“Look up to the sky, my child. Do you see them? The airships so high above? The great air fortresses and their great battle cruisers and their infamous Red Wings?

Would you believe me if I told you that it will be you flying among them one day?”

To be honest, at the time you probably wouldn’t have.

The UNA; the United Nations Alliance. The largest peaceful alliance on the planet Styner since the Age of Dragons. A promise of peace between nearly a dozen indigenous, sentient species of the planet. From the marshlands of Arikar on the Western Continent and their lizardmen to the great Felron Mountains far to the east and their avians and dwarves, from the bitterly cold flatlands of the south and their beastmen to the humid, uncharted jungles of the north and their fae, there was harmony. It was an enormous effort brought about by trade, by gold, by cautious politics, and by the human nation that claimed the central flatlands as their home and the trump-card they used to intimidate all who would dare challenge the peace they had fought so hard to bring:

The Red Wings. They were, in the most basic of terms, an army. Great flying fortresses and battleships and small fighters all joined under the red and black and gold banner of the UNA. It was the largest mixed-race military faction. Largest military faction, period. It was rare that they saw combat anymore, but it was still any pilot’s dream to fly the skies as a Red Wing.

Even yours.

You drop your bag on the pile with all the others, pausing only long enough to ensure that your nametags are still on it before you join the other recruits lining up. It’s such a civilian line,- tallest to shortest- probably because you’re all use to height and size being directionally proportional to dominance. You’re not on either end, luckily, but squeezed somewhere in the middle, between a pink-haired adolescent fae (he looks almost like an elf, but you don't want to assume something and get your head cut off, ya know?) and a black-haired, owl-winged avian. They’re both about your size, if a bit bulkier, and you immediately feel like you’re completely unnoticeable standing between them. Which is good. Because you definitely don’t want to be noticed on day one.

Your new commanding officer walks into view, and you immediately snap into attention with the rest. He’s a large man, intimidating, all dark skin and dark eyes and dark hair in thick dreadlocks pulled back into a high ponytail. His tan-colored officer uniform contrasts sharply with his skin, hints at muscles beneath the layers of cloth, and you have absolutely no doubt he’s held the rank of uncontested Alpha all his life.

He stops in front of the middle of the line, arms crossed behind his back in a show of complete calm that you’re only certain is not a show at all. He smiles- more like a smirk, admittedly- and a shiver of fear-anticipation-nervousness runs through the new Cadets. You’re no exception.

You unconsciously straighten a bit more when he starts speaking.

“Well, civilians, welcome to your first day as a Red Wing!”” His voice is loud without him needing to shout, filling the open area of the terminal easily and causing a even a few passing Wings to pause and listen. “I am Warrant Officer Adam Elric. You all will call me Elric or Officer and nothing else until I say otherwise. I will be your little group’s Commanding Officer. From here until you advance or are kicked out, you are all Cadets. And as Cadets, not a single one of you are Alpha.” Some of the larger kids look nervous. They’ve probably never been below Alpha their entire lives. “Now, let’s get you all started.

Cadets, kneel!”

You drop to your knees as soon as his assertion rings through the terminal. You notice in passing that a few of the other Cadets- a shorter beastwoman and one of the larger humans- struggle momentarily against the order of the Alpha, but drop only after a moment. You would give them credit, if you were even paying attention. But you weren’t. Because the Alpha’s assertion is driving you down and holding you in place and blanking your mind and you’re perfectly content to let it.

The CO paces up and down the line, stopping again at the  middle.

“Good,” he says, and a little thrill of happiness runs through you at the thought that you have pleased the Alpha. “Alright, you guys can let up now. I want you guys to assert, one by one, and we’ll organize you by that.” He pulls the first one in the line aside, and he asserts almost hesitantly, and you manage to struggle a bit before falling under him too.

He goes down the line like that, pulling each one aside and making them assert the same way he did before overruling their authority and moving on. You don’t kneel for all of them, but there are a few clearly dominating people. He reorders you by what he sees,- those who assert the best go to the front of the line, those that don’t go to the back- and your orderly civilian line devolves into what can only be described as organized chaos.

The pink-haired fae asserts and drops to your knees, and you wince at the shock it induces to your already-abused knees. He smiles as Elric guides him to almost the front of the line, and you nervously join Elric in front of everyone. You, as a fairly small, slight male, were never the best at asserting, and always allowed yourself to be asserted over for the most part.

“Just relax,” Elric suggests, a hand on your shoulder. “It’s alright if you can’t assert. It’s nothing new, it’s nothing wrong. Omegas are perfectly natural, perfectly wanted.”

You take a shaky breath, then straighten up and steel yourself. You feel a little swell of power, something unfamiliar and overwhelming and pushy and then:

“Kneel.”

You don’t shout. It’s barely even proper volume for an assertion. But you take a startled step back when the entire line drops with barely any hesitation. Even Elric staggers a bit, eyes a little wide. You look around, confused and startled and Elric starts pushing you towards the front of the line telling everyone to “get up, come on, let’s get this moving!”

You’re completely out of it for the entire rest of the time, still trying to figure out how you just did that. You’ve almost never been able to assert over anyone before. What changed this time? You were still nervous, still uneasy. So how did you…? What changed?

No one else takes the spot in front of you.

Elric splits you up into different groups, five apiece, and you’re left, still fairly confused, in a group with a blonde-haired female human, a green-scaled lizardman, a blue-skinned and wide-eyed aquian (what in all heavens is one of those doing in an air force?), and the black-haired, owl-winged avian that had been standing beside you in line. He gives you a reassuring smile as you two walk onto the airship that’s to take you up to the fortress.

To the aerial fortress UNA Amber-Rose.