Morrigan divided Havoc Squad up and introduced their members to their newest departments, a contingent of guards following closely and breaking off to guard their assignments as the day proceeded. Taylor spent the time trying to pry however, Morrigan ignored all of their questions as she delivered them to the department heads, her mind focused on less trivial matters.
See, you have this under control, Apollyon mused, its words meaning to be praising.
“No, I don’t have shit. We’re one ship, there is no way we will be able to keep this up for long. We were lucky enough to have a Marmuro’k battleship at our side otherwise that fight would’ve gone completely different…” she complained, trying to think of a way to gain allies while doing her duties as an Inquisitor.
There is still you. Don’t forget that you ripped a ship in half, girl.
Morrigan stopped in the middle of the corridor, moving to the side to let some crew members pass as she took a moment for herself, “Yeah, but that almost killed me last time or did you forget?”
Hehe no, I didn’t forget. I was just making sure you were taking this seriously, granted, you’ve evolved some so the option may be there now? Regardless, my point is you’re preparing for war, little goddess. You’re thinking of every contingency and every path you can take to ensure victory even if it’s not in our grasp, which is the mantle of a commander, Apollyon stated, its tone filled with pride and expectation.
Morrigan continued through the ship, fighting the urge to laugh as she thought about Apollyon’s words, “What’s with you? Normally you’re expecting me to go on a murderous rampage not… well, this.”
Apollyon cackled darkly in her head, as if the deity was on the verge of slipping into old sadistic habits before it said, Oh little goddess, you forget I am eons older than you. As fun as a bloodbath would be, which it would, but even I don’t want you to die on a fools errand.
Morrigan smirked at that, nodding in understanding as she continued making her way to a lower section of the ship where data processing and administration was.
“So, what cosmic knowledge does the God of Death have for this situation?” she mused, attempting to mock Apollyon’s age.
Destroy the thing that keeps your Federation together, the Earth.
Morrigan staggered, nearly tripping as she choked on her spit, coughing as she tried to maintain her breathing. “Are you fucking insane?” she hissed out between coughs as she held herself up against the wall, all the while Apollyon laughed darkly.
Ah Mori, your humanity is so amusing. How do you intend on putting an end to a war built upon ideology? Apollyon inquired as if it knew the answer.
Morrigan regained her composure as she took a deep breath, leaning against the wall as she ground her teeth, “What do you mean? I’ll kill Amaranthe and cut the head of the snake,” she explained in her head before she started walking farther down the corridor and looking at the awkward stares she received.
What do you think that will actually do to an organization built on the belief of racial superiority? That man, he's nothing but a figure head that can be replaced, where as the planet- oh the planet is origin, the birth place of humanity and a symbol of their beliefs despite the vast amount of worlds humanity occupies, Apollyon explained with gleeful wisdom.
Morrigan shook her head though, “No. There is only one commander of the Federation now, without him, the Federation would fall into chaos and fall by our hands…”
Heh, if you say so but ideology is never behind one person. It needs a symbol, a concept, one that can be looked upon in awe and remind the masses of what is, in their eyes, the driving force of their fighting spirit.
Morrigan growled in frustration as she began considering Apollyon’s words, finding a certain logic behind it. “No, even if you’re right, we’ll find a different way. There is no way we can do that,” she muttered to herself, attempting to let go of her subtle anger as she found Emily at her desk writing the forms she required.
Three days of FTL travel was wholly uneventful, Morrigan spending a large part of the time roaming the ship and meeting more of the crews throughout the vast ship to keep her occupied.
To her relief, three days of reports about Havoc Squad were overall positive though the only person out of the group that seemed to be struggling was Ebony, who Sigurd described as “ferret mad and timid”, which was uncondemning seeing as the woman had wet herself during her interrogation. Morrigan assumed all that was needed was a bit of time for her to relax before she could really start seeing the benefits of the Inquisition. As for the rest of the team, it appeared that all of them were diving head first into their new duties, Stephanie and Henry coming up with trial runs for training while Taylor spent his time making adjustments to auxiliary equipment under the watchful gaze of one of Gene’s subordinates and Jackson and Aleksei were heard at work debating with Danson and Tamina about the chemical and physical properties of the sealant they were trying to develop, similar to something Jackson was quite familiar with.
Now, Morrigan had to see how well they would do under her command, deciding to take a few of them with her on the trip to Iriath II for the acquisition of supplies. Morrigan decided to take Taylor, Stephanie and Henry, along with Xol, leaving Sigurd to watch Ebony from a distance and giving the woman some space to relax.
Skoll wanted nothing more than to go with however, Morrigan decided against letting Skoll run around a friendly planet seeing as many would be terrified of his presence, leaving Nora to take care of the faithful alien hound while she was away.
The dropship gently descended into space, careening towards the capital city of Iriath II as Morrigan turned towards her crew. Henry lounged across cargo straps, awkwardly suspended in the air against one of the ship walls while Taylor intensely stared at her as Stephanie peered out the window at the planet. None of the three had weapons, leaving Xol and Morrigan the only two armed.
“So, how are things?” she asked awkwardly.
“Uh, good, actually. Kind of surprised honestly,” Taylor answered just as awkwardly as Stephanie turned towards the two.
“Could be worse,” she signed, allowing Taylor the time to parrot her. “Sigurd has been pretty helpful to bounce ideas off of.”
Morrigan smiled at that, knowing exactly what Stephanie meant, “Yeah, he’s pretty great for advice if you can believe it. For a mad man who intentionally became a tool of war, he’s pretty intelligent.”
“So, he also mentioned that you were not to be touched by anyone but him and my sister…” Taylor parroted as he trailed off, glancing at Morrigan with abject curiosity.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Xol let out a warning hiss as Morrigan rolled her eyes, ignoring the Kêzi’kan’s dislike for prying questions, “Not the way the jack ass is implying, I…” she paused, scrutinizing who was really around her and considering the intent of the question. Morrigan wasn’t sure if there was scandalous intentions, idle curiosity or genuine concern from Stephanie, her blank expression giving her no hint.
She really had no desire to answer however, she could see a benefit of instilling a bit of trust by giving any sort of answer. With a sigh she said, “I was in prison for two years, and… some things happened. Let’s just say Castile V is a…”
“Whoa, wait, you were in Castile V?” Taylor interrupted. Stephanie face palmed loud enough to garner his attention before signing more to him, his face falling as she explained something.
“Right… sorry I forgot,” he said before glancing at Morrigan, “She reminded me that we were there looking for “the Rose”, which happens to be you…”
Morrigan chewed her lip as Stephanie nodded and turned back to the window as the ship began its entry into the outer atmosphere. Taylor however, tried to pry.
“What happened though?” he asked with concern before Stephanie snapped her fingers, him turning to see her shaking her head before she signed something else. Morrigan watched Taylor’s face scrunch in displeasure as he raised his hands in defeat, “Okay, okay; I won't ask…”
Stephanie gave Morrigan a glancing look of understanding, making Morrigan wish she could have a private conversation with the woman but instead gave her a sad smile and a curt nod, hoping that a new understanding developed between them as Stephanie grabbed ahold of a grab bar near the window as fire began crawling across the window, the ship shaking violently as they pushed deeper into the atmosphere.
Both Xol and Morrigan barely noticed the entry as Taylor had to catch himself and Henry began shouting obscenities as the cargo net he placed himself in, swung from the wall and slammed into the wall, hitting his face on the steel.
Everyone laughed at Henry, even Xol who had been a grouch the entire time, as he struggled to drag himself out of his entrapment.
“That’s what you get for trying to sleep on a mission,” Taylor mocked as Henry fell from the cargo net and tried standing, the ship slowly settling at the ship exited the inner atmosphere.
“Is this a usual thing with him?” Morrigan asked in amusement as she watched Henry grumble to himself as he used the cargo net to pull himself up.
“Yeah, if he’s not working or with someone, he’s sleeping in weird places,” Taylor affirmed as Henry rubbed his face.
“Well pardon me for staying up all night trying to plan out the regiment you asked for,” Henry groaned as he shook himself awake.
“Don't lie, man. You'd still be trying to sleep either way,” Taylor countered.
Henry couldn’t hide the knowing smirk on his face as he scratched his head as he looked around the cargo hold, “That’s besides the point… take it we’re here, boss?”
Morrigan sniffed as she compressed her smile, “Just about, as you noticed the entry into atmo,” her lips curling into a mocking smile again.
Henry rubbed his forehead before yawning, “Yeah, your pilot needs to learn how to drive…”
Morrigan snorted at that before shaking her head, “Well, at least this is a simple job. Head down, submit the paperwork and wait for the supplies. Plenty of time for you to catch up on your needed beauty sleep,” she snacked.
“Damn, you’re a ball buster, you know that?” Henry complained.
Stephanie tapped Taylor and pulled him to the window, which drew Morrigan’s attention. She stepped towards the couple and slipped in on the other side of Taylor as she too peered out the window in curiosity.
“Talk about a rock and a hard place, Taylor. Might wanna be careful,” Henry joked as he watched Taylor standing between his ex as well as his current girlfriend as if something interesting was about to happen. Taylor however, just flipped him off as Stephanie started signing to him.
“What’s she saying?” Morrigan asked, also ignoring Henry.
“She’s saying something feels off? To look at the fields?” Taylor stated in confusion as he looked at the world below. Morrigan also leaned and looked down to see vast farm fields that stretched for miles.
She could see nothing but farms, industrial silos and storage barns with the occasional vehicle driving on predetermined paths, loaded with whatever was growing.
“I’m not understanding what you're trying to point out…” Morrigan said as she tried to find Stephanie’s point.
“I’ve been on a farming world, in the outer frin… fringes? Yeah, fringes, and even they had all the work done by harvester machines…” Taylor reiterated before refocusing out the window again.
Morrigan furrowed her brows and looked again, seeing something different. Down below as the ship slowly descended towards the city, she could see thousands of tiny specks littering the fields, some of the closest ones taking on humanoid shape.
Morrigan touched her comm bead as she scrutinized the sight, “Pilot, bring us in for a sweep over the fields. There is something I want to look at,” she ordered.
“Copy that,” the pilot responded as the ship banked to the left as it dove towards the surface.
As they approached within 100 yards, the sound of metal ricocheting off the outer plating of the drop ship roared around them. “Ma’am, we’re taking fire!” the pilot announced as he began pulling up.
Morrigan ignored all the noise as she focused on one of the people in the fields, a tall lanky person with bright blue, short hair with long pointed ears and dirty clothes hunched over as someone in the field fired into the air at the fleeing dropship.
“Are those Eskarii?” she asked aloud as she felt her blood begin to boil.
She watched Stephanie nodded out of the corner of her eye as the ship careened away from the field and aimed directly at the city.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Taylor noted as Morrigan stormed away from the window and made her way to a storage chest towards the cockpit door, prying the lid off with reckless abandon.
She found standard issue ballistic vests, semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles within the crate and pulled one out, tossing it at Henry who nearly got hit in the face by it but luckily happened to see it coming.
“What are you doing?” Xol hissed out defensively, reading his weapon for retaliation from Henry as he inspected the rifle.
“Something isn't right here, Xol, and I intend to find out what. That means I need everyone combat ready,” Morrigan snapped before holding a loaded handgun over her head.
Taylor cautiously grabbed the gun from her, side eyeing Xol as he checked to see a round was already chambered, and stepping aside for Stephanie to grab the next handgun.
“There’s some vests and more ammo in here but no melee weapons Stephanie,” Morrigan announced as she stood up and moving out of the way.
Stephanie cocked her head to the side and looked around the hold for something to use until her eyes landed on a fire ax hanging next to the cockpit door, used more for survival in an emergency landing than anything, and pried it off the wall, giving it a soft test swing before propping it on her shoulder with a satisfied look. Morrigan grin fiendishly, not realizing her fangs were showing, “That certainly works,” she said, impressed before turning to see Taylor putting on a ballistic vest while Henry dug for more magazines for the rifle.
She and Xol watched as the three prepared themselves as Morrigan felt the dropship begin its landing approach to the city, waiting for more gunfire to plink off the hull until the dropship landed without trouble, the gentle shudder throughout the ship telling her that they made contact with the surface.
The door on dropship slid open forcefully as Morrigan jumped out, her mind running with the worst of situations as she stepped into the multi-tier upper city proper, only to find a sprawling imperial city devoid of life.
“Uh, where is everyone?” Henry asked as he aimed his weapon across the open city center in which they had landed, a waterless fountain consuming the center of the space.
Looking around, they could only spot vacant buildings and discarded garbage throughout the streets, some of it food wrappers, some long soiled clothes and everything in between as they slowly moved past the fountain. The main road stretched up a hill and curved out of sight, seemingly wrapping around a plateau that held an impressive looking mansion.
“This is weird…” Morrigan murmured as she began stalking up the street, scrutinizing every little detail she could find without finding a plausible answer.
There were no smashed windows, broken doors or any real sign that the city had been abandoned nor invaded. She sniffed the air, catching only the smell of distant growing crops and layers of dirt that coated the city. It was as if the citizens of the city had simply vanished without a trace.
Yeah, I’m not even sensing any emotions except for desire, which is coming from up ahead, Apollyon interjected in confusion.
Morrigan furrowed her brows trying to find anything that gave her a clue of what to expect, leading the way towards the mansion, assuming that was the source of the emotion Apollyon felt.
Morrigan couldn’t help but feel anxious by the lack of life surrounding them, as if they were walking into a trap.
