One moment Seren was standing in the Teleportarium chamber, the next she was bumping against a mass of bodies and what she assumed to be the outside of the Destroyer. It took her a couple seconds to remember to activate her jump pack, and then a couple more to orient herself. When she finally stopped herself from spinning, Seren found herself staring directly through a window at an observation deck. The floor was littered with an assortment of body parts: arms, legs, heads, fingers, hands. She even saw Spade’s entire torso among them. Two men were staring at the carnage, mouths agape. Serene immediately placed two charges on the window, signaling to those around her to follow her out of the way.

“Hello Second, this is Crown. I’m on the port side, top of the observation window. Group up on the highest level commander in your area and breach immediately.”

The window was thick and made of  armaglass, but the charges were made to breach metal hulls and the entire window exploded when they discharged. Seren watched as the body parts and organs of her legion blew out into space, the bodies of the two unfortunate men among them. She entered the ship just as the last arm passed her. Red lights and alarms blared in the universal language for critical emergencies. In the hallway just ahead of her, she could see an airlock door just starting to close. She managed to clear it just as it shut, then reopen it for the rest of those with her. 

“Crown you’re bleeding.”

Seren looked down and realized for the first time that she was missing three fingers on her right hand. As a medic quickly patched her up, Seren took stock of the current situation. The second legion had always been small, with just under a thousand members. Just under five hundred had successfully made it onto the ship, split into six groups of varying sizes scattered throughout the ship. About a fourth of them had lost limbs or been otherwise injured from the teleport, and when including those who volunteered to help the wounded, Seren left almost a third of her men behind. Assuming the rest of the legion was in a similar state, that left about three hundred to finish the operation. It was less than what she had hoped for, but still within her expectations. Seren’s group, much to her delight, had boarded closest to the bridge. She split the legion into two groups. One would gain control of the bridge. The other would sweep through to the enginarium. Her instructions were simple, but Seren had learned from experience, it was better to let the Second make their own decisions. They were less likely to disobey for the sake of disobeying that way.

They were outnumbered, but the enemy had been caught off guard, and for the first several minutes, the Second was able to easily mow down the enemy forces as they scrambled for weapons, armor, and order. Unfortunately, the chaos didn’t last and as Seren’s group rounded the next corner, they were met with return fire. Using their jumpbacks to their advantage, Seren’s group quickly closed the gap and disposed of them with minimal casualties. 

Her hand was throbbing by now, and she could barely keep her grip on her weapon. Blood coated the bandage, but stopping now would mean losing the gamble. She grit her teeth and continued pushing forward.

Luck was on her side, and two of the groups behind her had finally pushed through and joined them, bolstering their numbers. Seren allowed herself to take a backseat in the fighting, focusing instead on indirectly guiding her Legion to make the correct decisions to push forward to their goal. Of course, she still participated enough that it looked like she was fighting hard. She couldn’t give anyone the opportunity to accuse her of cheating later after all. 

At last, the door to the bridge came into view, and the Legion dropped all pretense of working together. They blew through the enemy like ferocious animals, all fighting to be the first through the door. Unlike the others, Seren had been ready. She raced ahead of the group, expertly taking advantage of the chaos to ensure her victory. When all was said and done, her bloody handprint was the first on the door and she burst into the room, grinning. 

“Game set ladies, I’ve won again.” 

Cries of protest erupted over the comms.

“You cheated again, didn’t you Seren?”

“I told you we should have ganged up on her.”

The bridge occupants stared at them open mouthed, unable to understand the conversation and casual nature of their invaders. The second ignored them and casually pushed them out of their chairs and they naturally went to huddle in the corner without direction. 

Seren stared at the flight console. Lights flashed at her meaninglessly and unlabeled buttons of different colors tempted her impulses. She turned to the officer standing next to her, “Do you know how to fly this thing, Eirys?”

“Crown,” Eirys said slowly, “do I really look smart enough to do that to you?”

Seren stared at her, then put her hands on the console.


Shoutout to [@FrostedCaramel] and [@grimely] for all their help