The Exiles:A New Power

The One-Year War Part 6:Jubilant

About a week later

Major Reegar looked over documents, datapads and information that was seized from the government buildings in the city. Office of Naval Intelligence crews were already packing physical files, data drives and the likes for transfer back to their black op ships to scour them for data. A Batarian official walked into the room, locking eyes with the Major. She grinned at him, then tossed the tablet aside and walked over toward one of the windows.

Debris lined the city's roads. Piles of corpses were being burned or handed to the local civvies for burial. The UNSC Marines, ODSTs and the likes had been extremely thorough in cleaning the entire metropolis of hostile forces, right down to the sewers, which had been dealt with by Geth combat platforms and small quadrupedal scouting droids armed with MGs. Yawning, she leaned against the windowsill.

An ODST approached and handed her another file. She gave him a nod of thanks, then watched him walk away before turning to the tablet to read it. Unsurprisingly, it was reports from Ethan's sweep of the mountains with the Ninth. Resistance had been surprisingly mediocre, honestly, so that meant to her that many of the enemy's forces must've been moved to the Core Systems of the Hegemony.

She watched refugee camps being set up, camps separate from one-another for Batarians and for the Slaves in the area. Not all of the ones taken by the Batarians in their raids had been sold off. Many had been surprisingly kept at home, to fuel the minuscule amount of industry they had here. She heard the footsteps of the enemy official, more-so a clerk, then turned around to face him.

He spoke, his voice gravelly, rough, alien, "It's all done. Your people have access to the processing facility's records... Hope you find more of those kids that Dhecor's raiding party took before they hit your planet," and he actually seemed empathetic with their plague. He walked up to the window and stared at it, "That's gonna take us a few years to clean..."

"You're surprisingly calm about occupying forces having hit your city," She said, crossing her arms.

He shrugged, "I got tired of the bureaucratic work here. Always some kid or another they snagged that I'd have to pick who to give to," then he scratched the top of his head, "Our government loves using privateers, corsairs and terrorists nowadays. We used to be an honorable race once, one that actually fought its wars head-on against its enemies, not out of being forced to like we were with you lot."

"Whatever leftover husks of your ships are in orbit tell as much," She quipped, partially sarcastic, while the man more-so grunted than laughed, bitter and obviously annoyed. Turning her head again to face out of the window, she said, "We also know you guys are hermits. Worse than us, even, seeing as we barely just decided to open up to the Galaxy when you shot first."

"Citadel isn't exactly kind to 'businesses' like ours," He replied, garnering a snort out of the woman. He then told her, "Do me a favor and put our Overlord's head on a pike in Victory Square when you get to Kar'shan," as he leaned against the wall. She finally noticed the marks and scars of slavery, the same ones she and her men had found on the Asari and Batarian women they'd rescued.

"Lower caste wanting the head, huh? Alright," She nodded, "Guess you guys had to start your slave-taking spree somewhere in your history."

"I'd give you a book on it if it wasn't overly-censored propaganda," The Batarian shot back, which caused her to laugh. He sighed, however, stating, "I'll leave. For all I know, one of your officers is gonna need me to parse through the rest of the documentation to find whatever we missed," to which the Major nodded and let him leave. No point in keeping a man shackled like he was before, she thought.