Casualties of War

Jack marched into the command tent. He stopped in front of the Lieutenant's desk, straightened his back, and saluted "Private Second Class Nash, reporting as ordered!"

The Lieutenant looked up from his map, gave a half-hearted salute, and said "At ease, Private."

Jack placed his hands behind his back and focused his gaze on the Lieutenant. 10 minutes ago his Corporal woke him up and said that the Lieutenant had something he wanted to talk to him. He never spoke to the Lieutenant one on one before so he felt a little nervous.

"Your superior says you're good with tech, Private. That true?" the Lieutenant asked as he took out a surveillance drone and its controller out of a drawer from his desk and placed it on the map while nodding slightly at Jack to take it.

Jack hesitated for a second, then extended his hands and took it. He gave it a quick preliminary inspection and said "Standard mini-drone. Not much smaller than the ones I used home." He looked back at the Lieutenant and asked "Does it need repairs? I might be able to figure something out in time, but it'd be easier to just requisition a new one from home, Sir."

A chuckle escaped the Lieutenant's lips as he said "I have no doubt that if I requisitioned a hundred of them we'd have them here by tomorrow, what I'm missing is people who know how to work the damned things. That last ambush took out our surveillance team and the boys back home still haven't sent us a new one after numerous requests."

The Lieutenant stood up from his chair and went to the other side of the desk to stand next to Jack; he leaned slightly on the desk with hands crossed in front of his chest as he said "Show me how well you operate that thing. If you perform well enough I might have an assignment for you."

Jack felt a shock of excitement course through his body as he nodded and turned on the surveillance drone through the controller. A dragonfly-like drone rose from its protective casing and hovered around the command tent, without making any sound. Jack could see everything the drone recorded on the screen of the controller in his hands.

The Lieutenant bent his head over the controller and said with a wave towards the outside "Go ahead, give it a spin."

Jack nodded and made the drone zip out of the command tent and into the encampment. It flew through the tents and soldiers without alerting anyone and then flew out to the outskirts where soldiers on guard duty stood. No one noticed the little dragonfly drone as it zipped around them and then returned to the command tent.

The Lieutenant slapped Jack on the back as he said "Nice work, Private." He straightened up from the desk and went back to his chair while Jack landed and turned the drone off.

Jack placed the drone back on the desk and returned to his 'at ease' position because he saw that the Lieutenant wanted to tell him something official.

"Do you remember Jabal, Private?" asked the Lieutenant as he pointed at a small settlement of a few thousands of people on his map of the local area.

Jack nodded his head and said "Yes, Sir. Nice people." With fond remembrance of the friendly people that helped them out when they dragged their tired platoon into their home.

The Lieutenant nodded his head in response and said "They're about to get raided by the enemy." He moved his finger down the main road leading into Jabal "From what our intel tells me, they're going straight down the main road and should get there by tonight." He looked up at Jack with cold eyes and continued "You will take that surveillance drone and record everything they do once they get there."

Jack stood stunned for a second, then asked "We're not going to help them, Sir?"

The Lieutenant slowly shook his head as he said "Of course we're going to help them, but first we'll show the folks back home what happens when we don't help."

Jack felt his fingernails dig into his palms behind his back as he asked "Sir, may I ask why?"

The Lieutenant looked Jack up and down before he asked "You're what? 19, 20? Do you want to spend the next 10 years of your life playing hide and seek in these mountains?" He stood up without giving Jack a chance to respond as he started pacing behind his desk while he spoke "The public back home is getting cold feet about this whole war business just as we need their support the most. They're too distant from this, too detached from the suffering. We will show them what happens if we take a step back and allow the enemy to exist."

He stooped as he turned his burning gaze to Jack "Do you understand me now, Private?"

Jack stood frozen for a second, then slowly rose his hand in a salute and said "Yes, Sir!"

The Lieutenant nodded and pointed at the drone "Good. Take that and get prepped for your mission. We're moving out in 10."

Jack saluted once more, grabbed the drone, and walked out of the tent.

The world crumbled around him.

Jack woke up in pain. His whole body hurt, from his toes to his scalp, but he pushed through it and moved slowly to sit up and stretch.

From what he could see and feel, he lay on a hard cot in a small dark room. He touched his ribs gingerly and felt something wrapping them, but he couldn't find the pouch with his sling. He slowly felt his way around the room as he followed a wall towards something that looked like a door.

When he touched the door lightly it started to tilt forwards and, before Jack could do anything, it slammed down onto the stony ground with a loud *BANG* in the quiet night air.

Jack stood frozen in the doorway for a second before he heard movement from all around him. He stepped out of his little room and saw at least a dozen of almost identical ones to the right and left of him.

Doors started sliding open as numerous teenagers in various states of undress and drowsiness popped their heads out to see what happened.

When they figured out that Jack made the noise they started grumbling and went back to their sleep. Jack heard things like "It's always the new guy." and "I give him a week." thrown in with the general complaints.

Only the oldest-looking of the teenagers came up to Jack and said in a calm voice "Follow me." He turned around and started walking away.

Jack stared at his back for a couple of seconds, then hurried as much as he could after the young man. During their trip, he tried to ask the young man some questions, but all he only got "All of your questions will be answered soon." in response, so he closed his mouth and followed down the dark winding path.

After 10 minutes, Jack saw a large wooden arc behind which stood a large courtyard and a vast wooden building that stretched out into the night.

The young man took Jack through the arc and into the courtyard, where he stopped, clasped his hands in front of himself, and bowed down.

Jack almost ran into his back when he stopped abruptly. He started to ask "Wha…" when the young man hissed out of the corner of his mouth "Be quiet and wait for the Elder to invite us in."

Jack closed his mouth, copied the young man's pose, and waited.

Almost a couple of hours later, as the first light of dawn started to appear on the horizon, and Jack almost sweated through his clothes from the pain of his injuries, a door on a side-building of the estate slid open.

The young man headed for the open door and Jack followed in his footsteps.

The room they entered had things that looked like bookshelves filling up all of the wall space, except for the door they entered through and another one standing at the back of the room. Only, what filled the shelves weren't books, but rolls of paper neatly arranged in square holes.

In the middle of the room stood a large wooden desk filled to the brim with stacked up scrolls, and behind it, a man that looked almost 40 years old sat and read a scroll spread in front of him by candlelight.

Jack walked in and stopped in front of the desk; he copied the young man's salute and bowed down deeply with his hand clasping his fist while he kept his eyes on the ground.

They stayed bowed like that for a couple of minutes before the man rolled up his scroll and looked up at them. Jack let out a small sigh of relief when the young man started to straighten up.

The young man started talking as soon as he straightened his back "Disciple greets Elder Yu. I have brought the new servant as soon as he woke up, as you have instructed."

The older man, Elder Yu, nodded his head as he said "Good job, Angliang. Please wait outside."

The young man, Angliang, bowed once more and left the room without saying another word. The door closed by itself behind him.

Elder Yu looked at Jack and said "Song Tanda, is it? They tell me you can see spirit energy." Out of nowhere, the entire room turned into a world of grayness.

Jack couldn't see anything except for dense clouds of gray floating around him. He didn't dare to move around and only turned his head a bit.

As abruptly as it appeared, the grey world disappeared and Jack returned to the dim, musty room.

Elder Yu had a slight smile on his face as he said "Not bad. I can use this." almost as if talking to himself. He picked out a scroll from the heap on his desk and spread it in front of himself.

With a writing brush in hand, he asked Jack "Now, tell me where exactly you are from, and what unfortunate series of events caused you to end up in my care?"

Even though Elder Yu kept his eyes on the scroll in front of him, Jack could sense his full attention hanging on Jack's shoulders like a mountain. He had no choice but to take a deep breath and repeat the story he told the Young Master.

When Jack finished his retelling, Elder Yu kept mumbling to himself "Raging Ox and Fallen Crow village? Should be able to find them. Hopefully, not all the resentful spirits dissipated." as he wrote things down on the scroll.

After over 15 minutes since he finished his story, Jack felt that he had to do something, or else his legs would buckle and make him crash onto the floor. He slowly, and with some pain, raised a hand into the air.

It took a few more seconds of mumbling for Elder Yu to figure out that Jack had moved.

He looked up from his scroll and said in bewilderment "You are still here? Why do you have an arm raised? Go away; Du Angliang will explain your duties to you." as he said that the door through which Jack entered slid open and let in the morning sunlight.

Jack quickly lowered his hand down, bowed as Du Angliang had shown him before, and started walking towards the door.

After a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and, with an embarrassed and slightly frightened look in his eyes, raised his hand once more.

Elder Yu caught his movement immediately this time as his brows furrowed a little while he snapped "What?"

Jack took a deep breath, exhaled it, and asked "Lord, why did they kill everyone in the villages?"

Ever since he saw the pile of burning bodies that question kept spinning around in his head.

Elder Yu's brows relaxed as a slightly malicious smirk spread across his face while he said "Everyone knows that you have to step on a few ants while you walk down the road of cultivation."

Jack burned that image of Elder Yu into his brain as he once again bowed deeply and left the room through the opened door.