Chapter Seventy-Three: Moving Forward

It had been a day since the loss of Silili during the battle, with the crew handling the loss in a variety of ways.

"Why...why did we retreat? We had them beaten..." Ceti said inside her room.

Ceti was angered and confused as to why they called for a retreat. They outnumbered the enemy easily, which was the point of leaving. Why not finish off the enemy once and for all and be on their way?

Ceti decided to march up to the bridge, where Lucilia and Rumia were, and it was perfect for Ceti to let out her frustrations.

She marched past a few members of the crew before making her way up to the bridge, where, as expected, she saw Lucilia and Rumia talking.

"Rumia! Princess Lucilia! I wish to speak with you two..." Ceti said angered.

Lucilia and Rumia both turned around and saw how angered Ceti truly was before Lucilia asked her "What's wrong, Ceti?"

Ceti clenched her fists before asking the two "Why did we retreat? We had the enemy beaten. There weren't any other reinforcements; all Ren had to do was finish that enemy unit, and Silili wouldn't have..."

Rumia interrupted her. "We know...but there was a reason we had to retreat."

Ceti looked at Rumia in a confused manner.

Rumia walked over towards the holographic map in the room and brought up the last recorded image from the previous battle. The map showed green dots representing allies and red dots representing hostiles.

Lucilia pointed out "As you see, these green dots were Ren and his team, and the sole red dot here was Zaiga, the enemy commander."

Ceti looked at the map and paid attention to what the two were saying.

"Rumia, play ahead to right before we called for the complete retreat." Lucilia ordered.

Rumia did as Lucilia said and moved the map ahead, and suddenly there were over two dozen blue dots appearing in the same system they were in, just behind one of the planets.

"What are these?" Ceti asked.

"We don't know..." Rumia said. "When they appeared, we were both confused. We tried hailing them, but there was no response. As a result, we had to classify them as an unknown, an unknown we could not afford to take lightly."

Lucilia then chimed in "So we called the retreat in fear of them being possibly enemy reinforcements or even a new group entirely. We couldn't take that risk."

Ceti looked shocked "That's why you called for the retreat?"

Lucilia nodded and said "With Rei and Rin onboard, we couldn't take the risk of being here any longer; this group of unknowns could've been at any stage of technological advancement, so we decided to play it safe and get as far away as we could from the battlefield. Sadly, playing it safe cost Silili her life..." 

Lucilia clenched her hands in anger, knowing that her call had caused one of her dear friends to die. She tried her best to hide her emotions, but Rumia noticed it very easily.

"We get your anger, Ceti, but it was a necessary call to make." Rumia said.

"I...still don't feel good about this..." Ceti said.

"I understand." Lucilia said before walking over to Ceti. "I'm not sure it was the right call either; I've never had my own operation like this. Did I make a major mistake? What could've I done differently? What variable did I not account for? These are questions I ask myself after every mission, even before we set out on our own. Now they are just worsened.

"Princess..." Ceti said, looking at Lucilia, revealing how she felt inside her heart.

Lucilia grabbed a hold of Ceti's hands and said "I won't ask you to forgive my choice, but please try to understand it. As a captain, it's my job to get everyone back home safely. A job I won't always succeed in, but I will make the calls I believe I have to make in order to do so. Silili hasn't left my thoughts either, and she never will. My call got her killed, and I will always regret that, but we have to keep going. We have to keep moving forward."

*Meanwhile*

Ren was currently hanging out with Rei and Rin. They ate dinner together the previous night, and Ren started to understand the pair a little bit more. Rei was sweet and kind, but there was just something about her attitude that reminded Ren of Octavia and how she'd say certain things on purpose. Meanwhile, Rin seemed the type to act cold on the outside but the secretly cute girl on the inside. Both Ren and Rei teased her a bit and saw some of her true colors show when she blushed from embarrassment.

Ren enjoyed this time away from everything. He could distract his mind from everything else.

"So, Ren, do you know how much longer it will be until we reach where our mom is?" Rei asked, with Rin also paying attention.

"I believe sometimes within the next two days on the ship." Ren said.

"I didn't know our time here would be that short." Rei said.

"Why? Don't you want to go home?" Rin asked her sister.

"Of course, but I've also talked to a lot of new people, and I don't want to say goodbye so soon." Rei commentated.

Ren smiled before saying "Don't think of it as a goodbye."

This got both of the girls attention, and Rei asked "What do you mean?"

"Well, your mother knows Lucilia, and after the fact that we did everything to save you two, our friendship with your mother will more than likely grow, so you never know, you could see us again soon." Ren said it with a heartwarming smile.

Seeing Ren's smile made both of the girls blush a little bit.

"His handsomeness is so unfair..." Rei thought to herself.

"His smile..." Rin thought to herself.

Ren had no clue that his looks and his growing friendship with the two sisters had started to spark some feelings with the two of them; however, he remained ever more clueless about that fact.

After Ren had left the girls to their own devices, he decided to check up on Ashastha, Sthora, and Laelli, who were all currently in the same room talking.

Ren knocked on their door, and Laelli was the one who answered.

"Hey Ren, what are you doing here?" Laelli asked.

"Just wanted to check up on you guys; is now a good time?" Ren asked.

Laelli looked a little apprehensive before saying "Okay, maybe you can help us out with something."

Ren was confused by what Laelli said before he was let into the room. 

Ashastha and Sthora were both sitting at a table, and when Ashastha saw Ren walk in, she jumped out of her seat and ran over to him, hugging him tightly and making his face get absorbed in between her large breasts.

"Asha...please...can't...breath." Ren said in a muffled voice.

Ashastha pulled Ren out of her chest, and Ren had to take a breath. Not that he didn't enjoy the softness of her chest, though.

"Sorry, Ren..." Ashastha said, looking apologetic.

"It's fine, Asha; trust me, I wouldn't have a problem with it if it wasn't for the fact that you buried my face so deep inside of your chest that I couldn't breathe." Ren said with a little laugh at the end.

"I'll work on that, but why are you here?" Asha asked.

"What? I can't see my future wife whenever I want?" Ren asked jokingly.

"Of course you can!" Ashastha exclaimed "In fact, I wish you visited us more! Isn't that right, Sthora?"

Sthora was taken aback by Ashastha's bringing her into this conversation "Why did you ask me?"

Ashastha looked at Sthora with glaring eyes, almost as if she were looking deep into Sthora's soul "You know why..."

Sthora quickly blushed before crossing her arms and pouting cutely.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Ren asked.

Laelli, who had remained quiet, spoke up. "We were discussing how to act from here on out regarding the empire."

This surprised Ren "Really?"

Laelli nodded "Yes, all three of us agree that we don't want to partner with the Empire. I don't want to because I trust nobody outside of our tribe. No offense, Ren."

"None taken." Ren responded. He knew she had severe trust issues, and she still didn't trust Ren and the others, at least not completely.

"Queen Ashastha doesn't want to join the empire due to their treatment of you as they threw you into the arena and looked down upon you." Laelli added on.

"Nobody should be allowed to live after trying to harm my fated one." Ashastha replied.

Ren looked at Ashastha, and a thought crossed his mind "She's slowly becoming more and more like Lucilia..."

Laelli continued "And Sthora doesn't want to partner due to how manipulative the empire is; she doesn't trust that the empire won't try to force their will onto the people of the village."

"Everyone I met on Volaria tried to sweeten their words, but in reality, there was nothing but venom behind them." Sthora replied.

"So all of you agree that the Volarian Empire isn't who you want to share a bed with...so what's your plan?" Ren asked.

"Well, that's where our ideas differ." Laelli said. "I personally want to keep our independence and refuse any and all help outside of you, of course, Ren, since you are destined to marry Queen Ashastha."

Then Sthora chimed in "I want to align with Lucilia and her sister Aurelia to oppose their father's rule."

Then lastly, Ashastha said what she thought on the matter "I personally don't care either way; all I want is to be by your side, Ren, and both of their ideas align with mine."

"So its basically two choices with one person stuck in the middle?" Ren said, observing what was happening.

"Basically." Laelli replied.

Ren then had a quick idea "Why not allow your people to choose?"

This almost sparked a lightbulb inside Asha's head "That's perfect; since we are at a stalemate, why not have everyone in our village decide on the final outcome!"

"It would end our deadlock..." Laelli commented.

"It's also a fair process." Sthora added.

"Glad to have helped." Ren said with a smile.

Ren stayed in the room with the dragon girls for awhile as they discussed their future plans; however, in another part of the galaxy, someone else's future plans have altered drastically.

*Elsewhere*

"Ugh" Zaiga said as he felt someone's hands push him down onto his knees.

After the battle against Ren and the others, Zaiga's mech was rendered nearly useless, with only the main life support systems staying online. Before his mech became pretty much inoperable, he sent out a SOS call to his remaining allies located on their base planet, but he knew he would have to wait about half a day or so until they could get there. Which is why, when he started to hear a ship above him only about an hour after making the call, he was shocked.

He could feel his mech being moved, but he had no idea where. He could hear metallic sounds coming from the outside of it, meaning he was more than likely no longer in space.

After a few minutes, sparks started to fly from inside the cockpit; it seemed as if someone was cutting their way through the metal.

Once the metal was cut open, light shone inside the dark cockpit, and what greeted Zaiga was a shocking sight.

"What in the six hells..." Zaiga said, looking around.

He saw four aliens from a species he didn't recognize looking at him. This species seemed to only have one eye on their heads but another eye on each of their shoulders. Their bodies had two arms and two legs, but what was interesting was their skin, which almost looked as if it were made of a gelatin-like substance.

One of them walked up to Zaiga and grabbed his head with it's gooey hand, and it was like the being's eye on his head glowed before saying it in Zaiga's native language.

"Hello there, Zaiga...it's a pleasure to meet you."

------------------------------------------------

If you guys want to to support me check out my patreon, it's as cheap as a dollar!

Patreon:

https://patreon.com/Alex_Blackwood628

Discord:

https://discord.gg/97ejzvAGKb