Chapter 16: Preparation for War
Personal System Calendar: Year 00012, Day 1-14, Month III: The Imperium
Imperial Calendar: Year 6857, 1st to 14th day of the 3rd Month
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Renewed Spirits
Back at Maya Village, the spirits of the soldiers were high. They were being prepared for their first major confrontation beyond the sanctity of the village walls, and more importantly, beyond the forest's boundaries where most of their significant battles had occurred.
The fifty warriors selected for this assault were veterans of Maya Village's conflicts. They were no slouches in warfare, having fought terrifying beasts far more powerful and dangerous than mere human bandits. While this war was not grand in scale compared to the Beast Dominion Wars, it carried different weight: a civilian population held hostage by criminals who had seized control of a legitimate settlement.
August sent a magical transmission to Gremory, directed to the Marcus estate where the communication device responsible for receiving long-distance messages was housed. The device functioned similarly to a two-way radio, allowing near-instantaneous communication across hundreds of kilometers through magical resonance.
The message was concise and clear: "Baron Kirka, this is August Finn. We will prepare everything on our end and begin conducting covert operations to ensure your assault proceeds without complications. We will extract the hostages from harm's way before the main attack."
It was simple but comprehensive in its implications. August wanted to help without claiming glory for the operation. He would provide the tactical advantage of removing civilian casualties from the equation while giving Baron Kirka the honor of retaking his own village and restoring his authority as its rightful lord.
The plan involved forming direct contact with the few loyalists still fighting within Kirka Village: Commander Gareth Rufus and his four companions who had been holding on against overwhelming odds, conducting guerrilla operations and maintaining hope that legitimate authority would eventually return.
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Force Composition
The chosen force from Maya's Eagle's Veil military structure would consist of highly skilled veterans organized into three primary categories:
Close Quarters Specialists (20 warriors, 40% of force):
Trained in urban combat, building-to-building fighting, and close-range weapon techniques. These veterans would form the assault element, securing key positions and engaging enemy combatants directly.
Ranged Specialists (18 warriors, 35% of force):
Archers and crossbowmen who could provide covering fire, eliminate sentries from distance, and control approaches to objectives. Their role would be critical during the initial phases when stealth mattered most.
Logistics and Support (12 personnel, 25% of force):
Healers, supply coordinators, scouts, and communications specialists who would ensure the force remained supplied, informed, and capable of sustained operations. This included members of the Military Auxiliary Combat Support Force trained by Theresa Peerce.
The composition reflected lessons learned from previous conflicts: balanced capabilities, redundant skill sets, and sufficient support personnel to maintain operations over extended periods.
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Training and Preparatio
They had been training for urban warfare and siege operations for weeks, conducting exercises in conjunction with the Imperial forces garrisoned in Zone Two. To make the training realistic, they had constructed a mock-up area simulating Kirka Village's defenses.
The practice fortifications consisted of wooden walls reinforced with stone in certain sections, replicating the mixed construction that resulted when Ogind's forces had upgraded the original village defenses during their occupation. They did not want to waste excessive resources on training infrastructure, so the mockup focused on essential tactical features: gates, defensive positions, approaches that attackers would need to secure.
They conducted full siege exercises with Imperial soldiers serving as defenders, sometimes mixed with Maya Village militia to create realistic force compositions. These mock battles simulated what could occur during their assault: breaching gates, clearing buildings, securing civilians, engaging defenders while minimizing collateral damage.
The training revealed weaknesses and refined tactics. Soldiers learned which approaches offered best cover, which positions provided optimal firing angles, how to coordinate movements through urban terrain where visibility was limited and ambushes likely.
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The Infiltration Dilemma
Because most of Talon One's members were currently indisposed—Erik, Betty, Bren, Milo, Nina, and Isabel still away at the Grand Solis Academy—the task of infiltration would fall to Talon Two once again.
But complications existed. Some Team Mandibles members had already been seen in Kirka Village during their reconnaissance mission. Ragnar Martin and several others would be recognized if they attempted to infiltrate again without disguises. This created operational risk that could compromise the entire covert phase.
August briefly considered sending the newly arrived combat-capable members from the Thirteen Stooges: Juan Tamad with his shadow element and information-gathering expertise, Loyd Yu with his mercenary experience, Edgar Filtt with his bodyguard training, and Henrich Maus with his archery skills.
But he decided against it. Their inexperience with this type of operation would almost certainly cause problems if situations deteriorated unexpectedly. They possessed individual skills but lacked the tactical cohesion and combat-tested judgment that came only from surviving genuine life-or-death situations together.
However, a limited mission might be feasible. If the objective was simply to infiltrate, deliver a message to Commander Gareth Rufus, and extract cleanly, the risk became manageable. And if an actual emergency occurred during the operation, August and Talon Two's full strength would be positioned to intervene rapidly.
The more August considered this approach, the more viable it seemed. It would give the younger warriors valuable field experience under controlled conditions while accomplishing a genuine tactical objective. Commander Gareth needed to know help was coming and be briefed on the plan to extract civilians before the main assault.
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Operational Planning
Their preparations were now underway. Within the coming week, they would begin advancing toward Kirka Village to initiate covert operations: destroying weapons caches that bandits relied upon, eliminating stored supplies that would sustain prolonged resistance, identifying key enemy positions for targeting during the main assault, and establishing contact with the loyalist resistance.
Meanwhile, Master Ben Flameswrath had recently returned to the village from his volcanic inspection. The expedition had apparently gone well, with no imminent eruptions threatening populated areas. August took the opportunity to discuss Amanda Bloues' situation, and Master Ben readily agreed to take her as a student, at least provisionally.
Amanda was now spending her days in Master Ben's tower, reading theoretical texts on elemental magic while the ancient wizard continued his own projects. She absorbed information with remarkable speed, her years of self-study having prepared her to understand advanced concepts that would overwhelm less dedicated students.
Benethar Solvorn, however, presented different considerations. His appearance was too distinctive, too memorable for covert operations inside the village. During the previous reconnaissance, only a few Talon Two members had entered Kirka to avoid drawing attention. This time, Benethar and Team Mandibles would be stationed outside the village perimeter, ready to intervene if situations required overwhelming force but not risking exposure during the delicate infiltration phase.
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Master Ben's Experimental Projects
Master Ben had been conducting fascinating research that could revolutionize Maya Village's defensive capabilities. He was experimenting with creating permanent magma constructs powered by beast cores rather than his own continuous magical channeling.
The concept was elegant: using Soldier-ranked and Commander-ranked beast cores to create autonomous constructs that would bolster the forces Maya Village could deploy for defense. These constructs would not be connected to Master Ben personally, meaning they could not access his overwhelming power the way his standard summons could. But they would possess genuine permanence, existing independently until destroyed rather than dissipating when Ben's concentration wavered.
At his current theoretical limits, Master Ben believed he could create approximately one hundred fifty of these permanent intelligent constructs. They would be significantly weaker than his standard summons, lacking the direct connection to his Grandmaster-level capabilities. In essence, they would be downgraded versions of Benethar in terms of raw power and magical sophistication.
But the advantages were substantial. Imagine deploying an army of beings that never tired, never needed sleep, never required food or water. Constructs that could maintain watch indefinitely, patrol without fatigue, and fight without the psychological factors that affected living soldiers. The strategic implications were staggering.
The project represented a parallel track to his other current work: creating an improved version of Benethar using different beast core configurations. That endeavor remained in early stages, requiring careful theoretical framework before practical implementation could begin.
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Benethar's Dangerous Upgrades
Speaking of Benethar, Master Ben had recently completed a series of upgrades that pushed the Prime Forged Soul into entirely unprecedented territory. The modifications were both exciting and deeply concerning.
Benethar now contained twenty-one beast cores embedded within his magical framework: twenty Boss-ranked Beast Lord cores and one Guardian Beast-ranked core taken from one of the Behemoths defeated during the Shadowfen conflict. This concentration of power should have elevated Benethar to something approaching Grandmaster classification.
But Master Ben had imposed severe limitations on Benethar's access to this new power. He had sealed seventy percent of Benethar's full potential using binding spells that only he could unlock. His fear was well-founded: Benethar might be corrupted or overwhelmed by power he could not yet properly control. The sheer magnitude of twenty-one beast cores conflicting with each other's previous owners, especially with one being a Guardian Beast Boss-ranked creature, created instabilities that no being had ever attempted to manage before.
This was unprecedented experimentation. No one in recorded history had ever attempted to integrate so many high-ranked beast cores into a single construct nor integrating one into even one, this had all been master Ben's achievements and own breakthroughs. The theoretical frameworks did not exist. Master Ben was inventing the methodology as he proceeded, carefully monitoring Benethar's responses and adjusting the bindings accordingly.
He would unlock the sealed power gradually, little by little, as Benethar demonstrated mastery over each increment. Even now, with only thirty percent of his upgraded capabilities accessible, Benethar struggled to maintain control. The power wanted to be used, to be unleashed, and resisting that pressure required constant discipline.
Master Ben had established specific conditions for emergency release of the sealed power. The current thirty percent ceiling cap represented a threshold that should only be breached during truly catastrophic situations where Benethar's survival or the survival of those he protected absolutely required that additional strength.
As an additional safeguard, Master Ben had implemented restraints that Benethar himself could override in command, but only under specific predefined circumstances. These allowed Benethar some agency in responding to emergencies without requiring Master Ben's direct intervention, while still maintaining overall control over the dangerous power.
Benethar understood the instability of his new capabilities. He trained constantly, not just with Talon Two members but also with August himself whenever the Supreme Military Commander had time between his duties and other responsibilities. Each training session helped Benethar refine his control, learning to channel the immense power flowing through him without being consumed by it.
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The Safer Alternative
In contrast to Benethar's dangerous upgrade, the new construct Master Ben was developing would use only a single Guardian Beast core. This approach seemed far more stable, avoiding the cascading instability risks that came from integrating multiple high-ranked cores with different resonance patterns.
And there were the "downgraded" permanent constructs, powered by Soldier and Commander-ranked cores. These were much safer, representing the already proven magical theory applied to Benethar when he was first successfully created, but now it was in a lower power scale. In the future, it would become known that Benethar would lead these lesser constructs, commanding his "brothers and sisters" as a unified force.
They would become a famed military innovation, a new category of being born from human ingenuity and magical research. Master Ben's fame, already substantial, would rise to even greater heights. As he well knew with resignation, he would never escape the celebrity status his achievements generated.
But for now, these were simply his interests, side projects that kept his mind engaged between volcanic inspections and teaching duties. And truth be told, his new assistant Amanda Bloues, not yet a full apprentice but showing remarkable promise, would play a crucial role in advancing this research. Her spatial distortion affinity, once it manifested fully, would provide unique insights into construct stability and dimensional anchoring that even Master Ben's centuries of experience could not replicate.
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Full Mobilization
The village began a comprehensive mobilization effort to outfit and prepare their fifty warriors for the coming operation. Equipment was inspected and repaired. Supplies were gathered and distributed. Final training exercises refined their coordination and verified that every warrior understood their role in the overall plan.
The force would be commanded by Jonathan Ross himself. He had volunteered personally to lead the assault, driven by the fact that Kirka Village was where he, Red Peerce, and some of the few original Maya Village migrants had once called home before they escaped from the tyranny of Rommel.
This was personal for Jonathan in ways that transcended mere military duty. Kirka had given them the life they have now, it was where they had been raised and born. They had lived there, worked there, built lives there before circumstances forced them to move out (to search for Jonathan's wife, well also for angering Rommel). Now Kirka suffered under bandit occupation, its people terrorized and exploited. Jonathan would see it liberated, both as a military commander and as someone repaying a debt to a place that he had once called home.
August would participate in the operation but in limited capacity. He would provide support when needed, intervene if situations became untenable, use his overwhelming power to tip the balance in critical moments. But as he had stated clearly to Baron Kirka and to his own forces, this battle's glory should belong entirely to the Baron and whatever forces he would be bringing into the battle.
The operation's success would restore not only Kirka's freedom but also Baron Kirka's honor and authority as the settlement's rightful lord. August would not diminish that by claiming credit or overshadowing the Baron's triumphant return. Maya Village was providing essential support, but the victory itself would be Baron Kirka's to claim before his people and before the Kingdom of Ogind as its rightful subject.
That distinction mattered. It was the difference between Maya Village being seen as conquerors who happened to install a friendly leader versus loyal allies who helped a legitimate lord reclaim what was rightfully his. The former would breed resentment and suspicion. The latter would create genuine gratitude and lasting alliance.
Preparations continued through the first half of the third month. Their warriors trained. Equipment was distributed to each soldier. While their covert operatives prepared for infiltration. Intelligence from Talon Two's earlier reconnaissance was reviewed and analyzed for weaknesses to exploit.
And in Baron Kirka's estate in Gremory, similar preparations proceeded. The Baron was gathering his own forces, mercenaries and loyal soldiers who would form the visible assault force that would draw the bandits' attention while Maya Village's covert operatives secured the civilian population from harm's way.
The pieces were moving into position. Soon, very soon, the bandits who had terrorized Kirka Village would learn that their occupation was ending, whether they surrendered peacefully or died resisting the inevitable.