The formation dissolved in front of my eyes.

I had caught a few eyes while doing my work, those with sensitive Auras faintly picking up the intricate patterns I was combining and recombining, but I was too engrossed to care much. In fact, I had been sitting, unmoving, for so long that when I stood up, my head felt blank for a moment, and I almost fell back onto the seat. My head had heated up a bit like it usually did when I concentrated hard, and the feverish feeling only made my head feel worse. But everything was okay now; I steadied myself against a handle and hauled myself through a hatch onto the roof of the now-stationary Steed, perched just below the crest of a hill.

The last known location of the Snow Doves should be in view – a little valley just a few hundred yards ahead, according to my map. However, there was nothing but the faint signs that a large group of people had once camped in the place.

The Scourge had been spreading a red, moldy, thick fungus everywhere it went. On my first trip to the Treehouse, when I had reconnoitered that vanguard camp, it was spreading via flesh trees from hell. Of course, that was just one tree and one encampment. Now though, there were hundreds of encampments and many thousands of those trees spread across the land. Everywhere was smothered in a deathly, gut-churning odor, meaning that my mask was glued to my face.

The place where the Snow Doves had settled was clear of that fungus though. The ground had been charred before the soil was turned, creating a circle of brown surrounded by that red fungus, as well as some snow. They had carved out an area for themselves and had fairly recently moved out. I could see the slightest smoke coming up from a small wood fire that had gone out, as well as still-visible trails in the snow and alterations in the fungus. Based on the snow fall, they couldn’t be more than three hours away.

I looked around for any other hints – disturbed snow, leaves with light coatings of snow, the hastiness of cleaning – and referenced the trails I had memorized from the map, eventually identifying a suspicious-looking gulley that matched all my criteria.

All that took about six seconds.

“They’ve headed northwest. There’s a large Scourge encampment about half a day away. They left later in the morning and probably want to strike it, most likely at nightfall. Either way, I think I know where they’re going, and they’re relatively close.”

“You sure?”

Pollux asked, making me nod.

“Pretty sure. I’ve got no clues otherwise.”

“Alright then. Do we have time to set up camp for a bit or should we go now?”

“I say we continue. I want to verify their trail. It’ll disappear if we wait.”

“Then jump in the front seat and navigate with the driver. Gabe! Move to the back!”

Pollux shouted while climbing into the back again. I jumped off the Steed and threw open the passenger door, climbing in the warm seat as Gabe climbed into the back with a grumble.

After that we continued. Nobody was happy to keep driving, but I wasn’t about to lose our only lead, otherwise I’d risk never finding them.

While giving directions, I also tapped my Aerial and started sending out broadcasts, looking for any channels to latch onto. I picked up nothing, for now.

We continued tracking the trail, which became more and more obvious as they went. At one point, I even had the driver jump onto the trail so he could just follow it, driving as fast as he could.

That went on for about four hours as the sun dipped ever closer to the horizon.

Then, as we crested a large hill, I managed to pick up on a channel.

I tapped into it and quickly sent out a message.

“Pathfinders to Snow Doves, come in. I say again, Pathfinders to Snow Doves, come in.”

“...”

“Stop the car.”

I tapped the driver, having him stop on top of the hill. I then pulled myself onto the Steed’s roof, scanning the darkened forest hollows.

I could see an obvious trail, as well as the faintest dots of something moving across another distant hill.

“Snow Doves, come in Snow Doves. I say agai-”

“...is Chief Reginold of the Snow Doves.”

“Liaison to Chief Reginold, come in.”

I spoke again when I heard the other voice, making contact. At the same time, those dots in the distance stopped moving.

“This is Chief Reginold, I copy Liaison. Who is this?”

“Captain Cooper from the Pathfinders, First Squad.”

“Pathfinders? What the hell are you guys doing out here?”

“Sir, we’ve come to find you guys. Orders have come down, and we need to bring a few of your men back to base for a mission brief.”

“... Understood, Liaison. Let’s make contact. Where are you?”

“Currently behind you, on your trail, sir.”

I spoke while stressing my eyes to see as far as the Snow Doves were. I could make out 7 Steeds.

“Copy. We’re going to backtrack to the bottom of our hill. Do you want directions?”

“Negative, I have eyes on your location. We’re coming now. We’ll be there in about two hours.”

“... You’re 2 hours away and have eyes on us?”

“I have good eyes, sir.”

“Well alright then. See you in two.”

Communications ended, and I pointed.

“Step on it.”

……

Two hours later, we rolled over a hill and to where the Snow Doves had stopped to wait for us. I could feel their presence from miles away. They were incredibly strong, the platoon’s collective Auras towering above even some Scourge armies.

The sun had set, and night had fallen. I was worried they’d be pissed we made them miss their night raid window, but I was here on orders, so didn’t mind much.

A few people approached as we rolled up. They had formed their Steeds in a circle, creating something like a camp. We shimmied into a spot they had left from our singular Steed.

Pollux and I were quick to jump out. My feet met brown dirt. They had gotten rid of the fungus, like at their last camp. It seemed like they wanted to camp out for the night. Change of plans, no thanks to us.

Pollux walked in front of me, meeting with the leader of the trio who approached. I could feel the oppressive power of an Authority 10, though it was fairly discreet, meaning the guy was skilled.

“Commander Pollux. You’re the last person I thought I’d see out here.”

“Brigadier Nonnen. It’s good to see you well, sir.”

Pollux and Nonnen shook hands before Nonnen turned to me, his eyes glancing down to find the name patch on the white camo coat I wore over my normal coat.

“Cooper? You’re the Captain who brought us to a screeching halt.”

“Yes sir, you have my apologies.”

“It’s fine. You gave me a good excuse to do nothing tonight. Commander, have your squad set up camp with us. We’ll talk business once everyone is settled.”

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“Understood.”

Pollux nodded as I glanced at the two people beside the Brigadier. One was that man I talked to, Chief Reginold, a warlock. The other was a girl I didn’t recognize, a knight sitting at Authority 9, Chief Cynia from her nametag.

Pollux and I got ourselves situated along with the rest of the squad, unloading supplies and pitching tents inside the circle. They made room for us, and despite being in the middle of what could be considered enemy territory, I’d be hard pressed to feel safer being surrounded by exceptionally powerful soldiers like these.

It was only a bit weird knowing I was the only summoner out here.

After getting ourselves situated, we found the command tent where Brigadier Nonnen and another Authority 10, Brigadier Miron, were, someone I’d met before. He was one of Alois’ buddies, so I should’ve expected that he’d be out here.

Aside from them, only Chief Reginold and Chief Cynia attended. We sat down at a table with them, and I quickly came under scrutiny when Miron recognized me.

“Captain Cooper. I remember you from that reconnaissance mission some months ago.”

“I appreciate the thought, sir.”

“Well, it’s hard to forget a summoner who actually has the balls to go out into the field like that. You were just an officer back then too. Seems someone up at the top is helping you along.”

“I’m just doing what I can, sir.”

I gave a neutral response, thinking how Miron was much more restrained than Alois was, at least outwardly. I had a feeling that the presence of Brigadier Nonnen had something to do with it.

Sure enough, Nonnen took control of the conversation soon after my response.

“So, Commander Pollux. I hear we’ve got new orders. Something must be important if they sent you all the way out here to find us instead of just letting us return in a few days.”

“Yes sir. More specifically, it’s only some of you that these orders concern. My Liaison here knows the details. He’ll explain.”

“Hm.”

Nonnen turned back to me. Despite me being taller than just about everyone in this room, the pressure he mounted made me feel like shrinking down.

I didn’t, but I felt like it. Either way, I pulled out a few sheets of paper prepared for this briefing and passed them over.

“Over the past two months, given some analysis on the recent Scourge activity including operations ongoing over here, we’ve concluded that the Scourge is making big enough moves to warrant investigation into their situation beyond Hare’s Pass. Putting it simply, we’re forming an infiltration team to make their way across the eastern crossing, into Scourge territory beyond the Pass, and collect information on all Scourge activity over there. For this, we’ll need three Snow Doves, all of them Authority Nine. One of them is Chief Reginold, in fact.”

“Me?”

Realizing that this was something big and that it involved him, Reginold leaned over and started reading the papers.

I continued.

“We have multiple candidates, but Colonel Polly has her 3 picks if they’re all operational. They are Chief Reginold, Chief Vipul, and Chief Prasanna.”

“... All of them are perfectly operational.”

Nonnen muttered, reading the report Polly and I prepared specifically for him.

After a few seconds of silence, I continued.

“We need to bring them back with us to the Treehouse. Once there, and once the rest of the Pathfinders are ready, we’ll launch the mission.”

“... Why can’t the three stay here, and your Pathfinders come pick them up on your way over to the crossing? Seems to me like going back and forth while depleting my Platoon of three powerful Chiefs is wasteful.”

“Because this mission needs to be covert.”

I spoke plainly. This was my mission, and I knew exactly why everything had to go the way I stipulated.

“We are inserting three people deep behind enemy lines, and we need to make sure that nothing knows they’re out there. They will be unable to communicate for potentially months, running off of nothing but the supplies they have on hand, and will need to collect as much information as possible. This entails extreme risks if their presence is even rumored. So from the moment we leave base, we’re going completely dark until the moment the team is beyond the crossing. It was decided that taking them from your platoon while in the field and going straight to the eastern crossing is too obvious. We have to assume that you’re being watched even now.”

“...”

Nonnen stared at me while I spoke, only looking down at the paper some time after I finished.

The next to speak was Miron, his words annoying me slightly. It wasn’t him who I was dealing with, but I couldn’t just ignore him.

“Why only Authority Nines? You could’ve sent at least one Brigadier over there.”

This question I was well prepared for.

“We determined that Authority Nine is the sweet spot. Brigadiers are powerful, but they can also be obvious. We want to keep the team’s presence minimal while also making sure they can sense and avoid the strongest enemies they may encounter while being able to fight against anything lesser they may need to. The top three candidates Polly selected have skills that fit the mission parameters.”

“What do you mean, Brigadiers are obvious? You think we don’t have control over our Auras?”

Miron frowned in offense. It took everything I had not to look at him with disdain.

While it might not be true for all Authority 10s, it was especially true for Miron. His Aura was towering like a beacon. In my eyes, he was basically screaming to the world that he was here, especially when he got agitated. Compared to him, Nonnen was far more collected.

The one with the weakest Aura was taking offense when I didn’t even point him out. I’m sure he was self aware, but he was also too stupid correct his flaws, so he got pissed instead.

Thankfully, Nonnen was here to help me out.

“Pipe down, Miron. You think the entire mountain range can’t see you right now? If they sent you over there, you’d have every Royal in that territory hunting your ass down the first day.”

“I highly doubt there’s anything I can’t either fight or run from over there.”

“The point isn’t to fight, it’s to collect information. The fact you can’t see that is exactly why we leave the thinking to the summoners.”

“Yes, the weak cowards who can only sit behind desks all day. How happy am I that I have to take orders from them.”

Miron rolled his eyes and kicked his feet up, his words chunking away at the already minimal respect I held for him.

I somewhat agreed, actually. But that was exactly why I was out here. He just didn’t want to admit that his ideas were stupid. The guy was a meathead.

I just kept my composure as Nonnen read through one more time. I watched him, and at some point I looked at his arm to find the two arrow insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel. It seemed Brigadier Nonnen was smart. It was obvious then why he led the Snow Doves and not a dumbass like Miron.

“... Okay. You have my permission to take Chief Reginold and the others. Reggie, be ready to leave with them in the morning. Inform the other two as well. I’ll let you take a Steed back, on one condition.”

Nonnen looked back at me, his tone dropping.

“We lost First Commander Niko. I want his body to be taken back to the Treehouse and sent to the Stronghold as soon as possible. Can you get that done for me, Captain?”

“Yes sir.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded at my quick affirmative.

“Is there anything else?”

“Actually sir, I wanted to discuss a new enemy that we spotted on our way here.”

“You’re talking about that behemoth? The one that launches explosives at you?”

“Yes sir. I wanted to discuss the possibility of running some hunts to kill them off. I have a feeling that they’re gathering en masse in order to siege the Treehouse, which may happen not long from now if they’re allowed to accumulate. More importantly though I’d like any information you have on them, such as sightings and counts you may have come across.”

“Hm, we can do that.”

He nodded again and looked at Chief Reginold who had leaned forward.

“You two can talk about that. All I’ll say is that we’ve already struck a few encampments where we found those things. My thoughts were the same as yours. We shouldn’t let them gather, but we don’t know how many have already slipped past us. If you draw up something when you get back and relay it to us, then we’ll move. Until then, we’ll focus on our current mission.”

“Understood. There is one more thing that I was told to ask you about.”

“Yes?”

“How many days left of supplies do you have? If possible, we wanted you to remain out here for an additional objective regarding the infiltration, an additional two days specifically.”

“... We can’t do that.”

He shook his head, making me nod.

“That’s not an issue then. Once you get back to the Treehouse and restock though, you’ll be sent out once more with a Pathfinder squad. The overall mission will take another three or so days, but that’s not a big deal.”

“Is there a schedule?”

“Kind of. We need to insert during this time of chaos. We can’t let it cool down before we get our team through. Right now, we’re theorizing that most of the Scourge is already beyond the crossing. We may only have a couple weeks before things either settle or the Scourge sends some high level combatants over. We can’t know, which is why we want to get the team over there as fast as possible while the crossing is likely the safest.”

“Okay. And what would we be doing to help?”

“Creating some more chaos near the crossing. Jasmine will be at the base to brief you with the details when you return.”

“Mm, fine.”

“That’s all I have then.”

I stopped my rambling there, having said everything I needed to. Nonnen nodded, standing.

“Then we’ll retire for the night. Your squad can leave in the morning with that Steed. We’ll leave around the same time.”

“Understood.”

We stood, Pollux and I giving a salute before we all dispersed.

We walked out of the command tent and back to our area with the rest of the Pathfinders. They had made themselves a tight group away from all the intimidating Snow Doves, it looked like.

Pollux pat my shoulder, speaking with a low voice.

“You handled that well. I’ve seen summoners stumble over their words in front of Authority 8s, let alone Brigadiers. Polly is one of the few who can stomach them.”

“It’s not too bad. I’ve talked to several others before on more than one occasion, many who were more powerful.”

“Is that right?”

“Well, the Magisterium is chock full of their children.”

“I suppose.”

Pollux shrugged as we arrived in camp. Everyone was tired from the long ride and some were already sleeping. I was also tired from my formation study in the Steed, so it wasn’t long before I got my tent set up and climbed in.

I quickly fell asleep, comfortably ensconced in my luxurious pillows and sheets.