Mirror Sky. Part 1 - Blissful Nemesis

18 - Family Apart

All the high officers were gathering on the captain deck of the Landship Insolent, bringing more bad news: instantaneous red fliers and suboptimal Plan Bravo-Two, heavy resistance on the inside, and artillery that the enemy produced out of nowhere. Lastly, the information arrived that the Gates were shut, and the military operation was officially over.

Magnar observed the people in the room. They all already said their respective bits and remained silent. He could smell that the meeting was going to be long and difficult.

"How many managed to get in?" asked Magnar.

"Everybody, give or take. A million ground troops, two hundred landships, two hundred arachnids."

"How many got out?" asked Magnar.

"Fifty thousand troops. Seventy-five landships. Forty-nine arachnids."

Magnar felt the temperature in the room rising as the numbers got announced.

"Loot?" he asked.

"Ten million cubic yards of grade-A organic surrogate—"

"Who gives a shit about your loot?!" an officer jumped on his feet. "We lost an entire army in the assault! We hardly have people to man and defend the remaining machinery! What the hell happened with the negotiations?"

The outburst ignited the room. The officers all stood up and talked one over the other, throwing accusations and curses, most of which were directed at Magnar. He made a lazy gesture, and the room fell silent.

"Negotiations failed," he said. "No doubt, the rumor of what had happened already spread. We're now at war. We're taking the fortress by force."

"But your sister—"

"What about her?" Magnar cut the speaker off. "What. About. Her?"

The speaker did not dare to finish his thought and sat down. Good. There was a semblance of order left in his army.

"That's the way I see it," said Magnar. "We haven't achieved the primary objective, no questions about it. You want to assign the blame? You want to assign it to me?"

He took a long pause.

"I want to remind you," he continued, "I went inside the fortress. I disabled Pax Turrets and Aeon Shield. I crippled their communications and ensured their army wouldn't be on the streets to meet you. I opened the Gates for you. The only thing I didn't do was roll out the fucking red carpet."

Magnar allowed the anger to show in his voice, even though his mind remained cold. The room recoiled and exchanged worried looks. They all knew his reputation and what he could do. However, he had no intentions of strengthening his reputation today. He could not afford to dish any punishment and diminish the troops further, no matter how much all of them screwed up.

However, they did not have to know that. Now, Magnar needed to see fear in their eyes, and he saw just that. It was time to hear their excuses. Who would go first? You? Or you?

"You disabled the communication, is that right?" voiced the bravest of officers. "Well, I'll be damned if we didn't deal with a well-orchestrated defense. You made sure that the army wouldn't meet us? Then who the hell met us?"

"The defense was armed to the teeth and were ready to die for every inch," said another officer.

"Die?" voiced the third. "Your troops killed some of them? Because I got reports that no matter how many times we fired at them, bullets or shells, they weren't dying. Their Gods are too powerful. We were fools to attack them, and we'll be even bigger fools to carry on."