Scouting

Captain Jone looked at me with serious look on his face, i could tell by the looks of it that he has some important stuff to do with me. Heavy boots echoed trough the main hall of the ship as Jone moved closer and closer towards me, Jone's leather boots stopped making sounds when he stood right in front of me.

"Sparrow would you be interested in going down to Zelos town?"

He asked me and waited patiently for my answer even though i didn't do much patrolling in my years of service, i always liked the idea of patrolling trough some city or town. Idea of being in charge and having some name behind yourself as patrol men or guard always ringed inside my head in positive way.

"Of course Captain Jones."

Jone's face turned out brighter than before, seems like he expected of me to refuse or doubt his offer.

"Very well then, here grab this before i start explaining the rest"

He grabbed a medium sized wooden crossbow behind his back which i totally missed to notice, even if it was a simple wooden crossbow, it had pretty markings and metallic outline over it making it much fancier than usual.

"That's mine crossbow which i made all by myself to use, i want you to have it since i think you are the best person to use it."

I was surprised by Captain's words, i never knew that he can craft stuff like this. I extended my arms and grabbed a crossbow and bolt pouch from both of his hands, bolts were made out steel with academic markings on them.

"This is amazing, thank you Captain!"

Captain Jone was pleased with my response as he patted my shoulder for a moment until he got into more firm stance.

"Now that we got that clear, I should start explaining your mission."

I confirmed and held my crossbow along with bolts in my hands since i couldn't store them anywhere at the moment.

"Our flock will take a rest ten kilometers behind town of Zelos, but one of the smaller airships of ours will escort you and couple of other people i've chosen to investigate the town. At first i though of sending more airships but decided not to since the town itself may be in enemy hands right now."

Then quick silence entered between us, i never did stealth operations before so it made me a little nervous. Entering supposedly occupied territory on ground could be pretty bad idea but there's no going back now since i already accepted an offer and even gotten myself a gift as token of gratitude.

"The one leading this operation will be Miller, a newly appointed captain in the academy. He will explain the rest to you, your crew is waiting inside armory room so go on and join them."

As the sentence finished Captain Jone waved and walked away, i stood there for a moment thinking about how this could end badly since captain is inexperienced. But my doubting thoughts stopped as i smiled and shook my head, i was inexperienced once so doubting newly appointed captain won't do any good to either me or him.

I turned back to hallway doors and headed towards armory room where the rest of crew should be awaiting. Doors of armory opened and i could see fourteen other men standing there now looking straight at me, one of them with brown hair and long moustaches came up to me and greeted me.

"You must be Sparrow right?"

A strong and firm voice spoke to me, a relatively tall man stood before me waring black robes and cloak on him. His hands were protected by metallic armor, he extended his arm and offered me a handshake which i gladly accepted.

"Yes i am, nice to meet you."

My politeness seemed to please this mysterious man as he smiled and shook my hand, i looked around for a moment and could see others having positive looks on them which made me at ease, looks like i found a good crew.

"I am Captain Miller, a newly appointed captain i will be leading you all here on this stealth mission."

Sudden flashback of Jone telling me about new Captain Miller flashed trough me and i began scanning the man, i wanted to see and remember his looks precisely.

"Now Sparrow judging by your appearance i see that you need an armor, Mike get him a lighter armor from that box over there."

He pointed out to a short green haired man with blue eyes who stood back in the corner, a man named Mike grabbed couple of armor from the box and came closer to me. 

"Here you go."

I grabbed piece of armor set from his hands and started inspecting them, there's one armor piece for shoulders, one for knees and one for hands like the rest of them had. I quickly began putting it on and after couple of minutes i was ready.

"Oh and here take this."

Captain Miller gave me backpack where i could finally store my crossbow and bolts for it, on my left side steel sword was sheathed and i was finally ready for this mission. Everyone glanced towards me and then Captain Miller spoke.

"Our escort ship should arrive any second now, let's go."

Entire squad of us fifteen began walking towards Aura's entrance doors, once we got there we could see rest of the ship's crew standing still in formation between doors. 

"Good luck on your mission soldiers!"

Loud voices of Aura's crew stormed the ship and we began walking towards door, i felt strong sense of pride and hopefulness from such amazing send off, i felt like a hero who's marching towards battlefield. Doors opened and we could see little larger scout airship flying in pace with Aura, all of us entered the ship and Aura's door closed behind us.

Our escort ship moved off from Aura and fastened it's pace towards town of Zelos, in meantime we all sat down on the deck, some of us watched as Sun slowly started to set and blue sky turned yellow. Silence broke as Captain Miller clapped his hands for everyone to focus on him, he carried a backpack on his left hand and pulled some kind of scroll from it.

"Okay everyone time to explain our current goal and current situation of the town."

Everyone gazed directly at Miller and anticipated his next words, sky breeze moved past me and i could start smelling more and more that fresh cold night air.

"Our current goal is to find a hideout with a good view on the town and scout it in search for any enemies lurking, when our ship's drops us we will be left on our own so we all need to stick together and survive this in easiest way possible."

Everyone nodded to Captain's words as he finished his little speech except one person, i looked right of me and could see one of crewmates wearing black cloak and robes just like Miller, that man stood up and raised a question.

"Wouldn't be better if we head straight to town instead of wasting our time and resources into building temporary hideout?"

Shady and deep voice spoke with clear rebellious tone at Miller, beneath man's hood could be seen strong cunning face of a man in his middle ages with silver hair an red eyes. Just by looking at him i could smell trouble.

"Sorry but i forgot your name soldier, may you repeat me your name again?"

Captain Miller sound mildly annoyed but remained his composure, disobedient subordinates were always the problem for inexperienced captain's.

"Heh what kind of Captain are you if you can't even remember one name."

That silver haired man laughed at Miller's question and mocked him, making Miller more annoyed but still Miller held to his professionalism and remained calm. Everyone around looked at each other and at the rude middle aged man who couldn't seem to act up to his years and profession.

"Ferdal watch your tongue as you can get behind the bars for such behavior, even though chairman Francis recommended you, you don't have any privilege to act the way you do."

Hearing Miller's words man gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, he stood up and everyone else prepared to stand up and defend the captain. But instead of attack a man just sat down once again seemingly calming himself and looked down the wooden ship's floor.

Thinking back i couldn't remember any title inside academy called chairman nor any man named Francis, that means that he came after Athena took control over it. Thinking this i began to worry for destiny of academy since the date of rebellion was coming closer and closer, even if Athena is defeated i fear that due to her bad ruling, she let in some untrustworthy people who seek only their personal benefit.

My sudden thoughts stopped as Ship made sounds of releasing air and began descending down the sky, everyone checked their equipment once more and then patiently waited for ship to descend.