Thousands of shadows held position over a gloomy sea, illuminated by the weak moonlight. Aziz looked around for sudden giant balls of light, but it seemed that today’s exercise was one of stealth and movement. Thunderbolt had no issues with navigation, even in the dark, a trait that was sorely missing from the Eastern airborne forces.

The very fact that these Squires hadn’t been combined into a true military division was a huge problem. The fliers numbered well over two thousand, a number pretty much four times the size of Thunderbolt. In the Republic, an airborne division would have been formed under such circumstances, one with a complete command structure and training doctrines of their own. Even the formation of airborne companies and battalions hadn’t happened, which was frankly unbelievable to the colonel and to Marshal Marie.

Therefore, this exercise was sorely needed. It had already shown a few major problems, like the inadequate navigational abilities of an airborne force this big. Even in the day, the East’s fliers weren’t allowed to move from their assigned positions…which meant that moving at night was one hell of a leap from what they were used to.

“Wow,” said Aziz. “This looks…pathetic. I think even Thunderbolt Squad back then was far better.”

“Apples and oranges, vice-commander.” Delta Company’s commander, the now-Captain Schnee, replied with a magnificent toss of her head. “We started our training as a small squad back then, with a lot of space to fly around with, and an insane trainer beating us down ten to one.”

“Good point,” said Marshal Marie. “We had Aziz here with us from the start, which was why your training was so much smoother.”

“No, ma’am,” Aziz replied, a grin on his face. “You’re the one who made everyone willing to fight, to charge the frontlines when we weren’t sure. I’m just a trainer, but you’re the spiritual core of Thunderbolt Battalion.”

“You’re just putting yourself down,” said the marshal. “Without you, it would have been impossible for Thunderbolt to become this competent.”

“We’ll just go on back and forth, so I propose we table this discussion,” Aziz said. “

“Done.”

The appointment holders of Thunderbolt sighed as they watched the advancing wall of Squires bob slowly forward. It was…pathetic, to put it mildly. The East, for some reason, had decided not to split their fliers into smaller groups, like hundreds of platoons. The result was that everyone was simply moving forward slowly, in what looked like a net-like formation from afar.

“What do you think?” A voice spoke from behind Colonel Aziz, and everyone turned to face the speaker.

“Paragon Ying Xin, do you want me to be brutally honest?” Colonel Aziz asked.

“Go on.”

The colonel looked around at everyone else to gather his courage, and then said, “They’ll be slaughtered to a man like this. For defence, it was fine, since Conrah’s forces didn’t have ranged weapons and a Squire-rank airborne troop of much threat. But for an offensive of such scale, it is nothing short of suicide to have them immobile. Why aren’t the Plenum organising these squads the way the Knights and Lords are grouped together?”

“Political reasons,” Ying Xin replied. “The Knights already have their own groups, their own affiliations, so we are entirely fine with them forming groups. But these Squires represent the young and gifted of the East. For them to be grouped together and organised like a military unit can have incredible complications for years to come.”

“And that’s more important than not getting the Eastern Territories blown up?” Aziz asked in disbelief. “That’s just madness, man. Utter madness. Do the lives of millions not outweigh any political considerations the Plenum might have?”

“I wish you were on the Plenum,” the Paragon replied grimly. “The older ones, the ones who are convinced of the Eastern Territories’ longevity, see this threat as a groundless one. They believe that upending the traditional rivalries and alliances in the political arena is more dangerous than…whatever they’re doing now.”

“A whole bunch of gifted youngsters are going to be massacred, and they’re fine with this?” Marie ran her hands through her hair slowly. “That’s…horrible. Aren’t you afraid that they would revolt or something?”

“Better if they did,” Paragon Ying Xin muttered. “Without me and a few progressive others, the East would have become a hellhole long ago.”

Marie and Aziz exchanged a few glances, but none of them dared to ask about that particularly intriguing statement.

“What happened?” Hans, who had been distracted by something faraway, asked absentmindedly.

“I’m glad you asked,” said the Paragon, who didn’t seem all that bothered about the question. “Twelve years ago, the East entered a state of turmoil after one of the Human God’s familiar spirits was killed by our own Demigod. Outwardly, nothing had changed, but overnight, the people had gotten…restless. Of course, they had every right to be that way, but…”

“The Plenum knew that it was the Human God’s doing?”

“Hard not to, when that’s the only plausible reason. Riots, looting, protests…civil disobedience began to take root within the Eastern Territories, especially the Mi-Zu capital, Seireiden.”

“What happened in the end?” Hans asked.

“The Plenum was split on how to address this issue. One group wanted to jail all the protestors on treason charges, but a few of us felt that this was being too excessive. Eventually, we came up with an idea,” said the Paragon. “We installed artefacts designed to pick up words beneath the capital, and used it to pinpoint the ringleaders.”

“Did that work?”

“Magnificently. We would have continued to use it, in light of the ongoing unrest in Mi-Zu, but the influx of refugees in recent months overwhelmed the aging system,” she replied. “Nonetheless, we found a hundred rabble-rousers, who, upon closer examination, were being manipulated by an unknown power.”

“The Human God,” said Marie. “Not too much a guess, now that I think about it.”

“Correct. But our findings revealed a few things.” The Paragon glanced at the skies, and then back down onto the sea, caution radiating off her being. “First, his extent of control can be described as limited. He could only affect a few select individuals. What conditions are required for that to happen remains unknown, but we can be relatively certain that his powers are limited.”

“Secondly, the Human God is unable to—”

The world rumbled, cutting off her words. Paragon Ying Xin frowned. “Looks like our vanguard is engaged. Marshal Marie, please support our troops as they continue their movement drills. I’ll head to the front for a look.”

With these words, she vanished into a streak of light, slicing through the night sky.