"Not bad, the two of you.” A woman, dressed in what looked like ceremonial attire for a head of state, smiled at the duo standing at attention in front of her desk. A pair of wings were tucked behind her back, unmoving to the point that an unsuspecting person might think that they were decorations.

Her other companions, who were standing at her side, chimed in with more words of praise, although most were too quiet to be heard properly. One of them, however, stood up. “I’ll like to offer my formal appreciation for the two commanders of Thunderbolt Platoon.”

“Oh?” The woman looked at the man in full body armour, intrigued. “You seem to know something we don’t, Warmaster Eventide.”

The Warmaster smiled. “Last week, Captain Aziz came to request an informal spar between Thunderbolt and Septim’s Vultures.”

“If I recall correctly, that’s our strongest infantry regiment.”

“Very much so, Campmaster Pauline.” He inclined his helmeted head briefly. “Captain Aziz wanted to let his men experience close combat, under a knockout condition, rather than first touch.”

“Is that true, captain?”

Captain Aziz, who had been focusing on keeping himself utterly still to that point, turned to the Warmaster and nodded. “Yes, Campmaster. The trainees of Thunderbolt wanted to experience some live combat by attacking local bandits, but Colonel Marie and I wanted them to be experienced with similar conditions first.”

“A good decision. What was the outcome?”

“The Thunderbolts put up a darn good fight, if nothing else. Definitely wasn’t their first time hanging on by the skin of their teeth.” Warmaster Eventide smiled. “My compliments to the commanders of Thunderbolt Platoon, for training them to such an extent.”

“Thank you, Warmaster.” Captain Aziz smiled.

“The squaddies will be delighted to hear your words, Warmaster,” Marie added on. She had been silent the entire time, like her deputy, and up till she spoke, the captain was under the impression that Marie wasn’t planning to speak at all. “I too would like to extend my thanks to Major Gaelle for participating in our impromptu exchange. Please relay my words to her.”

“Definitely, Colonel Marie.”

After a few more minutes of exchanging flowery words, the Council finally got down to business. Captain Aziz and Colonel Marie were finally allowed to return to the sides, where the other important members of Camp Napoleon were standing at. Campmaster Pauline started speaking about the recent updates to the camp, up and including the fact that their army was ready for operations now.

“We haven’t managed to procure the artillery that Thunderbolt’s commanders spoke of, but the new doctrine they’ve brought back has been of immense value,” said the Campmaster, who nodded at Aziz and Marie. “We’ve managed to recreate, to some extent, the communicative devices that the North used. It’s a step up from our old methods, but I’m afraid everyone present will have to learn how to use them.”

“Will do,” Aziz murmured. Similar words of agreement rippled around the tent.

The Campmaster took a step back. “We can begin the intelligence briefing now. Warmaster, if you please.”

“It’s been a rather interesting month, ladies and gentlemen.” Warmaster Eventide tapped his feet. “The city of Elinaris has been beset by internal troubles; from what we can gather, a popular uprising has gained momentum in the past few days, following a period of troubles between House Varita and other great Houses. We should be able to secure our first major city soon.”

He snapped his fingers, sending a metallic clink throughout the room, and a teenage boy walked into the tent bearing some papers. Everyone received a copy, and Captain Aziz glanced down at the first place.

Other than a list of events, it also noted any eminent personages visiting the third-tier city. Such cities were usually headed by a Knight-rank individual, and by striking at a time when no one important was around, such cities would fall quickly. The true challenge lay in the first-tier cities. Or city, to be more accurate. Empyria had been destroyed, and the Southern Assembly didn’t seem that keen on rebuilding it.

Even the dossier on Elinaris was noting a disproportionate flow of goods towards Sephira, the only first-tier city of the South at the moment. Enough Paragons were stationed there that anyone suggesting an attack there would be thrown out of the Council immediately.

Captain Aziz paused for a moment as his eye fell on a familiar name. Gaius, eh? To see it appear twice in two months or so…quite the common name. It’s odd that I never really noticed it before, however.

“Next, we’ve reports of another army building up in an area around a hundred kilometres away,” said the Warmaster. “They’re based around the small town of Desin, which was destroyed when the Alliance invaded. They don’t harbour any ill-will to us, from what I can see, but we’ll avoid them.”

“The Western Holdings has been beset by uprisings from some of their noble clans. Apparently, a large number of gifted scions were killed in the war. The Emperor of the Western Holdings has been publicly accused of being complicit in allowing this slaughter,” said Warmaster Eventide. “This event probably won’t affect us much, but it’s good to know.”

“Indeed,” said Campmaster Pauline. “We must always pay attention to the international situation. Know thy enemy, after all. Warmaster, I presume that you don’t have news on the other continents?”

“Our sources there are somewhat lacking.”

“As I expected,” said the Campmaster. “We never had enough manpower or resources to spy on a large scale, after all. We’ll now move on to operations and logistics…”

The rest of the meeting was significantly more mundane, and Aziz was on the verge of yawning by the time he and Marie left the tent. He had been holding it in the entire time, which meant that after escaping earshot, the Captain began to yawn over twenty times in rapid succession.

Pain flashed through his stomach as his mouth opened to yawn again, and Captain Aziz keeled over.

“Stop yawning! Isn’t twice not enough for you?”

The poor human gurgled on the ground, his leg twitching at random intervals. After a few minutes, in which pain thundered across his body like an elephant, Aziz finally regained the strength to push himself up. “Is this the…qualitative difference between a Squire and a Knight?”

“Which is why you should hurry and advance. The children are going to catch up to you at this rate!” Marie lectured. “A task force, including us, will be raiding a bandit encampment tomorrow. Use the spoils of war to exchange for some medicine.”

“I didn’t hear about that earlier!”

“If you weren’t busy distracted by who knows what earlier, you would have,” said the colonel. “Now hurry up and prepare the kids. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day…”

The two continued to banter as they walked towards their tent, but Aziz couldn’t help but be excited for Thunderbolt’s first full scale operation.