Traitor

Central District, Rune Town, local time 14:12.

One-third of the buildings in this colonial town were buried by overgrown thorns, vines, and stemmed reeds. In the central district, colonial dome houses and square, sharp-angled prefabricated modular buildings stood in orderly fashion before Augustus and his men.

Antennas and solar panels were mounted on the roofs of these houses to receive signals and store energy.

Like many towns on Turaxis II, every house in Rune Town looked highly similar. Straight roads divided the town into equally sized blocks, a typical colonial town grid style that made it difficult for even outsiders to get lost. This grid-style town was common in younger colonies.

A few open-top trucks and coal-hauling lorries were parked sporadically on the streets. Public facilities like streetlights, signs, and benches were dilapidated due to lack of maintenance and repair. Apart from these, Augustus couldn't see a single person; the streets and squares were deserted.

"Something's not right here. I thought they'd welcome us like heroes," Harnack grumbled at the sight.

"If you brought a truckload of food and fuel to meet them, I bet you'd be the hero of the whole town. Maybe they'd even rename it Hankton," Raynor said over the comms channel.

"Sounds good," Harnack said, clearly taking it seriously.

"This makes things difficult, esteemed Mayor Hankton. Intelligence says this entire town is rebel territory," Augustus said.

"Then tell them to clear the way for Mayor Hankton," Hank said dismissively.

"Assemble at the central plaza!" Lieutenant Warfield commanded over the comms channel. "Stay close to your squad leaders and comrades, watch the ground and your backs!"

Rune Town's central plaza was the only open space in the town, merely a clearing marked with chalk, about the size of a football field. The grass in the central plaza had grown lush and overgrown with native Turaxis II plants due to lack of mowing, with some emerald-green segmented insects visible among them.

In the center of the vibrant green space stood a solitary flagpole, from which hung a tattered Confederate flag.

The entire First Company was deployed in Rune Town's central plaza. Augustus's third platoon was positioned directly below the flagpole, behind Warfield, along with the second platoon. They formed four columns facing the street north of the plaza. The first platoon was deployed in the same formation on the right flank, and the fourth platoon was positioned behind and to the left of the third platoon.

"Citizens of Rune Town, I am Lieutenant Warfield of the Interstellar Marine Corps." The lieutenant held a radio transceiver, which could directly connect to Rune Town's broadcast station speakers.

"We have received reports that there are Kel-Morian spies here, spreading lies and deceiving the citizens of the Terran Confederacy," Warfield said. "To maintain the purity of Rune Town and ensure its continued loyalty to the Terran Confederacy, I, as the highest commander in this region, have obtained an arrest warrant from the planetary governor."

"I have the authority to order everyone in this town to assemble at the central plaza immediately for investigation. Those found innocent will be released immediately. However, if you refuse to come to the central plaza for investigation, then, regrettably, I will arrest all of you."

"You have fifteen minutes. I am giving you fifteen minutes. Regardless of gender or age, I don't expect you to be punctual, but unless you're missing limbs, fifteen minutes is enough time to walk from one end of this town to the other."

"Do not carry any weapons, or we reserve the right to fire first."

"Lieutenant, our orders are to execute rebels, not arrest them," Augustus's platoon leader, Reagan, said over the comms channel for officers from squad leader to company commander.

"If it were up to me, no one should be executed," Warfield said. "Unless absolutely necessary, I will not resort to bloodshed here."

After Warfield spoke, the comms channel for the entire First Company fell into absolute silence. His words had also been broadcast to the ears of over two hundred men in the company through the public channel, clearly defining his stance on the mission.

Augustus stood behind Warfield, next to Raynor and Harnack. The HUD display system on his helmet had switched to thermal imaging mode, allowing him to see red figures hiding in the houses and basements.

Through scanning, real-time 3D models of several residential houses appeared in the upper right corner of the screen, with a dropdown status bar displaying wind speed, humidity, and temperature.

A few minutes later, the figures on Augustus's HUD screen became more numerous. Townspeople of Rune Town, driving low-hovering vehicles or riding magnetic levitation bicycles, began walking towards the central plaza in small groups. The breathing sounds on the public channel gradually grew heavier, and Augustus couldn't help but grip his Gauss rifle tighter.

Most of the townspeople arriving were carrying various weapons: mining picks, shovels, sapper shovels, 20th-century black powder automatic rifles, shotguns, and bolt-action hunting rifles. Only a very small number held electromagnetic or laser weapons—Augustus guessed they were the organizers and leaders among them.

These Rune Town townspeople, clearly hostile, surrounded the plaza using modified private vehicles and tractors used for farming. Augustus roughly counted, estimating the number to be over three hundred and still increasing.

Warfield watched all of this with a blank expression before closing the visor of his power armor.

Including Augustus's power armor, all the power armors of the 33rd Ground Assault Division had wolf heads painted in gray and white on the outside of their visors, depicting sharp snouts, white cheek fur, slanted triangular eyes, and pointed ears.

But Augustus always felt that if he could resist imagining them as huskies, they would be quite imposing and majestic.

"I demand to speak with your commander!" After the number of gathered people exceeded five hundred, a representative pushed forward from the crowd, standing about 400 yards in front of Augustus.

"That's me," Warfield replied in the coldest, most unfeeling tone he had ever used. "Tell those people to lay down their weapons, and I swear I will let bygones be bygones. This is your last chance."

"We will never lay down our weapons in defense of freedom!" The mustachioed Turasian man walked up to Warfield, saying without yielding, "Listen, you can't do this!"

"Decades ago, it was my father, our fathers, who came here, wrested land from beasts and venomous insects, leveled the ground, built houses, and reclaimed wasteland. Everything we have today is thanks to the hard work of several generations," the Turasian man said.

"And what has the federal government done for us? They only make us pay taxes, taxes, taxes, yet they don't even help us build roads. When cheap industrial products from Tarsonis flooded the Turasian market, the governor's office and the Federal Market Regulatory Bureau did nothing, watching the disaster unfold."

"By the time local factories declared bankruptcy and countless workers were unemployed, the government hypocritically announced the Turasian economic aid plan, which was already too late."

"Even if that were the case, we never saw a single cent of the money from the aid plan."

A chorus of agreement came from the crowd at this point, while Warfield and the soldiers could only remain silent.

"When war came, the Marines not only failed to protect us but sent our children to the battlefield," the mustachioed man became more agitated as he spoke, finally raising his arm and shouting, "We don't need the Terran Confederacy, nor do we need the Kel-Morians! Rune Town belongs to everyone who lives here!"

"I demand that you leave here immediately, or my townsfolk and I will open fire!"

"That idiot, he almost convinced me. If he had 'requested' us to leave with a better attitude, maybe Warfield would have just packed up and left," Raynor said angrily over the comms channel of the first squad.

"Does he really think those mud-dwellers' firecrackers can penetrate my Knight Armor? No way, no way?" Josephine, who was of noble birth in the squad, didn't empathize with the previous speech like Raynor. She found it utterly ridiculous that these people dared to threaten the Marines.

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