Vanbrook followed Jasken through the fort, into the Wingspan and into Jasken’s quarters. After they were in the room, Jasken closed the door and punched Vanbrook in the face. It was sudden, and much quicker than Vanbrook would have thought Jasken capable of. Vanbrook reached for his saber, more out of instinct than anything, but again Jasken’s hands flew like lightning.
Vanbrook was turned away from him and he grabbed the swashbuckler’s wrist as it went over his shoulder to grab the saber’s hilt. Held like that, Vanbrook was scarcely able to move.
“Don’t,” Jasken said levelly, “I don’t want this to escalate any further, but I do want you to understand the sheer contempt I have for you. If you had come back without her, you’d be in the brig right now. But you came back as a hero, and my options are pretty limited.
“I will be waiting for the slightest excuse to take you off Talon Squad and, if possible, throw you out of the Navy entirely. Until then, I expect you to follow orders and pretend like you can respect the idea of military discipline.” Vanbrook loosened his grip on his saber. “I wouldn’t have come back without her.” Jasken huffed and let go of Vanbrook’s arm with a shove. “Get out of my office.”
***
Lord Raelik stood in his quarters, fidgeting as he waited for the High King to appear on his screen. Talking to the old bat always made Raelik feel like a child being scolded, even when things were going well. Unfortunately, things were not going well.
The screen rippled to life and the King’s face appeared.
“Hello, Raelik,” he said with practiced patience. His eyes were faded with age, but still carried a deep hardness. His head bore a huge silver crown, bejeweled with the death crystals of his predecessors, cut and polished. He held himself casually, as though daring his subjects to question his authority.
“High King Hylik,” said Raelik with a stiff bow. “May your ancestors guide you.”
“I’m sure they will,” said Hylik wryly. “But perhaps you could use more guidance, hm?”
“My liege,” answered Raelik, “the guidance of the ancestors would be most welcome, but much of our trouble stems from Sir Jacrill. Breaches of security during his watch have caused us significant loss.”
“You are granted the permission to execute him, since you seem eager to do so, but tell me, between us lords, can we really blame Jacrill for all our troubles? I believe he was in your dungeon when the most recent breach occurred.” Raelik cringed internally, hoping his body language didn’t betray his emotions to the King. Of course Hylik would have spies onboard, but he had hoped the King would play the game his way; execute Jacrill and send more troops to deal with the Republic. Let the blame lay on Jacrill’s death crystal and move on.
“Raelik, I am sending my son Jylik to you. The map to the Cornucopia Cluster is too valuable to lose, and it is clear you need additional help.” The King sighed and continued. “You know, we really are an empire. We control worlds across the galaxy, either by treaty or because they were unoccupied when we arrived. But we dare not call ourselves an empire for fear of galvanizing our enemies against us. Much more than that, we have avoided open conflict. I would like to keep things that way.
“Our intelligence indicates that the Blue Griffon Fleet is unable to communicate with the rest of the Republic. I expect you to aid the crown prince in retrieving the map and then wiping out any and all survivors. The Republic will not risk open war with us if they cannot convince allies we made the first move.”
The screen rippled again and was blank. Raelik fumed. The crown prince! It was a slap in the face. He didn’t need more leadership, he needed more firepower. Frustrated that there was little he could do about it, he went to make preparations for Jacrill’s execution.
***
After an examination proved she was uninjured, Raivyn found herself wandering to the galley. She was mulling over the whirlwind of the past few days, when she ran into Drixen, who was on his way out. She nearly screamed aloud out of sheer stress.
“Rai!” he said, beaming when he saw her. “Heard about your misadventure. So glad to see you alive and well!”
She squirmed, still extremely embarrassed for her over-the-top accusation of the man. She hadn’t talked to Drixen since she’d held a knife to his throat.
Drixen picked up on the discomfort. The pilot took her by the shoulders and looked her square in the eyes.
“Hey, let’s let bygones be bygones, if you’re worried about all that. We’re all pretty tapped out here, psychologically. We’re going to make some mistakes. Besides that, you made me realize who the traitor was. Maybe if you’d have threatened me a bit sooner, we could have actually caught him.”
She gave him an embarrassed, sidelong smile. “I’m good with that if you are,” she said. He gave one of her shoulders a friendly pat and then stepped around her.
“I’ve gotta go meet up with Kaihla - y’know, Cowgirl - and the others. See you later,” he said as he trotted off down the hall.
Raivyn thought about what Drixen had said, and was frustrated to find she couldn’t help but think of her grudge against Vanbrook. The sweetest guy in the fleet had just gone out of his way to smooth over her mistake, and still her mind turned to the most obnoxious one.
***
Havvis had gotten used to getting around on crutches as his leg healed from a multitude of surgeries. Doc walked into the physical therapy gym to find him bounding across the floor at full speed.
“Trying to break the other leg, Havvis?” asked Doc.
The soldier laughed. “No, but I suppose I’m pushing my luck.”
“Well, I have some good news,” said Doc. “You’re going back to your post at Fort Bog Iron. The medics there will tend to you, and you’ll have to keep up with your exercises.”
“Oh,” said Havvis. “Great! Promise you’ll visit?”
“We’ll see,” said Doc noncommittally. The truth was, he’d grown fond of Havvis and would miss seeing him on a daily basis, but he was well enough to be put to some light-duty work and they needed every able body doing their part.
Havvis laughed. “Alright, Doc. I better go gather my stuff.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
***
The following days passed with little incidence. Doc continued to help the medical staff, Reclan worked with the engineering and maintenance crews, and the others pitched in where they could. On the second day after Raivyn and Vanbrook’s return, Kwa-Kwa walked up to Talon Squad as they sat in the galley chatting over breakfast.
“Hey, guys,” said the Krauqian, her eyes gleaming with excitement, “Fresh meat supplies are getting low so I got permission to go on a hunt, who wants to come along?” Reclan’s hand shot up like she was still a schoolgirl. Vanbrook and Raivyn nodded, eager to break the monotony.
“I’m afraid the ‘hunting’ thing is lost on me,” said D’Jarric, “I guess since my people don’t eat, we’ve never needed to kill to do so.”
“Yeah, that,” said Doc, hardly looking up.
“Alright, then it’ll be the four of us plus Rahk. That’ll be plenty.”
“Guess I should have asked this upfront,” said Vanbrook, “but what’s the quarry?”
“Red cranes!” answered Kwa-Kwa. “They’re super tasty, I got one last week. Kind of a dark poultry, but with more of a red meat kinda note to it.”
Looking down at his plate of preserved meat and canned vegetables, Vanbrook’s mouth watered at the prospect of fresh meat.
“Yeah,” he said, “I’m in for sure.”
They gathered by the gate shortly. Raivyn, Vanbrook, and Reclan carried modified military shotguns; long barreled with tight chokes, perfect for fowl hunting. Kwa-Kwa and Rahk each carried slings and a pouch full of ceramic, almond-shaped ammunition. She didn’t say anything aloud, but a condescending smile crept over her face.
“Look,” said Vanbrook. “We didn’t all grow up learning how to use traditional Krauqian weaponry, so stow it. We gonna do this or not?” Kwa-Kwa smiled more gleefully this time.
“Yes, there’s a place just a short hike south of here where the swamp opens up into a kind of marshy lake. It’s lousy with red cranes in the morning.”
“Yeah,” said Vanbrook. “We know the place, did some exploration out that way when we first got here. Lead the way.”
“I can’t believe Jasken signed off on you coming along,” said Reclan. Vanbrook rubbed his black eye ruefully.
“You mean this vital mission to supply our forces with much-needed fresh protein?” asked Vanbrook. “I don’t know if he bought that line or if he’s just giving me a longer leash than I expected, but I didn’t argue when I got a yes.”
“Alright,” said Kwa-Kwa. “Let’s quiet down for the rest of the hike. I don’t want to spook the birds.”
The four hunters picked their way through the swamps south of the fort, listening to the birdsong of a Hittanian morning as the daystar rose in the east. In truth, there were as many amphibians and more insects than there were birds in the chorus, but it made a beautiful melody. They came to the edge of the woodline and looked out to see a large flock of red cranes milling around the shore, some huddled together, others strutting off on their own to hunt and forage.
A group of large mammals sunned on the far bank. About five feet from their wide, flat muzzles to their thick, powerful tails, they had the slick, dark coat of otters but were built more like alligators. Vanbrook eyed them warily, but they seemed content to lay quietly in the sun, so he focused on the matter at hand.
Kwa-Kwa loaded her sling with one of the smooth, oblong bullets and nodded to the others. The idea was to let her and Rahk each get off a shot and then open up with the shotguns, hopefully bagging a significant number of cranes.
The two experienced hunters swung their slings around overhead, taking aim while they gathered momentum, then let their bullets fly simultaneously. Two cranes took hits to the head and dropped immediately. The nearby cranes took flight and the shotgunners, who had fanned out to stay out of each other’s line of fire, opened up, their semi-automatic fire taking down a few more birds. The slingers made a few more attempts, and Kwa-Kwa managed to take two more down before the birds were out of range. Raivyn was sure she hit her first target, winged a second, but missed a few others entirely.
“Okay,” said Kwa-Kwa. “Now we gather up the birds. I think we did well, though it’ll take a couple more sessions like that to feed the whole fleet. A soup of some kind would go pretty far, but I don’t think we’re getting enough roast cranes to satisfy our small army.” Without another word, she dove into the lake to gather the birds floating out in it. Rahk chuckled and walked along the shoreline, collecting the easy-to-reach birds. The others followed suit.
As Kwa-Kwa swam towards a bird that floated near an island, it was suddenly snapped from the surface of the water in an explosion of teeth and water.
“Hey!” shouted Kwa-Kwa before diving after the thief.
“Kwa!” shouted Rahk, who’d watched the whole exchange.
There was a brief silence, and the water’s surface roiled slightly from whatever fight was going on below the surface. As suddenly as they had disappeared, the bird, the creature that took it, and Kwa-Kwa burst from the water, landing on the shore of the small island.
The creature was one of the fur-coated alligators, though this one had white spots and splotches on its coat. Evidently, Kwa-Kwa had gotten it into a bearhug and leapt to shore on her immensely strong legs. She wrestled with the beast for a while and got the bird out of its mouth. When she did, it looked at her angrily, wriggling backwards, its wiry body winding in an almost snake-like movement.
She looked from the creature in front of her and then at its companions on the far bank. She was worried they might come to his aid. As it was, one of them lazily looked over, yawned, and closed its eyes to bask in the sun a while more.
Turning her attention back to the spotted creature, she noted that it was much slimmer than the others. She took the dead crane in her hand, held one of its wings, breaking it off with a quick twisting, snapping movement.
“Ewww,” came Vanbrook’s voice from across the water. She rolled her eyes and tossed the wing to the creature, who greedily gobbled it down in a couple bites.
Holding the crane out in front of herself, she stepped into the water and did a back stroke, keeping the bird between the creature and herself. It greedily slithered into the water, following at a respectful distance.
She walked up onto shore a short distance from the other hunters and popped another wing off, feeding it to the beast. Then she walked over towards the other hunters, still holding out the crane.
"Um, do you promise to feed it and clean up after it?" asked Vanbrook. Kwa-Kwa shot him a dirty look.
"Do you see the white markings on his coat?" she asked. "That's something you see in a lot of domesticated animals. There's this thing called domestication syndrome, where certain developmental processes go kinda wrong, and you get tamer animals, with floppier ears, smaller jaws, white patches, things like that." She kept breaking off pieces of crane and tossing them to the creature, who stomped his forefeet, apparently in a show of delight or gratitude.
"It's not the best set of traits for a wild animal, but their less aggressive behavior makes them more likely to be bred for domestic purposes. It's normally not this pronounced in nature, and may be why he's not hanging out with his fellow, uh, furgators on the other bank." She tossed him the last of the crane and he scarfed it down, stomped again, and walked away, laying down on a sunny patch of shore.
"So… he's your pet now?" Vanbrook asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We're working towards that, I hope," she said.
"As long as this one's not pregnant," said Rahk with a shiver, "I'm still having nightmares about those egg cases."
"Hey," said Kwa-Kwa quietly as she inched towards the furgator. "No one died. And the paralysis wore off eventually."
"Uh," said Vanbrook. “Do I wanna know?"
Rahk looked him in the eyes, shaking his head. “Absolutely not."
"Well," said Raivyn, "do we want to try to hit another lake or-"
A call came into her comm. Seeing the name, she answered immediately.
"Jasken, this is Raivyn, go ahead"
"Raivyn," came Jasken's voice. "Sorry to cut the hunt short but I need Talon Squad immediately. We found the Ferryman's crash site.”
Kwa-Kwa looked up at her plaintively from where she sat by her new furry friend.
Raivyn sighed. "Just Talon Squad, or do you want the scouts, too?"
"Uh, just Talon Squad," said Jasken in a somewhat confused voice. Kwa-Kwa beamed.
"We'll be right there," said Raivyn.