The Rebel (#Wattys2016)

53. Hangars and Photographs

Surprise! Early chapter! Tomorrow I'll leave for a trip and won't be back till next sunday so this is this next week's chapter! Also, I updated my other story The Human (it's an original story) so make sure to check it out and leave a vote! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

"I want every possible rescue scenario to be ready for complete review in an hour." He looked around the room, where men and women stared at him, eyes wide. He sighed, and commanded the same voice he'd used before. Cruel, but charismatic and ready. The voice of someone who knew the way, and was willing to take everyone there with him. A King's voice. "Vacation's over, people. We have hostages to rescue."

"No, we don't."

The voice wasn't Jasper's. Skander turned to the table, where a girl, around Skander's age, with red hair and green eyes had stood up. Freckles covered her face, and she wore a Lieutenant General insignia on her chest, along with many other medals. Her face was familiar to Skander, he'd seen her somewhere. Skander didn't care if he knew her, he raised a single eyebrow, his face a controlled mix of surprise, arrogance, and smugness. The rest of the soldiers stared at her, then at Skander, then at Jasper. Jasper stared quietly at the quarrel.

"We don't?" Skander asked smugly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Why's that, Lieutenant General..."

"Lieutenant General Ferrathynus, Your Majesty."

Skander frowned. Ferrathynus, he knew her from somewhere. He shrugged off the tug of a memory.

"Lieutenant General Ferrathynus, then. Pray tell, why is it that we're not planning a rescue?"

For a second, Ferrathynus was aware of all the eyes on her, and she hesitated. But she swallowed and stood up straighter.

"We don't know what kind of torture they're putting Adeen under." She said, partly to Skander and partly to the rest. "A soldier usually lasts for around two or three days under our torture, four tops. Yes, it is Adeen Orson, and she's probably been through enough crap in her life to be strong. She knows their ways, too, so that wins her, what? Five days? Six? Doesn't matter. The thing is, eventually Adeen will crack, like we would all do. And when she does crack, she'll tell them things." She turned to Skander, those green eyes daring him to contradict her. "You said she told you where to go, right? That means she knows exactly where you two are." She stopped a second, making sure everybody completed her train of thought in their own minds. "And if they keep torturing her, which I'm sure they will, they'll eventually know as well." She let that sink in, then turned to Jasper. "We're facing a brief period of three days to evacuate the three hundred and fifty six soldiers in this base, along with the two hundred and seventeen civilians that are taking refuge here."

Jasper sighed, shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair. He turned to Skander, who was shaking his head.

"No, we rescue her first. We go in the castle and rescue Adeen, Chraisten and everybody else."

"Everybody else, Your Majesty?" Ferrathynus asked, her face dark. "We surely can't go in with roughly three hundred and fifty men and hope to rescue five hundred personnel. It's impossible."

"Then we go in with the soldiers we have and rescue Adeen, Chraisten and the military officials trapped there." Everybody was quiet, and Skander turned to his soldiers. "They sacrificed themselves so we could be here, so we could fight. Not so we could run away like cowards. They gave up on their lives so we could rebel, so we could wage war against them, against those monsters." Skander looked at his men, summoning once more his King's voice. "They stayed behind so we could fight and survive."

"Exactly." Said Ferrathynus. "So you could live. Your Majesty, the preparations for a full out attack can take up to a week to plan, six days if we hurried. In five days, they'll know exactly where we are, and they'll attack. If we start planning a rescue, they'll blow us sky high before we're even done with the rough plans." She shook her head. "You both will be dead, and their sacrifice will have been in vain." Ferrathynus turned to the soldiers, then to Jasper. "I'm not the bad guy here, I'm simply stating the facts. If we stay and plan an attack, we'll be dead before we can even divide the soldiers into convoys."