Kaviel’s antennae rose in pride. He wasn't the best tactician by any means, but what he did understand was loyalty. He knew that by showing trust in his subordinates that they would in turn trust him to make the best decisions he could. While his plan was terrifying and full of the potential for an inglourious and immediate end, he trusted that they would make it through this. They had to, what other option was there? Giving up was not an option, and surrendering was off the table as well. They had two options, run or fight. And he knew that running would only be delaying the inevitable fight to come anyways. Might as well get it over with in one fell swoop. Steeling himself, he began speaking. The faces around him filling with apprehension at his words.
“I will not lie to you all, our chances of making it through that concentration of enemy forcess is sslim. But it is not imposssible, our ace in the hole, the nukess.” He said, gesturing towards the armored portion of the ammunition racks.
The two F-8 fusion rounds sat at the far right of the rack, right behind his commander position. They were encased in a hardened wet rack that was designed to protect them from anything but a direct hit. They were painted a bright yellow with a very obvious black trefoil painted in the tip. The universal symbol for radiation. While the shells themselves were not radioactive, the nuclear warning was well founded as each one contained a seven-kiloton hydrogen bomb core. Enough boom to level a small town.
To be the one responsible for such potent weapons of mass destruction was humbling, and not something Kaviel took lightly. It was only as an absolute last resort that he was finally stepping out of his comfort zone.
Julius responded after a moment “I… see. Is that really the only option left to us?” The man asked slowly.
Kaviel spoke over the link to the human “I believe sso, and may the Mother forgive me for ssaying so. But I believe that it'sss the only way. Nothing elsse we have would even sscratch the paint off that mobile fortresss, much lesss disable it. With our running gear damaged we sstand no chance of outrunning that monster. Sso our only optionss are to try and find a way around it…”. He paused.
Gurshnik spoke, his gurgling accent making his harsh words even more cutting “We would be slaughtered. There are more of them coming, an endless wave of blackfists moving our way. No, I agree with Kaviel, we have the tools to fix this problem. I say we use them.” The slaaveth man finished with a snarl, obviously still furious at the loss of his vehicle.
“Then it seems it's been settled, Freddy… Joana. Load one of the F-8s. And may the Mother forgive me for what I’m about to do.” Kaviel intoned softly. Such powers were not meant for mortals to wield, it was an affront against the natural order. But he had been given no other choice.
Joana and Freddy unloaded the high explosive shell from the breach, Joana first putting the conventional round back into its rack before pausing. She seemed to glance over at him, though her head didn't move and her compound eyes never changed, he got the feeling she was waiting on some confirmation. He nodded slightly and she twitched. She grabbed the bright yellow round and loaded it onto the small shell carriage with a hiss of effort before pushing it over to Freddy who in turn loaded it into the breach.
“Thermonuclear shell loaded Commander.” Freddy said stiffly. Kaviel gave him a double pat on the shoulder before looking at his feed.
He had no line of sight, he thought for a moment and then asked “Jack, can you give me a firing solution using your drone?”
The deep voice of the man answered immediately “No, it's a simple recon drone. It doesn't have that kind of onboard calculation capability. I can give you range markers though. Would that work?”
Kaviel thought quickly. It just might do the trick, he would have to manually adjust for wind and coriolis effect. “Yess! Yes, that might be just the thing we need, possition directly overhead at an altitude of five hundred meterss pleasse.” He said aloud over the open comms. Even this close to the enemy there was no danger of their tightbeam communications being overheard as it was a direct laser link between the vehicles. Line of sight communications couldn't be blocked or overheard at such close ranges.
He turned to Haggy, the driver’s recent taciturn manner somewhat unlike his normal excitable behavior. “Haggy, move usss behind that berm, ten meterss to the right.” He asked him. Once more Haggy remained silent. He moved the vehicle into position silently, his features stoic and his mood difficult to discern, though his mouthplates seemed to twitch as if he was about to speak.
Kaviel felt the TAG move as a new alert popped up on his console. He would have smiled if he was able, instead his antennae rose till they nearly rubbed the roof of the fighting compartment. On the screen in clinical green font was a range measurement to the enemy position. It was precise to within the nearest five meters it seemed, more than adequate for such a powerful explosive.
The main issue would be in destroying the Colossus, only a direct impact was likely to fully disable the five hundred and twenty ton vehicle. Even a near miss would likely result in it being immobilized but still operational, any one of its main or secondary weapons systems would tear through both their vehicles. It would need to be destroyed entirely if possible.
“Okay…” Kaviel almost whispered as he fed the range into the firing computer. A slight whirr filled the compartment as the main gun adjusted itself using its electronic hydraulics. Everything looked in order, he was aiming at the center of the enemy forward base. Exactly where the mobile command fortress sat, looking immovable and impressively robust even from this distance.
“Mother forgive me.” He said as he depressed the firing trigger. This time felt different, the pressure wave that washed over him felt like the grip of some angry god and the scream of the rocket motor sounded like the scream of some primordial beast. All too soon it was gone, the shell sailing up and away on its rocket assisted ballistic path. Its end swiftly approaching like the death that hung over all the unsuspecting rebel troops ahead.
He watched over the drone’s feed as the small bright spot arced into view. It seemed such a small thing, a tiny pinprick of light amid a multitude of other stimuli. But it was to this tiny light that his whole focus was drawn, morbid fascination not allowing him to turn away and his own biology not giving him the means to close his eyes.
The seven-kiloton thermonuclear shell impacted the Hegemony forward operating base almost dead center. In an instant a ball of pure blinding light appeared, brighter than the sun in the sky far above and engulfed all in its path. Anything that the light touched simply ceased to be, their very atoms ripped to pieces by the sheer intensity of the radiation released by the chain reaction.
Following almost instantly on the heels of the flash the thermal pulse followed, the heatwave pushing outwards faster than any natural force of nature ever could. The screaming wind washed over everything near the site of detonation. Nothing within a radius of three hundred meters was safe, structures, tanks and entire rubble piles all smashed to pieces by the sheer force of the explosion.
The image shook terribly as the shockwave passed over the drone, even half a kilometer in the sky it was not safe from the blast’s terrible effects. Kaviel made a small exclamation of surprise and a touch of fear at what he had unleashed as the very ground seemed to shudder. A deep sound tore through the vehicle, a noise too deep for his tympanal openings to register, but he felt it nonetheless. It was as if a huge hand had reached inside of him and squeezed all his internals together, crushing them together in some unnatural manner.
But the moment was brief, almost as soon as he detected it the feeling had already passed. The wave of force whipped up a cloud of dust and small debris that pinged off the front of the vehicle’s heavy armour, but they were largely unaffected by the detonation. He couldn't say the same for the Hegemony forces.
The drone stabilized shortly after the initial explosion, its camera slightly grayed out in the middle due to the residual optical overload it had sustained. The picture was perfectly capable of rendering the pure devastation left in the wake of the catastrophic detonation.
Where the shell had landed nothing but a glowing glassy crater remained. The heat having melted the ground itself into a substance similar to volcanic glass. Nearer the crater was a barren area nearly four hundred meters across that had been scoured almost completely flat, little but charred and battered rubble remained. There was one structure in this wasteland that still stood immobile however, Kaviel’s antennae lowering in surprise and a little fear at the sight of it.
The rebel Colossus sat there, its armour scorched and many of its guns damaged, the barrels twisted by the shockwave or partially melted by the tremendous heat. Kaviel spared himself a bare moment to fantasize that it had been destroyed, even though his eyes were telling him it looked relatively undamaged in comparison, it’s wheels still whole and its armour looked uncompromised.
As if to make a mockery of his desires the large vehicle’s remaining external lights flashed back on. It seemed to shudder as its slightly damaged wheels groaned. But slowly the gigantic mobile fortress began to move.
“Sshit!” Kaviel swore loudly. “Freddy, load the other F-8 round, we have to kill it.”
Freddy and Joana jumped into action without needing to be told twice. They knew the stakes, if they failed to destroy the mammoth vehicle with their next shot then they were as good as dead, the Colossus would not even have to shoot to kill them. Such was the vehicle’s bulk it would be able to drive straight over the top of them, crushing them flat with almost no effort at all.
Julius asked quickly “What's the plan, that thing is rolling our way!”
Kaviel thought quickly and then said “Haggy, move uss out onto the main road…”. Haggy gave him a look, the driver’s antennae rising to the roof in astonishment.
“You want me to drive out in front of the angry ssix hundred ton rolling mountain?” Haggy asked incredulously.
Kaviel shook his head slightly “No time to think, do it now! Juliuss, get out of here! Now! That'ss an order ssoldier!” He hissed angrily over the comms as the human tried to argue with him.
Julius’s Edwards IFV started to roll away, directly away from the enemy vehicle and the TAG. Julius spoke just before they turned a corner and lost laser connection “You had better know what you are doing Commander. We will be back, I promi…”. But he was cut off.
On their own against a rapidly approaching titan Kaviel had to think quickly. He stopped Freddy as he was about to load the shell “Wait stop. We need to manually disengage the safety mechanism, help me.”
Freddy gave him a look, mouthplates opened as if to speak before closing them again. He nodded and they quickly pulled off one of the side panels on the lower part of the shell to expose some of the electronics of the round. While he was preoccupied with this he heard Haggy speak.
“Uh, Kaviel? It’ss coming…” the man said a little tensely.
Kaviel spared a bit of his attention and looked using his peripherals. What he saw made his warm blood feel chill, his hearts beating faster in response to his fear. On the viewscreen he saw the massive vehicle smash its way through the remains of a three-story building only about six hundred yards away, rapidly approaching their position.
While the Colossus was not built for speed, neither was it sluggish. It advanced upon them, several of its remaining frontal weapons opening fire at long range, nothing hitting them directly but the near misses sending fragments of stone and shattered masonry pinging off the hull from all sides.
“There! Got it!” Freddy shouted, the man slapping the panel back closed before jamming the round into the breach.
Kaviel scrambled back to his command seat, he put the computer’s targeting coordinates directly on the frontal hull of the approaching monster and fired without hesitation. The recoil of the round rocketing out of the short barrel made him smack his head against the side of the vehicle but he knew that far worse was only heartbeats away.
“Brace!!” He screeched as he pulled himself into the armored portion of his couch, his legs fitting into Ranx-leather sockets and all ten of his arms grabbing hold of the bracing that usually only surrounded his tail. He could only hope that the others had done the same.
The round ripped from the barrel, the rocket motor causing its speed to steadily increase till it reached a speed of nearly three hundred meters per second before the round impacted the impossibly thick frontal hull of the rebel Colossus. Instantly the round triggered, its arming mechanism permanently active by Freddy’s tinkerings. One second the full might of the massive vehicle was hurtling towards them, the next was all blinding white light.
The sheer power of the thermonuclear blast instantly vaporised a significant portion of the vehicle’s front. The bridge and virtually all its crew instantly fried or shaken to pieces by the terrible energies that had been released upon it. The side plates were peeled back, exposing more of the vehicles internals to the roiling energies of a bastardized star. The million-degree plasma spread into the vehicle itself, cooking off ammunition till it reached the engine compartment. The vast array of internal capacitors and reactors went critical, exploding in a vast spray of white chemical flames that seemed almost dull in comparison to the blast that had caused it. Barely a second after the first explosion the entire Colossus had been reduced to a twisted pile of slag and broken metal, not even recognisable as what it had once been.
Kaviel didn't see any of it however as he was trying his best not to get shaken apart. The round had been fired far too close, the minimum recommended range for such a device was almost two kilometers. They had fired it at a target less than a quarter of that distance.
The result was that the TAG was lashed by winds of terrible potency. Debris and pieces of rubble thrown by the blast smashed off the outer hull of the vehicle, but the armour miraculously held. What didn't hold was the vehicle’s tracks, the screaming of shearing metal announcing the damaged running gear finally giving up the ghost as it was struck repeatedly by debris.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Kaviel’s brain seemed to rattle in his skull as the wind and rubble buffeted them but then it was over, the sixty-eight tons of the TAG having kept them anchored. A dull ringing seemed to cover the shocking silence, an effect of the sudden and rapid pressure changes that should have killed them. Luckily the hull of the Old Man had protected them from the worst of it, its sealed hatches absorbing most of the intense fluctuations.
Kaviel coughed and was a bit surprised to see a few flecks of bright red blood spatter the metal in front of his face. He ignored it, if he was alive then it probably wasn’t life threatening. He called out weakly “Freddy, Haggy, Joana? Are you alright?”
Joana was the first to respond. “I think so. But I think I broke a few legs Kaviel…”. She groaned.
“Legs? I think I broke a plate…”. Said Freddy from beside her. The man pulled himself free of his crash couch and twitched in pain, his antennae lowering as far as they would go.
Joana moved towards him gingerly, several of her rear right legs held immobile above the ground and one leaking dark red blood slowly. “Here, let me take a look.” She said as she reached for the medical kit once again.
Haggy crept from his crash couch looking dazed but remarkably uninjured. “What the fuck was that?” He said a little disgustedly.
Kaviel ducked his head, looking the other straight in the face he said “That was our best option.”
Haggy shook his head but ceased his complaints. Kaviel felt where he was coming from however, that had definitely not been the smartest decision he had ever made. He moved up into a standing position and tried to check his console. The screen was black, he tried several times before coming to the determination that it was dead.
“Haggy, hazmat on.” He instructed. A series of groans followed but he repeated “Hazmat on. That detonation was close enough to douse the vehicle in radiation. Not lethal, but I don't want you breathing any of that shit in if you don't have to, am I understood?” Stale agreement met his command. They didn't have to like it, but they did have to obey.
He quickly pulled on his own hazmat gear, a thin film that covered his back like a tarp and connected under his belly armour with holes for his multitude of legs. The gear also came with an air tank and a tube-like breathing apparatus that connected to his spiracle lungs by wrapping around his legs. This would allow him to breath while essentially wrapped in plastic.
He looked at Haggy and said “Okay, we need to check how bad the damage to the running gear iss, and you are the only other uninjured one that can help me.”
Haggy gave a nod and Kaviel led him to the rear engine compartment, leaving Joana and Freddy to help each other. He squeezed his narrow body into the space before opening the engine deck hatch and slithering outside.
The air was hot and heavy with the feel of static electricity. The entire area feeling charged and ready to explode again almost. He moved down to the ground carefully, avoiding the worst of the still smoldering debris piles. The dirt was hot, a large amount of the scorched debris still smoldering slowly. He and Haggy started looking around. The right side looked fine, the tracks still taut and the drive wheels in good condition. As he moved to the left side of the vehicle he groaned, it wasn't quite so good.
The Drive wheel was still attached, several of its teeth sheared off but still in one piece at least. The main issue was the running gear on the bottom, the first two wheels were smashed off completely with the third being bent at an unnatural angle. It would have to be cut off before it could be replaced. Luckily the wheels were designed with repairability in mind. They had the parts and spares to fix it, but they lacked the time or the manpower. Freddy and Joana were both injured, he himself was still hurting from his near miss earlier. Lifting heavy links of track would likely further injure the already damaged muscles of his side. Haggy was young and strong but he couldn't do it alone.
He was about to tell Haggy to get the others suited up when a new sound reached his ears. The sound of tracks grinding over rubble approaching.
In a flash he scrambled up onto the top of the TAG and grabbed onto the pintle mounted roof gun, swinging it towards the noise. He aimed this meager defense in the direction of the sounds, almost directly to their rear. With the running gear disabled they had no way of turning the main gun to face the threat, but he would be buried if he didn’t go down swinging at least. He wasn't about to run and abandon Freddy and Joana inside the vehicle. He had heard the horror stories of how the Hegemony treated prisoners of war.
Closer and closer the sound rattled until it was nearly on top of them. Haggy had positioned himself around the corner of the vehicle, a rifle he had procured from somewhere clutched in his upper arms and aimed directly down the road they had come from. The younger man’s arms shook slightly but he stood his ground.
A vehicle rolled around the corner and Kaviel hesitated, Haggy didn't, firing off a trio of shots from his railgun before stopping. The approaching vehicle rolled to a stop and then a hatch on the top opened, a slightly upset looking human wearing a rebreather mask poked their head out and yelled in a slightly muffled voice.
“Hey what the fuck! We were just coming back to make sure you were still alive.” It was Julius.
Kaviel immediately relaxed and waved at Haggy. “Sstand down, it’ss Julius.”
Haggy took a second to comply, the younger man’s frayed mental state causing his actions to be a bit sluggish. But he soon lowered the railgun into his lower arms, though Kaviel noticed he was still holding the weapon at a low ready. There was no need, nothing within eight hundred meters of them would have survived uninjured outside of a bunker or heavily armoured vehicle. They were safer than they had been since leaving the main camp that morning.
Julius climbed fully out of his IFV, he was wearing a similar garb, though one made for his bipedal proportions. He marched over as Kaviel crawled back down to the ground, his side aching as he stood to meet the smaller human.
Julius walked by him to the front of the vehicle and remarked “Luck be damned, you took one hell of a beating didn't you?”
Kaviel followed him to the front and looked at the frontal armour. He jerked in shock, he hadn't really taken a moment to realize just how savaged his vehicle had gotten during their prolonged flight.
“Wow. That issss… Ssomething to ssee.” Kaviel said with a touch of awe. The entire face of the frontal hull was a mess of impact craters, gouges and blast marks. Not a single square meter had been spared, he could make out the small scuffs of small arms fire mixed with the light dents from heavier autocannon rounds. Numerous small diameter holes were punched into the armour from the variety of hypervelocity rounds that had hit them and up near the gun mantlet he could see the deep groove carved out by their near miss with the HGC from earlier. There were several blast marks from HEAT rounds and some longer scrapes indicative of deflected sabot rounds.
Julius pointed at the absolute mess and marveled “Almost any one of those would have destroyed the Grinskal, some of them would have gone straight through her like a hot knife through butter.”
Kaviel nodded silently. It was incredible to him as well. He had been in many fights, some hotter than others, and had never seen damage to a vehicle’s armour anywhere approaching this. It was a miracle they had survived at all with the hull looking like a target range hulk.
“So, are you ready to move out? It’s going to be dark in less than two hours. We need to get moving if we are going to make it back to camp before it’s too dark to see.” Julius said, gesturing towards the steadily setting sun.
Kaviel shook his head. “We can't move, lost our running gear.” He said pointing to the left side. Julius walked over to look as he finished “We are trapped in the burrow, no way we are going anywhere. We are going to have to abandon him.” He said with a sense of profound remorse.
Julius looked up at him, wide eyes shining through his mask. “No. We won't leave such a hero behind. Gurshnik!” He called into his headset.
The comms had been disconnected so Kaviel wasn't privy to the conversation but he heard Julius’s side as he said “Yeah, no they are okay. I need you to get the welding kit. Yes, I said it didn't I? I am aware of the situation, but I gave you a direct order, yes. Yes, do it. Okay then, I will. Thank you.” Julius gave a heavy sigh as he cut the comms.
Kaviel asked “What are you doing?”
Julius gestured at the broken running gear. “I might not be an Army refurbishing depot, but I know how to weld. And I’m sure Haggy does as well. We will get you fixed up in ten minutes flat, enough to limp back home at least. We don't leave a fallen soldier behind, and this wondrous, terrible vehicle… Well, it deserves more respect than an undignified death to some battlefield scrapper right?”
Kaviel nodded. “Okay. But we need to hurry, more enemies will surely be coming to see what happened.”
Julius clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. His strange white teeth flashing at him. “Don't worry about a thing. You saved our asses more times than I care to admit out there, now it's time for us to save yours.”
Kaviel’s antennae tried to rise under his hood, but they couldn't. He felt a strong sense of calm, things would be fine. He was with his people, they would watch out for each other, and everything would work out fine.
**********
Major General Ashlan Meridian sat behind her desk and brooded as she looked at the latest defense reports. The whole thing was an unmitigated disaster. The entire front had collapsed in the course of a single afternoon. Who would have guessed the rebels would launch a major counter offensive this far into the war.
She shook her pink horned head and brushed her hand over her short cropped black hair. She grabbed a bundle of paper reports, the paper documents impossible to hack or sabotage by electronic means. Sure it was archaic and more than a little bulky, but it was safe and a time proven method of communication. Hel, she was debating whether or not to start sending messages via carrier slien. The small flying creatures seemed always able to find their home no matter how far from it they were removed.
She jerked as the door rattled under a series of rapid knocks. “Come in!” She said loudly.
The knocking ceased to be followed by the door flying open. She jerked slightly as her aide-de-camp Captain Dreena burst in.
The large yeown woman hurrying over to her while saying. “Did you see? Have you seen?”
Ashlan shook her head and asked “Seen what? What happened now? I swear if we lost another…” But she was cut off by a very excited Dreena.
Dreena spoke, her long furred tail practically lashing in excitement. “It's over, the Hegemony counter attack has been destroyed!”
Ashlan leaned forwards, immediately interested. “What!? How? Where!” she asked, the series of questions becoming more demanding with each word uttered.
Her aide handed her the data slate she had been holding, Ashlan grabbed it with long slender fingers. On the screen was an aerial shot of where they had seen the largest concentration of enemy troops Except, there were no troops. The area was clear, two large smoldering craters and the twisted wreckage of demolished structures all that was left of the once formidable encampment.
She looked up at her aide and asked “How did this happen? I thought our air attacks weren’t making it through. This was obviously heavy ordinance…” she cut off. “Wait, what assets do we have in the area?” she asked intently.
Dreena shook her furred head, her bright green predator's eyes glinting as she spoke in a low growl. “Nothing. We have nothing out there. We pulled back all our surviving forces to fortify the main base against the attack that we knew was coming. But… It looks like something took care of that issue for us.” she said a little disappointedly. Dreena spoke often of her desire to get back out to the front. To fight against those that desired to destroy that which had offered her people the universe.
Ashlan blinked several times. It didn't make any sense. How could such a formidable force be there one moment and gone the next. “Are you telling me we have no Idea what happened?”
Dreena shook her head “Well, no. We did happen to catch what happened but it was from a ground cam and so we don't actually know what happened exactly. Here, look.” she said as she reached over and switched to a video file. It was really a simple matter, one minute there was a large blast, and a little later another. It seemed as though something or someone had managed to destroy the enemy forces.
Dreena asked suddenly “So, do we move in?”
Ashlan shook her head to clear it, passing one of her hands over the top of her long curving horns she said “Yes. Yes indeed, we need to move the reserves up to the front lines and rotate some of the northern forces to the south to bolster their ranks. See to it please, I will get Commander Markus on the line.” she said. Dreena gave her a crisp salute and rushed out, the doors closing behind her with a thump.
Ashlan sighed, this whole business had aged her ten years it felt. She reached under her desk for the jug of fifty-year Crecini ale she knew was there. She uncorked the bottle before pouring herself a small measure of the pinkish liquid. She inhaled the smokey scent and smiled before taking a sip. The bitter taste hit fast, chased by a distinctly sweetish tang that made her smile. Her blunt crushing teeth flashing in the reflection on the glass. She gave it a slight swirl before replacing the bottle under her desk. She set the glass down and reached for her desk comm.
Pressing a few buttons she spoke “Place call to Commander Markus.” The device gave a few trilling rings before a gruff male voice answered.
“Yes General?” his voice sounded like crushed gravel, the man having survived an artillery barrage that had his throat torn out. It was only with the quick application of a cryobag that he had survived at all. The medical technology designed to instantly cryogenically freeze critically wounded soldiers for transport back to a trauma center.
“Commander Markus.” she began, but he spoke before she could continue. She was a bit taken aback but her anger quickly dissipated as the man laid it out for her.
He spoke quickly. “General, you wont believe it!” The man sounded genuinely excited, quite unlike his normal calm and stoic demeanor. His voice was bright as he continued “I was managing the eastern gate defenses, holding in preparation for that attack when a couple massive explosions went off a few kilometers into the city. I wanted to investigate but I knew to hold my post.” he said with a hint of displeasure.
She snorted slightly but allowed him to continue. He continued to speak saying “Well, I waited for a new development and then we saw it. A pair of vehicles exited the city, they were immediately spotted by the base defenses, but it wasn't rebels. It was a pair of our own, a Thunderscream Assault Gun and a single escort IFV. The assault gun was battered beyond belief, not a single centimeter of its armour had been spared. I would not have believed it had I not seen the vehicle myself.” he said with a hint of awe in his voice.
She shook her head “Don't tell me, these two vehicles were responsible for the blasts?”
He replied quickly “No.” she nodded to herself but stopped as he continued. “No, not both. Only the assault gun, it destroyed the entire base single handedly. Apparently it was one of the nuke carriers.” He said.
She frowned. She should have thought of the possibility, but even she had to admit there were far too many vehicles to remember them all and their loadouts.
She leaned on her desk and grabbed the glass of ale again as she asked “The assault gun’s crew, where are they now?” she asked meaningfully.
Commander Markus seemed to think before he answered. “Well, I saw the condition of the crew, they were in pretty poor shape, even for bugs. I sent them to the infirmary and had their vehicle towed to the repair depot. I'll be damned if I let anyone try and scrap that hulk…” he said angrily.
Ashlan’s tail whipped through the air behind her as she stood suddenly “Where are they exactly? I would like to speak with them personally.” she gave a smile as Commander Markus told her. She downed the rest of her drink in a single swallow before straightening her uniform. She took a deep breath and nodded to herself in the mirror by her office door. If what these soldiers said was true then the entire camp owed them a debt of honor and gratitude, one she was more than willing to give. But she wanted to speak to them herself, to make sure they were legitimate.
As she left the office on her way to the medical building she smiled wide. If they were the real deal then medals and promotions would be in order. She would likely be reprimanded for the disaster that she had barely avoided, but if she played her cards right here she could capitalize off of this. All she had to do was win the hearts and minds of her new heroes, and hope that they would see her towards her own goals.