by Solea Razvan
Flagship Skyfall, training area.
Ealiupus 17th 18:40
Surprise and shock where the first sensations that course through Zula’s brain as she stood misbalanced over the edge of the mountain climbing training wall.
She placed her arms over her heart to feel the rush of adrenaline and the heavy beating of her heart.
The sensation was unbelievable! She felt excited, alive, and happy!
But these feelings that came from the small flicker of fear and unease she felt from the dangerous action quickly subsided as her trained to near perfection body and years of combat experience quickly kicked in and through a few slight moves to adjust her balance she was no longer in any danger of falling down.
Even if she fell, there was a scant chance of serious injury, since the floor was padded with a special mattress for situations like this, she also knew how to land from a high distance and not get hurt, courtesy of her being a trained parachute jumper.
The beating of her heart slowed down, until it was normal once more and the feeling started to fade.
“Nothing! Nothing!” where the words that traversed her mind as she jumped from the ledge.
But not onto the mattresses! No, she jumped far ahead of them to land on the solid wooden floor of the training room, where under its thin planks was cold hard steel!
Her face remained unchanged, her emotions unwavering; she simply used her magic to create a great burst of wind from her feat which slowed her fall, till it was nothing but a slow featherlike descent.
In fact by the time she was about a third of a meter off the floor, she was practically floating.
She could have used fire for this, but that would have been too easy, also it would ruin the floors and she was not a wasteful person!
The princess was now on the floor and the beating of her heart slowed down, until it was normal once more and the feeling died down.
Zula then left the room sad and disappointed of the failure of her latest attempt to correct and improve herself.
“Nothing can make me feel challenged! Nothing can make me feel alive!” was the thoughts that coursed through her mind as she left the training room.
There was no current tests for her abilities as a spy, there were no ‘worthy’ challengers to her authority, even the latest one appeared to have been easily dealt with, by using the most simple of conspiracies and her latest efforts at finding joy where unsuccessful which did nothing to improve her mood.
And so with sadness in her heart, she made her way back to her quarters, once more to a state of dreariness for this pitiful situation that the Imperial leader seemed to be in.
Volun 4, Imperial Fleet, 378th corps, Vampire’s Vengeance’s main conference room.
“You what?” Metternich almost deadpanned upon hearing who it was that said those words.
“I said that we should fulfill the mission.” Oscar replied and his words where sincere.
“There has never been an opportunity such as this for the capture of Galiana! The enemy space forces are in shambles, the most competent Volunian commanders including Yemen are captured or dead; the Federation has no nearby fleet to mobilize and we have the full support of the Supreme Commander!” he paused for effect.
“In addition to that, the enemy expects that any current assault on Galiana will be from a massive fleet, not a single wing; from a strategic, tactical and morale point of view we have the advantage, along with the element of surprise, the enemies superior numbers and firepower can be negated by this!” Horatia added to the conversation, speaking up for the very first time, her prayers having been apparently answered.
“’An army of lions led by a sheep will be defeated by an army of sheep lead by a lion’ and we have slayed all the lion kings! I also vote for us to go ahead with the mission!” Adrian said, finding his courage once more by conquering his fears with a combination of past victories and the words of both Horatia and Oscar, he was only ashamed that he hesitated so much; weak hearts never triumph!
“Fortune favors the bold! I am in!” Valyria spoke up.
After this, Oscar then suddenly stood up from his seat and addressed the room.
“For after all was said and done everyone in the room had trepidations and hesitated on not just doing it or how to do it, but even forming an idea of what our options are!”
“Only one of us kept his cam and said: We either go with it or not and if we choose to advance we either find a way or withdraw, the rest had trouble forming coherent sentences , let alone battle plans, I think it’s certain who can lead such an attack!” Raqianus then gazed at the rear admiral which only made Metternich’s stomach ache with dread at what he already half-knew he was about to hear.
“If anybody else would have lead this mission I would have refused, but you’ve proved yourself not once, but twice against a much larger foe, so if anyone can pull this off it’s you……..My lord.” he said after hesitating a moment and giving a light bow of the head.
“Oscar!” Adrian exclaimed upon hearing it, for what surprised him was its sincerity.
Adrian being born into the high class made him able to tell most of the time when someone was lying and so far Raqianus was not displaying any of the signs that Adrian noticed him doing when he was being deceitful.
His words where sincere in their appraisal of his liege!
And not just that, but also of the action of calling Metternich his lord, was the vow of knighthood that he just made.
It was the most sacred vows an Imperial could make; it meant that no matter what happened he would be a loyal retainer to Metternich.
The vow was not lightly made, since it carried serious implications, the vow remained until the liege relieved them of their duty, or the knight would find him an inadequate master. It could not be broken easily if at all, since it was a vow of the highest order of sanctity and honor!
“Me too, it’s the best idea for taking that thing I heard so far! I’ll probably die anyway on that blasted fortress, so it makes no difference to me!” Werner added to the conversation and after that the remaining occupants of the room vocally agreed as well, all except Ataru, who remained silent.
“Captain Ataru, you’ve been silent throughout all this, is there a problem?” Metternich asked hoping to get at least one sane person to be on his side.
“Not really sir.” He replied casually.
“Does our mission bother you in anyway?”
“Naaaaah! Sorry if I worried you all, but you see, we who are of the airforce have the task of attacking enemy warships that at best are ten times larger and at worst a hundred times larger than us, so no biggie for us!” the tone carried by the flight commander was that of a customer that got fried potatoes that where cut thinner than the way he ordered them, to him assaulting a much stronger enemy was a minor inconvenience since he always had to face impossible odds every time they launched from the ramp.
“That’s why you’re not concerned with performing well……..’this kind’ of a mission?”
“We’re fleet fighter pilots admiral, where supposed to do perform ‘this kind’ of a mission.” was all he said, with a tone which suggested boredom for the current assignment.
That or the bottles of brandy that he had drunk last night where really good stuff!
“Very well then; let’s go over the plan once more.” Metternich said and took a great gulp of his cup to empty it while it was still warm and to give him a moment’s pause to gather his thought and not panic at the current situation.
“Once more lady luck has voluntarily puked on my shoes and I was the one who had presented the finger to her!”
He thought as he swept the room with his gaze pausing at every one of its occupants and lingering for a rather stomach pain inducing moment at Oscar.
“If the one who’s trying to overthrow you is now loyal it means that your current situation truly is a horrid one!”
He lamented as they continued to review, reanalyze, reform, patch,
spit and polish the plan until it shined like a diamond, or until it stank like a grave.
After a few hours of finishing up the details and providing Alega with a list of necessities, the meeting was adjourned with one final rehearsal before the big show.
“That raps this meeting up, we leave tomorrow morning after we meet up with Commodore Checkings, the newest addition to our forces, everyone get a good night’s rest.” he said to them and they all shuffled out of the room.
“It’s good to see you again Lord Adrian, you conservative, overgrown hard-ass of a reject weekend barbeque.” Akanthos said to Commodore Morowetz with harshness in his voice and a steel gaze in his eyes.
“And it’s nice seeing you too liberal, pencil pushing, dodge drafting, greedy taffer of a thief.” Adrian replied his tone just as hostile and they both looked each other in the eyes, a nonverbal battle of will’s starting before them.
And then both smiled, laughed and hugged each other, for they actually where friends and this was just one of the quirks of their friendship.
“See you two for drinks in an hour.” Metternich said before going down the hall with Butz in tow.
“Yes sir! Also, Akanthos you’re buying, because I know you can afford to do it.”
“No problem Adrian, I’ll pay; with your money of course!”
They both chuckled, after which Adrian left.
Akanthos then double-timed up to Metternich.
“Can I talk to you Metty?”
“Sure, Butz you can go relax now, I’ll see you tomorrow.” the rear admiral ordered, since whenever Akanthos wanted to talk it usually meant that it was between the two of them and it to be something very serious.
“Very good sir!” Butz replied nonchalantly, he from experience knew that sometimes officers needed to keep things from subordinates be they military or private affairs so he was non-phased by this.
And his Excellency the commodore, now rear admiral had a right to his privacy, so Butz did what he was told and went to relax; or rather what he planned to do was not exactly relaxing, but the girls never complained!
“What is it? Did you do something illegal?”
“No! Nothing as petty and as weak as that, I’m no lazy bones! After I docket, I went undercover to see what the lay of the land was like and apparently rumor has it that one of your subordinates, namely that Oscar fellow is being considered for promotion, and an independent command to boot!” Akanthos told him, like he was just reporting on some major mafia crime deal.
“So? It’s the armed forces; this kind of thing happens all the time! Also Oscar did take out the flagship of the main Volunian navy at Volun 3.”
“Yes! But the thing is that even when you take that into account, the one who deserves most of the credit is still you! Well, with Gerula and Cornelia you’re in a tie, but the fact remains that Oscar did not outshine you and yet he is to be promoted to the same rank as you? And besides that, in this world a subordinate is never directly promoted above their immediate superior!” Akanthos explained vehemently and catch his breath, since this grave news did not bode well with him.
“I see your point; do you know who’s behind this?”
“We’ll at first I couldn’t find any trace of who could be Oscar’s sponsor, but then it hit me! Since there are only a dozen of people who can hide their tracks from me so thoroughly I just had to do a simple process of elimination.”
“Five are not here, three are on foreign soil, two are dead, the eleventh one’s retired, the twelfth is a monk, one’s insane, the next one’s worst, which leave the final candidate, someone who I believed you know the taste off.” He said with a coy smile and a suggestive movement of the eyebrows.
Akanthos said and for a moment Metternich looked at him in confusion.
“Know the taste of?”
“OH!!!!!!”
“Quite! You see Metty, no good deed goes unpunished and never is any measure of politeness not paid for!” Akanthos sarcastically said.
“Nice guys are always last during the race I suppose.” Metternich shook his head with a chuckle.