Chapter 196: Chapter 196: Bread and Butter

December 1, 624

I arrived back at the Treehouse and to my great surprise, there was hardly anything for me to do. Seems I had trained my people well.

Polly had a few questions for me regarding the counterespionage division, but that was about the extent of my input. I had been gone for a month, and everyone had figured out how to go on without me.

It was odd, being able to walk around base without being pulled every which way.

Unfortunately, that also meant I was no longer in charge of certain things, my workload divvied up and handed to other intelligence agents. I practically had no responsibilities at the moment. 

Of course, I was still a Lieutenant Colonel, which meant I defaulted to Polly’s side. I would just do whatever she wanted me to do – mostly some elementary reports and reading to get me back up to speed.

But that didn’t last forever. Not long after my return, I received a transfer order. Not for location – I wasn’t lucky enough to finally be rid of this frozen hellhole, despite its desperate need for me – but unit.

It took a couple days, but about a week after my return, on the first of December, the  transfer was authorized.

I would become a Snow Dove.

I grabbed what few items I had and ditched my room, transferring to the building reserved specifically for the Snow Doves (and now the plentiful other higher power platoons).

Once there I prepared my bed, since there was actually a bed in my new room, and went down into their rec room.

“Oh shit. Look who it is.”

“The newbie is here.”

“Dressed up all pretty too.”

A few of the old Snow Doves smiled and quipped as I walked in. The unit had gotten reinforced with fresh bodies, so almost half of the now-expanded platoon was new, even if they weren’t quite as new as me. However, they didn’t say much, unlike the others who seemed to enjoy seeing me in my Glimmers.

Nonnen was already there, as well as the other Authority 10 that had finally come to replace Miron. A. Cemil was stenciled on her nametag. She was shorter than I expected her to be, standing no taller than 5’ 2”. That didn’t subtract from the general impression of scrappiness she exuded, her faint freckles and button nose only adding to the impression despite their usual implication.

I took a moment to look around at the hecklers before approaching Nonnen. I was dressed up not for my transfer, but because it was about time for my rank to match my Authority.

Nonnen called.

“Alright, everyone at attention!”

With his command all the Snow Doves rose from their seats and stood in their places semi-rigidly.

Nonnen smiled at me.

“Not much of a ceremony, but at least I’ll be the one pinning you.”

“I appreciate it, sir.”

“Mm. Now…”

Nonnen looked around as I stood at attention in front of him. He announced.

“Today, John Cooper will become a Snow Dove! He will be my Envoy, the Intelligence Liaison for the platoon, and our long range weapon specialist! And to commemorate his induction into our platoon…”

Nonnen brought out a new insignia, the pins for a First Sergeant, and replaced my old Master Sergeant rank.

Once he was done, the two of us saluted each other.

“John Cooper is hereby promoted to First Sergeant! For Honor!”

“For Honor!”

Everyone chanted, my salute going down with Nonnen’s. We both smiled and shook hands.

“I’m honored, sir.”

“You’ve long earned it, First Sergeant. Now, Commander Bieito! Bring out the drinks! Colonel Polly made sure to give us the next two days off, so let's enjoy it!”

“Hurrah!”

Everyone cheered in celebration, several people rushing off to grab any alcohols they could get their hands on.

……

…

“Everyone line up and collect the booklets, one of each. After that, take your seat and I’ll start my lecture.”

Around 50 people all stood up and lined up promptly, not rushed, but not wasting any time with sluggish movements or fighting to be in front of one or the other.

Vetsmon glanced at the table before them. On it were three stacks of booklets, each one thicker than the last. The person in front of him grabbed one from each stack, and Vetsmon followed along, feeling the rough paper on his fingers as he carefully took his set, following the others and finding his seat.

He took a look at the covers of the books as he sat down: Compiled Reports: Western Scourge Front, another called Chemical and Biological Threat Mitigation and Suppression, and the last titled Principles of Operational Security and Counter-Intelligence. The titles were curious. They felt strangely familiar, not in content – he only barely had a clue what they might’ve been about –  but manner, but he couldn’t quite place it.

As the last person grabbed the booklets and sat down, one of the commanding officers, a summoner, stepped up to the front. What little chatter there was instantly cut off before the summoner even had to ask.

The wall behind him suddenly flickered to life, an image of each booklet appearing on it.

“Alright, today’s talk will be relatively brief, but you’ll all be expected to study the contents in each of these books later. The Compiled Reports will give you information on your soon-to-be operational area. You’ll be shipping out to the Kingdom’s western front where the Scourge is mounting a heavy offensive they won’t be able to handle. However, the two other booklets have been recently studied and are going to be adopted into our operational policy. All of the information in these booklets came from one place, and almost entirely from one person.”

The wall behind the summoner changed, Vetsmon’s brows rising as he felt his heart send a wave through his chest. It was the last image he expected to see today.

It was John. There were three pictures depicting him in various situations. One was from afar that showed John with an odd mask on his face as well as two metal cylinders on his back, a hose going from the cylinders to the mask. Vetsmon couldn’t imagine what they did but he assumed it protected John from the red gas around him. Another picture showed John walking while ordering some troops around in the open. Another was a silhouetted picture of him, kneeling in some snow, pointing one of his guns off into the distance from behind a tree.

“John Cooper. 23 years old, a Cold Summoner, recently advanced to Authority 6 and just recently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, despite only being in the military for around a year. His record thus far has been particularly striking. His reports alone have moved over a hundred thousand troops to the Kingdom’s western front, most of those troops coming from reserves. Not only that, but he’s the one who developed the two operational booklets in front of you.”

The summoner scanned the room, lingering his gaze on Vetsmon for a few seconds. There was no way they didn’t know about their relationship.

“You’ll feel the effects of his work as you operate in your areas. He’s on our watchlist, but so far he’s done nothing but improve the Kingdom’s situation on the western front. Without him, it would’ve already fallen, overrun by the Scourge, and we’d be having a hell of a time keeping the Scourge from routing the Kingdom’s forces past the River of Desolation. He’s smart, competent, and the booklets that he’s developed will give you a glimpse into the knowledge that’s managed to keep the Scourge’s new species and weapons from toppling a small forward base. Turn your attention to the compiled reports.”

Everyone picked up the booklet, Vetsmon included, going through the compiled reports on the situation over at the western front.

Millions of Scourge monsters were priming for invasion, and they had an Epicenter and Gargantuan Intestine supporting their efforts. This clearly indicated that the Scourge was getting ready to attack with forces capable of leveling long standing bases like it had Purple Sky, and yet the Kingdom was yet to arm the Treehouse with the forces necessary to at least defend themselves against it. There wasn’t even a Sovereign there.

Mainly negligence, although some of it could be attributed to ignorance – mainly because the Kingdom barely knew what it meant for a Scourge Epicenter to be somewhere. Those only existed where Sovereign-level Royals nested.

However, some credit still had to be given. The fact that they had even discovered the Epicenter was a great achievement. Apparently John had arranged an infiltration mission to scout beyond Hare’s Pass, the canyon between Stronghold Charlie and most of the Scourge forces. Its execution had been nearly perfect, which was the only reason it had succeeded at all. Vetsmon would’ve chalked it up to blind luck for anyone else. Even the Church only had barebones information on the mission, only confirming the deaths of the three infiltrators and the intel that came of it. They knew nothing else about the specifics, an impressive feat, and yet not nearly as impressive as what would be talked about immediately afterward.

Vetsmon read along as the summoner gave general overviews of the situation over there. It was looking grim but that was exactly why they

were going over there. Like many missions, their job would be to reinforce the Kingdom’s weaknesses, making sure they didn’t just roll over and die. And yet they had to do it in the darkness. Only the most observant would be able to pick up on the effects of their presence.

They did it that way in order to keep the Kingdom from attempting to politically leverage them. Relations between the Kingdom and Church were rocky at best and in recent years it was only getting worse. With Anarchy stepping into the mix, it was clear that things wouldn’t remain as they were for very long. A lot of things were about to change soon, all at once, and they had to prepare to face all of it head on. That meant doing what they could to give everyone the greatest advantage before they were weakened as a whole.

Vetsmon perked up when they moved on to the next booklet, the one titled Chemical and Biological Threat Mitigation.

“The contents of this booklet are relatively simple. However, they hint toward greater knowledge of biological organisms, diseases, and chemicals than someone like John Cooper should know. We want to highlight a few key areas. Most of this information is rather standard for us, but these key areas are what make it stand out for its effectiveness. One of these areas is the text on the permeability of different materials and the filtering of different chemicals and diseases. Distinctions are also made between things called viruses and bacteria, how they work and how they spread, and the differences between how they should be handled in order to ensure one does not get infected. You’ll need to study these details for when you encounter them in the field. We’ve already developed countermeasures against the various infectious agents out there, which you’ll be equipped with. Still, you can’t forsake knowledge that may help you should you encounter something new, or should your equipment fail.”

The summoner went on to explain some complicated points, mainly things about “transmission vectors” and the different types of diseases and infections and how they manifested in the body. It was a lot of information, but Vetsmon knew it would be valuable to learn. He’d probably be tested on it anyway to make sure he didn’t disregard it. They didn’t let anyone skimp on studying this kind of stuff.

What really caught his attention though was the third booklet.

“Alright, last one. Everyone open up Operational Security. This booklet is all about preventing your enemy from attaining intelligence on your operations. To preface this, I’d like to show you the information we collected on a new division within the Treehouse. It was created recently by the Marshal and headed by John Cooper. On paper, it’s the Sixth Intelligence Division. As for what it does? Well, this is what we know.”

The summoner changed the images on the wall, and only six lines of information popped up.

“The Sixth Intelligence Division has captured and made disappear six people that we know of. These are their names.”

The room seemed to rumble a little bit, as if disconcerted. Even the summoner seemed a little uncomfortable about the nigh-complete lack of information on the subject, an almost embarrassing failure of their intelligence operations.

“The reason for their capture is unknown. Their location is unknown. We only know the date and time that two of them were arrested because Cooper did it in the open, probably on purpose. What little else we know about the Division is merely rumors that the Sixth Intelligence Division is responsible for weeding out traitors to humanity. This is what we’ve surmised as well, but as of now…”

The summoner sighed and waved at the wall.

“This is all we know about what they’ve done. They’ve managed to keep almost everything they’ve done secret. We don’t even know the names of the people who work in the Division. The only two names listed down are the Marshal’s, and John Cooper’s.”

Suddenly, the summoner turned around again, facing everyone with an excited smile.

“You see that? You see those six lines of text right there? That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you keep things secret! That is what it means to operate in the shadows! That’s what it means to keep a leash on information. How do they do it? Well, we were lucky enough to get our hands on the text that Cooper wrote down to teach others about how to do what he did. And the only reason he wrote it down is because he was effectively getting removed from his post. All you need to know is that this booklet right here, this term “operational security,” will be your bread and fucking butter from here on out. Open to the first page! I’m going through all of this with you guys, Lord forbid you misunderstand something and fuck it up later.”

Pages were hastily flipped as the room reacted to the summoner’s enthusiastic command. Vetsmon himself felt the texture of the paper on his fingers as a wave of astonishment went through him, soon replaced by feelings of pride and excitement.

That was the John he knew, doing crazy shit like this. Leading the charge, sending waves through the Kingdom, excelling at damn near everything he did. He didn’t know where John got all this knowledge, but he had always been a man of mystery. After all, there was always one thought in Vetsmon’s mind.

Summoners, specifically Cold Summoners, were supposed to get their weapons from other worlds. That was the consensus, at least. But then how did John always know so much about his weapons? Why did he always talk about them with such fondness and familiarity, as if excited to show off a toy and not some esoteric weapon the summons were supposed to be?

Vetsmon had his suspicions about John’s origins, and the knowledge he displayed, knowledge he shouldn’t have, only led him to one outlandish conclusion. He almost refused to believe it, but the longer it lingered in his mind, the less opposed to believing it he was.

There were many mysteries in this world. It wasn’t so crazy for John to be one of those. Or perhaps something more.

With those thoughts in mind, Vetsmon paid close attention to the information at hand. This would definitely be tested material, and he couldn’t slack off. In the Order, knights had to be just as educated as the rest. Unfortunately, being a meathead was a privilege reserved for the Paladins and the dead. As of now? They were neither.