***Tirnanog, Tros***

***Magnus***

Vanya hummed at the news, merely seeing the information as a new circumstance to act upon. “Then I suggest sending a scouting party to the Old Camp. Once we know what's going on we can divert sufficient forces to free the Old Camp of Thich occupation. Delaying a few days shouldn't hurt. Meanwhile, the bulk of the fleet should continue onwards to assist Jeng.”

She pointed at the map. “I would operate under the assumption that Vier and Thich have concentrated most of their forces on Jeng's mother tree. The Old Camp is a strategically important location, but much like Tros, it won't be heavily defended at this point. I believe it may be a good sign that Tros isn't heavily defended. What we are seeing seems like a bare minimum effort – just enough to subdue the population. It means Thich's forces are still occupied otherwise. Likely with Jeng’s subjugation.”

Juliana threw a doubtful look at the girl. “You don't see any problem with us learning about this 'support' only now?” Then she gave me a look which made it clear we would have words later.

The matriarch shrugged. “I can see why you are angry now, Juliana. But don't let it cloud your judgement. Magnus's reasoning is sound. Sharing the information would have only made it accessible for spies and as we can see...” She gestured at me. “He is close enough to Aerie's leadership to learn about decisions which could counteract the organisation's plans. Hasn't he come forward immediately as soon as knowing the information became vital? Be glad to have someone like him on your side. I suggest we adjust our plans and move forward without much moaning. Time is vital.”

“If you excuse me, but why do you regard assisting the Jeng as so important?” I asked. “I am certainly not some strategic genius, and I understand that with Jeng it would be three clans against two, but they seem more important to you than merely the manpower and resources they could provide to the cause.”

Vanya blinked and looked at Juliana to provide an answer.

For a moment, I thought the elder intended to strangle me for my continued interference when she raised her hand, but she only sighed and knocked her knuckles onto my breastplate.

“Iobeetle armour. Clan Jeng are the only ones who provide the clans with the carapace. The beetles live only in the heart of their forest, which means they have a monopoly on the resource. Everyone knows how to work with the material, but the Jeng are the only ones experienced enough with hunting the creatures reliably. There are more than enough poachers from the smaller clans surrounding the forest, but none of them have a long life expectancy. If Thich and Vier manage to subjugate Jeng, we are in deep shit, because they will control the source of the best raw material for armour.”

I nodded, understanding the issue. “So if Jeng is indeed under siege, it would be best for us to throw everything we have at them right now before we run out of material.”

Gilbert had shown me how to work with the carapace and the material was excruciatingly hard to process. Nobody on Tirnanog had the equipment to tell what exactly iobeetle carapace was made of, but my best guess was a sort of compound material of metal and ceramics. The carapace could be melted under extreme temperatures and allowed for some flexing, hinting at metal. But unlike metal, it simply broke if stressed too much. Unfortunately, melting the material destroyed its unique durability to mechanical stress.

The only possibility to process the material was to grind an existing piece of carapace to the desired shape.

Gilbert had demonstrated its properties by shooting one of Aerie's flak cannons at a piece of unworked armour. Let's just say that someone wearing iobeetle armour wasn't in danger of injury because the armour gave. Splinters or a weapon finding a weak spot between the armour plates was the true problem.

Now, iobeetle carapace wasn't a miracle material. It could be worn down with grinding and excessive force, but as far as humans were concerned, there was nothing better to protect yourself. It was just as light as equivalent steel armour while providing sufficient defence against bullets of high calibre. If something indeed managed to break the armour, the blunt force inflicted alone would have already killed or heavily injured the person wearing it.

I wanted to ask more questions, like why Jeng would share such a military asset in the first place. But this wasn't the time or the place.

There was likely some political answer. Hoarding a certain resource would be only beneficial as long as it didn't entice others into attacking you or stealing said resource, so trading it for other valuable assets might be the better choice.

Besides, hadn’t the Jeng I met at the Old Camp mentioned something about resource problems? They weren’t even interested in recruiting me, so if they utterly lacked access to certain resources, this was certainly a reason to trade a military asset.

My attention was drawn away from the topic when I noticed Etan gesturing for Astra and me to join him. My father-in-law wore a severe expression.

“You two are going to join me when our people free Tros,” he said as soon as were close enough to talk comfortably. “I think it would be a good exercise, if not for you, Magnus, then at least for Astra.”

Astra's lips thinned. “What's that supposed to mean? I have fought and killed my fair share of people. It's not like you have to teach the teenage me how to skin an animal. I am well aware that Tros will likely be a bloody affair.”

Etan chewed on his lower lip while he regarded his daughter thoughtfully before he concluded, “Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am not. If my guess is right, I am still convinced you have to see what this conflict will be like. The sooner the veil is torn away from before your eyes, the better.”

***Tirnanog, Tros***

***Travis Gibbs***

I looked towards my bonded partner and gave her a reassuring smile. Edna needed it, even though she was among the top-scoring students alongside me. As sensors, it was our duty to guide our comrades on this crusade.

My Edna wasn’t some flower to be protected, but she had revealed her insecurities more than once on those lonely nights since we had been selected to bond with each other.

The clan’s academy was a harsh place. But none could question that it prepared Thich’s recruits for this world. At least those who were selected to join the armed forces.

I was glad Edna hadn’t been selected as a bonded partner for someone from Thich’s higher society, or I would have never gotten to know her so well.

When Captain Cordova lowered his binoculars, I quickly steeled my expression. He was a strict man and wouldn’t hesitate to reprimand his sub-commanders for the slightest offence. Showing unprofessional behaviour when the enemy was at our doorstep was one of those things.

“It looks like they finally decided to get serious,” Cordova commented while he regarded one of the Aerie airships. It was quickly losing altitude, no longer fearing any of the entrenched positions which might have taken it down.

The flying bastards had held their position above the settlement for the last hour – far above where the anti-air cannons could reach them. At least I had to give them credit for not jumping blindly into an obvious trap.

A few well-aimed bombs had been dropped on our defensive positions after it was clear that Clan Thich was in control of Tros. The bombs had been nothing more than probing attacks to test our reaction – and to get rid of any dangers to the airship.

Aside from the firebombs which had prevented us from leaving our entrenched shelters for a few minutes, none of the used devices had been a serious hazard. They could have chosen to smoke us out with poison gas, but they hadn’t even tried.

It wouldn’t have worked anyway, but their reluctance to try was an obvious weakness in their determination. Just as command had expected.

Now our job was to hold out until the main forces could return to bolster this position.

If we managed to take out some unfriendly heavy hitters while defending this place – all the better.

The original settlers had fortified this position well enough for our purpose. There were even a few defenders left on the lower levels, but Clan Thich controlled more than enough of the tunnel network to hold out for days.

Depopulating the settlement was gruesome work, but it had to be done after they refused Thich occupation. This war for unification couldn’t be settled by leaving dissidents behind our frontline.

The poor Tros hadn’t known what hit them when we raided their settlement in the dead of night.

Admittedly, the army’s veterans had broken the settlement’s defences for our division, but our group had been cleaning out the tunnel network for days. We had proven ourselves more than once.

I returned my attention to the airship.

After the bombs cleared away our surface installations, the Aerie finally dared to land troops, but their first attempt at taking the settlement’s surface failed spectacularly thanks to the captain.

Their regular fighters were no better than ours, which meant those with extraordinary abilities would either uphold or break this siege.

Our whole division had been trained for this and we had been bonded before deployment, skyrocketing our power.

And when the landed troops attacked, they were repelled with ease.

“They will send down some of their heavy hitters now that they know I am here,” Cordova commented and handed me his binoculars. “Take over for now and defend the surface till I am back.”

“Where will you be, sir?” Edna asked.

“Not far. You know the combat doctrine. Juggernauts will not be engaged until the common soldier manages to gauge their abilities. I will be waiting for you to do your job. Don’t disappoint me.” He gave us a salute and jumped down the air shaft which connected our position with the underground network.

I nodded and returned my attention to the airship while Edna gave out orders to the various combat groups. If the Aerie indeed sent down their juggernauts, we would have to lure them into the killing zone.

Once the enemy was injured or forced to reveal their capabilities, the captain could decide to finish them off or call for a retreat if he regarded their powers as problematic.

It was up to us to either deal with the threat outright or to get him this information.

I raised the binoculars when I saw what looked like a single person jumping off the airship – followed by two more people.

They were either suicidal or…

I frowned when the armoured figure blurred and I lost track of the falling body, so I lowered the binoculars, but couldn’t find them. There was only one person left falling.

Edna touched my shoulder and pointed. “He is already on the ground.”

I followed her finger and found the target.

“How!?” I raised the binoculars again and studied the figure who had landed on a damaged log house. The man wore full plate armour, not revealing much about his mutations, but a few things were obvious.

It took only a few moments until my training took over. “Four vision slits on the helmet. Likely a nightstalker mutation. Full plate armour and a two-handed weapon, so likely a strength-type, if it isn’t one of their hunters.”

“Group three, engage,” Edna gave the order, relying on the sensor with the said group to relay her command. “Does anyone have eyes on the other one which disappeared?”

I watched the third person land with unnatural grace next to the armoured warrior – his legs absorbing a fall of about fifty metres without any issue. He didn’t have any weapons, but he stood there with an arrogance seemingly born from experience.

“That one, Edna,” I said with absolute certainty in my voice. “The one who touched down last.”

Edna gave the order to our sniper who was carrying a large calibre anti-tank rifle. It was an expensive piece with limited ammunition, but a dead juggernaut would be worth those resources.

Then multiple things happened at once.

Five of our people left their cover, two of them carrying heavy crossbows. Two more were equipped for close combat weapons and the fifth was the sensor. They executed the plan perfectly, drawing all the attention of the two figures.

Our sniper took his shot, but the projectile evaporated in a flash of sparks and splinters before it could take out the target.

I blinked, trying to process what I had seen. It looked like a tentacle slapped the bullet out of the air before it could impact.

The sniper took his second shot at the other person. There was no need to waste a bullet on a target which had already blocked one. But the armoured person wasn’t there any more, leaving the bullet to streak through empty air.

That was all the sniper was going to get, because the unarmed guy jumped off the roof, heading directly in the sniper’s direction.

Edna yelled for our man to evacuate.

Seeing the power of those fighters, I should have done the same, but our team was already engaged with the target who was armoured in full plate. He had simply appeared in front of them.

“Relay to the captain that one of them is a speedster and the other has to be from the twelfth strata. One of those ‘treemonae’ mutations we learned about.”

For a moment, I dared to hope when the warrior froze upon engaging with our people. Something about them threw him off.

It was enough for our close combat specialists to close the distance. Sanchez was our best woman when it came to grappling distance. The weapons she carried were just for show because her body was more like a squid’s.

Her bonded partner successfully diverted the spear, allowing her to latch onto the target. She flowed around him, trying to get into any openings in his armour.

We had him!

Then the warrior seemingly exploded with arcs of thunder, charring Sanchez to a crisp. Her partner was barely able to process what was happening before a blurringly fast arm passed through his head and an arc of blood and brain splattered the streets.

Our people finally managed to process what had happened and fired two ineffective crossbow bolts. One missed entirely and the other pinged off the armour.

Then the target was between them, the tip of his spear describing a perfect circle. Two heads flew and Taylor and Audrey were no more.

I felt a short pang of guilt at sending five of my fellow recruits to their doom but suppressed it. There had been no way to know they would be so utterly outclassed.

Rita, our sensor turned to run, but there was no running from this force of nature.

The man blurred forward and caught up to her with ease before he grabbed the back of her head and drove her face-first into the street, ending the shriek of terror abruptly.

“We have to go.” I blinked and turned around when Edna gasped. “They sent down at least two jugger-”

The warrior stood before Edna, blocking our escape route into the tunnels. I looked back over to where our people had been slaughtered, but only the bodies remained.

Then I looked back at our opponent who was apparently capable of teleporting!

He tilted his head and regarded us. “Well, you are even younger than the other ones. What does Thich think? Sending fucking kids to play cannon fodder. Are you the special child brigade?”

“We aren’t ‘cannon fodder’,” I replied, incensed at the suggestion. Had this person no clue about tactics? Killing the opponent’s juggernauts was essential in warfare with superpowered beings. A single person like this man could rip through hundreds of people without getting tired. It was the reason why the clans only answered a juggernaut with their own juggernaut after they knew their asset’s abilities gave them the upper hand.

We could fight against normal warriors any time of the day. Heck, we had fought them! We weren’t supposed to fight something like this!

Which was why we had Cordova!

But where was Cordova now? Had he decided we were… expendable?

The man snorted and I could practically see the pitying look he gave us. “It looks like the penny finally dropped.”

Edna moved, but the man backhanded her with a resounding ‘crack’.

More because of instinct than anything else, I moved too.

Then the man’s palm filled my vision and the next moment my world turned white.