Flight

Forward the Fatherland

Five pairs make a flight. Ten flights make a swarm. Ten swarms make a wing. The wings make the army. Elements fight situationally. Flights fight offensively. Swarms fight tactically. Wings fight strategically. No units are to be transferred from this point on. Are your orders clear?

— Commander Darian

The flight is the basic attacking unit of the Brown Halora, just as the two-bird element is the basic scouting and defensive unit. It is composed of three to five elements and itself is part of a one-hundred bird swarm.

Composition

Equipment

The flight is more specialized than the element, with five teams. Often, on offensive missions, a mixed composition of flechettes and flaming torches are used. The offensive birds carry no armor, and no weaponry save their payloads. They must fly at top speed towards their targets.
The escorts are divided into "light" and "heavy": the two heavy escorts carry wood armor as well as bronze talons, while the three light escorts use no armor and carry no weapons. This is to ensure the unit can defend against attacks from both armored and unarmored birds.

Tactics

Flight leaders don't order their troops around in battle. Every element defends itself in combat. Flight leaders decide the tactics.

— Nora

The flight is a versatile unit, fluid in its tactics. When attacked in-flight, there are no common tactics, but the soldiers adapt situationally, with each escort-leader element fighting on their own. Elements only go to assist the rest of the flight after they have evaded or destroyed their pursuers.
Orders in the air are to be followed with utmost expedience. While the commander generally gives his elements situational leeway, loyalty to the flight leader, and by extension, the air force commander, must be firm and unwavering. If one flight member flees from combat without orders, all flight members are put to death together.

Training

An abandoned mountain town, destroyed by fire. The flight headquarters is easily found: a mountain plateau, with ample space for exercises. Large white tallies are clearly seen. These are tallies of flight and hunting exercises. 561 tallies.

The flight is trained at the flight headquarters, where all air force troops are housed. If the flight is a combined air-ground unit, as is often the case in midsize towns, the flight headquarters is the police and military headquarters as a whole. Small villages often have lone elements, which go to the nearest fortress town for flight training twice a year.
Drills in flight formation, basic air maneuvers, and unit tactics and rotation are practiced constantly. A discipline is enforced: hard, but not too harsh or unreasonable. During the spring and autumn equinox, when lone elements from nearby villages come for training, a hunt is practiced, providing food for the unit as well as the town.

Type

Air Force

Overall training Level

Trained

Assumed Veterancy

Trained

Parent Formation

Swarm

Used by

• Baiqiang Union

Ranks & Titles

• Flight Leader

Manpower
One lead element (2)
Four support elements (8)
Total 10 birds