CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
TO ARMS!
Over the next annum it became clear that the Serefim Presidium’s strategy had evolved. Instead of coaxing entire clans onto transports, the Security Forces used smaller shuttlecraft to hunt more isolated groups of sapien-hybrids, generally foraging and trading parties. These groups usually numbered six to ten.
This strategy made sense for several reasons: The disappearance of a few individuals could be explained as the result of some catastrophic event; The traveling groups usually did not include the clan’s alpha males or females, who had occasionally proven problematic in the past; And perhaps most importantly, the a*******n of only a few clanspeople left a breeding stock to replenish the clans’ numbers, thereby assuring a future source of slaves.
The num
