Under Krystal’s eyes, the empty clearing was filled with figures composed of green light. One tended to a campfire set carefully so that it wouldn't betray its presence to anyone within the same elevation. A pot bubbled on top, smoke slowly rising until it encountered something that collected it into a ball and forcefully dispersed. She could smell the woodsmoke lingering in the air.

There were perhaps a dozen humanoid figures, but there were as many that weren’t. One of the humans climbed up a tree and stayed there for half an hour before shimmying back to the ground.

Then, that figure swung up on one of the inhuman figures, a bipedal thing that was nearly twice as tall as the figure, grabbed what definitely looked like reins, then kicked the thing to motion. The other figures didn’t interfere, and Krystal wasn’t quite sure if they were on the same temporal axis. No, the climber interacted with the others before it went up the tree, so they were at the same time. Anyway, the rider went directly south.

“Ah, a field raptor, I think,” Krystal said. Those were flightless birds that were nearly three paces tall, that were endemic to the Kadrac plains to the south. Kadrac City herders tamed them to the saddle to help them herd their signature long-horn cattle. She vaguely remembered seeing a picture of the things, the birds not the cattle, in one of her Geopolitical classes back in Agaza.

A quick count revealed as many of the field raptors as there were humanoids, and the tracks concur. Aside from the lone figure to head south, the remaining eleven continued northeast.

Krystal fingered her chin while her thoughts whirled. A group from the Federation, no doubt, and given the current hostilities, either a scouting group or a saboteur group. The tracks kept well clear of Rumiga Road, so they probably weren’t after the crane towers.

“What could they be after?” she murmured.

“Krys? What did you find?”

Krystal shivered as Asami’s voice whispered directly in her ear. She let go of her Facet technique and the green figures faded away.

“A Federation scouting group. A dozen humans with an equal amount of field raptor mounts. One turned back south while the rest moved on.”

“Understood. Regroup, please.”

Krystal sighed, still not used to hearing a disembodied voice. Asami was a relatively new addition to the ten-man squad, and she’d been placed under overall command with Heron taking the second-in-command position. Agaza’s instructors placed her that way since her Facets were naturally suited for it, and also her family was politically connected. She was of an Earl family’s side branch. Oh, and Asami was absolutely smitten with Heron just as much as the boy was smitten with Yuriko.

The corner of her lips tugged upwards at the thought of what would happen should the three of them meet. Hmmm, probably Heron would make a fool of himself. Krystal knew that Yuriko had no such feelings for the boy, but then, it's been nearly two years. Who knows how much Yuriko had changed?

The rest of them had grown too, and the past year of danger and strife had a way of killing childhoods. She barely even remembered the first time she’d killed another human now. Krystal absently rubbed the inside of her thumb, right at a rough scar.

She spun on her heels and stalked away from the clearing. Asami’s Whisper technique had a maximum range of a hundred paces. It was a short range for a battlefield but perfect for small group tactics. Besides, as she grew the range of her Whisper, and her Wind Scour technique should grow. Hmmm, given all of that, there shouldn’t be any dislike.

Asami was a sweet and considerate girl if a bit on the creepy side since Krystal never knew when the other girl was looking in on her. Twenty paces was the limit to her Wind Scour, and as long an area wasn’t sealed, then her perception could seep past.

There were several times she’s caught Asami giggling to herself while sporting a weird smirk, and somehow or someway, she was within twenty paces of the gymnasium. There was no way to be certain that Asami wasn’t peeping, but no way to discount it either.

A minute later, she reached the rest of her squad. Eight of them were Agaza cadets, while two were older members of the local militia. Their long-range patrol was from the Watchtower to the village of Derrington, which was halfway between Faron’s Crossing and Horswick at the base of the Zarek Mountains. But it looked like the spies were heading towards there.

“You said Federation spies?” Mikel asked after she spoke of what she saw.

“We should apprehend them,” Zeyn Strider said while twirling his pompously named glaive, Decapitator, over his head. “We can’t let them do what they want.”

“Eh? Don’t we need to inform the Watchtower?” Danika Lorn asked while scratching the back of her neck.

“We’ve messenger cranes for that reason,” Asami said amiably. “Krys, if you’d write the report?”

“Of course.” Krystal nodded and pulled out a dormant messenger crane, a pen, and a writing board.

The other members of the squad maintained vigilance. Heron sat on a rock, while Asami sidled next to him. Mikel walked up to Krystal and peeked over her shoulder to read her letter. She rolled her eyes and nudged him with her elbow.

Danika stalked around their makeshift camp with her usual restless energy while Zeyn oiled and cleaned his weapon. The other two members of the squad were Peyton Simmons and Lelland Denaria, who both had been part of Krystal’s squad since their first year in Agaza. Neither of them was actually from this side of the Zarek, but the way they told it, they had been sent away by their families to avoid the unrest in Rumiga City. The local militia members were Patrick Olivier and Amirah Gray, who were both at least a couple of years older than the Agazan cadets.

However, though the two had seniority as militia members, they were also the weakest of the group, being only at High Apprentice. Everyone else was at least at First Order Journeyman, but then, they were the Empire’s young elites of the Agaza Academy after all.

“We should go after them,” Asami said in conference with Heron who looked distinctly uncomfortable with how close she sat next to him. Krystal suppressed a giggle but kept a keen eye on the pair.

“Your bad habits are showing again,” Mikel murmured.

“Oh, shush you,” Krystal said.

“I’m starting to suspect that I’m not the one you want to be with.” Mikel continued in a teasing tone.

Krystal rolled her eyes and finished her quick report. She transferred enough Animus into the messenger crane to allow it to get to the crane transfer tower which would then allow the paper bird to absorb and channel enough Animus to see it all the way to the Watchtower.

If there were no return orders then they could simply continue onto their patrol, which defaulted to chasing after suspicious elements.

She missed what Heron said in reply, but from the way Asami nodded and smiled, Krystal assumed that she got her way. Anywho, the trail was easy enough to follow, even if the chances of catching up to them were close to zero. They were on mounts after all.

“We follow and capture if we can,” Asami finally said.

“We’re outnumbered, but sure.” Zeyn shrugged and twirled his Decapitator a couple of circles.

He was pretty good with that thing, Krystal thought, since he always practised with it. He and Heron, being the tough macho men, often sparred with their weapons, spear against glaive, every morning. It was quite the sight to see both of them knocking their long pieces of wood together. Ehehehe.

Krystal kept her giggling to a minimum while she found and followed the tracks. Knowing now that the enemy spies used the field raptors made it easier to follow. The birds weren’t native up here in Imperial territory. That wasn’t to say it was completely easy. The birds’ footprints were lighter than expected and often were barely perceptible even on soft ground. If it weren’t for her Facet which allowed her to see the echoes in the ambient Chaos, she would have lost the trail when the spies went on the zigzag.

It was close to noon on the second day of tracking that she froze. A tingle ran up her spine and she barely jumped out of the way as a whine swept past her, followed by a dull thud against a tree trunk.

“Cover!” She yelled as she ducked behind some bushes, while Lelland and Asami returned fire with their Plasma Casters.

They had just gone over a hill and were descending down the side when they were attacked. Krystal peeked from behind her cover and looked in the direction of the attack, but didn’t see anything. They had the high ground, but right now, that didn’t seem like an advantage. Where were they?

Puffs of steam emerged from out of nothing, followed by more dull thuds. Krystal focused on her vision, activated her Weak Point Sense while her eyes glowed with blue Animus.

Points of light appeared on empty air, and for a moment, she thought that her Facet technique was broken. But the next instant, she saw shadows shifting on the ground and an odd shimmer in the air. Then, a metallic grey muzzle peeked out from underneath the strange shimmer, and a puff of steam emerged out of it. The bullet hit the dirt beside her and threw up dust.

“Tsk! They’re cloaked!” Krystal yelled.

“Aim at the steam clouds,” Asami’s voice instructed. Their attackers were on the next hillside, halfway up from what she could tell.

Krystal drew her Plasma Lancet but didn’t fire. Her weapon’s effective range was less than twenty paces away, and that hillside was more than fifty away. And there was no telling how many of them were there, under their shimmering cloaks.

Still, her Weak Point Sense told her where to fire to the best effect, but she needed to get closer. She fingered the hilt of her side-blade but didn’t draw it yet.

“Come!” Heron yelled as he materialised his hardened air shields. Half a dozen hexagons nearly a pace across appeared. Zeyn, Mikel, Danika, Patrick, and Peyton were protected as they rushed downhill.

More muzzles appeared out of the air, but also behind some cover. Krystal watched as the shooters shifted aim towards Heron and the others while she crept behind them. She wasn’t a powerful attacker, but she could help pinpoint the enemy.

Asami hurried behind the front line, holding up a resonating buckler to protect her torso. Her Wind Scour would be of better use the closer she was.

The initial salvo done, some of the Federation spies threw back their concealing cloaks and rushed down at the front-liners. Eight men and women in leather armour formed a line while the other three shot over their companions’ heads. They didn’t descend to the valley below, which forced the others to climb uphill. But, they also exposed themselves to the ranged Strikers.

Amirah, like Mikel, had control over fire. She held up a finger and a pea-sized ball of flames materialised. With an almost casual gesture, she flung the ball across the distance, aiming just above the enemy line. But before it could cross even half the distance, a bullet slammed into it and detonated the fireball way too early.

Then, having revealed a destroyer, the spies started focusing fire on Amirah. The older militia woman ducked behind a stone outcropping, cursing up a storm. The enemy shooters were still concealed, though Krystal could see them with her technique.

“Asami! Target five paces up and right!” Krystal said clearly, knowing the other girl would hear her and relay. Sure enough, Lelland shifted his aim and shot at the area Krystal indicated.

Krystal continued to relay the targets while the frontliners rushed up the slope. The Federation spies, not willing to take the charge on the backfoot, charged as well.

They clashed with a resounding noise that rang and echoed down the hills. Why, Krystal thought, anyone on the Rumiga Road less than a longstride away would have heard them.

Then, Mikel flung his streamers of flame, while Heron shield bashed all eight of the spies using her hardened air shields, blocking their momentum just before they made contact. Then, Zeyn leapt up and swung his glaive while Danika used her heavy gauntlets to rain a shower of Animus-infused blows at her foe.

Lightning arced from one of the enemy, while flames and wind combined into a burning dust devil, creating clouds of smoke as wet grass ignited and burned. Chaos abounded, and it didn’t take Krystal all that long to realise that not only were they slightly outnumbered, but they were outclassed, too.