has been muddied since the beginning.”

“So are they coming for us or not?” Derrick asked.

“We don’t know, but we should assume they are,” Blaze said.

The room quieted. Joan picked up her chair as everyone sat with their thoughts.

“We will have to rebuild pretty much everything. We do have more connections in the lower realms. Most of the Alvan merchants have their own guards but as they have reappeared with more loans available, they need to grow.” Jasper said.

“So we go from taking cities to protecting convoys again?” Joan clicked her tongue.

“That is what most of our people signed up to do. What most of them would have been doing if it was not one of our own that was killed by those bastards at Meokar! Protecting convoys’ beasts and dungeon hunting, patrolling woods and helping towns withstand beast tides. It is honest and good work. We have the backing of Alva, that comes with training, with resources and information. If we go and attack the Willful Institute right now we’ll get crushed by the people that want to use them to get closer to the Black Phoenix Clan. We cannot keep our people in these dungeons. Most of them don’t even know they’re in a dungeon. They think they’re in hidden caves. A lot of them have families. They can’t just keep staying down here.” Blaze pressed his forefinger and middle finger to the table.

***