Hannah was helping Liddy into her dress, skipping any idle groping or kisses that normally would have been going on while putting clothes on a friend. Having reloaded the rifle, she escorted Liddy back to the lounge to find everyone safe. Ving was at the front door with her pistol in her hand. She smiled when she saw Hannah come into view with Liddy. Mari was back on the couch with Easy gently examining her bruised jaw.
"Are you alright?" Hannah asked, getting a close look of her own.
"It's fine. It's not the first time I've gotten a sore jaw. Just normally it's a lot more fun to get it," Mari replied.
Hannah could see Mari was much more shaken up than she let on, but knew it was better to let Mari feel like a smartass for now. Liddy had gone over to tend to Emma, who was shaking as she sat in the corner, as far from the chair she had been held in as she could get. Hannah went over to Ving.
"How are you?" Hannah asked, kindly gripping Ving by the hip.
"Shaken. To be honest I was rather scared. But then I caught on to what you were doing and took care of things." Ving showed off her pistol. "I always keep my girl here loaded and ready behind the helm. Just haven't had to use it in a while."
"So what happened and who's that?" Hannah asked nodding towards a young looking man in uniform with a bruised face, dragging bodies off the ship.
"Oh, that little shit was the one who survived. They pulled up and we thought clients, but they didn't want to pay. Mari let her mouth get her into trouble and I got taken to the bridge for their new guy to play with. Make him a man. He didn't want to, almost crying in fear as he tried to 'make it easier' on me by being 'polite'. So I clocked him with my pistol when your diversion started and put his two friends down. Since he was smart enough to stay down, I let him live. Now he gets to haul their carcases off the ship."
"Tell him to strip them naked first. Use their uniforms to clean up the blood and we keep their weapons."
"Anything you say, my love," Ving smiled.
The boy walked back up to the door, but before Ving could give him his new orders, Hannah slammed her palm into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. He crumpled on the ground and looked up to see Hannah drive the butt of her rifle into his face. The crack was loud and told Hannah his nose was broken. She gripped him by the collar and pointed at Ving.
"Mine." Hannah laced the single word with venom and fury as she glared into his frightened eyes.
Letting him go and returning inside the ship, she took a look around at the girls and went down stairs. In her room, she grabbed a bundle, tightly packed in paper and string. Hannah stripped off her dress and opened the bundle. Inside was a drab olive green pair of trousers and a matching jacket. She put on the trousers and fastened the belt. Then came the jacket, decorated with silver buttons that she had altered into snap clasps, and a pair of epaulettes with Leftenant rank pins. Her old uniform still fit smartly on her figure and was topped off by a sharp beret with the icon of the Crater Peak Guard fixed in the centre. Of course, she wasn't supposed to have any of it at all after her dishonourable discharge, but it was a simple thing to keep when it was so easy to distract anyone who tried to take it. Her black marching boots were duller than she normally kept them, but she wasn't going to shine them now.
In full uniform, Hannah looped a bandoleer of ammunition around her hips and fixed a bayonet to her boot, hip, and shoulder. Slinging the rifle over her shoulder, she went back upstairs to take over guard duty of the prisoner while Ving took some time to relax. Mari was the only one there who knew Hannah well enough to know just how angry she was. After the prisoner had finished his grim task under the withering gaze of Hannah, she ordered him into the truck to drive her to the garrison.
"Care to explain yourself?" Hannah asked with an icy glare.
"We...ummm..." he mumbled.
"I asked for an explanation for your actions. Not blithering. Out with it now!" Hannah shouted loud enough that others they shared the road with might have overheard.
"Yes, Ma'am." He collected himself, wiping his hand under his broken nose to stop the blood from running into his mouth for a moment. "We are the... were the personal escort squad for the Major." He gestured to the cargo hold in case Hannah didn't know who he was referring to. "I'm new to the group, so they make me do all the crap work. Sometimes other things to show I was one of them. So when he found out a ship of wh... um... women, he thought we should get a free sampling. The guys thought I needed to become a man, so they told me to pick one. Ving is popular and there is even a pinup of her in the barracks. So they decided I should be the first. I didn't want to. I just didn't want to suffer what they would do to me if I backed out."
Hannah paused to let him sit in uncomfortable silence while she kept her new revolver aimed at him. "So instead of suffering humiliation as a pariah yourself, you felt that a woman should suffer physical and emotional trauma instead."
"I..."
"No, shut up! I am talking! Being a man isn't defined by raping a woman or even having any sex at all. I could rant for hours about all of this but it won't make any sense to you. It's something you need to figure out for yourself. Just learn from what happened today. Those men rotting in the back were by all standards of society 'real men' and I killed them. Me, a small delicate feminine woman you would only see as something you could put your dick inside. If that's the kind of man you want to be, I can put a bullet in you right now. If you want to be someone better, then figure out what that means and do it."
"Yes, Ma'am"
"Now tell me. Is there a Lady Leftenant at the garrison by the name of Maxwell?"
"There is a Captain Maxwell. She is the only one I know of."
"Inky black hair with a tinge of blue shine?"
"Yes, Ma'am. She and the Major never got along at all."
"When we get there, you are to go retrieve her. If she says she's busy or has some other excuse, address her as Captain Inky. She will know what that means."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Hannah could have spent the rest of the ride yelling at the kid, but kept a hard silence and contemplated her next move. Her plan was risky in the extreme, but she was much too angry not to try it. The truck pulled into the garrison and Hannah had him park in the middle of the parade ground. They disembarked and the kid ran off to find the Captain. Hannah unlocked the tailgate and flipped it down. Just as she came around to the driver's side door where the controls for the dumping mechanism were located, a voice boomed across the yard.
"Just what the hell are you doing here?" A stocky older man in colonel's pins marched across the yard towards her. "Business concerning the Major. Do you know where he is?" Hannah asked, not letting a hint of anger show.
"Out on assignment. What is this about and what made you think this was the appropriate place for it?"
"What assignment? Was it under your orders?"
"Everything is under my orders. He is inspecting the docks. Now explain why some other city has their soldier with one of my trucks in my yard!" He was losing his temper but Hannah was done playing games.
Hannah yanked the control stick and slowly the back of the truck started tipping up. They watched as soon blood poured from the back onto the dusty dirt, followed eventually by a body. Then the rest spilt out. The colonel stared stunned as he slowly recognised some of the faces.
"While under your orders, as you have just made it clear, the Major and his squad invaded a merchant vessel operating under the flag of a foreign city-state as well as bearing a token of noble recognition. Assaulted and detained its crew. Then attempted to commit rape. I am here returning the bodies of those lost in your direct act of war."