Balada: When death did not exist, nor yet Eternity Part I 054

7892nd Chapter, 543st volume, 7th library of the 12th city of knowledge, 7th universe, 974.593 cycle of eternity.

Then from the night of memory in answer to her summons steal

“Tell me doctor what must I do? All my life I’ve tried to achieve my hopes and dreams, but no matter what I do, I cannot be happy with what I’ve accomplished, please help me!” a patient said to his doctor.

“Fear not my friend, for this very morning, the great master Luminatus has arrived in our fair city! Seek him out, for he is the epitome of knowledge and wisdom and has accomplished countless great deeds!”The doctor said to his patient.

The patient then laughed and with tears in his eyes called out:

“Doctor, I am Luminatus!”

Act I, Scene Two from the play “The Eternal Constant of a Moment’s Infinite Changes.”

The Warp, 378th fleet, on route to Imperial territory, Metternich’s quarters.

Metternich was a bastard and a half, that was not a derogatory or a discriminative remark, since it was the opinion that he himself had always held about his own person, but considering that this bastard had just wiped out a fleet, captured a major enemy  and his forces, had managed to scrap enough parts from Balisha to not only rebuilt their engines, but enable the Volunian one’s to be fixed enough, so that the ships and crews could be transported back to the Empire as prisoners and war booty, made him think that for all his troubles, he deserved a decent meal!

But no such luck for him, thus he starred at the poultry offering of some heated dried bread and two cups of water, that was his lunch ration.

“God, what I would do for some bacon and beer. Hell, I’d happily feast while the whole army starved!”

That was the though going through his head as he wolfed down his meal, for despite its medium size he devoured it in less than a minute.

It was a habit that he had picked up during his medschool days, for the exams where so difficult, the subjects so many and the time between exams so short, that he adapted his daily habits so as to waste as little time as possible when eating, sleeping, shopping, even to not waste time while he was wasting!

 As such, he had picked up this habit and despite his best efforts, he remained stuck with wolfing down his food, and once it was gone his ration seemed all the more meager.

His only distraction was the letter he had recently received from his old friend Jonathan, with whom he remained a regular pen pal with.

Dear Metty,

Although it might seem a bit odd for me to say this, since I’ve never been a fan of the petty squabbles the Galactic Nations have amongst themselves, when there are much greater goals and threats out there and the sheer distaste I have for the military and stupidity in general, it warms my heart to know that you are now the rising star of the Empire!

The newspapers clippings of you as the mighty ‘Fox of Marengo’ are part of my private scrap book, and I have followed your career with great joy and fascination.

As for me, well business has been booming. I’ve dealt a great blow to the established corporate oligarchy by founding my own firm, or rather expanding it into a new area and have recently struck a crippling blow against the status quo!

I’m happy to report, that the new members of my firm are in the right mindset and perfect for me to educate and mold them. Their leader appears to be a bit worn out and the most talented amongst them, is a bit wet behind the ears in terms of ideology and worldview, but I know I can work around that.

So with them as an addition to my firm, which I plan to expand into a full blown corporation, I can finally start the objectives that I’ve been planning for so long!

I will face great obstacles from the opposition and my own potential future allies, subordinates and eventual rivals or perhaps even enemies. Which may be a problem early on, but in the large scope of things they don’t matter, nothing does except my objective and any potential teachings I can leave behind or foster in others.

We are about to go public very soon, and I sincerely hope it all goes well, or at the very best that we ‘screw up the least’ as you military types like to say.

As for you my friend, it is my deepest desire that you and Akanthos both rise in the Empire, he was made to be a financial leader and you will no doubt be a great potions master, and it’s because of that I wish for you the best of luck in your military career.

Now I know you where never one for the drums and trumpets, but please listen to me when I say that in the galaxies current state, the military, namely the space fleet is the easiest way to advance in this society and I would very much like it so for you to reach the pinnacle of power in the Empire.

I know for without a doubt that the title of leader, boss, commander, sir, your excellency, your highness and dare I say it your majesty, are all compatible with the name Metternich per Pelasgiamus, and that you will achieve greatness!

And so, whenever you are losing your way, or feeling discouraged, I say for you to remember your cause, and namely that  your personal cause is a just one, never stray from it, never give in to temptation and never compromise your principles, and if you do, only do it so as part of a ploy, for I know for certain that when the dust settles and everyone else has fallen, you will still be the one who stands tall and proud!

I wish you well my friend and hope to one day see you again.

To this, I do not know if our reunion will be on the battlefield, a meeting room, or even a park or train station, but regardless of we being on neutral ground, allies marching forwards side by side, or perhaps battlefield enemies, I really want it to become a reality.

For regardless of we being on the same side or not, I would welcome our reunion!

 We are friends after all;

Sincerely, your friend and  no #1 fan

Jonathan

P.S 

Hit that, as much as you can!

Metternich finished reading the letter and his sadness was temporarily alleviated by its content.

He truly appreciated it and was sorely missing Jonathan, for he had managed to praise him, make a fool out of him, insult and endear himself, all the while managing to revive Metternich’s spirits with a simple letter that gave him some measure of happiness.

Well almost, as his growling stomach reminded him of his sad state of affairs, and he once more fell into melancholy and a deeper one than usual.

His brooding was interrupted by a knock at the door, with which Butz entered to deliver a message.

“Sir, we’ve received a reply from the nearest outpost, they cannot send us any supplies, but will dedicate all of their manpower and effort to ‘help us as much as they can’, looks like we will have to wait for our rendezvous with the main fleet for necessities.” Butz said and gave Metternich a farview which was detailing just how many supplies they had, rate of consumption and what meager amount they could get from their next round of closest ‘allies’ for now.

“Liars the whole lot of them, they won’t bother and even if they do, I doubted they would give us anything; Damned liars, I can’t stand them! Wish they all suffer for their misdeeds!” Metternich thought to himself, though he did not voice his opinion, for in his own mind it never bode well to speak ill of others, even if they deserved it, you would only make yourself new enemies, and leave yourself vulnerable to criticism on your own faults.

“Thank you Butz, reply that we are thankful for what they can provide, we are sorry to have disturbed them and we wish them good health and a pleasant day, evening, night or whatever part of the day/night their cycle is when they received our message.” Metternich replied and Butz levitated an ink quill and piece of paper and wrote his orders down.

“One last thing sir, can’t I get you some decent food?”

“No Butz, I gave a general order that rations are to be cut down, so we may be able to properly feed the captured enemy soldiers.”

“Yes sir, but the amount you’ve been taking as your rations is less than what the enlisted men get. Hell, it’s less than what the enemy soldiers are getting, you should get a decent meal, at least a full one!” Butz said to his commander with worry in his voice.

“Yes Butz I could, but our soldiers aren’t eating enough to fill their bellies, so I have to eat even less.”

“But sir!”

“It’s my decision and mine alone Butz, I must maintain the morale of the troops.”

“And with that I ensure that my head is still attached to my shoulders, instead of being ripped off by hunger crazed killing machines!”

“Yes sir.” Butz said with regret and concern in his voice, that was nevertheless laced with admiration for the commodore as he left Metternich’s quarters.

The Fox of Marengo for his part just sat down, gave a few choice words for his situation and rested his head in his palms in lamentation for his current state of affairs, as his mind continued to utter one though as the minutes and hours went by, all the while regretting his refusal to take more food, even with the means to do so just a button press away from his person.

“Damn liars! Damn them all!”

Cornelia’s Flagships, Medical ward, Therapy section, Dr Beratius’s office.

Zula looked at the door which led to Dr Beratius’s office and was hesitant to knock and enter.

Oh, she feared no known or unknown living sentient, for there was no beast or beast master out there that could threatened her, let alone taker her!

“Then why am I so hesitant? Why don’t I just open the door?” she asked herself as her mind flashed back to the sessions they some time ago.

**************************************************************

“I guess things have just piled up on me, I’ve been under a lot of strain recently.” Zula said to Dr Beratius as he scribbling down on his notepad.

“That is only natural, since in wartime the work load of the spy, especially the spymaster dramatically increases.”

“It’s not just that doctor, everyone around me keeps telling me how concerned they are for me and my mental health, as if I’ve done anything that makes me a looney!”

“You’ve killed over a hundred people at once.”

“That happened long ago!”

“It happened barely two hours ago.”

“Well, for me it’s already ancient history!”

“And you consider that committing an act such as that leaves you unscathed?”

“I got few scratches and my old coat was damaged, but I did not receive any major wounds.” the princess replied, her voice filled with pride.

“I am not talking about your body, but your mind, science had proved with research, logic and reasoning that when you kill, your mental state is affected, do you consider that for the past few centuries all of our knowledge has been wrong?” Beratius asked.

“Fine! I acknowledge that my mental state may have changed slightly from all the corpses I’ve left over the years. But I am still of sound mind and judgment, there is nothing significantly wrong with me! I am in peak mental and physical condition!”

“Then why where you so hesitant to have this therapy session? Why did you look so terrified when I asked you ‘what haunts you’?”

“I’m a spy doctor, we are not exactly known for being happy to give away the inner workings of our minds, or our secrets.” Zula deadpanned.

“I asked what is affecting you, I sincerely doubt that the security of the nation would be affected by you acknowledging you have issues, any living creature in this world has issues!”

A moment of silence past, before Zulanasai exhaled a breath of disappointment, from the fact that she apparently couldn’t fool this doctor.

“All right I have been feeling ‘annoyed’ at the inferiors I am forced to deal with on a daily bases.”

“What have they done, that you consider annoying?”

“Oh the usual, the military and civilians brass that my job requires me to interact with are all so morally outraged of my ‘actions’ that they always try to give me veiled lectures on there so called ‘moral superiority’.”

“You’re job does entail espionage, invasion of privacy, lying, kidnapping, torturing and killing, you cannot deny it is not the most sinless of professions.”

“Yes! But their worst than me! What do they do that’s so horrible? You may ask, well let me tell you!”

“The politicians? They take the common people’s money, and try to embezzle as much as they can! They always try to influence everything to their own desires and whims! And the military, oh let me tell you, they’re the worst of the lot! They, as in ‘professional killers’, actually have issue with me! Can you believe that! And they all say that what they are servants of the, that what they’re doing is for the benefit of the commoners, even if their means and methods seem vile! It would be a funny absurdist joke, if it wasn’t the sad truth! ”

“So you have an issue with the hypocrisy of others in regards to them not acknowledging their own evil actions, as opposed to you who is aware of what your doing is a crime?”

At this Zula leaped up from the bed and looked like she was about to cut down the Doctor down where he sat.

“HOW DARE YOU! YOU’RE JUST ANOTHER SMUG SNAKE LIKE THE REST! CRITICIZING ME AND CALLING ME EVIL!”

“You can hardly call it criticism when you yourself acknowledged that you are in the same business as the military which is killing, and killing even if it is for a greater good, is still a sin.” Beratius calmly replied which stopped Zula’s tirade and made her anger subside.

“Right, so what you are saying is that I am feeling guilty because of my actions, well I acknowledge that some of my methods might be considered extreme by the standards of others. I acknowledge that , but they were all appropriate responses to the various situations I’ve found myself in at the time, and every action that I made was with the intend to be the most efficient answer to the problem the Empire was facing. It’s true that I also used this opportunity to cement my power base and sometimes that meant doing questionable things, but I need people I can rely to be loyal to me if I am to do my job, that’s how the real worlds works and every action I have done over the years where ones that had the most positive short term and long term effects and they all benefited the Empire!” the princess said, her chest swelling with pride.

“And how in your opinion is that considered any different than what the military or civilian leaderships does, it sounds the same to me.”

“It is the same! But everyone praises them for that! They give cheers, feasts, songs, parades, statues, but does anyone give a thank you the spy network that made it ALL POSSIBLE! NO SIR, NO ONE EVER THANKS CORSEC! NO ONE EVER THANKED ME!! NO ONE EVER ACKNOWLEDGES ME! WOULD IT KILL THEM TO JUST SAY I’M RIGHT AND THEIR WRONG, OR A BLOODY THANK YOU, THEY SAY THAT TO EVERY WAITER, BARTENDER AND TOWNGIRL, SO WHY NOT TO ME AS WELL, AM I WORTH LESS THAN A TOWNGIRL?! OR WOULD THEY SUFFER IF THEY DIDN’T DO SOMETHING BRAINLESS FOR ONCE!?“

“I ASK YOU, HOW CAN THEY BE SO BLIND? THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE THE MEANS TO BACK UP WHAT THEY SAY! YOU SAY I’M WRONG, FINE! SHOW ME A BETTER WAY THEN! BUT NO! THEY DON’T! THEY JUST TALK AND BLABBER AND CRITICIZE, AND RANT ABOUT ILLOGICAL, IMPRACTICAL, ARCHAIC AND DOWNRIGHT INSANE BELIEFS!”

“JUST SHOW ME! PLEASE SHOW ME A WAY BETTER THAN MY WAY, AHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Zula screamed the last part in anger, loosing herself in the raging sea that has been up until now stayed beneath her calm surface, before realizing what she just did, she tried to look at the doctor, but found she couldn’t make eye contact with him out of the shame she felt for her childish  outburst.

“So it appears that it is more than just your resentment of the other brasses for the acknowledgement they received, you are angry became your methods are not acknowledge as the best means available, or is it regret that there is no better way than your methods?” Beratius asked her.

Silence was the only answer he got, and so Dr Beratius said nothing for the next few minutes, he just waited for her to reply to his question, with nothing but the uncomfortable ticking off the clock to be heard in the room, he sat there waiting, for as much as he could.

When about ten minutes past, he got up from the chair, walked towards the door and opened it.

“This session is over, please come back when you want to be cured.” he said to Zula.

“What? But it’s barely been half an hour, don’t sessions last at least a full one?”

“Medical treatment lasts as long as it needs to last, in order to cure the patient, it’s obvious that you do not want to confront your issues right now, so it’s pointless to continue, so please leave and come back when you are ready.”

“I thought doctors were supposed to help their patients, not throw them out!”Zula said as she indignantly rose from the bed and walked towards the door.

“I cannot cure you if you do not follow the treatment, nor I can help you if you don’t help yourself, come back when you’re ready, but not before.” Beratius said and closed the door after she exited.

*************************************************************************

The flashback ended and Zula found herself in the present once more and like before she continued to stare at the door in front of her, hesitant to open it.

“Enough of this! I am High Princess Monas’ Zulanasai de Harkonian, I am perfection incarnate, not some weakling, I can confront any problem I have!” she boasted and with a surge of bravery opened the door and stepped into the doctor’s office.

But as the door swung on its hinges to close behind her, her courage quickly started to dissipate, for she could fight any beast or monster that nature or something else could create, but inside the office was the one thing she was perhaps powerless against.

 It was a beast of her own creation.

The Occupied Territories, Maran Nation, undisclosed location.

The smell of musk and rust permeated the nose of Commodore Alefran, a tall, athletic, clean shaved, short haired sailor, as he entered the room, it was not the prettiest of chambers and even the ugly ones would be ashamed to call it one of their peers, but it’s current purpose was not meant for beauty, but for a meeting between the heads of the various rebel organizations within the Maran nation.

The delegation of his own Maran Liberation Army was composed of himself, Commodore Kusas Khaben a tall pudgy man with a goatee and short hair, along with their group’s commander Admiral Kadabir, an old man who had short grey beard and deep wrinkles on his square like face. To their right where two men, one tall with long flowing hair, the other slightly shorter and bald, they where the representatives of the Brotherhood of Broken Swords, namely general Thoras Acjdarihan, with his subordinate general Chalemniah Dacjhelu who where the largest resistance group in the Tolina System.

 They, unlike the MLP, which was composed out of the former members of the maran army and space fleet, where an organization that was founded after the Imperial invasion, and focused mostly on raiding the Empire’s merchant vessels.

 At least most of the ones they raided where imperial vessels.

Next to them was brigadier Adolecas and Colonel Ohlaher, the representative of the Maran People’s Front, composed mostly of former mercenaries now resistance fighters/slash smugglers, bootleggers, racketeers and where even a drug cartel, they where the one anti-Imperial group which most of the others agreed they could do without.

Adolecas was not short, but not to all, skinny with messy spiky hair, and a short beard with a mustache and goatee, he had red curly short hair and was slightly chubby.

Those who followed was a woman Josa Mbala, a tall, glass wearing person, who had her short hair tied up in a pony tail and a slightly fat man  with a tattoo of a solar system on his left cheek named Cnoth  Mododecas, they where the leaders/representatives of the Green Army, which was not a resistance group  in the traditional sense, but more like a third party that was neutral in the Maran-Imperial conflict, the leaders Josa and Cnoth eyed the other occupants at the table with distrust, which was not unjustified and truth be told Alefran also had trouble with them being present, since they represented a wild card, and the he knew from experience just how dangerous those could be.

The final two who were seated at the table who were dressed in fine fur lined clothing with golden and silver embroideries and sported sideburns and mustaches where ‘Tonas’ Dvorhan Ubecuiufs and his second in command ‘Chintal’ Mgathu Dnica, who represented the Blood of the Carnetsars composed out of ex-nobles, and regardless of their names and noble baring, the various groups situated at the table despite having to many differences in opinion and creed to count all agreed that they felt the B.O.T.C where unwelcomed.

“Gentleman and dearest lady, I extend my most sincere and warm greetings for all of you, and I welcome you to this historical meeting!”Dvorhan said to those gathered, none seemed to thrilled to be welcomed by him, the aforementioned lady in particular looked the most disgusted at his warm greetings.

“A great new dawn is upon us! The imperial grip on our great nation has received a devastating and crippling blow and now the hour is upon us, we must act now and unite under one banner and drive the enemy out of our motherland!” he added while waving his arms dramatically for effect, which unfortunately for him only Mgathu, Kusas and Thoras seemed interested in his words, and even they felt that his words where a bit too cheesy to be taken seriously.

“The Empire has suffered a severe blow to its reputation, but it’s just that, a blow. It leads no lasting damage, it doesn’t kill the Empire, it doesn’t cripple it, it barely even bruised it!” Alefran said and since he was the most renowned of all those present, his statement carried a lot of weigh and with the exception of the Carnetsars, everyone at the table nodded in agreement.

“That bruise, as you call it cost the empire a great deal, 50.000 soldiers lost, an elite unit at that, and if that wasn’t enough we have reports that anything between 70 and 90 percent of the chariots, artillery and other heavy equipment that where present on the planet where transferred to the corps, and with it perished in the subsequent eruption, you have greatly underestimated the will of our people to fight colonel!”  Dvorhan replied and eyed Alefran in a way which clearly meant that he was challenging him to counter argue.

“And you have greatly underestimated the Empire’s ability to bounce back, they may have lost 50.000 men, but the planetary garrison still numbers 3 million soldiers and another 200 million are dispersed in the other inhabited planets or our nation, even if every single one of them would have been killed, the enemy still has a mighty fleet of 15.000 ships!” Alefran said accepting the challenge.

“That is why we have gathered here! If we unite our forces we can drive the enemy out of our country, the forest fire and volcanic eruption is a sign from the Great Catcher that the time for our people’s freedom is at hand!”

“Oy, that fire was not a natural disaster, it was manmade and before you go all dramatic again, incendiary bombs where found all over the field after the fire, also word on the street is some local cell did it. Small, but darn! They are deadly little buggers, their boss goes by the name of Ahmaianos, but looks like they had a change in management recently, don’t know his name though, keeps calling saying that he’s  some ‘Nobody.” Adolecas said stopping Dvorhan from his self delusional rant.

But unfortunately for him Thoras Dvorhan was not just some petty delusional fool, he was a big one!

“Even if it was manmade, it is still a sign from providence! For this Nobody is the physical manifestation of heaven’s will, and it says that our time has come, I’m surprised that the great Alefran, the ‘Slayer’ would act so timid, but it does not surprise me that you would hesitate ‘general’, the tragic state our country currently finds itself in, is after all beneficial to all criminal organizations!”

“Lord Dvorhan you’ve gone too far and showed disrespect to a fellow comrade! This is behavior unbecoming a noble, especially a Tonas!” Admiral Kadabir who up until now had remained suddenly shouted at Dvorhan, which caught the Maran noble off guard.

“Thanks for the defense Admiral, but I don’t mind, my boys and I are in the drug business and a profitable business it is!” Adolecas said, which caught the others by surprise, but what had especially threw them off guard was his tone was a very cheerful one, as if he had just heard the best joke in existence.

“What’s with the looks?” he asked curiously, being genuinely confused at the looks he was getting, as if he just revealed something that wasn’t common knowledge.

“How uncouth of you general, but I suspect nothing less from a dishonorable and dare I say it, unpatriotic wretch!” Dvorhan said with an air of superiority in his voice and smugly looked at Thoras.

“Well, when you discover the ships and weapons that run on honor and a way to feed your army with nothing but deep fried patriotism and a side order of nationalism you let me know, it the meantime an ‘uncouth’ general like me will just have to settle for real money to sustain my forces!” the general replied with a chuckle, which erased the smile off Dvrohan’s face.

“That still does not excuse your use of illegal and immoral means to finance your troops!” Brigadier Adolecas of the MPF said to him, but to his surprise the smile did not vanish off Adoleca’s face.

“Well if you fine gentlemen would share some of the funds that you are receiving form the Seven Houses of Edoran with us, we’d be more than happy to give up our life of crime and go legit!”

“That has nothing to-“

“It has everything to do with this Brigadier!” Adolecas interrupted Thoras and continued before the Brigadier could come up with another argument or even give him a mean stare.

“See my boys an I are soldiers, not farmers, not merchants, but soldiers plain and simple, always have been always will be, and one thing a soldier wants is to be a soldier and get paid for being a soldier and if you or anybody else won’t pay us to be soldiers, we will find some other way to get our money and I don’t care what you or anybody else says about me, either caught up the cash, shut up or if you have any guts, get your boys ready and let’s settle this the old fashion way!”

Adolecas delivered his challenge and then silently waited for a reply from Thoras, but it came from another source, an unexpected one at that.

“I agree with the general!” the voice of Commodore Kusas was heard saying and all heads turned towards him.

“In times such as these, we do what needs to be done, even if it is immoral, we must ensure our survival at all costs!” he said and eyed Adolecas who gave a nod of thanks for the acknowledgement.

“Also the statement from Tonas Ubecuiufs is also true; the time for war is now! If we do not act, we may forever lose the chance to vanquish the enemy from our lands, let us all unite and strike, so that the entire Galaxy may know what happened to those who face the Great Maran race!”

“Well said Commodore!” Dvorhan stated in regards to Kusas little speech and he and Mgathu gave a round of applauses for him, which the commodore thanked by a bow of his head towards them.

“Our current strategy of guerilla warfare has brought us success that is slow but gradual, dispersed as we are now, we represent a forever changing target, but if we unite and confront the Empire in the open we risk annihilation, I understand your fervor and desire for victory, but we must not lose ourselves in them! May I remind you, that we stand to lose all that we have been building for the past twenty years?” Admiral Kadabir said to those present.

A strange sound permeated the room, which the occupants identified as a slow and deliberate clapping of hands, which upon following the sound they discovered came from Josa Mbala of the Green Army.

She got up from her seat as the clapping faded and with an icy stare for the first and possibly last time said her piece at the meeting while she swept the table with her gaze.

“A madman.” she looked at Dvorhan

“A pirate.” she looked at Thoras.

“A mafia don.” she looked at Adolecas who only smiled and raised his drink flask in a toast to her.

“And a soldier who can’t do anything.” she finished by staring at Alefran, who only drifted his gaze away from her in regret, it was hard to look her in the eye when she was right.

“This is without a doubt proof that the Great Catcher is real, for it is only through divine intervention that our people still exist with leaders like you!” she said and immediately Dvorhan jumped from his seat in anger.

“Why you filthy peasant! For such an action in the old regime-“

“The old regime is gone, it disappeared and you ‘Oh Great Tonas’ where part of the ruling class and it was you and your ilk who brought about our damnation and enslavement, if you want to scream at this ‘insolence’ as you call it, be careful for you are responsible for it and it would not do for a noble to criticize his own actions wouldn’t it?” Josa said with an icy smile of triumph on her lips, to which Dvorhan had no rely, but silent anger.

“Commander Josa, I know of your feelings towards us, but might I advise a little more tact, since this is supposed to be diplomatic meeting, a ‘peaceful’ diplomatic meeting I might add.” Thoras said trying to prevent a potential brawl.

“You are right general, and with my most sincere regret and heartpain, I apologize.” she said with a friendly smile, to which they replied with one in kind.

“I apologize for the fact that I cannot even imagine the proper words to describe my utter loathing for all of you, I regret that there are no means that can truly encompass just how useless and how pathetic you all are, and it pains me that wretched creatures like you still live, while countless who where your betters are dead!” she said and  the whole table exploded into a fury of protests, threats and curse words, even Alefran who was known for a cool head seemed for a moment that he would lose it.

“Commander Josa, might I enquire is just what we’ve all done to deserve such scorn?” commodore Alefran said as he was reeling in his own anger and reeling in Kusas from jumping over the table and trying to cut her down.

“I mentioned before, that Tonas Dvorhan over there was part of the ruling class and so are the rest of the Blood of the Carnetsars, for they are mostly composed out of former nobles, businessmen and gentry, who along with their own private thugs have become a military force, they were the ones who continued with the ‘Great Harvest’ which made the Empire attack us.” she said as she eyed Dvorhan who looked like he wanted to strangle her, or at least get his servant to do it for him.

“The Brotherhood of Broken Swords is mostly a pirate organizations that raids against Maran ships, more than foreign ones and the Maran People’s Front is nothing more than a mafia, both of them are crime organizations, those types of groups are the few that actually flourishes in this environment and finally we have the Maran Liberation Army, who is composed out of our former military, and if I’m not mistaken you where the supreme commander during the Invasion weren’t you Admiral?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s correct.” Kadabir replied.

“During the war, our fleet outnumbered the imperials almost 2 to 1 and you still lost, so forgive me if I’m ‘hesitant’ for you to command us! All in all, none of you are without blemishes, but I could forgive or overlook that, save for the fact that you’ve all committed the greatest sin of all!” Josa said and the other waited with bathed breath as she paused for a moment to draw her breath and answer.

“None of you are able to beat the Empire!” she said and another cold smile graced her lips at seeing the downtrodden and self hating looks on their faces, well most of them anyway.

“Careful now miss, you’d better stops blemishing the good name of your own Green Army!” Adolecas suddenly said with a roguish smile on his face.

“What do you mean you cad?!” she asked genially confused, since she was sure her statement was directed entirely towards the other organizations.

 “Oh, if I was a cad I would point out that your ‘Green Army’ is a group that publically says its purpose is to protect civilians who wish to not get involved in the crossfire, but in private also receives, let’s you and me say ‘donations’ from the common people and why don’t we add that those who don’t donate or sometimes don’t donate enough, suddenly decide to move their homes elsewhere………. in the middle of the night……………with ‘help’ from your soldiers and no one hears from them after that.”

“If I were a rake, I could point out that your group, unlike the others, has never ever raided any major Imperial force, of which you would have lost considerable men and material, since you would face real soldiers instead of bullying civilians and guerillas like us.”

“And if I were a bastard, I would say that you’re main ‘modus operandi’ is to burn food stores where the imperial army is stationed, forcing them to feed the local population out of their own supplies less they starve, thus either depriving the Imps of local support or turning them into cornered rats and thus forcefully make them a threat to the Empire.” he said and paused in order to light a cigar, after taking a big whiff of it, he continued on, ignoring the death glares he was receiving from Josa.

“And if I was not only a bastard but a kriffing bastard, I’d point out that the only reason people fear you army is that whenever you get dissidents, collaborators or Imperial prisoners, you torture them do death, by hang, drown and quartering them, maiming them or just burn them alive, or rather them and their families all together.” Adolecas added enjoying the look of pure hatred she was giving him.

“But I am a gentleman and as a gentleman, I would never say that you’re a kriffing lying hypocrite, who’s also a coward that never fights real battles, whose on a high horse as big as a mountain, that just now tried to use her so called ‘people’s champion’ persona and the flaws of the others to attempt to shame the opposition and with your so called ‘moral high ground’ try and take over. But I won’t. No sir! Not me, I’m a gentleman!” he added with great amusement at the look of pure hatred she was sending him.

Adolecas waited for her to rebuff him, since he said a lot of ‘outrageous’ things, but her only answer was silence and more death stares, so after a minute or so,  he got up from the table and started to walk towards the door.

“Brigadier, where are you going?” Tonas Mgathu asked.

“This joke of a meeting’s overstayed it’s welcome, it’s like our little wannabe Bismarck over there said, none of us can beat the Empire, so none of us can or should unite the rebel groups, so I’ll be seeing all of you in hell.” he replied and exited the room along with Colonel Ohlaher.

The meeting quickly broke off after that with most of the organizations going their separate ways, with one exception.

“What Intel do we have on this Nobody, sir?” Alefran asked.

“Not much, except for the fact that he is very good at his job, we can barely find any trace of the materials he used to create the fire and I suspect that what we are finding he left there on purpose for us to discover. Also, we think that he actually did a temporary hacking possession of the Imperial ships systems and purposely made them fire the wrong ammo type, in order to trigger the eruption.”

“I thought that the Imps acknowledged that it was an equipment error, caused by an administrative blunder, didn’t they?!”

“What would you prefer Alefran? A defeat brought about by our own incompetence, or one brought by an enemy who is better than you?” Kadabir asked, and to which the commodore gave a nod of understanding before changing the subject.

“It seems that Commodore Kusas might splinter his forces away from us in the near future.”Alefran said to his commander, as they observed how the aforementioned Khaben, along with Dvorhan and Thoras where having a conversation.

“And unfortunately there isn’t much we can do about it, a lot of our own are taking Kusas hot headed speeches to heart, I’m afraid that if we try to get rid of him, we risk fracturing our army and perhaps a potential war with his followers.” Admiral Kadabir said with a regretful sigh.

“It’s always the extremists who gain the most attention in wartime, while the one’s with cooler heads with logical strategy and tactics are called cowards; it’s not right, not right at all!” Alefran said to his commander.

“Our very own right wing extremist, with a left wing pirate fanatic, joined together by a religious zealot! What in your opinion, will come of this unholy union Commodore?” Kadabir said as the two continued to discretely gaze at the aforementioned Kusas, Thoras and Dvorhan.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, I know it will bring nothing but pain, suffering and sadness.”

Chapter end