Commander Brackstone looked grim as he responded, "That's far more than I anticipated. Did you count them with your spiritual sense? Or is this only an estimate base on the size of their camp? I only ask this because they could have assembled additional structures to give the false impression that their numbers were far greater than they actually are."
"I didn't confirm their numbers, but I have sent my flying constructs to get a more accruate count. It will be a few hours yet before they get there. Although they will only be able to count them and not much else. There are just certain details that are lost when I see through my constructs," Maxine answered.
"What kind of details?" Commander Brackstone said, "And are those details why you went there yourself?"
"Well, yes. The eye sight of my constructs is actually quite poor. I'm not really sure why they can't see very well after one hundred and fifty feet. That's why I had to go myself. It would just be odd if a group of birds got that close to a very active camp," Maxine admitted, "Anyways, can you bring me a map? I still need to tell you the location of the enemy base camp."
Commander Brackstone looked over his shoulder to a young man Maxine hadn't even seen and ordered him, "Fetch us a map."
"Yes, sir," the young man said before he ran out of the tent.
"Are there any details about their camp that you can rememeber?" Commander Brackstone asked, "I don't care if it's just where they dug their latrine pits. Anything is useful." Maxine closed her eyes and recalled the moment when she saw the Divine Marks Clan's base camp. She was viewing that singular moment as she would a picture. She magnified the ant-like spots inside the camp and saw that most of the cultivators there still looked like teenagers.
"One out of one hundred look to be seasoned warriors like you while the rest appear to be in their late-teens. The majority of them prefer swords, but there are a few that use various polearms," Maxine said without opening her eyes and shifted her focus on another section of the base camp, "And they have fifty people wearing high tech armor that constantly changes colors."
"That's very good," Commander Brackstone said, "Anything else?" Maxine continued to scour her memory of that base to find something else that would be useful.
"Yes, they have large generators near a machine a that look like a four legged crab. Only instead of pinchers, it has weapon mounts," Maxine answered.
"What color is it?" Commander Brackstone asked.
"Metalic green and brown," Maxine answered instantly.
"Damn," Commander Brackstone said in a barely audible voice, "That's a mark five Xinthian battle mech. That machine is as powerful as a peak silver stage dragon. It must be their trump card if things go poorly."
"But we have our own trump cards, right?" Maxine stated.
"Yes, we do," Commander Brackstone affirmed and the young man from earlier came back with a data pad.
"Sir," the young man said as he held out the data pad and Commander Brackstone took it from him before he turned back to Maxine.
"We know that the enemy base is to the southwest. So I need you to tell me how far away it is and tell me any identifying landmarks near it," Commander Brackstone said.
Maxine did the math in her head before she answered, "Roughly, one thousand five hundred miles southwest by west in a large clearing roughly a kilometer across. Other that that it's completely surrounded by forest with three lakes to the east."
After a few moments of fiddling with the datapad, Commander Brackstone asked as he showed the data pad to Maxine, "Is this the spot?" He had it zoomed out to the point that the clearing was only the size of a dime on the screen. She looked at the local geography on the map. She wasn't that was where it was until she saw a small lake in the shape of a tear drop twenty kilometers to the east of the clearing. She had passed over that lake while she was fleeing.
"It looks like it," Maxine answered.
"Good, but I will still have to send another scout to get confirmation before we act on this information," Commander Brackstone said, "I'm not insulting your capabilities. It's just protocol to confirm all intelligence."
"It's fine," Maxine said and a moment later, she felt sleepy as the healers retracted their hands from her wounds. She scanned her body briefly to see how much they were able to heal her wounds and to find the cause for her sudden sleepiness.
Her muscles, skin blood vessels in her stomach had been knitted back together, but they were still not fully healed. They would easily pull apart if she tried to get up in her current state. Her shoulder was only grazed earlier and the healers had already tended to it enough that it wouldn't open again unless she did something strenuous. The cut on her cheek was extremely shallow and wouldn't have left a scar even if they hadn't mended it.
As for her sudden feeling of sleepiness, it could be just unexpected side effect of the healing potion she drank earlier. Afterall, she didn't have all of the materials for it's original recipe so she had replaced it with something that was ninety percent similar to it that grew locally in the shadow world. Then again, it could just be that I'm dead tired from the physical and mental strain that I went through earlier.
"Good. Now I will leave you in the hands of our capable healers, young miss," Commander Brackstone said and turned around to leave. And here I was hoping he would be the exception and call me by name.
As soon as the tent flap closed behind Commander Brackstone, the healer that remained helped Maxine sit up and helped her take off her damaged tunic. It needs to be cleaned and repaired. Not to mention it keeps the healers from keeping an eye on my wounds.
While the healer worked, Maxine asked her, "So, when will I be back on my feet, doc?"
"I was going to say it would be at least five days even with your ... abnormal regenerative powers, but you seem to have drinken a top-quality potion. So you should be on your feet in two," the female healer said as she pulled Maxine's leather tunic off. I know you were about to say freakish.
"I know what you wanted to say and frankly I would prefer it if you were more open with how you felt about me," Maxine said.
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"I'm sorry, young miss, but I can't do that," the young woman said, but Maxine received a spiritual sense message from the woman, [Truthfully, I wish I could figure out how to make everyone in our clan heal as quickly as you do. It would shorten the time certain young men are in my care. I've been on enough hunting expeditions to know that those boys will use pain induced delirium as an excuse for grabbing my butt and breasts. I don't want to put up with that any longer than necessary.]
"Oh, well. Can you at least tell me your name?" Maxine asked and added via spiritual sense after giving the healer's impressive endowments a quick glance, [I can totally see that happening.]
"Yes, I can. It's Billie Manning," the healer answered as she lowered Maxine back down onto the bed, "Do you need anything for pain, young miss?"
"No, I'm fine. I just need to get some rest," Maxine said and added via spiritual sense, [The other healers are giving you wierd looks, so we should wait for another time to talk some more.]
"As you wish, young miss. Just call out if you need anything," Billie Manning said as she covered Maxine's shirtless upper body with a blanket, "I will send your armor to our crafters to have it cleaned and repaired. It should be done before you have to return to your duties."
"Thanks," Maxine said gratefully before Billie Manning left to take her leather tunic away. Maxine decided to make good use of her time in bed and closed her eyes to make it appear she was sleeping before she turned her focus to her ravens.
The first thing she did was trace her route back to the Divine Marks clan's base camp. On the way there, she had them look for any local birds and she found several on the way there. However only one of them fit her needs. It was a violet and blue bird that was the same size as her ravens and they flocked in small groups of no more than seven.
Maxine had them land and modified them remotely. It was hard, but still doable. After their transformation completed, she had her ravens return to approaching the Divine Marks clan's base camp.
It took her ravens longer than she expected to reach that place, but she didn't have them fly over it. Instead she had them give it a wide breadth as if they were afraid of the humans within that camp. She had them glance periodically towards the camp and saw that the cultivators on sentry duty on the walls were keeping an eye on her transformed ravens. Damn, they are even keeping track of approaching wildlife. I guess I will just have to look for a weak spot to get a better look inside of their base camp. Still she was able to get a good look at their base camp while having her ravens fly around it and started counting the people inside of the Divine Marks clan's base camp.
While circling the perimeter, she noticed that there were some changes since she saw this place last. Before, the walls had a pair of sentires every four hundred feet, but now there was a group of six every one hundred feet. And there were now automated quad-barrel turrets inbetween each group. However some of those turrets were still being assembled, but it looked like they would be operational before nightfall. Wow, I never thought getting spotted would cause them to beef up their defenses to such a level. I have seen fortress cities in the other timeline that would have been put to shame by the heavy defenses I'm looking at now. Although, the Divine Marks clan has way more resources than those fortress cities had. Still, I don't see anyone getting close enough to do any damage. We will have to wait for them to come looking for us before we can whittle down their numbers. That might be something to include this the next time I talk to Commander Brackstone or his aide.
After flying around the base camp's perimeter almost all the way, she found the weak point that she was looking for. There was a girl amongst a group of five that seemed to be fond of birds. She kept whistling towards her transformed ravens while offering them a handful of bread crumbs in her hand.
Maxine had her transformed ravens land on a tree a couple hundred feet away from that girl and had them watch her cautiously. This is great. Now I have a means to get a better look inside their base camp, but I will have to approach that girl slowly. I kind of feel bad for conning that girl. Maybe I could spread her description around so that no one kills or tortures her for information. That would be a good way to pay her back for conning her like this. In any case, I better inform Commander Brackstone on the total number of troops that they have.
As Maxine returned her focus back to her clone, she sense that someone was approaching over her. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Jenifer Krell.
"How are your wounds?" Jenifer Krell asked gently.
Before Maxine answered, she tried to contact Commander Brackstone with her spiritual sense to give him an update. However her spiritual sense couldn't go through the fabic of the tent. Well, that makes sense. This is the women's medical tent afterall and they would want to preserve the modesty of any women being treated here.
"I will be up and about in two days," Maxine answered, "Although I wish I could move around sooner."
"I understand entirely. I couldn't stand being bedridden for very long either," Jenifer Krell agreed, "Anyways, I heard Commander Brackstone announce that we already know where the enemy base camp is. I think we have you to thank for that."
"Yeah, but as you can see, I got spotted. So they know that we know where they are," Maxine replied, "Although, they have no idea where our base is so we have that advantage. We need as many of those as we can get. We are heavily outnumbered."
"The commander didn't mention that," Jenifer Krell said, "How badly are we outnumbered?"
"Depends. How many combatants do we have?" Maxine asked.
"Around thirteen thousand five hundred," Jenifer Krell answered.
"Well, the enemy has fourty-two thousand three hundred fifty-two troops. Of those, only five hundred twenty-three of them are silver stage," Maxine said grimly, "And they brought a lot of tech to bolster their forces even further." Jenifer Krell paled as Maxine finished.
"That's insane," Jenifer Krell said, "How are we supposed to beat that?"
"I don't think we are able to beat those kind of odds on our own, but there are ways around that," Maxine answered, "That reminds me, could you go fetch Commander Brackstone's aide? I need to tell him the exact number of troops that the Divine Marks clan has."
"Why didn't you tell the commander earlier?" Jenifer Krell asked.
"Because I didn't know it earlier. My ravens were only able to count them all just recently," Maxine answered.
"Alright, I'll be right back," Jenifer Krell said as she left the medical tent. A few moments later, she returned with the commander's aide in tow. Maxine relayed the exact number and their cultivation levels to the commander's aide through spiritual sense. It took a few moments to relay it all, but as soon as she was done, he left quickly to report to Commander Brackstone.
"Now that that's over with, I could use something to eat. Got anything on you?" Maxine asked since she started to feel hungry.
"No, but I could tell the healers that you need something to eat," Jenifer Krell answered.
"I would appreciate it," Maxine said gratefully.
"I will on my way out. I've been away from my squad for long enough. I just wanted to check on you. See you later," Jenifer Krell said as she walked away from Maxine.
"See you later," Maxine said loud enough for Jenifer Krell to hear her.
After Jenifer Krell was out of the tent, Maxine let out a tired sigh. She knew things would get intense after she was back on her feet. Commander Brackstone seems competent enough. He will probably start initiating guerilla tactics in the next week or so. Or however long it takes his scouts to return with confirmation of the enemy base location. That would be the correct choice militaristically, but if I was going to give the enemy a hard time, I would incite a large group of beasts to attack their base camp repeatedly. It would be an effective way to thin out their numbers without having to fight ourselves. Unfortunately, I'm not in charge, but I can still tell Commander Brackstone my idea. Although he may not agree to do it. It is sort of a dirty way to fight, but it works. Even if he doesn't agree to it, I can still do it on my own. That way all the dishonor is on me and not him. In any case, I can't do anything before my clone is healed. So, I might as well enjoy a bit of extra time with Orianna without having the constant distraction of someone's obnoxiously loud snoring. I just wish I could afford to ignore my clones for awhile, but I can't. I don't want them to have any instances of shitting or pissing themselves just because I was too lazy to keep track of that stuff. Or god forbid, they die from lack of food or water. Like Hellen said, they are my extra lives so it would be stupid of me to waste them like that.