For most of the thousands of souls on the Flora, the weakness was not being a Brion.
Corden stopped when the warriors below him did and felt his pulse quicken to a thunderous pace when he saw why.
There was a huge hall up ahead, filled to the brink with crewmembers. Mostly they seemed to be men. Corden had witnessed the other general's MO enough to know what was going to happen.
He had limited seconds before the Brions would enter the hall, and after that, there was nothing he could do without exposing himself. One person can hold a secret. A thousand or more are completely incapable of doing that.
Not only that, there had to be no evidence of a Brion-on-Brion fight.
Now this is a challenge, Corden thought. How do I kill these bastards without being me?
Staying hidden from the crowd in the hall, Corden allowed his valor squares to pulse an angry challenge. Instantly, the warriors stopped. Like one, they turned around and saw him.
The thing that had made Corden's blood boil before was that no real Brion would have accepted the order to go and slaughter defenseless people. Not only because there was no triumph there to celebrate, but more importantly, they weren't in the dark days anymore. Brions killed those who deserved it, those who were a threat.
Not those they could, which included most of the galaxy. Men like Worgen believed that was exactly what they should have done. Rule all the known universe.
But to his relief, Corden found that he and the warriors had a little in common at least. Compared to a hall full of people, the warriors immediately judged him to be a bigger threat. They turned on their heels and followed him.
It didn't feel good to run. Corden was unused to the sensation of being the one chased, but he needed a room without prying eyes. And he couldn't go far without being seen. So far it was only dumb luck that the corridors had emptied after Lana's warning, and it wasn't something he wanted to rely upon.
Lana. This time he had to be careful or they'd end up in the same position as they were on the Raptor.
The Flora was too packed with people to go much farther, and he couldn't risk being seen. Corden saw a solution to his problems up ahead. He stopped so suddenly the Brion unit chasing him almost ran into him.
The main reason for that were the Torons. Usually the big, silent species kept to themselves. They were accepted into the union , but Torons weren't naturally social types. Doing their jobs seemed enough. Corden saw his opportunity. Torons were not violent without provocation, but their terrible strength made them deadly nonetheless. And most importantly, they were fiercely protective of the weak. News traveled fast on the Flora, after all. The beasts rose, recognizing the enemies who had slaughtered a whole bay full of innocent people.
Corden had to jump out of the way of rampaging Torons, but that didn't take him out of the fight. All the Torons did was give him a perfect cover.
The first moments were the most tense, the Torons reaching their clawed hands after every Brion they could find, including him. Corden didn't bother trying to explain anything to a furious Toron, but he showed it with his actions. The general stood in the middle of another bloodbath, warding off the attack of the Torons as well as taking down the Brion warriors.
He aimed to make his strikes rough and clumsy, to mimic the brutality of the Toron claws. The huge creatures were tearing the warriors limb from limb, catching the spears out of mid-air and ripping them from their grasps.
In the middle of it all, Corden was as untouchable as he was unrelenting in his attempt to make the Torons see he was on their side. But the wrongness of the situation didn't escape him.
One by one, the Brion warriors were buried under the trampling mass of the Torons, but they shouldn't have been. They were the finest fighters in the galaxy with all the experience they had, but for the second time now Corden felt like there was something off with them.
Torons were a great help and a great cover, because their justified rage was enough to stand up to the cold Brions. Corden himself stayed untouched, easily parrying the huge creatures, who were fueled by their anger but had none of his skill. The Brion warriors should have done the same.
It shouldn't have been that easy.
Slowly but surely, the Torons started to understand that one of the enemies wasn't an enemy at all. The brightest left him alone first and the others soon followed, focusing on the other warriors again. And by the end, Corden and the Torons were left standing in silence, looking at the dead Brions.#p#分页标题#e#
Movement on his right told Corden that at least one had managed to survive. It was a young warrior, judging by the look of him, but he had to be older than Corden. The man lifted his empty, glassy eyes to the general and watched him without any emotion. He made no sound nor any attempt to try and stop the blood flowing from his cracked chest.
All he said was: "I will see you again" before he died.
Corden filed the sentence away for a later time when he had a moment to consider the meaning. It had to be important. Dying men didn't often say things that were meaningless, especially ones who didn’t even acknowledge pain.
He let his eyes wander over the Torons. The creatures were looking at him, the sharp points of their fangs curling over their thin lips. Corden nodded to them. His first choice would have been to not show himself at all, but this was a close second, which was why he'd run in the direction of the Toron part of the ship.
The general had figured that the beasts were the least likely to babble about him and the most likely to help. So far, he had been right, but Corden hated trusting luck and fate. Those were tools only for those who lacked the strength to make their own destinies.
"We have a common enemy," he said in the Toron language. "I am a friend of your new captain, who wants to help you. It is better for both of us if the Brions don't know about me being here."
For a long moment, the Torons didn't reply. Corden waited.
"Friend," one of them said at last, in rough Brionese. It meant protector.
That was fine with Corden. He left the Torons, wanting to be long gone when the Brions were found, but looking back he saw that that was not going to be a problem. The Torons had crouched down and were meticulously, with great care, hacking the warriors to pieces with their hands and claws. Corden wanted to ask if they were hiding his trail on purpose, but chose not to push his luck.
If he wanted to do anything for the fleet, he had to find the quickest way to Worgen and not let him escape this time.
To do that, he needed Lana.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lana
The bridge of the Flora was almost as big as her whole previous ship.
Lana took a moment to take in the grand scale of her new duties and responsibilities.
The carrier was unlike any ship she'd ever commanded. Lana hadn't even been on a ship like this before, but it spoke to her. The initial weirdness was gone, banished in the second she was made the vessel’s new captain. It was ironic that Worgen had given her a new purpose, which was all that she needed to carry on the fight against him.
A captain stayed a captain even without a vessel to call her own.
The bridge crew was staring at her with barely concealed animosity. A part of it—which Lana suspected was a rather big part—was the Brion escort standing behind her, looking like an honor guard.
What a great way to introduce myself. It makes my "Not with Brions" slogan so credible.
"I am Lana Cormac, your new captain," she said, enjoying the way the rank sounded on her tongue.
She paused, looking from one petrified face to the next. If she was going to get anywhere with these people, Lana needed to give them a reason to trust her.
"First of all, I'm Terran like most of you," she said coldly, allowing distaste to seep into her voice. "The fact you even dare to think I'd voluntarily have anything to do with General Worgen is insulting. Way, way worse than insulting. I hate them as much as you do."
The shocked gasp was audible in the silence that followed. A feather would have made a racket as Lana stood, very keenly aware of having her back to the warriors. If she turned, if she showed fear, the crew would only grow more anxious. She held the gaze of the higher-ranking officers, letting them see it was possible to talk like that and not get murdered. Of course it would have helped so fucking much if Lana had had any idea if that only applied to her or not.
Just in case it did, she went on: "That said, I wouldn't repeat my sentiment to them. Your previous captain did and I don't think I need to tell you what happened to him."
That brought a round of murmurs. Lana noticed with relief that most of them were something along the lines of "I warned him."
Okay, so I'm not dealing with a whole crew of lobotomized idiots. Only a few, but for some reason those always yell the loudest.
She knew that because those few were stepping forward now, glaring a hole through her. Most were Terran, but Lana noticed a few Palians too, which was a huge surprise. They were the most nurturing species in the union , always known for their efforts to conciliate.#p#分页标题#e#
"Where is our captain?" one of the Terrans demanded.
He sounded eerily like the man Lana had spoken to before.
"Talking to you right now," she said calmly. "If you're referring to the imbecile who thought it was wise to put the entire ship at risk, he's dead. What the fuck did you expect?"