The Kiara Legion

Approximately half an hour later, the light cruiser landed in the external hangar of the White Tigress base. Once the ship touched the ground, additional Terran infantry forces boarded the light cruiser.

While the initial boarding parties held down the key parts of the light cruiser, the additional Terran troops began sweeping through the entire ship, executing any pirates they came across. There was no surrendering. No taking prisoners. Athena couldn't afford to let these people who might have seen the Protoss go around and start talking, and she couldn't really afford to lock hundreds of people up for the near future. Just the number of Terrans needed to act as prison guards would be too much for her to afford. These were all criminals and thugs, and she was fine with turning all of them into much-needed units of resources for her upcoming campaigns.

The Terrans were good soldiers. They gladly carried out the purging by Athena's orders without any hesitation or remorse. As they did so, Rum and some of his handpicked interrogators began questioning Captain Hector and a number of his top officers. The captain was a little resistant, but his officers, especially his master-at-arms by the name of Kevon, eagerly spilled everything they knew in exchange for a chance of mercy.

A few hours after the light cruiser landed, the Terrans reported the ship as fully secured. Rum also returned to Athena as she began heading toward the ship's bridge with all the information he had gathered from the captives.

"The prisoners said The Lawbringer has a crew of around 1,000. A typical ship of that class usually carries around 2,000 to 3,000 crew members and a maximum of 1,000 marines, but these pirates don't have the resources to maintain all the systems on the ship. A lot of key systems were removed. A pair of hangars. Several artillery units. Some of the components were also deemed unnecessary. This helped them cut down both the crew counts and the maintenance cost."

Athena nodded as she walked past a pile of corpses that were cut open by Protoss psionic blades. As gory as it was, she was just glad it wasn't roaches and their acidic saliva.

Her resource count had risen to over 31,000 units. The number of resources she got roughly corresponded with the crew numbers Rum told her.

"What is this ship called again?"

"The Lawbringer." Rum repeated before doing a shrug under his armor. "I was surprised too, but I guess they never bothered to change the ship's name after it became a part of the Kiara Legion. Maybe they find it ironic?"

"Maybe," Athena nodded. It seemed like the naming conventions of the pirates were a lot more creative than the designations used by the Venya Imperium or the Kingdom of Decima. Perhaps she should also give her forces a cool name? "Tell me about this Kiara Legion."

"As the rumors said, the Kiara Legion was founded by those exiled from an empire in a neighboring system. More specifically, according to some of the original officers, they came from the Kiara Empire in the Zeon System. The prince they swore their allegiance to lost the civil war, and his surviving forces fled to the Vander System. Here, the Kiara Empire can't reach them without a great investment, and they're not worth the effort."

The prisoners, especially the man named Kevon, told Rum a lot more details, but Rum could tell his commander didn't really care too much about their backstory, at least not as much as their numbers and territories. In other words, these details could wait until the written reports later.

"According to Captain Hector, the Kiara Legion has a fleet revolving mainly around 8 light cruisers and around 13 frigates and corvettes. All of them were ships originally in service in the elite Basilisk Squadron of the Kiara Empire, but after decades of being pirates and fighting merchants and other pirates, these ships and their crews have all become a lot less dangerous. They are still a threat, of course, but they are no longer one of the top armadas in the Zeon System. They also have a number of weaker ships that they have gathered throughout the years that the Legion uses to serve as scouts and messengers." Rum explained. "In addition, they have a ground force of around 5,000. In total, we get maybe 20,000 men in the entire Kiara Legion."

"20,000 men. Less than a division. Not the most impressive for a relatively powerful force in the system, but I suppose pirates don't have the resources or the infrastructure to arm and maintain too many troops." Athena nodded. An empire might want to have millions of soldiers to garrison its worlds and maybe perform planetary invasions, but for pirates, having too many troops could lead to logistical disasters that could bring down the entire faction. Pirates also relied on secrecy and mobility to survive. Also, having more men meant each man received a smaller cut of every prize. By all accords, the somewhat small size of their forces was likely intentional.

"Indeed, commander. Supposedly the Kiara Legion only recruits the best killers in the system. They lack numbers, but they are trained and organized as far as pirates go."

"Are the prisoners telling the truth?"

"I asked for the assistance of one of the zealots, Commander. The lady named Vayron, to be specific. She didn't sense he was lying."

All Protoss were powerful psionic beings, at least compared to humans, and while zealots focused on using their psionic powers to improve their melee abilities, they still had the natural mind-reading abilities all Protoss had. As far as Athena knew the zealots had trouble filtering through a person's memories and extracting the useful bits in an effective manner, but they still served as brilliant lie detectors when needed.

"You could've just asked for an infestor," Athena said. Infestors couldn't control too many people simultaneously, but they could infest the prisoners, get the information they had, and then kill them to free up the psionic links. This would be slightly quicker than using the zealot.

For a second Rum didn't reply, and Athena quickly realized why. For obvious reasons, Rum and the other Terrans weren't fans of infestors. They might be perfectly fine with gunning down fellow humans, but watching other humans get infested and turned into slaves of the Zerg Swarm was a whole different matter that they would like to avoid if possible.

"I suppose it doesn't matter too much." She glossed over that issue as they finally stepped into the bridge. She took a few steps toward a navigation computer and allowed her adjutant to get to work.

Ten minutes later, Athena grinned to herself and turned to Rum with a smile on her face.

"I am assuming the terminals contained valuable information, Commander?"

"They did. It seems like the Legion didn't have any protocols for deleting data from their terminals to avoid them from being compromised." Athena said. "The ship's navigation computers contained the coordinates of almost all of the Legion's assets. Their main base of operation. The two dozen or so other colonies they have been extorting and watching over. I've got them all."

"Captain Hector said the Legion keeps naval assets over all their colonies. The more important ones, like R412, have a light cruiser in their orbit. The less critical ones have frigates or modified civilian ships." Rum explained.

"So their fleet is scattered?" Athena tapped her fingers on one of the terminals as she went through her options. Taking on the entire Kiara Legion was impossible as of now, but if the Legion was divided into small bite-able bits that she could defeat and use to grow her forces…

"They are, but they routinely deploy smaller ships to meet up with their deployed vessels and confirm their wellbeing. These ships are sent at semi-irregular intervals." Rum had a brief plan in mind as well. "If we need to strike, we need to strike fast and hit as many targets as possible before our plan is discovered."

Athena nodded. She had the proper coordinates of her targets, and she could construct over 30 Terran Vikings if she spent all her resources. The issue was that the Ravager could likely only fit a handful of them, and the ship itself was quite fragile. Without a dedicated carrier, she had to be present to deploy the Vikings, and that came with a fair share of risks. The Lawbringer was fooled by the disguise of Viktor's ship, but the other pirate ships might not be. All it would take was one cautious or overeager pirate captain to get her killed. Even if she could deploy the Vikings immediately, she really didn't trust the shields and armor of the P-34 or the Ravager to keep her alive through the battle.

Perhaps she could try the same trick again on the other ships? Feign a surrender and then send zealots aboard the enemy ships? That was certainly an option if there was no better choice, but if the enemies had their guards up, this plan would likely fail.

"Can we use this light cruiser?" Athena turned to Rum. The light cruiser would be much more likely to survive if it came under fire than the two modified civilian ships.

"I'm sorry, sir. We only have a few captured officers. Even if we kept the rest of the crew alive, there is no telling what information they may be able to leak to the outside world." Rum shook his head. "My men can attempt to monitor everyone, but it will be almost impossible to use them in battle while keeping them completely isolated from non-Terrans. If they somehow send a message out and expose the presence of the Protoss, the results can be disastrous for us."

Athena frowned. She didn't regret killing most of the crew while taking the ship. Still, that meant she would have trouble putting the light cruiser to use.

"And I am guessing our other crew doesn't have the experience or the knowledge to pilot this cruiser?"

"I am not sure, sir, but as far as I know warships and civilian ships are quite different to operate. I suppose we can ask around." Rum shrugged.

Athena nodded slowly, but she didn't keep her hopes up. The White Tigress pirates might be a bit more loyal and easier to control, but she didn't trust them with her life either.

"In that case, we will not actively strike at them. We will wait for them to come to us." She finally decided. If she couldn't be the aggressor, then she would be the defender and set up ambushes at R412. "We will remain at R412, and when the Kiara Legion sends its ships over to investigate what happened to the Lawbringer, we will make sure they don't leave."

"Ready to plunder!"

A few hours later, Athena returned to the orbit of R412, this time not in the form of an avatar. She had left Viktor's starcruiser in the planet's orbit to watch for any sign of other vessels, which meant this time she had to travel by the Ravager. Regardless of how much Athena felt inclined to change the ship's name into something more fitting of its combat prowess, the fact was that at least the pirate ship could get her to her destination in one piece.

Upon arriving, she deployed the squadrons of Terran air units she had produced, consisting of 24 Vikings and 2 Medivacs. This brought her resource count down to around 6,000 units. A hefty price, but one that Athena firmly believed would be well spent.

After deploying the two squadrons of Vikings to patrol the area for any incoming vessels from the Kiara Legion, Athena sent two Medivacs toward the planet's surface. The pair of dropships held 16 marines in total, one of whom would be used by Athena as an avatar.

The colony on the planet mainly revolved around a biodome with reinforced transparent glass that was made inhabitable to human beings. By the time the pair of Medivacs landed outside of the biodome, they were already noticed by the settlers. These settlers were far from wealthy, but in an age like this basic radars were quite cheap. A dozen or so men, dressed in power suits designed for miners, emerged from the biodome with firearms to greet the unwelcomed guests. They did their best to remain strong and stoic, but one look at their civilian suits, outdated weapons, and clumsy movement was enough to tell any veteran they were dealing with amateurs.

One of the marines quickly made their point clear. They had defeated the Kiara Legion light cruiser in the planet's orbit, and they were here to request an audience with the settlement's leader. The marines made no threats, but their presence here alone was enough intimidation.

Thanks to this, by the time Athena took over the body of one of the marines, she had found herself within the biodome of the colony.

"Barbara Klaus, isn't it?" The sudden change in the environment didn't bother Athena. Despite not being too much of a fan of taking over bodies, she had done it a few times already and neither her own deep voice nor the suit of armor around her avatar's body really caused any issues. Instead, after a brief glance around the room she was in, she went right to the point.

They were in what seemed like a large office. Only two marines were behind her, and they weren't carrying their rifles. A quick message from one of the marines informed her the others were waiting outside. Also in the office and sitting across the table from her were two women, one older than the other.

They didn't know her, but Athena knew them. At least one of them. Before this mission even began, Athena had gone over the intel the White Tigress had on the settlement on R412. The settlement, crudely named R412-1, consisted of around 4,000 people. Their leader was a well-respected woman by the name of Barbara Klaus.

Barbara was a woman in her sixties. From what Athena knew about her, she was a member of the minuscule middle class in her homeworld in the Sandera Empire. She had a good life ahead of her, a luxury most in the empire didn't have, but instead of living that life, the woman chose to spend her wealth and organize this colonizing expedition for those whose lives were hopeless within the empire. Despite all that had happened to the colony, she was beloved by her people.

Interestingly, this level of detail suggested to Athena there were colonists in this world who were selling this information to intel brokers at Lawman's Port, not that it mattered much as of now.

"That's correct, sir. May I ask who I am talking to?" Regardless of what Barbara thought about Athena, she still maintained a polite tone. In the same way that she and her people had no choice but to submit to the brute force of the White Tigress or the Kiara Legion, she had no real option to defy a faction like Athena's. Just the two transports of armored marines could cause quite the chaos in her colony.

"We are from…" This was when Athena suddenly paused. She had a lot of things in mind for this meeting. How to convince this colony to join her. How to prove that she was different from the pirates. What she didn't plan for was how to answer such a simple question…what even was the name of her faction?

The White Tigress? Nope…there was no way she was going to use the name created by a bunch of incompetent pirates. The Ravager? Maybe the Terrans? None of that really sounded as impressive as she hoped. Maybe she could copy from some fictional worlds? Dark Angels? The Alpha Legion? Sons of Korhal? The 501st Legion?

Not really wanting to get caught up on something this basic, Athena sighed inside and came up with a name off the top of her head. Ah well…if it didn't work, she could always change it afterward.

"We are from the White Owls." She finally declared. Her name was Athena, the same as the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War, and the Goddess's symbol was the white owl. At least it was better than the White Tigress, right?

Maybe?