The Exiles:A New Power

The One-Year War Part 3:EMPIRE

Pelicans and Droneships moved into the atmosphere of the Slavers' planet now, a dozen craft, a quarter of which were medical craft. The Marines, Quarian and Human alike, eyed the camp ahead while their escorting fighter-bombers flew circles over the targets. Smoking craters remained where once whatever light triple-A had been used to keep them at bay, with the camp itself being a surprisingly sprawling complex.

Ethan gripped his own rifle closely as he watched gusts of wind blow blades of dust and sand around the tents and cages in which the people were being held. He radioed, "This is Ethan to Commander Reegar, target is in sight. You ready down there, ma'am? Cuz we're seeing plenty of smoldering wreckage," and he looked to the other Marines aboard his dropship.

"All green here, Ethan. We got our people ready to load up, though tell the docs the wounded might need a lil' extra care," Zeva sounded surprisingly cold that time. Ethan tensed, if his hydraulics-based musculature could do that, then braced as the Pelican shifted belly-down and powered its thrusters alongside the rest of the company's vehicles. The group dismounted the moment skids touched sand and the Marines and Ethan moved to escort the Medical Androids and Red Cross staff.

Entering the camp, the group saw Humans and Quarians piling high the corpses of the Raiders that had stolen their people, letting them fester and rot in the blazing light of the system's stellar body. Several of the corpses had bullet holes in the backs of their skulls, meaning executions. They were all clad in raider outfits, black with red stripes and Batarian skull marks.

Ethan walked up to the Major and snapped a salute her way, stating, "Reporting with Med Corps, as requested, ma'am."

"Good," She replied with a nod, then showed him to follow. Her rifle hanged off of her back as they walked forward, with Ethan noting that the cages people were being held in were very cramped. Reegar told him, "Good news is, we got here before the Scientists could apparently be stuck with slave chips. Bastards really thought we weren't gonna help our own..."

They passed by a squad of Marines and heard the gunfire. Spent casings piled into the sand below and black blood oozed from the bullet holes. Two more dead Batarians lay pinned against the wall of a prefab building. The League intended to send a couple messages to each Batarian slaver, probably 7,62mm. Ethan watched as another pair of heavy-duty combat androids picked the corpses up, threw them over their shoulders and walked them to the pile.

Zeva then sighed as she led the way into the Camp's command tower. Inside, five human and two Quarian corpses were being put in body bags. Zeva scratched her cheek and said, "Couple of the Eggheads we didn't manage to get out. Leader of the camp fled on board a transport truck of some kind, due North-East of here. I'm gonna need you on board a gunship to locate him. Link with the Wombat drones we're deploying and if you see him, take the shot."

"Understood, ma'am," Ethan replied. She motioned for the automaton to follow along again and the group descended back down into the slave camp's courtyard as the medical staff began to triage the survivors, among which were other aliens, not just Humans and Quarians. Major Reegar noticed a couple of Asari women and called out to the crews, telling them to take care of the girls quickly.

A few Batarians seemed to try and slip through by wearing the clothes and cloaks of other captured individuals. They were gunned down on the spot once they were discovered, with little remorse. By the time the Armed Forces were done, the place was a husk, stripped of all valuable intelligence and left with only the piles of burnt Batarian Corpses. The Civilians had been evacuated, too, taken on board support ships that would head back home and drop them off.

It didn't take long for the Drones under Ethan's control to find the enemy leader. His vehicle had broken down about a mile out from the outpost. A single rocket destroyed the vehicle and the Camp's Commander. When he returned aboard the Dreadnought Sarajevo, the Starship rejoined the formation of UNSC vessels in orbit as they left the planet for dead, temporarily disabling the Mass Relay.