NationStates Jolt Archive

The Revolution

“Dilegua, o notte! tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!”

“Nessun Dorma,” from Turandot

Corporal Karth, of the Gray Operations Special Forces, was on assignment. The Emperor had seen the piracy network in the Outworld Territories become intolerable, after a raid had uncovered a slaver ring, and the special forces had been mobilized to deal with the threat. Deciding that just bashing in the pirate network in with the fleet and heavy infantry would not solve the problem, Anithraldur had decided to infiltrate them, to destroy them from the inside, and the sword of vengeance was to be Karth’s own battalion. So now, he was sitting in the corner of a smoky bar in the outer belt of the Chyrsham system. Here, it was believed, was where the core of pirate and slaver activities were. It was probably planetside, and not on the orbital station where Karth was at, but sources had suggested that this was the “gates of Hell;” the gray area where agents of the pirates met and recruited new members. That was, of course, what Karth was here for. He ordered another drink and glared about the room, hands resting on his side arm. The pirates only liked to pick up thugs, and Karth was doing everything he could to think and act like a thug. Soon a rough looking man came up to him and said,

“You’re in my seat. Go find a different one.”

Karth sneered nastily, and said, “No, I don’t think so. This one is pretty comfortable.”

The man bared his teeth and snarled. “I said, get out of my damn seat!”

By now the commotion had caught the attention of most of the bar. Not missing a beat, Karth took a swing at the man and sent him reeling into a table. The man picked himself up and swore violently, and rushed Karth. Karth deftly flipped the man over his back, across the bar and onto the floor, then leapt up to the bar and pounced down on the prone man and grabbed him by the neck.

“Now my drink is all over the bar,” Karth said. He whacked the man’s head against the floor. “So, was it really worth not getting your seat back?”

The man snarled a bit, then grunted, “Geroff. I’ll find my own damn seat.” He got up and dusted himself off and stalked away to another corner of the bar. Karth took his stool and resumed drinking. Soon, another couple of men came up to him and sat on either side of him. Karth tensed a little expecting another fight. The men, however, noticed it and said,

“Relax buddy. We saw how you took care of Remus there – impressive, as he was one of our best ring fighters for five years.”

Karth grunted, staring ahead of him and taking another swig of his drink. The man continued,

“You know, I could use a good fighter right about now too. I run an operation out of the belt, and we are always in need of ‘protection,’ from the,” he cleared his throat, “pirates that run about this way.”

Karth looked at the man and winked, and said, “Pirates eh?” People out here didn’t call the pirates “pirates.” They used terms like “smugglers,” and “rogues,” instead, for fear that if they called black, black, so to speak, they would incur the wrath of the pirates who would claimed they had “narced” on them. Only a pirate would actually refer to the pirates, as pirates. The man gave a slight smile. “Yeah, pirates. Meet me in Booth 8 in a half hour and we’ll arrange things then. Don’t be late.” The men got up and headed out the door. Karth finished his drink and congratulated himself – already he had a lead. This may be easier than he thought.

A half hour later, he was tied up in a chair being interrogated.

“So,” said the man from the bar. “It seems we have ourselves one of those ‘Gray Ops’ on our hands, eh?”

He got up close in Karth’s face, and breathed venomously,

“Do you really think it would be that easy? Not as well trained as you think you all are, huh? You’ll fetch a good ransom price, that’s for sure. Rob! Watch this pig. They may not be smart but these special forces commandos always have some magic tricks up their sleeves. He even fidgets, I want to know.”

Rob gave a mock salute to the pirate captain as he headed out the door, and then began to stare at Karth intently, watching for any movement. This was not an ideal situation. The booth was a private booth, and fully enclosed. Nobody could see him, but even if they did, he doubted anyone would be willing to do anything. It was frustrating. How could the pirates have known he was coming? There must be a double agent in intelligence or something. He doubted he could break the ropes on the chair easily either – the pirates had taken into account that, being part of the special forces, he would be able to break normal rope easily. Whatever this was, it was extremely tough – probably made of some smuggled super-tensile composite. The chair, however – appeared normal. Perhaps, if he broke the chair, he could get mobile enough to at least escape the booth. It was his only option. He stared right back at Rob for a bit, and soon Rob got bored and his mind and eyes began to wander. Quick as a flash Karth heaved himself up and in a split second forced himself back down while in midair, snapping the chair legs off and freeing his own legs. He swiftly gave a kick at Rob and knocked him over. His hands were still tied but he was working on that, and he then gave the door a powerful kick and burst into the room. Everyone turned to stare at him, and he yelled,

“Help me dammit! I’m being kidnapped! Help untie my hands!”

No one moved – it was obviously pirate work, and nobody who wanted to continue breathing crossed them. Everyone turned back to their drink and ignored him, except one – a fair-haired, tough looking woman across the room was huddled over the table. She looked at him from within the folds of a cloak, and she watched him expectedly, but made no move. Karth cursed and began fiddling with the knots in the rope around his hands when the pirate captain ran back in with Karth’s own gun.

“This is nice hardware, Mr. ‘Karth.’ Now, you see why nobody helps you is that nobody really wants to die here. They know whose rule is law, Mr. Karth, and they know the arm of the law is long.”

Karth tried to think of a snappy comeback to that, but couldn’t, but just stared at the captain with his teeth bared.

The pirate captain yelled, “Men, seize him!”

A couple of goons moved to get him, but suddenly the cloaked woman got up and asked loudly,

“What seems to be the trouble here?”

The pirate captain narrowed his eyes at her and said, “None of your business, lady, and unless you want to end up as a pleasure slave on a blockade runner I would keep your damn self out of my business.”

The woman drew herself up and set aside the cloak, and Karth realized that she was actually very tall.

“Big words for such a small person,” she replied. “I don’t doubt you have the will to back them up, but nonetheless, I cannot allow you to take this man hostage.”

The goons cracked their knuckles and the pirate captain said, “Is that so?” The goons didn’t let him finish but rushed toward the woman brandishing stun clubs. She suddenly leapt into a roll and went between them as they rushed pass, and leapt up, knocked the gun out of the captain’s hand and punched him square in the face and sent him flying across the room. The goons skidded to a halt and whirled about and growled in rage and began to walk toward her, on guard. She crouched, and then pounced toward the head goon with a flying kick, smashing him in the chest, and while the other rushed toward her with his club raised she whirled about and lunged at his neck. She tightened her grip around it and lifted the man up – which caused Karth to gasp, as he was easily over two-hundred pounds of muscle – and then flung him into a booth – actually, Booth 8. She relieved the two unconscious forms of their clubs, turned them off, then snapped both of them over her knee at the same time, and threw the remnants away. She also retrieved Karth’s gun and returned it to him, as he had by now untied his bonds. Karth’s jaw was still slack, but he got a hold of himself and asked her in amazement,

“Just who are you anyway?”

“No one of importance. We must go, now.”

“Why?” protested Karth.

She frowned and jerking her head to the prone form of the pirate captain, said, “Because that captain is faking unconsciousness and has activated a distress signal. There will be pirates swarming the station within minutes. Come along.”

Karth, still flabbergasted, nonetheless followed the woman as she sprinted along the corridors of the station.

“We will use my ship – we can get their fastest and it’s probably more well equipped than the cutter you came here in.”

Questions were still swirling through Karth’s head as the woman deftly leapt through a docking hatch and into her ship, and as soon as Karth was in the doors slammed shut and the docking clamps retracted. The ship gave a slight lurch as it slid free, and shuddered as its engines came online. The crew on the bridge, however, did not bat an eye, as if what was now going on was standard operation. The woman slid into a command chair and controls immediately came up through a hatch in the floor, and she grabbed the throttle and the engines roared to full power. Karth was thrown back by the force as the ship sped away from the station and the gravity well of the planet it orbited.

“Hold onto something!” yelled the woman.

“Ma’am! Contacts starboard - definitely hostiles!” yelled one of the crewmen.

The woman yelled in response, “Standard smoke-screen, but with ninja this time, and dump the junk in case they’re using guided missiles!”

“Aye aye ma’am!”

The rear missile banks on the ship opened up and immediately a dozen missiles streaked out, but instead of heading toward the pirate ships they exploded spreading clouds of shrapnel. A hatch on the ship opened up and tons of detritus came spewing out as the ship continued to race away from the planet. The pursuing pirates came into the cloud and all the sudden their systems began to go haywire – the cloud had been ionized.

“We’re out of the well and the drive is hot!” yelled an engineer.

The woman punched a button and the whine of the hyperdrive drowned out the rest of the noise and the ship slipped into hyperspace.

Karth was sitting in a bunk, rubbing one of his legs – still a little sore from the day’s action. A notification beep rang out, and Karth said, “Come in.” It was the woman again.

“You never did tell me your name,” Karth began.

“We were still a little busy when you asked, but if you must know, my name is Anikar.” She walked into the room and sat on the opposite bunk.

“Anikar, eh?” replied Karth, “named after that legendary queen then.”

She smiled knowingly, and said, “You could say that.”

“Alright, so why did you rescue me? Nobody in their right mind in there was willing to do that; and where did you learn to move like that? I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”

“I have my reasons,” she said, “and I learned all that from practice. Lots of practice. As for never seeing anyone move that fast before, I believe you have… Corporal.” Her expression turned rather serious. “There is more to you as well than meets the eye.”

Karth immediately switched to his “bluff mode.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied.

“Oh, but you do, Corporal, you do.” Standing up, she began to walk back and forth, still talking. “You’re an accomplished officer in the Gray Operations Special Forces group. You’ve undergone training on quite a few different worlds with at least half a dozen separate species of sentients, and been a part of hundreds of different deployments. You were at that station to root out a rumored slaver ring.”

Karth just stared at her for a few moments, and then decided that continuing to bluff was probably hopeless. “How do you know all this?”

She laughed, and continued: “If a bunch of slobbering pirates can get their hands on such information, I surely can. We’ll just leave it at that.”

“Alright, then what do you want from me?”

“Good, now we’re getting somewhere – I want to join your group. I want to join the Gray Operations.”

Karth cradled his forehead in his hands and said, “You don’t just join the Gray Operations,” he said. “You get picked… it’s a long and complicated process…”

“Your point? Then have them pick me.”

“What? No, I can’t do that – I’m not part of the command. Besides, I can’t just bring in some random civilian…”

“I’m hardly an ordinary civilian, corporal. I easily have skills equaling or surpassing anyone in your group.”

Karth looked up at her again, slightly incredulous. “You’re good, that much is true, but you say you’re a match for any of our members? That’s a pretty tall order.”

“Then why don’t you bring me to your base of operations to find out?”

Karth sighed. “Alright, alright. You’re worth a tryout, but I get to fly the ship – manually, mind.”

Anikar smiled, and said “Of course Corporal. To the bridge then.”

Shiloh Station, Unspecified Coordinates

“What were you thinking Karth?” yelled his superior, Sergeant Rolf. “You can’t just go bringing random people here!”

“Sir, this woman is hardly random. She saved me from being captured by the slavers and sold on the market, and she single-handedly took down a bunch of pirates without even getting a scratch, THEN she managed to escape the station and stall their pursuit.”

“That may be granted, but the locat…”

“Is safe. I piloted the ship myself, on manual.”

“Your point? They’re all still here!”

“No, she dismissed them and had then set the ship off on random coordinates.”

“She did what? Why did you let her do that?! Dear God Karth!”

Karth just shrugged and said, “Well, she’s just good at knowing when to burn bridges behind her. All the more reason to give her a tryout, in my eyes.”

Rolf opened his mouth, then shut it again, and then growled, “Fine, whatever! She’ll get the tryout – but if she fails, we’re wiping her memory and extracting her to the next civilian cruiser that comes near.”

“That’s of course your decision, sir, but don’t be surprised if she outsmarts you even there.”

Rolf grunted and left the room.

The next day brought the trial. Anikar rolled out of her bunk and went down to The Labyrinth, the gauntlet and maze in the deepest level of the complex. Sergeant Rolf and a number of other officers stood before the entrance and looked on critically, and then Rolf spoke:

“It has been brought to my attention by one of my officers that he believes you are operations material. However, any and all aspirants to our corps must first prove that they are of peak physical and mental condition. You will run ‘the Labyrinth” here, then, to prove your mettle. You must complete the maze within a two hour limit, no less.”

Anikar merely nodded and said “Yes sir.”

He pointed to a pack and a suit of armor on the ground nearby. “To help you complete the maze, you can have this equipment…”

“No thank you sir,” interjected Anikar. She then strode into the door of the maze and let it shut behind her, while Rolf looked on stunned and incredulous.

“Who does she think she is?” he spat. “If she gets wounded – or killed – I’m not going in after her. Completely insane!”

Using a lift, he and the other officers went to the other side of the maze and waited for her.

“Do you have a lock on her vitals?” he asked one of them.

“Yes sir – she’s still alive, at least.”

Rolf settled in for what he thought would be a long wait, but scarcely forty minutes in, the door swung open and there Anikar was – a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead, but nothing more to show for her trek. Rolf gaped.

“What? How long did she take?!” he exclaimed.

“Forty-two minutes sir.”

“That… that beats most of the augment’s runs down here! How is that even possible?”

“Sir… am I fit to serve, then?” interjected Anikar.

Rolf rounded on her. “Who are you?” he demanded. “You’ve beaten men with strength and stamina augmentation who have run this maze for years!”

Anikar looked only slightly surprised. “Indeed? Am I to be rejected then?”

Rolf coughed and said, “No, I don’t mean that… but it’s unprecedented! You did it without equipment, you haven’t been augmented, and as far as I know you’ve never done it before…”

“Am I accepted, then?”

Rolf looked her in the eye, and then away again, defeated. “We still have to run a background check on you before we can fully integrate you into the corps.”

“Understood, sir,” she answered.

“Dismissed.”

The next few weeks were spent in training – which Anikar readily mastered. Wherever her own abilities did not yet meet expectations, she learned rapidly. Soon enough, she was categorized as “up to code,” and ready for an assignment. Meanwhile, Rolf remained worried.

“I don’t buy it,” he grunted, looking over her papers. “Case 5 Amnesiac Refugee my ass.”

“Well, your buttocks and command aren’t on the same wavelength then,” commented Master Sergeant Owen. “She’s been greenlighted, and they’re even recommending getting her on her first assignment already.”

“Suspicious or no,” Rolf replied, “aren’t they rushing this a bit?”

“Rolf, c’mon… you’ve seen her work. A few weeks and she is near to par with our best.”

“And you don’t find that odd either then?”

“Are you sure this isn’t for any other reasons?” asked Owen exasperatedly.

“Like what?” growled Rolf.

“Like the fact that she’s the first woman in a century to go out for the corps?”

“Bullshit, Owen, and you know it. I have no problem with that. My problem is with this story.”

“Well, it’s no longer your place to commentate, but to train. She’s a part of the corps now, and you’d better be getting used to it.”

Rolf sighed and put the papers away. “Fine, whatever.”

A Few Weeks Later…

Anikar was at her bunk, reading as was her wont in her spare time, when a voice blared over the PA,

“Delta Squad, report to briefing immediately. This is not a drill.”

Something must be up, she thought, and set the book – The Prince, by the terran Niccolo Machiavelli – down and headed out.

“We have need of haste, Delta Squad, so I won’t be long. Command has just informed us that at about 0300 hours this morning, the Neodämmerung Class Battleship Keeper was hijacked by the Lebowan Separatist Movement, a paramilitary organization hailing from the irascible binary world of Lebowa-Izenu. Other than the hostages, the battleship is a formidable piece of engineering, and could wreak considerable havoc before being brought down conventionally. That is where we come in. Delta Squad, you are being tasked with boarding this ship and taking it back from the LSM.”

He typed on a nearby datapad bringing up a holographic representation of the battleship.

“Your entry points will be the hangar bays located aft in the ship. The only thing you will have to worry about is the energy shielding that blocks entry into the bays. However, fleet will be providing you with two things – the Golem class carrier Lone Sword and the 21st Squadron, and a Valkyrie fighter for every one of you equipped with stutterjump boosters. 21st will launch with the rest of you, and the Keeper, which doesn’t have excellent fighter defenses but does have a fighter squadron stationed on board, will have to deactivate the shields to launch them. Once the shields are down, you will activate the stutterjumper boosters and jump to the docking bays. How close or how far is up to you – but be sure to get in before the shield goes down. When the bridge is taken, immediately radio fleet with the message, ‘the Keeper is in good hands.’ Any questions?”

“No sir!” replied Karth.

“Then good luck Delta Squad.”

Delta Squad then left briefing and filed onto a small transport to rendezvous with Lone Sword. Anikar found a seat near Karth.

“Thank you again, Karth, for all this. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your help.”

“No problem, Anikar. Thank you for saving me from those pirates.”

“It was nothing,” she said. “I have a question though, about this ‘Command.’ What and where is it anyway?”

“No one knows for sure, on either count. Why do you ask?”

“It just seems odd to follow orders from a commander you cannot see or find, I guess.”

“Yeah, but you get used to it.”

Anikar spent the rest of the trip in deep thought. Soon, the transport reached the Sword and Delta Squad got into their fighters.

“Remember, do not engage the stutterjump until the shield is down! You will be notified the moment it happens,” reminded the commander.

21st and Delta Squadron swarmed out of the holding bays of the Sword and immediately got into formation. They streaked toward the dark outline of the Keeper at maximum speed. Within minutes, the commander was back:

“Sensors detect that shields are down! Coordinates are confirmed, fire drives!”

The boosters activated, and the Valkyries disappeared from realspace for a moment and reappeared right outside the docking bays of the massive battleship.

“This is where the fun begins!” yelled Karth.

Fighters came swarming out of the bays of the battleship as well, and soon the Valkyries were dodging and swerving about trying to avoid hitting them and the defense fire they laid down. The battleship’s batteries had been taken by surprise, but only for the moment, and they also began to add their fire to the chaos. It was too late for them, however, as about a dozen of the Valkyries slid into the docking bays, sparks flying. Not expecting such unorthodox tactics, the docks were caught unprepared as Delta Squad disembarked.

“Get down!” Anikar yelled at some of the men preparing the fighters. “Get down now and put your hands over your head!” she repeated, brandishing her carbine. They immediately complied.

“Conrad, guard them,” said Rolf. “The rest of Delta Squad and I will storm the bridge. Activate your camo.”

The squad hustled over to the bay door, and as they did so, slowly faded from sight. The door opened for a while, then shut once again.

Skirmweb, the battle network for the Gray Operations soldiers, came online, and now the squad communicated over that instead.

“S.TROLF: There should be an elevator about a hundred meters aft and ten meters starboard which goes directly to the bridge. It’ll probably be guarded, how heavily, I don’t know. A map should appear on your HUDs… now.”

The squad followed Rolf as he navigated the corridors of the ship, which seemed empty. Lights flickered here and there.

“S.TROLF: 21st has feigned heavy losses and is retreating. Unless someone managed to warn the hijacker commanders about our insertion into the docking bay, they shouldn’t know about us still.”

Soon, the elevator was in sight, and surely enough, a small platoon of motley-equipped guards were garrisoned there, but they looked bored instead of alert – Delta Squad was still not suspected.

“S.TROLF: Don’t use your rifles yet. We’ll try and get near them first and knock them all out at once.”

Delta Squad crept, silent and invisibly, toward the group of guards. There were not any more than a dozen loafing around, not suspecting or knowing the dire peril they were in. One gave a yawn and stretched, and his arm hit something – but there was nothing there. He blinked, and a moment later he was smashed in the face by something invisible with a loud crack, and fell down. The rest of the group stared, confused, yet soon everyone and his neighbor was took down by invisible carbine butts and armored fists, usually without making much of a sound except an astounded gasp.

“S.TROLF: Excellent. Up we go…”

The elevator doors opened up and the invisible group filed in, and soon the elevator headed up. Within a couple minutes, it was at the command deck.

“S.TROLF: Rifles ready – we take no prisoners here.”

The doors opened, and the LSM operatives on deck looked toward the door, confused. Suddenly, all the troops came back into the visible spectrum and opened fire on the stunned hijackers. It was over in seconds, and all that was left of the hijackers were badly charred remains.

Anikar walked over to a nearby console and punched up the frequency for the Arizonan fleet.

“Lone Sword, this is the Keeper, we’re in good hands, repeat, we are in good hands.”

In the months after the retaking of the Keeper, Anikar continued to go on to distinguish herself in the Gray Operations Corps in every mission after that, her commanders remarking that her performance was “excellent,” “efficient,” and that she was “highly competent.” In private, however, her search for the location and identity of the mysterious command continued. She focused her efforts on shipments made within the Empire – no mean task – but specifically those made to remote locations. Worlds that were sparsely populated, and large shipments to unseemly places. One by one she narrowed them down, traveling to the most promising leads whenever she had leave. Occasionally she would even be assigned on a mission near there, allowing her to investigate. After years of research, she finally came on the best lead yet. Shipments to it had been regular the whole time, and other indications gave that it had been an established pattern even before she was greenlighted for the corps. It was Felsen Belt Object 19743, an asteroid nestled deep within the asteroid belt in the home system – remote, yet quite close to the beating heart of the empire. A good place for someone to establish a secret headquarters – there were rumors of even darker things being hid away in that place. Now was only the matter of getting there. She began to prepare for the trip.

The day arrived. She was on shore leave again, so nobody within the organization would make much of her absence from Shiloh. She climbed into the cockpit of her small craft and lifted off, soon breaking range of the gravity well of the planetoid and making the jump. The ship came back into realspace outside the home system, and after forwarding her ID to the automated defense systems, she proceeded inward, toward the Felsen Belt. She would, of course, be detected by sensors, but she wasn’t taking the fighter directly to the asteroid. She would program it to fly by on auto-pilot, and when she was near enough, exit the craft in her power armor suit, Kaltarak, and land on the surface below. Being small, and stealthed, she would hopefully escape notice of any sensor array, especially if they were tracking the empty fighter as it flew by. Of course, she would also set up a pre-arranged signal to bring it back when she needed to leave again, or if circumstances demanded it. She was determined, however, to succeed in this at all costs; she was so close now to achieving her goal.
The ship took a course that would look like it was heading through the belt at high speed toward the homeworld, but would stray over FBO-19743. She watched the display for a long time before her target finally appeared on a corner of the screen. She did a final check of her equipment and life-support systems as the planetoid neared, making sure she would survive the leap into the void, and activated her stealth systems. Her target was closing – she cracked the cockpit. Instantly the water vapor within the ship crystallized and with the oxygen, was sucked into the void, and Anikar looked over the side to see the planetoid passing below.
Here goes nothing, she thought.
She climbed out of the cockpit and swung to the underside of the ship, then pushed herself off its underside toward the rock below. She watched as the ship diminished behind her as it flew off into the dark. The surface was rapidly closing now – she activated the gravitic thrusters to slow her descent. It was a gray, rocky, barren landscape, scarred by countless impacts with tiny meteorites and twisted by the craters left by larger asteroids. She touched down softly, and began to scan the area. The complex had to give off a power signature of some sort. Bingo – five kilometers spinward, something was giving off a faint signature. It was probably far under the surface though. Deciding it was too far to walk; she activated the gravitic thrusters again and flew over the surface toward it. Within minutes, she was on top of the signature. She soon located a small door in the surface of the asteroid. She wedged a “key,” a small device designed specifically to open locked doors, onto the door and let it work its magic. It soon wedged the door open enough for her to pry it the rest of the way open. She dropped down into the airlock, and allowed the doors to shut once again. She opened the inner door in the same fashion, hoping that they did not have any sort of security monitor installed on them. However, no alarms greeted her as the inner doors slid open. She walked into the complex, which was nothing but dull gray steel from floor to wall to ceiling. There was no furniture or décor, or even distinctive rooms, but twisting labyrinthine walls. Command, according to her information, was in a central room in the complex. She slunk invisibly through the corridors. She came on an area where the ceiling began to slope up, and continued to advance to what she hoped was farther into the complex. Then, she turned a corner to see a tall set of double doors standing in front of her, one of which was leaning open to the inside of the room.
This must be the place, she said.
Anikar slunk up next to the tall double doors, the Kanuckistani MFP-330 primed and ready. As she slid closer and closer to slipping inside, a voice called out,

“Now who is that sneaking around out there? Don’t be shy – come in and introduce yourself, dash it all.”

Anikar froze, her entire body tense. How had she been detected?

“C’mon now… if I intended to kill you, you wouldn’t have made it past basic training. Come in.”

She took a big breath, and deactivated her active camouflage, and walked in normally. She turned the corner and walked into the room. It was a very luxuriant scene – the finest wood paneling decorated the walls, and a fireplace dominated the far wall and it snapped cheerily away. It all seemed completely out of place next to the spartan gunmetal of the rest of the complex.

“I do so like the homelike atmosphere,” said an amiable voice emanating from a near high-backed chair. It faced the fireplace, obscuring the occupant from view. “It gets lonely out here, and I need something to remind me of my former life.”

Anikar, still standing warily a ways behind the chair, asked, “You’re Command? I had envisioned something… larger.”

The man in the chair gave a soft chuckle. “Yes, I do give an impression that I’m some shadowy council or some sort of alien computer or something don’t I? Have a seat, my friend.”

“So… why haven’t you killed me yet then?” asked Anikar curiously.

“Because you’re fascinating – you pop in out of nowhere, show up my best troops, and then you infiltrate my own little compound here. Or try to anyways. Good show though, as I didn’t catch you until slightly later than I would have personally preferred. Take a seat, dash it all.”

Anikar strode over to a nearby chair, yet hesitated to sit for a moment.

“It’s not going to bite! Just sit. I don’t trap my own furniture.”

She sat down, and composed herself – as things weren’t going quite as she had envisioned it so far.

“Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting you today quite yet anyway,” said the voice. “You’re ahead of schedule, you are.”

“What schedule?” replied Anikar.

“Tyrion’s.”

She started. “What about Tyrion?”

“Oh, is it really so surprising that a member of House Tyrion might be ensconced here of all places, and even so high up as to be the Command of the entire Gray Operations? It isn’t to me, but then again, I am me. Last time I checked, anyway.”

“I had never seen any mention of you in the archives or the genealogies…”

“Of course not, because strictly, I do not exist. Command, as it were, has always been a sort of enigma-shadow-government in that sense. As far as the rest of House Tyrion is concerned, you’re talking to thin air, or perhaps just a chair.”

“I see,” she said. “Yet, I still have some business to do here.”

“Of course, all in good time. I’m sure I know why you’re here – for what other reason would someone crack the location of the Gray Operations hidden Command compound? – but as yet, I don’t know who you are, or at least, you have not proved your identity.”

“I am Anikar,” she said. “I have ‘need,’ so to speak, of your troops.”

“Of course – that, I knew! I’m also reasonably sure you are Anikar, and that the time of The Prophecy is indeed upon us. However, I cannot just ‘give’ you the Gray Operations.”

Anikar’s grip on the carbine tightened slightly. “I’m sure you have a reason,” she said.

“Yes. Firstly, The Prophecy does demand you prove beyond a doubt that you are indeed Anikar, and to do that, you must face me in combat. Secondly, Command of the Gray Operations is also passed on in a trial by combat; a worthy successor finds and locates Command, then of course must defeat, or be defeated by, Command. They quite nicely work with each other.”

“That they do,” she remarked. “Shall we commence?”

“Oh no, not in this room,” he replied. “Have you any idea how many taxpayers’ gold weasels went into this? I have a gymnasium/arena nearby just for this purpose, good lady.”

“Then let us proceed.”

The Residence of Diodotus Vasco – Homeworld, Central Zone

Diodotus was relaxing today. He was on vacation from The Archive and he could finally take it easy for a while. He was about to start reading from a good old tome he had brought home from the archive when suddenly the holophone began to beep – incoming transmission.
“What now?” he sighed. He activated the holophone, and a familiar face materialized…

“Dear God!” he gasped. “Anikar? Is it really you? How are you? It’s been so long!”

“Yes yes,” she sighed. “I am fine. However, I have something urgent I need to tell you – you need to leave the homeworld. Take Tycho with you, and at least alert the rest of House Tyrion.”

“Whats going on?”

“I’m making my move soon,” she replied simply.

“What are you planning?” Diodotus asked, worriedly.

“Nothing heinous. Nobody need even die, actually. I just don’t want you there if something should go awry. In fact, you might even consider going on a vacation somewhere remote for a while if that is the case.”

Diodotus gulped.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I’m sure nothing will go wrong. Also know that if I succeed, you will be rewarded for your efforts. If it were not for you, of course, I would not even be here. I thank you for that.”

“Of-of course, Lady Anikar.”

“Goodbye, Diodotus, and hurry.”

Shiloh Station

“Sergeant Rolf! Urgent from Command.”

“What now?” he grumbled.

“‘Shiloh, on deck for a Full Rally, commence immediately. Unsheathe Daikatana. That is all, await further instructions.’”

Rolf nearly fell out of his seat. “A Full Rally?” he sputtered. “That’s everyone in the Corps!”

“I know! Something big must be going down.”

“Get some dispatches out then, and warm up the ship!”

“Aye sir!”

Within minutes the entirety of the operatives on hand had gotten aboard the ship, and those who were out at the moment returned with haste. In less than an hour, everyone was aboard the now cramped confines of the Daikatana.

“Alright Anikar, you’re Mission Commander. What’s the operation?” questioned Rolf.

“Command has ordered us to immediately deploy to the homeworld, and specifically to make a landing at the Imperial Palace. We are to immediately disembark, and neutralize the guards and security systems as quickly and quietly as possible.”

“Wait, what? The Imperial Palace? What’s wrong there?” asked Rolf, flabbergasted.

“Command has not informed me of the situation at the Palace,” she replied. “Just that we are to neutralize all defenses silently. That is our orders.”

The men exchanged glances – it must be serious if Command couldn’t even tell them what exactly was going on. Everyone steeled themselves as the ship hurtled through hyperspace, speeding toward the homeworld as fast at it was able.

It was nighttime Palaceside on the homeworld. The Daikatana gracefully cut slowly through the atmosphere, its pilots taking care not to leave a “skystreak,” which would betray that something was touching down with urgency; it was standard operation. The ship soared through the defenses of the planet, and was not hassled by any sort of border security – all the Gray Ops had to do was flash their particular code, and they could literally get anywhere. The ship maneuvered to blend in with local traffic patterns, but as soon as they got close to the Palace they broke at an angle, trying to look as if they were headed elsewhere. It did a turnabout on a dime, suddenly, and then soared swiftly and silently down to the roof of the palace. By the time the hatch opened, the engines and power had already been cut, and in silence the men rapidly piled out. Everyone engaged their active stealth and sonic nullifiers, and proceeded down into the palace. The guards on patrol had no inkling that anything was going on. Usually, all it took was one operative giving them a solid smack upside the head with a carbine to take the guard down, and of courses after that a generous application of a depressant to keep them sleeping for hours. The men snuck through the marble halls of the Palace with poise and precision, and soon enough, all the guards were down, overwhelmed by sheer numbers – and nobody had even made a guess at what was going on yet. Next came the security – using their crackers and the assistance of a couple digisents, they took that down as well. Even the security systems which used redundancy checks on other systems fell prey with ease, as the digisents learnt and copied the feedback loops each gave and tricked them into thinking the other was still running, even though it wasn’t. Within an hour, the Palace was completely under their control. While it was silent as the grave within the place, chatter over the skirmweb was abundant.

“S.TROLF: This was too easy.”

“L.SSERGEI: Yeah it was.”

“S.TROLF: No, in a bad way. All these guys didn’t look like they were expecting anything.”

“C.PCARPUS: We did come in under cover of night, stealthed.”

“S.TROLF: No, they had the look of people that were just running the night shift; not nervous or uneasy or anything. Isn’t that a little odd?”

“S.RVASANT: You know that Command has us run weird stuff like this sometime. Remember back in 630 when they had us spook the High Halls? It was scare tactics to get them to install better security.”

“S.TROLF: This is the Imperial Palace, though. It’s weird is all.”

“COMMAND: All Operatives stand by for further instruction.”

“L.SSERGEI: Jeez, it’s been looping that for a half hour now.”

Meanwhile, Anikar made her way towards Anithraldur’s throne room. The security was down and the way was clear. She uncloaked her suit and marched toward it, Denkatsu clutched in one armored fist while she had her custom-built rifle in the other.

The doors to the Throne Room burst open. Anithraldur had been reading – there had been no indication anything was wrong – and looked up, startled. Before him stood something of an armored titan, at least eight feet tall, with a formidable looking gun trained on him in one hand and the largest two bladed sword he had ever seen grasped in the other. He stood up immediately, and asked as calmly as he could,

“Who in blazes are you?”

The titan, its face obscured by the armor, remained silent for a moment, seeming to regard the Emperor as he stood flabbergasted upon the throne.

“Traps,” it said in a voice which was certainly feminine, but still strong and authoritative. “Are there any traps? If I trip any, you will join the dead before they fall upon me. Not that it would do much damage, anyway.”

Anithraldur was taken aback, and answered honestly by accident.

“Well, no… why would I entrap my own house?”

If Anithraldur could have seen into the mask, he would have seen astonishment on her face.

“Happy has your reign been, then. I am afraid, however, that like all things, it must come to an end.”

Anithraldur paled as she made her dire pronouncement. “End? Then… you’re an assassin then?”

She laughed heartily at that. “I? A slinking assassin doing another’s bidding? Ho no, not I, Anithraldur. When I must take something, it is with my own two hands. The question now is, do you relinquish it willingly, and let your rule pass into another’s hands, or watch as it is taken from you while you lay dying on the floor of your own throne room?”

“As good an assassin,” he rumbled angrily. “A thug then, if that is the case.”

“You would address your Queen as such?” she replied icily. “You owe me more than your loyalty – your existence itself was assured by me before your most remote ancestor was even conceived, steward.”

“Then we come again to my first question,” he said pointedly, “which was, who are you?”

“If you insist. I am Anikar, the first. It was I who blood-forged my throne in the years of the Black Horde, and I who was betrayed and banished by my own court magi, and it is I who return now to take back what was always mine, and yours only on loan, steward.”

“Impossible…” sputtered Anithraldur in reply. “That’s a legend – you’re mad!”

“A legend I may be, but legends do that which is legendary, do they not? Silently storming your palace and taking the crown from your own two hands is as such. I have answered your question, whether you accept the answer or not. Your choices from this point, steward, are limited. I offer you two options. One, you relinquish the crown to me properly, and become my steward and chief advisor. Two, you refuse, and I incapacitate you and imprison you indefinitely, or kill you, and still become queen. Your guards cannot come; I have five hundred of my people’s finest men guarding this place.”

As Anithraldur stood, trying to think of a way out of it, she added,

“Do not think to stall for time, either. I have my limits, and when the time comes you will make the choice, one way or another. You may think there is a third choice – make a daring escape, rally the people to you, and fight on. While that does sound the most romantic, you’ll regret it when worlds lie shattered and the civil war has torn the Empire to pieces – everything you’ve built for the last five centuries turned to rubble. Additionally, you will not escape, I can assure you. The choice is yours, but if you don’t make it, know that I will, and you may not like it.”

“You’re insane,” he replied, having nothing else to say. She did not leave much room to maneuver.

“I disagree. Insane people start a civil war. I don’t want that. Such a waste, such suffering and enmity – this way, while more difficult to engineer, is much less messy. It would be even less messy if you didn’t resist, as well. Come now, Anithraldur – do you not tire of being constantly under the spotlight, of this endless reign?”

“I… I just don’t know…” he replied. He was pacing now – he didn’t know what to do…

“I do not want to kill you, steward. I would rather I have you assist me – you know the people, the politics, everything; you would be a great asset. It would be so much smoother a transition, as well, if you ‘signed it over,’ so to speak.”

“But… what will you do?” he replied desperately, looking into her eyes – or at least, where he imagined they were. “I… I must serve my people, safeguard them… throwing my rule to a complete stranger is madness!”

“I am no stranger, Anithraldur – I am Anikar. Rule of this people is just as important to me as it is to you; this is my flesh and blood, far removed though it may be. I shall not rule with an iron fist either – no one knows better than I the perils of oppression now. I shall know this people better, and rule all the better for it, if you assist me. Please, Anithraldur, do not throw your life away. You know this is the only way.”

Core News Net – Infofeeds you can trust!

In a move that has left the entire nation shocked and awed, Anithraldur has abdicated his rule to one who claims that she is Anikar, a queen from antiquity returned to this plane of existence recently. Reports are still confused as of yet, but supposedly she and the entirety of the Gray Operations Special Forces stormed the Imperial Palace in the early morning hours on Arizona Prime, and bargained with Anithraldur to pass on the crown to her in exchange for a position as a minister. Across the Empire reactions to this change in management are varied. Reportedly some rioting is breaking out dayside on the homeworld, and other protests are being organized on Ondataru and Lebowa-Izenu. Anikar has promised, however, not to crack down on the protestors.
“It would reflect on me poorly if my first act in office would be to cut down people because they are simply startled by the suddenness of this change,” she said to CNN in an interview. “It will be a long time until I am trusted, but rest assured that I will not reforge this Empire in my own image. Anithraldur was a wise ruler, and I shall lean heavily on his advice in the coming years.”
Political analysts were quick to offer opinions on the situation – though a few suspect this is some sort of trick on Anithraldur’s part to some end, perhaps an excuse to end his tenure in office on as loud a note as possible, others are already commenting on Anikar’s actions in the wee morning hours.
“While I don’t doubt there will be radical policy changes, I do wonder if there are not other things that she has in store,” comments Max Kardred. “Already I hear she hoisted a new flag over the palace with her coat of arms on it – while of course this sort of thing is long-standing tradition, I just can’t shake the feeling that it might be a portent of things to come.”
Stay tuned as we continue to cover this story as it unfolds.