Noah thankfully calmed down before Captain Ceel arrived. I no longer had to sit on top of him, although I kept a watchful eye on him. He never lifted his face to meet my eyes. After several minutes of awkwardly waiting, Noah finally spoke up.

“Saka, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight.” Noah finally lifted his face. “I was just so upset and frustrated at the Haivu… I… I can’t believe I tried to fire the superweapon on their home world.”

I gingerly placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Noah. I know you’ve been through a lot. Just.. make sure not to lose your cool like that again. It’s an understatement to say it would’ve been bad. Haivu aside, the GU would charge you for doing that shit.”

“Thanks,” Noah said, “For stopping me. That was so dumb.”

“Hey, I’ve got your back. I’ll stop you from doing stupid shit any time.”

Noah chuckled. “I’ll be counting on it.”

Needless to say, this incident had me feeling a little wary of Noah. I didn’t think he was capable of literal genocide, but he was very close to doing it. It was just four months ago when Noah was quivering in his room about seeing a mugger die in front of him. Now, he was merciless. He still kept his aloof personality, but it sometimes felt like I was looking at someone else when Noah was fighting.

We soon received an update from the Spear of Kain. They had managed to take out the Haivu at the encampment, and even captured some of them. The Haivu scientists working on the superweapon were also apprehended and were going to be interrogated, which would be tough considering how we didn’t have a good way to communicate with them. Maybe they’ll be sent somewhere else. I knew diplomats that specialized on Haivu existed, but as far as I knew, there wasn’t one on the Spear of Kain.

Ceel eventually arrived at the superweapon control room. She’d disembarked the Spear of Kain and had walked all the way here, along with a small group of officers, soldiers, and technicians. They all saluted us, and we saluted back.

“Well done, you too.” Ceel gave an inquisitive look at Noah. “I didn’t think a soldier disobeying my direct orders would lead to us securing the superweapon.”

Noah didn’t say anything.

“I won’t get on your ass about it any more. You two did good today. Thanks to this, our fleet and our capital is safe. The last thing I heard about the main fleet is that they were about to do battle at the Haivu home world. The Haivu stand no chance. The full weight of our Haivu offensive fleet is bearing down on them right now. Securing this superweapon allowed us to prevent a retaliation, or a comeback. You two changed the course of the war.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Noah and I said in unison.

“Of course, your bravery won’t go unrewarded. I’ve decided that you two will be getting the Hero’s Medal. It doesn’t really do anything other than look good on your resume, but that’s the protocol. There’ll be a whole celebration ceremony for that, but it’ll have to wait until the main fleet secures the Haivu system. Just don’t be caught off guard when it happens.”

Noah and I looked towards each other incredulously. I had no idea a medal like that even existed. To be completely honest, I didn’t really want it. I just wanted to go back to being a mercenary. I didn’t want the attention that came with getting that medal. I was sure Noah didn’t either. In his case, attention was very very bad.

We managed to choke out a “Thank you, ma’am.”

Captain Ceel turned to face the consoles in the superweapon control room.

“Now, can one of you explain this to me? I heard the watered down version over the comms, but I assume you know more.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I said. “The screen on the left seems to show all of the readings for the warp drive. We don’t know what specifically the readings are for, but we assume they have something to do with fuel, heat management, and maybe the firing ETA.”

Ceel briskly walked over to the screen along with an officer, and closely inspected it.

“Ask the main fleet to send over someone who can read Haivu.” She told the officer. “And some warp drive technicians, too. I want them to study this thing as soon as possible.”

I continued explaining. “We assumed that the buttons on the center of the console have to do with launching the warp drive. Judging by how it looks, you need to flip the safety on both buttons and press them at the same time.”

Ceel marched over to the buttons with a frown. She called over a few soldiers and assigned them to keep watch over the button. I didn’t really see the need, since the Haivu on this moon were taken care of, but Ceel probably wanted insurance.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Lastly, the large screen on the right side of the console appears to be targeting. It has a map of the galaxy and allows the warp drive to assign targets. The range was long enough to target the GU capital, ma’am.” I droned.

That caused some alarm from Ceel and the soldiers that were in the room with us. She power walked to the console and inspected it.

“It appears to be targeted on the Haivu home planet, currently. Did one of you do this?” Ceel asked.

“That was me, Captain.” Noah piped up. “I moved it away from the capital.”

Ceel gave Noah another inquisitive look. “I guess keeping it targeted on the capital would be a bad idea.”

Captain Ceel turned to face the ship technicians who were in the room with us.

“Alright,” she boomed, “I want you guys to work on figuring out how this thing works. A warp drive that can move moons is technology even we don’t quite have yet. It might be useful for things outside of war. But make sure to find a way to shut it down.”

The small group of technicians rushed to the console and started their inspection. Relief bubbled through my body. The warp drive would be in good hands. Better than mine or Noah’s, at least.

“Okay,” Ceel continued, “I want the rest of you to keep an eye on this place while I go back to the ship. There’s a small possibility that there may be some Haivu hiding away. Make sure they don’t get here. Eliminate all possibilities of this weapon being used. Noah and Saka, I want you to come back to the Spear of Kain with me. We’ll debrief, and I’ll send you off to go take a well deserved break.”

Ceel gestured for us to follow her. Noah and I walked behind Ceel’s towering frame as we made our way down the spiral ramp, back through the long hallway in the structure, and to the outside.

The Haivu encampment was in tatters. I saw smoke rising from where the docking bays were, along with a familiar gigantic warship towering into the sky.

“We took the docking bays first to get rid of any ships, and to land the Spear of Kain.” Ceel explained. “After we crippled their air capabilities, we did a grounded assault to clear out and capture any stragglers.”

“It hasn’t been that long since your initial message. You managed to clear out the Haivu that fast? Ma’am.” Noah asked, hastily adding a ma’am to the end.

Ceel grinned. “Sure did. There weren’t that many Haivu here to begin with, and a lot of them were distracted by the shit you were pulling over by the warp drive. The ones that were at the docking bay were sitting ducks, and we knew where to go to find the rest.”

Ceel pointed at Haivu bodies that littered the ground outside of the warp drive megastructure. “Didn’t take them long to surrender. Even if their warp drive was a superweapon, even the Haivu know when a fight is futile.”

Soldiers saluted Ceel as we passed. We were beginning to see more and more fellow soldiers as we made our way to the docking bay. We walked in silence the rest of the way. Ceel stopped right before getting onto the ramp leading into the Spear of Kain.

“Alright, we’ll do a quick debrief here. Like I said earlier, we pretty much have full control over this moon. The Haivu are dead or captured, and we expect to find the ones hiding pretty soon. As for the battle that went on overhead, it was acceptable. After the first Haivu warship was destroyed, we went to help the other GU warships with their battles. We managed to destroy the other two Haivu warships, but they took out one of ours. The Haivu boarded their ship before we reached them to reinforce, unfortunately. But it allowed us and the other GU warship to take out the Haivu. Long story short, it’s a victory for us. The main fleet should be engaging the Haivu in their home system right now, but High Command ordered us to stay put and keep control of this moon. That about sums it up. Ask your fellow soldiers for more details, if you’d like. Now, get back to your quarters and get some rest. You deserve it.”

Captain Ceel saluted us, and Noah and I saluted back.

“Thank you, Captain.” Noah said.

“Good job out there. I can’t believe you two started training three months ago. I’m definitely bragging about this to the other captains.” Ceel turned and marched up the ramp, and into the belly of the ship.

I waited until Ceel was out of sight, then spoke to Noah.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired as shit. Let’s take Captain Ceel’s advice and get ourselves back to our quarters.”

Noah twisted his body to pop his back, making a soft cracking noise. “Yeah. I need to lay down.”

We wiped down our grimy and dusty armor at a little station before making our way up the ramp. We navigated towards the living quarters, dragging our feet in exhaustion. My adrenaline had long since worn off, and all I felt was the aching in my bones after a very long day.

The inside of the Spear of Kain was devoid of any sign of damage or gunfights. It had apparently avoided getting boarded, thankfully. Haivu boardings were always messy. The poor souls on the destroyed GU ship definitely didn’t have a good time.

Several minutes of exhausting walking later, Noah and I finally made it to the living quarters, and specifically, the room that Noah and I bunked at. I slammed my hand on the panel next to the door, sliding it open. I stumbled inside, absolutely ready to strip off my suit and collapse on my bunk. However, familiar faces were waiting for us inside.

“Hey.” Needle said. “Welcome back.”

Keshi, Sil, and Needle were all waiting for us inside of Noah and I’s room. The last time I’d seen them was before the explosion that sent me flying.

“Oh, all of you were safe!” I exclaimed. “I had no idea if you guys made it out.”

“Yeah, we’re fine.” Keshi stated. “We made it out with little injuries.”

“That’s good, but why are you here?” Noah asked coldly. “We’re a little tired.”

Right. Noah was upset that they left us on the doomed Haivu warship. It’d completely slipped my mind, but Noah apparently held a grudge.

“Look.” Sil spoke up. “I’m sorry I left you guys back there. Even though Captain Ceel gave the order, the choice to leave was my call. It was the correct decision, but it doesn’t mean that it was right. You two are my friends, and I left you there. I apologize.”

“Same here.” Keshi said. “I should’ve helped Noah look for you, Saka. But I retreated. I left you for dead.”

Needle nodded. “I saw you went flying and assumed you were already dead. I even tried to stop Noah from going after you. I’m sorry.”

I raised my hands, palms facing them. “It’s fine. I might’ve done the same thing if I were in your shoes. Self preservation is important. I’m just glad all of us got out of there alive. In fact, that incident actually gave us an opportunity.”

I nudged Noah, who was still glaring at them.

Noah sighed. “Yeah, we managed to get out with an escape pod. I’m still a little upset, but I accept your apologies.”

“Can you tell us what happened down there? Captain Ceel told us that you were still alive and on the surface of the moon, but she didn’t say much of anything else.” Needle asked.

“Needle, they’re obviously really tired. Let’s leave them alone for now. We can exchange war stories later.” Keshi chided.

“That’s right. Come on, let’s go. See you two later.” Sil said.

The trio left the room and closed the door.

I quickly took off my suit, and collapsed onto my bed with a sigh. In the bunk above me, I heard Noah flop onto his bed. He still had his armor on, he’d gotten used to sleeping with it.

“Good night, Noah.” I said.

“Good night.”