The horizon looked dusty, like a cloud of dirt had been kicked up amidst a setting sun. Amber rays danced across pale porcelain skin and singed deep black eyes as they constricted down into emerald and gold.
Cercina stared at her squad's handiwork and spit at the ground in distaste. Damn the things she would do to stay alive. She reached a tendril of herself further over the veil than she normally resided, and knew with finality that every life on this planet had passed through. It was heartbreaking, but necessary. Necessary for her and her kind to live. Her auburn tail twitched anxiously as she awaited her crew's return.
Rarely did she venture from the transport ship. Rarely was she needed to do so, her men were usually more than capable of taking care of the missions.
Planet purification is what the Illirians called it. Decimation of a peoples on planets that were dying from over population, so that another race could essentially bid or purchase said planet for themselves. It was a booming business, and it made Cercina's stomach roil with anger and disgust.
The empire to which she was employed had all but enslaved her people, killing most of them off during the war making them quite the endangered species. Cercina stifled back the tears that threatened to force their way through, thinking of her mother's death the year before. The war and her father had literally killed her.
The war had brought on a horrifying plague, which she was incapable of fighting after the stresses of battle for so long. Her body had simply given up, and she passed through the veil shortly after becoming ill. Cercina still remembered her mother's last words to her. They echoed through her head whenever it was too quiet. "Get away, my love. Get out of here, and get away before his war consumes you."
"Too late now, amia, his war has devoured me." Now she worked for the Illirian royal family as a low-level grunt. How far the mighty had fallen.
Her men approached slowly. Their faces all appeared ghostly after what had been done. While it was true that her people were fierce warriors that enjoyed the heart pumping roar of battle, this was not battle. This was not something to fight for, this was just plain and simple genocide. Who were they to play the hands of the gods? Who were they to decide the fate of a people? Her second in command looked at her with heartbreak in his eyes and he shook his head in wordless horror and despair.
Even though she knew the answer, she knew that the empire would require her to get a verbal affirmation of completion. "Captain Sheregat, what is the status of this mission?"
He closed his eyes for a moment in respectful silence. "Complete, Major Erranus."
Cercina nodded in mock approval, and quietly said, "Very good Captain. Assemble the men we're going home."
"Major, we just got word that our unit is being transferred." A rather wiry man stumbled out of the ship with a projection still loose against his wrist, out of breath,obviously from running, and very clearly wearing a look of terror he barely managed to gasp, "We're to join with the main fleet, and be a part of Prince Tereon's personal army."
Cercina let a sigh of controlled panic escape. That was a name she hadn't heard in a long time.