Ear system, heavy Fleet, Metternich’s Flags.h.i.+p

Metternich managed to get a few hours’ worth of sleep. or what could be considered sleep from his perspective, before the sounds of his troops partying made him once more switch between what is real and what is not, so he got up and went for a stroll; As he made his way towards the main mess hall that was now filled with the full crews of the Heavy s.h.i.+ps and guests from the other fleet, he heard a song being sung by the soldiers and sailors.

From the endless fields and vastness of s.p.a.ce,

The monsters came to tango!

And bring the brimstone and the flame

Spearheaded by the commando!

But all these foes will shortly know;

What is this game’s angle!

No matter what you do, you will fall;

And dance with the death spirit, the Jango!

He admitted that it sounded like a fine little ditty, but that was before he heard the chorus section.

Oh my, oh my, oh my Lord

What a grim fandango!

But that my friend, is what you get,

When you face the Fox of Marengo!

No, he did not like it one bit, so he paused in the middle of the corridor and upon looking to his right, he noticed that a farview was embedded in the wall, it was part of the network that was used as an internal comms device between the s.h.i.+p’s various decks.

He tapped a few keys and the image of the screen quickly s.h.i.+fted to display the heavily damaged, seemingly dead Volunian fleet, the great victory he achieved, the stuff of songs and legends, his glory.

A cheer to you, you hunting dogs,

And beasts who come to fight and see!

For all you force will seize to be;

Before ‘Headmaster Metty!’

The song continued to be sung as he gazed and what surely would turn him into a great hero, a model for future generations, the icon of an era………….a field of pain and death.

A drink for your health we take,

And a thousand years to feast!

For nothing can stop our friend,

The Empires mighty beast!

Metternich continued to stare at the horror before him, wanting the image to burn into his mind, so that he may never forget what he had just done, so it would be a constant reminder that he needed to get out of this meat grinder, before it would be too late.

Oh my, oh my, oh my Lord

What a grim fandango!

But that my friend is what you get,

When you face the Fox of Marengo!

The chorus was too much to stand, so under extreme mental anguish, he unleashed the greatest curse words and curses in general that he could think of, as the song once more repeated the chorus for the third and final time.

Oh my, oh my, oh my Lord

What a grim fandango!

But that my friend is what you get

When you face the Fox of Marengo!

“All hail the Empire!!!!!”

High Orbit around Planet Ace, Cornelia’s Flags.h.i.+p.

High Princess Cornelia vi Erequiem was busy putting together the final details of her fleet’s battle dispositions for tomorrow’s journey to war, when the doors to her stateroom started to open.

“Come on in Zula.” Cornelia said as she did some paper work, all the while not looking at who entered.

“You know, I must be a terrible spymaster if you can so easily detect me, even if you are the ‘Supreme Commander.” Princess Zulanasai said as she entered the room.

“The only ones who can enter this room without my bodyguards first asking me for approval, are my parents, the Emperor and Empress, my two knights, my siblings and you of course.”

“Well, I’m flattered that you consider me a part of your inner circle!” Zula said with what should have been a friendly smile.

“You know what they say ‘keep your friends close and you’re enemies closer’.” Cornelia also replied with a smile that should have been friendly.

Monas’ walked forward and extended her right hand for Cornelia to grab; As soon as she did so, Zula blazed away with her battle aura, creating a concentrated ball of pure energy in her hand, given credit to  her lesser know, but personal preferred second nickname ‘The Fire Princess’.

Cornelia did the same and for a few seconds a miniature supernova tug of war took place during their handshake, since it was Zula’s little game, to challenge anyone she met to this.

The showdown continued for a few seconds, until at one point both partic.i.p.ants stopped their auras as they became flushed from exertion and their breathing increased in speed, to help replenish their tired bodies with oxygen.

The two warriors released their hold on each other’s hand, but maintained eye contact in an unspoken challenge to a battle of willpower, now that they’ve finished with their magical fight.

The moment of silence stretched between them, each not taking or giving ground, until it was broken by Zula.

“So, from what I hear we’ll be having our forces splattered against Galiana once more.” Zula said as she sat down in one of the office chairs.

“We will be mobilizing for war, come the morning.” Cornelia said as she got up from the desk and went towards the corner bar in the room.

“Oh, come now Nely, we’ve a.s.saulted that blasted fortress 67 times, you’ve partic.i.p.ated in 7 attempts against it, each time it ended with our forces either slaughtered or in full retreat, I know you military types have to never utter defeatism, but I thought that picking battles that can be won was a basic military principle!” Zulanasai said, her voice filled with smugness as Cornelia poured two goblets of strong brandy.

“Do you think I don’t know that? I’ve learned my lesson! Our objective will be to lure their fleet out of the fortress and into the open; we will avoid it at all costs!” Cornelia replied as she placed the now filled goblets on a trey along with the decanter and placed the tray on the table adjourn to Zula’s chair.

“And how do you intend to lure them out of their stronghold?” Zula asked as she took one of the two goblets from the trey.

“The same way you entice any other prey from its cave, you use bait.”

“And what const.i.tutes bait?”

“A fox of course!”

“A fox?”

“You know that after the death of that idiot Ca.s.sius on what should have been a simple baiting mission, I saw an opportunity, so I’ve sent Commodore Metternich to take command of the 378th corps stationed there, in the hopes that he could win a few rounds, draw Yemen out and bring him to us, and I must say the man’s been doing a fantastic job, from our reports it seems that Yemen has once more divided his forces and is relying on the old bait and switch tactic.”

“Only this time we have a fleet that’s just in front of the raiding fleet  and  from  the transmissions we’re receiving from them, we now know the exact position of the raiding force, so change of plans is in order!”

“Now that we know exactly where Yemen is, we can launch an attack on his forces while they are divided, with you here to decode their messages and act as my proxy, we shouldn’t have too many communications issues, and less of a chance of our messages being intercepted by the enemy.” Cornelia replied and took a sip of brandy.

“And what about Balisha? With that hidden base, Yemen can avoid fighting us, and hit us without fear of endangering his supplies.”

“I’ve also taken that into consideration Zula.” Cornelia said as she brought up a map on the farview placed on her wall and gestured towards it.

“The Volunians always had three means of defense, Yemen’s Western fleet, Galiana for their last line of defense and eventual fallback and finally their Eastern fleet.”

“In the past we’ve always used superior numbers to strike and the enemy resorted to hit and run tactics. Well no more!” Cornelia said and slammed her goblet on the desk, making Zula lift one of her eyebrows in surprise at her gesture.

“Since we now know his exact location, we’ll hit him before he can escape us, with the 378th on one side and us on the other we will crush him! No fleet can survive a pincer attack and I’ll see him bow before an Imperial officer yet!”

“And if Yemen simply refuses to fight us in the open?”

“He won’t, since we will entice him by only deploying roughly half of our forces.”

“Nelly you can’t be serious!”Zula replied, nearly spitting out her drink.

“I am serious; in fact I’m already doing it! Despite us currently only having 40.000 s.h.i.+ps to the enemies 70.000, our force are more concentrated than theirs, thus we hold the advantage!”

“Where we are headed there’s only 19.000 s.h.i.+ps. As for the rest of the enemy’s forces, 16.000 are heading to Galiana, and the Eastern Navy is too far away to help them.”

“Yemen cannot escape this time! Why, even if he does, I doubt he could run away from us!” the spymaster said as her mind quickly deduced the pinch Yemen would be in.

“Yes, since he is an Admiral who has a reputation for vanquis.h.i.+ng larger fleets than his own, his people will wonder why he hesitates against such a ‘weak’ foe; that’s pretty clever Nelly using his reputation against him!” Zula added, complementing her ‘friend’.

“One question thought Nelly, what if Yemen decides to ignore you and just raid you’re supply lines, what then?”

“Yemen has always raided our western bases, from where it’s easiest to manage our supplies; I’ve s.h.i.+fted our logistical forces to the east, where we currently are, if Yemen tries his old raiding trick, all he’ll accomplish is wasting his fuel crystals.”

“I thought the east was nearly unmanageable, in terms of establis.h.i.+ng a supply line.”

“It is, that’s also a reason why I’m taking such a small force, this way we can maintain some semblance of logistics once we depart.”

 “We’ll then, cheers to your future victory Nelly.” Zula said and they clicked their goblets, and drank.

The brandy was good, a smooth variant, which tickled the senses and left a pleasant burning sensation as it went down. They both savored the brew; Cornelia in particular took extra care to drink slowly and prolonged her drink for as much as possible.

For after this she had a small task but unnerving task to perform, and it was one for which she was not exactly qualified to do, nor was she looking forward to it.

But she could not delay the inevitable any longer, so she went to it.

“I’m glad that you’re here, that saves me the trouble of looking for you.”

“What for?”

“I’m afraid that little business you’ve been avoiding can’t be put on hold any longer, your parents are insisting on it and have requested me to ‘advice’ you to go through with it, and as a member of house Erequiem I cannot refuse an ally.”

“That’s absurd! We are about to deploy for war, and they want me to-“

“To stop putting it off with so much on the line, and to that effect I’ve prepared the necessary facilities on my s.h.i.+p.”

“You managed to fit all that onto this s.h.i.+p?”

“This is a Capital s.h.i.+p, its ten kilometers in length, there’s plenty of s.p.a.ce here.” Cornelia deadpanned, to which Zula responded by draining her goblet in one gulp and then exiting the room.

“Deck E, corridor 7, room 82.” the Supreme Commander added, to which Zula stared daggers at her, for this way she could not put it off by claiming that she didn’t know where to go.

Zula turned away from Cornelia and made her way to her destination, but not before stopping by her quarters and changing into a white gown dress.

Once she reached room 82, she opened it to reveal that it was a small chapel, where at the altar there was a priest and an man dressed in a tuxedo, that where waiting for her.

“You must be Dr Beratius; I suppose it’s nice to finally meet you.” Zula said as she walked right up next to him and shook his hand.

“It is nice to meet you as well your highness!” Beratius replied, he was a very old gentleman in his second form, which made him look like a long bearded humanoid man that had black ink blobs all over his skin, that moved constantly. After a moment of staring at each other, they both looked at the holy man.

The priest said a few words of blessing and then left the two of them alone, in an uncomfortable silence.

“Are you up to it? Because if you don’t want to, we don’t have to take this to the next step.” Beratius said to her.

“I’ve been putting this off for far too long, I………“Zula paused for a few moments the full implications of what she was about to say weight down on her.

“I must do this, it is my apparent ‘duty’ as a princess of the Empire.” she said and Beratius guided them to a private room.

Once inside, Zula spotted a bed, and upon seeing it her feet felt like they were made out of clay and she stood there, frozen in the hallway.

“I cannot do this on my own your highness, your partic.i.p.ation is rather mandatory.” Dr Beratius said in a gentle but firm voice and gestured once more towards the bed, to which Zula walked slowly, deliberately trying to avoid going to what no doubt promised to be a horrid experience for her.

After what seemed like forever she reached the bed, climbed into it and laid there on her backside.

“Are you comfortable?” Beratius asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you require anything? Food, drink, another pillow?”

“Let’s just get this over with!” Zula said more scared than angry and Beratius nodded in agreement.

So he approached the bed, once he was near its edge, he took out a chair, removed his jacket and tie and placed them on the backrest. He then loosened the neck b.u.t.tons on his s.h.i.+rt to make himself more comfortable, all under the now terrified gaze of Zula, who seemed more like a frightened little girl than the fearsome killing machine that she was just a short while ago.

Beratius sat down on the chair and looked at the stiff as a board young woman.

“Now that we are booth comfortable, let’s begin!” he said, and with his next sentence he began the dreaded act which Zula had feared for months to an end.

“This session of therapy has officially begun, so Princess whenever you are ready, please tell me what haunts you.”

Beratius said and Zula closed her eyes as if she had just been struck, the problem now was not whether she had issues, but where to begin.

But to Deux who was beyond their perception of s.p.a.ce and even time, did not have trouble with where to begin, where to end, or even what to add to his book.

“The mirror truly is the most underappreciated instrument of all, for it can show us things that we otherwise could never see.”

 Deux wrote adding the latest development on the mortal plane that he was watching.

“Some who gaze into the mirror often see what they’ve always wanted to.”

Adrian, Valyria, Georgaian, Oscar, Horatia, Dalius, Werner and Tarkan all raised their cups high to the image that the screen afforded them of the enemy fleet, or rather what was left of it, and to ‘officers and gentlemen and ladies of valor’ such as themselves the sight was truly wondrous to them.

 As they drank the toast, their forms where partially visible silhouettes that where reflected on the gla.s.s, making it look as if they were reaching out for the Volunian s.h.i.+ps in order to devour them, a fact that once observed by a more junior officer amongst them, gave cause for even more merriment.

“To others, it reveals past flaws that can be corrected.”

Cornelia was about to take another sip of the brandy, when she paused right as the gla.s.s was about to touch her lips, she brought it to eye level and angled it so as to see her own reflection, but what she saw was not the image of now, but of the past, and to be more precise, it was the image of the past seven times she faced the Yemen, the Volunians and Galiana.

Seven times in which she joined her battle brothers and sisters, seven times in which she fought with them, and seven times she survived, while many that where better and worse than her didn’t.

She raised her gla.s.s high, made a wordless vow to all those that fell, and all those that would follow her that this eight time would be the last time, before emptying the gla.s.s.

“Some when seeing it, can barely look at what it shows.”

Metternich looked at the screen before him, a small insignificant piece of gla.s.s and crystal that when compared to the vastness of s.p.a.ce, it was nothing and showed nothing.

 Nothing, but the destroyed fleet.

 Nothing but the dead bodies and scattered body parts that filled the void.

 Nothing but the crimson tide of red that spilled onto the black of s.p.a.ce and the face of Metternich reflected in it, towering above his great achievement in all its glory.

“To a few, the reflection that they see is clear as a raindrop, but the image is murky and blurred.”

Tubarin and Ahmaianos made their way to the edge of the pear, where they could see the police station, they then gazed down and the ever changing water and despite not seeing clearly, or perhaps wanting to not see clearly, they gazed at their own images, mask clad and caring weapons .

They looked at the ‘Imperial’ justice and at the ‘Maran’ justice.

No words were spoken, only silence and the reflection of the imperial police station and the masked and armed Maran men to keep the wind company, all doused by the pale moon light.

“Others simply can’t perceive what they see.”

The calmness of a certain rain puddle was interrupted by the violent stomping of a boot that belonged Kalynka, as she made her way home.

The young woman had taken this route home to initially gaze once more into her reflection, but upon reaching it, she quickly vanquish those thought from her mind and went about her business.

She also started chastising herself for her lapse in judgment.

 Yes, what they were doing was evil but the Empire deserved it! They where all nothing but monsters!

 Weren’t day?

“To a few, the mirror brings forth painful revelations.”

Gelios had by now returned to his office, and was sitting in the very same chair where not too long ago he had played fire breather on the window.

He moved to use a cleaning cloth to brush away the ash and grime, but stopped just short of the window, for after what he had done today and the events of the past week, h.e.l.l the events of years all piled up together and he started to wonder if not perhaps the grime and filth had always been there, it was only now that he was starting to see it.

“But regardless of what the mirror shows you, it’s always good to view the world from a different angle.”

Princess Zula looked at the doctor that was present at the side of the bed.

She pondered if sharing her experiences with him had any meaning at all.

For he was not there, he did not live her life, he was not forced to make her decisions, but at the same time she could understand the merit of having change of perspective when viewing your actions.

That and she was afraid of nothing and n.o.body!

 And so for good or bad…………….

 No! For good and bad she, after what felt like a lifetime, opened her mouth and started the session.

“So as to fully take in its full beauty and ugliness, in all of its splendor and all of its horror.”

"There are few wars between good and evil; most are between one good and another good."

-Admiral Yang