Interlude XVIII

Seraphyn Legrand

The engines were all thrumming to life of the Quadro-Zeppelins, four engines that were designed to each independently allow a giant helium filled balloon to be able to float and soar amongst the star. The design was nearly perfect, as the helium inside the main hull was in its own isolated space that could not be tampered with, unless severe actions were taken.

“I’m surprised that the saboteurs didn’t find this hanger.” Dyllon commented, his words expressing the deep thoughts that Seraphyn himself was thinking.

“They couldn’t find them all, plus this one was our hidden trump card.” Lydeyah said, her tone adding a noted calmness to the conversation and to the broiling emotions that were now screaming at Seraphyn that something would go wrong.

“Hey are you nervous?” Dyllon ask, clapping Seraphyn on the shoulder, as he did a slight spray of dust arose from the contact.

Seeing the dust, Seraphyn had to wonder how the dust got there, the ship had just been cleaned perfectly, in preparation for this very operation. Yet, there were a number of places that were clearly covered in dust.

Oddly enough, these were all well trafficked areas too; handrails, instrument panels, ship logs, and other records that would all need to be held and used by multiple people.

While dust itself was not something to cancel the entire mission over, there was just something odd about the whole situation that made Seraphyn concerned. Almost like his mind had all the pieces to warn him that something was about to go wrong, but for the life of him, he couldn’t understand.

Fortunately, the dust was easily taken care of, a quick swipe of a gloved finger and everything was gone, clear.

Seraphyn even looked down at his gloved finger, half expecting a residual line of dust to remain, but found nothing. That was one blessing at least, the dust here was easily disposed of, since the cleaning crews obviously couldn’t be trusted, Seraphyn had ordered his fellow officers to clean up the area.

At the very least, the act of cleaning the ship gave the crew time to prepare for the next portion of their mission.

“We’ve got our first passenger.” Luggard stated, wheeling in a woman who was standing stationary on a brick of dirt, that was then placed on a flat bed that Luggard was now dragging around behind him.

“Great,” Seraphyn stated, grabbing the manifest, and again seeing a bit of dust on the logs, he mindlessly wiped away the offending residue before going over to make sure this person was expected. “Name?”

“Jyulianna,” the female answered, a form of nervousness to her voice.

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After a few seconds of scanning the page, Seraphyn found the name and made a quick marking next to the expected name.

“And the dagger?” Seraphyn asked.

“Right here,” Jyulianna said, waving the violently glowing dagger.

With that, Seraphyn made a second check under the column that denoted her having a dagger.

“Very good. Do you know what is to be expected of you?” Seraphyn asked.

“Sort of, right now since I haven’t taken my first step, I am pretty much invulnerable. Meaning that regardless of what happens for the next 24 hours, I cannot die, so long as I do not move from this spot?” Jyulianna said, gesturing to the slab of stone below her.

“Exactly, now we have a few hours before we will fly out and reach the target, so during this time you are suggested to do as much physical activity as possible, while never moving your feet.” Seraphyn said, in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel a cold irony swelling up. Using the exact first day training method used by the living legend, to create an army of people who would then be able to eventually kill that same legend.

“Is there anything you would like from me?” Seraphyn asked.

With that Jyulianna began to sweat slightly, a mixture of nervous energy and anxiety clearly etched on her face.

“Is there any chance this vehicle has air conditioning?” She posed.

Hearing that, Seraphyn just smiled, “but of course, this is the Legrand Empire after all, meaning we can do anything we put our minds to.”

Then with a turn and a slight yell, he shouted out, “Dyllon, turn on the AC so we can at least make it more comfortable while our guests arrive.”

“On it boss,” Dyllon shouted out.

With that Seraphyn smiled at Jyulianna, but then noticed the next person needed for this mission being wheeled in.

“If you will excuse me, I need to take care of logging the others.” Seraphyn said, his voice somewhat charming, using a command perk he acquired.

Hearing that Jyulianna blushed slightly, while ruffling a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Sure,” Jyulianna responded, and with that Seraphyn gave a slight nod of his head as he began logging in the rest of the arrivals.

Clutter, clatter, clank.

The old metallic pipes that served as an air duct began to clatter and clank to life. While the Legrand Empire hadn’t been able to replicate true Air Conditioning with proper condensers, they had managed to do the next best thing of create magical blocks of ice that would then have their cool energies cycled throughout the cabin of the ships.

Right now, the rattling to life wind blades showed that the cold energy would soon by cycled about the cabin of the ship.

Dust.

Then just as the first waves of air came to life, so too did a layer of dust spring to life and coat everyone present.

This was too much, and Seraphyn made a mental note to log down a complaint that would be returned after this mission was over. While little more than an annoyance, it was clear that the cleaning staff did nothing to touch the inside of the ship.

Still despite everything, the ship was fine. The passengers all arrived on time with their First Kill Daggers, and there were no glaring issues to speak of.

By all accounts, they would be able to do Seraphyn’s task easily. As his job was just to fly and deliver these thirty passengers to the intended location. They chose to fly and arrive over night, hoping that this would lessen the chance of anyone seeing their arrival.

Worse came to worse, they could fly high overhead and drop the cargo onto the ground, knowing that with their temporary invulnerability, they could survive falling for miles to the ground without any issues, so long as they stayed perfectly still.

There were plans, contingencies, and multiple fail safes in place.

Better still, their secret base had been seemingly untouched compared to a few of the other larger hangers where most military operations would start from. Instead, they opted to use this hanger, which was at the corners of Timult.

While the recent dust storm had caused issues, nothing seemed to bother this operation.

Then thinking about it, Seraphyn wondered if that was why his mind was placing so much emphasis on the dust here. The fact that unknown dust particles had taken down half of Timult, and that even now parts of Timult proper were inoperable or inaccessible due to the dust made him more conscientious about the dust? Yes, that had to be it.

Thinking about that, and realizing it was just an irrational attachment to dust recently that was getting his nerves to be on edge, Seraphyn tried to relax.

Yet, despite everything Seraphyn couldn’t help but feel that something would go horribly wrong, all thanks to the dust.

“Now I’m just going to sound like a crazy amathophobist, like mom.” Seraphyn muttered to himself, then shaking his head decided to take care of the numerous other checks that needed to be done before lift off.

“Let’s run through our checks, as we are engines up in thirty minutes,” Seraphyn said louder so that everyone could hear him.

And like that, Legrand’s secret Operation Day Storm was set to begin.