The Rebel Captain - 7
Thanks as always to /u/spacepaladin15 for the universe and to my proofreaders!
Verith, Arxur Captain
Date [Standardized Human Time]: January 16, 2137
“Captain, we are approaching Skiten,” Marcus’ voice called out through the intercom into my room, disturbing me from my slumber.
“Have the men begin preparations for deployment,” I replied with a yawn. “And tell Brandon and Oz I will meet them in the armory shortly to see this new weapon they’ve been so eager to show me.”
“Aye aye, captain,” he answered as the comms clicked off. I imagined he was doing that dumb salute he loved doing to annoy me, as I sat up and stretched out.
I felt Zin’s arms wrap around me from behind as he nuzzled into my neck. “Good morning, Ver, leaving me already?”
“You know I’d love to spend all day here with you, but I have a job to do.” I nuzzled back into him.
“Can’t you let Marcus lead the charge while you stay here and let me enjoy your company?”
“I think you’ve enjoyed it enough the past few days.” I pulled myself from his grasp causing him to grumble. “Oh behave yourself,” I chided. “I can’t neglect my duty just because you’re being pouty.”
“I know I know.” He grabbed my paw in his. “Just, promise me you’ll be careful down there. It scares me knowing I won’t be with you if something goes wrong.”
“Oh please, when do my plans ever go wrong?” I teased.
“Ver, I’m being serious.”
“I know, my love. I promise I’ll be safe.” I pressed my snout against his. “Try not to worry about me too much.”
“You know I will.” He squeezed my paw one more time. “Give ‘em hell for me.”
I walked the halls past the barracks towards the armory at the back of my ship. Arxur and human soldiers alike greeted me as I walked by their quarters. It still looked strange seeing my Arxur soldiers wearing similar armor to what humans used in battle, but Brandon had convinced me the extra protection outweighed the slight loss of mobility it caused. The helmets were the main selling point. The lens would automatically darken in response to a flashbang. The new gas masks easily clipped to the bottom of it and were more comfortable to wear than our old ones, and, best of all, the integrated headsets allowed all of our troops to be in constant communication instead of requiring specific soldiers to carry a radio unit.
Plus not getting my brain matter splattered on the wall after a lucky shot does seem nice.
The sound of a human and Yotul laughing as I approached the armory made me nervous about what new war crime my quartermaster and engineer had concocted. I took a deep breath and pulled the door open.
“Greetings gentlemen,” I called out.
“G’mornin’ captain,” Oz replied.
“Greetings captain,” Brandon added.
“I understand you two have something to show me. The laughter worries me but I am, well eager isn’t the right word, nervous to see it I suppose?”
“Oh trust me lass, yer gonna love it,” Oz replied mischievously.
“This maniac is right, you’re going to love it,” Brandon said with a smile. “Drum roll please?” I stared at him in confusion. “Nevermind!” He pulled a tarp off the workbench with a flourish. “Dun dun dun duuuuuuhh.”
I stared at what kind of sort of looked like the sniper rifle Zentess favored, but with a weirdly blocky barrel and stock and was much longer than his usual weapon. “What am I looking at?”
“You know the railguns we have on the ship? We made one a soldier can carry into battle.”
“And it works?” I tried to hide my bewilderment at what they had built.
“In theory, yes,” Brandon replied. “We haven’t had a chance to test it, we were a little afraid of destroying the ship, but we were able to test the charging mechanism and do some dry fire tests to make sure it works and shouldn’t explode.”
“So you want me to give one of my soldiers an untested weapon that might explode when they use it?”
“Of course not. I was going to offer to join you on this assault and bring it with me to field test it.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Oz asked in surprise.
“Because both of you are far too valuable to send you onto the ground with a weapon that might blow up and kill you. We’ll find some way for you to test it after the assault, but I am not risking anything going wrong today.”
“Told you she would never go for it without some testing,” Brandon said smugly to Oz.
“Dammit fine, ya were right, but that just gives us more time to perfect ‘er.”
“Please do not blow up my ship.”
“Ya know I would never do anythin’ to harm the ol’ girl,” Oz laughed.
“Right… Well, if that was all you two had for me I need to go prepare for the attack.”
“Well, it was by far the coolest thing we had, but I do have two other things for you,” Brandon replied. “Oz, wanna stick around since you helped out?”
“Might as well. Hopefully she likes these. I don’ think I can handle the disappointment if she doesn’t.”
“As long as you’ve tested them and they won’t get my men killed,” I sighed. “Show me what you have.”
Brandon placed a plain-looking handgun on the table. “Well, I’ll get the boring one out of the way first. Since our next target is going to have less buildings to use as cover, I was able to acquire a few ballistic shields that you can equip your men with. The good thing about the Dominion primarily using their guns for hunting herbivores, instead of fighting armored soldiers, is that they don’t use armor-piercing rounds, which makes a shield like this one,” He placed what looked like a large metal slab with a piece of glass in the center of it on the table, “A lot more effective than it would be if you were fighting soldiers using primarily armor-piercing rounds. You can have your pointmen take these with them to provide some extra defense.”
“What’s the point of the handgun?” I asked.
“Hm? Oh! It’s just a gun I had in stock, but if you want any human soldiers to carry these shields they won’t be able to use any two-handed weapons at the same time, so I grabbed a few machine pistols, like this bad boy, to give them.”
“Ah, makes sense, and seems unlikely to kill my own men. How many would you recommend taking?”
“One or two per squad should be good. We still want most of your soldiers to be able to move freely and have access to heavy firepower, so just your frontline having them is ideal.”
“Alright, I’ll let you divy them out. What was the other thing you had to show me?”
“Oz, wanna show her what you made?”
“Aye sir.” Oz ducked under the workbench before popping back up and placing something I didn’t even remotely recognize on the table.
“What’s this?” I tilted my head.
“So ya know how the humans love their unmanned drones fer combat, right? Well I found out they also use ‘em for recon.”
“So this is basically a flying camera?”
“Kind of, but with a little surprise in ‘er,” he said, with that mischievous laugh I had grown to fear, as he popped open a side panel on the drone. “I filled ‘er with plastic explosives and nails.”
“So you made a flying bomb? But why the nails?”
“Exactly! Fly ‘er in nice and quiet like to scout out an area, then BOOM, they’ll never see it comin’! As fer the nails, well the drones are made from lightweight materials that won’t do too much damage outside the immediate blast range, so I figured some extra shrapnel would be nice.”
“Oz, you terrify me.”
“Why thank ya, captain.”
“Anyway, these do sound quite useful, so I’ll happily take a few. Just figure out who on the team knows how to fly one of these things so we don’t waste them.”
“Will do, cap,” Brandon replied.
“Thank you. If you have nothing else I need to go get ready.”
“Nothing from me,” Brandon replied. “Good luck out there, Captain.”
“Aye, stay safe, lass,” Oz added
The two of them saluted me as I left, earning a groan which made them chuckle, before turning their focus back to the timebomb they called a railgun. I began heading back to my quarters. I still wasn’t used to wearing the new body armor that Brandon had designed for us, so I needed Zin’s help getting it on.
Plus it gave me a chance to see him one more time before I headed into battle.
~*~
I fiddled with the sight on my gun as the dropship touched down in the forests outside of the colony. As the doors of the shuttle opened I was greeted with the frigid air of Skiten. Like last time, we had landed outside of their radar range, and had a short trek ahead of us. Unlike last time, we were attacking in the middle of the night, as we wanted to assault the base while the prisoners were working in the mines. One soldier per squad carried a pack full of sidearms to hand out to any prisoners that wished to join us in a little rebellion. I walked over to Zentess to direct him to a hill overlooking the prison that I had spotted while we were flying in, when I noticed he didn’t have his usual rifle on him. Instead Makoto had his rifle slung over her back and Zentess was carrying a rifle that looked nearly twice the size of his normal one, a magazine attached to the left side of it, and an absolutely massive-looking breech bolt.
“New gun?” I whispered.
“Yes, Brandon suggested I bring this beauty along,” Zentess whispered excitedly. “He called her an “anti-material rifle.” She fires twenty-millimeter rounds!”
“Damn, you’ll rip someone in half with bullets that size. What do you need it for?”
“Brandon said it would allow me to take out any vehicles the enemy might have, but she fires slowly so Makoto is bringing my normal rifle as well so I can swap to it once the vehicles are cleared.”
“Excellent thinking on his part. I was unaware we had something of this caliber in our armory. It will allow us to save some of the launchers since we only have a few of the disposable ones. I’m trusting you to keep us covered down there.” I patted him on the shoulder, earning a confused look and slight wag of his tail. Despite the fact the excitement was for a new toy, I still wanted to encourage my men to show their emotions instead of acting like a machine. “Anyway, I came over here to give you a new place to set up your nest.” I pointed towards a large hill slightly to the north of the trail we would be walking to the mines. “Saw it while we were landing, should give you a full overlook of the mines and the roads leading towards them. Radio me when you find a good position and let me know what you can see. Understood?”
“On it captain.” He signaled for Makoto and the two began jogging off.
“Okay, the rest of you follow me. Those of you with ballistic shields stay near the front. Everyone else, keep your heads on a swivel and don’t engage the enemy until I give the order.”
“Yes ma’am,” the hushed voices of my teams called out.
I waved my paw signaling for my men to move out. We had about four kilometers till the fence surrounding the prison yard leading to the mines and about one hundred meters that would lack the forest’s camouflage to conceal our presence. Luckily Brandon had planned for this, and adorned the backs of our body armor and the fronts of the new shields with fake foliage matching the fauna of the planet. As long as we moved slowly and kept our stomachs to the ground, the Dominion soldiers would struggle to spot us until it was too late.
As we approached the treeline, I signaled for my men to hit the ground. Zentess’ voice rang in my ear, informing me that he was in position and had eyes on our location as well as a full view of the prison yard and about two kilometers up the road leading towards the main colony. After our sniper confirmed our route to the fence was clear of patrols, I flicked my tail up twice to signal my teams to move forward. The progress was slow, as Zentess and Makoto kept radioing to inform us of patrols looking in our direction. As we approached around ten meters from the outer perimeter, we split into smaller teams and prepared to breach the fence.
“Alright Horus, we go on your mark, fire when ready.”
Still not quite sure what that code name means, but all the humans assured me it makes sense.
I didn’t have to wait long before a crack that sounded more like a canon than a rifle rang out. As always, Zentess’ shot was right on the mark, and the transformer powering the electric fence exploded into a small inferno.
“Now,” I growled into the radio.
Not a moment later the explosives strips were placed onto the now normal fence, and rapid cracks rang out as metal was ripped to shreds. Angela and Kalsif sprung to their feet, sprinting through the freshly made entrance, ballistic shields at the ready. I quickly ran up behind Kalsif while the rest of my unit fell into formation behind them. I felt the tap on my shoulder indicating everyone was in position and passed the tap to Kalsif who began marching forward in perfect sync with Angela. The Dominion soldiers were already scrambling into defensive positions, but we peppered them with small arms fire as we made our approach. I could hear bullets ricocheting off the shields as we got closer to our first piece of actual cover, one of the outer guard towers, where a soldier was attempting to halt our progress by blind firing from behind the guardrails. Another crack rang out and the soldier was reduced to a red mist.
“Tango down,” Zentess’ voice called out calmly over the radio. “Reinforcements en route from colony. Three vehicles mounted with heavy ordinance. Changing priority to neutralize.”
“This is Thoth,” Marcus’ voice replied. “Foxtrot has eyes on vehicles. We have launchers at the ready. Athena, are we a go to welcome our guests with fireworks?”
“Negative Thoth,” I called out as I slammed my back against the wall of the guard tower and lined up a shot on a fleeing guard. A quick burst from my SMG brought him to the ground. “Let Horus handle the light armor. Intel suggests colony is likely to have heavy artillery. Hold munitions till we can give them a warm welcome.”
“Roger that Athena, moving on original target.”
“Place the package and move to reinforce Bravo,” I ordered as I took out another guard. “Bravo, do you have eyes on the special guests?”
“This is Hermes,” Iset replied. “Bravo has eyes on the special guests, but we have a few tangos in the way. Moving to eliminate.”
Excellent they have eyes on the prisoners, the extra chaos from them joining the firefight should tip the scales further in our favor.
A loud explosion from the east rang out. I risked poking my head from cover and saw munitions storage had gone up in flames. My tail thrashed in excitement as Marcus rang out over comms and confirmed they were moving to reinforce Bravo team. I signaled for Kalsif and Angela to take point again and we pressed the advantage as we hurried to the next position.
“Light armor down,” Zentess radioed as we made it to the walls of the rookie guards’ barracks. “Switching to Asyiv for personnel.”
Naming your rifle after one of the heretical gods? The prophet must be rolling in his grave.
I leveled my sight on a guard sprinting towards the caves in a vain hope to take cover among the slave labor, dropping him before he could make it more than a few meters toward his goal. My team was furthest from the mines, so we had a few more buildings between us and our prospective new recruits.
“Athena, special guests have been secured. Holding location,” Iset’s voice crackled over my headset.
“On our way, Hermes,” I replied. “Olympus, status updates.”
“No casualties in Bravo team,” Iset answered.
“All clean in Foxtrot,” Marcus added.
The rest of my squads responded in a similar manner as my team began moving towards the mine, making short work of any opposition that got in our way. This was our largest ground force yet, comprising nearly my full complement of soldiers, so I was hoping we could make it through without any new losses of life on our side. Our intel reported close to three hundred adult prisoners were enslaved here. If luck was on our side the majority of them would enlist with us and we could more than double our crew. Space was getting low on my ship, but we had kept two of the captured vessels from our last raid, so I would need to decide who would captain them under my command. Intel also suggested at least fifty adolescents among the population, but I was unsure how accurate their records on whelps born in the camps were. They were top priority for evacuation and would be led to the evac zone by Bravo team as soon as they were in our care.
I ran forward, sliding into cover just as a surprise contingent of guards opened fire on our position. The rest of my team crouched behind Kalsif and Angela, their shields absorbing heavy fire from the enemy. I wasn’t sure how much punishment the metal slabs could handle, but the guards were keeping us pinned down with suppressing fire.
“Horus, could use an assist here,” I growled into the mic. “Horus respond, we need immediate assistance.”
“Sorry Athena, hostiles protected by concrete wall, had to switch to my problem solver,” Zentess chuckled slightly. “Neutralizing.”
Another loud crack rang out and the automatic fire from the enemy was cut off only to be followed by the sound of screaming. I risked peaking my head from cover and saw a large hole had been blown in the wall from the south. Two of the soldiers I had spotted when I dove for cover were nowhere to be seen, and the three guards still standing were covered head to toe in blood. They had dropped their guns and were desperately wiping the blood from their eyes.
“Down on the ground!” I roared as I seized the opportunity to close in on their position. I half expected them to ignore my demands and go down fighting for the Dominion, but, to my surprise, all three of them held their paws in the air and got onto their knees as I approached. “Snouts in the dirt,” I commanded and all three of them immediately fell to the ground.
“We surrender!” one of them shouted as my team regrouped at the enemy blockade.
My eyes went wide in surprise as I saw the results of Zentess’ new toy. Two of the guards had been ripped in half by the force of the round. Their blood and organs coated almost every centimeter of their small shelter.
“Move and you’re dead,” I growled as I kicked their weapons away.
“Please don’t kill me,” one of them cried out. “I wanted to join the rebellion but I had no way to get off this planet.”
“Traitor,” the one in the middle hissed.
“Fuck you, I’m not dying for this shit. I’m joining the winning team.”
“You are a fool if you thi-”
I cut him off with a kick to the side. “That’s enough out of you. Anyone willing to defect is welcome into our ranks after proving their loyalty. Everyone else is welcome to rot in a cell. Bravo team, we have some prisoners of our own to bring back with the adolescents and non-combatants.”
“Roger that, Athena,” Iset responded. “The last of the teams have made it to the mines. Area should be clear.”
“Olympus, this is Horus,” Zentess interrupted. “You’re going to want to double-time it. Colony has realized their first wave isn’t making it and is gearing up reinforcements. I’ll try to slow them down but we are going to need those launchers.”
“Shit. Bravo team round up the whelps and get the hell out of there.” I turned to face my team. “Ford, Pines. You two escort these prisoners to the evac point and rendezvous with Bravo team. Pines stay with Bravo team and reinforce after the shuttle has departed. Ford, I want you to escort the shuttle back to the ship and make sure they make it to the brig.”
“Got it,” the two replied in unison, before ushering the prisoners to their feet and ordering them to start moving.
I signaled for the rest of my team to follow me, and we jogged the remaining distance to the mines.
“Athena,” Marcus called out as he saw me approach. “We have fifty-three adolescents and have quite a few volunteers for our cause. Bad news, we have about two dozen injured who are unable to fight and will need assistance reaching evac, as well as a few inmates who were worked to the point of collapse and need immediate medical attention.”
“Roger, advise non-combatants if they want a ride off this planet they’ll help the injured reach the shuttle. Medics, I want one of you with the prisoners and one of you staying with us,” I barked at my troops. “We need to get the civilians off planet and get defensive positions setup before reinforcements arrive. Launchers, take positions in the buildings near the road. You’re going to want to take out the heavy armor then move. As soon as those rockets fly you’ll be a target for any remaining armor. Drone pilots. Get a few drones in position near the road to get eyes on the enemy. Detonate a few early, but save some for if they try and dig in. It’ll keep them paranoid and force them to stay on the move. Anyone here have claymores?” A few of my soldiers raised their hands. “Good.” I pulled out the holomap and began marking locations. “Place a few in these strategic locations to force the enemies into choke points for easy picking.” I placed a few more marks on the map. “I want squads in these locations. Reinforce with the prisoners who wish to help fight, but keep them near the back of your team and keep an eye on them. They don’t have armor and I don’t want them getting killed needlessly for revenge on their captors. Alright everyone, get to your positions and make me proud.”
“Yes ma’am.” The sweet sound of humans and Arxur working in unison was music to my ears.
“Horus,” I called into the radio as I began running into position with my squad. “How much time till they arrive?”
“You got minutes at best,” he replied before a crack rang out. “A bit longer for that transport now that they have to walk.”
“Excellent, keep up the good work.”
I was panting as I climbed the last steps to the rooftop of one of the nearby towers. Kalsif offered me a swig from his canteen, which I eagerly accepted. It was far from the instant energy I would have liked, but it was better than nothing. I sat with my back against the wall, waiting for the explosions that would signal our enemy was at the door.
I didn’t have to wait long before a sound I recognized as a disposable anti-tank launcher whooshing towards its target rang out. I popped my head up just in time to see an APC going up in flames as Dominion soldiers were thrown to the ground from the blast.
“Weapons free,” I growled into the mic as I took a shot at a soldier running for cover. The first round pierced his thigh sending him tumbling to the ground. The second one ripped through his skull and stopped his screams of agony. “Where are my drones?” I hissed.
“Detonating now,” multiple voices called out over the mic, and rapid booms rang out from the approaching convoy. It seems my operators had flown a few of them under the approaching vehicles as I saw a troop transport get launched into the air from the force, before flipping over and crashing to the ground. Several heavily wounded soldiers began crawling from the wreckage, firearms in paw, but were quickly ripped apart by concentrated fire from my soldiers. I thought the transport must be empty, but, to my surprise, a gun was tossed from the transport and an Arxur crawled out before holding his paws in the air.
“Hold your fire on that transport,” I ordered. “We have a soldier trying to surrender. Do not harm him. Show them that we do take prisoners and we might get a few more recruits.”
“Understood,” my squad leaders replied.
I kept my eyes on the surrendering man. He waved behind him, and for a moment I thought it had been a trap, but instead a few more weapons were thrown from the truck and more soldiers began crawling out and laying face down in the dirt with their paws behind their heads. An idea suddenly came to me as I remembered all of the PAs I had seen around camp.
“Horus, can you see what building that loudspeaker in the center of the prison yard is connected to?”
“One moment,” Zentess replied. “Athena, it looks like it is connected to a building on the west side of the camp. Near the guard barracks and across from the armory.”
“What squad is closest to it?” I asked.
“That would be you, Athena.”
“Do I have a clear path to it?”
“Negative, please hold.” I poked my head out to try and locate the building he was describing just in time for a crack to ring out and turn a Dominion soldier into a fine red mist. “Now you are clear.”
“Alright cover me and let me know when I’ve reached the right building. I’m going to make a break for it.”
“Roger that, you have a straight shot to the building from your current position. About twenty meters and on your left. The building with the weirdly pointy roof.”
“Cover me,” I shouted to my squad.
I peaked from cover again and quickly located the building Zentess was describing.
Huh, weirdly pointy was the perfect description of that building.
It was close, but to get to it I would have to run out the front door of the building we were on top of, which would place me directly into line of sight of the enemy combatants, and then quickly sprint around the side then another twenty meters to the building.
I might be able to make it if I am lucky and my armor absorbs enough rounds, but what if… Fuck it.
I didn’t give myself time to think better of my choice, before running towards the back of the building, vaulting over the wall, and falling three meters onto the hard ground below. Luckily, a few of the stupid action movies I had watched with Zin taught me how to properly throw myself off a building, and I rolled into the fall as I landed. It didn’t feel great, but at least my knees hadn’t exploded and I was able to quickly pick myself off the ground, sprint the remaining distance, and slam the door open with my shoulder.
“Nice moves, Athena,” Zentess chuckled into the radio.
“Thanks,” I wheezed as I began searching for the microphone for the PA system. The first floor was empty, but I found what I was looking for as soon as I made it to the second floor.
Well, even if they won’t surrender, the PA system is connected to cameras all over the base so at least I’ll have a nice tactical advantage from here.
I took a moment to catch my breath before flipping the switches to turn on all of the speakers in camp. “Attention Dominion soldiers.” The sounds of gunfire came to a halt outside and I could see confused Arxur looking around on the security cameras, giving me hope my plan might work. “This is Captain Verith. You may know my name, as the rebel who took out Chief Hunter Geza. We have already freed your prisoners and killed most of your guards. Understand that you do not have a chance to defeat us, and that if you keep fighting you will all surely perish. However, if you surrender, we promise that you will not be harmed. Toss your weapons away from you, place your paws behind your head and lay on the ground if you wish to be spared.”
I could see a few soldiers begin to lay their weapons down, but an older male covered in scars climbed on top of the wreckage of a personnel carrier and began screaming. “Don’t you dare surrender you cowards.” Damn, I can hear him from here. “Anyone who surrenders will be executed by me personally. We do not give into these pathetic excuses for Arxur that have sided with herbivores.”
“Thanks for exposing yourself for us,” I chuckled before hitting the button on the microphone again. “New offer, whoever executes your captain will be welcomed into the rebellion with open arms and rewarded greatly.” I could see fear spread across his face for a moment before multiple soldiers spun to face him and he was ripped apart by a hail of bullets. “Unfortunately, I am not sure who’s bullet killed him, but anyone who tried is welcome to join. I suggest everyone else surrender before your comrades turn on you too. Those who wish to join our cause, kindly keep your weapons trained on your allies that wish to stick with the old ways of forced starvation by our leaders.”
I watched the cameras as hundreds of Arxur spun to aim their weapons at their former comrades, ordering them to get on the ground. The remaining soldiers angrily complied, tossing their weapons to the ground and staring claws at their captors as they laid in the dirt.
“Horus, keep your eyes peeled for anyone faking surrender, if you see someone so much as reach for a weapon I want you to take them out. Everyone else, keep your eyes on our potential new recruits, I don’t trust them not to be trying anything. As soon as you are in sight of them, order them to drop their weapons as well.”
I flicked off the PA system and began walking towards the road into town to meet up with our new recruits and their captives. By the time I had arrived, the remaining colony troops had all willingly disarmed and were separated into two groups. I walked towards the group of standing soldiers and cleared my throat.
“Greetings and welcome to the rebellion. I am Captain Verith. I assume the corpse on that APC was the head of this colony?”
“You would be correct,” a voice near the back of the crowd hissed.
“Excellent, and who is the next highest ranking officer that is still alive and wishes to join our cause?”
“That would be me,” the same voice hissed out, slowly pushing her way to the front. “You may call me, Teysa.”
“Well met, Teysa. Is this all of the soldiers in the colony?”
“As far as I am aware,” she replied. “I was with Venesh, the corpse, when we first heard the sounds of attack. When he realized it was not just prisoners being executed by the guards he began to panic realizing that the rebellion was here for him, and gave the order for the first wave of soldiers to investigate. When it became clear that they had been taken out, he really began to panic and ordered everyone planetside to take arms and get to the prison. I believe you can see how well that worked out for him.”
“That I can,” I chuckled. “Anyway, I would like to take you all at your word that you wish to join, but the truth is I don’t know who believes in the cause and who was just trying to save their own scales, so you will all be detained until we have a chance to figure out who we can trust. I am sure you all understand.”
“Is executing that old bastard not enough proof?” someone in the crowd called out. “We would all be killed for even thinking of joining you if we went back to the Dominion, let alone executing our commanding officer.”
“It is an excellent start,” I replied calmly. “But the fact of the matter is if I let you all roam free, a single traitor in our midst could provide intel to the Dominion to help them track us down and capture us. I can not risk the lives of my men, but do not worry, you will not be locked in the brig with the rest of our captives. You will all be treated with dignity and compassion, something I am sure you are not used to, so please follow my orders and we will find out who we can welcome into the cause.”
One of the members of the crowd was about to start saying something, but Teysa held up her paw and cut them off. “That is acceptable, Captain.”
Seems she commands a great deal of respect from them. That will be quite helpful. I’ll be sure to instruct my men to treat her with extra care. Maybe she can even sway some of the more reluctant prisoners to join us?
“Captain.” Teysa’s voice snapped me back to attention. “I have some information you might find useful.” I signalled for her to keep speaking. “I can see you freed the Arxur prisoners already, but, from what I know of your rebellion, you save the herbivores as well, so I feel I should inform you there are several herbivores that were being used as slave labor in the colony proper.”
“Why were they not in the mines as well?” I asked. “Surely they would want all labor focused on gathering resources for the Dominion.”
“Because our colony only has one mine in the prisons, and the herbivore slave labor kept being eaten if they were out of the guards' sight. The warden didn’t care about their deaths, but he didn’t like his prisoners receiving extra meals, so he decided to try something new and used the herbivores as his personal servants, as well as giving them to high ranking officers to do with as they pleased. I’m afraid many of them were killed or worse by this arrangement, but I figured you would want to save any that are still alive or put them out of their misery.” She paused for a moment as if deciding if what she planned to say next was a wise idea, before whispering to me. “I actually had one myself. A harchen female. I know she won’t want to see me ever again, but if one of the humans could tell her I am sorry. I would be grateful. I tried to treat her well, but I know I could still be needlessly cruel to her when I was angry with Venesh, and for that I am truly sorry.”
“Understood,” I whispered back. “We all have our sins to bear.” I cleared my throat before speaking normally again. “Is there anything else you need to inform us of?”
“I’m not sure it will be much help, but we do have a prison transport ship you could commandeer. I’m not sure how large your ship is, but with how many troops you were able to deploy, I assume you are reaching capacity.”
“That will make it easier to transport these POWs,” I replied. “Thank you, Teysa.”
“Of course,” she replied with a bow.
I ordered Marcus to take his team and get control of the prisoner transport and begin loading the surrendering troops onboard. I trusted him to take charge of the prisoners as we made our way back to Citadel Station to drop off the unplanned herbivore rescues. We also had plenty of new resources to bargain with, since I knew humanity needed all of the raw materials they could get their hands on to win this war, so I ordered my men to load as many cargo containers as we could fit. We’d also need a few volunteers to pilot any other ships we could secure from the colony.
When I killed Asel, part of me thought I would just be killed for my treason. I never thought I would have enough troops under my command that my old ship was no longer enough to fit all of them. With the mixture of prisoners and guards who wished to join our cause I was going to need to move from a single ship to a fleet.
Hmm, who has proven themselves worthy of captaining a new vessel under my command? The obvious choice is Zin, but I’m not letting him out of my sight while he is injured. Marcus would be good, but I don’t want to be stuck relying on the humans forever, so I would rather promote an Arxur. Hrr, I’ll have to discuss this with Zin and Marcus back on board. This is too much for just me.
I slung my SMG onto my back and stretched my arms into the air. I could already tell I was going to be sore in the morning from that stunt I pulled earlier, but it might have ended up saving us a lot of bloodshed, so I considered hurting my back a little bit a worthy trade. I radioed my squad leaders as I began walking the short distance to the landing pad in the center of the prison yard. Ash was already landing the first shuttle, and I eagerly climbed aboard. My squad leaders had reported no fatalities, and only a few injuries among the men, so I was content to make the mission debriefing wait. For now, all I wanted to do was return to my quarters, and whine at Zin until he gave in and rubbed my back for me.
More of my troops slowly loaded onto the dropship. I saw Angela walking on and flagged her down to sit next to me.
“Hello Captain, what can I do for you?”
“Nothing, just wanted to chat about something besides the war on the way back up if you don’t mind.”
“I think I can do that.” She swung her ballistic shield from her back, as she sat down with a groan. “Anything in mind?”
“Yes actually, I was wondering what are your thoughts on Kalsif?”
“He’s a good soldier,” she replied, “And an even better friend. I was a bit surprised when you asked if we wanted to bunk together, but he was so excited I couldn’t say no. Why do you ask?”
I chuckled softly. “It’s clear he’s taken a shine to you. I see him following you around like a lost whelp all the time. It makes me proud of my men to see them being willing to make friends and express their emotions without fear, so I just wanted to get your thoughts on the situation. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable either.”
“You think he has a crush on me?” Her face turned red.
“That word translated as ‘smashing something with force’, which I don’t think is right, but judging by your reaction I assume it means ‘liking as more than a friend?’” She nodded in response. “In that case I am not sure. I just know he cares for you so I hope you treat him well as a friend. Proph-stars knows our kind could use more of them.”
“I’m, I’m not sure how to respond to that, but I do care for him as well. He was the first person to comfort me about the loss of my brother during the attack on Earth…”
“I’m very sorry for your loss.” I patted her shoulder. “I was unaware.”
“Not your fault, I didn't know much about you back then so I wasn’t sure how much you cared to know about your men. Not like it’s very relevant anyway.”
“Well, my doors are always open. If you ever need to talk to someone, Zin is right there and more than willing to listen to all your problems,” I laughed. “And me too I suppose.”
“Thanks Captain. Never thought I would be making friends with Arxur when we learned about you.”
“If it makes you feel better, I never thought I would have any friends.”
The two of us chuckled softly before leaning our heads back. The humans might have superior endurance to us, but I was learning that even they had their limits, and I could tell Angela was downright exhausted. I was content with a quiet ride back to the ship, so I closed my eyes and decided to try and get a quick nap in before I was forced to do more work. I’d barely had them shut for a second and I could already feel sleep taking its hold on me.
I wonder if I could convince Zin to do the debriefing and just relay the important info to me later if I ask nicely enough? No, bad Ver, you’re the captain no being lazy. Plus, if you don’t use a favor making him do this you can definitely get that back rub out of him…