Sitting on her mattress, Jayden stares at the alarm clock as the time steadily ticks closer and closer to when she’s supposed to awaken. She yawns, rubs at the bags forming under her eyes and runs her fingers through her hair. Awaken. Ha. She’d actually have to have slept for that.

She glances out the window as the cavern lighting begins to change from dull blue to orange, one strip at a time like a bad attempt at a sunrise.

The alarm blares. She turns it off.

Today’s the big day.

#

"You have your-"

"Yes."

"And you didn’t forget to take your-"

"No."

"But what about your-"

Jayden groans, palming her face in frustration for a long moment before turning to face her parents with a small scowl, "Mum, dad - relax. I’m serious. I have all my things, I ate breakfast, I took my meds - if you keep me any longer Shaefer’s gonna have my arse for showing up late on the first day."

Her mother’s brows furrow; her father frowns.

"Oh for-" Jayden says, pinching her brow, "It’s just a standard Messanger Retrieval Mission. We’re just ferrying the guy across No Man’s Land - that’s it. We’re not going to the Forbidden Forest, we’re not communing with any fae and the likihood we’ll be playing catch and kiss with the Chimera is next to nil - it’s migration season. So relax. Seriously. With my luck we’ll be done by lunch and I’ll be regailing you with tales of how boring the whole thing was - okay?"

Her mother frowns for a long moment, sharing a look with her father before finally slumping her shoulders in defeating and stepping away from the front door.

"You’re right, we’re sorry. We’re just-"

"Worried. I know," Jayden replies, unable to stop the small smile forming on her lips, "Love you too - now I really have to go. Later, guys."

"Oh! Don’t forget your-"

"Bye!"

#

Stepping into the elevator, Jayden barely suppresses a grunt as some random shoves her to the side in a last ditch attempt to stuff as many people into the thing as possible. She barely manages to force her way to the window before the elevator takes off, shooting for the surface at an almost dizzying pace.

Her hands find the hand rail and grip tightly. Give her a glider and a 50m drop and she’s fine - stick her in a cramped metal box with a bunch of idiots and her survival hanging on a shitty pully system and it’s a whole other story.

She blanches as it draws to a stop at the Level 3 terminal, and gives a silent thanks to the gods as all the fucking Riders step out. Air and personal space, you have been missed.

She barely notices someone slide up to her left until they clear their throat, and even then they have to do it twice before she’s turning her head to greet them.

The greeting falls flat before it’s even begun.

"Hyland," she grunts instead, turning her gaze back to the elevator’s metal wall.

"Kaine," he replies, turning to face the rest of the elevator, "Um. Good luck."

Jayden snorts, pushing away from the wall and turning her gaze to the rest of the room.

"Don’t need luck for this one, private," she replies, bored, "Just patience."

#

The Launch Tower is just as Jayden pictured it back in Military School. Steel walls, a variety of instructional posters along the walls, a generally bland interior - she’s been in lecture halls more interesting than this. Then again, this isn’t a launch point, it’s not like they’d have dragon glass lining the whole place. That shit’s rare.

"-as you all know, today’s mission is your standard messanger run. Those who’ve been with us for a while have done this a hundred times, those who’ve just graduated - I’m sure you’re more than familiar with the procedure," Lieutenant Rivera states, smirking, "I’m sure it’s needless to say that unless there is a chimera sighting, you are to stay grounded in your bays at all times. Any fae threats will be met and dealt with by the riders, so don’t try and play hero from the skies - you’re more than likely going to get shot down."

Rivera pauses for a moment, hands behind her back.

"Before I dismiss you, Jayden Kaine - step forward," Rivera barks.

Jayden stiffens, immediately disentangling herself from the crowd, "Yes, ma’am?"

"Due to a recent casualty we’re a squad leader short. I’ve heard good things about you, so I’m leaving you in charge of the rookies until we find a suitable replacement. Good?"

Jayden’s lips part, and she blinks for a moment before responding, "Uh, yes ma’am. I’ll do my best."

"Good," Rivera states, before turning on her heel and sending the room a dismissive wave, "Gliders, you should all be aware of your allocated launch points by now - if not, now is the time to check your tablets. Squad leaders, with me, the rest of you - dismissed."

#

Rikard takes a moment to compose himself as he steps into the male changerooms, dufflebag in hand containing his flight suit and glider containment key. As the other boys in the room talk about this and that, he swiftly makes his way over to the nearest bench and begins stripping himself of his military jacket.

The sooner he changed, the sooner he could get out of here.

"-if I hadn’t tripped on that beep test, I’m telling you, I would’ve had a fast track to kicking fae arse on ground with the rest of the riders. But no, I don’t get to fly about on the sweetest pair of skates in Change, I get given a glider key and a guaranteed ticket to an early demise," one guy complains, throwing his jacket aside and pulling out his own flight suit from his bag.

"Chill, Evans - we can’t all get what we want," his friend replies, pulling off his own jacket, "Play your cards right and you’ll make it through conscription, piece of cake."

"Yeah, tell that to the ’recent casualty’ that got Kaine promoted to squad leader," Evans sneers, "Bad enough that bitch got valedictorian, but now she’s getting a promotion too? Fuck that."

Rikard frowns, zipping up his flight suit and sitting down to pull on his boots.

"You’re just salty she’s been handing your arse to you since day one," his friend snorts, "She’s a good glider, let it go."

"She’s a dumb bitch, more like," Evans grunts, scowling.

Rikard slips his blade into it’s pouch, activates his flight gauntlets and secures his ankle jets in place with a thin scowl. What he’d give to be able to cross the room and deck Evans right now like Jayden would, honestly.

He looks up at the wrong time and catches the jerk glaring at him with a sneer, beady eyes narrow into slits.

"Problem, Hyland?" Evans growls.

Rikard swallows, debates for a moment the pros and cons of marching across the room to give the jerk a piece of his mind... before gritting his teeth and turning his gaze back to the ground.

Evans snorts, "Yeah, that’s what I thought. Freak."

Brows furrowed and eyes squeazed shut, Rikard takes a moment to breathe before shoving his jacket into his duffle bag and exitting the room. He’s not worth it.

#

"As we know, the life of a glider is a dangerous one, so it is your job as squad leaders to ensure the safety of your squadrons at all costs," Lieutenant Rivera states, takes a moment to really drill the point in by making eye contact with everyone in the room, "It may be migration season right now, but that doesn’t make today’s mission any less dangerous than launching in the middle of hunting season. The chimera could return to the mountains at any time, so you need to be vigilant. That being said, you are to stay grounded unless I give the order - is that understood?"

Jayden salutes alongside her fellow gliders, "Yes, ma’am."

"Good. The riders launch at 0700, so you have fifteen minutes to get your squads ready and in position. Dismissed."

#

As the elevator doors open to reveal Launch Point 07, Jayden can’t help but gawk a little at how awesome the place looks. It still has the same of metal walls and flooring as the rest of the facility, but in the place of boring fliers and steel doors, the walls are adorned with various screens and panels giving an overall view of the bland nothingness of No Man’s Land and the multitude of launch points scattered along the mountainside above the city. On top of that, the far wall is comprised entirely of the ethereal-looking dragon glass, the one thing known to man that can keep out any mythical beast - it’s impenetrable. It’s beautiful. It’s distracting.

"Well if it ain’t the new team captain," Isaac barks from the front, grinning toothily with his arms wide, "Promotion on the first day - you’re a true brute, Jayde!"

Jayden snorts, grinning back and crossing the room to let the jerk pull her in for a tight hug.

"Thanks, fly boy."

"Hey, as a bonefied glider I think it’s time to stop walking all over my dreams girl," Isaac laughs, "After all, they’ve already come true!"

"Your priorities are whack," Jayden replies, rolling her eyes as Isaac bursts into laughter.

She shakes her head fondly and makes her way to the front of the room. They can goof off later.

"Alright, attention everybody!" Jayden calls out, banging on the dragon glass with his gaunlet for added effect, "We’ve got ten minutes until the gates open so I’m gonna make this quick. This is not a simulation, this is not a drill, this is not an underground test flight - this is the real deal. When these gates open, we’re going to be exposed to the real world for the first time. That air is going to be unfiltered, natural air coming from real god damned trees and with those real god damned trees comes a very real chance of coming face to fact with some very real god damned chimeras. You think they were freaky in the sim? That’s gonna be nothing.

That being said, it is migration season, so before you guys have a heart attack it is just as likely we’ll be spending the next hour bored out of our minds," Jayden grins, earning a couple of chuckles from the group, "Now I’m not going to pretend I’ve been out there and fought these things before, but since we’ve all, at some point in time, nailed that damned simulator to the ground, I think it’s safe to say that we have the training, we have the experience and we have the god damned grit to take these ugly motherfuckers out! Are you with me, or are you fucking with me?"

"Oh, we’re fucking with you alright," One of the girls shouts from the back, causing the room to erupt in laughter. Jayden flips her off with a wide grin.

"You know what I mean, you ass," she laughs, before shooing them with both hands, "Now get those gliders on and get into position, we’ve still got... eight minutes until launch, so move it!"

The room erupts with a cheer before everyone scatters to do a final maintenance check of their flight gear. Jayden grins to herself as Isaac trips in an attempt to grab both of his ankle boosters at the same time.

Idiot.

#

Jayden watches one of the larger screens as the riders below get into formation, each batallion four wide and twelve deep - standard for a dead zone launch. The clock in the corner ticks closer and closer to the moment the gates open.

She raises her gauntlet and runs a final systems check to pass the time. Two minutes to go, and counting.

Her eyes flicker to the screen just in time to see Kate slip into the back of the third batallion. She smirks to herself, brow cocked.

"Figures they’d stick the rookies in the middle," Isaac grunts from her side, startling her momentarily, "Leaves enough room for the older guys to pick up the slack."

Jayden blinks for a moment, before snorting and turning to face the dragon glass - and consequently, the room.

"Mm, true," she agrees, "I’m almost jealous - even if it’s an easy run they still get to get out there for a bit. Worst case scenario we’re just perched up here like birds for the whole thing."

Isaac barks out a laugh and gives her a good natured pat on the back, "Only you would complain if the mission went well."

"Yeah, well," Jayden grunts, arms folded, "Sitting around’s boring."

The speakers crackle to life as a loud beep echoes throughout the room for several seconds, followed by two shorter beeps and a loud silence. The cadets in the room begin making their way to their marks, gliding packs fit snuggly to their backs and gear securely in place.

"It’s showtime," Isaac laughs, shooting Jayden a quick salute before taking his own place in the front row. Jayden rolls her eyes and makes her way to the front of the room, ignoring the confirmation beep from her gauntlet as she takes her place in front of the dragon glass.

One long beep and two short beeps. They’re about to open the gates.

In corner of her eye, she watches the other batallions on screen moving into position. Four across, four deep - the glider’s standard. The speakers crackle. once more, releasing two long beeps and one short beep. Jayden’s grin widens as she slips into position - two hands on the ground, one knee bent, and one leg extended. The clock changes from 0659 to 0700 and the final noise blares, three long beeps, and the room erupts in a whirr of noise as the gates’ release is signalled.

The dragon glass begins to rise, inch by inch as it retracts into the ceiling like one big, ethereal-looking garage door. Wind rushes into the room, causing her pants to lightly flap around from where they’re tucked into her boots and holy shit-

The view is stunning.

She barely notices the glass wall finish it’s ascent into the ceiling as she takes in the vast dome surrounding the ground level of the city, the light reflectling off it’s surface like a sunset would off of the ocean. Beyond it lay the city walls, connecting the dome to the surface, and No Man’s Land - a dead zone of nothing but cracked earth dividing the mountain range from the forest by at least a kilometer. 

"Whoa," one of the other soldiers, Holmes, gasps from beside her, "I heard the dome was big but- whoa."

"That’s a lot of dragon glass," someone else says, awed.

"How’d they even fashion that much without getting eaten?"

"I dunno."

"Lean any closer to the edge and you’re gonna fall off," Isaac snorts in her ear, startling Jayden enough to jump away from the edge that she’d- holy shit, she almost walked off the launch point.

"Isaac!"

"What? It’s true," Isaac laughs, stepping back into line despite the several other cadets all battling for their first look at the view.

Jayden rolls her eyes and steps beside him, taking a moment to just breathe it in - fresh, unfiltered air; amazing - before falling back into formation.

"What I’d give to be out there right now," she hums.

"Don’t jinx it, Kaine," someone shouts from behind.

Jayden snorts and waves them off, "Kidding, kidding."

#

The clock ticks 0800; Jayden groans.

"This is taking forever," she all but whines, legs hanging off the edge of the launch point, weight leaning against her arms - bored, "It’s what - a kilometer of No Man’s Land down there? What’s taking them so long?"

"Messanger’s probably late," Gunston snorts from her left, fiddling with her gauntlet, "Either that or they’ve got fae problems."

"Figures," Jayden replies, folding her arms and transferring her weight onto her glider pack.

There’s a shuffle to her right as someone kneels beside her, but she doesn’t bother turning her head until they speak.

"Jayden," Hyland says, dark eyes glistening brown in the sunlight, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Jayden and Gunston share a look before she shrugs to herself and gets up, "Sure. What’s up?"

Hyland leads her over to the screens and gestures to one of the smaller ones on the bottom right. A camera facing towards the east, accross the valley. Jayden frowns.

"What am I looking at?"

Hyland seems to collect himself before gesturing to a small group of fluxuating pixels in the corner, flickering in and out of focus like a screen glitch. Jayden’s frown deepens.

"I noticed this about fifteen minutes ago," Hyland states, expressionless, "I just finished running a diagnostic test with my gauntlet - it’s not a glitch."

Jayden stares at the screen for a long moment, as the pixels flicker in and out of view periodically, almost like-

Wings.

"We need to launch, now," Jayden states, eyes wide as she pushes her way across the room, flicking down her visor and literally swinging herself outside of the launch point with nothing but her grip on a few wires and the mountain wall keeping her from falling to her doom.

"Jayden, what-?!"

"Are you crazy, Kaine?!"

"Damnit Jayden!"

She uses her free hand to activate the tracking system on her visor and aims herself towards the east, gritting her teeth against the wind’s chill as she narrows in on the very real figures flying in from the east.

"Get back inside, you idiot!"

They’re far enough away that she can’t identify them as anything more than brown flapping blobs just yet, but given the general speed and weight of the chimera... they’ve probably got fifteen minutes until they’re here. Twenty, if they’re lucky.

"Jayden, grab my hand!" Isaac shouts, arm extended from within the launch point with a pinched expression on his face. Jayden stays put for another long moment, before grimacing and accepting the help back inside.

"What the fuck-"

"Get into position, we’re getting ready to launch," Jayden announces, cutting of her friend with an apologetic squeeze to his shoulder before turning to Hyland with a grim expression, "You’re right, Camera 12’s been compromised. We’ve a chimera flock coming in from the east, E.T.A. fifteen minutes," she turns back to the room, a grim expression on her face, "If we launch now, we can delay them until the riders emerge from the forest."

"Wait- are you for real??"

"I thought it was just a glitch!"

"Jayden, you’re asking us to go on a suicide mission on our first day," Gunston states, quieting the room, "We should call this in!"

"Then call it in," Jayden barks, slipping into launch position and powering up her glider via her gauntlet, "We don’t have the time to sit around and wait for mission control to realise their cameras are shit. I’m launching, and I’m making sure those chimera don’t eat the ground force for breakfast!"

"Jayden-"

"My best friend’s down there, Hopkins," I growl at Isaac, pulling my flight goggles over my eyes, "You’re either with me, or you’re not."

"Oh for- You’re supposed to be our squad leader!" Evans shouts from the back, "Now ain’t the time to pull this hotheaded shit-"

"Glider launched."

The room freezes. Jayden slowly turns back around to see-

"Hyland?!" Someone barks, surprised, "What the fuck?"

Jayden’s jaw drops in surprise.

"Huh," she grunts, "Never thought I’d say this, but Hyland’s got balls."

"No kidding," Isaac agrees, looking just as shocked as the rest of them.

Jayden’s comm link sputters to life, startling her out of her reverie.

"If we’re doing this, we should do this now," Hyland says, voice sounding tinny through the headset.

"Right," she agrees after a moment, turning back to the room at large, "I’m not sure about you, but I’m not getting outclassed by the Free Choice cadet. Later."

"Jayden-"

Jayden grins, widely, before slipping under Isaacs arm and diving off the launch point; "Wahoo!"

The comm link crackles to life as Jayden releases her glider, narrowly missing the smooth edge of the dome by a rule width before she’s flying out in the open without a care in the world; "Launch Point 07! We’ve just recieved several launch notifications, what is going on?"

Jayden grins, pressing a few buttons on her gauntlet to power up the jets strapped to her ankles and making a sharp turn for the east. She activates her microphone before opening up the link.

"We’ve got multiple boggies coming in from the east," she shouts, grin widening at the sounds of several other members of her squadron activating their jets and following her flight path, "Camera 12’s been tampered with or it’s malfunctioning; either way we’re flying out to act as a distraction so the ground force can return home unharmed."

"Return to launch point, cadet. That’s an order-" 

"No can do," Jayden replies, smile giving way to a small frown as she cuts the connection. No point in keeping the comms open if it’s just going to be a repeating landing order.

Pulling up alongside Hyland, her frown deepens the chimera really start coming into focus. Thick, brown fur; large, black horns; massive, hulking wings - the textbooks weren’t kidding when they said they looked like giant, demented mutant cats.

Jayden glances at Hyland and the two exchange a look. 

This is going to be one hell of a fight.