Ravens of Eternity

395 Thanatos Rises, Pt Taloren Prime, Throne System, Imperial Domain of the Boundless Drogar

The beautiful red spiral towers at the center of the floating Imperial city stood majestically under the sunlight. Despite the numerous armed defenses floating all around them, and the thousands of armed red-robed protestors at the bottom, things looked absolutely serene.

Little did anyone else know, but deep inside its Parliamentary Grand Hall, its multitude of senators were in rabid, incredibly heated debates with each other. The passions were so high that some were practically screaming at others across the hall itself.

Dozens of eyecast drones were scattered all over the place, unsure of which senator to focus their attention on. There was simply too much talking and yelling and cursing and shouting happening all at once.

It was almost as though a tornado had swept through it all, and left the place in disarray. At least, socially.

“Order! Order!” yelled the aging senator seated in the very center of the room.

She rapped the end of her sonic staff on the elevated platform she was on, and struck it like one massive drum. It thundered in response, which reverberated throughout the entire hall itself.

The sound waves swept across the arguing senators, and caused many of them to stop in their tracks. Some were so affected by the sonic staff that their balance was thrown off and were forced to sit down. They clutched their heads as they recovered from the disruption.

Though there were still some arguments and chatter, a second staff strike stopped them in short order.

.....

As many of the senators sat back down, the aging senator handed the staff to an aide then turned back towards the rest of the hall.

“Now then,” she said. “I believe it was Senator Paveloth’s turn to speak, before so many of you decided to interrupt him. Please, continue.”

Paveloth stood back up, and bowed courteously to the aging senator.

“Thank you, Chief Whip,” he said. “As I was mentioning, Emperor Retholis has called for a cease in the current war effort. And it must happen as immediately as possible. We’ve all heard his case for future prosperity, and I am among many who agree wholeheartedly.”

As Paveloth spoke, the numerous eyecast drones quickly came over to him. They caught him from every angle, and broadcast his speech to the rest of the Empire.

“We all believe profit to be a good thing, but it cannot come at the expense of our futures,” he continued. “We must halt all advances now, while we’re still able.

“In fact, we must do so quickly. Some may already know that our enemies have been bolder in striking deep in our territories. They hack through our codesets, pierce through to the planets, and raze everything they see fit. They do little else but destroy everything they see, and it is clearly taking a toll on us.

“Just this past week, we’ve had reports of a truly destructive Hegemony fleet that has been laying waste to our industrial facilities, planet after planet. Facilities critical to our future. Not just to our prosperity, but to our security. The loss of these facilities are a massive blow to our society.

“And the damages? Ten quadrillion krohn.

“Ten quadrillion! Can you imagine that? If we don’t stop this war now, we’re only going to see more losses in our future. Not growth, losses. Heavy and hard losses.”

Although Paveloth was met with quite a good amount of cheers and agreement, he was also met with an equal amount of boos and jeering. And that completely demoralized him.

It wasn’t long ago that the Sanguine Fundamentalists only had a fraction of influence among the senators. Now, almost half of them had been captured by their dangerous, ignorant rhetoric. They called for the continuation of the war, and even the escalation of it.

He simply couldn’t understand why they couldn’t see the objective truth, even when it was staring at them in the face. It wasn’t as though they were personally benefiting from the war effort – only a few clans did.

“Nonsense,” rebutted Konleth.

His voice echoed up and down the Grand Hall, and it caused some of the eyecast drones to fly over and place their focus on him.

“Those strikes into our territory weren’t made by the Hegemony,” he continued. “Rather, they were made by a human terrorist who was once in the Federation. In fact, she was our prisoner years ago, right in this very city! Some perhaps know her as Ra’ventrii.

“She watched as her own people were slaughtered by ravenous madmen, which no doubt left a massive chip on her shoulder. And she has no doubt taken advantage of our being embroiled in a war to strike at us, as revenge for our past slights against her.”

“If I recall correctly,” argued Paveloth, “she and her people defended themselves against the Sanguine Fundamentalists.”

“A violent and unsanctioned offshoot of the Sanguine, yes,” replied Konleth. “But it doesn’t matter. Those humans did not have the legal right to defend themselves with violent force. And yet they did. More importantly, it doesn’t change the fact that she killed drogar. She killed many then, and she’s killing many now.

“In fact, watch this recording. It will show that her most recent attacks killed countless civilians. It’s certainly one thing to attack only military targets, but another to disrupt regular engineers and researchers.”

Konleth then shared a heavily edited collection of footage from the facilities that the Einherjar had attacked. Since their first one, they had hopped to numerous other planets and destroyed the facilities there.

The senators all around the Grand Hall picked up their datapads or watched the recording through the terminals on their desks.

There, they saw the devastation with their own eyes.

It was as Konleth had said – entire facilities had been reduced to little more than ruins. The bloody bodies of countless drogar littered each of the sites, most of whom were indeed nonmilitary.

Most were shocked at what they saw, even the ones who were on Paveloth’s side. They saw too much brutality in the recordings. Bodies had been torn into shreds, and their blood poured out across the ruins.

“The fact is,” continued Konleth, “Ra’ventrii doesn’t identify her fleet as Hegemony, and only destroys everything in her wake. Even if we were to halt the war, an idea I find preposterous, and even if we were to sign a ceasefire with the Hegemony, there’s no guarantee that she will stop her terrorist aggressions!”

The recording itself ended with Freya’s fury-laced threat, the one that promised the absolute destruction of the Empire itself.

“...Only once your precious Imperium is reduced to ash will we stop!...”

Then once it was done, it looped over to the start and began again. Many senators were shaken to their core and murmured with their neighbors as to the veracity of Konleth’s claims. The proof in front of them seemed all too visceral.

Seeing as most of the senators were likely swinging his way, Konleth pressed his attack.

“We absolutely cannot halt our war progress,” he said. “Certainly not for a frothing mad drogar-hating ape. Not for anyone. We must press on with our plan, which we must admit is performing splendidly. Our industrial war machine is seeing record-breaking profits, even despite the losses.

“No, instead I propose that we increase funding and update our internal security. The only way we can beat back this violent aggressor is to pour resources into defending our most vulnerable clans. And we must do so immediately!

“We are the Boundless Drogar, and we don’t bend to terrorists and pirates – we break them!”

Konleth was met with many cheers and whoops and hollers from around the Grand Hall. A few more had clearly swayed to his side, a fact that completely deflated Paveloth.

But he was far from defeated.

“And just where is this investment money going to come from?” he argued. “From you? Or from Imperial taxpayers, as always? How long is it going to take for us to realize that profiteers like you only want the krohn for yourselves, and never for anyone else in the Empire!”

~

Overlooking the Grand Hall from above, in one of the small, cozy, and dark private booths, Retholis leaned back and sighed deeply as the senators continued their heated argument.

Across from him was Freya. Or, rather, the holoprojection of Freya. She too looked somewhat disappointed by what she was seeing on the screen affixed on the table between them.

“You see what I’m up against?” said Retholis. “This is exactly why I’m asking you to stop your attacks. If you don’t, this war is never going to end.”

“I don’t think I’m the reason why this war won’t end,” Freya replied. “I’ve only just begun my assault. Your precious empire started it long before I got my hands dirty. And I won’t stop until you do, first.”

Freya’s voice was cold and harsh and unyielding. Retholis noted that it was far different from what he remembered from their last meeting.

She instilled a sense of fear into him, even though she wasn’t even physically there.

“Can I get your promise that you will?” he asked.

“No. Because I don’t trust you,” she replied. “The Empire already had a treaty with the Hegemony. And you broke it.

“The only way the Einherjar will stop its attacks is if the Empire pulls all of their navies out of Hegemony space. You need to restore any captured territory, and pay restitution for the death and destruction you caused.”

Retholis harrumphed on hearing Freya’s rebuttal.

“That’s completely unreasonable,” he said. “I could convince them to halt our progress, but the senate would never agree to restoring territory. Much less pay reparations or restitutions. That’s... a pipe dream. You’re asking for too much.”

“Your empire has taken too much,” she said flatly.

“What do you want? Do you honestly expect me to tell those senators to give away money? They already know how many quadrillions we’ve lost. And you want me to convince them to lose more?”

“That’s exactly what I want you to do. I’ve come to understand that the only way to stop you is to hit you right in the ledger. It’s clear that it doesn’t matter how much blood you actually lose. What really matters is how much value your krohn holds.”

Retholis grit his teeth in frustration. She was perhaps one of the few people in the galaxy who truly understood their basic nature, and so knew exactly how to hurt them.

The Federation and the Hegemony might be convinced to stop any aggressions if enough civilians and non combatants were killed. But the Empire? Their motivations were much more focused on the coin.

“You’re far more stubborn than even the oldest drogar senator, you know that?” he snarled.

Silence filled the space between them. Just like the members of the senate below them, these two simply couldn’t find any middle ground between them. There was perhaps too much of a love for gold and a hate for loss that kept them separate.

Freya exhaled as she wondered what Lucifer would do. She realized that the situation needed more finesse. Going around wrecking things was certainly nice, but accomplished little in the long run.

“Fine, then how about this,” she said. “That loudmouth Konleth – the one you told me was behind the compound attack long ago... Tell me about him.”

“He’s a mouthpiece for the Sanguine Fundamentalists, yes,” replied Retholis. “Why? What do you want? You want to assassinate a senator? I don’t think I can-”

“Tell me who’s funding him and the rest of those fundamentalists. I’ll focus most of my attacks on their funders. This would benefit you as well, right? We destroy their capabilities and influence, you get control of the senate back.”

“That’s not much of a solution. The clan funding him is one of the empire’s most important military suppliers! If you go after them, it’s the same as going after those fabrication bays.”

“We’re at war, Retholis. You of all people should know that destroying supply lines is the best path to victory. I’m not going to stop doing so for your political convenience. Or for anyone’s. Now, are you going to give me the names, or am I going to have to raze every single clan in sight?”