I shift in my seat. Even with the pillow, it’s uncomfortable.
“Look. Can you project the map?”
Aelon nods, commanding to the ship’s computer: “AI - project.”
The holographic display I’d spotted when I first entered this room appears in front of me. That moon, the planet Tarrion, The Instigator and blinking lights indicating Aelon’s troops, Reavers and mining colonies appear on the table between us.
“Okay,” I gesture towards the projection, “so, your battalion returns to the ship at night, and in the morning, they head to the moon’s surface to clear out those Scorp nests. They kill as many as they can during the day, and then they come back to the ship at night. Is that correct?”
Aelon nods wordlessly, waiting for me to continue.
“So, what I would do, if I was trying to take you on?”
His eyes narrow as I take on the role of a hypothetical assailant.
“Well, first I’d wait until you send the bulk of your men to the moon’s surface.”
“They’re close enough to assist The Instigator if anyone attacks.”
“Yes, that’s true – but if I was that Toad commander, once your ships land on the moon, I’d strike here, here, and here.” I point to three of the spread-out mining camps on Tarrion’s surface.
Aelon’s eyes narrow into slits.
“That’s cold-hearted. Innocent humans are working on those camps.”
I snort. He must be joking. “You’re thinking like a human.”
“How dare you!” He acts offended, but Aelon seems to laugh at that comparison.
“It sounds cold-hearted,” I clarify, “because Toads are cold-hearted – and cold-blooded. You know that as well as anybody.”
His eyes are so narrow now, they’re practically closed. I seem to have struck a nerve – and I wonder if Aelon might know the cold-blooded nature of Toads even better than I do.
“Aye,” he nods. “I know their nature well. Too well.” Then his eyes open a little. “You speak the truth, Tasha. I’m holding them to human standards – but Toad would have no compunction about killing hundreds if it served their purpose. Those disgusting frogspawn are without honor.”
“No argument here,” I nod.
I lean closer.
“Listen, Captain Aelon. I don’t know what sort of contract you have with the mining crews, but the Toads know you’ll be obligated to send reinforcements to protect those miners. Between the Scorp nests and protecting those miners, your ship will be left with a skeleton crew and few defenses at best. You think The Instigator is invincible – but with the right planning, a good commander could force you to split your forces up and spread them too wide to protect your ship.”
“A good commander,” Aelon nods. “A commander as smart as you.”
“I’m not smart – I’m just an opportunist – as are the Toads. They’ll be coming, they’ll pull a scheme like this, and they’ll bring enough attack ships to rip The Instigator to shreds.”
Aelon’s face hardens. “Well done,” he says coldly.
“Well done?”
“Yes – well done. That’s exactly what the Toads are going to do – right down to the three specific mining camps that they’ll select to attack.”
My eyes widen. What does he mean?
“I’ve already given orders to Iunia and Vinicus to set up anti-air batteries in each of the mining camps. The Toad will strike with assault ships, expecting the camps to be undefended. Instead, they’ll run right into so much firepower they’ll think the Planet-Killers have returned.”
I shiver. Planet-Killers were ancient weapons from a long-ago war between Aurelians and Toads. They did exactly what the name suggests – destroying whole planets, and killing billions. In the millennia since that war, such weapons have been banned by all the intelligent species of the universe; and talk of them is hushed and reverent.
Aelon watches my expression, and then he points to the mining camps displayed on the projection – flicking his fingers to interact with the display.
The holographic display zooms in on each of them in turn.
“Those Toad assault ships will fly into hellfire and destruction – and then I’ll “deploy” my Reavers to defend the camps. In reality, the Reavers will circle back around the moon to flank the oncoming assault ships – the ones that were expecting The Instigator to be undefended. I’ll massacre the fuckers.”
My eyes widen. I’d totally misjudged this situation – this man.
I can’t believe how ruthless Captain Aelon is capable of being. Far from being arrogant enough to dismiss the threat the Toads pose, he’s relishing in it. Instead of protecting the mining camps he’d been hired to shield from the threat of those Scorp nests, he’s actually using them as bait to draw in the Toads.
“You want the Toads to come back!”
The smile that comes to Aelon’s face chills me to the bone. I see his true nature now. That cocky arrogance has only ever been a façade. Beneath, he’s a born killer. He’ll butcher those Toads like animals. Their greed, arrogance and scheming will be the death of them. This has all been a complex game of chess that Aelon has been playing for years.
“Let me tell you a story, Tasha,” the commander leans forward. “During my last year of service with the Aurelian Army, I was ready for it all to be over – to live the indolent life of luxury and harems that so many of my species do. I’d already served ninety-nine bloody years and seen terrible, terrible things that still haunt me to this day.”
I remember all I know about the Scorp. As much as I resent the Aurelian Empire for all they do wrong – like levying such harsh taxes that they’ve reduced planets like my home world to poverty – there is a reason for this. Each Aurelian swears a century of service, which is spent protecting human-aligned planets from threats they can’t protect themselves from – like the Scorp.
I shouldn’t discount the sacrifice that Aelon, Vinicus, Iunia and all
