Chapter 163: Recon

October 15, 623 

It had been a month since I arrived at Stronghold Charlie. 

I suppose the first phase of any new thing someone did was always the most hectic. A lot of things happened while I was settling into my new role with the Pathfinders. 

The past few weeks were boring — thankfully passing by quickly, though — yet we could all feel the tension in the air, plans and schemes brewing in the background. 

Having been roped into a new realm of decision making, I was more aware of what people like Polly had to deal with daily, and how they drove the war from behind closed doors.

The Treehouse was currently under attack. 

Alois hadn’t been wrong in any of his conjectures. That encampment we had wiped out was only the vanguard, a probing force sent to develop a beachhead. A minor, overlooked chink in the armor of the base was more than enough to trigger a full-scale attack only the Snow Doves could handle — and possibly a little beyond. They were almost always on a defensive footing at this point, forced to defend the Treehouse from seige, incapable of projecting any significant presence beyond the occasional sally or counterstrike. 

Now, none of this was necessarily out of the ordinary. But while discussing things with Polly, one issue made itself glaringly obvious. 

Henrick, one of Polly’s Colonels, Polly herself, and I were in the war room, overlooking the battle map. 

“The main Scourge force is advancing from a dip in Hare’s Pass. They cross over the ravine from here, the east.”

Polly pointed to a marker on the map. The geography was rather roughly sketched; I couldn’t count on aerial reconnaissance or GPS to have topography all mapped out for us. Thankfully, general outlines, named landmarks, and the general lay of the land made it easy for us to visualize the area. I had even been to a majority of the listed places, and focusing hard enough made it feel like I was actually there, looking at it from a bird’s point of view. 

Most of the conflicts centered around Hare’s Pass. It was a major land divider separating our mountain range from the other, meaning neither side in this war could easily invade the other. 

That made reconnaissance exceedingly difficult for both sides. Information was sparse, and that was the problem.

Everything centered around getting timely info. What did we need to do to see the Scourge coming? How would we predict when they would move so we could reposition defenses accordingly?

Their animalistic nature actually made this simpler in strategic regards: they would come to try and destroy us regardless; it would just be a question of when and where.

In the end though, our blindness stemmed from one major issue. 

“We don’t go beyond Hare’s Pass. How are we supposed to collect information and make predictions when we’re completely blind to them? If we at least knew where their camps were out there, then we could find their trails and narrow down points of approach.”

“Are you suggesting I send the Pathfinders out beyond Hare’s Pass to infiltrate and collect information?”

“…”

I went silent at Polly’s question, thinking. 

The Pathfinders never went past the land bridge because it was incredibly dangerous. Even scouting around on our side, replacing sensors and resetting traps, put us a day’s pace by Steed away and on the edge of comms range. Going past would hamstring us; we’d have to set up relays in enemy territory, potentially exposing the away team to danger, with no hope of timely reinforcements.

However, my presence solved at least one issue.

We wouldn’t need to communicate; I was a trained intelligence agent. I could draw the maps, mark the trails, and log Scourge data myself. We wouldn’t have to speak to Polly because I could do her job in the field. 

Then, the only issue became safety. The Scourge didn’t care about dying. They could afford to endlessly send probe groups with not a care in the world. If they got wiped out, there were always more to send. On the other hand, humans were a lot more squishy, and far less replaceable. That’s why Stronghold Charlie hadn’t moved its battle lines in years. We were here strictly to keep anything from coming over; we had no obligation to launch offensives.

But this was an information war. We couldn’t defend unless we knew what was coming. And with the war escalating beyond the occasional patrol skirmish, it was more important now than ever before to get a read on our enemy. 

Like Polly, and I hoped the vast majority of the Kingdom, I definitely enjoyed knowing an army would come marching on our doorstep before they were already there. 

Of course, none of this was anything Polly hadn’t considered before. We both knew exactly why she didn’t send Pathfinders over the Pass. Only Snow Doves went over, and rarely at that. Information, as a result, was spotty and inconsistent, hardly a sustainable situation long-term. 

But that was, of course, in the past. A radical change was needed. And look who comes along, ready to take drastic action?

My lips curled. 

“You might not be able to send Pathfinders over, but I’d be confident in heading over there and scouting without getting caught. Especially if I’m not trying to kill anything.”

“… That might be true, but I would never send you out there alone. You’d have to take a small team, no more than four, preferably three, and you’d have to pack for days, if not weeks, of isolation. I admit that your ability to conceal yourself is amazing. But your team wouldn’t necessarily be able to do the same. I only send the Snow Doves because they can handle being caught, which is the worst case. You can’t. Plus, you’re no knight. The physical strain of traveling across that terrain in an attempt to find something would be incredible.”

“That’s true. It was just a thought. But if things only continue to go downhill, and we can’t handle being blind, then it might be the only option. Hell, send me with a knight from the Snow Doves and we’ll have the whole mountain range scouted in a week.”

“Yes, that is quite the thought.”

She smiled at me before looking back at the map. 

Colonel Henrik spoke. 

“What if we sent a team around the east side? The Scourge is attacking the Treehouse from that route, so if they’re driven back, then we could probably infiltrate while they’re weakened.”

“… It’s possible.”

Polly muttered and leaned in for closer examination of the map.

Hare’s Pass lowered in elevation around a certain point, the walls of the ravine coming closer to ground level before fading off into a valley later on eastward. The Scourge had created a pathway through that dip that allowed them to access the area to the east of Scythe’s Peak, north of where the Treehouse was located. 

They had been sending their army through for a while. It was a pretty major offensive, but, chances were, the Snow Doves would come out on top when working with the forces from the Treehouse. 

We had concluded after plenty of patrols that the Scourge wasn’t interested in our area for now because their forces were so focused over there. However, sending a team straight up our land bridge across Hare’s Pass still wasn’t really an option since it was way too obvious. Even if the Scourge wasn’t attacking via that route, there had already been dozens of old reports from the Snow Doves saying that there were nests not far from it, all of them containing armies. It was safe to say they had that Pass closed down. 

But around the east? That might not be as true, if they were moving all their troops toward the Treehouse instead of manning the crossing. If we brought along some top end firepower from the Snow Doves, then spying on them while they were weakened and sparse was a very plausible strategy. 

I certainly liked the idea, and Polly didn’t seem too opposed either. 

“I think we can do it. Extremely few are familiar with the area beyond the Pass anyway, so your inexperience wouldn’t matter too much. It would still be dangerous, but I have a Dove who’s done some infiltration for me before. They know how to keep low and have some spells in their arsenal suited for that as well. I’ll need to pass it by the Marshal first though. Without her approval, an operation like this can’t happen.”

“But this will happen?”

I asked expectantly. Doing more recon sounded just up my alley. I was already excited. 

Polly smiled. 

“Don’t get too jumpy. We need to flesh out the details, which you’ll help me do, before we submit it. We need a full plan of action that can guarantee results.”

“It’s not possible to guarantee results.”

“With missions like these, no, it’s not. But your superiors don’t care about that. Convince them that it’s worth the time and investment, and make them anticipate the fruits of that labor. Only then can you get approval and earn accolades. Otherwise, you have nothing to do but sit back and watch.”

“Understood.”

I nodded, but still didn’t like it. This was the politics part. The generals and higher-ups didn’t care about reality. They only cared about vision. You had to play into that if you wanted to have your way and get things done, otherwise they’d just bring things to a standstill. Or worse, they’d step in and twist things their own fancy way, thinking it better, but making it that much more dangerous for the boots on the ground. 

I sighed, wondering how we’d go about this. 

“We have until the end of the battle at the Treehouse to formulate this plan. Based on what I’ve been hearing, that won’t happen for at least another couple weeks. We also need to hope that nothing changes with the situation over there or here. Either way, we have time. Go retire for the night. You’ve done enough for today.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

I gave a salute before leaving the war room. 

When I stepped out, I saw that night had already fallen. It was easy to lose track of time inside that isolated room. 

The day had been filled with battlefield analysis. There’d be more to come, especially with more reports flooding in from the Treehouse. Polly’s other Colonel was over there feeding us everything she could get her hands on, and I was working with Polly and Colonel Henrik to interpret it. It was quite the mental exercise. 

Now, we had another plan of action though. I absolutely intended to push myself into this recon mission. It would be amazing experience, and I was confident that the danger to myself wouldn’t be that great. I would have much more time than the previous recon mission I ran, while also not having incompetent assholes holding me back and a tyrannical superior breathing down my neck. 

My mission, done my way. With my vision and senses, I doubted there were many who could match my ability to collect information, especially given my recent education on tactics. 

I was glad that we had time, though I didn’t expect to have multiple weeks. I thought that the battles over at the Treehouse would conclude pretty fast. Apparently not, and without the Snow Doves here, we were limited in how far we could extend ourselves. We weren’t sent out on missions that took any longer than a day, which meant we couldn’t go far past the Black Forest. 

Thankfully there were no movements from the Scourge either. We hadn’t seen a single tripped sensor in weeks. Honestly, I was getting a bit bored without all the excitement. Patrols were getting more mundane by the day too. 

Well, more time to study. 

Since I spent a good chunk of time finishing those books from Polly, I had more than enough time to shift my focus. I still worked on my advancement formations every day, but I was also dabbling more and more with enchanting. 

It was a very intriguing subject. The possibilities with enchanting were endless. It was much easier to create a device that could cast spells for you than it was to cast those spells. The only detriment was the material and labor cost, but considering most devices were long-term tools, that actually wasn’t much of a detriment, especially since they could be used by more than just warlocks. 

White Crystals were the most versatile magical resource in this world. That’s what I was coming to understand as I learned more. I also learned about their limitations. 

White Crystals had certain power limits. They ran on Magika and their attributes varied depending on the Scourge monster they were extracted from. The density of the power was determined similar to how material density worked. It depended on how large the object was and the total amount of power stored within. If it was a strong and small crystal, then it was very dense. If it was strong but large, then it wasn’t as dense. Balancing these attributes was very important for enchanters because it determined how you had to tune your device. 

White Crystals always radiated a set amount of Magika, regardless of how much was in there. They wouldn’t trickle off like electrical batteries; they could be almost completely empty and would still continue to radiate the same amount as if it were full. This made it easy to tune devices to specific crystals. You simply had to calculate the output, even if every single one had to be tuned by hand. 

As for Magika storage though, that was a different story. 

White Crystals pulled Magika from the surroundings. The surroundings had differing levels of Magika concentration though. A crystal’s ability to pull in energy was determined by its baseline density, which corresponded to its strength, and the surrounding concentration. 

As for the limits on how long a crystal could run, that was determined by their usage and power. 

White Crystals disintegrated over time, literally. The Crystal itself would gradually lose the particles that composed it, shrinking over time to the size of pebbles and grains of sand before phasing out of existence. They also didn’t leave behind any residue, which was why White Crystals were said to be the manifestation of physical Magika. 

Either way, using a crystal excessively and draining it over and over would speed up the disintegration. That’s why, when not needed, it was good practice to insulate the crystals from Magika, retaining power and keeping it from draining faster than its baseline.

As for specific lifetimes, only crystals up to Authority 10 had been measured. Authority One White Crystals would turn to dust after little more than six months under maximum load. Authority Five crystals could last about 10 years under the same conditions. As for Authority 10 crystals, they could last a whopping 150 years under those conditions. As for beyond that, it was impossible to tell. No crystals at the Authority 11 and 12 levels had been properly tested. Plus, those crystals had special properties that changed the way they operated and interacted with the world, warping the ability to measure them. 

The White Crystal acting as my storage space was a small piece of an Authority 7 crystal, which was very dense. And the device was isolating its power at all times except for when I was actively accessing it, which was only occasionally. It could easily last a century before beginning to degrade. The only reason they didn’t charge much more money for it knowing that was thanks to the economics of White Crystal supply and demand. An Authority Seven crystal wasn’t exactly rare, but something like my storage space was far beyond what the ordinary person could ever dream of getting their hands on. We Magi simply had a better ability to make money, thus why we sat within the top 10% of the population. Even then, I was probably within the top 3 or 4% as I was now. 

There was a lot of money in magic, because the Magi controlled it all. 

Besides learning all that, I was gradually learning the language of enchanting. The only thing taking away from that education was my concentration on my advancement formation. Thankfully, that was coming along well too. 

I had finished a majority of the first formation after having slowly chipped away at it for over a month. I was stripping away all its mysteries and exposing its private parts, really learning it in intimate detail. 

But I wasn’t over the learning curve yet. The other formations offered different challenges that I’d have to figure out later. It was undeniable, though, that I was beyond the worst part. Things would speed up from here. 

……

The battle at the Treehouse continued to rage on. Every day we got detailed reports from Polly’s Colonel, every day we collated and consolidated reports, every day we filled out our maps, and every day we analyzed and predicted enemy movements in detail, transmitting everything back to the Treehouse. 

Two weeks passed, and the battle continued. By this point it was becoming obvious that this wasn’t some simple skirmish. The Scourge was trying something. Our battle maps, filled with the movements of those monstrous armies and past battle histories, as well as numbers and battle lines, showed us an interesting picture. 

The Treehouse was being surrounded, slowly and methodically. It cost the Scourge great numbers, but numbers they had to spare. 

I remembered Alois’ concern when I was there. The Pustules and encampments, as well as those corrupted trees that sat within those encampments, were all there to corrupt the land. They spread a bloody, root-like moss over the landscape that killed off any plant life and made land uninhabitable for wildlife. That also meant that Alois’ lucrative business harvesting sap and syrup was being encroached on. We had received no shortage of reinforcement requests, but we couldn’t spare much other than supplies. The other platoons here at base were responsible for ferrying those. 

Either way, the Scourge wasn’t trying to destroy the Treehouse. Not yet at least. If this kept up, they’d be choked out before long. There’d be no reason for the Treehouse to exist if it couldn’t hold a strategic position or make any money. 

The Scourge continued to receive forces from the eastern pass while the Treehouse was being ever so slowly whittled down. It wouldn’t continue like this forever, and the Treehouse, armed with Snow Doves, wasn’t going to fall. Unless the Scourge brought out some big players, they’d just be kept busy. The threat wasn’t too bad at the moment. 

But it was clear the Scourge had other goals. Polly and I wanted to figure out what those goals were. And scouting beyond Hare’s Pass seemed to be the key to all that. We needed a read on their forces. 

And so, another week passed. We compiled tons of data and established predictions on the concentration of Scourge beyond the Pass based on their numbers moving toward the Treehouse. Then, we developed our plan of action. 

Once that third week passed, Polly took the report, as well as our mission proposition, and went to present to the Marshal. 

I was proud to say that a quarter of the details were developed by me, including a majority of the mission we were proposing. I was getting a good grasp on how things worked and could contribute a good deal. This was all thanks to the fact that I could handle tons of details at once. Where most people would only see a vague picture the wider the lens got, I could keep track of the small tidbits while envisioning everything at once. It all connected seamlessly in my mind, making my ability to strategize rather amazing. Even I was a bit shocked by it. Summoners really were amazing. 

Of course, the fruits of my labor were all being given to Polly. Her name was all over the report and proposition. My name only showed up in regard to the candidates for an infiltration, including some notes that my observation skills, as well as my recent education, would make me the perfect person to take this mission on. There were also two other candidates from Polly, two Doves who would help me. 

With all that, I sat back and waited. Within a day or two, we would get our answer. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be rejected. I was looking forward to this mission. 

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