Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cecillia led them to the Glasir helicopter, her back bent, and a hand holding her hair down while the wind from the chopper whipped her black and yellow costume around. She opened the side door leading into the Black Hawk, then waved them in.

Amber jogged over and jumped in, then turned to help Jade up. Her teammate was clutching onto her scarf as it flicked around madly. Then it was Victoria and Evalyn’s turn to get in. The Glasir girls were the last aboard, and Jess pulled the door close.

Amber looked around the little cabin. It was familiar, of course, but the last time she hadn’t been paying all that much attention.

Cecilia opened a panel on one wall and pulled some headphones off of little hooks, she passed one to each other then pointed to the little controls on the side. “Set it to Alpha Six Six Two!” she shouted. “Make sure it’s on.”

Amber fiddled with the controls for a moment, then plopped the headset on over her head. It squished her magical girl costume’s hat, but it fit fine otherwise. “Is it working?” she asked.

“Sounds like it,” Jess said. The roar of the rotors was still loud, and Jess’ voice sounded tinny and strange, but at least they could be understood without screaming.

“Sound check,” Cecilia said.

“Jess here,” Jess said as she plopped herself down against a wall.

Amber sat down, then noticed that no one was saying anything. “Um, Amber here.”

“Jade here,” Jade said. She sat down next to Amber, shoulder rubbing against shoulder.

The two Helskor girls sat in the middle where a little bump served as a seat. “This seems to be working,” Evalyn said.

“Victoria here.”

“Alright,” Cecilia said. “It’s standard to go over a mission before take off, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page.”

Everyone nodded, and Cecila grinned.

“Right, this is a simple extermination mission. A nest of Boogiemen were spotted some twenty klicks away from Norumbega to the east. That’s within the operational yellow-zone, an area that’s meant to be low in monster activity. We’re going to make it lower by bombing the crap out of them.”

“We have bombs?” Jade asked.

Cecilia pointed out the window of one door to a big drum-like thing fixed to the helicopter’s side. “We have sixteen unguided Hydras, two GAU’s and four Hellfire AGMs. The ones with HE warheads.”

“Did you understand any of that?” Jade asked. Unfortunately, her voice was carried over to all the others, setting off a round of snickers while Cecilia looked like she was holding back a pout.

“Ceci here gets off on seeing big explosions,” Jess said. “She’s bombsexual.”

“I’m not... bombsexual,” Cecilia said. “I just have a healthy respect for high explosive ordnance being rained down on things that annoy me.”

“Mmhmm. Keep telling yourself that,” Jess replied.

“So,” Amber said to try and get things back on track. “We’re going to the Boogiemen's nest and we’re going to just fire missiles at it?”

“You got it,” Cecilia said. “Once we’ve hit, team Glasir will do a drop and sweep the area on foot. It’s a five minute operation. Boogiemen are a level one threat. Camo one, technically, but they barely deserve that. They’re easy to take out, but can be a threat to civilians.”

“They like kidnapping kids and people who look slow or injured,” Jess said. “Nasty monsters. We kill them with prejudice whenever we can before they start over-breeding.”

“Over-breeding?” Victoria asked. Amber couldn’t pin a personality to the Helskor girl yet. She seemed a little aloof though.

Jess grimaced. “You’ll probably learn about it later. But they use living flesh to breed. That means that every time they kidnap someone, there might be two or more of them added to their number. I think it was El Dorado that was nearly overrun?”

“That was a bit exaggerated,” Cecilia said. “But yeah, they had a whole swarm of Boogiemen hit this little agricultural outpost. Lots of civilians died before the academy responded in force. It was a big cock up. Some lieutenant wasn’t sending out extermination missions but was claiming the ammunition used up on them and pocketing the difference.”

“Was it a lot of money?” Jade asked.

“Each hellfire costs about seventy grand USD. More to ship them here,” Cecilia said. “We fire one per nest if it’s small one, sometimes two or three if the first impact wasn’t on-target. That’s not a lot compared to losing an outpost though, so some asshole got reamed.”

Something crackled and Amber looked around, then a man’s voice intruded over their line. “Hello team Glasir and company, this is the co-pilot. We are just about to take off. Please keep all of your limbs on the inside of the machine and all monster limbs on the outside. Don’t play with the GAU unless you know what you’re doing, and get a GPS marker before jumping out so we know where to pick you up. We are about to be given clearance to take off where we will be joining with Goofy Oh-Two and heading to our target destination.”

Cecilia grinned and tapped something on the side of her headset. “Thanks James, keep us informed of any pretty sights. We have noobies to impress.”

“Noted,” the co-pilot replied. “Switching back to main coms now, ping if you need anything.”

Cecilia clapped her hands. “Alright, hang on, sometimes the wind around here is a bit weird because of the cliffside.”

Amber felt Jade’s hand touch her leg. She looked down, saw Jade blushing under her scarf, then smiled at her. Must be nervous. Amber grabbed Jade’s hand and squeezed it, trying to reassure her that things would be alright.

The Black Hawk shifted, its engine picked up, and it slowly, gently rose off the ground and took to the sky. They flew around in a tight circle around the landing area, then moved upwards through a bit of turbulence until Amber felt them slowing down.

“We’re at cruising altitude,” Cecilia said. “Alright, so, how have you guys been enjoying Norumbega so far?”

“It’s nice,” Evalyn said. “The facilities, the dorms, the shops, it’s all very well done. I almost feel out of place here, it’s so rich.”

“Nonsense,” Victoria said. “It’s only normal. They want to make sure we’re treated as we deserve.”

Elitist much? “Other than that explosion on my first day here, it’s been alright,” Amber said. “The classes are nice, though I think we might be lagging behind in combat class already. Other than Morgan none of us seem super into fighting.”

“Really?” Cecilia said. “That’s a bit strange, but we’ve had non-combat teams before. One team that graduated last year was entirely made up of healers.”

“That seems unbalanced,” Jade said.

“Only one of them was a healer when he started,” Jess said. “The other three found out that their powers could heal later on. They lost pretty much every team combat exercise, but nobody minded.”

“Is there a lot of competition?” Jade asked.

“A bit,” Cecilia said. “Teams are ranked, since that helps some of them try harder. And when there are intra-academy things, it’s usually the top-ranking teams that get to represent the school.”

“Ohh, when’s the next competition?” Evalyn asked.

Jess laughed. “Next year! It’s every-other-year.”

“But we’re only here for three,” Evalyn said. “That means some people will only get to participate once.”

“Luck of the draw,” Cecilia said. “We competed last year. Got trounced by the French.”

“Are the French strong?” Jade asked.

Jess barked a laugh. “Every magical is strong. We just got a lot of bad match-ups. Oli was super irritated about the whole thing.”

Cecilia pulled out her phone, and Amber caught sight of a map on its surface. The map was moving along at a decent pace.

“GPS?” Amber asked.

“Yeah. No satellites in orbit here, so it’s all radio. Works fine though. We’re maybe three minutes out from our target.”

Amber shifted a little, noticed she was still holding onto Jade’s hand, then decided there was nothing to it and cleared her throat. “So, Evalyn, how’s Helskor coming along?”

“Not too bad. Most of the girls are super friendly. Margaret is a bit shy though, we’re trying to break her out of her shell, but it’s slow going.”

“That’s alright,” Amber said. “New school, new people... new planet, technically. I can see why someone naturally shy would feel out of place.”

“Yeah, figured as much. She’s really nice though, so we’ll figure it out. So far we’re doing pretty well in training too.”

“That’s great,” Amber said. “We’re still working out the kinks, I think.”

Jade nodded. “Mostly with Cassy and Morgan, I think? Amber’s a great leader so far.”

Amber blinked. “Leader?”

Her shorter teammate looked up to her. “You’re the team’s leader, right?”

“I thought that was Morgan?”

“But Morgan usually sees if you want to do things first,” Jade said.

“I thought she was more... you know, asking everyone?” Amber tried. I think I would have noticed being suddenly elected as team Svalinn’s leader.

Jade shook her head. “No, I think you’re the team leader. Evalyn is hers. That’s super obvious from the way the others act, and Cecilia has a ton of top bitch energy.”

“Top bitch energy?” Cecilia repeated. She grinned. “I like it.”

“You would,” Jess muttered.

Amber shook her head. They were being silly again. She abstained from joining in, but did listen as Jess and Cecilia bickered back and forth, with Evelyn and Jade interjecting where they could. Mostly the talk turned to gossip about teachers and the scandals that had happened in the last year. Who slept with whom, and who was caught doing what and where.

Amber listened in, but didn’t add much to it. Jade asked questions, and Amber was beginning to suspect that her shorter teammate was the sort of girl who had a finger on the pulse of wherever she was when it came to rumours.

She looked out the windows. They were long past Norumbega and the military base and academy. Below them were acres and acres of cleared forest, clean cut fields with nothing but stumps and lines of fencing with dirt roads on their inner sides. She noted some all terrain cars bumping along, roof-mounted guns pointed away from the city.

It wasn’t like any place she’d seen on Earth. Then again, other than her short stint at Camp Chet, she’d never really seen many military places.

The Black Hawk dipped and turned a little, and she was able to make out the other craft flying alongside theirs.

Her headset crackles. “One minute to target area,” the co-pilot said.

“Acknowledged,” Cecilia replied.

The line cracked again. “You guys want to see this up close?” she asked. “The backdraft is a bit dangerous, but we’re all mostly fireproof.”

“Uh,” Amber said.

“I’d love to!” Evalyn overrode her.

As the helicopter dipped, Cecillia stood, grabbing onto a harness hanging from the ceiling, and opened the side-door. The forests were coming closer as they lost altitude, trees whipping past so quick they were little more than green blurs below.

The radio cracked again. “Circling target now. To our south-south east. That ridge.”

Amber squinted against the wind even as Jade’s hand tightened around hers. “It’s fine,” she told the shorter girl.

Leaning to the side, Amber looked around, and was helped by Cecilia pointing at something in the distance. A stony outcrop, cutting across part of the forest. There was a large clearing before it, and in that space, she could only-just make out a few forms moving about.

“Jess, confirmation?” Cecilia asked.

Jess knelt down by the door and flicked her hand so that a wand appeared in it. She spun it around, and the air warped. “Can see them. Six Bogie Bogeys, I see... a small cave? Was that part of the briefing?

“Just said some sort of natural habitation, I guess that fits,” Cecilia said. She tapped her headset. “Lead, we can confirm targets. Six lifeforms. Monsters. No living civvies.”

Someone must have said something because she nodded then turned to the others while grinning. “Watch this!”

Amber winced as a rocket took off on the side opposite where the door was opened. The other helicopter fired its own missile. The two darted across the sky, almost faster than Amber could track, and a single flaming explosion rocked the forest.

“Hit! Let’s go pound that LZ!” Cecilia cheered.