Chapter 33: The Cost of Clean Hands
No one spoke much. Cadets looked at the dead with the same mix of relief and unease that always followed the first real killing of a new campaign.
Meanwhile, the rebellious Lira wiped her blade on a fallen man’s cloak and said nothing, only a small smile which she tried to hide right after.
And George’s smile had not faded.
"Sir," George said, voice low and eager, "we should burn them. Take their terminals and search for another batch if there is any."
Ethan looked at the faces. His gaze down on the Young. The Older.
One still wore a simple wooden charm around his neck, the type that the resource-sector workers used when they thought no one was watching.
They must be from chief Barry...
"No fire," Ethan said. "Too clean and it looks too deliberate. Make it look like the half-beasts attacked them, they were supposed to be Claw marks. Torn throats. Drag two of them into the trees. Scatter the rest."
George’s smile widened. "Understood. You always think three steps ahead sir. That is why the eagle sits on your chest."
Ethan gave a short nod and turned away before his face could show anything. He walked a few paces clear of the bodies and let the system window open.
[Level Up complete]
[Current Level: 18]
[Free Stat Points Received: 200]
[Total stat points: 560 > 760]
[Skill now available to purchase in shop]
[Storm Sense (Passive)
(requirement: level 18)]
[Effect: Heightened perception of electrical currents and living heartbeats within 30 meters]
[Price: 3600 gold]
[Would you like to buy it?]
[Yes] or [No]
Ethan saw the use of it as it looked passive, he had kept an eye on that skill, as it would be important in his robbery mission, so he didn’t hesitate at all, and clicked yes.
The change hit at once. The world gradually sharpened. He could hear the rapid pulse of a nervous cadet twenty paces away.
He could feel the residual charge still leaking from his own skin, a faint static that lifted the fine hairs along his arms, and the remaining stat points.
He allocated the points without hesitation, sixty to Agility, sixty to Vitality, sixty to Perception, then closed the window. His balance felt cleaner now.
The ache in his shoulders from the night’s work faded faster than it should have. He wasn’t used to it yet, but slowly, he would be.
But as the new sense still sat at the edge of his awareness, he felt it, her gaze. Seris had not moved. She stood a few paces back, eyes fixed on the blackened scorch marks where his lightning had touched the ground.
When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet enough that only he could hear.
"I was told sir was a mage, it now seems true."
Ethan met her gaze. The glow in his eyes had not fully faded.
"It’s in the reports, everyone knows it. What of it, mage Seris."
She held his stare for two full seconds, then looked away. "No, I will remember the difference for now..."
The line among his soldiers reformed as bodies were arranged. Tracks were muddied.
By the time the first pale light touched the tops of the trees, the ridge looked like the site of a failed beast attack rather than an execution.
George walked beside him as they moved out.
"Permission to speak freely, sir."
"Granted."
"I have served under four signifiers. None of them would have done what you did tonight without warning the unit.
You kept the risk on yourself. That is the kind of leadership men follow into worse places than this."
Ethan kept his eyes on the trail, feeling slight pity for the man, as the man he was praising was gifted a mission to destroy his world, his empire.
"Leadership is only useful if the men stay alive long enough to use it, George. Remember that." Ethan replied, taking those words from some parts of the books he read.
Behind them, Seris walked in silence. Every few minutes her eyes drifted to the back of Ethan’s neck, where a thin line of white hair still carried a faint static charge.
Storm Sense picked up her heartbeat, steady, controlled, but a fraction faster than the rest of the column.
She was watching and judging him.
Should I get rid of her? A dark thought came to him.
The system spoke one last time before the sun rose.
[Warning]
[Revolutionary network has registered six missing assets in this sector]
[Recommendation: Increase distance or fabricate stronger Imperial justification]
Ethan dismissed the message and kept walking.
"Onwards, back to the base."
One hundred soldiers followed him into the thinning fog.
They reached the old supply cache an hour after dawn. The structure was half-collapsed, overgrown, and officially listed as abandoned. Ethan had known better.
Rick’s maps had marked it as a quiet revolutionary drop point three months earlier. Now it would serve a different purpose.
When all of a sudden, an idea came to him. This perimeter, he would make it his own, and hence, use it to plan his own plans.
Oh, Marcus would be pleased, seeing me disobey Rick.
"Secure the perimeter," Ethan ordered. "Immunes, set a triage point. Auxiliaries, inventory anything still usable. George, with me."
Inside the main room the air was stale. Dust motes hung in the thin light that came through broken shutters.
Ethan placed both hands on the central table and let a controlled pulse of lightning run through the wood.
Old wards, faint, Imperial-made, flared and died with a soft crackle. The charge ran up his arms and settled under his skin.
Storm Sense mapped every living heartbeat within thirty meters.
A soft chime sounded in Ethan’s ear, his private terminal, the one only the revolutionary cut-outs used.
He turned slightly so nobody could see the screen.
[Message received – Priority Black]
[Source: Barry]
[Six assets silent in your sector. Confirm status. If compromised, burn the connection and disappear. If still viable, the next package moves in three days. Answer within the hour.]
Ethan typed a short reply with one hand while speaking to Seris.
"We will use this cache as a forward post for the next week. Officially we are clearing the eastern trails of residual threats.
Unofficially we are making sure no one asks the wrong questions about last night."
He sent the message.
[Reply sent]
[Assets neutralized under Imperial cover. Connection intact. Ready for package.]
His own system reacted instantly.
[New Mission Generated]
[Carry the Package]
[Objective: Receive and deliver the next revolutionary asset without exposing it to your unit]
[Time Limit: 72 hours]
[Difficulty: Extreme]
[Reward: 1,000 EXP]
[Failure: Cover collapsed. Termination order reactivated. Divine bloodline sealed for 30 days]
"Sir, the immunes report two minor injuries from the scramble last night. Nothing that will slow us.
The auxiliaries found three crates of dried rations and a half-rack of usable spears. The cache is better stocked than the maps claimed."
"Good. Rotate the perimeter every two hours. No fires until full dark. Anyone who sees movement on the eastern trails reports to me first."
George’s eyes lit with that same eagerness. "And if they turn out to be more of the same?"
"Then we finish the work the same way. Make empire proud."
George nodded once, sharp. "Understood."
Ethan nodded as well, pleased in some way. But he was slightly confused; the same system had told him to finish the revolutionaries, now it was saying to guard them.
Is there something that the system knows that I don’t?
He thought, when suddenly, his main terminal received a message directly from the base.
[Imperial Order – Signifer Ethan]
[Effective immediately: Unit 17 is reassigned to active hunter status for the eastern corridor. All residual threats, beast or otherwise, are to be eliminated without delay.
Report progress every twelve hours. Failure to maintain operational tempo will result in command review.]
"...someone told the base?" He thought, as he turned to that one person. The mage. As she smiled at him, like she knew something. Like she had seen whatever he had to hide.
****
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