Chapter 176: Bavk at Camp

Chapter 176: Back at Camp

Noah had barely crossed the main courtyard when he noticed how different the camp felt. The buildings had not changed, but the students moving between them carried themselves differently from the ones who had left a month earlier.

Some returned in groups and talked loudly about successful missions. Others kept to themselves, carrying equipment bags toward the barracks without stopping to speak with anyone.

Near one of the dormitory blocks, Noah passed three students gathered beside a bench. One sat with his elbows resting on his knees while the other two stood nearby, unsure what to say.

"You can try again next month," one of them said.

The seated student looked up. "With what? Half my best units are gone."

His friend hesitated before replying. "I didn’t know it was that bad."

"It got worse before I pulled them out."

Noah continued walking before he heard the rest of the conversation. He had seen enough during his own mission to understand why the student did not want encouragement from someone who had not been there.

A month ago, most conversations around camp had been about rewards, troop strength, and which missions looked easiest. Now the students who had returned were talking about losses, bad decisions, and what they would have done differently.

Noah was approaching the dining hall when someone called his name. He turned and saw Daniel standing near the entrance while Claire and Ethan sat at a table behind him.

"There you are."

Daniel walked over and looked Noah up and down. "You look less terrible than Ethan did when he came back."

Ethan raised his voice from the table. "I had two hours of sleep."

"For three days?"

"I was tired."

Claire looked at Noah. "He has been repeating that story since Ethan got back."

Daniel pointed at her. "Because it was concerning."

"You laughed at him."

"I was still concerned, okay?"

Noah pulled out a chair and glanced between them. "Good to know your priorities are still the same."

Daniel grinned as he sat down again. Ethan shook his head while Claire gave Daniel the same tired look she had probably given him several times already.

Noah left long enough to get food, then returned with a tray. He had barely started eating when Daniel looked at him expectantly.

Claire noticed immediately and turned toward Daniel. "Don’t."

"I haven’t said anything."

"You’re waiting for him to ask about your mission."

Daniel looked offended. "I was going to give him time to eat."

"How generous."

Noah looked between them. "How long have you all been back?"

"Six days," Claire said.

"Four," Ethan added.

Daniel held up three fingers. "Three. Long enough to remember why I hated the food here."

Claire glanced at his empty tray. "You finished yours."

"That doesn’t mean it was good."

"You also complained about your field rations."

Daniel leaned closer to Noah. "I ate the same stew for almost two weeks."

"It was probably still better than this."

Daniel stared at him for a moment before leaning back. "You’ve changed."

Ethan laughed quietly while Claire shook her head. Noah kept eating and let Daniel sit with the comment.

They spent several minutes talking about sleep, barracks, and who had been forced to eat the worst food during their missions. Daniel eventually leaned back and looked around the table.

"All right, can we talk about what everyone actually did?"

Claire sighed. "There it is."

Daniel ignored her. "Mine was supposed to be simple."

"That sounds promising," Noah said.

"It wasn’t."

Daniel rested both arms on the table. "I was sent to help put down an uprising on an agricultural world."

Claire pointed at him. "Tell him about the town."

"I was getting there."

Noah looked at Claire. "What town?"

Daniel answered before she could. "The one where three different people told me three different armies controlled it."

Ethan smiled but said nothing. Daniel noticed the reaction and kept going.

Noah raised an eyebrow. "And who actually controlled it?"

"Nobody."

Claire laughed, and Ethan joined her. Daniel waited until both of them stopped before continuing.

"One official said rebels had taken the town. Another said the local militia still held it. Then a merchant insisted both sides had left two days earlier."

"What did you find?"

"Farmers."

That earned another round of laughter from the table. Daniel accepted it with a resigned expression before reaching for his cup.

"After that, I stopped moving troops based on one report. I sent scouts first and started checking who actually knew what they were talking about."

"Did that fix it?" Noah asked.

"It stopped me from marching aimlessly after enemies who weren’t there in the firstplace."

Claire nodded. "Which was an improvement."

Daniel looked at her. "You say that like your mission was perfect."

"It wasn’t."

"What happened?" Noah asked.

Claire pushed her cup slightly aside and settled back in her chair. "Convoy escort."

Daniel immediately cut in. "Which still sounds easier."

Claire turned toward him. "Twenty wagons, one narrow road, frightened drivers, and something attacking the rear every few hours."

Daniel paused before lifting both hands. "Fine. Continue."

Claire looked back at Noah. "I kept trying to spread troops across every convoy. It worked until two routes were attacked on the same day."

"So you changed the routes?"

"The schedule. I grouped departures together and stopped sending small convoys whenever someone asked."

Ethan nodded. "That sounds better."

"It was, once I stopped pretending I could protect everything at once."

Daniel tapped the table. "Still easier than chasing imaginary rebels."

"No one agrees with you."

"I agree with me."

Noah looked toward Ethan, who had been quieter than the others. Ethan noticed the look and gave a small shrug before Noah even asked.

"What did you get?"

"A mountain fortress."

Daniel nodded immediately. "That one actually sounds bad."

"The fighting wasn’t the strange part."

"What was?"

"I had too many soldiers."

Daniel stared at him. "I’m sorry?"

Ethan laughed. "The pass was narrow. The walls were already crowded. I brought more troops than I could use."

Claire leaned forward slightly. "So what did you do with them?"

"Kept most in reserve lower down the pass and rotated the ones at the front."

Daniel shook his head. "Imagine complaining about having too many soldiers."

"I wasn’t complaining."

"You should’ve sent me some."

"I don’t think that was an option."

"It should’ve been."

Noah smiled and continued eating while Daniel kept arguing. The conversation felt easier than anything he had done during the last month.

Eventually Daniel turned toward him and pointed with his cup. "All right. What did you get?"

"Planetary defense."

Daniel’s expression changed almost immediately. He lowered the cup without taking another drink.

"That sounds unpleasant."

"It was."

Claire looked more interested now. "Did you finish it?"

"Yes."

Ethan studied Noah for a moment. "What went wrong?"

Noah considered the question before answering. There was no point walking them through every battle when the useful part was what he had learned from it.

"I underestimated how fast a long fight could empty stockpiles."

Claire nodded once. "Ammunition?"

"And spare parts. Replacements too."

Daniel leaned forward. "Did you actually run out?"

"No. We got closer than I wanted."

"What would you change?"

"More reserve ammunition. Better anti-air weapons. More firepower for enemies normal infantry can’t stop."

Daniel counted the answers on his fingers. "That sounds like more of everything."

"No. Just fewer wrong priorities."

Claire glanced at Daniel. "See? That’s why we shouldn’t let you plan logistics."

"I haven’t even planned anything."

"That helps your case less than you think."

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but a raised voice from several tables away cut through the room. Nearby conversations dropped in volume as people turned toward the sound.

"Stop asking me about it."

A student stood beside a table with a mission terminal in one hand. Another student remained seated across from him.

"I was only asking what happened."

"We lost the objective."

The seated student lowered his voice. "You still got your people out."

"Some of them."

The standing student looked away, jaw tight. His grip tightened around the mission terminal before he spoke again.

"I pulled back before I lost the rest. That’s what happened."

He left before his friend could answer. The noise in the dining hall slowly returned once the door closed behind him.

Daniel watched the doorway for several seconds. His expression had lost most of its earlier amusement.

"I’ve seen that twice already."

Claire nodded. "There are more than a few."

Ethan looked around the room. "Failed missions?"

"Some failed. Some withdrew."

Daniel picked at the edge of his tray and glanced toward another group nearby. "It’s strange seeing everyone back like this."

Claire looked at him. "You mean because not everyone came back celebrating?"

"Yeah."

Noah understood what he meant without needing Daniel to explain further. Before the first mission cycle, failure had sounded like losing points or waiting another month, but now it had faces.

Ethan leaned back in his chair. "I almost picked a harder mission."

Daniel looked at him. "Why didn’t you?"

"The fortress assignment appeared first. I almost switched because the other one paid more."

Claire glanced at him. "Would you switch now?"

"No."

Daniel nodded slowly. "Same."

Claire looked at him. "You finished yours."

"I also spent days chasing reports from people who didn’t know where the enemy was."

"That’s different from failing."

"I know."

Daniel’s voice had lost most of its joking tone. He looked around the table before continuing.

"I just mean the reward looked much more important before I left."

Nobody argued with that. The mood around the table had shifted enough that even Daniel did not try to turn the comment into a joke.

Claire rested her arms on the table. "We probably need to read the next set of missions differently."

Daniel pointed at her. "That should be written on the board."

"What?"

"Mission descriptions leave things out."

"They don’t leave them out on purpose."

"That doesn’t make it less annoying."

Ethan looked toward Noah. "Would you take the same difficulty again?"

"Not next month."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "That bad?"

"No. I just know what needs fixing first."

Claire gave him a skeptical look. "You say that like someone who nearly destroyed his army and came back with a checklist."

Noah thought about it for a moment. "That’s not entirely wrong."

Daniel laughed. "At least he admits it."

Ethan looked around the table. "What was everyone’s worst decision?"

Daniel answered first. "Trusting local officials too quickly."

Claire pointed toward herself. "Spreading escorts too thin."

Ethan nodded. "Trying to put too many troops into the fortress."

They looked at Noah, and he already knew his answer. He had thought about it several times during the trip back.

"I assumed the rear could keep up the resources the fronline uses."

Daniel leaned back. "So we were all bad at different things."

Claire looked at him. "You can speak for yourself."

"I was trying to make this a group moment."

"You failed."

Ethan covered a laugh with his hand. Daniel gave Claire an offended look while Noah let the argument continue.

Noah glanced around the dining hall while the others talked. Several nearby groups were having similar conversations, though not all of them sounded friendly.

One table was crowded with students comparing rewards, while another had gone quiet as someone explained why he had abandoned an objective. The conversations carried the same mixture of relief, embarrassment, pride, and frustration that Noah had been noticing since he returned.

Outside, the sound of another transport landing carried through the open windows. Several students stood to see who had arrived, and the room briefly shifted its attention toward the courtyard.

A young man entered a few minutes later and immediately disappeared into a group of cheering friends. Another student followed farther behind with an instructor and walked straight toward the barracks without stopping.

Daniel watched both of them through the window. His gaze remained there even after the second student disappeared from sight.

"Camp feels weird now."

Claire followed his gaze. "People know more than they did a month ago."

"Some of us learned things the expensive way."

Ethan looked at him. "Most useful lessons seem to work like that."

Daniel frowned. "I don’t like that sentence."

"You don’t have to."

Claire finished her drink and pushed the cup aside. She looked around the table before speaking again.

"Before the next selection, we should sit down together."

Daniel looked suspicious. "Why?"

"So we can look at the mission descriptions before anyone picks."

"You don’t trust me."

"No."

"That was immediate."

Ethan nodded. "I think it’s a good idea."

Noah agreed. "We might notice problems the others miss."

Daniel considered it for a moment before shrugging. "Fine. But nobody gets to veto my mission."

Claire looked at him. "If you choose another ’simple’ uprising, I’m at least laughing first."

"That’s fair."

They stayed in the dining hall until the crowd started thinning. By the time they stood, evening light had already begun stretching across the courtyard outside.

Noah walked back toward the student quarters with Daniel, Claire, and Ethan beside him. Their first missions had not changed who they were, but the things they talked about had shifted in ways none of them would have understood a month earlier.

The next mission list would eventually appear, and all four of them knew they would be looking at it differently. The second year had barely begun, but none of them were approaching it with the same assumptions they had carried into their first assignments.