Cassandra
It had felt good to return to Golden Reef after the small battle on Fornsogtuna. Cassandra didn’t think she could miss the world, but she had. The horrors of Fornsogtuna were something that Cassandra hoped they would never see again. It wasn’t the battle itself, Hartholm had been worse, and they had lost more troops during that fight, but Fornsogtuna, that still made her sick when she thought about it, even now on Golden Reef after the parade ceremony.
The raiders and rebels of Fornsogtuna had been caught largely off guard. They had been wise enough to keep their raiding down while the 10th was in system, but that had worked against them. The small corvettes, and destroyers they pocessed were destroyed from orbit or starfighter screens as the ground battle took place.
The raiders,, and rebels who had used scare tactics on the sub systems sworn to System-lord Lightwatch had proved a gruesome sight to the slaves they had found. Badly abused, many had missing parts. An eye here, a leg, or hand. It seemed that the rebels had slowly been harvesting their slaves to sell parts on the black market for medical stock. That was the lucky one though.
Cassandra pushed the thoughts from her mind, and tried to enjoy the warm water of the lake before the ‘Cave’ left system. It would be weeks back on board the starships while they made jump after jump to Jom. She let out a sigh as she thought of being back home, and smiled at the thought of calling it home.
The System-lord of Golden Reef had granted the 10th a large bonus in pay on their return with more than a thousand former slaves, and proof of the destruction of the raiders. It wasn’t much when it came down to it, it put ten thousand credits in her bank, which all in all wasn’t a bad bonus on top of their normal pay for the contract. She wondered though how much the General, and senior officers got from that bonus. She would have to ask Echo when she was done with her dip.
The thought of Echo brought another sigh to her, as she turned over and moved her arms through the water. Her personal A.I. would no doubt have much to say when she un-muted the link between them with the simple device installed inside her ear.
Cassandra knew he was right though. This wasn’t Jom, and although the folks that called it home seemed to be friendly, it wasn’t friendly territory. Even on leave it was against the regs to remove her WRAITH wrist device, but it was worth the risk, at least to her.
Cassandra stopped, and paddled water for a moment before she decided to turn back to shore, and get her lashing from Echo over with. She still a few weeks left in the contract, and it wouldn’t do to push her luck, and end of in the brig for the last of it.
