I. A Breeze in Late Summer
"Sir, there's been a breech in the barrier wall."
Gwendal sighs. Of all the things he needs, especially after a morning like this one, he certainly doesn't need a breech in the barrier wall.
"Where?"
His assistant's eyes glaze over behind her glasses as she begins to trace along the edges of the barrier with her consciousness. Gwendal feels a little twinge of discomfort on the back of his mind, probably due more to being aware of her psychic presence on his wall than actually being able to sense it. Sensing was really never his job (or his forte). He was really only responsible for keeping the walls up.
"District 4, Quadrant 7. The breech is sizeable,"
District 4 Quadrant 7 sounds strikingly familiar. Too familiar.
"Which patrol is assigned to first responder?"
His assistant cringes and pushes her glasses further up her nose. "Unit 3 – 8, sir."
"God fucking –" he stops because it isn't really the assistant's fault that Wolfram's unit is responding to the first breech in the wall in eighteen years. "Get Units 2 -1 and 2 – 4 to join them immediately."
"Sir." She says affirmative with a quick nod of her head. She stands and hastily makes her way out of his office.
Not two minutes later, he feels a tug on his wavelength. With a flick of his hand, he wills a screen to project in front of him and connects Conrad through. It's been a long time since he's seen his brother looking so apprehensive.
"Suki told me the news." Suki? Oh, right, his assistant. "We're leaving shortly."
"We'll be online for back-up if you need it."
"Understood." Conrad makes to disconnect, but Gwendal stops him with a raised hand.
"Conrad."
"Yes?"
"Please make sure our younger brother doesn't accidently blow himself up."
…
Despite the rampant and nasty rumors, Wolfram von Bielefeld is not a lazy commander.
He imagines the vile gossip started due either to his rather mercurial temper or his bratty disposition as a child. He even suspects (when he can be convinced enough to care) that some of his past scorned admirers were fueling the fires (ahem), so to speak.
Be that as it may, Wolfram von Bielefeld is far from lazy. He takes the command of his unit very seriously and the security of Shin Makoko even more so. So despite his rather weak abilities in clairvoyance, he makes it a habit to maintain a constant surveillance of the wall.
He felt the breech hard and sharp between his eyes.
He and his unit were patrolling a rural quadrant in a rather rural district. The air was sharp with the coming fall, but the hills they cruised through were still green and fresh. Not even a mile away, a small farming town was preparing for autumn harvest and the subsequent festival.
He growls when he felt the breech. "von Dunn." He calls to a rather tall, wide-eyed brunette hanging at the back of his unit.
"Sir!" von Dunn responds as he jogs to meet his commander.
"I need you to jump us to a location on the wall." He allows a tendril of his conscious aura meet von Dunn's and transfers the essence of the breech location. "Can you handle the both of us?" von Dunn nods hesitantly.
"Sulleymann! Von Dunn and I are going ahead to the site of the breech. Follow immediately." Von Dunn doesn't watch as Sulleymann whisks his commander away. Despite his dearth in knowledge of the situation, von Bielefeld's second-in-command was rather sharp. More importantly, he values what un-singed hair he has left. He follows on their heels.