Cassandra
Cassandra tried not to grin. It was a bittersweet day. Two weeks since the defense of Hartstone. Most the raiders surrendered once their cruiser was disabled by ‘The Cave’.
Cassandra knew the day would come. It was a matter of not not if but she hadn’t believed it would be as quick or on their first outing. She looked over to Edmund as the pin for the rank of Guard was pinned to his shash which crossed his chest.
Thane walked over and pinned the same pin to her chest. The clan colors and sigil of clan Tyr trimmed by the colors of the Imperial Guard of Jom. She always thought she would be promoted before Edmund.
No matter how hard she trained and how hard she fought he was always right there. She was normally ahead of him but he stayed close and it seemed to come with ease for him. The promotion was unimportant Cassandra knew. The better pay would be nice when they could pay on Jom but Edmund and Cassandra would both remain in third position of their fire team.
They also got news that they were heading out. Couple days and the tenth would be heading back to Jom on ‘The Cave’ with fresh treasures and wealth.
Several other worlds that the tenth had stationed troops on had come under attack by raiders. The attack on Hartstone had been the largest of them and they all appeared to be separate attacks by raiders from different factions.
Prisoners had been taken after each of the attacks and their spoils and loot from previous targets now belonged to the tenth legion. They were handed off to several ships of the king of Nerthus to do with them as they please.
Legion engineers had repaired the damaged cruiser and as per the contract the legion was entitled to all spoils. Even as scrape it would be a valuable piece that would enrich the whole legion.
Commander Peak was being granted the honor of the command of the cruiser. Cassandra knew it was an honor because she also knew that there was no way it would have the same standards as ‘The Cave’ and dreaded the idea of five weeks' travel among the stars on it instead of ‘The Cave’.
Losses among the locals had been lower then what Cassandra had expected but still heavy for the world. Several hundred had been killed, most of them civilians. The legion had lost twenty seven in the battles, with thirteen on Hartstone.
There had been losses but the systems in the area likely wouldn’t see any raids for a few years as they licked their wounds, and hopefully by then the people of Hartstone could better protect themselves.
