The anguish screams of pains and terrors that follow bring back a lot of memory, and I honestly cannot remember how many minds and wills I have broken over the years. Far too many for my liking, but in spite of that, I will resort to methods that will produce the most effective result.
And without a voice of conscience and reason, I will do what I must in order to save and protect those who I have returned to the past for.
Earth and everyone else are secondary.
These men are more or less optional for me, and I choose to make them an asset, considering the fact that they would not have survived the onslaught without me.
It is simply better to serve me and retain their freewill than being forced to serve the Hive Mind even in death, losing all sense of self.
And that is the reason to why I have burned down everything, leaving nothing behind for the anyone, Hive Mind or not.
The Hive Mind is only one of many possible threats. It isn't even the most dangerous threat within the Life Zone from my memory.
Anyway, the Major has trained her men well, and I am glad to take them off her hands. But unlike the Major, I consider them all to be quite expendable. As such, there is no need for me to hold myself back in teaching these men their new reality. And their new master.
Of course, they will resist. I have expected nothing less of them. But their resistance is futile. They will either submit or die in vain.
Under the slave contract, they have absolutely no right. I can work them all to the bones, and there is nothing they can say about it. Of course, I will feed and cloth and equip them, but that depends mostly on the situation.
They should have read the contract carefully before signing regardless of the situation, and it is far too late now.
"Let's get some rules out of the way first," I speak up once everyone is inches away from death's door, and it is a good thing that none of them actually die.
None of the men have been magically or spiritual tortured before, and those kinds of torture are really not the same as being tortured physically. I am sure that the men have learned of this fact well.
"W…what… what are… argh!"
"What did I say? Only speak when spoken to," I remind and then watch everyone suffers as a result. I do not need to punish everyone due to a single person, but there is a reason for this. It builds a family of sort.
I relent when several of them have passed out. If I do anymore, they will die, and if I want to kill them, there are much better and painless methods.
"Since I don't have time to wait for them to wake up, I will continue, and you will listen and relay what I have said to the others when they wake up," I speak up and examine the pendant with a deep frown.
It appears that I must go, so I decide to leave this for later. It is not like the men can go anywhere.