Imperium Lieutenant Phillip Keisinger floated lazily just beneath the cirrus clouds. Four longstrides, four thousand paces, above the lightl

Imperium Lieutenant Phillip Keisinger floated lazily just beneath the cirrus clouds. Four longstrides, four thousand paces, above the lightly forested campgrounds meant that everything he could see should have been nothing more than dots on the ground, and the features more akin to a diorama than real life. 

His powered armour, the Azure Dragonfly, kept him nice and warm in the thinner air. Its natural hues mimicked the colour of the sky well enough that even if someone pointed a telescope in his direction, he wouldn’t be immediately spotted. Not that it would be easy to see a human-sized figure from four longstrides away, even if his armour weren’t glowing, which it wasn’t right now, it being daytime. 

The Azure Dragonfly didn’t add as much bulk to his silhouette as the ground-based armours, but it still added several inches to his height, not to mention the four gossamer wings sticking out from his back that were more about energy collection than actual flight usage. Levitation occultech handled gravity, while a separate system handled thrust and manoeuvrability; neither of the systems was bright or overt…unless he pushed his speed up to the speed of sound. By that point, he’d be glowing blue, bright enough to mimic starlight in the dead of night. Not obvious at night, but during the day? 

For his current mission of quiet overwatch, causing sonic booms and glowing like a flare was the exact opposite of what he needed to do, despite how much he enjoyed it. 

Shaking his head, he refocused and absently noted that his partner, Lieutenant Juna Schiff, was circling his position a longstride away. While she wasn’t transmitting words, the way she habitually clicked her radio on and off spoke of a bit of tension. It didn’t take him long to find out why. 

His heads-up display also included telescopic vision. What use was being able to fly high without being about to see his targets? The Comsphere handled the targeting reticule as well as the telescoping lens. It wouldn’t do to have tunnel vision and flail around finding the right spot after all. Thankfully, the Comsphere was linked to his mind via his minuscule Occult Resonance talent. No one in the powered armour division could be without that minuscule talent after all, otherwise, he would have been stuck in mobile infantry or something. 

The telescopic reticule focused on a group hiking along a trail. The 201st Battalion had holed up for the day, amidst the hills and woods of a national park of sorts. As far as Phillip could tell, the area was roughly a hundred longstides wide and about twice that in length. The hikers were going along a trail, and if they went down one fork, they would come upon the trampled bushes and marked tracks that the 201st had left behind and were only in the process of concealing. 

He focused on the hikers, and frowned when he realised that most of the half dozen were youths, barely out of their teens or well within them. He looked at Schiff, and she was already sighting down her sniper rifle, though she had yet to pull the trigger. 

He examined the trails, seeking to guess which way the hikers would likely go, and huffed when he thought they would more likely go through the wrong fork than the other. The one leading to the 201st was simply the shorter path back to the campgrounds that he presumed they came from. Indeed, there was a parking lot with several cabins about a league away from them, though he suspected that the distance they trekked was longer than how the trail wound around the hillsides. The other fork would add another league to their hike, though that one also led to a more scenic route, he supposed. Having not walked the paths, he couldn’t really tell. 

“Schiff, hold your fire,” Phillip said. 

“It’ll be simpler if we just get rid of them,” the taciturn woman said. 

It would, in the short term. But the vanguard battalion wasn’t ready to be discovered yet. They were the beachhead, the anchor to this area, and it would take several weeks at least before the passage would stabilise. Personally, he wouldn’t have minded leaving the fodder legions behind, but then again, he was in the powered armour division and was notably harder to kill than the typical soldier. 

But deaths and disappearances had a nasty habit of drawing attention from the authorities. The Azure Dragonfly could detect the native information network, though it was up to the occultists to do the actual data mining. A careless connection could be seen and detected if the defenders were wary enough, though he thought they might pass beneath notice. His Comsphere detected multiple sources of data links, some coming from the hikers, as well as the cabins. His suit wasn’t geared towards counter-intelligence operations, so he only had a little bandwidth to entertain himself. Yet the watch was boring, and the programs his Comsphere kept active would alert him to anomalies. Not that he didn’t check every now and then, since not doing so was a guarantee of eventually getting surprised and killed. Either way, a little bit of research indicated that the Republic of Astoria had a relatively robust government. One that had law enforcement elements that would ignore disappearances. He was also quite sure that the campgrounds knew about the hikers, and if they didn’t return, they would raise the alarm. 

The simple expedience of destroying the grounds could also prevent information leaks, but acting like that would certainly backfire. Besides, he wasn’t keen on killing civilians. The Imperium sought to conquer, not destroy. What would they rule if they left everything in ruins? 

But then, trigger-happy lieutenants also existed. 

“Negative.” 

“Tsk.” 

Thankfully, Schiff’s conditional insubordination didn’t activate, and there was a reason why he was First Lieutenant and she was a Second Lieutenant. She did have a case of ‘I know better than you and you’d better not give crackpot orders or else’. Not always an accurate sense, but it came up often enough that it was in her files. She was a crackshot, however, able to thread a needle at over a league away with a solid slug round. 

Something still had to be done. The hikers were roughly five hundred paces from the fork, and there was no way to tell which one they would take. Sure, the shorter path was likely, and it wasn’t too late to take decisive action when they went down it. But he’d rather not have civilian blood on his hands, not this early in the campaign. He was prepared for it as sure as the Radiant Sun rose every dawn, enemy countries would eventually devolve into guerrilla warfare using partisans right after the Imperium smashed their armies. Maybe even during the actual campaign, too. He was not innocent or unblooded. He and his unit had taken part in suppressing rebellions and insurrections back home, though the Imperium had been quiet for the past several years now. The entirety of Irvalla was pacified and under the command of the Tyrant. 

‘How to make sure they take the long way? Or just as easily, go back the way they came?’ He looked towards the bivouac, and the only reason he could see them was because his HUD filtered the camouflage netting that covered everything; otherwise, they were practically invisible from the air. That wasn’t to say they were undetectable from the ground either. 

An alert flashed across his screen, and he looked at the indicators. An aeroplane, one meant for civilian transport, was making its way across the sky. It was several longstrides away and a couple or so above his altitude besides. The Azure Dragonflies detected weak radar pulses, and he was sure the detection system was only of a technological base. No Occultech signs. That would make the conquest easier, he supposed. But that was good, right? No challenge meant less bloodshed. But he was young enough that his blood ran hot at the thought of a good dogfight.

“Lieutenant, please do not try to shoot down the civilian aeroplane,” he said dryly. 

“Tsk.” 

Once he was sure that they wouldn’t be detected, he returned his focus on the hikers. Four hundred fifty paces. 

‘Search animal signs,’ he sent to his Comsphere. ‘Carnivorous beasts,’ he amended. 

The reticule spanned across the landscape with dizzying speed, then highlighted a couple of clusters. He focused on one and magnified his vision, which revealed a large, ursine critter, probably four or five paces high at the shoulder, should it stand up. It was nosing at a hollow tree, perhaps looking for fruits or honey? Who knew? 

Another highlight showed him a pair of medium-sized feline creatures, though both were lazing about in the bushes. The ursine was about fifty paces from the path, while the felines were between the two trails, but were about a hundred paces from the path. 

‘Drive the bear and frighten the kids? Or the cats? Which one would likely scare them off without killing kids?’ he wondered. The bear was closer, and probably easier to prod towards the path, and considering it was within a natural preserve, well used to humans. But that was the problem, too. It would not be skittish or aggressive against the hikers unless provoked. 

The tracks the 201st left were about a hundred paces further along the path, not quite crossing it, but close enough to be detected. It was actually a wonder the bear wasn’t frightened off by that. Although…considering that it was near the end of the Season of Water, perhaps it had exited its hibernation state and was hungry. Upon closer inspection, the bear was quite thin. Which meant it would likely attack the hikers for food, didn’t it? 

And what about the cats? Hmm? Ah, they just fed, didn’t they? The reticule highlighted blood splatter a few paces from the cats and cracked bones, too. The bear was more likely to move than the cats. 

So…should he prod the bear now or wait until the hikers actually turn down the wrong fork? Waiting might be prudent, but it might mean that whatever he decided to do would be too late by then. 

‘Screw it.’ They would be dead if they chose wrong, even if they ran away from the bear. They were just as likely to see the tracks and suspect. Even if they didn’t say anything, and there was no way to be certain they wouldn’t, he and Schiff would have to eliminate them then. Afterwards, the authorities would eventually be alerted to missing hikers, then they might investigate, then it would make the mission all that much more difficult. So, screw it! Send the bear!

From his hip, a drone flyer detached and dove straight towards the ursine. He managed to keep it from going supersonic since that would be an even bigger cause for an alert, even if the aeroplane’s engines could be heard from where it was all the way to the ground. He could actually see the hikers glance up at the sky, but most of them returned their focus to the ground. That must be a common occurrence for civilians, huh? 

The drone approached the bear while the hikers were only a couple of hundred paces from the fork. It activated an occult resonance spell that took the creature’s attention and enticed it to follow along. 

The bear whuffed, then pulled its head out of the tree trunk. It blinked slowly at the drone’s direction, but could not see it, considering the optical camouflage. Phillip increased the spell’s potency. The bear reacted predictably. It followed the drone towards the trail, where it hesitated for a moment, but chose to get on the dirt path. It didn’t quite trot, but moved faster than an amble, and soon enough, reached the fork and came within sight of the hikers. 

Contrary to what Phillip expected, the kids didn’t panic. Instead, they simply froze and watched the animal warily. 

He sighed. Further escalation was needed.

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