The Spider Queen

(Headquarters Of The Imperial Army)

“Where is Commander Crawley?” a hoarse masculine voice echoed through the room and sent shivers down the spines of the men and women inside.

No one dared to even make a single sound.

An elderly man wearing a long black cloak with numerous medals strewn on his chest sat down in a chair.

His sharp greyish-blue eyes swept the room and even though there were wrinkles on his hands and face… he was anything but weak.

A sharp predatory aura surrounded his body.

Even among the officers of the Imperial Army, this man was someone to be feared.

Grand Admiral Cooper… also known as the ‘Butcher’.

A bloodthirsty demon tasked with subduing planets when the natives were ‘uncooperative’.

Not all alien civilisations wanted to join the Earth Federation and soldiers like Grand Admiral Cooper were deployed to ‘persuade’ them to the cause.

His methods were brutal.

There were few in the room that did not know about his history of massacres.

In one case an entire alien species had gone extinct after the grand admiral determined that they were too troublesome to break.

And now this monster was not happy.

The admiral opened his mouth and asked a simple question,

“How is it possible that ten planets in the Gamoran Sector were attacked by the Insectoid Empire and not one single person can explain to me how they managed to slip past our defenses?”

“The news has already been leaked on the Virtual Net, so the entire universe knows about our incompetence.”

“Now the commander of that sector has apparently gone missing! And not one of you bastards seems to want to say anything!”

“Don’t just stand there like the useless sacks of shit that you are! Someone give a fucking suggestion about what to do next?”

There was a brief moment of silence.

One could only hear the faint sounds of breathing as the officers looked down at the ground and tried not to meet the admiral’s sharp gaze.

A young woman in the back of the room raised up her hand with her fingers trembling ever so slightly.

“We… we… can request reinforcements…” Lt. Anne hesitantly replied.

“The invasion should be repelled as long as a fleet of at least two hundred warships are dispatched.”

“No. The war with the Unovan Syndicate requires manpower… there are simply no troops that can be spared,” the grand admiral softly growled.

He glanced at his wrist communicator and saw dozens of unread messages from the higher ups of the army.

Senile old fools…

The grand admiral got up from his chair and walked out of the room. He had no interest in continuing to talk with cowards.

Only one single person offered a possible solution, and it was an impractical one.

In some ways the victories made in the Unovan Syndicate were not a blessing but rather a curse since they concealed the rot inside the military.

Thousands of years of domination meant that humanity had long forgotten the fear of extinction.

Even the Insectoid Empire was not as big of a threat as most took them to be.

Both sides were roughly equal in strength to the other which meant that a full-scale war was highly improbable.

No one wanted a third party to intervene after what would certainly be a pyrrhic victory at best.

The grand admiral made his way to his private quarters and pressed his thumb against the scanner.

The metalloid doors swung open, and the heavy coppery scent of blood filled the air. A half naked humanoid alien with purple skin lay helplessly on the ground.

Heavy iron shackles had been placed on his body and his back was covered with nasty whip marks and scars.

These wounds had not been cleaned properly so one could see small flecks of whitish pus beginning to form on the injuries.

The grand admiral took off his cloak and sat down next to his prisoner. He gently touched the alien’s back as his lips curved upwards.

This brave alien used to be the leader of his civilisation’s resistance army. Now he was nothing more than a plaything.

Cooper rubbed his temples as he felt the stress of the day wash over him. He really needed something to take his mind off the pressing issues at hand.

He reached into his storage bag and pulled out a sharp scalpel with an edge that gleamed under the light hanging from the ceiling.

The alien lying down on the bed had long lost his ability to speak and could only moan painfully as the blade dug into his back and carved out chunks of flesh.

“Do you remember what you told me when I first landed on your world?” Cooper softly whispered almost like a venomous snake.

“You told me that your people would never be slaves. That you would resist until the very end… and yet… here you are…”

“Your mate is dead.”

“Your offsprings are dead.”

“Your world is now controlled by humanity.”

The grand admiral would cut the alien’s flesh at the end of every sentence so that his words would be carved into the creature’s mind.

This torture went on for several minutes until the alien mercifully fell unconscious. The grand admiral walked over to the kitchen area and washed his hands in the sink.

Now that his mind was clear… he would be able to think of what to do next.

It would be a great humiliation and shame if the Insectoid Empire managed to capture over ten planets in the Gamoran Sector.

There was only one of the two paths to take.

The first was to immediately mount a counteroffensive and try to recapture the planets.

A costly affair to be sure and there was no guarantee that there would even be any survivors to be rescued.

Reinforcements would have to come from mercenaries or private soldiers from the noble families in the sector.

Truthfully the grand admiral had been exaggerating slightly when he said that no troops could be spared from the Unovan Syndicate front.

The reality was that the gains made in the Unovan Syndicate controlled territory far outweighed the useless planets in the Gamoran sector.

As for the second option.

Well, it was quite simple…

Orbital Bombardment.

The Insectoid Empire’s temporary bases and all of their foot soldiers on the captured planets would be eliminated immediately.

The disadvantage was that any civilians that survived the initial invasion would almost certainly be killed.

Grand Admiral Cooper pursed his lips together and began to write up a report to the higher ups.

He would be happy to lead the operation no matter which path they chose to take.

It had been a long time since he had been sent on a campaign…