Changing Heading - Part Two

Posted on Sun Aug 31st, 2025 @ 11:18am by Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi

Mission: Mission 121: The Mobius Loop
Location: Various Locations - Planet Surface. Utgarde IV
Timeline: 0210Hrs - February 8th, 2394

"Yes I know the crime I committed, and yes I was punished for it." Torilla then shrugged. "Jake took me in, and his family made me one of their own," she added. "I know it was Rachael Yamaguchi who made it official, I was dating her son. I was scared witless of her, but she had a truly amazing force of will. She realized this and was able to calm my fears. This alone sealed our friendship."

Selonis paused. "She was something special then?"

"She was true," Torilla answered softly. "Yes," she added in a whisper.

Selonis traded a look with her husband. This was unexpected by both Selonis and Nebris. "You were outcasted for the act of mating with an offworlder.?" Nebris inquired of his daughter who was now older than he was.

"No. For having children with an offworlder." Torilla clarified with a soft sigh. "Silas Montrose would never stop chasing me across the stars. In the end, I was forced to kill him in self-defence." Torilla recalled the events in question, as she felt him push his way into her mind and learn all about her family. She knew he would have happily slaughtered all of her children and their spouses. Also, he would have happily quartered her grandchildren with his bare hands. All in the chance to have Torilla herself. Torilla then explained all of her thought processes, to the horror of her parents. "He would fall so far?"

"Worse," Torilla answered softly. "He would lead Halaa to its worst defeat in history." She paused as she felt a sudden surge of emotions. "When I was exiled. I had to face some bitter truths. One of those was that after I took care of matters for you two. I would never be allowed to return, even for my own death. So I severed all ties. But The Halanan government you know... It doesn't exist anymore. It was deposed... By me."

Selonis paused as she regarded her daughter. "Wait. You disposed of a sitting government.?" she whispered.

"No. Much worse than that." Torilla regarded her mother. "I am Halaa's conqueror. I trashed their military. I all but demolished their navy and its supporting infrastructure." She paused. "Then Montrose surrendered. He desired to offer me a surrender, face to face. I did not expect trouble but I was prepared for it. Even so, he overpowered everyone in the room, including me. I was forced to kill him. Otherwise, he would have drowned me in the blood of my own children and grandchildren. I saw what he was going to do. He wanted to murder all of them, just to hurt me. So I killed him instead."

"Just like that.?" Nebris asked softly.

"Yes. Since he had faked a surrender. The truce we had arranged was off. I was now free to exterminate everything present, including the planet's ground defences and nobody would have complained." Torilla paused. "Instead. I went for a surgical strike. Invading the capital city but it was more of a military maneuver rather than a battle. The Halaa military had gone home. They had all quit. Seeing that their cause was hopeless and that their General had violated their honour to slake his bloodlust. They quit and fled."

Nebris paused. "Did you do much damage?"

"More than I wanted to, but not as much as I could have." She paused. "But that said. Conditions in some parts of Halaa had gotten quite grim when I conquered the planet." Torilla called it what it was rather than varnish it over with other terms like 'liberated.' which she saw as inappropriate.

Nebris paused while he nodded his head. "What did you do with the old government.?"

"I simply walked into the room and had them all arrested. But I left the choice to them, as it always had to be. I had a few of my marines go and seek the underground. I knew there was one... So, some of their leaders arrived a short time later. All while I snapped a selfie of myself next to the presider's chair."

"You didn't sit in it?" Selonis inquired, a soft smile on her face.

"That was never what I wanted," Torilla admitted. "I wanted to end their war with the Federation. That was why my campaign was launched in the first place," she commented. "I was not supposed to be leading the campaign either. That honour was supposed to go to Captain Korelii McRae," she explained. "Wait. Korelii... Our Korelli.?" Selonis inquired softly.

"Yes. Your other daughter. I found her... Well, rather she found me. She went over to negotiate terms and was taken prisoner by the Halanan government, By Montrose." Torilla then sighed softly. "The rest, you know," she added in a soft tone of voice. "I wish there was another way but they had already declared their intent to war against the Federation. They sent me and Korelii to deal with it. Which, we did."