Rattling. Dust fell from the ceilings as another wooden board found itself nailed to the top; a soldier rapidly hammering away at the plank he’d just rammed up in the gap. The hallways lit only with a single lantern the soldier peered into the orange hue and screamed, “WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE NAILS!”

“Shut the hell up, soldier! You’ll have your nails within the hour!”

The soldier’s ears twinged before he instinctively shouted back, “SIR, YES, SIR! APOLOGIES, SIR!” Sweat went down the back of his head.

“Good!” The crackling, hoarse voice remarking that belonging to Hen, who solemnly marched down the hallways looking at each and every single soldier. His eyes only narrowed as he proceeded along, discovering that some places had inherited what amounted to crumbling rubble and towering stacks of dust.

He passed a room where three men lifted rubble from a large pile inside, tossing it out onto the hallway; one of the rocks almost striking him square on the chest. He stopped.

“Oy, soldier! Where the hell are your supplies?”

One of them turned around before his eyes suddenly widened and stuttered, “Oh- Officer Hen - my mistake, sir, uh- sir - injuries division, sir- I’m sorry, but we’re still pulling people out of the rubble, sir-”

“HOW MUCH MORE TIME ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND ON PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAD?”

“Sir - personal order by officer Poik, sir - we’re just following orders-”

“Oh. I see. Carry on…” His voice suddenly taking a radically softer turn, he marched off without even making a single passing remark. The soldier wiped off the sweat collecting on his face before lifting up another rock and throwing it out again.

“Hey, Poik didn’t give us that order.” One of his comrades remarked as he flung a smaller stone out the doorframe.

“FUCK it, man. I’m telling you, Hen’s going to fucking murder us. He probably doesn’t even check, he just runs down the fucking hallways and orders us around. What fucking moron decided to give him command?!”

“That Korun bitch in charge, obviously.”

He grunted. “Oh, oh, oh… I hate that woman. Hate her so much. No judgement, who even put a fockin woman in charge of all of us? They had fucking Salim and they don’t put him in charge?!”

“No kidding, Stak. No kidding.” The main opposite Stak groaned, before carting an entire tumbleweed of stone out the room and revealing a man underneath. “WE NEED MEDICAL! COME ON!”

“Coming!” A voice came from the outside, as Stak pulled the elven man away and patted him on the shoulder. He pressed the long tip of his ear down on the man’s heart, a small thump-thump greeting his ears.

“He’s definitely alive.” He remarked, before whispering towards the unconscious elven’s ears, “You’re going to be okay, brother. Just fine.”

With a tapping three men rushed into the room with two empty toboggans in hand, the fabric that would turn the toboggans into stretchers carried by the last man. “You!” One of them pointed at Stak, “Help me out here!”

The three lifted the rubble up for a moment with magic while Stak pulled the man out and began to hold him by the shoulders; the others dropped the stones and rocks on the floor before holding the man up by the rest of his body and lifting him up into the stretcher. “Any more? We can get one more!”

Kains - the man who’d been conversing with Stak - filed through the rubble before coming upon black hair.

“Hold on! We might have one more!” As he tossed the rocks away he discovered a grey hand and dumped the rock in his hand on the floor. “Nevermind! Slave! Take him away - no one else here!”

The medical crew that’d just arrived nodded before carting the unconscious elven away; the three looked over in relief as they stood up, leaning against the wall while wiping off the sweat accumulating on their dirtied ivory skin.

“Nice job, Stak.” Mondai remarked. “Let’s keep checking through for more.”

“Shouldn’t be any more… Not enough space for more. Let’s go search somewhere else.”

“Right… yeah.” Mondai replied, peering back at the rubble from which a grey hand continued to jut out underneath the pile. He stared at it for a moment before running out of the room for a moment, the pile collapsing in on itself and flattening over the lone hand sticking out.

The hallways remained a mess. Left and right soldiers charged down the hallways, some whacking into each other; wounds from being slammed by a plank or rocks scarring their legs could be seen upon every man running by. Proud steel armour - however scratched and makeshift - had been replaced by simple cloth uniforms with medics wearing a brighter shade of brown, their othala armband also marked with a grand ‘x’.

Swarming down the corridor the trio came upon the old take-off stations with the dragons; now scattered with five long columns of futons and old sacks converted to pillows. Medical equipment lined the floor - first aid kits, packets of blood and bandage rolls everywhere. Several kans already lay in the corner next to four severed legs wrapped with fabric.

In the middle Poik tended to a wounded man; the trio passed by him repeating to the injured soldier, “You’re going to be fine. On my word you’re going to be okay.”

“I like that man,” Stak remarked to Mondai as the trio separated into Stak and Mondai; Kains walking elsewhere. “I’d take him over that bitch Miru.”

“Seriously speaking, what’s your big gripe with the commander? She’s not a bad one.”

Stak immediately glared at Mondai. “Not a bad one ooooooooh nice man are you? SIXTEEN and she’s already made it to being an officer. SIXTEEN. One of those fucking children that the older ranks of the Avisen that they ran away with and now they feel really fucking bad so they give them lots and lots of nice shit. Nice shit that WE don’t get.”

“I just arrived two weeks before this shit, man, gimme a break…” Mondai’s voice trailed off as he applied some herbs to a soldier’s wound. “Gotta say though, these guys are crazy. Surviving like two days straight under rubble.”

“Yeah, they won’t be alive too long if you keep talking. Gimme that herb for a bit.”

Taking the ointment from Mondai, Stak then ran it across the slash pierced into the man’s chest. Mondai stuck glue to the corner of the bandage before slowly pushing it across the man’s wound, remarking, “You’re going to be alright.”

Stak leaned in and whispered, “Why? You don’t say that.”

“What? Why the hell not?”

“Two out of three times he’d be dead within the week. Don’t give him false hope.”

“Poik!”

A woman’s voice hollered from their back. Stak briefly glanced over to see the blue-skinned Miru, sweat running down her face, talking to Poik. He groused.

“How many casualties do we have total? No estimations at this point, I want a good number.”

“143… injuries, 71 severe. Approximately 32 dead, we’re still pulling more people out of the rubble.”

“Slaves?”

“Seems like most of them were taken with the explosion. Nobody’s giving me enough numbers but I could count the surviving ones on four hands.”

“Dammit. And it seemed so convenient to put them in the lower floors then…” Her voice trailed off. “How fast could the non-severe injures get back to service?”

“At least a week.”

“Five days. I trust you to be able to do it.” She stopped, before turning around and remarking, “Also, I want a full report at the end of the day. If all goes well we can return to normal lights-out by tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She turned around and sprinted off. She dodged soldiers and supplies as she stumbled her way over through the corridors, black lines running under her eyes. Leaping over two planks she clicked her way up the stairs and up into the raging blizzard above the base. Dozens of men rushed about, screaming coordinates while trudging through thinned snow uneven and footstep-pocked.

The cold brushed against her skin while she pushed her way into the main tent; a large table placed in the middle with a large map on scrawled across the tabletop. Soldiers clamoured through the crowd, before Miru shouted, “Oy! What happened to organisation?!”

The crowd barely turned around. Miru groaned, before floating up a compass and swacking it against someone’s face. “OY!” She screamed, pushing aside men and then pointing at the man on the furthest left, “Supply information from the rear?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“All of your soldiers go to you, right?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“WHY are they all here?”

“Overloaded, ma’am!”

She sighed again. “That’s fine, but we need better organisation. Assign one person to give me emergency, immediate details. That goes for all of you! All of you, otherwise, get back to your posts!”

The crowd quickly dissipated, with a few others remaining and going up to Miru, Kari, Salim and the three other compilationsmen in the room. A banner hung by the great large map hanging on the side, with little labels marked all over; the commotion flying across the largely empty room with otherwise just the table, some insignia and some chairs.

“Kari, have we gotten a report from the Fourth Army yet?”

“Not in twelve hours, no, that’s - I believe - four hours past now.”

“Keep watching. Salim!”

“Already ready, commander. Third Dragons called in, they’re saying they’re getting torn up. Reinforcements need to come fast.”

“Relay to command without delay. What do we have on the overall situation? C-men report.”

One woman, and two men, made up the entire base’s staff of surviving compilationmen. With a few charts in hand and moving around some markers on the grand map of Otisk laid out before them, the three stood ready as Miru leaned over on the map, taking a deep breath.

“Now, please.”

“Yes. Commander, if you’d turn your attention to here…”

“Commander.”

“...what the hell are you doing here, Hen?” Miru remarked, peering into the room. “You were absent.”

“I just popped in for inspections.”

“You smell of booze. Don’t lie.” Kari pointed to his sleeve, “That’s… that’s an alcohol stain.”

“Fuck you, woman!” He laughed as he waltzed away, marching off down the corridor; leaving the door to the officers’ lounge open. The haughty giggling Miru and Kari could both hear led to Miru rolling her eyes as she slowly shuffled into the room, collapsing on the back of her seat.

“Why did you put him on Protection? Honestly, Miru, I…”

“Officers only can be put in charge of divisions. It’s one of the rules that Sir Sekyo applied.” She paused, staring at the half-filled mug on the table. “I can’t defy it even if I wish.”

“But you could have promoted someone else to be an officer.”

“As much as I love the Xiojinkan, you know as well as I do that women aren’t authorised to give full promotions.”

“Yeesh, I don’t even give a shit about the Imperial Court anymore.” Kari remarked as she laid back in the thick chair. “It’s hokey.”

“Foul mouth for someone who just recently was informing me how to be a woman…” Miru chuckled, picking up her usual cup and slouching over towards the barrel. “What changed?”

“You did.”

Miru stopped, slowly turning around, the blush on her face mild but noticeable.

“Honestly speaking, I’m surprised I believed in any of that to begin with. You’re a good leader - to an extent.” She grinned, glancing away for a second. “Not so much with that - utter shite - around here.”

“All I can say for Hen is that he’s convincing enough to pass the basic requirements for his job. I’d pass off actual defence to Salim and myself.” Miru paused, sipping from the cup. “Don’t tell him that, his ego is easy to decimate.”

“What happened to respecting your soldiers?” Kari laughed, slowly getting up to walk to the barrel.

“Soldiers? He’s a transferee that higher command brought in on me. He’s the one decision they’ve made that I severely question.”

Miru downed the entire cup at one go, heaving a sigh of relief before standing right back up and marching right towards the barrel once more. “Thank the lord the other officers are gone... ...I haven’t drank this heavily since getting rejected from dragonriders’ class.”

Kari raised her eyebrows. “You tried dragonriding?”

“At the time.”

“Honest question, Miru; why are you so in on this?” Kari paused as the slow sound of liquid stacking up continued in the background. “Why do you love being in the Xiojinkan so much? Especially here of all places?”

“Been here my whole life, Kari.’ She smiled, the water spilling into her cup. “It’s the only place I know, and the only place I’d want to know. What would a warrior do in a city? Especially a woman?”

“...”

“Seriously. I don’t know why they gave me a chance. But they did. And I’ll take that chance and honour it as best I can for my entire life.”

Kari took a sip from her cup as she peered over at Miru, downing another mug of alcohol; the smell penetrating the entire room. She pinched her nose, before chuckling to herself and sitting down on the chair; taking another sip.

“Well… time to go.” Miru stood up. “They aren’t gonna manage themselves - did you get enough?”

“Are you kidding me?” Kari stared at Miru with wide eyes.

Miru glared at her for a moment, before breaking into a laugh. “No - you’ve got another ten minutes, let’s drink down another few glasses.”

She sat down, and picked up the cup once again.