The squeaky sounds of cloth rubbing metal filled the bunks as Colonel Aziz entered the barracks allocated for Thunderbolt and Stardust Battalions. The officially designated First Aerial Division of the Republic (which was actually a really big misnomer, given their actual size) had touched down in the Central Circle two months ago, where they got down to slaughter snowpyres and weird monsters made of energy after easing themselves in for a few days.

Thunderbolt and Stardust had gotten along swimmingly after a while. Sure, there were still some people who looked down on the beastfolk from Stardust, but given that their commander was a lion-type beastfolk, not much discrimination had occurred after a few good talks. It probably didn’t hurt that the whole of Thunderbolt were essentially combat veterans with a slightly higher rank too.

The squeaks paused as Colonel Aziz swept past the bunks, resuming a moment later after the man made sure that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Back when he was still a scout, Aziz would have checked in on them, but his current position — the deputy commander of the First Aerial Division — meant that he would have to do it for every single bunk, which was impossible.

But gone were the times when he did everything on his own.

Under his command were officers and NCOs. Him showing his face here was more than enough for those highly-independent fellows to start coming up with their own pep talks and whatnot.

Lead by example, I guess. Aziz rolled his eyes and continued his inspection of the bunks. An orderly was following him closely, in the off-chance that someone really was going to break a rule or two.

The most common rule that was broken were open fires, but the officers had cracked down on that so harshly that only fools would try their luck a fifty-second time. If there was indeed someone who tried to cook or have a campfire in their bunks here…

Well, Aziz wouldn’t know what to think.

That perp’s officers would, though.

Rolling his eyes, he finished his inspection — which was just popping heads in to say hi — and then made to leave the barracks. Before he could leave, though, Captain Cecilia poked her head through a window, her head joined by that of the other captains a moment later.

Colonel Aziz stared at the bunch of heads, and then turned to look pointedly at the door right beside the window. “Did we lower the minimum age required to join the military? I see a bunch of children here, for some reason.”

The others blinked, and a small tussle ensued as everyone tried to yank their head out of the window together. The colonel folded his arms, and after a minute of silent punches, kicks and other violent acts, the officers of Thunderbolt went out the proper way.

“Good afternoon, sir.” Similar greetings echoed out as their saluted, and the colonel saluted back to them. After the pleasantries were over, Aziz eyed them and said, “These things don’t happen in front of our troops, right?”

“Yes, sir.” Captain Augustus nodded. “I think.”

The colonel eyed him, and then shook his head. “If they start poking their heads into windows, I’m going to come down hard on you.”

The others shivered.

“Anyway,” Aziz continued, “great that you guys came down. I was going to call you guys, but since you lot showed up, that saves me the trouble. Now, the Conference of the Four has sent down details for the agenda of the meeting, and Ma— the marshal figured that you guys might be interested in it. Furthermore, we’ll be discussing our force dispositions locally in the southern sector of the Central Circle.”

“Does that mean that our forays into Machia are coming to an end?” Captain Schnee asked, her eyes filled with what looked like relief.

“That’s probably the case,” the colonel replied evenly. “From what we’ve heard, a bunch of kids are coming from the North to finish where we left off. It’s apparently some sort of school trip for them.”

“A school trip? What kind of school would have such their kids head over to another continent just to kill some monsters?” Schnee asked, confused. “Even if they were to fly, they’ll take a few weeks at the Dynamo’s speed. That’s…”

The other officers shuddered, and Aziz found himself repressing a grin. Cross-continent flights were nasty business. When Marie and him went to the North for the first time, they had also used little boats to sleep on, but since there were only two people, it wasn’t all that bad. The real mess came only when there were too many people.

Fortunately, Thunderbolt had risen to the occasion magnificently. The captains of Thunderbolt, without any prompting from Marie or Aziz, had lent their Stardust counterparts a huge hand. Even the ordinary soldiers of Thunderbolt, once they were done with their own inflatable boats, came over to help Stardust in an unprecedented show of goodwill.

“Yeah, I know. Insane.” Aziz shook his head. “Remember to keep your game face on. Colonels Felix, Titania and Oberon are gathering their own company commanders too, so don’t play the fool there.”

He beckoned towards the small building reserved for the battalion and division commanders, cutting through the parade square in front of Thunderbolt’s barracks. The final struggle of the two Constellations here had levelled the entire Central Circle, reducing both ruins and rubble into dust. These accommodations had been built by the Mortal Light Dynasty over the past few months, but the paved ground could only extend so much.

Aziz could still remember the sight he saw when the landmass of the Central Circle popped up on the horizon. Everyone had been blinded — the ground had been turned to glass, creating a dazzling spectacle that had brought the last leg of their journey into a screeching halt.

Such was the power of a Demigod.

Once again, reassurance flooded his brain as his boots met the firm, rough gravel of the parade square, and without giving any hint as to what he was thinking, the colonel led the small party towards the division command centre.

It didn’t take all that long before they arrived.

The building was staffed by the logistic and administrative staff of the First Aerial Division, which was a nice addition. When Marie made him the deputy commander of the division — and promoted him to a full colonel while she was at it — the man had initially protested vigorously. There was no pay raise for him, as usual, and there was going to be more work…

Well, until Marie told him that division-level commanders only make strategic level decisions. Which, in Marie-speak, also translated to a decrease in mundane work.

“Titania, Oberon.” He inclined his head as he saw a small group of officers enter the building. “Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon, sir,” the husband-wife pair replied. “Not calling us ‘instructor’ anymore?”

“I would,” Aziz replied, “but it’ll mess up the chain of command. Make no mistake about the gratitude I hold for the two of you.”

He looked at the duo evenly. Both of them had greying hair, but their skin was as smooth as that of a child’s. Muscles — toned, lean ones — rippled casually underneath their uniforms, and the colonel wondered idly about the number of Stardust officers that had seen the explosive might they could unleash. Both of them had been Knights for a long time, and as he assessed his mentors, Aziz made a mental note to become a Knight soon.

“Good answer,” Titania replied. Her voice, though gentle, could transform into the fiercest of tones at the sight of an offender, but the rumours about her easing up on etiquette recently were apparently true. “Those must be your company commanders. And I see you’ve trained them well.”

“They’re good kids,” Aziz replied. “After a while, they started pushing themselves to their limits. They’re role models in every way.”

“I must say I agree. Training even without their superiors present…make no mistake, the boys and girls behind me would slack off at any opportunity.” Oberon smiled, his quaky voice hiding some steel. “But that is the nature of a soldier. Thunderbolt, however, has the nature of a fighter. Therein lies the difference.”

Aziz considered his cryptic words for a moment, but an orderly had appeared at the lobby before he could ask what they meant.

“Officers, the marshal is at the conference room,” said the little fella. Her hair, which was in a bun like Marie’s own, quavered under the sight of so many captains and colonels, but her voice was steady. “Refreshments have been prepared to. Please, follow me.”

In silence, the small group followed the orderly through a corridor. To his surprise, Marie had chosen a different conference room — the one that they had been led to had a gorgeous view of the continent. This was theoretically one used only for the welcome and briefing of important people, but it seemed that Marie wanted to use it at least once.

Small snacks sat in front of every seat. And at the head of the table, Marie sat there, eying a green little round thing that she popped into her mouth a moment later.

“Great, everyone’s here,” she said. “Good. Let’s get down to business.”

Everyone filed in and sat on a random seat. She looked through some documents and fished one of them out. “I know everyone here is curious about what this whole Conference of the Four thing is about. We just received a missive from the State Council regarding it. Regarding this…”

She took out another piece of paper. “First, Colonel Aziz and I will bring Thunderbolt’s and Stardust’s Alpha Companies to the conference proper. In this period of time, Colonel Felix, Titania and Oberon will be responsible for the general operations of the First Aerial Division. Nothing should happen from the outside during the talks, but there should be a drill or two, just in case.”

“From the outside?” Colonel Felix asked.

“From the outside, yes. After all, the talks might get a bit messy.” She passed a small stack of papers around the table. “The Mortal Light Dynasty is making a few demands of a certain great god. Whatever happens, we are to ensure that the safety of the State Council above all.”

Aziz glanced at the words printed out on the paper, and then blinked twice as he saw the top agenda on the list. He wanted to raise some questions, but there was always a time and place for things.

And besides, the others would ask too.

Marie held up a hand. “I understand that you have questions, but even the State Council has no answers for them. Believe me. What we can only do is to make sure that the soldiers don’t treat this as some trip for fun.”

“Finally, the North is doing a display of sorts for us. I’m not sure what they’re going to show, but I want everyone to make a note of the possible tactics and strategies that could arise from their new technology, whatever that is,” Marie said. “The North rarely flaunts its technological superiority, so this is a good chance for us.”

“What new things are they bringing out?” Captain Cecilia asked.

“Hmm. I suppose you can call the vice-commanders over too,” Marie replied. “Our liaisons just told us to look at the North around now, from someplace that’s nice and high. It’s something huge — they called it the Unity.”

“The Unity?” Cecilia rubbed her head. “Is that some sort of artefact?”

“Yes, from the sounds of it.”

The others murmured some words of assent, before leaving the room to contact their vice-commanders. Aziz walked over to Marie, his eyes flitting over to the huge window every so often.

“Worried?”

“Maybe.”

The door opened a few minutes later, but no one spoke. Marie and Aziz had already seen something show up on the horizon, and the others joined them in silence, watching as a huge artefact touched down. Thousands of soldiers took to the skies as it began to land, forming a huge escort around the impossibly large artefact.

“Great gods…”

Aziz didn’t know who said that, but that was how he was feeling right now. Such a construction had to be something done by the great gods — but the North clearly didn’t have one.