KIMBERLY

	January 4th, 67 A.C. Early morning before dawn over the Celebes Sea, our squad along with about a hundred others were scheduled to rendezvous with the rest of our benefactors at Barrow Island. I didn't know what kind of magic strings our commander pulled to land us the last job, but now that we were working with Oceana Venture we had some work to do. Today marked the day of our invasion and we would be crossing over Indonesia soon.
	We managed to get our three Harriers from Skitz as well as our weapons, but we needed aether.  
	I looked out the porthole from our airship the Lucerne and saw several dozen others, all varying sizes of ballasts and metal frames, all heading for the same destination over the waters toward the archipelago nation. Some, like us, were already carrying their MUTTs onboard, the machines tied off and dangling beneath the zeppelins. I idly toyed with the zipper on my jumpsuit, dragging it up and down to hear the zzzip again and again. I looked down and realized it was my right hand, the fake one. Guess it was starting to feel natural to me.
	“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Asked James. His uniform, a red jumpsuit like mine, was entirely too big for him, and his pant legs spilled out the top of his boots making him look like some Great War pilot. Still, we'd have to look into getting a halfling to sew him a uniform to size eventually.
	We never could find a uniform that fit him, not that that mattered when he was on the inside of a MUTT. That was the nice thing about being a rider, it didn't matter how strong you were, the machine would do the heavy lifting and James was a good shot besides. “See for yourself,” I said, moving aside for him. 
	He smiled widely and whistled, “Check out the hardware. Those guys got themselves a Mule,” He said, turning to the other of the two, Eddie, and jabbing a thumb back at one of the bigger airships with a particularly large MUTT under its carriage. 
	He looked up from the little book in his hand, although most books were small to him, my guess was he was reading his Bible again. It was something his clan did a lot. James and I could never get into it, even if we were brought into his clan when we were young. Wordlessly he looked out the porthole, looked at James and nodded before going back to his book. 
	James just chuckled, “Try not to get too excited. Can ya believe that guy?” I found myself smiling and went back to watching the airships.

	I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, I had lost track. The watch on my wrist had died months ago, its glass cracked and the face frozen. It just felt right to wear it.
	“Ten minutes,” I heard Tiggs, our pilot, say over the intercom. That was my cue to go to the bridge. James came with me while Eddie sighed, closed his book, and put it back in his breast pocket before following.
	As I entered the bridge I quickly spotted the commander of our little team. Jonah was adjusting the radio's frequency, patiently waiting for the communication when he saw me.
	“Commander,” I greeted him with a nod.
	“Captain,” He returned the gesture before turning to Eddie and James, “Barlow, Bradford.”
	“So are we doin’ this thing or not?” Asked James, idly scratching one of his big ears.
	“Relax, once everything is ready, we'll be heading out,” Carter assured him before tuning in on the radio chatter. 
	Several ships had begun idly chatting with one another, slinging profanity at each other or telling vulgar jokes that would make a warlock blush. Bored mercs with nothing to do but wait. Better than shooting at one another I supposed. Carter shook his head, “Idiots,” he muttered, clearly aggravated.
	“Ha!” Tiggs laughed at a particularly racy joke about goblins. Despite being a gremlin, he found it fun to poke fun at everyone in one fashion or another, even goblinoids like himself. He stood at the helm of the ship about the same height as James, which wasn't unusual for his kind. His green hair was messy and long as usual, something I found a lot of gremlins just didn't bother with. They were going to get covered with grease and oil anyway so why bother, I guessed. He kept it out of his face with a pair of large-framed goggles by its elastic straps pulling his hair up and back. Somehow he had managed to find a red jumpsuit his size, which only served to show that either Carter didn't bother with James’ or James just didn't mind. The third option was he preferred it, which I refused to believe.
	I watched as Tiggs picked up the mic off the wall behind the controls and cackled to himself, “Hey guys, I heard there was a dwarf diviner down in Bendigo with a bounty on his head,” He began, listening to the responses of mild interest with a big grin, “Yeah, he's a small medium at large!”
	All at once the radio erupted with either laughter or threats of violence and Tiggs was giddier with each one. Carter shook his head and laughed as did James. Even Eddie was smiling, which was as good as a chuckle from him. I suppressed a laugh myself.
	“Messing with our guys before the operation's even started?” I asked playfully as I came up beside him. Tiggs hung up the mic and continued keeping the ship steady, “Folks get nervous when a buncha mercs got nothin’ to do. Gotta break the ice somehow. How's the arm, by the way?” He gave me a light jab on the shoulder.
	“Feels pretty good,” I said, and meant it, lifting it to show him. He took hold of it with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel, inspecting my prosthetic arm, scrutinizing every detail of it all from my fingertips to my shoulder. I was still uncomfortable with him doing that, but I told myself if anyone should be doing that it should be him. He's the one that made it for me, after all.
	“No catching, no seizing up? Mana deprivation?” He asked. I shook my head, which seemed to satisfy him, “You said it feels good, but how does it feel up here?” He tapped a finger on his head.
	“It feels weird. I caught myself using it like normal,” I admitted, “I guess I should be happy.”
	“You're not?”
	I shrugged, “I don't really feel one way or the other. It's kind of like feeling like I never lost it in the first place.”
	“Good. It's supposed to feel natural. Probably synced up with your natural mana. Just lemme know if anything acts up,” He gave me a pat on the shoulder and went back to verbally torturing our fellow mercs.
	Through the window I could see several more airships lifting off from the ground to join us, many of the mercenaries on the radio whistling and cheering and clapping and jeering until finally they turned and began to move south. 
	It wasn't long before the chatter went silent and Carter fiddled with the radio controls once more, cutting off Tiggs while finding the frequency he wanted. We heard a series of beeps followed soon after by a deep voice, “Green light for Operation Concordia.”
	That was our signal. 
	“Alright Tiggs, turn us south,” Said Carter. He turned to me and nodded, giving us the go ahead to saddle up. The three of us hurried to the back of the ship, Eddie opening the bulkhead door in the back where our MUTTs were tied down on either side of the walkway. To me they looked relatively man-shaped but for the fact that they had no head. Instead there was the cockpit that jutted out from between the shoulders where a vertical mechanical eye track was embedded above the hatch.
	By the company star on its chest was my name, ‘Kilroy’ written in bold white just below the eye track. The armor was average, thick enough to stop small arms aether fire but for everything else we'd need to rely on our brains and our speed. Especially if the enemy had aether rifles as we had taken to calling them.
	Each of us opened our own hatches and climbed in. The inside of the Harrier was surprisingly spacious, the seat was comfortable enough and there was enough room for the emergency mana reactor and the radio on either side of the cockpit. It was wide enough for one rider and a second if you really wanted to squeeze someone behind you in a pinch. For James there was probably a little too much room, and for Eddie probably barely enough. 
	Our MUTTs hadn't yet been equipped with the aether needed for them to work effectively. That was stage one of Operation Concordia. Right now we were racing toward the western coast of Australia to a facility on Barrow Island where our collaborators were.
	I had no doubts that the Federalists knew we were coming by now; with such a huge force amassed and heading for their coasts, they'd be too blind or too stupid not to notice. Half of our plan relied on them being too busy with Sovereign Convergence to spare any forces to stop us from making our way inland, but my team and I knew better than to hope in one hand. I turned my radio on, tuning in on the chatter that had picked up again. 
	“They just keep coming. I've never seen so many airships. There must be hundreds of them,” A voice I didn't recognize said.
	“Look, here comes more from the Indonesians,” Someone from another mercenary company added.
	“They say this is the single largest gathering of soldiers and mercenaries since the Peloponnesian war,” A third voice chimed in.
	“Don't say shit like that,” I heard another growl over the radio, “It's bad luck!”
	“The hell you talkin’ about?”
	“The Ten Thousand had to fight tooth and nail just to escape with their lives when Cyrus died,” The voice of Commander Carter replied, none too pleased with the comparison.
	“So?”
	“In other words, the mercs lost, jackass!” The other mercenary grumbled.
	“Oh… sorry. I didn't know.”
	“Next time read a book,” Carter spat, and not long after I could hear snickering at his reprimanding. I was certain I heard James and Tiggs among them. I looked over the controls of my MUTT, my eyes passing over the familiar sticks and triggers, the dials and switches. 
	The last thing I saw was the manascope, an enchanted visor that went over our helmets that linked up with the machine's artificial eye. At first it was a little disorienting and completely different to how the old visors on the Harrier Bs worked. We had practiced with our borrowed aether over and over back in the Philippines, learning how to use our scopes while on the move, how to make use of the different screens while seeing what we were doing inside the cockpit.
	It was good having some experience for James and a refresher for Eddie and I. We also trained with the mana engines in the off chance that we lost our aether in combat. They were good emergency backup engines in a pinch, although they only lasted about half an hour before the engine had to be recharged, which could take an hour, and overuse would simply burn them up. But if the aether worked the way they said it did, we probably wouldn't need them. Better to have them just in case, I figured.
	“Captain?” I heard James over the radio.
	“What's up?” I replied, shaking myself out of my reminiscing. “Are we there already?”
	“No,” He chuckled, “Just a little nervous is all.”
	“Me too,” I admitted, “We'll be alright. Eddie's more nervous than both of us.”
	He laughed, “That old golem? I doubt he even knows how to be scared.”
	After a few moments, we heard a deep grunt come from Eddie's radio, “... Nothing to be scared of,” His gravelly voice came through.
	“See? What did I tell ya?” Said James.
	I smiled.
	“He's right. Everything will go smoothly,” Carter cut in, “Let's go over the plan again, switch over to local channels.”
	After I flipped the switch on my radio the rest of the merc groups cut out, while Carter and the others clicked on, “First, we meet up with our people on Barrow Island. Second, we get our aether and head for the mainland.”
	“Will there be resistance?” James asked.
	“Undoubtedly. But it's nothin’ we can't handle. Besides, you saw how many of us there are, I doubt we'll even see any action.”
	“Yeah, you're right,” James decided. 
	“And even if you do, Captain Kilroy's got you covered. Come on, James, we've been through this stuff how many times?”
	“Sorry. Just never get used to it is all.”
	“That's alright, neither did I,” I assured him, “But the commander's right, I'll get you through this.”
	A few minutes passed before Carter radioed us again, “We're coming up on stage one. Looks like we'll be seventh in line to get our aether. We're gonna fly low, they'll get the aether installed then we'll head to the mainland. Buckle up.”
	I began strapping myself in, double checking my buckles to make sure they were secure before I put on my manascope.
	“I'm good,” I called, and heard the same from both James and Eddie. It wasn't long before I felt our descent, Tiggs doing his best to keep it gradual. I could feel some turbulence on our way down and hoped that James was able to handle it.
	When we finally came to an abrupt stop, I could hear shouting and the mechanics rushing to start bolting the temporary aether packs to our Harriers and soon after my MUTT came to life. The lights inside turned on and the gears began to whirr all around me, near silently. The steam pistons on the back of the MUTT hissed and I began to test the waist rotation as I flicked in my manascope and my eye came online with the flickering of my visor’s image. Clear skies, but for the hundreds of airships, I smiled to myself.
	“Aether online, my MUTT is active,” I reported.
	“Mine, too,” James called out.
	“Same.” Eddie grunted.
	“Good,” Carter replied, “How are the torches?”
	I looked down at the weapon in my MUTT's right hand, two mechanics quickly bolting down smaller aether packs onto the intake. At the muzzle a small flame sparked and I heard the mechanics slap the top of my cockpit.
	“Torch lit,” I answered.
	“Ready to cook, and my rifle scope is active,” Said James, while Eddie simply grunted. He was holding onto a weapon Skitz Mitznovik had managed to get us. It wasn't her experimental one she had promised, thankfully, but she said it would do us wonders. She called it a spitfire. Some kind of heavy support weapon for MUTTs, the perfect weapon for Eddie.
	“I just realized, Captain, how do we turn this thing off after the mission?” James asked, anxiously.
	“Let Tiggs figure that out when we're done,” I answered flatly.
	“Gee, thanks,” I heard the gremlin snark before Carter cut him off, “Alright, we're heading for stage two, the aether mine in New Vaelyn. Let's roll, Star!”
	I felt the Lucerne lurch as I watched us rise up from the ground and turn eastward, the water rushing beneath us for only a few minutes, our ship clearing the short twenty miles in no time until we reached the mainland.
	Almost immediately I saw fireballs flying up at the airships all around us. One dropped their MUTTs before a fireball grazed their frame and it tore open, bursting like a balloon over a lit match, the scraps plinking off our armor. 
	Several MUTTs were already returning fire from their airships, fireballs and beams lighting up the ground wherever they hit. Whether they actually hit their targets or not was another thing, but if it kept the enemy suppressed, more power to them.
	I heard James yelp when the airship in front of us went up in flames, the MUTTs on board cracking open like corn kernels before they hit the ground and exploded.
	“Easy, James. They just got unlucky,” Carter's steady tone seemed to calm him down, “We're making our descent now. As soon as you touch the ground and find some cover, we're out.”
	Tiggs took her down faster than before, the sudden movement practically forcing my stomach up into my chest. I watched as we approached the ground at an alarming speed, and heard Carter bark out instructions.
	“Get ready to cut yourselves loose!” He shouted over the fire. I looked to my MUTT's left hand and extended its bayonet, reaching up toward the single cord that kept us tied to the Lucerne. I made sure the others were doing the same, and thankfully they were.
	“Now!”
	In one smooth motion I pulled my bayonet back and sliced through the cord, instantly feeling myself go into freefall, praying the shocks Tiggs looked over would hold up. Looking to my left I saw the others falling beside me and could hear James screaming so loud I could have sworn I was right in his cockpit.
	WHAM!
	We had landed, my cockpit shaking something fierce. That must have been more than eighty feet. I quickly shook myself out and got to work, “James, Eddie, you still alive?”
	“Yeah, captain, I’m alive,” James answered, “I think I shit myself,” I heard him whimper.
	“Alive,” Eddie answered curtly as both he and James flanked me. I looked up and saw more and more airships going in for landings, dropping their MUTTs or returning fire, some of them having been equipped with aether weaponry for air support. I managed to spot the Lucerne on its retreat back behind our lines, quickly falling behind the much bigger targets for the Feddies. I sighed, relieved to see they were okay. At least we’d have a way off this rock if things went south.
	“Alright, Star, let’s get to work.”
	With a familiar speed, we began our run toward New Vaelyn, passing several mercs in their own MUTTs firing back at targets they couldn’t possibly see. The flatlands we had landed on were giving way to broken ground where the aether had been dug up and made the terrain too difficult for some of the more inexperienced riders to navigate. 
	Instead, I saw many of them taking cover in several of the excavated plots and potholes. Any trees from the jungle that hadn’t been torn up in the mining expedition had been set aflame by the fighting or otherwise disintegrated down to the stump.
	One MUTT, that quadrupedal design called a Mule, fired off its back-mounted artillery. Concentrated aether energy arched and shelled the dugout quarry only eight hundred feet away, my rangefinder told me. 
	FWOOM!
	The shelling cast shadows across the dust and forced it up into the air. They missed their target. Was the enemy there? I led James and Eddie behind a burnt out airship for cover and waved James forward, pointing him at the dugout. James pulled up his aether rifle, its longer range making for a better prospect than my simple torch. He was the better shot, anyway, we learned during practice.
	“See anything?” I asked him. He scanned the spot over for a few moments before moving back, a fireball passing by both of us, followed by another. We moved back away from the airship before it became the next target, ducking down in a makeshift trench from another excavation.
	“Yeah, there’s a helluva lot of them!” He shouted. I looked back at the Mule that fired again.
	“When that artillery lands, take your shots,” I instructed him, and I saw him move his MUTT as if nodding.
	FWOOM!
	James spun around and aimed his weapon, firing off one, two, three shots before ducking back down, his rifle hissing from the sudden heat coming off of its coils.
	“Get any?” I asked as amicably as I could.
	“Got two,” James replied, his nervousness falling away. Good, he was in his element.
	“Get ready for another go,” I said, watching the Mule line up it’s next shot before firing. We both waited until it landed, surprised to see that it hit its target this time, clearing out the dugout. James still took aim, his rifle finding any Federal forces scrambling away from the crater.
	“Eddie, you’re with me, James, cover us until we can move up into position,” I barked the orders over the sounds of more and more carnage. MUTTs of all kinds were taking lethal blows, fireball barrages were intensifying the closer we got to the mining town, but we kept low and kept moving. Eddie let off a volley of fireballs from his spitfire as we made our way into another of the Federalists’ makeshift trenches, my eye turned to see the cluster of MUTTs he was targeting disappear in a plume of smoke and ash, the metal of their machines left to melt under the aetheric flames. James was taking potshots at another grouping of Feddies who were quickly losing ground to the waves of mercenaries throwing themselves at their defenses relentlessly, all of them ready to be the first one to claim they had personally taken the mines. I didn’t care who did it as long as we survived. 
	Just as I was about to leap out of the trench and lead the others to our next point, a MUTT wearing the Federalist blues clamored down into the hole beside me. Without even thinking, I fired up my torch and streamed aetheric flames down the trench at it, kicking it away before the cockpit burst open, spitting flames from the hole it made.
	“You okay, Captain?” James called, obviously seeing the flames rising from our position.
	I took a deep breath and exhaled, my body shaking at the thought of what might have happened had I not reacted. There was no time to dwell on that, “I’m good,” I replied, “Thanks. We’re gonna head down this trench and see if we can get into a better position. Follow us up in about twenty seconds.”
	I stepped over the dead soldier in his smoldering steel casket, noticing it was a Harrier not much different from my own and told myself again that I didn’t have time to linger.
	Eddie followed me down the trench, and when I occasionally peaked over the side I saw that we were circling around the nearest mining facility. It was taking a hammering from the western side where our main forces were, thousands of fireballs and beams and aetheric artillery reducing any resistance to dust craters. Good. Maybe they wouldn’t notice us from this side.
	“Get down,” Eddie grunted, pushing my MUTT aside to lay down a volley of fireballs further down the trench. Three more MUTTs were coming our way and another one wasn't far behind. Eddie retreated while firing and I scrambled back beside him, narrowly avoiding the return fire.
	“Can’t go this way,” Said Eddie, “Gotta fall back.”
	“Alright, I admit this was a bad idea,” I agreed, “James, do you have line of sight?”
	“Yeah just keep them pinned for two more seconds aa-aand,” Three beams flew over my head, followed by three more, “Got a few, at least two more over there.”
	It was a gamble, but James gave me an opening and I had to take it. I rushed around the trench, my torch primed as I drove my Harrier forward. The last two MUTTs were equipped with spitfires, but they were in a panic having just seen half of their squad wiped by our little sharpshooter. 
	I leapt up, my MUTT taking me well over their shots until I was close enough to rain down fire from my torch. I caught one of them before I landed, while the other pulled their bayonet and came at me swinging wildly. I blocked with my own, knocking his arm back far enough to let me swing my torch around and melt the spitfire off his MUTT. He turned away, trying to keep the cockpit from my flames as best as he could.
	His twist left him open and I forced my bayonet between his and the shoulder, pulling the arm off from its socket in one clean thrust before delivering a swift kick to the cockpit, toppling it over with little effort. I quickly cleaved the legs off his machine in the off chance he managed to pick himself back up. He was out of the game now, no sense in killing him if he wasn't a threat. I just hoped one of the more unsavory mercs didn't find him first. Eddie joined me moments later, covering the other end of the trench with his spitfire.
	“Nice takedown, Captain,” James cheered, “Though not the play I would've gone with.”
	“Really?” I scoffed, “Do you see anything, or were you just watchin’ my ass the whole time?”
	“Sorry, Captain, won't happen again. Gimme a sec,” He replied, taking a few moments to survey the area.
	“I don't see anyone else. Looks like the Feddies are falling back. No sense in fighting these odds for one small mine outta hundreds, right?”
	“I don't know. I hear this aether stuff grows further beneath the surface,” I explained, “I'd say they fought pretty hard all things considered.”
	“What do you suppose these guys were doing on this side of the mine? I don't see any aether rifles. Deserters?” James wondered.
	The same thought occurred to me, “You said it yourself, not worth dying over one small mine.”
	“Right. Where's the rendezvous point?” Asked James as he joined up with Eddie and me. I pointed back behind the mining facilities, “Let's switch to the open channel just to make sure we're not walking into a squad of spitfires.”
	“What about that one?” James pointed at the limbless cockpit of the rider I had disabled. Its hatch had opened up and the rider was climbing out on shaky legs, his hands held up as the three of us turned to look at him. He was a middle-aged human, his skin burnt by hours spent under the sun and a beard blonde as can be. His blue fatigues were dirty and ragged, and he looked like he hadn't had a good meal in weeks.
	“What, do you wanna drag him with us?” I asked with a little more sarcasm than I intended.
	“Not really.”
	“Leave him be, even if he escapes he's no threat to us.” I decided, pointing a finger towards the jungle. The rider looked me up and down, dumbfounded before stumbling backward and making a break for the trees. “Eddie, keep an eye on him anyway, make sure he doesn't pull something stupid.”
	“Copy…”
	“Switch radio frequencies.”
	The three of us flipped the switches on our radios and were immediately assaulted with cheers, hooting and hollering.
	“Looks like Concordia was a success,” I barely heard James say through all the noise.
	“Yeah, looks that way,” I said, happy to have our first success in this war. Now all we had to do was find the Lucerne in all of this mess. That is, if Carter couldn’t find us with his magic first.

Next Chapter