Aetherian(Part 1): A War Begins

Torinn

 At night, the Alessian soldiers mounted spotlights on Meridian's walls in an attempt to expose the Draconians and mercenaries if they ever tried to sneak up to the city's walls.

"Adorable," Satoru mocked, then he waved a few of his blue armored soldiers to him, all armed with long weapons with barrels as long as their height called beam rifles. The mercenaries knelt down in the trenches and aimed them at the spotlights above the storm drain in the wall, firing powerful beams of light that blew them apart, giving Torinn, Caira, Satoru, and Michio the chance to rush to the drain in the wall.

"How many men are inside the wall?" asked Caira, as Torinn lifted her to the drain.

"It shouldn't be too many," Michio assured. "I hope."

"You hope?" said Torinn, lifting Michio into the drain.

"Yes, I hope," Michio repeated, as Torinn lifted Satoru up. All three of them had to drag Torinn into the tube.

"I could do without the smell," he complained.

"What smell?" asked Caira, as they started to crawl through the drain. "I don't smell anything." Torinn wasn't surprised by that since Draconians had a more acute sense of smell than humans did. What Torinn smelled through the tunnel was foul and strong.

"You will smell it soon enough," he said.

"Why don't we get through it, instead," Michio suggested.

"Good idea," agreed Torinn. They soon came to a split in the tunnel. Torinn sniffed down one way through his nose, and it had the scent of human blood, where the other one didn't.

"The left," he said.

"You're sure?" asked Caira.

"The scent of human blood is a giveaway," Torinn assured.

"Oh, right," agreed Caira, and they went down the left tunnel. Soon, they arrived at a caged opening that led to a the barracks, with a dozen bunk beds lining both walls.

"This is the place," said Satoru, kicking the grille from the wall. The large piece of metal made a loud crashing sound.

"Will you keep it down?" Caira warned, drawing her icy rapier. "Come on, now." Outside of the barracks were a dozen soldiers of Alessia, marching to the wall, and on their side of the wall was a tall tower with what looked like a control center at the top.

"That is our target," said Michio. "The gate controls should be up there."

"How will we get up there unnoticed?" asked Torinn. "You said there were only a few."

"Yeah, a few dozen," said Satoru. Once the column of soldiers had marched past them, they crept across the field to hide behind another barrack. Torinn drew a huge greataxe with a glass blade as he eyed a sniper with a beam rifle at the top of the control tower.

"We have a problem," he said.

"That's a bit of an understatement," agreed Caira. "We were lucky to get this far."

"And how will we get further?" asked Torinn.

"We'll have to take down the watchtowers," said Michio. "Kill the sentries."

"Hmm," hummed Torinn. "It will cause a diversion."

"Very well," agreed Caira, then she looked around the corner of the barrack, and eyed the two small watchtowers that stood on one side of the control tower, and two more that stood on the other side.