“Achoo!”

“Achoo!”

The commander and vice commander of Thunderbolt Company sneezed together, drawing some attention from Platoon Four, who were hanging out at the backline as reserve forces.

“Ma’am, are you alright?”

“If the commanders sneezed together, maybe the enemy’s employing poison!” Platoon Four’s commander looked around vigilantly, and then barked out some orders, sending her subordinates into a fluster as they formed a large diamond around Marie and Aziz.

Captain Aziz sniffed, and then rolled his eyes as the platoon made it very obvious to anyone marching that the two in the middle were the commanders of Thunderbolt Company. His gaze drifted over to Colonel Marie surreptitiously, whose expressions was largely unperturbed as she continued to direct the first three platoons to corner a routed battalion.

“Thunderbolt Actual to Thunderbolt Two, fire to divide,” Colonel Marie spoke into the Radio Artefact. “Thunderbolt One and Three, fire at will after.”

Sounds of massed fire abruptly ceased with these orders, and the captain could feel the harassed ground troops falter as they continued to evade and defend against non-existent attacks. But before their commander could rally the dispersed troops together, a platoon’s worth of fire soared towards the troops who were showing signs of gathering, killing them.

In that moment, morale completely shattered, and soldiers began to flee in earnest. This time, unlike the coordinated shots that had been used to break through defences, Platoons One and Three were firing as they saw fit.

It didn’t take long before the last pocket of resistance exploded into bloody flesh, and Aziz could only shake his head. A unified defence against Thunderbolt Company had proven to yield the highest longevity for the defenders. It had taken weeks of experimentation to come up with tactics that worked well in compelling enemy troops to breakup and flee.

“Thunderbolt Actual to all units, reorganise.” Marie lowered the artefact, and after checking that none of the soldiers from Platoon Four were in earshot, she sighed.

“Good work, Marie.” Aziz drifted over to her side.

“Few of them had any ranged artefacts to begin with,” replied the colonel. “And we were enjoying the benefits of instant communication, flight and an ability to punch others without being able to be punched back.”

“I wonder how long can we maintain this casualty-less streak, however. The Southern armies we’ve faced so far have been the cannon fodder we saw at the Second Extermination,” said the captain. “By now, news should have reached the assembly, and calls for aid responded to.”

The week had started off well, with Camp Napoleon’s forward troops having secured a staging area without much of an issue. Before the morning was out, three infantry brigades had occupied the area and were busily constructing a forward base. In the meantime, two more regiments cleared the area of bandits who might have seen it fit to report the appearance of an unknown army to the nearby cities for a quick buck. After all, the Great Houses weren’t a monolithic entity, and getting backstabbed was almost an annual event.

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But the streak of good luck had ended when influential men and women from eight Great Houses, the ones that had survived the Last Star’s Purge — Aziz didn’t know who or what the Last Star was, but the name was catchy enough — had paid a visit to their first target, the tier two city of Lodium. One of those Houses had taken a route through the staging area that Thunderbolt Company and its allies had fortified, and battle was joined almost immediately.

Although Camp Napoleon’s forces had been taken by surprise, they had the advantages of being in a fortified position as well as an overwhelming numerical superiority. The same couldn’t be said for the unfortunate delegate from House Ishtar, and the battalion-sized retinue following it.

It was a total annihilation.

Or rather, a near-total annihilation. The forward scouts of House Ishtar’s retinue opted to flee the forest, and by the time Thunderbolt Company was called upon to mobilise, the scouts had vanished.

But from that day on, the newly formed Southern Pacification Force, the SPF, saw conflicts almost every day. Captain Aziz had attended one of the Council’s meetings, which just so happened to be the one where they decided that the SPF would hold on to the staging area, which was now a veritable fortress, as Camp Napoleon continued to train troops and even get humans to support their cause. The resistance had expanded their defensive lines as their numbers continued to surge, taking over smaller tier three cities and rallying their inhabitants around a noble cause.

“Well,” said Colonel Marie, “we should be able to hold this fortress for quite some time. It’s a chokepoint, which was why it was our staging area to begin with, and coupled with our advances in doctrine…”

“Enemy countermeasures can be expected, though. Everyone’s really adaptive in times of war.” It was now the captain’s turn to sigh. “The days where we have no casualties are about to end. Count on it.”

The two stopped talking as the three platoons returned. For the next few minutes, Captain Aziz busied himself with debriefing the company, while Colonel Marie began to communicate with the SPF headquarters.

“Gentlemen and ladies of Thunderbolt Company,” said the captain. “I hope you enjoyed today’s session. You guys have a job that the others envy — you just need to kill, and the infantry clean up the corpses!”

The company broke into uproarious laughter, earning them a glare from Colonel Marie, which promptly glued their mouths shut together. This routine wasn’t anything new to them — Aziz had taken it upon himself to instil some humour after every battle just as Marie reported in their victory.

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “the easy days are about to be over. Don’t let down your guard for the battles to follow. Birds can fly, but if they aren’t careful, they can be caught and killed.”

“Don’t go scaring the kids like that, captain.” Colonel Marie floated back. “But it is a good idea to be more careful from now on. Keep your guards up, and come back safely.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Let’s go. Destination, the SPF headquarters!” Colonel Marie glanced at the infantry troops that were beginning to clean up the battlefield, which drew a couple of laughs from Thunderbolt Company, before zooming off into the distance. The four platoons followed suit a moment later.

Captain Aziz looked at the field of corpses on the ground below him, and then trailed after the departing company. Today, it was them. But tomorrow? A week later? We just need to slip up once, and it’ll be our corpses lying there, cleaned up by the enemy.

A shiver ran down his spine. Captain Aziz bit his lips, and followed after the departing Thunderbolt.