Fantasy Starfallen

[Corrosion]

The immediate effects on hypersonic ferromagnetic projectiles on organic targets was messy, to say the least. The AP rounds had gone through the hostiles' armour like it wasn't even there in the first place. Without the ballistic-resistant material used in conventional armour used by the UEG, it stood even less chance of matter escaping a black hole. The rounds tore right through, riddling the targets with holes as they punched right through and out the other side.

Those were the low-caliber rounds.

The larger rounds tore limbs clean off and ripped off chunks of flesh and bone, and reduced several unlucky hostiles to piles of bloody meat and broken armour. Considering the fact that 15.7mm rounds were also meant to be used against light vehicles, it was probably a little overkill to use them against what essentially amounted to humans wearing aluminium foil.

"Cease fire!" Commanded Eckstein, making his way towards the carnage. The whole process only took less than five seconds. When the hailstorm of metal ended, every single one of the hostiles had been cut down, most of them shredded completely. "All targets neutralised." He reported to command.

Surveying the damage with his helmet's bio-scanner (a device that detected life signs of subjects, standard issue for all armour variants), he noted that there were only four survivors: two fatally wounded, one in critical condition, and the final one injured but conscious. He was quite surprised to see that any had survived the volley in the first place.

"Do we pick off the stragglers, sir?" Asked one of the Marines, loading a fresh mag into his rifle.

Eckstein shook his head. "Negative. We're bringing in the survivors for questioning."

"And the rest?"

"Dump 'em. Don't want them stinking up the base."

"Yes, sir."

----------------------
​

"All targets neutralised, sir." Miller reported. "That was literally the only outcome I could predict. Out of the three hundred and sixty-six possible scenarios, I couldn't come up with a single one where the hostiles came up on top. It was just completely improbable."

Decker had watched the whole incident play out from inside the bridge. "Survivors?"

"Just two are in any shape to answer questions."

The captain nodded. "All interrogation options authorised," He said. "I want to get to the bottom of this."

Miller nodded. "Aye, sir." He blinked suddenly. "Incoming priority message from Princess Anice."

"I assume she has something to report," Decker straightened up. "Patch her through."

The princess' figure popped up in front of him, looking rather worried. "Loud and clear princess," Decker said with a wave of his hand. "The secondary detachment heading towards Alpha Base has been neutralised. The Marines are bringing the survivors in for questioning. I assume you've done the same?"

----------------------
​

Conway frowned as he watched the feed of the ongoing confrontation. His thoughts mirrored that of his CO's. Something was clearly not right here. Now, he wasn't exactly versed in the realm of ancient warfare much like this, but from the vids he'd seen detailing the topic, he'd expected the combatants to be more... bombastic.

Instead, the hostiles' movements were slow and jerky, almost robotic in a sense. There was no fluidity to their actions.

Nakier dealt the first blow, slugging his target across his face and knocking his helmet clean off. That also conveniently revealed the fact that the person in the armour was a human male, and it was probably the same with the rest. Conway didn't notice anything immediately amiss, but the princess sure did, since she prevented the lizard man from attacking further and moved to inspect the man.

"What the hell is she doing?" He heard Lieutenant Sharron say, her voice incredulous. "She's just left herself open to attacks."

Fortunately, however, Nakier moved in to protect his princess. After studying the fallen hostile for a few seconds, she suddenly declared that the man was 'cursed'. The circling drone's long-range parabolic microphone picked up every word she said.

"Again with the magical bullshit?" Torres scoffed. "If I may say, ma'am, the only curse they have is that of sheer fucking idiocy."

Sharron turned to glare at him. "Not now, private." She said, and then turned back to the feed. By then, the princess had disappeared, likely teleporting away, although the lieutenant did manage to catch a glimpse of her ordering her guards to 'call a Sage to break the spell the they're under'.

Whatever the fuck that meant.

The secondary feed was that of Alpha Base, and the Marines (and one elf) had a clear view of the secondary detachment of the hostiles getting torn to shreds by Marine firepower. The results weren't pretty, but at least it was quick and efficient.

"You think they're, I dunno, possessed or some shit?" Adler asked. "I mean, we've seen all kinds of bullshit since our arrival, like that disappearing act the princess always does."

"What, like taken over?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, like that. Like they're getting remotely controlled or something."

Sharron sighed. "I have no damn clue." She turned to Luthien. "Ma'am, you're familiar with magic. What's this about curses?"

 

[StarryKnights]

Luthien cast Torres an icy look before answering Sharron's question.
"Magical curses vary in effect and power, but this one is simple. It seems someone rounded up some hapless innocents, dressed them in armor, and sent them to their deaths", she glanced to the secondary feed, which showed the other section of invaders being reduced to bloody pulp in the fields outside of the UEG's ship.
Luthien held little love for humans, but the sight made her grit her teeth.
No doubt who ever had set this all in motion was laughing at them from behind the scenes.

"Simply put, it means your people just gunned down what were likely farmers and merchants, Gods above have you people no restraint?".
She glared at Sharron and the rest of the marines and gestured to the feed.

"Regardless of these people's intent, such an extreme reaction was far from necessary. Your weaponry could've neutralized them just as easily without turning them all to mush".
Well, all except two, the surviving members of the ill fated unit simply stood there, whether or not they had any idea what was going on around them Luthien couldn't say.

_+_+_

Anice paled at Decker's words, a feeling of dread was slowly eating away at the pit of her stomach.
"Anice, what's the current situation?".

Her father's stern tone cut through her worry, and caused the princess to speak.

"We engaged with the unit sent to our walls...but something was off. These soldiers did not act like proper fighters...and upon further inspection...". She sighed. This had turned into a massive mess.

"As far as we can tell Captain, the people you...neutralized were nothing more than bewitched Arcadia citizens. If you examine the eyes of the surviving men, you'll find that their pupils are blown, and there's a purple tint in the whites of their eyes. They had no control over themselves and their actions Captain...someone was controlling them".

Ramus stiffened on his throne. "What of the men who attacked us?".

"The first man Nakier unmasked looked like an average farmer...all those who headed for the wall are alive, we're sending a Sage to try and break the spell...and maybe track who ever cast it".

"We'll send the best we have", the king gestured for a nearby servant, who quickly moved to the king's throne. "Fetch Bellamy, send her to undo this spell".
Bellamy was one of the best mages in the kingdom, and perhaps her gifts could shed some light on the situation.

She looked to Decker, her tone was grave.
"Captain, we're going to need those survivors back, they won't be able to tell you anything useful...and questioning them might trigger a..fatal side effect of the curse. We would like to avoid more needless death if at all possible".
She couldn't hold back the bitterness and anger in her voice.

Whatever the UEG had done to defend themselves, Anice held little doubt that it could've been done in a simpler, less lethal way.
But naturally, these people cared not if they spilled the blood of those they perceived as a threat. Such ruthless tactics were necessary when one was at war. But these men were a far cry from the threat the bizarre lizard race the outsiders had fought before. These were men armed with spears and swords, and Anice knew that they'd posed no real threat.

"Please send us the surviving men so that we may help them, from there we will turn our focus to tracking down the person, or persons who bewitched them in the first place".

 

[Corrosion]

The Marines mostly went silent at the elf's explanation, a mixture of shock and disgust on their faces for the most part. "That's... actually pretty fucked up." Grader spoke, disgust clear in his voice.

Conway too felt the same way. Sure, the UEG was not the most moral government he knew of, but even it had his limits. Yes, it will perfectly willing to conduct mass executions on anyone even remotely affiliated with the rebels, yes, was also a-okay with causing collateral damage to civilian targets, and yes, was completely fine with annihilating entire settlements to take out a single target.

But essentially taking a group of innocent civilians and mind-controlling them, dressing them as the enemy, and sending them towards an obviously technologically-superior force who could very well level the entire planet a dozen times over?

That would definitely warrant the execution of whoever was responsible in the most drawn-out and painful way possible. Most likely by VKX.

God, he could never get the images of the effects of VKX out of his head.

The lieutenant frowned. "So they've got mind control now. That's just great." She sighed and folded her arms and shook her head in disbelief, before turning to Luthien. "Ma'am, it was standard procedure. The area surrounding Alpha Base is a restricted area, with many obvious warnings surrounding the perimeter. When the unknowns entered that zone, they were given several warnings. When they continued, there was no choice but to designate them as hostile. Thus they were immediately neutralised."

Conway stepped towards his CO. "El-Tee, we should probably send a report to command ASAP. You know, because mind control is probably gonna be a huge problem."

----------------------
​

Captain Decker rose a brow, obviously not quite believing. "Are you saying that the men were mind controlled into attacking us?" He asked, skeptical. It was arbitrary, of course, considering the fact that psychic theory had been dismissed long ago. But given the general nature of the world they'd crash landed on, that probably wasn't that far-fetched.

Even with everything he'd seen, he still found it hard to come to terms with this magic.

The captain turned back to the princess after a moment of pondering. She wanted the survivors back, said that questioning them while they were still under the effects of the curse would have fatal side effects. He nodded in understanding. With the survivors being unresponsive, interrogation would be useless anyway. "Understood. The survivors will be sent via air transport. Expect a dropship within the hour."

"Sir, I'm could perform an analysis on the, uh, cursed citizens," Miller suggested. "See how it works on all that. If whoever was behind this somehow managed to mind control our own troops and use them against use, well, let's just say that bad would be an understatement."

Decker nodded. "See what you can do. I want a composite report on the matter."

Miller nodded. "Aye, sir. I'll transfer myself over to the boys in Windcrest."

"Miller will oversee the process," Decker said, turning to the princess. "Given the security issues raised by this incident, you'll have to understand that this is a massive cause of concern for us." He paused for a few brief seconds. "We could send the bodies of the dead for a more proper burial, should you wish."

That done, he stood back up and finished with his usual ending. "Decker out."

Once the transmission ended, he sighed and took a seat. "Mind control..." He muttered in a tone of disbelief mixed with resignation. "Great. Next we'll be having the dead rising from their graves, or a god descending from the heavens."

"I wouldn't jinx it, sir." Miller cautioned. "You never know what else this place's magic has in store."

But Decker paid him no heed.

----------------------​

Given the UEG's general policy on prisoners (which is to say, take none), not much medical attention was given to the survivors, other than the very least care. They'd been healed up, slightly, if patching up their most grievous wounds and slapping some bandages on them could be considered that. The two were then loaded onto a LUT-77 Phoenix transport and sent to the city.

Just over half the length of a Vulture at around nineteen metres, Phoenixes were smaller utility air transports made to ferry single squads of infantry around, and also carry out light deliveries. Faster than the more lumbering Vultures, they were used to make precision deliveries, and most famously to insert spec ops teams into the combat zone.

On the captain's orders, the men had withheld from dumping the dead into a mass grave, and had instead placed them into cryo-bags, non-porous bags used to store corpses, with a cryogenic system preserving the bodies and preventing decomposition. Well, those who weren't blasted to little pieces by the barrage of metal, of course.

The Phoenix touched down at the designated landing zone the princess had requested. Unlike the Vulture, the craft lacked a ramp, and instead had a pair of sliding doors on each side. They opened, revealing both survivors, a Marine combat medic, and a single Medical Operations Unit, a robotic unit specialising in medical care. It was humanoid and painted white and red to signify its purpose. Medical equipment and other utility items were built into both arms, and had several more functions on its body.

"Greetings," The bot greeted as it unloaded the wounded, speaking in a male voice with an accent that sounded like it came from the more higher-class areas of old Britain. "I am a Medical Operations Unit designed to provide medical assistance and emergency healthcare. My designation is MHDs19, but you may refer to me simply as MHD."

The survivors had mostly been cleaned up with their armour removed for study back at base. One of them was missing both his legs; they'd been blown off to the stump earlier and thus had to be amputated. The second one had multiple bullet scars on his chest and torso. By some miracle the rounds hadn't hit any major organs or arteries despite all odds.

They were in bad shape, but alive.

 

[StarryKnights]

Luthien stewed.
"It isn't as if this sort of thing hasn't always existed Ma'am, you and yours seem to think very little of our magics. But it can be just as deadly...perhaps even more so, than your strange contraptions...and general lack of restraint".
She snorted and rolled her eyes. "But that seems to be a trait all of humanity shares...".

Protecting one's own was important, but these people were strangers in a foreign land, yet they acted as if they owned the place. It made Luthien's blood boil, the nerve of this woman, suggesting that the land her people had crash landed on somehow belonged to this other worldly governing body.
She debated on testing the effects a minor curse might have on these fools...

Of course she could never do something so brash...and stupid, but Gods was it a tempting thought.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm certain the princess will need help cleaning up the mess you've all left. Somehow we're going to have to identify and notify the families of these...unfortunate victims caught in the cross hairs", she didn't bother with a bow or salute before stalking toward the exit and out of the base.
The sooner these outsiders left the planet, the better as far as the elf was concerned.

She couldn't fathom that these two polar opposite societies could peacefully coexist for long.

_+_+

It was obvious that Captain Decker was a bit skeptical about her claims, which Anice could understand. These people came from a world where magic wasn't common place, in fact she knew that most of the marines didn't believe in the craft at all.
While the lack of belief was understandable, but it was also dangerous. The fact these people didn't believe meant they were ignorant to the danger magic posed to them. More than likely, Decker and his men though that the natives of Edreign were unable to compete with their machienes. Impressive though they were, Anice held little doubt that their magic could rival the mechanisms.

It could do things that these outsiders likely considered to be impossible, like sap the will from a common person and force them to march to their deaths.

"Yes sir, this particular curse sapped the victims of control over their own actions, and forced them into this...suicidal crusade".
She was relieved that he was willing to agree to returning the survivors, as she doubted they would survive any interrogation techniques Decker's men used.
She was visably upset with all that had happened, her people had been used as tools and sent to their deaths.
An action that someone must've been very confidant the outsiders would take.

Decker was willing to send over the survivors, but he also wanted Miller to oversee the examination of the victims, a request that brought a frown to her face.

She opened her mouth to interject, but her father cut her off.
"That's acceptable, so long as your machine doesn't hinder our efforts in breaking the spell".
He shot his daughter a look, one that dared her to say otherwise.
Gritting her teeth, Anice relented.

"As you wish Father. If you could send the men to the east wing of the palace we would be greatly appreciative. There is a courtyard there that should be big enough for one of your vehicles to land in".

That only left the bodies, Decker was oh so graciously willing to hand those over as well.
Anice couldn't stop herself from scoffing.

"How thoughtful of you captain, we'll need them to identify the victims and inform their families...".
Well, those who could be identified, Anice assumed most of them weren't intact. She doubted that the off worlders had shown an ounce of restraint when it came to neutralizing what ultimately barely qualified as a threat.

It made her angry, and Decker's lack of apparent remorse over the situation wasn't helping.
She merely nodded as Decker signed off, and breathed a sigh of relief when the transmission cut off.

"Calm yourself Anice", Ramus spoke in a grave tone.

She whipped around. "How can I be calm given the situation!? They BUTCHERED them father, we're lucky anyone is left alive at all!". She rubbed her eyes.

"We don't know how many survivors there are, regardless the outsiders had every right to defend themselves".
Anice scoffed. "Oh really, so you don't care that they have killed your citizens?".

Ramus stood, at his full height he was a good foot taller than his daughter. "Mark my words my dear, I care greatly. But I also know that if it becomes convenient, these people can easily wipe our kingdom off the map. Perhaps whoever arranged this farce wished to expose that".
He frowned.

"You're the one who was so supportive of us working together, surely you're not just now realizing that these people...they are not like us. And they certainly do not care for us".

Anice faltered there. "I...hadn't thought that...".
"That they would do something so callous? So efficient? These people have been at war for years Anice. And war makes you...efficient and vicious. I am not surprised by their actions. They were under threat and they neutralized it in the quickest and least costly manner to them".

He leaned closer. "And if you think, for one second that they wouldn't do the same to us if it was necessary, than you are mistaken my dear".
He sighed. Anice was very passionate, and naive. She probably hadn't considered the notion that these outsiders might prove to be a threat to her kingdom. She likely saw them as potential allies.

Ramus knew better, cooperating with the outsiders was the safest thing he could do for his kingdom. He knew full well these people would take what they wanted, and leave nothing behind.
He didn't have to like it, the same way he detested cooperating with some of the other races, but what he thought was best didn't always translate into what was best for his people.

_+_+

Anice was on the ground, waiting for the delivery of the survivors. She had a small unit of healers on the ready, along with two beds for the men to rest in. She didn't know what kind of condition the men would be in, so she was prepared for the worst.

At her side was Luthien and Bellamy, both of which were there to examine the magic that was on the men.
Both were talented mages, Bellamy's divine gifts and Luthien was somewhat of an expert on cursed. After all, the elf was rather adept at weaving them herself, though she rarely had any use for them now that she was in service to the Princess.

All eyes were on the sky as the outsider's vehicle arrived, though it was heard before it was seen.
It touched down on the lawn, kicking up a small torrent of debris as the doors opened.
Anice noted this vehicle looked different from some of the others she'd seen before, it was smaller.
That meant that there weren't many survivors left, and the notion made her blood boil.

The first thing that came out was a bizarre humanoid figure, though it was clearly not. It looked metallic, and it's mouth didn't move when it spoke.
It identified itself as a medical Medical Operations Unit, and it's primary function was to provide immediate emergency medical care.
Behind it came the survivors, there were only two of them, both in extremely rough shape. One was missing both of his legs, and the other was wrapped in heavy bandages.
The mechanism was unloading the injured men.

"Follow them back please, and tend to their curse. Also, help prepare the other healers, as it looks like we have some limbs to regenerate", her tone was icy.
What was normally a meeting hall had been re-purposed into a makeshift hospital wing. There were two beds, and several baskets full of medicinal herbs, as well as a small stack of text. Some of these books were medicinal, others detailed the complicated magical rituals which can be used to treat the most extreme injuries and condition.
Conditions like missing a pair of legs.

Anice wasn't sure if the remaining corpses were in this transport, or if they would be coming later. She looked to the strange mechanical device, assuming that it was somehow connected to the ship. It seemed all these bizarre devices allowed Decker to hear and see what was going on.

"Thank you for bringing them, are the corpses also in this transport or will they be provided later?".
As she spoke, her staff went to work, transferring the men to their designated beds.
Bellamy and Luthien took a step back and allowed the medical staff to tend to the victims, starting with the removal of the bandages presently on to get a better look at the injuries in question.
Mercifully, both men appeared to be in a trance like state, Anice hoped they couldn't feel the extent of their injuries.

 

[Corrosion]

Sharron merely nodded as the elf walked out the building, considering how she left before the lieutenant could give a proper goodbye. Besides, she didn't seem to be in the mood for it anyway. Once she was out of sight, Sharron shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Damn, what's her problem?" She pondered out loud. "It's not like this whole thing is our fault. What were the boys at Alpha with a bunch of clearly armed and armoured unknowns heading towards them? Invite them in?"

"They were mind controlled, ma'am." Pierce muttered, offhandedly.

The lieutenant sighed. "Mind controlled or not, they still didn't respond to any warnings, so we had to do something. Now, it looks like we've got another damn war on our hands. Besides, it's not like we did anything wrong."

Torres decided to speak his opinions. "Well, I wouldn't expect much from a bunch of primitives like these," He said, completely dismissive in tone. "They've got no respect for protocol, and probably believe that this magic of theirs can do anything."

"It probably can, to be honest," Said Grader, who up to that moment had been mostly silent and had opted to listen to everything said. "You've seen what this magic can do with that weird teleporting Circle shit the other day."

"I'm sure it has some form of rational explanation, like ancient alien tech or something." Torres suggested, apparently not noticing the incredulous stares it got him.

"Yeah, that just raises even more questions than answers." Reyes told him.

For Conway, it was always the same thing. The private had remained just as skeptical as he'd been when they first arrived on this planet. Even with all the magic demonstrations he'd seen while wandering around the city, enough to convince many, Torres remained stubborn. Then again, the private apparently hadn't left the FOB during shore leave, said something about 'staying clear of the dirty primitives', according to Ash. He'd only left once to get some drinks with the other half of the squad, albeit with some reluctance. But he'd turned back after declaring that the local brew tasted like volin piss.

"You still don't believe, do you, private?" Conway asked. "Even with all the shit you've seen these past few days?"

"Yeah, I don't." The private replied. He was adamant, that was for sure. "You can tell me a hundred times, sergeant, but magic isn't real."

"And if it is? If this is actual magic and not some kind of, I don't know, form of dark energy or something?" Conway continued. "Then would you believe?"

Torres scoffed and glanced out the door. "Well, the day I save that elf at the cost of my own life would be the day I would."

"Watch it, Torres," Warned the sergeant. "Maybe you will. Besides, when that day comes, I'd expect you to do your duty to humanity and do just that."

He expected him to counter that argument by stating that Luthien wasn't human, but instead, he was rather pleasantly surprised that Torres decided to back off.

"When that day comes."

----------------------
​

Combat medic Sergeant Kenneth MacCullin followed behind the princess and her guards, with the medical unit in tow. His armour was standard-issue Marine armour, but its torso piece was painted white, with red shoulder pads with the traditional six-pointed blue Star of Life on both, Rod of Asclepius in the centre. An assault rifle was secured to his back, with a pistol on his right thigh and mediheal projector on his left.

He was mostly only there in case things went south (i.e. more mind-controlled civilians appearing), and left most of the talking to the medical bot. It was far more adept with explanations, given how it quite literally had all the medical knowledge known to humanity implanted in its processing unit.

MHD spoke. "Ma'am, replacement limbs can be grown on request," He said. "We have sufficient genetic material for rapid vat-replication."

"What he's trying to say is that we can grow a pair of replacement legs for our friend here," MacCullin helpfully translated for the less technically-inclined natives, gesturing to the legless survivor. His thick Scottish accent was rather distinctive. "All you need to do is ask, and we'll deliver."

Or not, given how the 'healers' the princess spoke of were apparently capable of regenerating lost limbs. Now what was something he had to see.

The group eventually arrived to what was probably normally a meeting area into makeshift infirmary, with two beds for the survivors. There were baskets filled with what MacCullin assumed were medicinal herbs (as expected for a primitive civilisation that lacked advanced healthcare), although the medic had absolutely no clue what the stack of text was for. Could be a medical journal or report, but it sure as hell didn't look like one.

"The rest of the bodies are back at Alpha Base, ma'am," MacCullin told the princess. "We can send them to the city if you want for identification and possible compensation."

The designated healers had begun to remove the bandages of the wounded. Underneath the injuries had been healed somewhat, mostly preventing them from bleeding out and internal organ damage.

"The patients have been subjected to minor healing," Said the medical unit, detecting the princess' worry (it was designed to read and detect human emotions, after all). "A more thorough healing process can also be initiated on request. Reassurance: the patients have been sedated and have been placed into an medically-induced coma so as to prevent further harm to themselves and surrounding personnel."

 

[StarryKnights]

Anice hadn't even noticed the fact the machine was accompanied by a human handler. She chopped it up to being tired and looked to the man as he clarified what the robot had said.
"I gathered that thank you, but we can handle it ourselves.".

She turned and approached Luthien and Bellamy, who were standing at the bedside of the victim who was currently lacking legs. while the healers busied themselves with examining the injuries, Bellamy had the man's head tilted back, and one eye stretched open.
Thanks to the medically induced coma and the effects of the curse, the man was completely motionless and limp, were he not propped up against a wall of pillows he would've slumped onto the bed.
Bellamy and Luthien both examined his eye for a moment before Luthien let out a swear in elvish. The language was soft and full of a lot of extra vowel sounds that made it sound like mush to the princess, and to most people who didn't study it.

Anice was well versed in the native language of the elves, but she didn't recognize the word Luthien had uttered. It was likely some sort of slang or swear, but it didn't matter. She didn't need to recognize the word, she could tell just from her tone. It wasn't good news.

The princess's attention was diverted back to MacCullin as he spoke of the bodies. Her eyes narrowed at the word compensation.
"Have them sent to the palace, so we might inform the families of these men that they won't be coming home. Do not send them to the city, last thing we need is to start a panic with the people. As for the compensation...you can choke on it for all I care,".

It wasn't a regal or politically correct response, but Anice was angry. Angry that the people she'd thought she could trust had proven to be so callous, and that she'd been foolish enough to trust them. What price could these people think was enough to counter act the lives that had been lost? She didn't even want to know, and she didn't rightly care.
If her father was cross at her later for her impulsive, emotion word choice than so be it.

"We have no need of any further medical care from you, our people can handle it. As far as I'm concerned, you both have done enough and can leave," she gave both the robot and the man accompanying it one last scathing look before looking back to Luthien and Bell, who had stepped back to allow the healers more room to work.

All of the medical team wore white hooded robes, with a red rose pattern stitches onto the breast. Such was the symbol of the medicinal wing, the floral imagery was derived from the worship of a benevolent goddess, of life and death. While two men rubbed medicinal salve onto the chest of the man who'd been shot, a third was busy muttering healing incantations, which in turn caused the salve to glow softly as the spell went to work.

The man with the missing legs was getting a similar treatment, though his stumps had been slathered with a white paste looking substance. Limb regeneration was an intensive process, but not impossible. It took two healers, one a man and the other a woman in this case, to recite the spell together to get the desired effect.
It likely wasn't as efficient as the methods used by the more advanced civilization, but the results would be just as desirable. In a few hours time, this man's legs would be replaced by a new healthy set of limbs. Whether or not he would be cognizant of the change relied on Luthien and Bellamy.

The princess joined her friend and guard, who both looked up as she approached.
"That bad huh?", Anice crossed her arms.
"Whoever made this is a damn good caster", Luthien spoke, her gaze shifting to the two men on the bed.
"It's simple yet...ingenious. I doubt this guy will be able to tell us anything...and that's assuming we can break it," the elf's tone was grim.

"So you're saying you can't?", Anice's jaw tightened at the prospect.

"It's not that we can't...it's that it will take time. This spell was very intricate, if we had more...people to examine it would make the task of examining it and breaking down it's components easier but", Bellamy didn't need to finish that thought, but Luthien chimed in.

"We're trying to solve a puzzle where half the pieces are missing Princess. Whoever did this had this well planned out".

So, they were dealing with a talented, organized spell caster who likely had an ax to grind with either the outsiders or the palace. That wasn't a lot to go off of.
"Focus your efforts on the unharmed victims, let's allow the healers the time they need to properly care for these two".
Bell and Luthien nodded. "Of course princess".

"As for me", Anice sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I'll be preparing a speech to address the public with, they need to know what's happened, and they need to be on alert. We will double the amount of guards in the city...".
And she'd need to talk to Decker, once news of what happened broke she imagined the people would be a lot less...hospital toward the outsiders.

"We're going to have to limit the off worlder's presence in the city more than likely, I don't need more needless deaths on my hands".

This had turned into a right mess, and Anice knew whoever had kicked it off had to be sitting back and laughing as the chaos unfolded.

 

[Corrosion]

MacCullin watched as the elf and the other woman as they examined the legless survivor. The elf suddenly let out an exclamation that sounded like a swear in some foreign language his helmet's built-in universal translators failed to transliterate. Oddly enough, it sounded vaguely like the long-dead language of Welsh, mixed with other, older dialects of Germanic languages. MacCullin wasn't a linguist by a long shot, but that was what he'd heard.

She seemed to be quite taken aback or even horrified by the appearance of the man's eye. Sure, the odd bit of purple in his sclera, along with the other survivor and the rest in general, was irregular, but other than that, he was physically fine. Well, minus the legs, of course.

The princess wasn't happen, which was given, although the medic had to protest her apparent dismissal of Decker's willingness to pay for the damage done. "Ma'am, Captain Decker is willing to offer compensation for the families of the deceased out of goodwill."

Still, she didn't seem to want to argue, and neither did the medic. That was quite above his pay grade. Besides, these primitives probably didn't even know of a little something called 'life insurance', given their backward culture and traditions.

The princess decided to dismiss him a moment later. "Yes, ma'am. I'll take my leave." He gestured to MHD. "However, the medical bot here will stay both to provide medical care if needed and to document the... magical healing process." He took a step back and then threw up a quick salute before turning back and leaving the way he came.

That left the bot with the princess and the others. MHD said nothing, and instead opted to observe the process in silence.

As the healers got to work, the holographic form of Miller suddenly appeared next to MHD's head just as the bandages and salves on the injured men began to glow from the spell. "Fascinating," He muttered, enthralled by the whole process. "I'm detecting accelerated cellular regeneration at a rapid rate, much like the UEG's mediheal. Slower, but much of the same." He turned to the princess as the medical bot stepped towards them. "It can regrow lost limbs too? Now that's something mediheal can't."

The princess was discussing the elf's findings. Apparently, the curse that had been placed on the citizens was simple, yet ingenious, and intricate and hard to break. An advanced level, from the looks of it, and something that would've taken a lot of time, skill, and planning to pull off that would need an equal amount of effort to break. Miller logged down that piece of information and filed it away for later study.

"Medical neurological scanners had detected diminished activity in the cerebrum, confirming that the survivors did in fact have no control over their actions." Miller told the princess and the others. "It's possible we can perform a forced neural reload on the survivors to restore their consciousness. It's used to instantly cure the worst of humanity's mental illnesses, but it has a risk of leaving the subject in a persistent vegetative state, or worse, total brain death." Miller glanced down at the injured man through the optics of MHD. "But if you're unable to break the spell you're talking about, it may be our only option."

----------------------
​

Given the fact that the families of the victims the Marines had neutralised earlier and the citizens of Windcrest and Arcadia as a whole probably weren't going to be very happy with what had just transpired earlier, finding out who was behind the attack and terminating him, her, or them was Decker's number one priority. While the Marines had acted out of self-defence and protocol, the natives probably wouldn't understand that. From what the royal family had explained, Edreign had been in a state of relative peace for quite a while now, and there hadn't been a full-blown war in years, and were generally unused to violence.

The arrival of the Filial Piety and its Marine complement sparked fears of newfound tensions, with with today's incident, it would appear that that peace was shattered. Whoever was behind it seemed to hold a grudge against Arcadia, or perhaps just didn't like the prospect of a new challenger in the form of the UEG. Currently, the most likely theory was that unknown party intended to make it seem as if the UEG had pointlessly slaughtered a sizeable number of Arcadian citizens. Not only that, but also to get the Marines to reveal the sheer power of their weapons. The people of Arcadia would then fear them, and it was a widely known fact that fear breeds hate.

The ultimate goal, it seemed, was for tensions to escalate into full-blown war, and crew would proceed to wipe Arcadia and its allies off the map, essentially making it so that the unknown party would have accomplished its (possible) goal of removing Arcadia off the map.

A perfect false flag operation.

Too bad Decker had a little too much experience and simply wasn't dumb enough to fall for that trick.

He got Eckstein on the line. "Yes, Captain?" The colonel asked, standing at parade rest. His helmet was off, and he was a grizzled older man a slight few years younger than Decker. However, he still managed to look at least a decade or two younger.

Decker leaned forwards. "Status?"

"We're already running recon and gathering as much intel as we can, but with practically nothing to work with as of yet, we're still in the dark, I'm afraid."

"Do what you can," Said Decker. "I'll have a word with the king."

"Yes, sir." The colonel nodded. "Oh, and when we find whoever did this, we'll be sure to make 'em regret ever deciding to fuck with the Marines."

The captain allowed himself a slight grin at that. "Don't forget to send them my regards."

The transmission ended, and he opened a new one with the king. "King Ramus," He greeted, not bothering with formalities. "I believe that whoever was behind the attack intended for it to be a false flag operation to spark a war between the UEG and Arcadia and its allies." He paused. "I'll be honest here: my ship carries enough nuclear warheads to annihilate the entire planet a dozen times over. The unknown party likely intends this to happen, but I won't allow that. Even now it's possible they're counting on me telling you this to spark even more tensions."

 

[StarryKnights]

Compensation out of good will? Where was that good will when these people had been marched to their deaths?

Anice gave the medical officer a scathing glare.

“We are perfectly capable of providing for the families of these victims, there are precedents and programs in place to aid families who lose loved ones in the line of battle”.

Normally it was reserved for the families of the soldiers who served in the King’s armies, and it wasn’t used often given there was no war, but Anice would see to it that that protection would extend to these victim’s families.

They just had to identify them.
“You may think we lack something as simple as a restitution system, but we do have such a thing. Furthermore, given we haven’t agreed on a proper exchange rate with your currency, your compensation would be nearly useless to our people. So once again, shove it”.

It was one thing for the inn keepers and bar tenders to accept the credits of the UEG, but average citizens weren’t going to know what to do with it, and they wouldn’t have as much support from the palace.

The man took his leave not long after, and Anice was happy for it. Of course, the robot was left, and it produced the strange creation known as Miller. Anice wasn’t entirely sure how the tiny projection worked, but it seemed to be its own sentient creation, that dwelled in the UEG’s machines.

How strange, and at the moment, annoying. It was regarding their procedures the way a child might ogle a bunny or a kitten. Anice found it rather aggravating, the way these people gawked at their lifestyle, as though they could hardly believe a society could function with such base means.

“Our methods have been used for hundreds of years and are adept at repairing all matter of injuries”, Bellamy chimed in with a gentle smile. She could sense Anice’s growing irritation and wished to avoid a confrontation.

Luthien ignored Miller entirely.

Millar was some how able to detect the effects the curse was having on the brains of the victims. Bellamy found that intriguing, but the proposed method of dispelling its effects was less than satisfactory.

“It’s not that we cannot break the curse, it will take some time”, Bell spoke.

“The risks of your methods out weigh the rewards, you and yours have done quite enough. You’re here to watch and catalogue our process. We don’t need further intervention from you”, Anice snapped without looking at the projection.

The notion of forcefully “reloading” a brain was distasteful to say the least.

“Give us a day to examine the other survivors, once we have a better picture of what we’re dealing with, we can move forward on breaking the curse”, Bellamy added with a small frown. She knew that Anice was angry, but there wasn’t any reason to be snapping at the machine. It got them nowhere.

“At this point princess, our best move is to allow the healers to tend to these men while we move on to the other survivors”, Luthien chimed in with a sigh.

Anice took a small breath and rubbed her eyes. “Alright, I’ll leave that to you then”.

Bellamy placed a hand on the princess’s shoulder before taking her leave, Luthien departed soon after with a nod.

Anice glanced to the robot. “Now what Millar, will you stay and observe the healers, follow me or observe Luthien and Bellamy? Or do you need to report back to Decker?”.

_+_+

Ramus was in his study, preparing to address the people from the balcony when Decker’s device went off. By now the king had learned how to answer the incoming calls with minimal fumbling with the machine.

Decker was quick to move straight to the point, in doing so he confirmed what the king had suspected and feared.

“I had thought as much captain, after all yours is a vessel for war”, the man replied dryly. “And your hunch is likely correct, though who can say what the motive behind this farce may be”.
Was it the destruction of his kingdom and the world at large, or was it simply to instill chaos? Could the culprit be an agent from another kingdom, or someone from within?

There were too many possibilities, their hope in catching the culprit would lay with the sages identifying the spell caster.

“That being said, damage is already done. The people were distrustful but open before. When news of this breaks, that will no longer be the case. There are already rumors circulating about what happened, and once I break the official report no one will be comfortable with your presence in the city. That is why your men’s movement in the city will be restricted”.

Whoever was behind this likely had succeeded in worsening the tension between the two civilizations.

Ramus had always been cautiously cooperative due to the fact he didn’t wish to spark a conflict, but now someone had gone and forced the issue entirely.

He opted not to share that his people were not entirely defenseless, and Decker had more than the kingdoms to contend with.
Edreign was a planet like no other, and Ramus help little doubt the powers that be wouldn’t stand by if Decker and his men opened up an all-out assault.

“I appreciate your cooperation in this matter, after all it is simply protocol. I must do what is best for my people”.

It wasn’t a request, it was a declaration. Either the marines would follow, or Decker would have them ousted from the city.

 

[Corrosion]

Miller turned back to the princess and Bellamy after another quick glance at the injured man. "It's still an option," He said. "If somehow, whoever came up with this curse, came up with an even nastier one somehow, making it such that even you won't be able to break it. It may be our only option when it comes to that. Besides, it's worth a shot."

Soon enough, Bellamy and Luthien departed to deal with the other survivors. Contrary to what the Marines had done, all the men who had been sent to Windcrest had survived, and most of them had very minor injuries.

"Ma'am, I'm a UEG Naval intelligence A.I.," Miller told the princess, folding his, and the platform he was currently inhabiting's, arms. "I was designed and built to analyse as much data as I can gather. And that means anything and everything."

The medical bot took a few steps towards the princess. Not in a threatening way, but in one that was both curious and to make a point, still despite how robotic the way MHD moved was. "I can process over a quintillion calculations per second and solve equations that would take even the best human mathematicians years to solve in microseconds. Compiling and sending a report back to base would only take a few nanoseconds at most." He said. "Captain Decker wants to get to the bottom of this as much as you do, but to do that, I need information, data. As much I can get."

The bot stepped towards the survivors. "I need to know how this curse works. I already know that it disrupts the neural functions in the brain, but from, well, the standpoint of someone versed in the realm of magic like you, how does it function exactly?"

----------------------
​

Decker nodded, slowly. Yes, the people in Windcrest were visibly distrustful and suspicious of the crew before, but for the most part, were remarkably welcoming, and remarkably hospitable, especially during the fairly brief day of shore leave that was granted. Relations were beginning to warm, and Decker had hoped it would continue that way, at least until they were rescued.

He'd spent the last few days wondering what would happen when they were rescued, if they ever were. Chances are, the crew would be redeployed and his ship restored to working condition and then thrown back into the fight. After they went through a very thorough physical and mental examination. The UEG simply letting Edreign be was unlikely, however.

The most likely outcome would be for the UEG to establish a research outpost on the planet to study this magic, to find any way to use it against the vaskrans, and to study its inhabitants as a whole, the sheer impossibility of a planet thousands of lightyears away from Earth developing near-identical conditions, and of course, the native humans.

After that, the planet would then come under full jurisdiction of Earth. If he was being optimistic, limited diplomacy would be conducted. A colony would possibly be established. If not, the native nation-states would then exist only as puppets of the UEG. Complete resource exploitation would then come into full effect, given how rich the planet was from scans taken.

That was probably be the best possible outcome.

Worst would be the Federal Office of Intelligence simply deciding to exterminate the non-humans on the planet and then cover the whole thing up. Decker doubted it had to come to that, but given how twisted and immoral the FOI could be at times, it wasn't impossible, per se, just highly unlikely.

"I understand," He said. "To prevent further... incidents like this, the Marines have been instructed to disable via non-lethal means unless absolutely necessary."

He leaned forwards as he decided to discuss plans instead. He turned to a report Miller had sent earlier. "Reports are that the men have been afflicted with a hard-to-break curse, an advanced level essentially." Several images of the men in question popped up, showing the curse's odd effects on their eyes, along with a diagram of neural scans, although the king would likely not understand any of the figures and three-dimensional brain model. "Any leads?"

 

[StarryKnights]

To say Anice was on edge about involving the robot was an understatement. Miller was merely doing what it had been told too, but she found its disregard for the danger its method provided unnerving.

“We’re not doing that Miller, it’s not up for debate”, she said icily.

Well, at the very least they weren’t using such an extreme measure first, not when it had a chance to completely crippled these people.

Anice wondered if the UEG dealt with its own people in such a disengaged manner. She didn’t know how he expected to be able to assist them, given he wouldn’t be able to track the magic the way Luthien and Bellamy would.

They didn’t understand anything about magic…but if they learned they may attempt to tamper with it. That could lead to its own set of headaches. Still, Anice knew that they could use the help, if Luthien and Bellamy couldn’t break this curse she didn’t know what their back up plan would be.

She reflexively took a step back as the machine came towards her, Miller wasn’t threatening her, but she still didn’t want the bot close to her. She bit back a smart comment about Decker as the AI mentioned the captain wanted this solved quickly.

“Curses are a specific breed of hex, designed to target other humanoid beings. Hexes can be used for a variety of benign purposes, the most common being enchanting an inanimate object to preform a task or tasks”.

That was common enough information, Anice didn’t see any harm in sharing.

“Curses override a person’s own will and thoughts, basically sealing them away in favor of turning them into a puppet. A skilled mage has mental defenses against such measures.”, she looked to the men laying in their beds, still numb to the world.

“But these were likely common citizens and would have no training against such an insidious attack. Curses are outlawed, but that doesn’t stop people from studying them”.

There was a bit more to it than that, but Anice was hesitant to share it.

All citizens of Edreign are born with a natural connection to the magical energy which was native to the planet. When someone was subjected to a curse, the invading spell quelled this natural connection, cutting the victim off from the energy itself. This would make it difficult, if not impossible for the victim to use a counter curse.

This energy source, which the outsiders already knew about, was viewed as the life energy of the planet. Anice didn’t want Decker and Millar messing around with it, it could have drastic consequences for the world.

“So, knowing all of that, what do you make of it”.

_+_+

Decker seemed amicable about the situation, but Ramus was still understandably on edge.

“That is a good first step captain”.

If that had been in place before, perhaps this entire situation could’ve been avoided.

Ramus had yet to receive an update from Anice, so Decker’s news was enlightening.

“No doubt Anice has her best mages working on the spell right now”. But if Bellamy and Luthien were struggling, then that didn’t bode well.

“There are countless individuals who might wish harm upon my rule or my country, until the curse is broken and properly examined, we’re faced with the prospect of bringing in suspects for questioning”.

Of course, the fact this spell was so intricate that it was proving difficult to crack was a good place to start.

“If this spell is as complicated as your report implies, then it means we’re dealing with a very talented and powerful mage”.

That in and of itself was a clue.

As the king spoke with Decker, one of the servants arrived, with a report from the princess.

Ramus quickly scanned the scroll before speaking.

“The survivors you brought over are being treated as we speak, and Luthien and Bellamy are working on the curse as we speak”.

 

[Corrosion]

Miller's avatar leaned back and scratched his chin. The bot did the same, mimicking his actions as if it was a puppet on strings (despite lacking a chin, or a face as a whole). It was a motion that was incredibly human, an action more to ease the tension in the room more than anything else. Miller could tell that the princess was on edge, which was quite obvious even without the other physical signs such as increased heart rate and tensed muscles.

"Does that mean you can, say... enchant a broom to sweep itself?" He asked, now quite intrigued. "Interesting. I'd love to see one of those... hexes myself." The bot's arms fell to its sides. "I'm guessing that these curses are the more destructive version of hexes."

The medical bot stepped towards the survivors as the princess spoke. The men were still in that odd trance-like state that had been in even before the application of the coma. The healers were doing their thing, a process Miller was recording for further analysis later on. "Outlawed for a good reason," He said after the princess had finished her explanation.

He turned back to her. "People will always find a way to exploit something, no matter how bad it would seem." Miller said. "Now isn't the time, but maybe some time from now I'll tell you how humanity split the atom. It's probably something your whole family would want to hear, and hell, it sounds a lot better narrated than read."

The story of nuclear power was a favourite among many, and was quite popular with kids. Who wouldn't like humanity's journey from the planetbound and divided civilisation they were back then to the thriving interstellar empire they are today?

"You mentioned that there are multiple curses?" Miller asked, deciding to get back on track. "Say, are there any that allows the extraction of information from the conscious or unconscious human brain?"

----------------------
​

The captain leaned over and placed his hands on the holotable. "Anyone in particular? Perhaps a political enemy of sorts?" He asked. "Because whoever did this must've been really dedicated to his goal, either to overthrow you or to completely remove Arcadia from the map."

Decker put his hand on his chin in thought. "It seems like whoever was behind this knew full well of the consequences, of our technology and what we'd do. It may be possible that they'd been observing us since our arrival. I'll have Miller comb through the security logs for any suspicious personnel."

Several days' worth of security footage from a few thousand different surveillance cameras wouldn't be that much of an issue for an advanced A.I. like Miller.

"A very talented and powerful mage..." Decker muttered in thought. "Do you have a list of possible suspects we can work with? Surely it must at least have a lead."

 

[StarryKnights]

Honestly, watching a robot and a projection imitate what was normal human behavior was all the more unnerving, but Anice sensed that Miller did so in an attempt to set her at ease. The AI wasn’t here to intimidate her, it was here to help.

“Well yes, such a hex is simple, though I have no talent for such things. You’d have to talk to Luthien, she is an expert on such things”.

After all, hexes and curses alike were an elven specialty, which was part of why the elves were viewed as mistrustful by many. Anice didn’t buy into such stereotypes but knew this event would do little to set the people’s mind at ease.

By now her father had to be ready to address the public, she ought to be there as well, but she had no desire to bare the brunt of the people’s outrage and fear.

“all magic has a dark side, in the wrong hands any school of the craft can be dangerous”. But curses were especially insidious, but also difficult to pull off.

Anice sighed. She shuddered to think of what else this mage would be capable of. Her thoughts were interrupted when Miller mentioned a story regarding a split atom. Anice had no idea what an atom was, or why the UEG had needed to split it.

“Perhaps another time”, her flat tone made it clear she wasn’t looking forward to it.
“There are a variety of curses, but the tasks your asking for can be accomplished only by the most skilled mages”.
Once again, Luthien came to mind.

“I’ve never heard of a curse made specifically for such tasks, but simple mind reading is a common enough feat”. She looked to the men.

“You expect to find something useful from these men’s unconscious thoughts?”.

That wasn’t a bad idea actually.

“I’ll send for Luthien, and see what she can do”, she motioned for a nearby, unengaged healer, and sent them to find the elf.

_+_+

Ramus thought for a moment.

“There is a possibility that one of my political rivals from a noble family could be behind this. Those from the Cloud District”.

Specifically, Viscount Hershal , a man from the prominent Marlan family.

“The Marlan family has been at odds with the Pyre family for decades, going back to the years after the founding of Arcadia”.

Of course, Hershal himself wasn’t a talented mage, but a man of money could easily hire someone capable of these dangerous feats.

Ramus knew not if the outsiders would be able to find something useful with their security footage.

The time had come for Ramus to address the public, so this conversation was going to be cut short.

“Right then Captain, I have my duties to attend to”, the king rose from his throne.

“If you need a powerful mage capable of such feats, look no forward than the elf in my daughter’s guard”.

Ramus made no attempt to hide the small amount of scorn in his voice.

“she is a skilled mage, and while I doubt she is behind this, she can shed more light on possible suspects. For now, I’m afraid that I must go”.

He inclined his head before ending the transmission.

 

[Corrosion]

"A common feat, huh?" Miller muttered. "Now that's worrying."

If mind reading was considered a common feat, he wondered what the more complex tricks were, what else magic could do. Already at least a thousand different scenarios were playing out in complex qubits.

He turned back to the princess as she asked her question, to which he shook his head. "No, well, maybe." He said. "It's more if the ship's personnel would be affected, if information can be extracted from their heads, especially from the upper echelons. If that were to happy, it'd be a huge security risk. Learning of the inner workings of infantry-grade weapons is bad enough, learning how fusion weaponry works is even worse."

And it was. Sure, he found it highly improbable that the natives would be able to replicate a magweapon, much less a thermonuclear warhead, but it was also possible for them to do so by somehow using enchanted materials in place of the more complex stuff. Of course, it was still improbable, and the natives probably wouldn't even be able to figure out how it worked, but if they even got a single schematic...

Wouldn't be good.

He turned back to the princess. "But reading these men's thoughts could also prove useful. Is there any way of sifting through their memories your way?" Miller asked. "Find out the last thing they saw before this happened, may provide us with a few clues."

----------------------
​

Decker nodded. "He's our lead, then." He said. "Possible questioning could be necessary."

The captain considered offering aid in the form of dispatching a Marine team to question the suspect if necessary, but he realised neither the king nor the people of Windcrest would take too kindly to a heavily armed and armoured squad of Marines busting down the door of the home of a high-ranking and well-known individual. There was already enough distrust as it was, no need to make it worse.

That left the option of passive surveillance by way of undetectable microdrones, normally disguised as flying insects laden with sensor systems.

The king suddenly stood up, announcing that he had other matters to attend to and thus had to cut the conversation short. "Understood," Decker nodded. "Until an official warrant can be issued, the UEG will not interfere, although he will be identified as a person of interest."

With that done, he stood up and ended the transmission. "Decker out."

Once the hologram of the king was gone, Decker sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "Damn."

Shaking his head, he turned back to the various holoscreens projected in front of him. "Miller, status?"

The A.I.'s avatar appeared immediately. "I'm still speaking with the princess, but from what I've been able to gather, this specific brand of curse is incredibly complex, a master level if you will, only able to be casted by the most experienced of mages. However, what's more worrying is that fact that mind reading is apparently a basic-type spell."

Decker frowned. "Worrying."

"My thoughts exactly." Said Miller. "It's imperative that we find out whoever's behind this ASAP. The security risks are much too high here."

The captain took a seat, his fingers tapping the rest of his chair. "Do we have a profile on this Marlan family?"

"Not really. However, I managed to gather some info on the suspects through recon passes the past few days."

Several images of the family in question popped up. "The data I've gathered is a little sketchy, but the Marlans have been political rivals of the Pyres for years. The family's wealthy and powerful, and it's led by a certain someone named Viscount Hershal, a key political rival of our friend on the throne. They've been at each other's throats for a while now, from the looks of things." The A.I. explained. "But as I said, the info's a little sketchy, and is probably doesn't help that I don't have any other sources than common knowledge and rumours."

 

[StarryKnights]

Anice frowned.
Of course they were worried about something like that. These people had no idea what magic was capable of, and that had to be unnerving. But at this moment, Anice wasn’t concerned with the UEG’s security issues. She wanted to find out who’d attacked her citizens and sent some of them to their deaths.

“There’s no way of knowing until we try, I suppose, but I don’t expect to find much in their thoughts”, she looked to the men laying in repose.

There was a chance that the curse would make reading their thoughts impossible, but she’d let Luthien get to the bottom of that.
The elf returned, with the healer who’d fetched her.

“What’s this about mind reading?”, she crossed her arms.

“Would it be possible to examine these men’s mind for clues?”, the princess asked, gesturing to the victims in the beds. “Them, or any of the other survivors for that matter”.
Luthien frowned. “It’s worth a shot I suppose, but I wouldn’t hold your breath Princess”.

She supposed they had nothing to lose though. The elf pulled a stool beside one of the beds, reached out and gently took the hand of the victim laying numb to the world.

Her eyes closed, and she uttered a quick spell under her breath.

Anice looked to Miller. “Give her a few minutes, and we’ll see what there is to be found”.
The princess crossed her arms, waiting for the elf to return to her own thoughts. It wasn’t a long wait, Luthien’s eyes fluttered open about a minute later.

“Well, it wasn’t a total bust”, she declared as she stood.

“The last image in this man’s head is that of a young woman, with dark hair. I couldn’t make out a lot of details because things were fuzzy. I also got the distinct feeling that while these men are unable to communicate or control their bodies, they are aware of what is going on around them”, she cast a look to the men.

“They can hear us…and I believe this man was trying to help us”.

Even a grainy image could be helpful.

“The woman appeared to be human, but I couldn’t make out her ears. She spoke in the memory, but the voice was garbled. It seems likely that she was the one to curse this man, and perhaps the others. I will check the other survivors to see if they can offer anything more”.

“Excellent, I’ll send word to father that we might have a lead”, one tiny lead in a sea of uncertainty.
“Your highness wait!”, a distressed voice called out, as the ever slippery Fawkes skittered through the crowd and over to his sister.

“Sis!”, he exclaimed excitedly as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Fawkes? What on earth are you doing here, this area is closed off”, she scowled at the little one, but it turned into a small frown as Fawkes looked up at her, flashing wide and worried eyes.

“I know but, I, I was worried. Mama and Terran are locked away in their rooms, Father said something bout keeping the family safe. But I…I hate being locked up so…”, he stepped back, gaze on the floor.

“So, you came here?”, Anice sighed.

Wonderful, but at the very least, Fawkes was safe. Hell, he might’ve been safer with Anice than he was locked in his room, with the guards out front.

_+_+

The Marlan family was rather small, there was Viscount Hershal Marlon, a middle-aged man with graying hair and a stern disposition. His wife, Lady Marie Marlon, a bouncy young blonde who was half of her husband’s age.

His children, his eldest son, Arkin Hershel, who was a decorated member of the King’s Guard. Arkin was the son of Hershal’s first wife, Elise, who died some ten years ago.
Hershal’s younger child, a daughter named Marnie, was born five years ago with his new wife. The family had fallen on hard times, in the last year both of Hershal’s brothers, and competitors for his title had died, as well as one of his nephews.

The other now lived out of the kingdom and hadn’t returned since the death of his father.

Despite these tragedies, Hershal’s presence in court had been constant, as well as his disapproval of Ramus and his “tolerant” attitude.

The viscount was fiercely against the integration of the other races in Arcadia society, even though this has been common practice for many years.

His vocal disapproval of Ramus’s leniency when it came to such policies, as well as allowing his daughter to serve in the royal guard.

Hershal viewed this transgression as a “slight against all able bodied young men”.
Though he clashed with the king, there was little signs that he would mastermind such a complex and devious scheme.

 

[Corrosion]

Miller nodded in agreement. "Scans have indicated that they aren't conscious, anyway," He shrugged. "I wouldn't expect them to know anything, other than what happened just before they were... cursed."

Luthien entered a second later. The elf made her way over one of the injured men and pulled out a stool, before taking a seat and taking his hand. Then she closed her eyes and uttered something unintelligible. Miller made sure to record her entire interaction.

The whole process was going to take a few minutes, the princess told him. That left some time to analyse the data he had gathered in the time before. When Luthien was finished, he had also completed compiling everything he needed.

"So what'd you find?" Miller asked as the elf stood up. He then adopted a thinking pose with his hand on his chin (the medical bot doing the same estimation). "Well that's pretty vague," He said. "I could still probably compile a list of suspects with that description, but like I said, it's simply too vague to get any leads. Besides, it's just too time-consuming and impractical, even if I could narrow the prime suspect down."

However, both his avatar's and the bot's arms dropped to their sides as Luthien made the next revelation. "Wait... what? What the fuck?" He stuttered, completely flabbergasted. "That's... not possible."

Miller's holographic avatar flickered red for a brief moment. "The scans indicated that they're completely unconscious and unaware, and the scans are never wrong!" He exclaimed. For an advanced military-grade A.I. like him to be caught completely off-guard and confused was not an easy feat, to say the least.

His hologram flickered once again, before it returned back to its normal green hue as he recalibrated his subsystems, essentially how an A.I. calmed itself down. "Okay, okay, I'm gonna say I believe you." He cleared his throat. "So the suspect's female, has dark hair, and is also very talented with magic." He said, glancing to both the princess and the elf. "Anyone with that specific description come to mind?"

Still a vague as hell, but at least now they had at least some idea.

It was at that moment that the princess' little brother decided to show up. The bot folded his arms as it turned to him. The kid was damn good a slipping away, that was for certain. He'd apparently managed to make it past the palace guards and access the palace's Circle, and then also through the guards at Camp Winder (the designation for the camp native Arcadian natives had set up next to the Filial Piety on day one).

"You know, just saying, but your brother is really good at slipping away." Miller remarked, sounding amused. The medical bot then leaned down and got to one knee until it was eye to eye (or eye to central optic) with Fawkes. "Hey, kid." He said. "This'll all be over soon. Hopefully. Trust me, my calculations are always precise, with a negligible margin of error, of course."

----------------------
​

The life situation of this Viscount Hershal mirrored that of many a politician. A wife and two kids, with the older son in the military and a young daughter at home. The family had fallen on some hard times, apparently, with several relatives had died. The man was dedicated, however, still being very active in politics and constantly opposing the king.

Politics, it seemed, remained a bitter battleground for all those involved, no matter where in the galaxy you were or where you came from.

That being said, Hershal was still a prime suspect. The man had little experience with magic, and, given how often he clashed with the king, made it very possible he was the mastermind behind this whole plot, possibly to remove his rival from the throne and install himself in his place.

Decker had ordered him to be placed on watch for more possible evidence.

"Miller, what've we got?" He asked.

The A.I. appeared in front of him. "We've got a possible lead. Vague, but possible." He announced. "We've got another suspect, a young woman with dark hair. Also a very talented mage."

Decker nodded in thought. "Anything else? Any other physical descriptions? Name?"

"Negative, sir," Miller sighed. "The elf said the image was grainy and hard to read."

"Grainy?" The captain asked, raising a brow. "Where exactly did you get this information?"

"From the heads of the survivors. They were conscious and aware the whole time."

Decker's eyes widened in surprise. "Conscious? The scans said otherwise."

"Yeah, that's what I said too."

To his credit, the captain was quick to recover. "I... see. What did the elf do?"

A short clip of Luthien casting her spell on the injured man appeared. "Mind reading, according to the princess. Extracting data directly from the brain. I hypothesise it's some kind of telepathic communication connected to this planet's unique energy signature, essentially merging their consciousnesses via neural melding, perhaps similar to how a pilot's neural link functions." Miller said. "It's a working theory. I'll send you the complete report later."

Decker put a hand on his chin. "As soon as possible. I don't want to tell you the security risks involved."

"I'm an A.I., sir," Miller said rather dismissively. "I'm way ahead of you in that regard. Oh, and it looks like our royal friend is about to give a speech to the general populace."

"Give me a live feed," The captain ordered, taking a seat. "I want to hear what he has to say."

"Aye, sir."

 

[StarryKnights]

Luthien frowned at Miller.

“They aren’t exactly conscious…but…”, she rubbed her eyes. “It’s difficult to explain, they aren’t conscious in a normal sense, nor are they in control of their bodies. It’s more like they are…watching things from a third person view”, she waved her hand dismissively.

“I don’t have the time or desire to explain it in detail”.

What she’d found wasn’t exactly useful by any means, a dark-haired woman who was a talented mage?

There was likely countless young woman who fit that description, and Luthien couldn’t tell if they were an elf or not. No doubt this ordeal would exacerbate the relationship between elves and humans in the city.

What a mess this was turning out to be.

Fawkes stared at Miller with awe apparent on his face, even though he’d seen some of the UEG’s technology before it was still super exciting.

He giggled at the AI’s words.

“I’m the best little sneak ever, right sis?”, he beamed up at her.
Anice flashed a rueful smile.

“Indeed, you are, but you must stop sneaking off when there’s a security threat”, she tousled his hair.

A servant arrived, they bowed before the princess before speaking. “Princess, the King is preparing to give his speech. Your presence has been requested
The princess nodded. “Right”, she looked to Luthien. “Look after Fawkes, ensure he stays out of trouble”.

“Of course,” the elf looked to the AI. “What about the machine?”.

“It is observing our treatment process and is assisting us in solving this matter. So, he will stay with you”, she looked to Miller. “I trust that is agreeable?”.

Once that was squared away, Anice departed, leaving Luthien, Fawkes and Miller to continue looking after the survivors.

----------------------
CHAPTER EIGHT
A TREACHEROUS PLOT
----------------------​

Anice stood on the balcony, off to the right of her father, her expression was stoic, her hands folded in front of her.

The king stood at the railing, addressing the crowd of clambering citizens waiting in the courtyard below.

She recognized many of the faces as members of the upper echelons of Windcrest, and all of them looked confused, scared and angry. Not the best crowd to be speaking to.

Better him than me, she thought as Ramus began.

“Citizens and countrymen”, the king began, quieting the crowd. A nearby mage projected the king’s voice, so that it boomed out over the crowd.

“As we all know, there has been a terrible tragedy one that had claimed the lives of our country man”.

The crowd grew silent, but Anice could see the anger in the closer faces.

“Earlier today, an insidious plot was put into motion by outside forces, one that pitted us against the new forces that reside in our lands”.

There was a great deal of booing here, Anice winced as some choice insults were hurled at her father.

“Betrayer! You serve these outsiders rather than your own people!”, one voice shouted out.

Remaining stone faced and impassive during such speeches wasn’t easy for the princess, the trained observer might notice how tightly she gripped her folded hands.

Ramus was far calmer and more continued on after a moment.

“These outsiders were used as a tool, as were our country men. Now is not the time to be at each other’s throats my citizens. Now is the time to come together, to find the snake in our midst”.

Anice scanned the crowd again, wondering if that snake was in this crowd now. There were plenty of dark-haired females on the crowd, as it was a common enough trait found across the elven and human populations in Edreign. Still, Anice stiffened as she counted more and more young women who could potentially be the target.

She was so focused on that, that she didn’t notice the young man standing in the middle of the crowd.

He was rather plain looking, with brown hair and pace skin. The only notably thing about him was his dark brown eyes, which shone with an amused light. He regarded the king with a bemused expression.

The tottering old fool, the people won’t be bought with pretty words this time.
He glanced around the crowd, which was growing more and more restless as Ramus spoke.

It was about time to give them something else to worry about. The people’s faith in the royal family was waning with each passing second.

He couldn’t wait to see how one going missing would affect things.

All is moving along smoothly; a smirk came to his face as he reached into the pocket of his pants. Pulling out a small, softly glowing stone, he uttered a quick spell before dropping it at his feet.

The second the stone hit the cobblestone below, it exploded into a thick, bright blue dust. Screams echoed through the crowd, the acrid smoke rose higher into the air, and quickly obscured the entire court yard in a thick blue haze.

For the poor bastards caught in the smoke coughed and hacked, as the magical cloud stole away their breath.

The king was quickly shuffled away, with Anice close behind.

“Security breach! Secure the king!”, Anice barked at the guards, who swarmed the old man, escorting him deeper into the palace.

She didn’t see who’d caused the choking mist, but with all the chaos she doubted that they’d escaped on foot. So, either they left through some kind of magical means…or they were still present.
Anice had a sinking feeling it was the latter, she followed after the guards, who were taking Ramus to the panic room, a secure area where he would be safe.

Once he was secure, she would head back out to the scene.

 

[Corrosion]

Miller's avatar gave the kid a small grin before the bot got back to its feet. "I'm done here, actually," He told the princess. "The medical bot will remain for any additional medical duties, but other than that, I've got the information I need. I'll send you a report with all the necessary details as soon as possible."

That done, the bot stood up straight. "Alright, take care now. If you need me, just call."

With that, Miller's avatar disappeared, leaving the medical bot's A.I. programming to regain control.

----------------------
​

Decker knew that things were going to get ugly the moment the king spoke his first words. There were a handful of recon drones circling the area in order to capture every viewing angle. Make sure every single member of the audience was profiled and all that. Right now, the crowd was beginning to get riled up, and even before that, they obviously weren't pleased.

The captain had other priorities, however.

"Miller, you done with that profiling?" He asked.

"It's gonna take me quite a while to profile an entire city, sir," The A.I. said. "But the ones in the crowd? Yeah."

A myriad of faces immediately appeared, all young women with dark hair.

Decker scratched his chin after a moment of studying the list. "Narrow it down to the ones with high magical potential."

Earlier, Miller had managed to work out how to detect magical signatures by simply tweaking the ship's hyperspectral scanners. Magic, as it turned out, showed up on the electromagnetic spectrum, towards the higher-energy end of it. Still, magic was an enigma that even an A.I. like him still had trouble wrapping his processing cores around.

A specialised research A.I. would probably have an easier time with it than a military-grade one like him. He was designed to analyse enemy tactics and advise personnel, not research like this.

The list shortened significantly, with most of the faces disappearing. Now, there was only a handful left, none of which looked the part. Their power readings were about the same, at that.

Sighing, Decker put a hand to his head. "These are the eligible suspects, but we don't even know anything yet." He sighed. "We don't even know if the one behind this is even in the crowd."

Without a UEG citizen database, trying to find the identities of the suspects was going to be hard. There was no guarantee the royal family would know all of them, and trying to find anyone who knew they was also going to be a long and tedious process at worst.

"Dammit..." He muttered, going back to watching the feed. By now, the crowd was even angrier than before, some even hurling insults at the king.

He was considering deploying the Marines to the palace in case things got out of control when middle of the crowd suddenly exploded into a bright blue smoke cloud that quickly enveloped the entire crowd.

Decker shot to his feet. "What the hell just happened?"

"I dunno, looks like a smoke grenade just went off or something," Said Miller, intensely staring at the holoscreens in front of him. They were all displaying the obscured courtyard. Occasionally a panicking civilian would run out of it. "Dammit, it's messing with my sensors. Must be magical or something. Hyperspectral imaging ain't working either."

The captain growled in frustration. "Deploy the Marines, now!"

----------------------
​

The Marines in Windcrest were in their vehicles with their weapons by their sides in mere moments. They'd trained weeks for rapid deployments like this. Never knew when the vaskrans would decide to show up, after all.

The two Pitbulls with both squads were furiously speeding towards the AO. Problem was, with the winding roads, narrow corridors, and steep corners of Windcrest that were obviously not intended to be traversed by motorised vehicles meant that it was going to take a while for the Marines to reach their destination.

So thank god for navpoints. Miller had mapped the whole place out, meaning that the shortest route had already been plotted. Arrows and lines on the HUD of each vehicle showed them the exact path forwards.

Course, they had to cut a few corners and drive through a path that was probably a backstreet market or something, scaring quite a few civvies and ploughing through several stalls, but there was no time to worry about that.

"This is Apex 0-1 to command, what's the situation?" Conway asked, his eyes on the road ahead.

The A.I.'s avatar appeared at the top left of his helmet's HUD. "Some kind of smoke grenade just went off in the middle of the crowd attending the king's speech. Right now I'm tracing the epicentre, but it's your job to the situation doesn't get any worse, and handle the crowd if you can. Whatever the cloud is, it's interfering with sensors. No thermals, no bioscanners, nothing. You'll have to rely on visual eyesight."

Conway nodded. "Copy that. Out."

"There it is!" Reyes cried, pointing forwards. A rather ominous cloud of bright blue smoke was rising above the buildings up ahead.

"Blue smoke?" Ash asked. "Pretty sure that shit ain't normal."

"Wow, we've got a fucking genius over here." Grader muttered.

"Not the time, guys." Conway rolled his eyes.

The vehicle rolled to a stop just outside the courtyard, and its passengers hastily exited. The same went with Castle's Pitbull. The Marines gripped their weapons.

"Alright, let's move!" Lieutenant Sharron barked. Slowly and cautiously, the two squads began to make their way towards the cloud.

 

[StarryKnights]

The thick acrid smoke burned like fire for anyone who had the misfortune to breathe it in. Eyes watery, vision blurred and throats burning from screaming, all matters of citizens found themselves trapped in the hazy smog.
Only one walked through the haze unscathed, thanks to a preemptive spell which made them immune to the effects of the haze.

Bright blue eyes watched the chaos unfold with a smirk, perfectly content to watch as people hit the ground, choking on the magical cloud of gas that had been deployed.
The guards were busy with securing the king and the other royals, and they imagined that the off worlders were on their way. That meant they had just enough time to accomplish their true objective.

“Ah yes, let’s go pay the princess a little visit”.

Everyone was likely looking for a dark-haired woman with green eyes, and that was assuming that the elf would be able to make out that much from the memories of the fallen men. Pawns on the board, they’d served their purpose marvelously, instilling distrust and fear into the already frightened populace.

His dark brown eyes shone with a gleeful light.

All had gone according to plan. The king had been sequestered away but knowing the princess she’d be darting back out into the fray. She was hands on when it came to a crisis, she had to be on the front lines, helping her citizens.

It was part of the reason, so she was well liked by the people of Arcadia.
It would also be her undoing.

Laying in wait under the balcony, the man waited, knowing the princess would be on the scene soon.

_+_+

With the thickness of the smoke, Anice had no way of knowing the marines were on their way, everything was in chaos.

Communications had broken down, the castle’s security was focused on securing her father. They wanted to secure her as well, along with her siblings and mother, but Anice was having none of it.

Even if the orders were coming from Morlock, the captain of the guard.

“Stow it Morlock, I’m not going into lock down”, she snapped at the man as he approached.

“Princess, we need to secure the castle, and the royal family. That includes you”, Morlock’s tone was grave.

“We must ensure your safety, along with your families. I’ve received word that Luthien has already taken Fawkes into the castle interior. Please, do not make me force you”.

Anice fixed the man with a cold stare. “Force me? Please Morlock, now is not the time for jokes”, she rolled her eyes as she stalked past the man, heading back for the balcony.

“Secure the king and the remainder of my family. I will see to the populace caught in the smoke…given no one else will be”, she stopped as Morlock placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Anice, this isn’t a game. You will be coming with me”.

The princess looked back over her shoulder. “I will attend to the citizens in the courtyard, you and the rest of the guard secure my father. If the culprit behind this attack is still here, then they are likely targeting my father”. She shrugged her way out of Morlock’s grasp.

“Now go do your blasted job! And grab me again and you’ll receive a shock”, she snapped without looking back.
Her father was the target here, not her. She needed to secure the courtyard and save the people who had been trapped in the smoke. Even within the hallway leading to the balcony, Anice could smell the wretched smoke.

It burned her eyes and her throat as she breathed, she shuddered to think how it must’ve felt at the epicenter of the attack.
She had to get to them, and quickly, before the smog proved to be fatal, assuming it hadn't already.

Storming out onto the balcony, Anice shielded her eyes from the burning smoke.
Uttering a quick spell to shield herself from the worst of the toxic, Anice hopped the banister, leaving the exasperated Morlock standing on the edge of the balcony.
Landing with a thud in the grass below, Anice’s eyes watered something awful as she squinted, trying to get her bearings in the smog.

It was so damn thick, and unlike natural smoke it wasn’t dissipating as time went by. Someone had set this off with a spell…and that someone might still be nearby.

Oh, how right the princess was.

_+_+

Ah yes, right on time.

The man beamed as Anice made her dramatic entrance, hopping over the banister she landed with a thud in the courtyard.

The poor pedestrians who had been caught in the spell’s destination were laying in the grass, unmoving.

Anice probably couldn’t see them, but the caster could, courtesy of their spell. Anice likely had something to keep her from suffocating, but she wouldn’t be able to guard from the full effect of the spell.
It wasn’t just blinding, and scalding to one’s throat, it also made one effectively blind thanks to how thick the smoke was. It muted the other senses as well, the smog masked one’s sense of hearing and taste.

But most importantly, it masked the presence of magic, which was very important for the man skulking behind Anice at the moment.

Right then princess, let’s be on our way.
No doubt the outsiders were on their way, so this needed to be done quickly.

Uttering a quick spell under his breath, he walked toward the princess, who was shuffling forward, trying to find a downed person.

She wouldn’t get the chance.
His right hand glowed slightly as he raised it, waiting until he was close enough to strike.
When he was within striking range, he lashed out, striking the princess in the back of the neck. She let out a sharp cry, before slumping forward.

A warrior could train all they wanted, but a direct magical attack to one’s nerves would incapacitate anyone.
She dropped like a sack of rocks, making it easy for the man to bed down, sling her unconscious form over his shoulder, and walk away.

Right then, let’s be off then, he smirked to himself.
Once the caster was out of range, the smoke began to dissipate, revealing the immobile people laying in the courtyard.

Their faces were twisted in agony, hands clawing at their throats.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.

 

[Corrosion]

The two Marine squads cautiously began to make their way towards the smoke. True to Miller's word, their sensors didn't do jack. Every time they switched their visor modes to pick up either biosignatures or to low-vis mode, they would get a static-like effect, with the outlines of objects or life signs appearing and then disappearing, and then proceeding to flicker all over the place.

Occasionally, a civilian would blindly stumble out of the smoke, coughing and tearing up. The Marines did the best they could to secure them as they did. "Miller, what the hell is this stuff?" Conway asked.

"I'm not really sure," Miller said. "There're a lot of unidentified compounds in that cloud, but it does seem similar in composition to common tear gas, so it's a lachrymator agent of some kind. Your helmets will filter out the toxins just fine."

Conway nodded. "Good to know."

"I can't see jack shit in there." One of Castle's riflemen said.

Lieutenant Sharron seemed to agree. "Sensors don't work, we might as well be blind." She said. "Alright, Marines. Fall back. Secure as many civvies as you can. I'll call for medevac."

----------------------
​

"Miller, are you done?" Decker asked, watching the scene play out with a certain degree of trepidation. Everything had gone wrong in mere seconds. One minute he and Miller were discussing plans and scanning or possible suspects, next what seemed to be a chemical weapon of some kind had gone off in the middle of the crowd, just outside the royal palace at that. And as the king was speaking as well.

This wasn't a coincidence. The timing was just too perfect. First the apparently mind-controlled civilians and now this? It was clearly meticulously planned beforehand, planned to further spread panic and chaos and distrust.

They couldn't be caught off-guard again, and the captain made sure that he was going to ramp up security both in the city and the area that was designated UEG territory, whether Ramus liked it or now. If not, whoever was behind this might very well succeed in his—or as evidence would suggest—her mission.

He thought he'd be used to shit like this given his many years of service, but he was frequently proven wrong.

"Just a second," Miller told him. "And done! I've managed to locate the possible point of origin."

A three-dimensional representation of the scene appeared, beginning just before the incident. It played out as usual up until the point where the middle of the crowd erupted into the cloud of blue smoke.

"Alright, this is when it happened," Said Miller. "And this the exact time." The footage reversed, with the smoke receding and shrinking until just milliseconds before. It then zoomed in onto the calculated point of origin, right in the middle of the crowd.

Standing there was a young woman with dark hair. Not only that, but her magical readings were incredibly high. Judging by that she was a powerful mage, and skilled too, it seemed.

She matched the description exactly, and if her magical prowess were any indication, that left her as the definite and most logical perpetrator.

Course, she could just be one of a possible many a part of this conspiracy, but it was a start.

"That must be her," Decker said. "Give me an immediate profile and isolate."

The footage zoomed in once more. Then all the other people surrounding her vanished and left her as the only one remaining and allowed the captain to have a better view. She was wearing the same dress and robes many like her seemed to wear, along with having a pouch by her side. Her outfit, however, seemed to be more intricate and of high quality, meaning that she was high-ranking and was possibly employed by a powerful employer.

By the time the smoke cleared, the target was gone, likely having fled during the chaos. Now, she was effectively a wanted fugitive.

"Initiate a full sector sweep with as many drones as necessary." The captain said. "And get me the king, Priority One transmission."

"Aye, sir."

----------------------
​

The smoke had cleared and given way to the sight of a hundred or more wounded civilians, all suffering the effects of whatever was in the smoke. According to Miller, it was thankfully non-lethal, although the victims would be feeling it for quite a while now. Four DTT-143M MEDEVACS had arrived and landed, and had unloaded a sizeable number of combat medics, medical units, and additional Marines.

The DTT-143M was an unarmed variant of the baseline Vulture, specialised for medevac purposes. Each one was loaded with medical equipment to ensure maximum survival. The centre row of seats present in stock models had been removed to make space for additional passengers, and many more seats had been replaced by the aforementioned medical equipment.

The medics were tending to the injured and had lined them up on stretchers.

On the other hand, the two Marine squads that had functioned as first responders were standing around their vehicles.

"You know, thought I'd catch a break when we crashed here." Adler muttered, unhappy. "Guess not."

"Yeah, well, you know how it goes. Murphy's Law and all that." Reyes shrugged. "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

"Evidently, it did." Conway sighed. "Because of course it did."

He glanced up towards the balcony of the palace. The king and the rest of the royals had probably been evacuated inside, to a panic room or something. That was how it was with the UEG, anyway, and it was probably the same here. He and the captain were probably discussing plans right now.

Still, he wondered what the real motivation of whoever was behind this was.

Strangely enough, he thoughts drifted to the princess. She was probably with the rest of her family or with the guards or whatever, protecting them at all costs. He admired that about her. He really did.

 

[StarryKnights]

Safely secured in what amounted to the panic room, the king took stalk of the situation.

There was no way that this wasn’t related to the peasant attack at the wall and on the outsider’s ship. No doubt the mastermind behind those attacks had planned for Ramus to make a public address, and in doing so the king had fallen right into the bastard’s trap.

Cloistered away in the panic room deep within the castle, the royal family huddled together, waiting for word.

The panic room was basically a vault, carved directly into the stone bedrock the castle sat on. Inside, the room was spacious to accommodate the royal family as well as their guard and advisors.

Currently though, only the royals were present.

Luthien had brought Fawkes when word of the attack had reached her ears, Terran had been brought by members of the guard, and of course the Queen had been secured as well.

She sat with Fawkes in her lap, the usually boisterous young boy was oddly quiet. He sat huddled in his mother’s lap, the queen ran her fingers through his hair, whispering soothing words.
Terran sat beside his mother, he tried to look less frightened than he was. Such threats to the castle were uncommon, usually the only time they spent any time in the panic room was during drills. One had to be prepared for such emergencies.

“Ramus, where’s Anice?”, Orsina looked to her husband, frowning. “Morlock had gone after her…but we both know stubborn she can be”.

Ramus scowled. His daughter was as stubborn as a mule, no doubt she’d refused to retreat to the safety of the panic room.
“we both know she isn’t coming Orsina, no sense in worrying”, he grumbled.

The king sat at a table, upon which was a small crystal ball.
This scrying device allowed the king to view the outside, currently he was watching as the marines arrived.

The queen flinched at how candid the king was being, though she knew his words to be true.

No doubt he was worried, and maybe even searching for Anice with the scrying glass.

Anice wasn’t the type to sit around and do nothing, unless Morlock dragged her here kicking and screaming, then she wouldn’t show up. That knowledge did nothing to ease the growing sense of dread the queen felt.
Fawkes tensed in his mother’s arms, silently he prayed that his sister wouldn’t get in too much trouble.
All the royals jumped when the king’s communicator went off, Ramus hadn’t even realized that he’d carried it into the panic room with him.

He fumbled with it for a moment before answering the call, projecting Decker’s image for all to see.

“Captain Decker, I see your men have arrived. There are healers enroute to your position to assist as needed”.

_+_+

Most of the civilians who’d managed to escape the toxic cloud had fled into the palace, and were currently grouped within one of main entry ways.

Several were members of noble houses; all whispered quietly amongst themselves. A sect of guards surrounded them, ensuring no one wandered further into the palace.
The arrival of the marines set these already uneasy people over the edge, with man expressing their discontent vocally.

“Go back to your blasted camp!”, one man shouted angrily.
“Arcaida doesn’t need you here!”, a woman added in.

One young woman stood quietly among the crowd. Her dark brown hair cascaded over her shoulders in waves of soft curls, she eyed the marines with less open hostility than the other nobles.

The wasn’t to say she was happy to see them however, she crossed her arms and sighed.
This entire day was a fiasco, Cassandra couldn’t wait to see how the king attempted to save face with this mess.

The outsiders’ presence wasn’t wanted by most, but the woman could see that they were in fact helping.
They were tending to the injured, as well as some healers who were steadily emerging from the castle.

As the marines surveyed the situation, Morlock approached the group. He nodded to Sharron and the others before speaking.

“Well, as you can see, this address turned into a fine mess”.

He looked round for a moment, frowning.

“I was expecting to see the princess out here, attending to the wounded”.
it seemed the outsiders were taking care of that though. Odd.

He looked to Sharron and Conway.

“She hasn’t been this way, has she?”.

 

[Corrosion]

"I'd dispatched them as soon as the bomb went off," Decker said simply. "It's a situation I'm all too familiar with, unfortunately."

Every time something like this happened in the Colonies, the casualties would often number in the hundreds to thousands, since the bombs were often placed in crowded population centres like traffic junctions or shopping malls, at busier times of day when the number of civilians would be the highest. It was mostly a rebel tactical rather than the vaskrans, since they waged guerrilla campaigns due to mostly being rag-tag and under-armed groups.

Of course, those bombs were actual bombs packed with high explosives designed to kill and maim and damage everything around them, rather than the non-lethal lachrymator agent used in today's incident. Dirty bombs were also used, yes, but it was generally less common. Chemical weapons were hard to make and engineer, and improvised explosives were much easier, and could be assembled from readily-available materials.

"The craft that have arrived are medevacs, medical transports. They're a variant of the Vulture you've seen before specialised for medical aid, and are completely unarmed. The medics attached to them are also here to help." The captain paused for a second. "Although I believe your people will find it a little harder to trust them after all that's happened today."

He sighed and tried not to think about earlier and focus on the task at hand. He straightened up and brought up footage from just before the explosion. "Miller has managed to trace to point of origin and has triangulated it to this position."

The footage zoomed in onto the central point. All the other civilians behind the woman from earlier vanished as she was singled out. "We have reason to believe that this woman is the one who set off the explosion. She matches the description Luthien gave us, and she also appears to be a rather powerful mage, to boot." He said. "Do you recognise her? Judging by her outfit and equipment, she appears to be rather wealthy as well."

"In either case, we can initiate a nationwide manhunt for her on your order, and a warrant for her immediate arrest." Decker offered. "Marines are efficient. We'll get to the bottom of this is no time at all."

"Uh, sir?" Miller piped up.

"What is it?" The captain asked, turning.

"I don't think we going to need a search."

Decker blinked. "Come again?"

Miller himself seemed unsure. "We, uh, found her."

A live aerial feed suddenly popped up, showing the woman herself standing in the crowd of onlookers.

That was confusing, to say the least. Why hadn't she taken off by now? But if he were to guess, it was likely the woman had opted to stay within the crowd allay suspicion, not stick out. That still raised more questions than answers, however, but at least their job got a lot easier.

The captain turned back to the king after a moment. "It appears that we've found our target sooner than expected." He said.

----------------------
​

The medics were having quite a hard time with the victims caught in the smoke, to be frank. From what Conway could see, they were either refusing aid or outright hostile to the medics attempting to assist them. Most were also completely unwilling to even be near a medical unit.

Standing in the midst of the crowd just in front of the landed medevacs, he also noted that the looks he received were now even more hostile than the days earlier. Before, they were either looks of curiosity or distrust at the very least or unfriendly at worst. Now they were just plain contentious and bitter.

That was not including the insults that were constantly being thrown his way. Most of them were rather ignorantly telling the crew to leave, among other less-than-favourable terms.

Part of him wanted to kindly inform them that without a RIFT drive, the crew was stranded for an indefinite period of time. Even if the ship was repaired and managed to leave the ground and return to space, where would it go? The moon? One of the other inhospitable planets in the local star system? Nowhere. And even if they did, the ship would still have to restock from planetary sources in order to refill its stock of water and other consumables.

He shook his head and continued his rounds. They'd been ordered to secure the perimeter and control the crowd if need be.

"Ma'am, I'm just trying to help you," He heard a familiar Scottish-accented voice say. Conway looked over to see a combat medic crouching by one of the 'noblewomen' with bloodshot eyes. The woman was refusing the medic's help and constantly backing away, spewing insults. "Look, if you want the pain to stop, you're gonna have to trust me."

Evidently, the woman wasn't willing to. Sighing, the medic stood up and then turned to Conway as he saw him approach. "Conway? That you?" He asked, recognition in his voice. "Haven't seen you since Ariadne."

"Could say the same for you," Conway nodded, and the two men shook hands. "Good to see you, MacCullin. You know, I never really got to thank you for patching me up."

"Hah!" The medic laughed. "I'm used to that by now. Besides, I probably would've seen you as one of the many I treat on a daily basis were it not for the fact that you didn't die when you triggered those prox charges. I'm actually surprised you were still in one piece." He said. "I have to say, you're one lucky son of a bitch."

"Oh, we're talking luck now?" Conway asked, raising a brow. "Maybe my lucky stars had aligned when that happened. Still stung like a bitch though."

"Course it did. You had a big fucking piece of shrapnel sticking out of your leg when you came to me. Missed a central artery as well." he pointed to Conway's leg, right below the rear side of his knee. "Like I said, you are one lucky son of a bitch. Hope you haven't broken any mirrors lately."

The two shared a brief laugh before another medic called him over, needing help with a particularly stubborn noble. "MacCullin! Get your ass over here and help me out!"

"Copy." He turned back to Conway. "Well, looks like I'll be seeing you."

Conway nodded in return, and the two parted ways for the time being. That done, he caught sight of Morlock approaching his CO. He figured the man would either have some information or questions, and made his way over.

​

Lieutenant Sharron was in the process of compiling a report when Morlock approached. "Captain Morlock," She nodded. "It has indeed, though I have to say I've seen worse."

Morlock spent a few seconds looking around, apparently searching for something. Turning back to Sharron once he was done, he seemed a little upset. He'd expected to see Princess Anice helping to aid the victims, apparently.

"No, she hasn't," The lieutenant shook her head at his inquiry. "Not that I know of. Didn't have a visual of her during the whole thing. Isn't she supposed to be secure with the rest of her family?"

"I thought she was with you guys," Conway said, stepping towards the two. "Haven't seen her, so I thought the same."

 

[StarryKnights]

The outsiders were nothing if not efficient, to already be in the scene given all that had happened. It was clear that Decker had experience with dealing with this sort of thing.

He’d even sent medical help, though Ramus felt this was unnecessary. The healers were more than capable of tending to any of the wounded, Ramus hoped there were no casualties.

It seemed he was doomed to have one headache after another.
Not only did he have to contend with the angry public, he had to contend with the outsider’s presence riling up the already angry public.
“Yes...my people will not be pleased. But that is exactly what the mastermind behind this attack wants”.

Ramus was angry, because the angry crowds were playing right into the hands of the enemy. He didn’t know what the mastermind was after, it could be the destruction of the kingdom, it could be to set the outsiders and natives against one another.

It could be an attempt by his rivals to discredit his rule, it was too early to rule out any of these options.
Tracking down the culprits behind this and the attack on the wall were going to be top priority
Millar’s ability to pinpoint the origin of the explosion was immensely helpful in this regard, in fact it seemed the A.I had already pinpointed the location of the prime suspect.
He squinted at the image, frowning.

“That is Cassandra Alves, she’s an advisor to Viscount Hershal”. Orsina perked up at the name. “Cassandra? She wouldn’t...she’d never do something like this. To put so many in danger”.

It was out of character, though Cassandra served his rival, she had always been courteous toward the royal family. But if her employer had concocted this scheme and gotten her aid…
“Have your men bring Cassandra to Morlock, he will take her into custody”.

The king frowned. This was a lead, though he wasn’t sure he’d like where it led.
“Captain?”, Fawkes wormed his way out of his mother’s arms, darting over to the king he looked at the projection of Decker.

Orsina paled, as the slight point of Fawkes’ ears were plain to see. Given all the excitement, the boy had forgone his typical appearance.
“Is my sister out there? She, she didn’t come with us…”, the young prince looked up at the projection with fearful eyes.

“She, she should be out with the crowd...helping”.

_+_+

Most of the civilians were openly hostile to the outsider’s efforts to assist them, with only those who were unconscious or nearly unconscious allowing for proper care. As the healers arrived on scene, things began to calm down some.

The white robed men and woman began tending to those who rejected the help of the bots and medics, while others attempted to calm the unruly patients giving the off worlders trouble.
Morlock looked over the scene, frowning.
Anice should’ve been here, tending to the injured and trying to subdue the growing crowd. Sharron and Conway both said that she hadn’t been by though, and that was troubling.

“Lieutenant, can you spare any of your men for a search?”, he looked to Sharron. “The princess is stubborn, she refused to be secured with her family. She wanted to help her people”.

He scanned the crowd, wondering if any of the concerned and angry onlookers were behind the princess’s absence. “For her to not be here, then something is wrong”.

The king was going to be livid if it turned out this entire ordeal was merely a diversion to kidnap the princess.

Maybe she hadn’t been the true target, maybe it had been the king, but he was secured quickly. But Anice, she wouldn’t go into the panic room… If she had been the target, than whoever arranged this knew the princess wouldn’t go.
Which meant it was someone who knew the princess, and the royal family.

Oh this entire situation was growing dimmer by the minute.

 

[Corrosion]

The captain folded his arms at Orsina's skepticism. "Everyone thinks the same until it actually happens." He said simply. From the way he said it, he was clearly speaking from experience. "This Viscount Hershal has been a political rival of yours for some time, correct? Looks like he's finally decided to take matters into his own hands."

The lengths people were willing to go for power never failed to impress him. Least this incident paled in comparison to the political squabbles he'd seen go on in the Colonies. He was quite thankful most of these incident were fairly isolated, mainly happening on the more remote and less-governed worlds with less UEG influence. For the most part, the further out one went, the more lawless it got. That was a general rule everyone had to remember, especially the Pathfinders of old, few as they were in this day and age.

"From the way it played out, it seems as if this plot's been planned for some time," Decker said, scratching his chin. "Surprising, considering we've only been here less than a week. Seems like they needed an excuse to get things going."

It was a wild guess for sure, but this kind of thing seemed too meticulously planned to have been done in the spare few days since their arrival. It was also possible that whoever was behind this had planned something similar, but had to alter their plan to include the crew of the Filial Piety as well. With the fact that the crew were effectively foreigners, even aliens, and with the amazingly destructive potential they had, it was probably a godsend for the minds behind this whole operation. They needed an excuse to rile things up, and they got it when it fell from the sky—literally.

"I'll get the order out immediately." Decker turned away. "Miller, I want a profile on Cassandra Alves, designate high-value individual."

"On it, sir." The A.I. nodded and then disappeared.

Turning back to the holoscreen, Decker merely raised a brow as the youngest prince entered the frame, but the sight of Fawkes' ears garnered no other reaction from the captain. "Thought she was with you," He said, shrugging. "Is she not?"

On cue, Miller reappeared. "Sir, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"Morlock's also reporting that the princess is missing. The Marines report the same." He said. "I've had drones sweep the area, and they ain't got not visual either." A holoscreen popped up, showing a rather grainy video clip. "This is the last know visual of her."

The clip played, visual glitches occurring every few seconds as the smoke interfered with the circling drone's sensors. It showed the princess having an argument with Morlock on the balcony of the palace, before she made the admittedly rash decision to jump off, disappearing into the smoke.

Decker's arms fell to his sides. "Dammit." He muttered, then turned back to the king. "Sir, it appears that the princess has been taken by the enemy."

----------------------
​

Conway glanced towards the crowd. "Sounds like her."

Sharron, meanwhile, shook her head. "Afraid not, sir." She said. "My men are currently occupied at the moment. We've been ordered to remain here to secure the area. Besides, we can't be sure if the princess is really missing or not." The lieutenant shrugged. "Think she found whoever's behind this and went after him?"

The beeping of an incoming transmission followed by the sound of Miller's voice suddenly filled their ears. "Castle 1-5, this is command," The A.I. said. "I've managed to trace the point of origin and also the possible suspect."

An image of Cassandra appeared on their HUDs. "Cassandra Alves, advisor to Viscount Hershal. Hershal's been a political rival to the ruling family for a while now. Cassandra's the top suspect right now and henceforth a high-value individual, given her high magic potential and the fact that she's affiliated with the aforementioned individual." He told the Marines. "Your orders are to non-lethally take her in, but you should let Morlock do the talking. I've marked her position on your HUDs."

A navpoint marker appeared, pointing to their target. What caught them off-guard was the fact that it was telling the Marines that Cassandra was standing amongst the crowd.

"Wait, you sure?" Conway asked. "Is she supposed to be right in front of us?"

"Yeah, I've got a positive ID on the target."

Shrugging, Sharron cocked her head towards Cassandra's location. "Sir, we have new orders," She told Morlock. "We've found the top suspect for whoever may be behind this, name's Cassandra Alves or something like that. We move in to secure the target, you carry out the official arrest. That fine with you?"

That done, the lieutenant turned to Conway. "Sergeant, take your squad. You're with me."

Conway nodded at that. "Yes, ma'am."

They made their way over to the target's location, the crowd parting as they did. Once Cassandra was in sight, Sharron wordlessly motioned for her Marines to surround her as she approached her herself. "Cassandra Alves?" She asked, more of a precaution more than anything else as her HUD immediately identified her.

Sharron nodded, and the Marines all disengaged the safeties of their weapons and raised them, aiming them directly at Cassandra. "We have orders to take you in," She said. "Do not attempt to resist or you will be terminated."

She turned to Morlock. "Sir, if you will."

 

[StarryKnights]

A well-organized plot, an insidious unknown enemy and now, a potentially kidnapped princess. As if things couldn’t get any worse. Watching Anice bicker with Morlock before jumping down and off the balcony, it made Fawkes’ heart skip a beat.

“Sis…”, his gaze moved to the ground. She was missing, which meant someone had to have taken her. No way Anice would run off during such a trying time, not when there were hurt people to attend to.
Orsina walked over, grabbed Fawkes by the shoulders and guided him back to where he’d been sitting.

“You ears little one”, she whispered softly, her grip on his shoulder’s tightened. Fawkes stiffened, closing his eyes he uttered a quick spell to mask the slight points. It didn’t seem that the off worlders rightly cared about the change but exposing his appearance to anyone outside of the royal family was a punishable offence. Given all that had happened though, it didn’t seem like the king had noticed. Fawkes prayed he hadn’t.

“We will organize a search party for her at once”, ramus added with a sigh.

With Anice missing it meant this entire attack could’ve been a diversion to take her, which opened up an entire new can of motive. Was all of this meant to be an attack on the royal family themselves or was it all apart of larger scheme. The only was to know would be to question their prime suspect, Cassandra Alves and her employer, Viscount Hershal.

_+_+

Morlock nodded. “Of course, Ma’am, I’ll assemble my available men”.

Having the off worlders off machines in the search might make it a bit easier, but there was nothing to be done about it now. Locating Anice was his top priority, so when Lieutenant announced her men were going to be arresting Cassandra Alves, he frowned.

“Alves?”, he of course knew the woman, a prominent figure in Viscount Hershal’s company.

It seemed the off worlders suspected her as the culprit behind the attack, and while she was certainly capable of creating and using such a spell, he had his doubts.
He couldn’t allow the off worlders to arrest her though, it would only cause more trouble.

“I’ll speak with her, and bring her in, it would be best if you and your men remained as neutral as possible”.
That of course didn’t work, Morlock rubbed his eyes tiredly as the lieutenant’s men surrounded Alves, alarming the already on edge people of the crowd. Tact didn’t seem to be something the off worlders excelled at.

Standing in the crowd of bystanders who were milling about after all the chaos, Cassandra was oddly calm. Her fellow nobles were a gossipy bunch, already they were coming up with and spreading rumors regarding the day’s events. Somehow, this event would be blamed on the outsiders and the incompetence of the king, which likely served the agenda of who ever was behind it.
Dressed in an elegant, but somewhat plain dress of a dark blue hue, she didn’t look the least bit surprised as Morlock and the off worlders approached.

The crowd thinned around her, with wary and frightened nobleman looking on, their innate curiosity too strong. Even when the squad pointed their weapons they remained, some even cried out angrily.
“How dare you threaten our citizens!”, one older gentleman stepped forward. “Lady Cassandra is no criminal, and you have no authority here!”.

Though he was right, Cassandra had no intentions to resist.
She was an aid to one of the king’s prominent political detractors, it was no surprise she was being brought in as a suspect. After all, a mage had clearly set off the smoke cloud, and Cassandra’s talents were well known.

She didn’t pay the off worlders much mind, instead looking to Morlock, who looked less than pleased about the entire situation.

“Really Captain? You require such force to take one woman?”, she crossed her arms. “Seems a tad but excessive”.
“I agree, however given the situation one can never be too careful. Come quietly Cassandra, you’re not under arrest we just have some questions we need to ask”.

Cassandra arched an eyebrow. “And when you say we, do you mean your guard and the king, or your new puppeteers?”, she glanced to Sharron and back to Morlock.
Morlock ignored the jab. “On the authority of the king Cassandra, as I’m sure he’s keen to know who caused this mess”.

Cassandra seemed to relax a bit at that. “Oh, I’m certain he’s already decided. Him and his new comrades. But any skilled mage can tell you that I didn’t cast that spell, so I look forward to watching you all spin your wheels after wasting time clearing me”.

She sounded almost bored, as she approached the captain. “Now then, we should probably leave, I think your friends are scaring the crowd. Not a good look, all things considered”.

Of course, most of the onlookers were watching with guarded expressions, it was clear that they were afraid. After all, they knew now that these people had no trouble with cutting down humans.

With Cassandra cooperating, Morlock looked to Sharron. “You and your men can stand down. I’ll take her in, you all continue to contain the scene”.
He was certain they wouldn’t follow those orders, but regardless of any orders given from the top, he didn’t need any off worlders present during Cassandra’s interrogation.
The noble woman was fairly calm and walked into the palace with Morlock without any fuss. After all, she knew she was innocent, so she had nothing to fear.
_+_+

With the situation winding down, and the injured civilians being taken into the medical ward in the palace, the royal family emerged from their vault. Fawkes and were sequestered in their rooms, while Ramus and Orsina moved into a smaller, more secure tactics room. The throne room was vast and had too many entrances or exits to be fully secured, so they relocated into a smaller room, outfitted with a large table, several chairs, and a circle in case of a quick getaway.

It was here that a proper search party was organized for Anice, being head by Nakier and Tuvera and Luthien, while Bellamy reported to the prisons to assist in the interrogation.

As Cassandra had said, a skilled mage would be able to tell if she’d cast the spell.

Luthien, Nakier and Tuvera organized the remaining guardsman to scour the castle grounds, searching for any sign of the princess or who might've taken her.
Morlock was overseeing Cassandra's interrogation, while a smaller unit was moving to the Viscount's home to bring him in as well. Officially, neither of them were under arrest, merely persons of interest given the circumstance.

 

[Corrosion]

Decker merely nodded at the king's words. "Understood. We'll assist best we can by conducting drone sweeps," He said. "We'll get to the bottom of this. You have my word." The captain then straightened up. "Decker out."

As the hologram vanished, the captain remained standing straight, unmoving. Miller took notice, his avatar taking a step forwards. "Sir?"

Decker didn't react. A few more seconds passed before he let out a weary sigh. "Miller, this can't go on." He sighed. "I can't help but wonder if we've caused a shift in power by simply existing on this planet."

"Well... could be worse," Miller tried, awkwardly, to reassure the captain. "I mean, sure, we're in a hell lot of trouble, but it could always be worse! At least it wasn't a vaskran ship that crashed here."

Blinking, Decker turned to the A.I.. Then he managed a tired smile. He turned back towards the central viewscreen and took a few steps forwards, and stared out towards the distant shape of Windcrest.

----------------------
​

Torres was the first to react. "Back off!" He barked, aggressively holding his palm towards him and gripping his rifle with the other. The others who weren't currently aiming their weapons at the mage did the same, holding the crowd back and preventing any of them from taking a simple step forwards.

Sharron kept her rifle trained on Cassandra. "Standard procedure for dealing with wanted fugitives, ma'am." She said simply. The lieutenant opted to let Morlock and the mage talk things out. After all, their orders were to let the guard captain do the talking. Talking was never something Marines excelled at.

She tilted her head slightly at the mage's rather cryptic words. Glancing to Conway as if to ask for his opinion, the sergeant merely shrugged in response.

The Marines surrounding Cassandra tensed up again as she made the sudden action of stepping towards Morlock, fingers on triggers in case she tried to do anything stupid. Yet, for whatever reason, she seemed oddly calm, bored even. Either she was really good at lying, or she actually didn't do it. Sharron honestly didn't really give a shit right now.

"Understood," She said simply at Morlock's command. She lowered her rifle and signalled for the men to do the same. "We'll leave you to it. Squad, move!"

The Marines of Apex all turned as one and formed up, before marching away and leaving the two to sort things out themselves.

----------------------
​

By the time the Windcrest contingent returned to their makeshift FOB, the situation had died down. The civilians at the palace had dispersed, with the injured being treated by the native healers. With their job done, the medics had also returned with their medevacs back to the ship. A single squad of Marines was left to patrol the palace grounds, just in case something else happened and a rapid response was necessary. There was also a rather significant number of drones circling the skies, all searching for the missing princess and more.

For the Marines of Apex, the mood was an odd mix of gloominess, pessimism, and just plain indifference. The reactions to the princess' disappearance, and the incident as a whole, was a mixed bag. But the discussions were still quite heated.

"So, think she did it?" Adler asked, idly tapping on his holotool.

"Fuck knows, man." Erickson shrugged, taking a sip from his canteen. "All I know is, the princess is missing, and it's somehow our fault."

"Primitives, man." Torres chimed in, disdain in his voice. "I'm telling you, these guys don't know shit."

Adler seized the moment. "They probably know a lot more than you, new guy."

The two more veteran members shared a laugh as the young private flushed.

"Fuck you guys," Torres grinned slightly. "You know, I swear each day on this fucked up planet drains more and more of my sanity."

"So..." Erickson started, flashing a grin. "It drains nothing, then."

The other two stared at him for a second, before they broke into another round of laughter, Torres joining in this time. As they calmed down, the newest member of Apex sighed. "Sooner we get off this rock the sooner we get back to killing aliens."

"True," Erickson agreed. Then he suddenly seemed to remember something. "You know, I'm actually kind of surprised the brass didn't immediately send you to the bring after what you did the other day. I mean, you nearly fucked up first contact with the natives."

"Yeah, that's basically a court martial, man." Adler followed up. "Should probably be glad Decker saved your ass from Colonel Eckstein."

Torres seemed to consider the statement. But after a while, he shrugged. "Instinct, I guess." He said. "After Shangris, it just became natural for me to hate anything with scales that walks on two feet."

Adler nodded in understanding. "Say, what happened on Shangris, anyway?" He asked, expectantly. "You do seem to hate the aliens more than any of us, and that's really saying something."

But Torres didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly seem to freeze up, his expression suddenly going blank. For a second, the two could see a flash of fear in his eyes.

"Torres?" Erickson asked in genuine, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

Torres abruptly pulled away, his expression suddenly changing back to his usual scowl. "I'm fine," He snapped, exhaling a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. Scowling at the two, he turned away. "See you guys later."

As they watched the private stomp away, Erickson couldn't help but ask: "What's his problem?"

"Bad memories," Adler said, knowingly. "Real bad memories."