Post by Sen on Dec 14, 2023 5:24:08 GMT -5
Sen was up early today. He had made sure to get to sleep as soon as possible, as he knew that there were big happenings in store for him. He had heard rumblings about it for a while now, but it had finally been confirmed to him the day prior: he was getting a promotion. Next up on the ladder for him was the rank of General, which not only came with higher compensation, but also the chance at higher risk operations which much greater rewards should he pull them off.
And he had damned earned it too. For years he had been working his ass off trying to win the Tuffles their home world back, even when it seemed like maybe some of the higher ups had forgotten their purpose. How is it that they so easily shrug off his suggestions when those rotten Saiyans are crawling over their planet still? Every day he brought them new ideas of how they might combat the incoming plague, and every day his ideas were shot down as being too cruel or impractical.
Sometimes he wondered if maybe they weren't all a bit too soft for this sort of war. Most of the higher ups that he got to spoke to hadn't seen actual field combat since before the Saiyans invaded. They didn't have a true understanding of what it was like to fight them man to man like he did; they didn't understand the enemy, and if you don't understand your enemy then how could you ever hope to win a war? That's what Sen tried to tell them, but they wouldn't listen... until now. Now was his chance to push himself in and make a real difference.
Part of him wondered why it had taken so long for the men upstairs to see his brilliance, but he wasn't about to question them to their faces. What mattered is that they had finally come around, and he was grateful for the opportunity. In his four years of military service he had gone far above what the average Tuffle soldier had been expected to do, and so promotion was only natural. During his six years of military service he hadn't ever actually received any sort of promotion before, but he assumed that had been because he was too young.
Most people probably would have dressed up in a nice looking suit for this sort of thing, but Sen wanted to let everyone know that he was a different sort of Tuffle. He was wearing his field clothing, as what befitted a true soldier. When he arrived at base he headed straight to Major Clement's office and practically barged in, uncaring of whatever business the Major had lined up for him today. Right now the focus was on him and him alone; no one else got anything done before Sen's promotion was over.
"Sen? You're here... about an hour early. But that's fine; maybe even preferable. This might take a while." Sen took a seat in front of the Major, a little confused as to what he meant. "A while? How long does it really take to pin a medal on me?" Sen smiled, but the Major didn't. "I'm not sure what you've been told about what'll be happening today, but I'm afraid it's much more than that, Sen. You've been selected for nothing more than an opportunity to prove yourself. If you pass this final test you'll get your bars."
Sen's face reddened. He could have reacted in a number of different ways, and most included the Major's head leaving his body. But he had worked too hard to throw it all away now so he swallowed his anger as best he could. "Very well. Tell me what you ask of me and I'll have it done. A Saiyan outpost that needs capturing? I'll have it by nightfall." The Major shook his head before getting up from his chair and moving over to the window on his left.
"How many outposts have you captured for us, Sen? A dozen? More? We already know you're capable of killing Saiyans; you're one of the best I've seen at that. But a promotion doesn't just mean more people to kiss your ass; it means a higher level of responsibility, with different skills necessary to succeed. What you'll be tested on today is going to be something you've never done before, and you might just fail. Keep that in mind." Clement moved away from the window and over to the door, holding it open for Sen to follow.
The two walked away from the main compound and over to a smaller building that he had never entered before. Clement gave the two Tuffles at the door a nod, causing them to split apart and allow the two to enter. They spent a solid two minutes walking down steps before entering into a long hallway with seemingly no end in sight. Along the walls were rows and rows of doors, with only a small windows to allow light through. Sen stepped over to one and brought his eyes to it where he saw a man with a bag over his head sitting alone.
Maybe he was making noise, or maybe he wasn't; the cells were all sealed and sound proofed. Every now and then Sen had actually brought back Saiyans alive (as he was instructed to) but he never knew where they had ended up until now. "Come." The two walked down near the end of the hallway to the only cell that was being actively guarded. Clement gave this man a nod as well, though this time he left the scene all together, travelling back the way they had come and up the stairs, leaving the two alone.
"Battles may be won out in the field, but not always wars. Sometimes to win a war you need something a bit more... advanced?" Clement moved over to the door, which prompted Sen to look inside. As he had earlier, he saw a single man sitting alone on a chair with a bag over his head. "Saiyan got a name?" Clement laughed. "Tuffle. His name is Pote." A look of horror spread across the face of Sen who instantly took a step back. "We're holding Tuffles here?!"
"Traitors, actually." Clement opened up his coat and pulled a few documents out, handing them over to Sen. "Pote here is believed to be working with the Saiyans. We don't know to what capacity or how this all started... which is what we want from you. Interrogate him and find out what you can about his connection to the Saiyans. We'll need a full confession from him if you want that promotion of yours. Feel free to use whatever means you feel necessary to extract the confession."
Sen had no problems with a little torture, but something about this situation felt off. "What makes you think he's working with the Saiyans? What proof do you have?" Clement reached back into his pockets and pulled out a small broch with the Saiyan insignia on it. "We found this in his room." Sen took the broch himself and looked it over. The evidence seemed a bit weak to him; it could have easily have been planted there, but he had his orders and was ready to prove himself to the high command.
Clement gave Sen a salute before stepping away, allowing the Tuffle to step inside and begin things. His experience in interrogation had been limited to the battlefield where things had been rather ad-hoc. The quiet, sterile environment felt strange to Sen, who was used to questioning people with explosions going on in the background. And his target was a single man; usually he dealt with whole groups at a time. He felt a bit uncomfortable, but that was the whole point really. They wanted Sen uncomfortable. They wanted him to adapt.
The first thing Sen did was remove the bag that had been over his read, which to his surprise reveled a much older gentleman than Sen had been expecting. The man had a long, grey beard and the hair on his head was thinning. He clothes were baggy, but his body was thin which suggested that he had probably been held in these sorts of conditions for a while now. Sen opened up the files he had been given for the first time and gave them a quick scan.
"Pote... fifty years old... rank: Ma-" Pote cleared his throat before speaking. "I'd like a burger, please. And some fries if you would. Maybe a soda to go along with it? Hurry now, son. Before my stomach starts growling again." Sen was confused; did he not understand what was going on here? "This is an interrogation, Pote. You won't be getting anything until you give me something in return." The expression on Pote's face didn't change at all.
"Rank: Major. That's what you were about to say? I don't see any Major bars on your chest there, son, which means you're speaking to a superior officer. When I tell you to go get me a burger the only thing I want to hear out of your mouth is yes sir. Don't we still teach discipline to our soldiers?" Sen's face reddened, before he lunged forward and delivered a stiff slap across the mouth of Pote. Blood was drawn from his lip, but if he was in pain he didn't show any signs of it.
"You were a Major. Now? Now I don't know what you are." Sen's gaze slowly left the stern face of the older Tuffle, drifting back down to the paper in front of him. "More than thirty years in the military... says here you're a veteran of Ormond. Wasn't that one of our first engagements with the Saiyans?" The first time a Saiyan and Tuffle crossed paths wasn't exactly known, but Ormond was a major military engagement that Sen had studied fastidiously, as painful as it was to go over the details.
The battle had been a complete disaster for the Tuffles, who were wholly unprepared for what was about to happen. Ormond was a Tuffle settlement that was close to where the Saiyans had landed. Word of an alien force reached them rather quickly, but those words were followed by fists when the Saiyans attacked. The outer soldiers were quickly slaughtered which lead to the Saiyans encircling the city and cutting it off from the outside world. What followed was a month of brutal siege warfare, with the Tuffles inside slowly being whittled down.
A Tuffle general by the name of Marion lead troupes from Hatchi in an effort to break the siege, and it might have worked if they had communications with the soldiers on the inside. An attack from both sides would have broken the Saiyans, but in the end the invaders were able to fight back and kill Marion, routing the rescue force and resigning Ormond to a sad fate. When the boy traveled out to see the battleground with his own eyes he couldn't even imagine a city once standing there.
"Aye. I was on the front line when I saw the Saiyans coming... when I saw the horde approaching us I knew right away that we needed to leave. I told that to the higher ranking officers, but they were confident that we could fight back. Boy were they wrong." Sen could understand that feeling. How many times had people above him gone against his wishes, only to be proven wrong? He'd need three or four hands to count that high.
"The outer defenses were breached within minutes. Do you understand that? Minutes, not hours. We weren't prepared for a siege. evacuation at that point might still have been possible, but again we were told that we needed to set up whatever sort of defenses we could. What defenses? Ha. We never anticipated a threat like the Saiyans before, so it's not like we had a whole lot useful laying around. Everything was ad-hoc; we were trying to build walls out of crates and the like."
Sen struggled to relate. He hadn't ever been in anything like a siege environment before. All of his operations had been purely offensive; he had been the one tearing done walls. "It was a miracle that we managed to survive as long as we did. When we stood up high and saw Marion coming... that was our chance. But by then the boys were broken. They thought it was some sort of trick by the Saiyans, or maybe even a hallucination. That was the moment we truly lost."
Sen walked back around in front of Pote and kneeled down, now more curious than anything else. "How did you make it out? I wasn't aware that Ormond even had any survivors." Pote moved his tongue back and forth around his mouth for a few moments before responding. "There were only a handful of us. Once the Saiyans broke through what we had left... we knew we couldn't fly, else they'd just shoot us down. We built tunnels underground that were just wide enough to fit one man at a time."
Pote paused again, with a look of pain across his face. "We couldn't see what was going on above, but we could hear it all. The screams. And when it ended. Most of the fighting men had already been killed; it was the families that were left. We wanted to save them but..." He stopped speaking. Sen stood back up and paced around the room for a bit, trying to take in all that he had heard from Pote. The more of the story that Sen listened to, the harder it was to believe that this man was truly some ally of the Saiyans.
He had been one of the first to see the Saiyans, and he sore them at their worst. Why in Hell would he betray his people to help them? Money? He was a high ranking officer in the Tuffle Military, but not so high that he alone could influence the war in a great way. He seemed an odd target to go after in the first place; why not someone a bit younger? Who was less experienced with Saiyans? Sen just couldn't reconcile it all together yet. He needed more, so he moved back to the papers.
"After Ormond it says you were... captured?" Pote looked up at him. "Aye. The tunnels led us to outside the city, but by the time we crawled that far the Saiyans had figured things out. We managed to find a decent defensive position to fight back, and despite only being a handful of us we took out plenty of them too... but when five men are dealing with thousands the outcome is always the same. Eventually we broken and were taken in."
Maybe he was broken in more ones the one. Personal contact between Pote and the Saiyans was proven, but that wasn't enough to make him guilty. "I thought they were going to kill us. That's what makes the most sense, right? That's what they had done to the rest of us. But it wasn't even that. They just... toyed with us. Kept us around and killed others in front of us. After a couple of weeks I was able to break free and make a run for it. I don't know what happened to the others."
Sen looked back down into his papers and attempted to find another clue that might help things make more sense here. "You made your way back to Hatchi on foot." Pote nodded. "Aye. When I told command what happened they didn't believe me of course. Took them seeing it with their own eyes for them to come around. We all headed out to Ormond together to see the wreckage. That was when the Tuffles started taking the Saiyans seriously."
A shame that it took that, but his question still was left without an answer. "From there on out you lead the life of a military man. You fought, you won and you moved up the ladder to Major. You've done well for yourself... which begs the question as why you betrayed us." Sen moved over in front of Pote and grabbed his face with both hands, before moving in close. "Why, Pote? Why!? Why did you betray your people!? You of all Tuffles should know the menace that we face."
Pote refused to say anything, instead spitting in the younger Tuffle's face. Sen took his hands off of Pote and wiped the spit away. Looking back over to the door he wondered if there were others watching now; If they were he was letting them down. They told him that a confession was needed, but what could Sen do? He wasn't trained for this! Feeling pissed off Sen got back up and moved over to Pote and started unloading on the man, desperate to get something out of him.
That was when the door swung open. Two Tuffles stepped in and took hold of Sen from either side, dragging him away from the scene. They dragged him all the way back to the Major's office and threw him inside, where he remained alone for a while. When the Major returned he had a look of disappointment on his face. "We had faith in you Sen. We thought you could get the job done, but it would seem as though you aren't cut out for this sort of thing, hmmm?"
Sen had taken all he could from the Major today. Reaching forward he attempted to wrap his hands around the man's neck, only to find himself easily subdued. Clement put his arm around the throat of Sen and slowly chocked the life out of him, only releasing when he was a moment away from unconsciousness. The Two Tuffles stationed outside came back in and picked Sen up, setting him face to face with Clement. "Seems you need a time out."
Sen fought back the whole time, but was ultimately powerless to stop what came next. The two Tuffles dragged Sen straight back down to where he had been before, though this time he was given his own cell to cool off in. He had gotten in trouble with the brass more times than he could count, though it was always over minor things. He had never attempted to strike a superior officer before, and now his punishment was far worse than anything else he could remember.
He couldn't say how long it was until he had a visitor. A small window meant that you could see into the hall, but with the lights always being off and no view to the outside world it was impossible to tell how much time had passed. If he had to guess, he'd say it was probably about a week when he heard the sound of his door creaking open. When the light shone in Sen was forced to cover his eyes with his hands, as his eyes had become fully adjusted to the dark.
The figure before him didn't say a word, which meant that it took about a full minute of blinking before Sen finally found out who was in front of him. Unsurprisingly it was Clement again, and as far as Sen could tell the Major was alone. "Enjoying your captivity?" Sen didn't respond. "Don't be mad at me, Sen. You're the one who brought this onto you; not me." Sen had only eaten twice in the time that he had been here. Had he more energy he might have a different response to that.
"In any case, I've got some good news for you, Sen. You have a trial coming up, and at that trial I'll of course be asked to speak. Your fate will come down almost exclusively to what I have to say, do you realize that? I can ask for lenience and talk about all that you've achieved for the Tuffles... or I could mention your less than stellar disciplinary record. Really it all comes down to whether or not you're willing to work with us, Sen. We're going to be putting you with the general population here, and when we do... there are some things you can do to help win us over to your side."
Sen still didn't say a word, but he was certainly listening now. "We're going to be doing the same to Pote. Still remember him? We want you to... well, we want you to get back into contact with him. We know that he's guilty, and we need something to be done about it. Try and extract a confession out of him again. This time around there won't be anybody to hold you back, so don't be afraid to push things. If he still refuses then... well, you'll have to find some other way to deal with him."
Things were only getting stranger for Sen. First they wanted a confession, and now they wanted him silenced? Sen still wasn't able to make sense of this situation, but it's not really like he was in a position to turn down an order even if he wanted to. When Clement was done speaking Sen was picked up and escorted out of the cell he had been put him, carried off into what they called general population. It was sort of like a prison, though you'd never know it from the outside.
That's because the entire place was located underground. The area that Sen had seen was a sort of maximum security section, but now the Tuffle found himself completely surrounded by Tuffle prisoners of war. It stark contrast to the cell that he had been locked in before, this place was almost overflowing with both audio and visual stimuli, with crowded halls and guards stationed every few feet away. After being isolated for so long it was almost too much for Sen to handle, who felt sick at what he was seeing.
Most of the inmates were Saiyans of course. Picked up by Tuffle soldiers and brought back here for holding. Some would be put on trial for war crimes and executed, while others would probably spend the rest of their lives down here without their people ever even knowing where they had ended up. Though Sen was a little surprised when he saw more diversity around here than he was expecting. There were more than a few Tuffles down here that were mostly likely traitors as Pote was, but there were a couple of Arcosians too, and even a Namekian? What could their crimes have been?
He might have asked them, but he had a job to do. It didn't take long for Sen to find Pote, who was sitting by himself and away from the others as much as one could be in the crowded halls.
And he had damned earned it too. For years he had been working his ass off trying to win the Tuffles their home world back, even when it seemed like maybe some of the higher ups had forgotten their purpose. How is it that they so easily shrug off his suggestions when those rotten Saiyans are crawling over their planet still? Every day he brought them new ideas of how they might combat the incoming plague, and every day his ideas were shot down as being too cruel or impractical.
Sometimes he wondered if maybe they weren't all a bit too soft for this sort of war. Most of the higher ups that he got to spoke to hadn't seen actual field combat since before the Saiyans invaded. They didn't have a true understanding of what it was like to fight them man to man like he did; they didn't understand the enemy, and if you don't understand your enemy then how could you ever hope to win a war? That's what Sen tried to tell them, but they wouldn't listen... until now. Now was his chance to push himself in and make a real difference.
Part of him wondered why it had taken so long for the men upstairs to see his brilliance, but he wasn't about to question them to their faces. What mattered is that they had finally come around, and he was grateful for the opportunity. In his four years of military service he had gone far above what the average Tuffle soldier had been expected to do, and so promotion was only natural. During his six years of military service he hadn't ever actually received any sort of promotion before, but he assumed that had been because he was too young.
Most people probably would have dressed up in a nice looking suit for this sort of thing, but Sen wanted to let everyone know that he was a different sort of Tuffle. He was wearing his field clothing, as what befitted a true soldier. When he arrived at base he headed straight to Major Clement's office and practically barged in, uncaring of whatever business the Major had lined up for him today. Right now the focus was on him and him alone; no one else got anything done before Sen's promotion was over.
"Sen? You're here... about an hour early. But that's fine; maybe even preferable. This might take a while." Sen took a seat in front of the Major, a little confused as to what he meant. "A while? How long does it really take to pin a medal on me?" Sen smiled, but the Major didn't. "I'm not sure what you've been told about what'll be happening today, but I'm afraid it's much more than that, Sen. You've been selected for nothing more than an opportunity to prove yourself. If you pass this final test you'll get your bars."
Sen's face reddened. He could have reacted in a number of different ways, and most included the Major's head leaving his body. But he had worked too hard to throw it all away now so he swallowed his anger as best he could. "Very well. Tell me what you ask of me and I'll have it done. A Saiyan outpost that needs capturing? I'll have it by nightfall." The Major shook his head before getting up from his chair and moving over to the window on his left.
"How many outposts have you captured for us, Sen? A dozen? More? We already know you're capable of killing Saiyans; you're one of the best I've seen at that. But a promotion doesn't just mean more people to kiss your ass; it means a higher level of responsibility, with different skills necessary to succeed. What you'll be tested on today is going to be something you've never done before, and you might just fail. Keep that in mind." Clement moved away from the window and over to the door, holding it open for Sen to follow.
The two walked away from the main compound and over to a smaller building that he had never entered before. Clement gave the two Tuffles at the door a nod, causing them to split apart and allow the two to enter. They spent a solid two minutes walking down steps before entering into a long hallway with seemingly no end in sight. Along the walls were rows and rows of doors, with only a small windows to allow light through. Sen stepped over to one and brought his eyes to it where he saw a man with a bag over his head sitting alone.
Maybe he was making noise, or maybe he wasn't; the cells were all sealed and sound proofed. Every now and then Sen had actually brought back Saiyans alive (as he was instructed to) but he never knew where they had ended up until now. "Come." The two walked down near the end of the hallway to the only cell that was being actively guarded. Clement gave this man a nod as well, though this time he left the scene all together, travelling back the way they had come and up the stairs, leaving the two alone.
"Battles may be won out in the field, but not always wars. Sometimes to win a war you need something a bit more... advanced?" Clement moved over to the door, which prompted Sen to look inside. As he had earlier, he saw a single man sitting alone on a chair with a bag over his head. "Saiyan got a name?" Clement laughed. "Tuffle. His name is Pote." A look of horror spread across the face of Sen who instantly took a step back. "We're holding Tuffles here?!"
"Traitors, actually." Clement opened up his coat and pulled a few documents out, handing them over to Sen. "Pote here is believed to be working with the Saiyans. We don't know to what capacity or how this all started... which is what we want from you. Interrogate him and find out what you can about his connection to the Saiyans. We'll need a full confession from him if you want that promotion of yours. Feel free to use whatever means you feel necessary to extract the confession."
Sen had no problems with a little torture, but something about this situation felt off. "What makes you think he's working with the Saiyans? What proof do you have?" Clement reached back into his pockets and pulled out a small broch with the Saiyan insignia on it. "We found this in his room." Sen took the broch himself and looked it over. The evidence seemed a bit weak to him; it could have easily have been planted there, but he had his orders and was ready to prove himself to the high command.
Clement gave Sen a salute before stepping away, allowing the Tuffle to step inside and begin things. His experience in interrogation had been limited to the battlefield where things had been rather ad-hoc. The quiet, sterile environment felt strange to Sen, who was used to questioning people with explosions going on in the background. And his target was a single man; usually he dealt with whole groups at a time. He felt a bit uncomfortable, but that was the whole point really. They wanted Sen uncomfortable. They wanted him to adapt.
The first thing Sen did was remove the bag that had been over his read, which to his surprise reveled a much older gentleman than Sen had been expecting. The man had a long, grey beard and the hair on his head was thinning. He clothes were baggy, but his body was thin which suggested that he had probably been held in these sorts of conditions for a while now. Sen opened up the files he had been given for the first time and gave them a quick scan.
"Pote... fifty years old... rank: Ma-" Pote cleared his throat before speaking. "I'd like a burger, please. And some fries if you would. Maybe a soda to go along with it? Hurry now, son. Before my stomach starts growling again." Sen was confused; did he not understand what was going on here? "This is an interrogation, Pote. You won't be getting anything until you give me something in return." The expression on Pote's face didn't change at all.
"Rank: Major. That's what you were about to say? I don't see any Major bars on your chest there, son, which means you're speaking to a superior officer. When I tell you to go get me a burger the only thing I want to hear out of your mouth is yes sir. Don't we still teach discipline to our soldiers?" Sen's face reddened, before he lunged forward and delivered a stiff slap across the mouth of Pote. Blood was drawn from his lip, but if he was in pain he didn't show any signs of it.
"You were a Major. Now? Now I don't know what you are." Sen's gaze slowly left the stern face of the older Tuffle, drifting back down to the paper in front of him. "More than thirty years in the military... says here you're a veteran of Ormond. Wasn't that one of our first engagements with the Saiyans?" The first time a Saiyan and Tuffle crossed paths wasn't exactly known, but Ormond was a major military engagement that Sen had studied fastidiously, as painful as it was to go over the details.
The battle had been a complete disaster for the Tuffles, who were wholly unprepared for what was about to happen. Ormond was a Tuffle settlement that was close to where the Saiyans had landed. Word of an alien force reached them rather quickly, but those words were followed by fists when the Saiyans attacked. The outer soldiers were quickly slaughtered which lead to the Saiyans encircling the city and cutting it off from the outside world. What followed was a month of brutal siege warfare, with the Tuffles inside slowly being whittled down.
A Tuffle general by the name of Marion lead troupes from Hatchi in an effort to break the siege, and it might have worked if they had communications with the soldiers on the inside. An attack from both sides would have broken the Saiyans, but in the end the invaders were able to fight back and kill Marion, routing the rescue force and resigning Ormond to a sad fate. When the boy traveled out to see the battleground with his own eyes he couldn't even imagine a city once standing there.
"Aye. I was on the front line when I saw the Saiyans coming... when I saw the horde approaching us I knew right away that we needed to leave. I told that to the higher ranking officers, but they were confident that we could fight back. Boy were they wrong." Sen could understand that feeling. How many times had people above him gone against his wishes, only to be proven wrong? He'd need three or four hands to count that high.
"The outer defenses were breached within minutes. Do you understand that? Minutes, not hours. We weren't prepared for a siege. evacuation at that point might still have been possible, but again we were told that we needed to set up whatever sort of defenses we could. What defenses? Ha. We never anticipated a threat like the Saiyans before, so it's not like we had a whole lot useful laying around. Everything was ad-hoc; we were trying to build walls out of crates and the like."
Sen struggled to relate. He hadn't ever been in anything like a siege environment before. All of his operations had been purely offensive; he had been the one tearing done walls. "It was a miracle that we managed to survive as long as we did. When we stood up high and saw Marion coming... that was our chance. But by then the boys were broken. They thought it was some sort of trick by the Saiyans, or maybe even a hallucination. That was the moment we truly lost."
Sen walked back around in front of Pote and kneeled down, now more curious than anything else. "How did you make it out? I wasn't aware that Ormond even had any survivors." Pote moved his tongue back and forth around his mouth for a few moments before responding. "There were only a handful of us. Once the Saiyans broke through what we had left... we knew we couldn't fly, else they'd just shoot us down. We built tunnels underground that were just wide enough to fit one man at a time."
Pote paused again, with a look of pain across his face. "We couldn't see what was going on above, but we could hear it all. The screams. And when it ended. Most of the fighting men had already been killed; it was the families that were left. We wanted to save them but..." He stopped speaking. Sen stood back up and paced around the room for a bit, trying to take in all that he had heard from Pote. The more of the story that Sen listened to, the harder it was to believe that this man was truly some ally of the Saiyans.
He had been one of the first to see the Saiyans, and he sore them at their worst. Why in Hell would he betray his people to help them? Money? He was a high ranking officer in the Tuffle Military, but not so high that he alone could influence the war in a great way. He seemed an odd target to go after in the first place; why not someone a bit younger? Who was less experienced with Saiyans? Sen just couldn't reconcile it all together yet. He needed more, so he moved back to the papers.
"After Ormond it says you were... captured?" Pote looked up at him. "Aye. The tunnels led us to outside the city, but by the time we crawled that far the Saiyans had figured things out. We managed to find a decent defensive position to fight back, and despite only being a handful of us we took out plenty of them too... but when five men are dealing with thousands the outcome is always the same. Eventually we broken and were taken in."
Maybe he was broken in more ones the one. Personal contact between Pote and the Saiyans was proven, but that wasn't enough to make him guilty. "I thought they were going to kill us. That's what makes the most sense, right? That's what they had done to the rest of us. But it wasn't even that. They just... toyed with us. Kept us around and killed others in front of us. After a couple of weeks I was able to break free and make a run for it. I don't know what happened to the others."
Sen looked back down into his papers and attempted to find another clue that might help things make more sense here. "You made your way back to Hatchi on foot." Pote nodded. "Aye. When I told command what happened they didn't believe me of course. Took them seeing it with their own eyes for them to come around. We all headed out to Ormond together to see the wreckage. That was when the Tuffles started taking the Saiyans seriously."
A shame that it took that, but his question still was left without an answer. "From there on out you lead the life of a military man. You fought, you won and you moved up the ladder to Major. You've done well for yourself... which begs the question as why you betrayed us." Sen moved over in front of Pote and grabbed his face with both hands, before moving in close. "Why, Pote? Why!? Why did you betray your people!? You of all Tuffles should know the menace that we face."
Pote refused to say anything, instead spitting in the younger Tuffle's face. Sen took his hands off of Pote and wiped the spit away. Looking back over to the door he wondered if there were others watching now; If they were he was letting them down. They told him that a confession was needed, but what could Sen do? He wasn't trained for this! Feeling pissed off Sen got back up and moved over to Pote and started unloading on the man, desperate to get something out of him.
That was when the door swung open. Two Tuffles stepped in and took hold of Sen from either side, dragging him away from the scene. They dragged him all the way back to the Major's office and threw him inside, where he remained alone for a while. When the Major returned he had a look of disappointment on his face. "We had faith in you Sen. We thought you could get the job done, but it would seem as though you aren't cut out for this sort of thing, hmmm?"
Sen had taken all he could from the Major today. Reaching forward he attempted to wrap his hands around the man's neck, only to find himself easily subdued. Clement put his arm around the throat of Sen and slowly chocked the life out of him, only releasing when he was a moment away from unconsciousness. The Two Tuffles stationed outside came back in and picked Sen up, setting him face to face with Clement. "Seems you need a time out."
Sen fought back the whole time, but was ultimately powerless to stop what came next. The two Tuffles dragged Sen straight back down to where he had been before, though this time he was given his own cell to cool off in. He had gotten in trouble with the brass more times than he could count, though it was always over minor things. He had never attempted to strike a superior officer before, and now his punishment was far worse than anything else he could remember.
He couldn't say how long it was until he had a visitor. A small window meant that you could see into the hall, but with the lights always being off and no view to the outside world it was impossible to tell how much time had passed. If he had to guess, he'd say it was probably about a week when he heard the sound of his door creaking open. When the light shone in Sen was forced to cover his eyes with his hands, as his eyes had become fully adjusted to the dark.
The figure before him didn't say a word, which meant that it took about a full minute of blinking before Sen finally found out who was in front of him. Unsurprisingly it was Clement again, and as far as Sen could tell the Major was alone. "Enjoying your captivity?" Sen didn't respond. "Don't be mad at me, Sen. You're the one who brought this onto you; not me." Sen had only eaten twice in the time that he had been here. Had he more energy he might have a different response to that.
"In any case, I've got some good news for you, Sen. You have a trial coming up, and at that trial I'll of course be asked to speak. Your fate will come down almost exclusively to what I have to say, do you realize that? I can ask for lenience and talk about all that you've achieved for the Tuffles... or I could mention your less than stellar disciplinary record. Really it all comes down to whether or not you're willing to work with us, Sen. We're going to be putting you with the general population here, and when we do... there are some things you can do to help win us over to your side."
Sen still didn't say a word, but he was certainly listening now. "We're going to be doing the same to Pote. Still remember him? We want you to... well, we want you to get back into contact with him. We know that he's guilty, and we need something to be done about it. Try and extract a confession out of him again. This time around there won't be anybody to hold you back, so don't be afraid to push things. If he still refuses then... well, you'll have to find some other way to deal with him."
Things were only getting stranger for Sen. First they wanted a confession, and now they wanted him silenced? Sen still wasn't able to make sense of this situation, but it's not really like he was in a position to turn down an order even if he wanted to. When Clement was done speaking Sen was picked up and escorted out of the cell he had been put him, carried off into what they called general population. It was sort of like a prison, though you'd never know it from the outside.
That's because the entire place was located underground. The area that Sen had seen was a sort of maximum security section, but now the Tuffle found himself completely surrounded by Tuffle prisoners of war. It stark contrast to the cell that he had been locked in before, this place was almost overflowing with both audio and visual stimuli, with crowded halls and guards stationed every few feet away. After being isolated for so long it was almost too much for Sen to handle, who felt sick at what he was seeing.
Most of the inmates were Saiyans of course. Picked up by Tuffle soldiers and brought back here for holding. Some would be put on trial for war crimes and executed, while others would probably spend the rest of their lives down here without their people ever even knowing where they had ended up. Though Sen was a little surprised when he saw more diversity around here than he was expecting. There were more than a few Tuffles down here that were mostly likely traitors as Pote was, but there were a couple of Arcosians too, and even a Namekian? What could their crimes have been?
He might have asked them, but he had a job to do. It didn't take long for Sen to find Pote, who was sitting by himself and away from the others as much as one could be in the crowded halls.