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Fading MemoryAlexander Kherol
The High School Lecture Meeting
ANS Manfred von Richthofen. Conference room.
The room was tranquil quiet, as the last of the civilian crew members left the room to their next assignment or stood at attention by the door outside in case any issue evolved throughout the meeting. A meeting between some of the Ascendancy's most powerful men and women.
One by one the key members logged into the conference room, the time of arrival varied perfectly reflecting their personality. But despite everyone there, the Grand Admiral was still not yet content to begin the meeting.
"Uhh, still waiting on someone?" His captain Carina Sansonetti poked Alexander in his arm.
"Yeah. I didn't expect him for today, but why not let him join as well. He should be here any minute now."
A proud warrior and youngest man in active command in the Ascendancy military. Quite a peculiar fellow, but enthusiastic and very loyal. Kotaro Winterborn
Any Admiral in this situation in Kherol's fleet would be walking into their Grand Admiral's ship proud and eager to report their success. The Rebellion on Plenty was just about over, Their leaders gone, their soldiers outgunned and forced to surrender, and all while also rounding up escaped convicts from an unexpected crash landing of the most infamously secure prison ship on the entire Ascendancy fleet. There were a few escapees - some of which escaped right before his eyes - but he already sent two of his unit to chase them down and round them up as well, and third only to his fellow Admirals and Grand Admiral Kherol himself, the Paladins were those he had nothing but faith in the talents and quality of.
It wasn't a perfect, supreme victory, but it was a victory nonetheless.
Yet, it's been a while since Kotaro felt this down. Peaceful negotiations failed, the criminals stole from and killed innocent people who were already having a rough time trying to live peacefully amidst the civil war that transpired, and more soldiers and rebelling farmers died than necessary. Some of them died right in front of him thanks to that gun-slinging traitorous bastard, Joseph Albion, and he couldn't even capture them.
The other Paladins, particularly a trio of what can only be described as clowns wrapped in Dazzle Camouflage cloaks of Red, Green, and Blue, were essentially pulling a comedy act in front of him as he walked to help cheer him up, the shortest of which banged the other two's heads together to silence them, the yellow-cloaked boy appeared beside him as they walked.
"Look, Boss. I know this turned real sour after the fact, but you can't let it get to you, ok? We're only human after all, we all make mistakes, and we all can't always be at the right place at the right time." The boy said, before another cloaked boy, one with a Cyan cloak clearly around his late teens, looked towards him.
"But this is war, Crys. People were bound to die, whether they deserved it or not. Our Lord has to accept that, not just as a Vice-Admiral, but as a Soldier." He bluntly said. The yellow-cloaked boy, "Crys", simply looked disapprovingly at him in response, with a Magenta-cloaked boy also looking at them, holding up his hands as if to quell the potential fire that could ignite between the other two.
"I think what Seidon means is, be thankful we saved who we could, and mourn for who we couldn't."
"That's not-"
"A lot more people could have died from this rampage if it wasn't for you managing things in the place of that psycho. I'm almost certain he would have let those crooks steal from and kill those farmers and villagers if not for you taking command away. We did all we could and prevented the worst case scenario...So please don't beat yourself up over what you couldn't do, Lord Kotaro." He said, that gentle tone of voice you don't often find in soldiers these days.
"Talk over me again, Ein, see what happens!" the blue-cloaked Seidon said, a fearful smile on the magenta-cloaked Ein's face. The shortest of the clowns, about the same size as Crys, dressed in a green dazzle cloak, jumped up and slapped both Seidon and Ein to stop their little conflict. They were about to be in the presence of their superiors, after all.
Still, Kotaro couldn't help but crack a smile at his comrades...Seidon may have been blunt, but he and the rest of them said what needed to be said. This was a Civil War, the neutralizing of a rebel force made worse by the escaped inmates causing further havoc. People were going to die no matter what he did; he can't save everyone, but his actions kept further deaths as low as he possibly could.
"My oh my, I leave for about a day or two, and you lot are already at each other's throats. ...I suppose it is acting within your ages though." A voice said as the girl from before, Nuletta, and her partner Zebul, appeared to them as they walked. Well, not necessarily to them, though they were moving with them, they weren't moving a muscle, their translucent bodies simply floating still at the same speed as the rest of them. This is because they were holograms, moving thanks to a rail on the ceiling of the hall moving the projector to match the speed of the group.
Zebul was still covered in a white cloak, while Nuletta seemed to have placed a black cloak over her dress. Now, they both look like cultists...but she supposes the same could be said for the rest of them.
"Oh, Hello Nuletta, Status report?" Kotaro asked her.
"I arrived some time ago at the last location of our targets. It seems they made their way to the Galactic Bazaar. I don't quite understand why they'd come here of all places, but sure enough, I happened upon three of these lowlives already."
"Any trouble?"
"Well, aside from being unable to find the other prisoners as of yet, things were actually quite smooth, a certain someone had a beef with them and essentially rounded them up for us. ...Now I got your signal, what's this all about, M'Lord?" Nuletta replied.
"Grand Admiral Kherol arranged a meeting. He wanted us to come along for it. It might have to do with a report regarding what happened here."
"I see...Very well, If the Grand Admiral asks for us, we must heed the call. We don't have much of a lead at the moment anyways, and our targets haven't made their move as of yet, so the timing's quite perfect." Nuletta said. With that, all of them took a position side-by-side with each other, and moved onto the Conference room of the ship.
Eight of them walked in first, two lines of four with a space in the center, before each one made a step in front of the others, making the lines go from horizontal to outer-diagonal, looking towards the Grand Admiral and the other members of his fleet. They all took off their hoods, and bowed to them. Walking in last at the center was Kotaro himself, walking towards the front and saluting to the Grand Admiral and to those gathered here for the meeting.
"The Paladins have assembled, Sir!" Kotaro announced.
The Paladins of Kherol... A group of nine outright superhuman agents and enforcers, loyal only to their leader, Kotaro Winterborn, and to Kherol and any he deems worthy of loyalty. Unlike the other members of Kherol's inner circle, and save for Kotaro Winterborn himself, the paladins have no military authority beyond their agency to Kherol. They are rankless, and - with exceptions - are nowhere near the level of tactical or strategic prowess as Kherol's admirals. Instead, their role is to be the enforcer, hunters, and frontliners of his will and the secretive destroyers of his enemies. Under Kotaro's command, they often protect civilians from the shadows, and destroy elements that pose a major threat to them. Hence the name Paladin, they are essentially honorable knights who swore their proverbial sword to Kherol. It got to a point where they've become essentially an urban legend among the Ascendancy.
Each one was sired by Kotaro, and given a different name, according to their specialty, and under a pagan god of ancient earth as a symbol of what could be watching over them, and a colored cloak.
“Hmm. Just in time.”The Grand Admiral gave the nine individuals a nod to acknowledge their timeliness. “Come. You might have heard or even worked under these fine ladies and gentlemen.”
One by one, in a clockwise manner, the admirals and generals gave their introduction, to each the variety. Annette and Faro were just a quick nod/salute and stating their names, while Antony, the most gigantic in the room with curly locks, gave a rather elegant and extravagant bow, along with his usual flowery language. Lan introduced last, and she seemed rather itching curious.
“So you guys are the Space Circus, eh? Heard a lot about ye.” Was the first word out of her mouth after letting her names be known. The others immediately glanced at her as if she had committed some cardinal sin. “What? It’s true. Look at how colorful they are! A circus can still be good at its job.”
As strange as it was, the vanguard general of the fleet had never actually commanded any of them throughout the Rau’ve war. She’s heard stories, but a little rumor wouldn’t get in her way of making up funny comparisons. And she was filterless enough to let it echo. The same applies for everyone she knew.
“But didn’t you say this is an officer meeting? Are they involved somehow?”
“Well…” Alexander replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Not really. It’s kinda a coincidence that they’re here the same time as Kotaro, so it’s a good time to properly introduce them.” He then turned to the colorful collections. “You guys can stay if you want to.”
The Paladins nodded, saying “Sir!” in unison as military acknowledgement.
"Right, I'll cut to the chase so as not to waste your Friday evening." Alexander opened. "The rebellion on Plenty has been put down, the rogue remnants of Berkeley's fleet destroyed, but I fear that the crisis might not be over."
The admirals all exchanged glances at the statement. All except for the most hot-headed of the bunch.
"You mean more rebels? Sure. Tell me where they are and I'll collect their payments for existing!" Lan declared, slamming her hands on the table.
"Well, I appreciate the enthusiasm." The Grand Admiral chuckled at the joke, but he promptly calmed her with a handwave. "But we are not sure of the status. This is me extrapolating from gut instincts."
"Then what's the logic?" The coarse voice of the old general and instructor echoed, as demanding as ever.
"Two things. One is the dubious presence of this Windsor's Autonomous Trading Fleet. Their fleet size is quite, to be honest, concerning. And their attitude has been increasingly hostile towards the Ascendancy thus far. Lately, their members have been attempting to crash the stock markets of the Ascendancy. Now I know this is FAAARR from concrete evidence, but it's worth considering." Alexander said. "Second...well Kotaro go ahead."
“...So essentially, the tax was what started the wind, and some fools turned it into a storm.” Faro was silent for quite some time, summarizing the presentation for the others, who had now made themselves comfortable in their seats, before turning for Annette. “I assume you have this in our system.”
“Yeah. It’s new, but the intelligence sector is making progress with them. Hopefully we’ll have something soon.” Annette replied. “My and Kherol’s concern is mostly on that tax loophole. This is no religious or racial issue.”
“The system’s rigged.” Faro could not say he was surprised. If anything he should know this the best. “Anything else?”
If the first half of the presentation already took a while for Faro to compile and summarize, midway through the second, the commanders were visibly struggling to keep up. Lan was overwhelmed with the logical progression that her head was basically on her arm. Antony was throwing his legs on the table. Annette already knew everything and was just counting minutes on her watch at this point. Faro, the only one maintaining his elegance, was stoically listening and trying to put the rambling together. Alexander was the only one unreadable, thankfully as his eyes were never seen. But Annette could feel his unseeable gaze. She nodded quickly and stood up just as Kotaro finished.
“The abridge version is: This ship is deliberately sabotaged. In the investigation, we uncovered suspected connections to rebel organizations. Moonstrike, and maybe a gang of pirates. We’re not sure as of yet. So...”
The light-haired woman was in the midst of a hand gesture as she said that, and repeated it several times, staring intently at her colleague lying flat on her table on her flagship.
"So...from this I assume," Lan said, finally awakened from her stupor. "we will not be demobilizing our newest 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th any time soon." To Alexander and Annette’s nonchalant nod. "I mean not that we'd want to do it anyway."
"Yes and this would be a perfect excuse to stick it to the Senate." Faro smirked, a sideway glance to match his contempt.
"Ok, so to quickly cap this off...Lan, your work here is the simplest of us all." Alexander, too having felt the length of this, began with the one whom he knew were only good for the dirty work, but was really good at it. "Just get these green greens into real soldiers. Also keep the rest of your Battle Groups in top shape. Same goes for everyone here with a command."
"Aye." The general in question gave a salute, yet accompanied with an informal tone.
"Faro." Now to his most trusted chief of staff. "How long is it going to take the cartography team to materialize the operational map of the Ascendancy?"
"The Ascendancy..." The Old Guard bit his lips for several seconds. "Since info is a lot more up to date and transparent with Ascendancy maps, I would say 2-3 days."
"Perfect, as soon as it’s reaady, have them submit the maps to Antony, Annette." As their names were called, the other two stood at attention. "This is going to be tricky, but..."
Alexander reached for the computer panels and forwarded several files to the two individuals. "After the maps are submitted, you're going to formulate formal legislation. And make sure this doesn't die in the Senate House."
Leaving the two a moment to digest the whole thing, the Grand Admiral turned to Kotaro and the remaining Paladins and gave each of them a salute.
“Thank you for the report. You’re free to go.”
“Sir Yes Sir!” The Paladins all said. Nuletta and Zebul switched off the holograms and the Paladins - some aware of how the Admirals treated the report, some weren’t so - walked out of the Conference room, at least one of them seemed to be chuckling and cracking a joke at Ein’s expense. Not that he or Kotaro minded. Ein never really managed to read the room around him when it comes to his passion, this was known, and some- Seidon especially - saw it coming. In Kotaro’s case, it was more that he raised himself as to believe that he needed to report with as much detail as he could. Admittingly, it’s more become a habit than anything else.
In any case, with this report, the rebellion he has been witnessing for two weeks was officially over. As much as he wanted to stay and help the planet recover, it was best to leave it for people more capable… The farmers are likely not wanting help from him anyways after all that transpired. Besides, there were things he now needed to look into. As for the rest of the Paladins, except for Nuletta and Zebul, they were essentially on stand-by until he, Kherol, or any of his Admirals, had a need for them, choosing to make good with their moments of relief.
Meanwhile, the two commanders in the room exchanged glances with one another again as they read through the files. Annette was quiet, but Antony was visibly concerned. From a little head scratch, head tilt then a palm on his temple, the dashing looking flamboyant commander finally turned away from it and got serious.
"I won't lie, my dear Alexander." Antony shook his head as he leaned his hands on the table. "If there's any rumors in the Senate before that you're trying to buy yourself a crown, it certainly is clear now."
