Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 33: Like Waves Crashing Endlessly

NOTE: Here's a new chapter, just before the end of the year. Let's see if we can get a new one next week—no promises, though.

Discord: https://discord.gg/wEp44XuaT3

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Cent. Calendar 05/02/1640, the skies above Le Brias, Altaras, 7:46

"Two minutes into ingress. We should be above Le Brias soon enough."

"Two minutes. Copy."

A couple of wyverns, the unusually large size of which indicates that they're of the lord breed, were flying just above cloud cover. They flew in a tight-knit formation, and their riders exchanged relevant information as they continued on their southward flight.

It was only five days since the second month (Febrond) of this year had started. Plump, rolling clouds obscured the ground from view but they also obscured their ingress from observers on the ground. This mattered a lot because they were from the Parpaldian wyvern corps and the ground below was sovereign Altaran territory.

"Three minutes into ingress. It should be right below us."

The lead rider notified his wingman.

Their so-called "ingress" was a routine probing flight of the Altaran air defenses in and around Le Brias, primarily the timing of their anti-air response and, secondly the mapping of possible ingress and egress routes. Hinging on constant incursions into Altaran airspace, which also had the effect of wearing down the Altarans, multiple flights occur daily at no particular temporal pattern. It is thanks to previous flights that the Parpaldians had knowledge of where to best enter and exit Altaran airspace, how long these flight paths take, what terrain to expect, where the Altarans typically fire at them from, and so on.

"I see it!"

As the blanket of clouds gave way to a wide-open break, the Parpaldian wyvern riders could finally lay their eyes on the Altaran capital. Wide streets filled with carriages and people and ornamented with fancy lighting that were still kept lit well into the morning. The unbelievably complex urban sprawl that allowed the city (actually a conglomerate of the main city and outlying cities) to occupy such a massive area, with the sophistication of infrastructure and social class becoming ever more gilded and fancy the closer they got to the city's heart being apparent even from the sky. They even spotted some tall buildings that stood out from the rest—command centers of companies from the western regions that have chosen to set up shop in Altaras.

The wyvern riders, who were both from Esthirant, could only compare the beautiful Altaran capital to what they thought was the richest city in the east.

"Wow... Was it ever this big? It's nothing like the maps during the briefings..."

"It's your first time here, huh? With how the war's going, you'll get used to it."

As their wyverns glided domineeringly over the city, the riders took in the breathtaking scope of Le Brias with their eyes. Their eyes zigzagged around as if to burn the particulars in their memories, but as they did, one of them stumbled on a peculiar sight at the northern extremity of the city.

"Oh?"

Amidst the dense urbanized blocks of buildings was a wide area of about a few tacour (1 tacour = ~2.6km) across that only had a long, flat paved road in it that ran in the southwest-northeast axis. The rider immediately recognized that it was the Le Brias Airfield (though officially, "King Taara XIII Airfield") mentioned in previous briefings, a type of port that facilitated the entry and exit of aircraft; Esthirant, too, has one, but it isn't as big or as busy as Le Brias's looked like it was.