A SPARTAN'S WAR

SOLMAR

SOUTHERN SETTLEMENT

FEBRUARY 4TH, 1120 HRS, EST

Azlenr brushed aside the two Puma Bane guards outside of the building they had taken as their headquarters and stormed into the entrance, Byka, Kameka and Makali right on his heels. Marsin was just turning from talking to a junior officer when Azlenr cleared the entrance.

"Ah General… I am glad you are here." Marsin stated. "We have new…"

Azlenr's right fist slammed into Marsin's jaw like a sledgehammer. Azlenr'Macoe was a very large man even for a Kavalian, fully six foot five and easily two hundred and forty pounds, if not more. He unleashed all of that size and strength on Marsin in a single blow that spun the Puma Bane Commander completely around and dropped him to the floor of the building with stars dancing behind his eyes and pain coursing through his body. The Puma Bane troops from outside and the one Marsin had been talking to immediately dropped into combat stances and began bringing their weapons up. Byka, Kameka and Makali all had their weapons out instantly as Azlenr towered over Marsin.

Byka jammed the barrel of his ARSOC into the closest Puma Bane troop's chest even as his rifle was halfway up. "Who dies first?" Byka snarled.

"Who commands here dog?" Azlenr screamed down at Marsin. "This is my operation! My command! Now tell your sheep to lower their weapons or I will have all of you butchered where you stand!" Azlenr reached down and grabbed Marsin's uniform, yanking the man to his feet none too gently. "Do it now!"

Marsin glared at Azlenr with murder in his eyes. Both of his lips had been torn up by his own teeth from Azlenr's blow. The General's knuckles were like calloused rocks impacting his face. He had not been hit that hard since his father beat him as a boy for disobeying him. He lifted his hand and wiped the back of his hand across his bloody mouth. There was no way he could get away with killing Azlenr for striking him in front of his men and tarnishing his status. Not with so many witnesses. Even his own men would turn on him out of self preservation if he killed the General. He glanced at his trio of Puma Bane troops.

"Leave us." He snarled loudly.

Azlenr's burning eyes did not leave Marsin as the three Puma Bane soldiers lowered their weapons and then quickly departed the headquarters building. At least they were smart enough to not want to get caught in the middle of what was brewing between their commander and the famous Kavalian General. "I will ask you only once more Major Marsin'Jiate! Who is it that commands this operation?"

"You do General." He hissed his answer back.

"Yes… I do! And you took it upon yourself to disobey my specific orders not to harm the civilian populous!" Azlenr barked at him. "Explain this to me quickly Major… my tolerance for you is now nearly zero! You know full well what the penalty is for disobeying the orders of a superior in this manner!"

"I was following my orders General!" Marsin snarled back.

"Fifty-three civilians are now dead! Executed in front of countless others by your men!" Azlenr shouted. "I did not give that order Major!"

"No… I did Azlenr." The new voice spoke calmly and all of them whirled to see Keleru's face on the monitor that Marsin had been in front of when they entered.

"Prefect?" Azlenr gasped.

"I gave Marsin his orders General." Keleru stated. "We can not have a civilian populous insurgency beginning after you have only just begun to secure the planet for our use. When he reported to me what happen I gave him permission to execute the civilians to insure this will not continue."

Azlenr glanced at Marsin with that savage glare. "Did the Major also think to inform you that this attack against his troops was not carried out by civilians Prefect?" He asked turning back to Keleru in the transmission.

"The Major was certain General." Keleru stated cautiously now. "He told me you… he told me you were hesitating about executing civilians in reprisal to keep this from happening again."

"Yes… I'm sure that is what the Major told you Prefect." Azlenr stated. "However, had the Major accompanied me to my medical headquarters, he would now know this attack was not carried out by civilian assets."

"Who else then?" Marsin snarled.

Keleru blinked within the transmission. "I don't understand." He said.

"My Chief surgeon informed me only moments ago that all but two of Marsin's men were killed by bladed weapons. Swords or Nehtes. Two of them had wounds on their bodies that we have as yet been unable to determine what type of weapon was used. My Intelligence people have informed me that the only Union forces that still carry swords are members of their Durcunusaan."

"The Durcunusaan?" Keleru snapped coming forward in his chair.

Azlenr nodded. "We also discovered the prints from… from a very large female dragon Prefect."

"Dragon? Here on Solmar?" Marsin hissed. "Impossible!"

Azlenr looked at him. "Major… as the Prefect is my witness… speak another word and I will remove your tongue from your head!"

"Azlenr there is…" Keleru began.

Azlenr turned back to the monitor. "Prefect… have I ever failed you in the nine hundred years I have served our people as a General under your command? Have I ever failed to secure an objective you gave to me?" Azlenr asked.

"Never." Keleru answered without hesitation.

"Major Marsin's and his men executed their part of this mission brilliantly Prefect… but they also killed over four thousand civilians in the process." Azlenr spoke. "You tasked me with taking this planet and its settlements with as little notice as possible."

"Yes." Keleru said.

"The deaths of over four thousand civilians makes that nearly impossible when it is discovered Prefect." Azlenr stated. "The Bontawillians are not a warring people. They have a small fleet of ships and a militia, but they are not soldiers. When word leaks out, and it will leak out sooner or later when they begin to try and contact this colony, when word leaks out that we have this colony and that many civilians died in the taking of it, what do you think the Union leadership will do?"

"Prefect… the Union will not attempt to retake this…" Marsin began to speak.

"Silence Marsin!" Keleru snarled. "Azlenr… speak to me."

"We have a Union soldier that was taken by the Major's men when they secured the settlements." Azlenr said. "They killed four others that were with him and chased another four into the deep mountain timber before losing contact with them. What the Major did not tell you is that these four Union soldiers killed nearly twenty of his men before falling. Twenty of them Prefect! They were not normal Union troops. They were some sort of special operations team here for relaxation is my guess. The wounds on the bodies of the Major's men killed last night are consistent with exceptionally skilled warriors that are lethally proficient in the use of swords and spears. At least ten men hit the Puma Bane camp Prefect. Not four. And they had at least one dragon with them. The Bontawillian people do not possess the needed strength or combat skill to kill with such surgical precision. None of them do… no matter how much training they could receive!"

"You… you are telling me there are Durcunusaan on Solmar?" Keleru asked him.

Azlenr nodded. "At least ten… probably twice that. General Byka agrees with me." He said. "I am taking steps to find and neutralize them Prefect… but killing civilians will not help me accomplish the task you gave to me! It will only incite whoever is out there to conduct more attacks!"

"If they know we will kill civilians in retribution they will stop!" Marsin barked.

"Are you daft Major?" Azlenr shouted at him. "These are Bontawillians! Colonists! Not Lycavorians or elves or vampires. These civilians do not know how to fight! When word finally does get out that we have taken this planet and it is known that we arbitrarily executed civilians, this colony world will jump to the very top of their target lists! Their people will demand it! They will encircle us, cut off any escape route that we have and then slaughter us as you and your men slaughtered those civilians! Any hope we may have had of maintaining this colony as a forward base will be lost!"

"Then we will hold them hostage!" Marsin snarled.

Azlenr ignored him and looked at Keleru. "Prefect… I have the ground forces necessary to secure this planet. I need ships to protect us from Union forces when they do arrive."

"The union is stretched even thinner than we are Azlenr." Keleru spoke. "And we replace our clone troops by the thousands every day. Civilian casualties are not a concern of mine at this moment. Your operation is just one of four that we are conducting in order to establish forward bases. We need these bases and if you have to kill a few hundred civilians to do it then so be it. You must use all your options Azlenr'Macoe. You must not fail."

"I do not intend to fail Prefect but executing civilians will not..." Azlenr began to speak but was cut off.

"Major Marsin… your Puma Bane Detachment will refrain from any more civilian executions unless something like this happens again."

"Prefect that is not a good idea." Azlenr spoke quickly. "It could back fire on a colossal scale if executions continue."

"I will not have your men… my men butchered by these Durcunusaan dogs!" Keleru snapped softly. "If this continues then we will show these few Union troops that to remain and continue these attacks is not going to benefit them in the least. It will only spill more civilian blood. Leave the civilians to Major Marsin and you concentrate on securing that colony for our use."

Azlenr bowed his head with a sigh of defeat. "As you order Prefect."

"Marsin!" Keleru snapped seeing the grin on his face within the transmission.

"Prefect!" Marsin barked.

"Major… you are Puma Bane… but you are not above the chain of command. If you ever disobey an order from General Azlenr that does not deal with the civilians on that world I will see to it personally that you and your entire Pride are stripped of their honor and their skins! Is that clear?"

The smirk on Marsin's face had vanished quickly at Keleru's words and he nodded his head. "I understand Prefect."

Keleru nodded. "Make sure you do Major. Make sure you do."

Azlenr glared at Marsin for a long moment, the major not backing down in the least. He lifted his hand and stabbed his finger into Marsin's chest. "You executed the civilians Major… so to keep their rotting bodies from harming our men, you and your Puma Bane troops will collect them and remove the health hazard to the rest of my soldiers!"

Azlenr spun around and marched out of the building, the others following him rapidly to keep up with his long legged stride. He stopped walking halfway to the DAGGER and savagely kicked at an overturned barrel as Byka and Makali came up behind him. Azlenr turned and looked at Byka.

"Find them Byka!" Azlenr said. "Find them and kill them before they do something like this again and Marsin murders more innocent civilians!"

Byka nodded. "I'll put my best teams on it my friend." He said. "We'll find them."

"Makali… I want you to assign as many civilians as you can to labor intensive duties." He spoke. "Moving equipment… manual bunker preparations. Things like that. I want them split into three shifts so we can use as many of them as possible."

"General?" Makali asked confused.

"If they are being used for military purposes then there are fewer for Marsin to execute!" Azlenr hissed softly. "I will not be party to helping him or giving him free reign to killing civilians!"

Makali nodded. "It will require we pull line troops to provide guard duty." He said.

Azlenr nodded. "I know. We can spare several companies for this duty from our reserve." Azlenr said. "Make the commanders understand they are there to guard the colonists and not to interact with them in any way. But they are not to use lethal force!"

"I will give the orders sir." Makali spoke.

Azlenr looked around again his eyes taking in the walls of the settlement. "Have all the Puma Bane detachments moved outside the settlement walls Byka. I do not want our men injured if another attack targeting them comes."

Byka met his eyes. "That will not make Marsin happy."

"Fuck him." Azlenr spat. "I will not have our men targeted for killing civilians when they have nothing to do with it."

"Do you think they will attack again?" Byka asked.

Azlenr looked at him. "That depends." He said. Azlenr looked off into the distance beyond the settlement wall once more. "It depends on what type of man leads these troops." He replied. "Pray it is one who reacts with emotion and compassion and not someone who sees that it does not matter in the least."

"What doesn't matter?" Byka asked.

"Marsin intends to execute civilians for any minor infraction." Azlenr said. "I could see it in his eyes. Fucking Puma Bane soldiers!" He swore. "If the commander of these Durcunusaan realizes that no matter what he does, civilians will die, he will attack again." He turned to face Byka. "I want to talk to this vampire." He spoke. "Let them know I am coming. I want to find out what we are up against."