Athena stepped into the grand hall. The room that was used by the White Tiger for drinking and partying was now guarded by a dozen Terran marines. Most of the prisoners taken from here were moved to the same location as the other common captives, leaving only Viktor and the White Tiger in the room.
“We have secured most of the 300 passengers from the starcruiser. Four of them were killed in the crossfire. The rest are being closely watched by our troops.”
“Vodka and his squad are currently clearing one of the ships. The P-34 starcruiser. They have breached the ship’s bridge and grounded the vessel, but a number of the crew have taken shelter within the ship. We should be able to take them alive after some time.”
As she walked, Rum followed behind and finished up his updates on the aftermath of the battle.
“And the Epsilon-9 crew and the pirates?” She asked.
“We only took maybe 30 or so prisoners from the Epsilon-9 crew. Most of the pirates have surrendered. We’re still working on an exact count, but we have got at least 200 of them.”
“Well done.” Athena nodded. She was no fan of the pirates, but she might have to rely on them to crew the ships and get her to where she needed to be before she could unlock Terran vessels. Marines were good at fighting, but they weren't really naval personnel or officers. Without a ship, she and her forces would be trapped in this world.
There was of course the issue of ensuring their loyalty. Athena had seen how competent these pirates were, and while it made them good enemies, it also made them terrible subordinates.
The first step, of course, was to deal with Viktor and the White Tiger using the method she had gotten quite used to. Neither of them deserved any mercy from her. If she wasn’t here, what would happen to the passengers? Torture? Rape? Maybe they would be sold into slavery? One thing was for sure. They didn't kidnap all the passengers so they could play poker together.
“You!” Viktor immediately recognized Athena, and for a second he had trouble connecting the dots. He had guessed Athena might have come from an influential background, but he never expected anything like this. “Who are you?”
Athena tapped her chin and remained silent for a second, and that made the man snap.
“Who are you? These men…uniform power armor. High-caliber rifles and heavy weapons. Let me guess…top-tier mercenaries? Government special forces? How did they track you here so quickly?” Viktor’s attempts to regain some control of the conversation quickly dissolved into a desperate rant. “You have clearly got ships and have safer ways to get off Sierra Prime, so why did you come to us? What do you want? Tell me!”
Even as he said those words, a part of Viktor despised his own voice. He had always prided himself in his ability to put on the mask that would be best for the situation. Even in Epsilon-9, he would frequently deceive his peers and superiors alike in order to get what he wanted. This level of despair shouldn’t be him, but the truth was Viktor could no longer control himself. This was supposed to be his ride to freedom and power, and instead, he found himself the prisoner of a group that came out of nowhere.
Athena didn't reply to him. She instead turned and glanced at the leader of the pirates here. The so-called White Tiger.
“My…my name is Orlan. Please…” The man was almost begging. “If there is anything you want from me, I will be happy to oblige…”
“Quiet!” Viktor snapped at the man he had been respectful to just minutes ago. He had no intention to remain polite to the man who was so incompetent that he allowed an enemy army to wander into his base and easily take over. “Look, Amelia, if that is your real name. You obviously want something from me, maybe from our organization. Tell me what it is, and I will tell you what I can do for you.”
“Your willingness to aid me is flattering.” Athena finally replied. “But I’m afraid I don’t trust the words of someone like you. At least…not before the process.”
“What…what?”
Twenty seconds later, as Viktor and Orlan struggled in their restraints as the neural parasites began working on their brains, Athena turned to the pair of infestors. One of them, likely the one she summoned back in Prison 09, sent Athena a psychic message.
“Your energy regeneration slows down if you are maintaining too many active neural parasites at once? Why?" Athena frowned.
The response she got from the infestor was quite complicated. It seemed like even after latching onto a host, the neural parasite still relied on the original infestor to survive and to communicate with the Swarm. Athena wasn't sure how the details went, but the more parasites an infestor spawned, the more strained it would be. In addition, if the infestor was killed, all the parasites it produced and their hosts would die as well.
This was something she might have missed before, but in hindsight it made sense. It would be unlikely that a single infestor, given sufficient time, could neural parasite entire worlds. It was a surprise, but it didn't change her plans too much. It wasn't like she was planning on using the ability to control everyone she was working with, and if she really needed she could just produce new infestors.
As she thought to herself, both infestors were stealing glances at the corpses being lined up on the ground on the other side of the grand hall. Athena didn't need more psychic messages from them to know what they wanted.
“Nope.” She said cruelly before returning both Zerg beasts into the game, much to the relief of Rum and the other Terran marines in the room. Infestors were nightmares to lightly armored foes, particularly marines.
As the transformation process was still ongoing, Athena opened the game again. Her eyes quickly darted to the right of the screen to look for any potential new progress bars. Unfortunately, there was only a lone icon there. That of Abathur.
“For the Swarm…” Two voices appeared from the side, signaling two new additions to Athena’s Swarm.
“Ok…you first.” Athena gestured at Viktor. “Tell me all about you. Who you are. What your mission is. What the hell you’re doing here.”
As she commanded, the now-turned Viktor began explaining. He first confirmed a number of things Athena already suspected or knew. Viktor and his crew worked for Epsilon-9. More specifically, they were narcotics smugglers. The entire process of Epsilon-9's narcotics operation was quite complicated and very modular. Viktor was a part of the interstellar transportation. Hadrian and the Lees were local distributors. There were others who produced the goods and likely those who made bribes and threats. Viktor’s knowledge about that was very limited. He was simply given information on which path to take, which identities to assume, and where to land and there had never been any issues. This system was at least partially in place to prevent single groups in the process from deserting and starting their own operations.
After the war began, Viktor and his ship were still bringing narcotics to Sierra Prime, but they were also bringing a lot of people off the planet. Of course, these trips wouldn’t be made to the promised destinations. That would be too expensive for Epsilon-9, especially since they already received the payment. Instead, Viktor would drop his passengers at Epsilon-9 bases, where these people would be picked up by others. Their fate was unknown to the captain. Viktor’s interest only extended to his cut of this very profitable business.
“You’re a captain.” Athena realized. “So you have coordinates to Epsilon-9 bases?”
“The guiding computers on my ship hold coordinates to several locations where we have picked up and dropped off supplies, but I must warn you, my Queen. It is unlikely they are where major Epsilon-9 bases are located. They are more likely to be one-time rendezvous spots.” Viktor explained. “Even if the real bases are only a fraction of a cal away from the rendezvous spot, it will still be almost impossible to find.”
“And your betrayal of the organization…are there reasons the organization may be suspicious of you already?”
“No, my Queen. However, my ship is scheduled to arrive at the rendezvous location in three standard hours. Even if we leave now, we will likely be late.” Viktor said. His demeanor started off as being very stoic, but it became more and more human as he came to terms with his new situation. “The contacts there are extremely vigilant. I have heard about previous encounters where ship captains were compromised. They would have their guards up, and even if we can take care of the transport parties, we are unlikely to truly damage the organization in meaningful ways. I will be happy to serve if you wish to try, of course.”
“I see…” Athena glanced at Orlan. It seemed like dealing with Epsilon-9 had to wait. “So what are you doing here instead? Executing your own crew and working with a group of pirates?”
“I have…I have unfortunately fallen out of favor with some of my superiors in the organization.” Viktor paused, a little embarrassed. “So I decided to leave when I could. I managed to strike a deal with Mr. Tiger here through a few mutual contacts. He will help me trade the passengers for credits through his connections, and we will combine forces. With two ships and the addition of my enforcers, we will stand out among the pirates in this region.”
Trade the passengers for credits? So sell innocent refugees into slavery? Athena was still processing what Viktor meant when the man suddenly grinned and scoffed at Orlan. “Of course, the last part is just a lie I told him. In reality, my men and I were planning on assassinating him and taking over this band of pirate clowns.”
Athena raised her eyebrows, more so surprised by the man's demeanor than by his words. Viktor seemed to have become more enthusiastic all of a sudden, which was a little surprising to her. Most people she controlled would be a lot more…stoic. More depressed.
“What? Why?” Orlan, or the White Tiger, snapped to Viktor furiously. “I trusted…”
“Oh come on! Give me a break! We’re all criminals and crooks here. Trust? You’re a damn pirate, for god’s sake!” Viktor snapped at Orlan. “We were going to poison you and your lieutenants with a type of exotic toxin I purchased from Lawman's Port. With the whole leadership dead, my enforcers and I will face little resistance when we take control. Did you really think I would serve someone as incompetent and ridiculous as you, Orlan?”
“I…”
“Why did you think I decided to do business with you? Because you’re reputable? No! I chose you and your gang because I heard how pathetic you are! Because I knew taking over a faction as incompetent as yours will be a piece of cake!”
“Incompetent? You were a smuggler!”
“So? At least I would never lose my entire ship in minutes!”
Athena silently tapped the back of her ponytail. She doubted Viktor’s men would do that much better against the Terrans, not that it mattered. Before she could say anything, Viktor turned his attention back to Athena.
“Then again, my Queen, perhaps I should be grateful for what happened.”
“And why is that?”
“If everything went as I had planned, I will likely remain nothing more than a pirate. A powerful one, but a pirate nonetheless.” There was a sense of zeal in Viktor’s eyes. “But the Swarm…the Swarm can achieve so much more!”
“The Swarm certainly will, but I am not so certain about your place within it.” Athena countered coldly. She was anything but a fan of the captain.
“I have value to the Swarm, my Queen,” Viktor replied as confidently as he could. “I am an experienced captain and I have never failed in the two decades I have been in service of Epsilon-9. If you wish to expand your forces here, I can also provide advice. When preparing for my original plan, I collected intelligence on nearby threats and opportunities alike. I also have numerous connections in nearby ports and cities that are frequented by all kinds of outlaws. I am happy to serve you in any way I can.”
He stole another mocking glance at Orlan. They were both under the control of the Swarm and they both knew it, but only a fool like Orlan would be content with being a foot soldier. He, Viktor, would prove himself and climb up the ladders. Just because he was infested didn't mean he had to be a simple minion.
Of course, in this case he had no real leverage, but he was betting on the fact that he could impress Athena so much that she would make him a trusted lieutenant instead of just another expendable grunt.
“I will listen to what you have to say,” Athena replied after a small pause, “but I would urge you to get a hold of your arrogance. I don’t know how you got on the bad side of your superior back in Epsilon-9 and frankly I don’t care, but the Swarm isn’t something you can just bail from.”
“As you command, my Queen.” Viktor lowered his head.
Athena turned to Orlan, who had been staring daggers at Viktor. "Your turn. Tell me everything I should know about you."
Thankfully, Orlan’s story was much simpler. He was the son of a pirate and a prostitute in one of the many nearby ports. He joined the White Tigress at the age of 14 and gradually worked his way up the ranks until he eventually became its leader.
That was just the basics, of course. There was a lot more information Orlan could give her, but for now, Athena had other things in mind for the two.
“I have taken many of your people prisoner. Will you two be able to get them to serve me?” Athena asked. “I have killed a lot of both your people.”
“Absolutely, my Queen. My men have defected from Epsilon-9 with me. They will join me in your service.” Viktor replied eagerly before pausing a little. “However…”
“However what? Speak!”
“However, unless they can all be put under the influence of the neural parasite, their continued loyalty may be conditional upon monetary compensation.” Viktor was clearly a bit embarrassed.
“And you?” Athena turned to Orlan, not too surprised by Viktor's words.
“I…I can inform my men that you are now the leader of the White Tigress, my Queen. It is common for pirate factions to be taken over by and merged into stronger pirate factions.” The pirate gave a similar response. “It's just...I cannot make any promises about their loyalties. As you are surely aware, my Queen, they are hardly the most loyal or the most competent…”
“That’s good enough for now.” Athena sighed and nodded. “Rum, take these two to their people. Once their people agree to serve me, let them out of their cells. However, I want your men to maintain control over the hangar and the armory. Keep an eye on their men in case of treacheries.”
“Yes sir.” Rum glanced at Viktor and Orlan. “You two, come with me.”
As the trio left the grand hall, accompanied by four Terran marines, Athena sighed. She had gotten so used to the absolute loyalty of the Starcraft units that dealing with minions who might turn against her sounded almost intimidating, but it was something she had to get used to.
Starcraft units were great, but she couldn’t solely rely on them for everything. The Protoss and the Zerg would attract a lot of attention, and the Terrans were few in number in the greater picture. She also couldn’t just neural parasite every single person in her service.
In other words, she would actually have to pay her subordinates for their service. Hmmm…troubling indeed.
As she was left alone, Athena subconsciously opened the game again. The battle had left dozens dead, and her resource count reflected that. Unfortunately, no new Terran units have been unlocked. Not ideal, but expected. The weapons found in this base were mostly junk.
A few minutes went by as Athena’s thoughts wondered. She now had a foothold and two ships in the Chaos Sectors. It wasn’t much, but it was territories that truly belonged to her. Her next step would be to expand her influence through the nearby worlds, empowering her faction and unlocking new structures. Her best bet would likely be using the strength of her Terrans to crush and absorb other pirate factions.
That was when her eyes landed on the side of the screen again. This time, something had changed. The icon of Abathur was still there, but now there was a second one. Athena wasted no time hovering her mouse over the icon.
Commander: Han (13% unlocked).
“Han? As in Mira Han? Mira’s Marauders?”
Familiar memories resurfaced, and Athena knew she shouldn’t be too surprised. Mira’s Marauders was a faction of Terran mercenaries in the Koprulu sector. They were extremely powerful and influential, often fielding infantry and armored forces on the ground and unmanned fighters, battlecruiser fleets, and space stations in orbit. For mercenaries, they were also incredibly loyal to their contracts. Mira herself was a ruthless and pragmatic leader, inspiring loyalty from her men with methods that were hardly noble.
In Starcraft, Han was paired up with her husband (technically), Terran Dominion Admiral Matt Horner. The two of them would couple cheaper, more fragile mercenaries with expensive warships of the Dominion Fleet. Mira's mercenaries in particular often made suicidal modifications to their weapons and vehicles. They would die in battle, a lot, but they would often go out in style.
In this case, it seemed like Athena had to unlock the two separately.
It seemed like similar to Abathur, unlocking Mira also had its unique set of conditions. Defeating pirates? Or maybe capturing them and turning them into her forces? It was possible. In fact, given when the icon showed up, the latter was more likely.
A small smile climbed onto Athena’s face. So fighting pirates and growing her forces, huh? This was precisely what she was planning on doing. More like than not, Mira would be the first commander to be brought into this galaxy.
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Athena stepped into the grand hall. The room that was used by the White Tiger for drinking and partying was now guarded by a dozen Terran marines. Most of the prisoners taken from here were moved to the same location as the other common captives, leaving only Viktor and the White Tiger in the room.
“We have secured most of the 300 passengers from the starcruiser. Four of them were killed in the crossfire. The rest are being closely watched by our troops.”
“Vodka and his squad are currently clearing one of the ships. The P-34 starcruiser. They have breached the ship’s bridge and grounded the vessel, but a number of the crew have taken shelter within the ship. We should be able to take them alive after some time.”
As she walked, Rum followed behind and finished up his updates on the aftermath of the battle.
“And the Epsilon-9 crew and the pirates?” She asked.
“We only took maybe 30 or so prisoners from the Epsilon-9 crew. Most of the pirates have surrendered. We’re still working on an exact count, but we have got at least 200 of them.”
“Well done.” Athena nodded. She was no fan of the pirates, but she might have to rely on them to crew the ships and get her to where she needed to be before she could unlock Terran vessels. Marines were good at fighting, but they weren't really naval personnel or officers. Without a ship, she and her forces would be trapped in this world.
There was of course the issue of ensuring their loyalty. Athena had seen how competent these pirates were, and while it made them good enemies, it also made them terrible subordinates.
The first step, of course, was to deal with Viktor and the White Tiger using the method she had gotten quite used to. Neither of them deserved any mercy from her. If she wasn’t here, what would happen to the passengers? Torture? Rape? Maybe they would be sold into slavery? One thing was for sure. They didn't kidnap all the passengers so they could play poker together.
“You!” Viktor immediately recognized Athena, and for a second he had trouble connecting the dots. He had guessed Athena might have come from an influential background, but he never expected anything like this. “Who are you?”
Athena tapped her chin and remained silent for a second, and that made the man snap.
“Who are you? These men…uniform power armor. High-caliber rifles and heavy weapons. Let me guess…top-tier mercenaries? Government special forces? How did they track you here so quickly?” Viktor’s attempts to regain some control of the conversation quickly dissolved into a desperate rant. “You have clearly got ships and have safer ways to get off Sierra Prime, so why did you come to us? What do you want? Tell me!”
Even as he said those words, a part of Viktor despised his own voice. He had always prided himself in his ability to put on the mask that would be best for the situation. Even in Epsilon-9, he would frequently deceive his peers and superiors alike in order to get what he wanted. This level of despair shouldn’t be him, but the truth was Viktor could no longer control himself. This was supposed to be his ride to freedom and power, and instead, he found himself the prisoner of a group that came out of nowhere.
Athena didn't reply to him. She instead turned and glanced at the leader of the pirates here. The so-called White Tiger.
“My…my name is Orlan. Please…” The man was almost begging. “If there is anything you want from me, I will be happy to oblige…”
“Quiet!” Viktor snapped at the man he had been respectful to just minutes ago. He had no intention to remain polite to the man who was so incompetent that he allowed an enemy army to wander into his base and easily take over. “Look, Amelia, if that is your real name. You obviously want something from me, maybe from our organization. Tell me what it is, and I will tell you what I can do for you.”
“Your willingness to aid me is flattering.” Athena finally replied. “But I’m afraid I don’t trust the words of someone like you. At least…not before the process.”
“What…what?”
Twenty seconds later, as Viktor and Orlan struggled in their restraints as the neural parasites began working on their brains, Athena turned to the pair of infestors. One of them, likely the one she summoned back in Prison 09, sent Athena a psychic message.
“Your energy regeneration slows down if you are maintaining too many active neural parasites at once? Why?" Athena frowned.
The response she got from the infestor was quite complicated. It seemed like even after latching onto a host, the neural parasite still relied on the original infestor to survive and to communicate with the Swarm. Athena wasn't sure how the details went, but the more parasites an infestor spawned, the more strained it would be. In addition, if the infestor was killed, all the parasites it produced and their hosts would die as well.
This was something she might have missed before, but in hindsight it made sense. It would be unlikely that a single infestor, given sufficient time, could neural parasite entire worlds. It was a surprise, but it didn't change her plans too much. It wasn't like she was planning on using the ability to control everyone she was working with, and if she really needed she could just produce new infestors.
As she thought to herself, both infestors were stealing glances at the corpses being lined up on the ground on the other side of the grand hall. Athena didn't need more psychic messages from them to know what they wanted.
“Nope.” She said cruelly before returning both Zerg beasts into the game, much to the relief of Rum and the other Terran marines in the room. Infestors were nightmares to lightly armored foes, particularly marines.
As the transformation process was still ongoing, Athena opened the game again. Her eyes quickly darted to the right of the screen to look for any potential new progress bars. Unfortunately, there was only a lone icon there. That of Abathur.
“For the Swarm…” Two voices appeared from the side, signaling two new additions to Athena’s Swarm.
“Ok…you first.” Athena gestured at Viktor. “Tell me all about you. Who you are. What your mission is. What the hell you’re doing here.”
As she commanded, the now-turned Viktor began explaining. He first confirmed a number of things Athena already suspected or knew. Viktor and his crew worked for Epsilon-9. More specifically, they were narcotics smugglers. The entire process of Epsilon-9's narcotics operation was quite complicated and very modular. Viktor was a part of the interstellar transportation. Hadrian and the Lees were local distributors. There were others who produced the goods and likely those who made bribes and threats. Viktor’s knowledge about that was very limited. He was simply given information on which path to take, which identities to assume, and where to land and there had never been any issues. This system was at least partially in place to prevent single groups in the process from deserting and starting their own operations.
After the war began, Viktor and his ship were still bringing narcotics to Sierra Prime, but they were also bringing a lot of people off the planet. Of course, these trips wouldn’t be made to the promised destinations. That would be too expensive for Epsilon-9, especially since they already received the payment. Instead, Viktor would drop his passengers at Epsilon-9 bases, where these people would be picked up by others. Their fate was unknown to the captain. Viktor’s interest only extended to his cut of this very profitable business.
“You’re a captain.” Athena realized. “So you have coordinates to Epsilon-9 bases?”
“The guiding computers on my ship hold coordinates to several locations where we have picked up and dropped off supplies, but I must warn you, my Queen. It is unlikely they are where major Epsilon-9 bases are located. They are more likely to be one-time rendezvous spots.” Viktor explained. “Even if the real bases are only a fraction of a cal away from the rendezvous spot, it will still be almost impossible to find.”
“And your betrayal of the organization…are there reasons the organization may be suspicious of you already?”
“No, my Queen. However, my ship is scheduled to arrive at the rendezvous location in three standard hours. Even if we leave now, we will likely be late.” Viktor said. His demeanor started off as being very stoic, but it became more and more human as he came to terms with his new situation. “The contacts there are extremely vigilant. I have heard about previous encounters where ship captains were compromised. They would have their guards up, and even if we can take care of the transport parties, we are unlikely to truly damage the organization in meaningful ways. I will be happy to serve if you wish to try, of course.”
“I see…” Athena glanced at Orlan. It seemed like dealing with Epsilon-9 had to wait. “So what are you doing here instead? Executing your own crew and working with a group of pirates?”
“I have…I have unfortunately fallen out of favor with some of my superiors in the organization.” Viktor paused, a little embarrassed. “So I decided to leave when I could. I managed to strike a deal with Mr. Tiger here through a few mutual contacts. He will help me trade the passengers for credits through his connections, and we will combine forces. With two ships and the addition of my enforcers, we will stand out among the pirates in this region.”
Trade the passengers for credits? So sell innocent refugees into slavery? Athena was still processing what Viktor meant when the man suddenly grinned and scoffed at Orlan. “Of course, the last part is just a lie I told him. In reality, my men and I were planning on assassinating him and taking over this band of pirate clowns.”
Athena raised her eyebrows, more so surprised by the man's demeanor than by his words. Viktor seemed to have become more enthusiastic all of a sudden, which was a little surprising to her. Most people she controlled would be a lot more…stoic. More depressed.
“What? Why?” Orlan, or the White Tiger, snapped to Viktor furiously. “I trusted…”
“Oh come on! Give me a break! We’re all criminals and crooks here. Trust? You’re a damn pirate, for god’s sake!” Viktor snapped at Orlan. “We were going to poison you and your lieutenants with a type of exotic toxin I purchased from Lawman's Port. With the whole leadership dead, my enforcers and I will face little resistance when we take control. Did you really think I would serve someone as incompetent and ridiculous as you, Orlan?”
“I…”
“Why did you think I decided to do business with you? Because you’re reputable? No! I chose you and your gang because I heard how pathetic you are! Because I knew taking over a faction as incompetent as yours will be a piece of cake!”
“Incompetent? You were a smuggler!”
“So? At least I would never lose my entire ship in minutes!”
Athena silently tapped the back of her ponytail. She doubted Viktor’s men would do that much better against the Terrans, not that it mattered. Before she could say anything, Viktor turned his attention back to Athena.
“Then again, my Queen, perhaps I should be grateful for what happened.”
“And why is that?”
“If everything went as I had planned, I will likely remain nothing more than a pirate. A powerful one, but a pirate nonetheless.” There was a sense of zeal in Viktor’s eyes. “But the Swarm…the Swarm can achieve so much more!”
“The Swarm certainly will, but I am not so certain about your place within it.” Athena countered coldly. She was anything but a fan of the captain.
“I have value to the Swarm, my Queen,” Viktor replied as confidently as he could. “I am an experienced captain and I have never failed in the two decades I have been in service of Epsilon-9. If you wish to expand your forces here, I can also provide advice. When preparing for my original plan, I collected intelligence on nearby threats and opportunities alike. I also have numerous connections in nearby ports and cities that are frequented by all kinds of outlaws. I am happy to serve you in any way I can.”
He stole another mocking glance at Orlan. They were both under the control of the Swarm and they both knew it, but only a fool like Orlan would be content with being a foot soldier. He, Viktor, would prove himself and climb up the ladders. Just because he was infested didn't mean he had to be a simple minion.
Of course, in this case he had no real leverage, but he was betting on the fact that he could impress Athena so much that she would make him a trusted lieutenant instead of just another expendable grunt.
“I will listen to what you have to say,” Athena replied after a small pause, “but I would urge you to get a hold of your arrogance. I don’t know how you got on the bad side of your superior back in Epsilon-9 and frankly I don’t care, but the Swarm isn’t something you can just bail from.”
“As you command, my Queen.” Viktor lowered his head.
Athena turned to Orlan, who had been staring daggers at Viktor. "Your turn. Tell me everything I should know about you."
Thankfully, Orlan’s story was much simpler. He was the son of a pirate and a prostitute in one of the many nearby ports. He joined the White Tigress at the age of 14 and gradually worked his way up the ranks until he eventually became its leader.
That was just the basics, of course. There was a lot more information Orlan could give her, but for now, Athena had other things in mind for the two.
“I have taken many of your people prisoner. Will you two be able to get them to serve me?” Athena asked. “I have killed a lot of both your people.”
“Absolutely, my Queen. My men have defected from Epsilon-9 with me. They will join me in your service.” Viktor replied eagerly before pausing a little. “However…”
“However what? Speak!”
“However, unless they can all be put under the influence of the neural parasite, their continued loyalty may be conditional upon monetary compensation.” Viktor was clearly a bit embarrassed.
“And you?” Athena turned to Orlan, not too surprised by Viktor's words.
“I…I can inform my men that you are now the leader of the White Tigress, my Queen. It is common for pirate factions to be taken over by and merged into stronger pirate factions.” The pirate gave a similar response. “It's just...I cannot make any promises about their loyalties. As you are surely aware, my Queen, they are hardly the most loyal or the most competent…”
“That’s good enough for now.” Athena sighed and nodded. “Rum, take these two to their people. Once their people agree to serve me, let them out of their cells. However, I want your men to maintain control over the hangar and the armory. Keep an eye on their men in case of treacheries.”
“Yes sir.” Rum glanced at Viktor and Orlan. “You two, come with me.”
As the trio left the grand hall, accompanied by four Terran marines, Athena sighed. She had gotten so used to the absolute loyalty of the Starcraft units that dealing with minions who might turn against her sounded almost intimidating, but it was something she had to get used to.
Starcraft units were great, but she couldn’t solely rely on them for everything. The Protoss and the Zerg would attract a lot of attention, and the Terrans were few in number in the greater picture. She also couldn’t just neural parasite every single person in her service.
In other words, she would actually have to pay her subordinates for their service. Hmmm…troubling indeed.
As she was left alone, Athena subconsciously opened the game again. The battle had left dozens dead, and her resource count reflected that. Unfortunately, no new Terran units have been unlocked. Not ideal, but expected. The weapons found in this base were mostly junk.
A few minutes went by as Athena’s thoughts wondered. She now had a foothold and two ships in the Chaos Sectors. It wasn’t much, but it was territories that truly belonged to her. Her next step would be to expand her influence through the nearby worlds, empowering her faction and unlocking new structures. Her best bet would likely be using the strength of her Terrans to crush and absorb other pirate factions.
That was when her eyes landed on the side of the screen again. This time, something had changed. The icon of Abathur was still there, but now there was a second one. Athena wasted no time hovering her mouse over the icon.
Commander: Han (13% unlocked).
“Han? As in Mira Han? Mira’s Marauders?”
Familiar memories resurfaced, and Athena knew she shouldn’t be too surprised. Mira’s Marauders was a faction of Terran mercenaries in the Koprulu sector. They were extremely powerful and influential, often fielding infantry and armored forces on the ground and unmanned fighters, battlecruiser fleets, and space stations in orbit. For mercenaries, they were also incredibly loyal to their contracts. Mira herself was a ruthless and pragmatic leader, inspiring loyalty from her men with methods that were hardly noble.
In Starcraft, Han was paired up with her husband (technically), Terran Dominion Admiral Matt Horner. The two of them would couple cheaper, more fragile mercenaries with expensive warships of the Dominion Fleet. Mira's mercenaries in particular often made suicidal modifications to their weapons and vehicles. They would die in battle, a lot, but they would often go out in style.
In this case, it seemed like Athena had to unlock the two separately.
It seemed like similar to Abathur, unlocking Mira also had its unique set of conditions. Defeating pirates? Or maybe capturing them and turning them into her forces? It was possible. In fact, given when the icon showed up, the latter was more likely.
A small smile climbed onto Athena’s face. So fighting pirates and growing her forces, huh? This was precisely what she was planning on doing. More like than not, Mira would be the first commander to be brought into this galaxy.
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