Joel marched out in to the darkness, bursting with pride. Squad Sacrifice had been woken up in the middle of the night and asked to report to the courtyard. This could only mean one thing – they were going to be sent out to fight!

Joel had signed up for exactly this reason, and even if he had been assigned to a squadron with those who had refused to join the army, he was still excited to be involved.

Following Trevor, the young lad in the top of his bunk, he marched in the line, and took up position at the front of the line-up. As he did so, he got a little push from a soldier behind him.

“You pleased now?” said Gaz. “We’re gonna die because of you. Our family don’t even know where we are.”

“Gaz, come on,” said Joel, stepping back into line. He couldn’t believe that Gaz was blaming him for this. Gaz had signed up in the first place, and Gaz’s underground river trick had been just as liked to get them killed as this.

“ORDER!” shouted Sergeant Makepeace. “We’ll have no argey-bargey in line.”

Sergeant Makepeace turned to his colleague. “It’s a good job this lot aren’t in the proper army, they couldn’t follow an order to save their life.”

The taller and younger Sergeant laughed, he couldn’t agree more.

“Right, you scumbags,” continued Sergeant Makepeace. “We’ve been given our first official deployment for the war.”

Joel’s spirits lifter once more. At last, he was going to get the chance to make a difference, fight for his freedom and the freedom of his family and friends.

“We will be boarding a ship in approximately twenty minutes. We will be flying to the location of the Great Battle of Imdor.”

A murmur went around the troops in the courtyard.

“Imdor?” whispered Trevor to Joel. “I thought it had finished.”

“Good,” interrupted Gaz. “I don’t fancy a war zone.”

There were a few sounds of agreement, they had all been forced to conscript after all.

“We have a very important mission to complete. We are to capture the Infamous Ildor of Imdor and take him to Crawk.”

Joel could feel the stares of his comrades as he punched the air amongst the groans. They were going to capture the Ildor!