The atmosphere when Aziz returned to Thunderbolt was anything but tranquil. Men and women were grouped up into small fire teams, and each of them were flying — if one could call never-ending, random evasive manoeuvres that — while outputting volumes of fire that should have come from a platoon.

“Wow,” Aziz murmured. “What happened to Thunderbolt when I wasn’t around?”

Two fireteams began to exchange fire in earnest, and with a slight jolt, he realised that they weren’t using high density, low damage training shots. No, they were using the real thing, and they weren’t holding back. Anyone whose Shell got hit would descend immediately, stamp his or her foot in abject frustration, and do an indeterminate number of push-ups.

And no one, absolutely no one at all, was supervising those who were defeated. No, the focus of the commanders and the vice-commanders of all four companies were on the fireteams that were still exchanging fire. All of them were watching and speaking to the scribes beside them, who would write down notes frantically.

It was somewhat sad to watch these four companies conduct their own training without any prompting from Aziz and Marie, but the colonel only had a smile on his face. Thunderbolt was on the verge of maturation. The possibility that Thunderbolt would be broken up, with the commanders of every company now helming a battalion, wasn’t that off. The Republic, after all, was the first mortal nation to bear the brunt of the Demon God’s impending invasion. Creating as many trump cards as possible was a given.

Thus far, Thunderbolt, through sheer luck, overwhelming technological advantages and training, had managed to avoid taking major and heavy casualties. But he didn’t know if this was going to be enough when it came to the demons.

I’ve become soft, eh? The colonel shook his head. There was a time, years ago, when he was numb to death. Scouts had a horrible death rate; out of his batch of thirty-five trained scouts, only him and two others were heard of after the Second Extermination.

Maybe there were a few others who never returned to the Republic, or began a hermit life, but the numbers didn’t lie. He could remember, vividly, the periods of silent mourning their dwindling contingent of scouts had whenever one of them never came back.

He got used to it after a while.

Or he thought he did, anyway. The casualties that occurred when the Worldshaper first descended, and how he felt back then, should have tipped him off, but he didn’t.

He watched as shrill whistles blew after ten minutes. The small fireteams stopped moving on the spot, and with a concerted sigh that made it all the way to Aziz, landed. Their knees gave way a moment after they touched down, and Aziz watched amusedly as an entire battalion plopped onto the ground and laid on their back. The frenzy that had taken hold of them had vanished, replaced by utter fatigue and a happy, tired silence.

The company commanders, however, had no such luxury. Their scribes were now resting, but the sixteen commanders and vice-commanders had started conferring between themselves; the former overseeing the discussion. It would seem that the leaders of each company were trying to nurture their deputies’ cognitive ability in a time of stress.

At this, Aziz smiled. Taking to the skies, he flew towards the group of captains, who stopped their discussion. Their discussion continued on for a few seconds after he joined their little group, only to die down as everyone belatedly realised his existence.

“Colonel?!”

“Sir?!”

“You’re back! Where’s Battalion Commander?”

A small tumult broke out as the others began to clamour.

“Alright,” said Aziz, “enough. Don’t try to take this chance to skive. Hans, Cecilia” —the commanders of Alpha and Beta perked their ears up— “helm this discussion. Augustus, Schnee, give me a briefing on what happened while we were away.”

The others saluted. He could sense some sorrow from the vice-commanders, but that wasn’t a concern of his. Followed by Charlie and Delta’s company commanders, Aziz found a nice tree and beckoned them to step into the shade. “Alright, what’s gotten you lot this fired up? Last I checked, you guys were all for slacking and achieving things with minimal effort.”

“Uh.”

“It’s about Stardust.”

Aziz raised an eyebrow. “That fledging battalion is giving you pressure, I take it. As expected of my trainers.”

“So the rumour’s true, then.” Augustus grimaced. “But not that just. The two colonels have trained Stardust to something fairly competent. Combined with their more unique artefacts…”

“Colonels, eh?” Aziz held back a smile. “Looks like they too got promoted. With their talents, staying as NCOs really didn’t suit them, but I digress.”

“Point is, sir, that they’re whipping Stardust good. We’ve done some rough assessments, and they’ve reached a standard to around ours, before we left for the East,” Schnee said. “And we aren’t going to stand by and let Stardust trample us down.”

“Hence this extreme training.” Aziz folded his arms. “Can’t say I approve, but if you do it in moderation and safety in mind…”

“We are, sir.” Augustus nodded his head. “We’ve been using your safety checks as a guide. In addition, we have a platoon of medics on the standby too. We’ve managed to improve our rate of fire, accuracy and dodging, but all these stems from endurance. And endurance is what we’re focusing on now.”

“‘Improve’ is an understatement,” Aziz said. “Each fireteam is outputting a company’s worth of fire now. From what I can tell, each and every one of our soldiers are now using at least two Straight Shots at once. The better ones, the ones you probably appointed as team leaders, are already using three. It’s a good idea.”

“Still,” he continued on, “you should have one person in the team focused on directing and directing only. That person should have a clear head and good judgement, and definitely not wield more than one Straight Shot. You guys were like headless flies out there. Don’t rush to make these changes, however. Take it slow.”

“Flies…”

“Yes, sir.”

Aziz grinned. “The Battalion Commander’s currently at Stardust. It would be good if you guys brushed up your performance right when she comes back.”

Their eyes flashed. “Yes, sir.”

“Alright, be off with you.”