Micky saw the endless green turn into a flat plane of green. His army was no longer marching but had finally arrived. The battlefield was nothing overtly special. Though there were parts of it that were distinct from each other. For example that hill over there or that valley over there. Each held their own charm for battle. He could also see that his amy was first which meant they could set things up in their favor slightly. Nothing major, but having advanced fortifications protecting them from attacks? Or something…

Micky continued to march in spite of the ending being in sight. He would always make sure to march around with the common guys at least a little. Not all of them had talked to him of course, but Micky was seen as a normal guy with and by all of them. They saw him eating the same slop as the rest of them. For all intents and purposes, he was just a normal guy hoofing it like the rest of them. He wasn’t actually, but he made it seem that way. Only the rankers and officers might know differently and only in a good way. Like I’m so damn far above you but I’m sharing the nice things, kind of way.

While they were marching Micky hadn’t austrisized Mira in any way. But for some reason she ended up with shit luck. Out of the two she was on outbound duty, meaning she was away from camp scouting. She hardly got any assignments with the other girl rankers and the ones she did were shit assignments with the asshat male rankers that literally didn’t know their place. There were even a couple of incedents Micky had to come in and solve, known to all the camp. Mira wasn’t a bad guy, but she was starting to have a bit of a terrible rep for attacking people, and not just the males either…

Everything was going according to plan... Micky didn’t like it. She was caught in the trap too easily. Oh yes, Kux appeared. Scared the shit out of him. Literally tacking a dump at the time. Apparently was in the army the entire time. She had some weird signup going on. Signed up with/for him and yet not. Army recruiters didn’t ask much, she was just another body for the grinder, ya know?

So yeah, there was that… Yeah? He had her asking around for the history of Mira. He wasn’t sure of Kux history himself but she seemed the scout type of ranker. This was interesting since the scaling went up as went further away from combat. For example Micky was actually, technically a 10,000 ranker himself. Though for a utility or support ranker you multiplied by 10 so he was equivalent to a 1,000 ranker combat type. This was actually impressive and intriguing since Prin was only a 100 ranker. A fact that she would never hear the end of.

Micky took to his orders. They were to build a fortification… Here? It was a flat plane, fine. But it was literally right next to the hill. Maybe they would build a watchtower on the hill? He wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a waste. They had the prime choice of the field and were building fortifications exactly on the opposite side of where the enemy was supposed to come from.

Micky started to build fortification in his designated area. He was on the extreme right wing. He had so far been able to keep Mira from forming a, dare he say it, union of the rankers. It felt wrong just to think about it. Anyway, she would have almost free raign now. It was something Micky couldn’t have, unfortunately he was forced too. Prin had done well infiltrating her group. It wasn’t hard, and well, Prin was never one to turn down guys. So she easily mingled. And what she returned with was depressing. Not in the, she was about to start a coup, way but in the, is that really what she wants? And why is she taking credit for these things? Does she actually believe that people will think those were her ideas? Kind of way.

He would deal with her later. He supposed he would have to set the two against each other early. He could think of a few ways, this also allowed him to play piece maker. It wouldn’t be too hard, Mira was easy to star conflicts with actually and she already hated her fellow. She seemed to have a general man hate going on, but not for Micky for some reason. Actually, he didn’t think she really thought of him as male, more like a pet… Was his presence really that weak?

Micky was taken out of his musings when the enemy troups came from the forest, immediately taking a hill. Worse, they had not been idle as it was clear they had their siege engines built and ready. They were still making more, but it was clear that they would be using them in the coming battles. Luckily they would not reach here though. It was to Micky’s chagrin that they still hadn’t even unpacked their own siege equipment. Targeted ballistea would have been a great counter to their own siege equipment.

Instead of worrying for such things Micky looked at his orders. They were utter shit. He was the tip of the wing, but he was supposed to be in formation. Formation was a simple line with melee formations in the front and ranged in the back, fine. But there was no side protection. Micky was up against the forest, great for ambushing. Micky almost straight up tossed his orders into the fire. He could see where this was going. And no, he was not going to let it happen. He split his units in half. He would have Jack lead the front facing one and Mira on the sides.

It seemed like he was favoring protecting Mira at first, however that wasn’t true. Jack would be able to rack up some easy achievements simply by being on the front lines and Mira wouldn’t. Then, if and only if their flank was attacked, would they take heavy losses. Losses that would be attributed to Mira even though it wouldn’t be her fault. So in the end she would get low merits for performing a dangerous job. It was like playing the lookout while other people went in after the bandit lord. There probably were an unknown number of enemies literally waiting for you to let your guard down so they could kill you. But if you didn’t then you would get no achievements yourself. All guards were unsung heroes.

Again, she didn’t see the problem here. Well she might have, but she saw it as Micky being a protective chauvinist. She had wanted to take the field to prove herself. And jack really wanted the opposite. This meant they both complained about the assignment. But Micky took the protective chauvinist and ran with it. No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Micky was disobeying orders to have his flanks covered but he wasn’t about to be stupid. This wasn’t a training exercise. He would bet money, or at least his reputation, that the enemy was going to attack their flanks. While he was at it, he and a few others were going to continue to build their fortifications. He couldn’t understand why, but they were ordered to stop. As if the flimsy fortifications they had built in the days they were ahead were enough. The enemy clearly had the idea for a short lived, but sturdy fort. This meant they were planning for a long bloody campaign.

Really, what was the legate thinking? It was lunacy. So Micky did what he always did in these situations. His own thing and hoping to keep as many people as he could alive. While he was at it, he snuck out a few scorpions. Nothing that couldn’t be hidden. These siege engines were too big for normal soldiers but were still highly mobile. He also used a few siege bows. Similar to the scorpions. Just a little something to give him an edge on the competition. This had cost him a few favors with supply but he didn’t mind. Adding his signature on some supply orders that he would get a part of anyway didn’t affect him one bit. Plus this would restore his stocks of wine and other goods to bribe the rankers with...