No matter what, you never get over seeing some things, even as a commander. You might get used to them, but they always provoke a reaction out of you.
Seeing an intersection full of body bags was one of those things, for me at least.
The bags were lined up neatly, and all loooned similar, but what they contained were vastly different from each other. Some had nearly intact corpses, others only a few remains from people who had been killed in grizzly ways. Men, woman, had children, of varying races and species, were all in these bags, waiting to go somewhere to be buried, or cremated, or...well, you get the idea.
I felt numb looking at all of the corpses. All of these people were ones I could have saved, were it not for that Artifact. I couldn't have expected that to happen, but still, I should have done better. I should have made sure that all opposition was gone before those ships had taken off. I should have-is that Melissa?
...yes, yes it was. She seemed to be staring at a group of badly burned bodies. It didn't take a genius to guess what those were.
Calmly, I approached her, unsure how to act.
"So, you found me," she said, just as I had reached her side.
"Yeah, I did...you okay?"
"I guess...I mean, I'm alive, but..."
"I understand."
"Good...I just...don't get it..."
"...what do you mean?"
"How can people like this get away with horrible crimes in this universe? How come no one has stopped them?"
"Well..."
"I mean, this universe isn't a giant hellhole, like 40k or 1984, and I've been to both. The good guys win as often as the lose here. Civilizations this bad just should not be able to prosper for so long here."
Part of me understoood and sympathized with what she was saying. The rest of it wondered how a being who was probably hundreds, thousands, or millions of years old, who had probably seen people perform absolutely despicable acts on each other, could still get so angry over an action that, while horrible, was likely small in the grand scheme of things.
"I'm 712. And I know when you are thinking about me."
...eep.
"Though, if you think I am naive, you wouldn't be the first. A lot of others have told me the same."
"...sorry."
"It's okay...um, remember when I was talking to you just before the attack, about our temporary truce?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Consider it extended. We may not be friends, but until the Drengin fall, we are not enemies. I am not letting them get away with this."
"...oh. Well, thank you."
"You're welcome...good luck."
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So, yeah. That happened.
After that conversation, we parted ways. My forces retrieved the Artifact, then pulled back to our own territory, so that we could lick our wounds and prepare for a counter offensive. I also made a point of bolstering the defenses we had at our borders with Dread Lord territory. There was no telling what they would do after this attack, but I didn't want to take any chances with them.
Now what to do...maybe I should check out one of those files I dug up in my Commander?
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!