I was surprised.Not at my cousin’s audacity, no, not at the quiet yet eerily resonating support he received from the others who cowardly stood behind him, using him as a stick to beat out their frustrations about me or as a shield to guard them from my fiery wrath that had just descended upon Loup himself.No. I was surprised at myself.As words left my lips I was being as violent as I possibly would allow myself to be with family, distant as they were. Luciano hung by my side and the veteran generals hung by his, whispering things that were meant to reach me but didn’t.All I could hear was a piercing white noise, like a mosquito’s song but on stereo. Annoying. I felt like shaking him off me and rebuking his touch but yet…I was still. Still staring firmly at Loup whilst my thoughts scattered, bouncing off the insides of my skull. He looked prepared, like he’d made his peace with this being the worst thing that would happen to him, in fact, as I spoke the words he actually looked rel
I’d taken to camping with the men, even watching the skulking Verdantians on the other side of the border. One of the latest rifles in hand, some binoculars and a can of pringles.And I’d done so all against the wishes of Luciano and Matthias who’d heard about it from Luciano the moment I abruptly decided to stay in the rough with the men instead of flying back to the capitol.I’d let myself go. And it felt good. I gave no explanation to Luciano for my unwarranted skills in fighting because I didn’t care to and he could go on without knowing. For much of the time I’d been at the border I’d looked upon everyone with many feelings.Guilt, pride, joy, it was so much at once and I truly didn’t know how I felt at all. A reoccurring thought as I fought many of the strongarm men in spars and challenges was ‘What would I do if these men realize just like me that nothing really mattered. Least of all Schelar?’The answers I provided to the question sent chills down my spine. The Verdantians wo
At the declaration of war, the intel-ii chose the moment to reveal a particularly helpful feature.Its sudden ping blinded me with a whole lot of tabs as it usually did whenever I activated it and a sturdy, brown and spiked tab then floated in the middle of my vision.~Wars~I tried putting it aside to focus on the rest of Luciano’s report as it was the least translucent tab I’d come across but it wouldn’t budge. I had no choice but address the blaring red screen.The tab was split into different sections and like most things with the intel-ii it had information that seemed to go on forever, I felt I’d be looking very distracted throughout the meeting but with a skim of the tab it looked like it would serve me more to pay it my undivided attention rather than pretend to listen to Luciano explain how we’d been caught by surprise.“Luciano, I’ll get back to you on this soon. My orders are the same as ever. Defend.”I didn’t need to see his face to know he looked grim. As it was it would
“Are you okay?”The question was all I could muster up as I blankly and quite awkwardly stared at the ceiling on my bedroom. I’d delayed my flight to the lines for a few hours to attend to Miss Leriva as it seemed she would give way to a break down at any given moment and more than likely follow up with a spree of rather ill-thought decisions.In the end it seemed instead that I was the one to make the ill-thought decisions. For whatever reason, I’d taken her to my bed room instead of my office.“Are YOU okay?” she asked, I could feel her gaze on me from the other side of the bed, I could sense the worry in her voice so I looked to her.Her eyes now stood out and seemed to be all I saw whenever I gazed upon her. Her face though was twisted with concern; I could easily make a few guesses about what she was concerned with.This wasn’t supposed to happen.“I’m sorry.”“For what!” she gasped out, shuffling under the sheathes before sitting upright.I do the same, grabbing a pillow and pro
I couldn’t help but smile to myself.I’d long since left Aina back at the capitol and flown to the border at sofia, where technically all the action was happening.Needless to say, Luciano wasn’t at all happy to see me. This wasn’t what he had in mind when I said I’d get back to him. But his slack jaw wasn’t the reason for my mirth. I’d felt things suddenly become strained between myself and Aina and I knew very well I’d done quite a great job at pushing her away. But alas, it felt good to give in, it felt good to think her as someone I could crawl back to.But she wasn’t the only reason for my mirth.As it seemed the closer I was to the battlefront the more efficient the War tab was. I currently had Luciano as well as the other generals save for Loup present in the pseudo war chambers. The war tab had splayed across in a nice fashion a 2d-3d model of the battlefront that I could easily manipulate to my liking. Not that any of the others could see it, but they’d have literally no choi
Alex Fatah was a rather simple man. Almost as young as his internationally famous cousin Hasina, coming up at a close twenty-five he’d taken to enjoying his youth and the many riches and privileges that came with being so closely related with the Leader of a nation.In his opinion he’d be much better suited to running a business, perhaps a brothel, brewery or something that needed little supervision but reaped many profits.Unfortunately for Alex though, his opinion was not one held in high regard…by anyone. Not even his brothers. After they’d all been shoved into being generals for the army and worse as placeholders for the previous controlling position of Marshal that Luciano held, his brothers suddenly stopped paying him attention.In fact, he’d go as far as to say they actively avoided him. According to Loup, relation to him compromised the little success they had in getting into power like they wanted.Well how the hell was he supposed to know getting into power was a goal of man
Alex didn’t need any more proof. His thoughts and suspicions had all been confirmed.Loup was insane, coo-coo, cracked, bat-shit fucking crazy.“Kill Luciano!?” he couldn’t take it anymore. He’d jumped out of his seat and slammed his hands on the desk so hard all its utensils jumped. “Are you legit insane!”“Calm the fuck down, Alex, someone might hear you!” Loup rebuked in a hushed voice.Alex fell to his seat, reached into his desk drawer and pulled out and expensive looking bottle of alcohol and a shot glass. Pouring himself a glass he downs it in a go and rests his head in his hands. A wave of exhaustion washes over him as he glances a look at his fidgeting brother.“Do you really believe and I mean really believe. That killing Luciano would be a good idea for anyone to have?”Loup finally settled down and with a scoff he replied, “The Verdantians killed his parents and we’re fighting a DEFENSIVE war against them. I do-”“Yeah well the Verdantians have an entire military technolog
Loup had completely taken over the operation.Despite having left for Diana, he’d given his two brothers their duties and everything was in place for Luciano’s assassination as well as the beginning of the retrieval operation of the spies.Maxime had been sent to Nizar to initiate communications. The lines weren’t secure so they’d been brief with their talks. The orders were simple, find a way into the Verdantians army without dying or losing the package and an extraction will be arranged.“So a priest, a nazi and a lemur walk into a bar…”Alex groaned out, opening his eyes to the blindly light of the real world. He hadn’t stopped at one or two shots when he’d pulled out the bottle. Worse was, his brothers had stopped what they were discussing, Loup protested a bit but soon gave in to the tempts of beautiful, face-numbing alcohol.Currently he suffered a hangover. The throbbing in his head had become rhythmic, matching his heart and would have blended in nicely if every throb didn’t f
As usual, the Hospital was crowded and there were people waiting for one thing or the other in all corners. It was a good thing then that Alban had brought along his friends from the government then, with a flash of their badge and a silent glower, doors were opened and people made way.Marina’s room was set in the far end of the Hospital, completely closed off from the others. Alban wasn’t entirely sure why this was done but he didn’t complain.Entering the room, the first thing he observed was that it was a single man bedroom, Marina didn’t have anyone she was sharing the room with, perhaps that would have been different if he’d been injured as well.The second thing was marina herself, she had her hands wrapped up in sloppy bandages and had almost fallen over reaching for the pistol she now pointed at him. The dogs Alban had brought along shamelessly backed out of the room, choosing to stand outside rather than help diffuse whatever situation might be occurring.“Hello Marina.”“Al
Alban wasn’t sure how many days had passed since he’d been in audience with the President. But he was aware that he’d spent quite a few number of days under some observation of sort.His memory was sufficiently distorted that he didn’t care much about what had happened during that period, all he knew was that he was soon released to do as he pleased after they had stared at him day after day.Luckily, his memory wasn’t so distorted to forget the events that had transpired and once he’d been released he was intent to find his only surviving teammate, Marina.Before he could do so, however, he’d been quickly beset by more ‘Government Dogs’ as he’d begun to think of them. They’d been waiting for him the moment he’d been released from what he could only describe as a detention centre.The two dogs wore polished black suits and wore matching black sunshades, if Alban was the man he was a month ago he’d think the two just had a bad fashion day, but now vividly aware of the rot that called i
As soon as I’d given authorization the operation began in full force, my men knowing their responsibilities trooped out of my office to begin the operation in earnest, communicate to the troops and get them into offensive positions.From that moment to whatever moment I found myself either at the end of a gun or handing over terms of surrender to Leopold Marofo, began the most stressful days of my life.We’d given the order to begin the operation to the troops and all priority one regiments; Helgen, Peridot and Upsilon were set.Helgen had been given the order to move in with the rest of our men on ground and begin placing pressure on the enemy at one point in the theather, a point we’d marked as a soft spot.But the soft spot wasn’t as soft as the name implied, it was simply the least defended front with less close air support and rather non-existent bombers flying through as our squads advanced over their lines. That still left the men, their tanks, heavy artillery and often anti-ta
The vassalization of Verdantis was a thought that had only come into mind a few times. I think a majority of my Government, myself included was going on with the war with the thought that we’d be annexing the hell out of the bane of our existence thus far.But Niaina put up several good points as to why vassalization was much better than annexation.Firstly, it would be several times more efficient for the Government to administer the region through a puppet state than to attempt coring the entirety of the states with military rule and fear.“The Schelarian military would and should be put to better use than quashing rebellions.” She’d said. “The cost of maintenance of those armies would be the same as the current cost during this war. It is just not profitable to do so, especially seeing as it would take months if not year to effectively begin the taxation of the newly conquered regions. The deficit would kill the country and the Niluthiaians would break away.”Secondly, it would be
Discovering that I could control the emotions of people to whatever extent really suited my needs, but it made it a bit difficult to handle when all my test subjects either viciously began trying to attack me, fell asleep, or tried killing themselves.Yes, I’d finally tested out Pain-Infliction on with mental illnesses. It was the most difficult to control, it was like trying to fill up a shot glass with a giant jug held by only one hand. I felt a bit bad that some actually succeeded in killing themselves right before my eyes and even worse that they used my security as a means to do so.I’d learnt my lesson though and I arranged for an observation chamber, like an interrogation room but with less concrete and more fluff. For the tests I had to fly out to Sava, one of the few provinces we held onto after the first war with Verdantis. This meant the generals were on by themselves at the frontlines, but it was only for three days, Nizar had said it would take quite a bit of time to mass
It’d been a long day. Not unlike any of my previous days, I’d always be subjected to long hours, the position came with it. But today had an extra slap of stress set onto it.I’d spent an uncomfortable amount of time on the phone with Matthias, assuring him that everything was fine here and Luciano was completely safe. I’d beefed up his security several times and only authorized myself and a few doctors after running a background on them with the intel-ii.I’d taken to the idea that perhaps Luciano was in fact the target of an assassination. The explosion seemed too convenient for it to simply be an accident. The Verdantians may have found a way to get behind our lines, a spy of their own, an inside man, a traitor within the ranks even. Anything was plausible at this point.I then spent over twelve hours testing the War tab on its ability to coordinate my forces. It was a delicate mission and the simple part was rendering everyone blind.Nizar had long developed a bomb that not only d
They’d flown fast and high, everyone with two working eyes kept a look out for the Jeep Alban had mentioned. Meanwhile he only pretended to do search, his mind was clouded with so many conflicting thoughts. Thoughts of the state of his last surviving companion, Marina.Despite the both of them receiving the best first-aid treatment the troops could provide, she hadn’t woken up all the while thy flew, and it’d been a minute. He was also worried for his saviours; they’d spent some time searching for the vehicle behind enemy lines, he didn’t know how they could afford such at all, so he asked.“How are we still behind enemy lines? The Verdantians will surely be on our tail by now.” He questioned the Captain.The man shrugged, taking a moment to give Alban a look before answering, “It’s all on the President’s orders apparently. Some minister had us drop some large device at the frontlines before we left. It rendered all sensors and communication devices dark, except for these archaic Noki
Alban woke up with a splitting headache, if the red in his eyes and the ringing in his ears was anything to go about, his head had been injured. He also found through trial that his hands were bound.He looked down as he felt something heavy on his legs. It was Marina, they’d bound her broken arms together and thrown her into the vehicle they were in right now. Seems they went for capturing them alive anyway.He could hear them speak to each other, obviously pissed about all it took to capture them. Alban couldn’t help but feel a bit good about himself, they’d managed to fend off five military vehicles for over two hours in a rapid chase to the border.Suddenly, he noticed something was off. He didn’t see Daniel anywhere. He looked out the window and sure enough there were the other beaten up cars driving beside them. He couldn’t see into them from the left side of the backseat, so he went on and asked his captors.“What happened to my other teammate? Where is he?”His captors in the
He’d never felt the sun so hot against his skin. He was soaked in his own sweat and the dunes of sand he drove on slapped against his wet skin. He felt rather uncomfortable with the whole thing. But there were these moments where he didn’t feel like he was speeding across a desert, racing away from a horde of armed men and vehicles that sought to capture he and his companions. Companions that screamed at the top of their lungs as they continuously chucked grenades at their pursuers and fired their rifles blindly.He was in one of those blissful moments now. His mind was clear, without fear, and completely at ease and at peace with his predicament. He didn’t know how long the calming feeling would last before he went on to screaming his lungs out with his companions, so he was sure to appreciate it while it did.Whoosh. BOOOM.And that was a rocket launcher.“They’re firing rockets, ALBAN!! I told you we should have taken one!” Marina spat out.“They aren’t looking like they’re taking