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"This place isn't bad."
Nides, or as he was called Sydney Bravens, looked at the sand cave his battle-brothers had found and expressed his satisfaction.
"Let's settle here."
"But we still need to be cautious, we must set up sentries, and rest in shifts."
"I did want to et Matins, but not by being ambushed by him. We've co a long way, over thirty years now. The decisions back then were made together by all of us, and I've never let down any one of you. Till now, we've only lost one warrior, and I hope that this ti, none of us will die."
The other seven n surrounding him didn't respond imdiately.
Everyone seed to have fallen into a kind of silence.
One of them broke the silence: "I'm starting to doubt whether we really should continue like this. Perhaps, it wasn't too bad living as we have for the past thirty-plus years, at least..."
He couldn't even finish his own sentence.
It was a while before another person replied, "If all we want is to survive and don't care for anything else, why not go to Zhong Jihua, that traitor? He would surely accept us. How is it like going to Matins, where we have to try every way to lure them out and still worry about whether he'll slaughter all of us?"
Soone else said, "Indeed, I'd rather die than go to Zhong Jihua."
"Enough with the façade of loyal servants of the Empire. If we were truly that loyal, we should have died 37 years ago or at least nine years ago, alongside Fan Haozhe."
...
The brothers who had been through life and death together were on the verge of starting a quarrel.
In fact, such debates had not been uncommon in the past. Their situation was unique, lost and confused for over thirty years. Even as Interstellar Warriors, they could feel helpless and even inconsistent.
This was a very dangerous sign; don't assu venting so frustrations might lead to improvent. On the contrary, if the circumstances can't change, then the wanton venting would only weaken the bonds between them, make their seemingly strong relationships crack and soday in the unforeseeable future, completely erupt.
This was a problem Blaywins, as the team leader, always tried to avoid.
Whenever such a situation showed signs of arising, he would speak up strongly, nipping any potential disputes in the bud.
No matter what his battle-brothers thought in their hearts, whether they regretted past decisions or had new thoughts about the future, he expected them to keep their thoughts to themselves, without showing it outwardly.
Of course, he understood that this was only treating the symptoms, not the cause.
But as for a permanent solution... they had thought about going to Zhong Jihua.
However, most of the brothers felt it would be better to be dead.
They had betrayed, yes, in that battle back then, they had the chance to rejoin the ranks but believed that the penitential crusade had no end, that no one would live to see it through.
It was a journey of despair, tinged with resentnt towards the Empire.
Why, after all? The glory accumulated over thousands of years by the Battle Group and the sacrifices made during decades of penitential crusades weren't enough to atone for a single mistake?
Clearly, the Empire didn't think so. They were not willing to die and be obliterated just yet. So, during the rebellion thirty years ago, they had a chance to join forces with Matins and others, but in the end, they chose to leave quietly, to live in anonymity, wandering everywhere.
Sotis they would disguise themselves as regular Interstellar Warriors, get so subsidies, and save people along the way; but more often, they would erase their insignia and move amidst various grey groups. Sotis as raiders, pirates, other tis as rcenaries...
They would ticulously assess the danger of the battles.
Having lost the mission to fight to the death for any cause, they were even less likely to lose their lives for honorless actions, rely to survive.
Yet, they had no intention of harming their Mother Group, nor did they truly want to beco enemies of the Emperor.
Also, due to so unspoken reason among themselves, they always kept an eye on the Phoenix Mother Group. Sotis they would even move close to the Battle Group's combat zone and observe from a distance. There were even a few instances when they intervened at critical monts to save so warriors and then left without making contact.
About twenty-five years ago, after a successful raid for supplies, they once again heard news of the Mother Group, who were engaged in a war against the Chaotic Evildoers. The 'do-nothing' renegades, with a 'let's just see' attitude, rushed over.
In that battle, the Battle Group suffered significant losses.
Out of the Battle Group, which originally had only a little over two hundred people, half were stuck in a quagmire.
That was sothing they couldn't save.
With only eight n, they were incapable of altering the battle that over a hundred warriors could not escape from.
They could only sadly watch from afar.
In fact, this was mostly what they had seen while with the Mother Group in the past. The scenarios where they had a chance to save their brothers and then quietly withdraw were definitely rare.
However, this ti a drastically different event occurred.
Those hundred plus n, faced with a dead end, made a shocking move: their leader, the Phoenix Squadron Leader, went out to negotiate with those Cult traitors.
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