After everything else, our final mop-up of the enemy troops was almost anti-climactic. When Mira and Elana got the sensors back on it bordered on unfair with our superior numbers and intelligence advantage.
My group at the bridge had already fortified ourselves before the enemy even arrived, and we only had to exchange a few follows of plasma fire before the remaining troops dropped their weapons and surrendered.
Sergent Kepler reported a similar situation, and for all that I worried about some last-minute turn of fate, our sensors reported no further enemies in the area. Linnea even called in that she’d won her battle in the woods.
It was finally over. We’d won.
But I still had a difficult decision to make. For long moments I agonized between holding our position at the mine entrance and getting everyone back home.
While I could send the ship back on its own, I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure it would be safe without troops in the air. The very idea of it being intercepted should have been insane, but after suffering through an orbital troop drop I couldn’t be sure of anything anymore.
Further, we didn’t have a single squad of uninjured soldiers left out of the three I’d started with. Thankfully many of those empty spots were from injuries, rather than deaths, but it was still a horrifying number.
And it might not be enough to hold the position safely. Not when all of them had just finished a difficult battle.
No. I’d already asked too much of everyone on this trip.
“Helm, get us into the air as soon as the engines are back online,” I began a decisive barrage of orders. “Mira, you and Elana focus on that over any other damage.”
Calling Linnea, I continued. “Linnea, we're pulling out as soon as possible. Get your scouts back into the ship, and get any injured down to the medical bay.”
“Understood,” Linnea responded professionally before her tone turned softer. “Are you sure Jared? We can retake the entrance from wandering beasts easily enough, but it might be a problem if someone else gets down there first. Not to mention giving the spiders longer to build back up.”
“I’ve considered those issues,” I said with a grimace. “But I still think we need to risk it, everyone has suffered too much already and we’ve blown through a lot of our military supplies.”
“Though,” I continued as a thought struck me. “Perhaps there’s a way to at least secure the surface without us. Just focus on getting back for now, and let me handle the rest.”
Closing the call after Linnea gave a second confirmation, I spent a few moments considering my new idea. After a fuck-up this large, surely the nation owed me something?
“Mira, please place a call to the palace,” I addressed my AI communications officer. “Let them know I need to talk to the Duchess, or her regent if she’d still out of contact.”
“Please hold,” Mira responded in a flat tone, the lack of humanity to it suggesting she was distracted. Hardly surprising given how much I was asking from her here.
Within a minute, I got a response from Mira. “The palace gives its apologies that the Duchess is unavailable. In her place, I have Lady Felisa on the line and can screen it to the bridge or the captain’s office.”
I raised an eyebrow at the speed. Felisa had to have been waiting for a call to respond that quickly. Then again, this was quite a political disaster. A rogue drop on their own personnel made the fleet and by extension, the royal family look pretty terrible.
The only surprise was that it still wasn’t enough to get the Duchess on the line. Then again, she might have been pulled into an urgent meeting with the fleet, or even the king, over this same situation.
Either way, Felisa would be more than suitable for now. If anything, she might be an easier target for concessions than her mother; I still shuddered when I remembered my attempts to negotiate with the Duchess.
“I’ll take it in the office,” I responded, realizing I was rudely keeping Felisa waiting after making the call. “Please tell her I’ll be just a minute,” I continued as I hustled over to the connecting door.
The first time I’d travelled on the ship I hadn’t even realized there were multiple rooms adjoining the bridge. The captain’s office was one of them, containing a desk to work at and a massive briefing table.
One of the table’s features was a massive holographic array I could use to take the call in privacy without having to use my tiny watch screen. Settling into the head seat, I signaled Mira to put the call through.
“Jared,” Felisa greeted me the moment she appeared. Dressed in one of the fancy court dresses I’d come to associate with her official position, her face was a mask of almost concealed stress.
“Please allow me to be the first to pass on the crown’s deepest condolences and regrets for the tragedy that has befallen you and your men,” she continued with a low bow. “We were so thankful to receive your call after that communication blackout.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the words with grace. It might not bring back the dead, but at least they weren’t trying to cover the whole issue up.
“It wasn’t without causalities, but we have managed to secure the ship. We also have a number of the traitors in custody. They’re refusing to talk to us, but someone on your end might be able to get some information out of them.”
“If you could have a secure transport meet me at my estate we can transfer them to the crown’s custody.” I watched Felisa's face carefully as I spoke, noticing the brief flashes of emotion that made it past her mask.
Relief we’d secured the ship, anger mixed with relief to hear we had prisoners, pure relief that I would be handing them over. It was a mix that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with.
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“That’s great to hear, Jared,” Felisa began before pausing as if to weigh her words. “Please treat them well. While the trial you must have gone through is horrendous, earlier indications suggest… that they might not be entirely at fault.”
“What?” I asked, my tone flat. What the hell was she talking about? Hadn’t this entire thing been because of a mutiny on the drop ship? How could the very marines responsible not be at fault?
“I’m sorry, I can’t say more over an unsecured line,” Felisa hurried to respond, shifting her weight from one foot to another. “Please know that I’m not trying to hide anything, it’s just a delicate matter.”
“Come to the palace at you’re earliest opportunity and I’ll tell you everything,” she leaned forward as she spoke, and I could tell how serious she was being. “Why not come straight here even? I assure you we have the best possible medical treatment available for your men?”
I licked my lips at the unexpected request. It wasn’t the worst idea; the only downside was that it would delay my soldiers being reunited with their friends and family a little longer.
Given that better medical treatment might be the difference between those with the worst injuries living or dying, I felt that few among my men would argue the point. “Very well,” I responded, smiling at Felisa as I relaxed.
“Our engines are currently offline due to psionic sabotage; we will take off and plot a course as soon as they're fixed.”
Felisa’s face went white as I said the words ‘psionic sabotage,’ and her mouth opened, then closed several times. In the end, however, she must have decided to wait until I arrived before asking further questions.
“Please inform us when you leave so I can have medical staff waiting at the landing pad. Unless there is anything else, I’ll see you then.”
Given the growing stress accumulating in her posture, it was clear she was needed elsewhere and was only being polite. Still, I did have something I needed to ask.
“One more thing,” I said, ignoring the flicker of annoyance on her face. “I recently leased the land here from your mother with the proviso that I secure it. However, with the current situation being far outside anything I could have predicted, I’m formally requesting support to secure it.”
Left unsaid was how much of the fault for the issue lay with the crown. From the torn look on her face, I couldn’t imagine the point passed Felisa by.
After a few moments, she rallied herself and responded. “Understood Jared. Given the circumstances, I’m sure my mother wouldn’t begrudge tasking an army unit to the area for a few weeks. I’ll organize it now and they should be there in less than a day.”
“Thank you that was everything I had,” I responded, giving her a shallow bow for her superior station. “We’ll be back in the capital soon, see you then.”
“Goodbye Jared,” Felisa responded, flicking the call off.
Sighing in relief, I settled back in my chair. Having an army unit guarding the surface wouldn’t do anything to suppress the residents of the depths, but it would stop anyone sneaking in to loot the area first.
Given our adversaries would now be aware of the area, that was a significant possibility. Not only was the deposit of Resulum below valuable, but losing it would be a blow to our ship repair efforts.
Which was exactly the kind of thing I’d try to target if I was on the enemy side.
After a few moments to gather myself, I began issuing orders again using the briefing table’s tactical interface. We had to ensure everyone was inside, get the pilots back into the air, and plot a course for our new detestation.
Where I would hopefully get some damn answers about this entire insane situation.
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Within half an hour the ship’s engines were back online, which gave me just enough time to complete the most depressing task of my life; informing the families of my fallen soldiers that they were dead.
It was an aspect of command I’d never really considered before, and so soul-crushing that I wanted to forget it the second I was done.
Surprisingly few of the family members blamed me, at least out loud, but someone that only made things worse.
I knew that every man and woman out here was solely in danger to further my own plans, so how could I be anything but at fault? All I could do now was assure them there would be a state funeral and a generous pension.
It did little to assuage my conscience, but at least seemed to provide a little comfort.
With that ordeal over, I left the flight in Mira’s hands, called Linnea into the captain’s office, and let the rest of the world fade away as we comforted each other. With three of the scouts injured under her command, she faced the same guilt, though to a lesser extent than I did.
Further, she’d straight up assassinated the Psion from a distance with no chance for the man to save himself. Cold-blooded killing like that took its own toll, as I could relate to from shooting several enemies in the back during one of my engagements.
By the time we arrived at the palace, I think we both felt a little better, though the damage was far from healed. I should probably look into a professional for us both to talk to; something else to add to a seemingly endless list.
Felesiea was waiting by the landing pad, surrounded by heavily armed royal guards. From the sheer number of them, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out they expected an ambush.
Then again, who knew how badly our com network might have been infiltrated? With access to Technokinesis, everything was on the table, including faking my end of the entire conversation.
For all they knew, this could have been a straight-up invasion. Given the short travel time, you could have packed a vast number of troops in my frigate if you wanted to.
Thankfully for both of us, it was a purely hypothetical situation, and everyone soon calmed down when I showed myself in person. We took a few minutes to oversee the transfer of captives and enemy corpses, including the Psion’s corpse Linnea had brought back.
Then Felisa led Linnea and me deeper into the palace than we’d ever been before. Past three security checkpoints, more royal guards, and a dazzling array of automated defenses until we reached a richly appointed office.
Two of the royal guards tried to follow us in, but Felisa waved them off and closed the door with a flick of her wrist. “Mother’s office has the best security of anywhere in the palace,” she said, sinking into a lounge off to the side, instead of the high-backed chair behind the desk.
Following, Linnea and I took seats in a pair of chairs across a little coffee table from hers. A steaming teapot and three cups were already present, but none of us moved to take one.
Felisa leaned forward, an apologetic look on her face. “We can talk safely here. Now, I know you must want answers, but I must ask for a full debrief first. I can answer your questions a lot better if I have the full details of the situation.”
“The Duchess won’t be joining us? Even after we were attacked by allied troops?” Linnea asked before I could say anything.
There was more than a hint of outrage in my lover’s tone, and I couldn’t say I disagreed with the sentiment. The Duchess had been out of communication for some time now, but I would have thought this was serious enough to get her attention.
Wincing, Felisa held up her hands,” I do apologize for that. This directly ties into mother’s business in the capital, so I’m afraid she’s even more busy now.”
That was news I hadn’t heard before. Actually… she’d said something about investigating one of her brothers right? That can’t be an easy thing to manage so perhaps her absence was understandable.
Linnea didn’t look quite as mollified, so I laid a hand on her knee. She relaxed at my touch, and I took over with a more gentle touch. “That is unfortunate to hear, however, I’m sure Felisa will be able to answer our questions.”
I phrased the question as if I was talking to Linnea, but with Felisa right there the barely veiled intent was obvious. I’d accept this for now, as long as I got some goddamn answers.
And for all that I wanted them right now, I had to admit her request had some merit. She hadn’t known there was a Psion present until I brought it up, so there could be other matters she was unaware of and so couldn’t tell us anything about.
Leaning forward, and referring to the records on my watch when necessary, I walked her through the entire battle with growing impatience.
Soon I’d get to the bottom of this.