Skyguard: Department of Strategization
Skyguard: High Command lost
Invidia could not understand what she had found inside the Command Post. She had thought they stopped the Sky Pirates in time. The Hero told her to stay outside, warning that service would offer more than enough chances to see such carnage. It appeared that the entire High Command had been gathered there. With its leaders dead, the Hero called the remaining captains together.
Captain Elyria challenged the report: those officers had been capable of defending themselves. Invidia confirmed that she had discovered the bodies. Captain Griko accepted the word of Stratos’s aide, though he bluntly told her that a future captain would have to become tougher. The Hero turned the gathering toward its urgent task. The pirates were massing for an invasion across Lore, and the fleet needed a plan.
Skyguard: the remaining fleet launches
Captain Jaena urged an immediate launch before the enemy could begin its attacks. Elyria would lead aboard the Gilded Lily, with the Angel Wing and White Lion guarding the rear. Someone still had to protect the documents, munitions, and artillery at the Department of Strategization. The Hero accepted that duty while Griko sent the remaining ships into Formation Epsilon.
Across Lore, the threat was becoming an invasion. Pirate airships carried barrels overhead, and explosions struck a dock, a portal plaza, a town street, and an elevated stone path. The ships had left the Hero and Invidia to hold the department, and the pirates soon reached its interior as well. Invidia called out the warning. The Hero answered for Lore and the Skyguard Fleet, preparing to defend the resources left in their care.
Skyguard: alarm codes and a pirate map
Invidia warned that the department held state secrets and powerful, secret weapons intended to annihilate Chaos. The Hero first needed to clear fifteen nearby invaders to give the defenders time to regroup. The next priority was an alarm. Pirates had stolen its codes, and without a warning the rest of the fleet would not know the department had been invaded. The Hero had to recover the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon codes and activate the alarms in the proper sequence, turning their lights from white to red.
The next target was the Dravir SkyPirate Sergeant directing the assault from the roof. Invidia hoped that removing him would leave the rest of the invaders without direction and make them easier to overcome. She then urged the Hero to trace the pirates to their source. Their maps were reportedly torn into five pieces so that no single pirate could betray the hideout; the Hero’s task was to recover the fragments and assemble the route.
Skyguard: papers taken to the sky
The raid also produced a chase assignment. Pirates had stolen vital secret documents, and Invidia called on the Hero to pursue them with the skeleton crew aboard the Phereless. The fleeing pirates would drop bombs at the pursuing ship. The mission was to avoid those obstacles and return with the papers before the attackers finished taking over the department.
Invidia also offered a separate challenge to a Hero whose reputation was already widespread: defeat a hundred Sky Pirates and earn the rewards of that prowess. Her praise for such a victory was enthusiastic. The offer stood alongside the immediate defense and the hunt for the hideout, another chance to reduce the swarm of invaders.
Skyguard: a summons from Alteon
A courier brought a message from King Alteon. At the Hoverbase, a courier also sought the captain. Invidia quieted the messenger because the captain was sleeping. She promised that he would keep his appointment with the king. When the Hero reported to Alteon, the news was grim: pirates had begun attacking locations across Lore, apparently under a servant of Drakath. The king demanded to know where Stratos was.
The captain arrived breathless, apologizing for his delay. Alteon, interrupted by coughing and wheezing, insisted that he could not be unavailable now that the rest of High Command was gone. The captain proposed assigning Jens, a promising new recruit, to the castle so royal messages could reach him directly. Alteon invoked his knowledge of the captain’s parents and placed the kingdom’s hopes in him and the Hero.
Skyguard: the captain takes command
The captain promised to be present wherever Chaos was strongest and the danger greatest. His manner troubled the Hero, who asked whether he was all right. He insisted he was fine, then spoke of plans he had set in motion before correcting himself to say that they were shared plans. With High Command gone, he offered to oversee the entire Skyguard personally, subject to the king’s permission.
Alteon agreed and told the Hero to convey his wishes to the other captains. The newly empowered captain then declared that Chaos would overcome. The Hero questioned the wording, and he hastily explained that he had meant Chaos would be overcome. Blaming eagerness for the mistake, he excused himself to make plans.
Skyguard: orders from the Master
Later, at the SkyPirate Base, Invidia’s private conversation exposed her allegiance. She addressed the captain as Master and praised the decision to place Jens at the castle. Their recruits had instructions, she said, and Jens would do exactly what was needed. The arrangement presented to Alteon as a way to improve communication also served their own organization.
Invidia warned that the Hero had discovered the location of the pirate hideout and began to ask whether they should warn its occupants. The Master refused. She declared her pride in serving the Master and boasted that the Hero suspected nothing. In her view, both the Skyguard and the Sky Pirates would now run as efficiently as he desired.