Lieutenant Moira Jane did not sigh, for even such an action required mental effort for a being like her, but she certainly would have, were she still fully human.
Adjusting the sack on her shoulders, she resumed her track towards the nearest town. Well, the locals called it a city, but calling a tiny settlement like that a city did not sit well with her.
With no electricity, there was, of course, no lighting. As such, the road was completely dark, with nary a traveller. Not that the route had much traffic ever since the Terran camp was built near the Serpent Pass.
The locals were keen on avoiding the Terran forces, while at the same time, the native amenities were of little interest to the Republic’s soldiers. However, they did visit from time to time. Some out of curiosity, some eager to spend whatever local currency they managed to loot. Not that there was much to buy, but the smarter of those amongst the soldiery realised the possible resale value of some of the Eigosian goods. Novelty often sold well.
Jane doubted the woman in her sack would ever indulge in the latter, but the former was a good enough excuse.
She was quite surprised at how smoothly things were going for Ashwood, but perhaps she wasn’t giving the man enough credit.
It was somewhat amusing. With Navarro and Renard gone, the command fell to him and Renard’s soldiers just didn’t know enough to oppose it.
Sure, the humanists were in clear majority in Taskforce Erinyes, but for most of them, this was just a vague political belief. The number of people that were inducted into their conspiracy was minimal, even if it included quite a few of the remaining Captains. To top it off, Renard had not made the knowledge of civil war back home public, and now it was coming to bite him in his disintegrated ass. The number of people who knew they should be taking sides was already small, but those who knew which team Ashwood cheered for were even fewer.
The lack of zeal was not untrue for most of Jane’s own comrades, but there was a large discrepancy in ground-level operatives capable of acting, like herself. People like in positions like Ashwoods were rarer, as the Republic leadership did its best to suppress their rise.
However, unlike the humanists, Athena had the benefit of a decisive chain of command. It was very unlikely that the Captains would agree to act against Ashwood, at least as long as he continued to act in the perceived interest of the Republic.
Soon, she reached the outskirts of the city. The lack of a wall would have made it trivial to sneak even if there were any soldiers patrolling, but there weren’t.
Jane wasn’t sure if there was some reason for that, or whether the locals were just incompetent, not that she cared much.
She silently made her way to an empty alleyway in the poorer part of the city, the dark cloak she had over her armour enough to mask her origin in the night.
Then she opened the sack and shook the unconscious woman out of it.
She eyed the body for a moment, before grabbing it by the shoulder and propping it up in front of herself.
Her other hand unsheathed a locally sourced knife.
Still holding on, she stabbed the unconscious woman in the stomach twice, then once more in the heart, before relinquishing her hold.
The dead body fell like a puppet with its strings cut.
Jane eyed the corpse critically, before nodding to herself.
Frankly, she thought the entire process was unnecessary. The camp was going to be packed up tomorrow and the Republic would march alongside the natives North. There wouldn’t be time to properly investigate a disappearance like this, even if Navarro’s aide going missing would have raised alarms normally.
She supposed that covering one’s ass was always a good thing.
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After looking over the scene one last time, Jane departed. A few streets over, she chucked the knife away.
Suddenly, she started hearing screams and shouts.
Curious, Jane veered off her path, heading towards the commotion, closer to the city centre.
The lieutenant raised her eyebrows as she smelled smoke.
As she walked closer, she started meeting groups of people, many of them armed.
It was then that she paused, realising that this might be a bigger issue than she had thought.
“Heretic!” A cry came from somewhere behind her.
She turned, seeing an opportunity to gather some intel. A group of four troublemakers harassing a well-dressed man.
Jane surreptitiously placed her hand on her sidearm, before approaching.
“Fuck off, cocksuckers,” she spoke in Sirnesian, finally putting her hard work of expanding Ashwood’s dictionary by adding the local swear words to good use.
The dissidents did not seem terribly impressed with her vocabulary, one raising his spear towards her, “Another! They cannot help but stick together, like cockroaches!”
Did cockroaches stick together? Jane had only seen the creatures in movies, but they had never struck her as team players.
Jane considered her sidearm again for a moment, before deciding to leave it be. The lack of light stopped the vagabonds from seeing through her flimsy disguise, but a gun would be too much.
Better that her involvement be as hard to discern as possible.
Casually, she walked closer to the group.
When the mouthy one tried to skewer her with his spear, she leaned to the side, grabbed the weapon by its shaft and tore it out of his hands.
Twirling the glorified stick, she looked at the shocked hooligans.
The now disarmed wannabe-inquisitor opened his mouth to speak again, but Jane dissuaded him with a gentle thwack of her new stick. The man fell over, gasping and clutching his chest.
“Shoo,” Jane said in a deadpan voice.
The still-standing three exchanged glances before deciding she wasn’t worth it and beating an inglorious retreat, leaving their former comrade in arms on the ground.
He stared after them with a face filled with betrayal, then shot another glance at her.
Jane made a shooing motion.
After getting up, the man slowly backed off, eyes not leaving Jane, as if she were some wild animal about to pounce.
The immediate non-threat dealt with, Jane turned to her damsel in distress, getting a better look at the man. He was middle-aged, overweight, balding and his clothes were drenched with sweat.
It was a good thing that she was beyond the petty inconvenience of not being able to turn off her sense of smell.
“Can you tell me what’s happening here?” She asked, looking into his beady eyes.
The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, “It’s an uprising! The baron caught a few Church sympathisers, and the execution was today, but…”
Jane raised an eyebrow, “And the soldiers?”
He laughed bitterly, “What soldiers? Most marched and the rest are guarding the lord’s mansion. I doubt he’ll have the balls to send them out tonight. Tomorrow, they’ll be crushed, the fools. You should get out of the city before then, Miss,” he paused, “In fact, why don’t you come with me? Just a small detour, then we’ll leave. I can pay you handsomely.”
The lieutenant had to admire the sheer opportunism on display before shaking her head, “Sadly, I am not for hire.”
“Where are you going then?” He asked quickly.
“Out of the city,” she replied.
His eyes flicked from her to an alley, “Are you not willing to delay? A few hours at most. You’ll walk out of here a rich woman, I can guarantee it.”
“No,” Jane refused, about ready to walk away.
The man looked ready to start arguing but changed his mind upon seeing something on her face.
“Good day to you then,” he inclined his head towards her, before leaving in a brisk walk.
Jane left in another direction, somewhat bemused by the ordeal, but satisfied by the gathered information.
Evading the sparse groups of rebels in the dark proved easy and soon she found herself out of the city again, moving quickly towards their camp.
Radio not being invented here, she imagined that the uprising in the town was uncoordinated and thus likely isolated, but she doubted that the sentiments that led to it would be unique.
It seemed that the meatshield supply might be running into some issues sooner than expected.