During the morning of the day after the demonstration, we were all in anticipation as Gavin prepared a force strong enough to attack the hive. The force was around the size of 200 with 150 of those being lightly armored fluffy and puffy volunteers, 46 being Talon knights and at last 4 being Flame Knights. The Location the Hive was under was referred to as The Mall Of America! And in less than an hour we would all be heading out first to meet up with Nuit’s scouting party than we head to the mall, we were with all the soldiers with all of us near the western gate with all of our things packed, we could see Gavin now coming from the Headquarters goes up to a podium and calls for all of our attentions and once he has it he begins to speak.
"I will begin by saying this for you all going and taking on this challenge I will make sure you’re names are never forgotten! I had scouting reports of the changelings preparing to launch a full scale counterattack so I ask of you to head there in haste. May we all be united in a quick prayer to the one and after that you may begin you’re journey.
All of the puffies (Including Jay) all kneeled down and closed their eyes muttering quietly amongst themselves, than a few seconds later they all got up and we were off.
Exiting Swab we began our long trek to meet up with the scouting party. Me and my family were in the middle of the army so I couldn’t see that much, marching along I couldn’t help but notice one of the puffies next to me was a Flame Knight. She wasn’t wearing their mask so I got a good look at her face with her being quite old and having dark feathers with a few red one at the back, wanting to knowing these Flame Knights better (And pass some time) I speak to her.
“Wiff aww of that equipment Souw knows we wiww be bictowious!”
She speaks in a stern but cracked voice without even looking at me.
“No need for compliments, I have complete confidence in victory!”
I felt myself feeling pretty awkward after that but then she turns her head at me and speak again.
“You’re name is Soul right? You’re the fluffy from Motor that helped defeat SteedHeart and broke the siege on The Garden. hmm? My name is Zaza if you were wondering.”
Zaza has a look of sadness and concern, and wondering what was wrong I speak.
“‘Ou wook upset am somethin’ wwong?”
Zaza sighs as she looks at me and speaks.
"You don’t realize don’t you? Soul look at everyone almost every single one of them has lost someone close, that’s why they have come to fight with us! Me I was actually retired before all of this… Before I lost them.
I speak.
“Wost who?”
Zaza looks up for a second at the cloudy sky as she speaks.
“Both of my sons, they died during the initial attack.”
Hearing this I feel sadness wash over me and offer Zaza a hug as I speak.
“Souw am sowwy I wost famiwy to, I know how it feews it bweaks 'ou.”
Zaza after hearing this gives me a hug than speaks.
“I’m am to sorry Soul. When we get there, where going to burn Chrysalis up and make her pay!”
As we continued walking we reached Nuit’s scouting party, they were located in a small discreet building with only around 10 knights with him. Once they all left Nuit was put n charge and spoke to all of us.
“We have to move quick, I think the changelings know where up to somethings and are preparing a large offensive as we speak! We must head to the mall at once and kill their Queen, it’s the only way to stop new changelings from being created!”
And not even a few seconds after Nuit speaks everyone is back on the move with us nearly 60% the way to the mall. As we walked I continued to speak to Zaza this time on the whole Flame Knight thing.
“How did dey make that fwame stick an’ awmow su fast?”
Zaza grins a bit at the flame stick comment and speaks.
“It’s called a flame thrower, and the reason we were able to make all of this so fast. Is that the archives under our headquarters contain hundreds of schematics that help create technology we use. The fuel for the flamethrower was a lot more tricky though, with how much was needed for our airship we were only able to construct a few. That’s the reason why there’s only 4 Flame Knights.”
I thought about this as we walked that was until finally, we were here.
The Mall Of America it was late afternoon when we got here. The stained concrete building stood tall, with all of it’s windows blasted out. Once heading inside the place was a mess, garbage littered the floor with bones of small critters all around us. I was surprised by the lack of changelings, were they really launching an all out attack? Going deeper inside the mall we saw the first signs of changeling activity, there were rows of beds lined up, with empty food trays and weapon racks. Investigating for a bit we came across a “war room” with a giant map of Chicago in it’s center with scribbled battle plans on it, also in the “war room” I saw sketches of Talon soldiers with scribbles showing weak points in their armor and another drawing showing some sort of shield, Nuit who also in the “war room” with us speaks.
“This confirms my suspicions, with nobody being here and all of these war plans the changelings are on the attack! C’mon we have to find the entrance!”
Refocused we continued our search, with the sky getting darker and darker we started lighting torches with me feeling a little tense. Than finally we found what were had been looking for, with a Hive banner marking it, we saw a dug out hole in the ground and looking down you only saw pitch black. I sighed and without hesitation we all slowly started marching down the hole. Into the Hive, into the dark heart. Fin
Thank you for reading my story! I hope to have the next part done in a few days, and of course constructive criticism is always appreciated. May you have a good day!