One aspect of reality that people fail to learn from video games is that war is fundamentally unfair.

In the modern world, we have been spoiled by the idea of that games are balanced. Athletic matches have an even number of players on the field, and it is a rule violation if one party shows up with twice the number of pointy sticks than their opponents. There is a misplaced notion that the fighter with superior talent wins, and there's fictionalized absurdity in the belief that victory on the battlefield proves one's merit or honor.

Kung fu movies illustrate this imaginary drama of one superhero fighting off hundreds of enemies. When the massive armies of Mordor are depicted marching upon Helm's Deep¹Mordor and Helm's Deep are Lord of the Rings references., readers often carry a mythical expectation that the drastically outnumbered underdog may prevail against the tide of countless evil enemies. Perhaps this makes a more compelling story or a particularly awe-inspiring Homeric epic.

But real life outside of the Odyssey and the Iliad²Two famous ancient greek epics by Homer. simply doesn't work that way.

War is about imbalances and asymmetrical power.

It is senseless to start a war unless you are confident you can win and profit from the outcome.

One side is virtually always outmatched and outgunned.

It becomes a pillage ground for the strong to trample over the weak. 

In 1983, the United States invaded Grenada³United States invasion of Grenada (1983) (see Wikipedia) and overthrew the reigning military junta in just four days. They came with an overwhelming force of aerial superiority, missiles, rocket launchers, aircraft carriers, tanks, and six times more soldiers than the defending islanders. 

It is unreasonable to expect that it was a fair fight.

In fact, the real world is never a fair fight.

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The crew members who quipped about enslaving and raping the enemies were mainly the younger mercenaries.

They were too inexperienced to recognize the gravity of the Felicity's situation, or perhaps their judgement of the situation was grossly inaccurate. @Jasper employed a crew of almost two dozen mercenaries who were skilled in a variety of different capacities, and many of us were powerful in our unique ways, but the rules of aerial engagement were entirely different from a conventional street brawl on solid land.

The melee abilities of the passengers were meaningless if the airship couldn't stay afloat.

A full contingent of pegasus knights and an armored flying whale packed concentrated firepower that could easily overwhelm an unremarkable slave transport like the Felicity. Although @Jasper's airship was armed with a variety of different cannons and turrets, it neither had the maneuverability nor reinforced armor to fight off a full wing of specialized marauders.

In the end, the Felicity was just a modified and retrofitted cargo ship.

In a direct confrontation, we would definitely get shot down in a flaming shipwreck.

A frustrating number of our crew members were inexperienced and untested in real combat. They couldn't even correctly identify the nature of the looming threat, and they were blinded by self-arrogance about their newly manifested supernatural abilities. Many young players grew too excited about their unique class or special magical skills, and it was extremely common for players to grow overconfident.

@Jasper narrowed his eyes.

The atmosphere among the senior mercenaries was grim.

"There must be a reason they're targeting us," @Jasper said. "There's not that much value in an isolated cargo ship."

"They're not responding to short-range comms," the dwarf at the flight panel said. "I'm attempting to flash optical signals in case they're not using MagiComm receivers, but there's no change in their flight trajectory. I don't think they're looking to parley⁴A parley (from French: parler – "to speak") refers to a discussion or conference, especially one designed to end an argument or hostilities between two groups of people. with us."

"Ovum doesn't negotiate with men," one of the mercenaries repeated in disgust. "Attempting communication is pointless."

"But still... why...?"

"They must know we have slaves on board." @Jasper suddenly spoke up again.

My master stroked my head softly as he announced his evaluation of the situation to the rest of the room. He had been staring out of the ship's windows for the past ten minutes as the mercenaries argued with each other, and his gaze was fixed on the small specks in the sky that were steadily growingly in size.

"Why would they care about a handful of random slaves?" A crew member sounded skeptical. "They're hardly worth much."

"We might have picked up a VIP⁵A very important person or personage (VIP or V.I.P.) is a person who is accorded special privileges due to their high social status, influence or importance. who respawned," another mercenary responded. "I don't know how they tracked their target down, but my guess is that they're looking for someone important in their faction. Whoever it is, they must have slipped through our background checks. I didn't realize we had any respawners in this batch."

@Jasper looked at me, and I immediately knew what he was thinking. If the pegasus knights were looking for a particular prisoner, there was a chance they would be willing to negotiate. This was ultimately a hostage situation, and it would be necessary to identify and secure the hostage. The sooner that we secured the main objective, the more cards we would have available to play.

I slipped out of @Jasper's arms and went straight for the door.

My master continued to direct orders inside the ship's bridge.

"Put us on a descent trajectory, @Shim," he said. "We can't outrun those pegasi, so we might as start our landing sequence. If you can take us below the tree line, or any place with natural cover, we might be able to last a little longer."

"Power allocation?"

"Throttle down the engines and charge the mana capacitors. I want all surplus power in reserve for surge shielding."

"Where do you want the rest us, @Jasper?" An older mercenary asked.

"Long-range marksmen and casters on deck. Hold fire until they engage. I want anyone who can ride a hoverboard with me. We're going to open the rear hatch and fire off some escape pods and slave crates. Be ready to pack a few random slaves and parachute them out back to see if we can get any of the knights to break off their pursuit."

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I didn't need any further instruction from my owner to know what to do.

I silently crept down to the dungeon in my cat form. I did not turn on the lights, mainly because I wanted to get a chance to eavesdrop on the prisoners while they thought they were alone. Since I had spent many years living as a slave in the past, I knew perfectly well that slaves would talk, interact, and intermingle when their masters were not around. 

Even if it was damp, miserable, and cold, it was human nature to turn to each other for temporary solace.

There were a number of quiet conversations layered on top of a steady background of rattling chains and muted sobs, and I strained my ears to pick out anything noteworthy.

"Do you think it worked?" A vague feminine voice whispered in the pitch black darkness.

"I'm not sure. There was supposed to a big counteroffensive today. These slavers are from NCU. If we're lucky, we might be in range of the knights' comms, but I don't know the maximum range on this transponder."

I squeezed in between the prison bars. 

Surprisingly, it was easier than I expected to identify the culprit. The voices belonged to the two transwomen that I had encountered yesterday. They were huddled in a corner of the cell, shivering and whispering to each other. Their voices were muted, but my sensitive feline ears could detect faint sounds that ordinary human ears would have missed.

Their conversation sounded intriguing, and I would have liked to listen to them for much longer, we were pressed for time.

"Oh, a cat," another prisoner mumbled as they saw me slip past their legs.

"Fuck. It's that cat!"

There was a loud rattle of chains as some of the prisoners instantly withdrew their limbs in fright.

I straightforwardly transformed into my human form like a black night monster emerging from the a shadow.

I was suddenly crouching on the ground in front of the two chained girls.

"Hi again." I said bluntly. "I guess you two are the ones I'm looking for?"

There wasn't much point in dragging things out or beating around the bush.

I shot a glance at a blinking pocket-sized transponder that was lying on the cell floor in between them. Evidently, they had either smuggled it into the prison or stolen it off of one of the many mercenaries who had been visiting the cell for "entertainment". It was approximately the size of a smart-phone, although it had very limited functionality compared the Earth equivalent. For instance, it was mainly designed to receive encrypted messages rather than broadcast them, although it did have a GPS function that could ping the device's current location.

The dial was switched to a foreign frequency that I didn't recognize.

I looked back up at the girls.

There was a look of hatred in their eyes.

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