The Truth Behind it All

It was fairly late but various members of the Outcast Unit were still up and about, some on patrol around the camp, others sitting around the fire to keep warm while talking about their upcoming leave, and others broken off into small groups here and there. Saraf was among one of those broken off groups, listening as Captain Jinx went about talking, mostly about the threat of the bug mages and where it left everyone and everything. He also spoke of rumors about what the higher ups were going to be doing about it all and Saraf was a bit torn. The idea of their leaders gathering to discuss an alliance to deal with the powerful and mysterious threat was a good idea in theory. They could pool their resources and better be prepared for the battle that was likely to come.

At the same time all he could think about was the fact that the leaders of all the factions were going to be together in one place. What if the bugs caught wind of it? What if they took the opportunity and saw to it that all of the leaders were taken out at once? It would throw everything into chaos, nobody would have a leader to look too, there would be power struggles, and everyone would be infinitely weaker for it. At the same time they couldn't just do such planning through messages along because it would take far too long even with the best couriers. There was always the option of sending a representative in the place of each of the tribe leaders but that would only go so far as well. There was nobody he could think of that could speak for the king in every scenario that might come up for example meaning that the representative might need to return back to the king on a few occasions thus slowing planning down. That times as many tribes as there were and the distance to get back to their homelands. It was rather impossible to even fathom.

As such it seemed that having their leaders gather seemed to be the only real option and they came back once again to the fact that all the leaders would be brought to one location. There was the option of beefing up security, using a mix of soldiers from different tribes, and trying to keep them safe... but was that even possible? The bug mages seemed to be able to just appear anywhere and at any time meaning that even the most top notch, well trained soldiers might not be enough to keep them all safe. If even one leader was slain, and that was looking at the best case scenario, then things would still get messy. Not to mention if there was anyone out there with a grudge they could use the opportunity to strike down one of the leaders from the shadows and lay blame upon the bug mages.

All in all if you asked Saraf it all sounded like a terrible situation. One wanted to see the leaders gather so that they could decide upon how they wanted to take care of the looming threat. At the same time it was a dangerous venture in which so much could go wrong. The bug mages really did seem to have the advantage on all fronts and it seemed the best that they were going to be able to do is act instead of react. There was no going to their base of operations, no taking the fight to them, because they had no idea where the creatures even came from. How could they go about fighting something like that? They were enemies that lurked in the shadows and seemed to hold all the cards and Saraf really didn't like it.

Turning his attention back to Captain Jinx he listened as the man spoke about what could and could not be done, what the army might consider doing, and their possible role. Would those in charge even want help from their unit? It was far from being a traditional one after all and more often then not the lot of them were relegated to duties that kept them abroad. To be given work that was within the walls of a city would be out of the ordinary for sure but it was something that Saraf would be willing to do, even if their unit was often given flak for what they were. If he was serving within the walls of Sulburi he'd be able to stay closer to his family then he normally was and thus he could do his best to help keep him safe.

Presently it was all a waiting game the captain said, and they would continue forward as normal until they got word from the higher ups. That meant that leave would also continue as normal meaning he'd be able to visit home soon, something he was looking forward to with how tumultuous things had been of late. He'd feel much better once he had Arima back in his arms and was able to see his children playing, oblivious to what was really going on in the world.

(( Word Count: 862 ))