Chapter 665: Prisoners
"Adrian and U, See if you can find any maps or data on the other villages. Hopefully this whole area is not one group." Jace ordered as he turned his attention to the prisoners. "Pala and Cinder, help the ladies arm themselves and get clothes. Then find a place for them to hide when the enemy patrol gets here."
"What about us?" Joshua asked.
"You get set up in a place to attack the ship in case we have to destroy it. But I would prefer to capture it." Jace ordered and then pointed at some loose ropes and vines. "Eel, help me with tying up the prisoners."
Jace began to move the prisoners as they woke up. The three he captured were naked so he just tossed them apart. His suit began translating his speech as he talked. "I know you can understand me. Tell me everything you know."
"I refuse! You non-human scum! The Valden Galactic Empire will enslave you scum-" One of the naked soldiers proudly declared. Fortunately it was not the commander of this base. He looked contemplative and quiet as he watched.
Jace grabbed the man by the shoulder and yanked him to his feet after Eel tied up his hands. Jace pulled an explosive grenade out of his satchel and then forced the man’s mouth open. Everyone watched in shock as Jace lightly hit the man’s jaw.
"Aaaahhhh-gah!" He screamed in pain before Jace shoved the grenade into his mouth and then pressed a button that triggered it. A light on the grenade began blinking as Jace kicked the man into the chest and into the swamp.
"Now then." Jace turned to look at the other prisoners who were looking at the water. "Do any of you want to tell me a bit about the Valden Galactic Empire or about your group’s organization on this planet?"
"You’re part of that group. The hounds of hell?" The leader of the group asked as he stood up. Trying to try and look well mannered despite the fact that he was unclothed, fat, and clearly had not taken care of his personal hygiene in the last few weeks.
Boogghhrrr!
Jace tilted his head as Eel finished tying all of them up with the rope. They all looked at the explosion of water and then watched as the muddy and murky water began to color red with blood. None of them had dared move after Jace had tossed their comrade in the water. "So? Do you have anything useful to tell me?"
"Yes, the Valden Galactic Empire is the purest human empire where anything non-human is enslaved and trained for obedience. Any subhuman races and hybrids are still considered slaves but have higher status than non-human. Anything non-humanoid is considered for food." The man declared with a bit of pride.
"So you are a bunch of racist purists. Got it. What else?" Jace demanded. He was already feeling annoyed but the man was not lying or trying to deceive Jace.
"Our hierarchy is based on stepping on the other guy. I unfortunately got tossed to this corner of the world. The person in charge of the Valden faction is a smug bastard located on the other side of the continent. While we and the other groups are only cooperating because we did not expect such a high level of resistance from the local small nations." The man explained. "We do cooperate with others but keep our captured scum separate. We plan to bring the slaves back with us; the others have other plans with their captured scum."
"So you grouped all of your captured up in your central base of operations?" Jace asked with a sigh.
"We did, and kept half of the women for stress relief. We killed most of the capable men." The enemy declared proudly. "Now will you-"
BANG!
Jace materialized and fired a revolver. The enemy commander’s head disappeared into an explosion of blood and brain matter. Jace turned to the others.
"What the hell? He told you what he knew?" One of them declared.
"Yeah, and he got off easy. I doubt he even felt that." Jace chuckled. "Now then, I only need one other person to confirm what your boss told me. The rest will not suffer easy deaths. You will likely be tortured to the point of you wishing for death."
"He neglected to mention the fleet we have waiting-"
"Stop." Jace interrupted them. He then nodded at a few of the scowling sirens who were waiting nearby. He switched back to speaking the local dialect without a modifier or translation function. "He is all yours. Do you need-" He had to stop and grab the enemy prisoner as they tried to jump into the swamp. "Do you need weapons to torture him? I need you to make it last long and make him wish for death."
"No, we can make use of the wood and scraps of metal around." One of them answered and the others made sounds of agreement.
Jace yanked the enemy prisoner over to them and they pulled him away as he began to scream as Jace turned back to the other prisoners who looked horrified as the siren women began to tear the man apart. He was glad he was not watching it, the noises that man was making were making him feel uncomfortable. He switched his translation program back on. "Now then, you know what happens if you lie to me or fail to meet expectations. Who wants to confirm what your superior said?"
"We are not going to get back up from our home galaxy. We arrived first in this galaxy but we have been thwarted at every corner by the local military. As soon as we reported strong resistance we were informed to come back home with slaves or to not come back home at all. Unfortunately our last ship was destroyed in orbit so we are stranded on this planet." One of the communication officers explained. "But our commanding officer wanted to keep it quiet so most of us that knew the truth were moved to remote locations."
Jace looked around at them as the other two seemed at a loss to say anything. Eventually he nodded and raised his revolver. The communication officer smiled as his head disappeared in an explosion of blood and brains. With his body falling back into the water. He at least had more dignity than his commanding officer whose body was floating naked in the swamp. He nodded at the other two and Eel yanked them over to the siren women.
Both of them began to resist but were quickly being torn apart. Jace turned to Eel who looked at him. Switching off his translation function. "Go move into a position." He instructed before moving to the communication tower. It was time to see if they could eavesdrop on the network with a single connection.
As he made his way up the tower he could already sense the faint amount of electricity. There were three other energy production sources in the tower. There was a wind turbine at the top of the tower, it was not producing much energy at the moment. There was also a solar panel that was not catching any energy either. The last item was a hand crank, which was not producing anything either.
Fortunately there seemed to be a storage battery. Which was what the radio was currently running on. By the time he arrived at the room at the top of the tower he already had an idea of how it would work.
"I can not make this work." He voiced in annoyance. Glancing back over his shoulder before continuing to look at the communication device. It really was a wired receiver. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yes, I am not the only, a bunch of us want to learn how to take back our planet. Can you teach us to fight?" The woman requested. She was the same one who had first spoken to him. She seemed outgoing and proud.
"Yes and no." Jace answered with a sigh as he began to pull apart the communication device and refitted it. It would be transmitted on an encrypted transmission channel that they could listen in on that hopefully the planet’s occupants could not hear. "We can train them. But not at the moment. We are under a time table to secure a landing area for the rest of our troops."
"I understand." She went quiet for a moment as he synced the device with his armor so he would instantly be sent a message. "Regardless, many of us would still like to liberate our planet. But I do have an additional question. What happens once his invaders are kicked off our planet?"
"We set up a temporary base until your local government is up and running. Then we leave." Jace answered as he stood up. "We do not plan on occupying the planet either. But you should know that your planet falls under my group’s area of control."
"So... are you going to demand anything of us?"
"No, we do plan to set up a base in orbit. But that is more because this system is located at the edge of the galaxy." Jace explained partially, avoiding the actual reason they would want to keep control of the system.