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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Lanzen_Jars on 2025-12-17 00:25:43+00:00.

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Chapter 250 – The beast was supposed to be muzzled

“The station’s defense systems were activated! Our ships are taking fire! Casualties are rising!” the message came through the communication line, spoken by an Officer who clearly tried their best to remain professional, even though the significant stress behind it was more than a little obvious. “We have to fall back. The boarding will be delayed until the time the defense systems have either been destroyed or brought under control.”

Nahfmir-Durrehefren lifted his trunk; both its ends heavily writhing against each other in a subtly trembling motion as he held himself back from swinging it around.

“The beast was supposed to be muzzled…” he growled under his breath, feeling the tension in the knot rise as his trunk pressed tighter and tighter.

This was...unpleasant.

Admittedly, he couldn’t quite deny that it had been at the very least a little bit foolish to try and rely on the fact that a being such as a Realized would be ‘under control’, no matter how promising the method may have seemed.

There was a reason these beings were feared all throughout the Galaxy. And if it was quite so easy to take one down – much less take control of one – they would not have nearly posed the threat that they did. In fact, if that was the case, this whole operation would likely not have been quite as necessary as it was.

Still, with the thing behaving almost exactly as was expected previously, a question now posed itself about whether this sudden unruliness was in fact a new development, or if it had simply laid low and pretended to play nice up until now.

He could certainly see both possibilities, with which one he preferred highly depending on how much capacity for something resembling empathy he wished to ascribe to such an anomaly. And also how careful he needed to be while proceeding.

Most likely in his mind, yet somehow simultaneously the worst-case situation, was that it had simply seen an opportunity to let tensions between both sides rise much higher, and in turn make itself far more invaluable to one of them, thus cementing its position as an unquestionable asset.

Give them the impression of seeming weak while simultaneously making them depend on you. It would be as devious as it was brilliant if that was what the Realized was doing, he had to admit.

Then again, it was unclear if that idea truly fit with every one of the circumstances he had observed. Though he could not exactly afford to write off malicious intent as incompetence in this case, simply by the virtue that one would have far more dire consequences than the other.

“Sir?” a voice suddenly piped up from behind him. As he turned his head, he saw one of his inferiors approaching him slowly.

The young koresdilche walked with his head lowered, his long neck half retracted into his shell while his clubbed tail dragged behind him over the floor.

The Nahfmir huffed.

“Behave according to your station’s dignity, for goodness’ sake,” he barked out, and his trunk unfurled from its knotted state so he could release a displeased trumpeting sound. “Even if you bring news that will displease your superior, at least report them in a manner that allows for them to be dealt with in a timely manner.”

The sauropsida flinched slightly, before snapping into an upright position with his head suddenly climbing so high that it reached more than half of the Nahfmir’s height.

“Sir!” he repeated himself louder now. “With plans for the boarding delayed, resources for the aggressive push of our troops are going to be much more limited than originally planned for far longer,” he then began to report while his arms shot into his species’ version of a salute. “Based on our assessments, most will likely still have the necessary force to cover their planned targets. However, without the additional reinforcement, support and resupply, current predictions show that casualties and losses are going to be far higher than we accounted for should we still proceed as planned. Depending on future developments, this could quite drastically reduce our effective control over the station in the coming hours. Perhaps we should conserve troops and resources by giving the order to fall back momentarily and-”

“No,” Nahfmir-Durrehefren immediately denied, swiping his trunk through the air in a single, imperious motion. “Keep the pressure on. Do not give them a moment to breathe.”

The inferior paused momentarily, obviously taken aback by being cut off quite so abruptly. His hardened mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he released a slight puff of a breath from his airsack.

Still, he firmed his stance by shifting his weight slightly. His tail lifted off the floor, its club beginning a slight swing from side to side.

“Sir,” he spoke up once more. His voice was no longer as loud and attentive as it had been a moment ago, however it was also nowhere near the pathetic meekness he had first approached the Nahfmir with. “With our current resources, the aggressive push was only meant to provide us with momentary advantage to allow further troops and supplies to hit the station. If we continue it now-”

“We will still capture the objectives,” Nahfmir-Durrehefren firmly finished the man’s sentence for him. Slowly, the zodiatos bull began to turn on the spot, carefully stepping his massive feet nearly in place to turn his bulk around and directly face his inferior. “You said it yourself, our forces should more than suffice to cover their intended positions. Even without the expected influx, we have the advantage on most measurable metrics.”

Pulling back now was not an option. So far, the assumption was that their enemies’ movements and coordination had been disrupted by the shackles enforced onto their Realized dog. If that was not the case as the current situation appeared to show – or, in other words, if the Realized was now willing to play its hand and reveal that its restrictions were far less severe than it had previously demonstrated – that would mean the combined deathworlders and vagrants could now have the chance to fully reform and restructure their forces. Now with the added intel about the forces that had previously pushed their positions.

If he allowed his troops to retreat now, it would open them up to a complete restructuring of the battlefield. At the moment, the terrain was still how they had formed it. To give up such an advantage while predictions were still in their favor would have been insane.

Losses would be manageable. Eventually, either the collar would be put back on the beast, or the fleet would manage to completely dismantle the station’s limited defense systems. And when that moment arrived, whatever losses they suffered in the meantime would be paltry. Then, they could easily give whatever pinned down positions might remain of their opposition at that point the final blow.

“But Sir,” the koresdilche spoke up once again, now earning himself a direct glare from the Nahfmir. This time, he wasn’t unaffected, and his previous attempt at an imposing posture quickly broke away. Within moments, his tail hit the ground again and his head sunk as his neck retreated back into his shell in a gradual recline. Still, even as his tone once again drifted into uncertainty, he did not completely hold his tongue as he nervously looked up to his superior. “If we simply wait- I mean, with the added numbers…what will it matter?”

As those words reached his constantly swaying ears, Nahfmir-Durrehefren’s eyes narrowed down at the man.

“What will it matter?” he questioned in return, as if he hadn’t quite understood what his inferior was saying. As he spoke, the two ends of his trunk slowly rubbed together, as if in anticipation.

“Yes, Sir,” the koresdilche replied. Although he seemed like he would much prefer to completely pull back into his shell, he remained in his half-cowering position and nervously cleared his throat as he prepared to elaborate. “If we keep pushing now, we will suffer significant losses. However, with one airlock captured, all we truly need is to keep it secured, is it not? Then we merely have to wait for the boarding to proceed, even if delayed. And with that added power, it will still be much easier to overtake the entrenched positions with more of our forces remaining safe and healthy. Meanwhile, our opposition doesn’t have any support they could wait for. There are no...real resources they...could recuperate...either. They...are…”

As the reptile spoke, his words gradually slowed down as Nahfmir-Durrehefren began to take slow steps towards him. Not rashly. Not aggressively. Just approaching. Just setting one foot in front of the other.

Eventually, the man fell completely silence once his superior had reached such closeness that he could have theoretically reached out his trunk and touched the much smaller man. In galactic comparison, the man stood somewhat over the average. And for his species, he was in fact rather large. In that moment, everything about the koresdilche’s body-language suggested that he was a ma...

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