Shards - Pt. 7
By Rob Davis

Nicols couldn't remember the man's name, but if PfannRich Blowhard mentioned his unit by name one more time he was going to have to take him outside and run him through.

"I must say Corps Commander Vandegaarten, the First Mira Brigade can't wait to take the fight to the Rach."

Then again Nicols thought to himself, if he killed the man he'd have to go home to change out of his bloody clothes. Besides, AnderSchdurmr Nicols Vandegaarten was fresh out of the Yvaaris War College in Weisburg and it wouldn't be proper for him to challenge a PfaanRich to a duel, least of all at the Chancellor's Summer Ball. The ball was the culmination of a week's worth of festivities here on Neuritter and someone of Nicols stature, with no title and no command, would normally have not been allowed within a hundred paces of the Chancellor's summer estate. Nicols had to admit that being the younger brother of the Rigel High Commander had its advantages.

Leon had been talking to Blowhard and two other senior officers while Nicols did his best to be invisible. He had been to scores of balls during his decade at Yvaaris, but he was always among his peers at those. Here he was not only an outsider, but an unproven one at that and thus he was content to follow in his eldest brother's shadow and bring as little attention to himself as possible. His brother was presenting him the opportunity of a lifetime though. Everyone wanted to meet Gruklein-Alzan Leon Vandegaarten of the First Rigel Abdeilusch, the warrior who held Raccod Pass against the Templars and if you believed the media, single-handedly won the Battle of Procyon.

Whenever Leon greeted another officer he sent empathic clues to Nicols, letting him know if the caller was someone noteworthy or not; clues subtle enough for Nicols to percieve with their shared blood, while others could not. He had already met a dozen men whom he would have to correspond with in a few days; thanking them for their kindness in making him feel welcome on Neuritter and letting them know how much he enjoyed their conversations, even if he hadn't done any of the talking. When next they met, they would remember who he was and which family he belonged to.

"You will have to excuse me Brigadier. I see someone whom I have pressing matters with." Leon stepped away from Blowhard before he could react and set a direct course across the middle of the ballroom, Nicols shadowing his every step. Their objective appeared to be a young AabersdSchurmr, who saluted smartly when Leon stopped in front of him.

Leon returned the salute and assumed the less formal demeanor due the current circumstances. "It is good to see you again Captain Roschlaan, I hope that you have been enjoying the festivities?"

"I have Sir." Roschlaan replied. "I must thank you again for extending your invitation to my weapons officer and myself."

"It was the least that I could do for you after the way you two performed on Dhin. If it weren't for you, those raiders would have bypassed us completely and loosed untold damage on the training facilities. Before we talk any more business though, I must introduce you to my brother."

"Ah yes, I'd noticed the resemblance. I was very impressed with your scores at Yvaaris Training Lieutenant Vandegaarten."

Nicols snapped his hand up in a perfect salute. Leon had nothing but praise for Roschlaan, which was why he'd assigned Nicols to his company, the Third Pfrin of the Second Rigel Abdeilusch. "Thank you Sir! I look forward to serving in the Third Company."

"You'll be in good hands with Captain Roschlaan, Nicols. The incident that we were just mentioning happened a few months ago. We received intel that a Rach mercenary unit was on its way to Dhin, the fourth planet in Rigel. Indicators were that they were going to assault several military and industrial targets. The Captain's recon company was assigned to our eastern flank and detected a small detactment trying to skirt our main force and strike at the local militia's training base in our rear. The Captain took his command section and hunted the Rach for six hours before finally cornering them against an unpassable river. The Rach outnumbered the Captain's section twelve to five, but unluckily for the Rach half of their forces consisted of Kharl gunships and the Captain was piloting a Sabertooth. He downed all six gunships while his section took care of the rest of the Rach and earned that Blood Dagger you see pinned to his lapel in the process."

Nicols could briefly sense Roschlaan's changing emotions; pride mixed with the slightest bit of embarrassment, but they quickly receded as Roschlaan reigned himself in. "I did my duty Corps Commander, nothing more."

Leon gave him a dismissive laugh. "If I had a division full of men who performed their duty as well as you I could present the Chancellor with the entire Rach Empire. You pay attention to this man Nicols and follow his example. He has a bright future ahead of himself and if you're lucky, he may just take you along for the ride." All three shared a subdued laugh at the Gruklein's weak attempt at humor, but the levity of his comment weren't lost on Nicols. An officer rarely moved up the chain of command past his commander. By assigning Nicols to Roschlaan, Leon had ensured that he would have plenty of opportunities to improve both his rank and title.

"May I intrude on your conversation gentlemen?"

The small group turned and found themselves face to face with the Chancellor of the Confederacy. For a split second, Nicols completely forgot the proper protocol for such an occasion, then the years of etiquette tutelage came rushing back to him and he bent in a low sweeping bow. Leon and AabersdSchurmr Roschlaan both saluted as was their right as Noble Officers of the Confederacy.

Leon presented the Chancellor with a slight smile, his lips closed to keep his fangs hidden. "Good evening my Prince. It seems as though you've saved us the inconvenience of tracking you down ourselves."

"Hiding from me is more likely Leon. I believe you still owe me two hundred Krooni from the last time we went hunting." The chancellor's face slowly transitioned from its usual stoic mask into a tooth bearing grin and both men broke out into the full laughter of old friends. Nicols knew their history well, but not all of the details. Leon and Chancellor Albrecht had served together in the First Nebunzee Brigade Group during the Galaxy War. They had been fast friends and had stayed close even after Albrecht left the service, but their relationship had soured as their stars changed.

When the Galaxy War ended, Leon started speaking out about some of the more disastrous decisions made by Ritterlich High Command during the latter days of the war. He believed that the Confederacy desperately needed to apply the lessons learned during the war to effect major changes in Ritterlich's military organization. The old guard needed to step down and competent men promoted to command positions, regardless of their social status. Of course the old men in High Command hadn't taken too kindly to the things Leon said and only his well-deserved reputation as a war hero saved him from being reassigned to some back water hole in the galaxy. Instead he was given a lateral promotion to command the forces at Crater, an important, yet fairly remote assignment away from Neuritter and Ritterlich High Command.

At the same time, Albrecht began his climb up the political ladder, supported by the same old guard that Leon wanted to get rid of. They helped skyrocket Albrecht through the lower ranks of parliament and eventually handed him the office of Chancellor of the Confederacy. It was only recently, after Leon was given command of the Rigel garrison and the two leaders were required to talk daily during their morning briefings that their friendship had begun to renew itself.

Leon quickly made introductions between his group and the Chancellor's, then led the conversation back to the recent skirmishes with the Rach. One PfaanRich in the Chancellor's group had an especially low opinion of the Rach, even though as far as Nicols could discern the man had never even met a Rach face to face, much less on the field of battle.

"I don't know how those big apes even fit inside a CAV.", exclaimed the PfaanRich with a fairly large nose.

"Cats, Brigadier" a nearby SchdurmBann spoke up.

"Excuse me?" replied PfaanRich Big Nose.

"Cats, Brigadier. The Rach evolved from cats, not apes." Nicols guessed that the SchdrumBann must be a friend of the PfaanRich's or else an extremely close assistant to publicly correct a superior in such a manner.

"Cats, apes, razorhorns… Does it really matter Colonel? They're still little better than animals. I'd be shocked if one of them could pass Fourth Year Applied Strategies at one of our academies."

"The only strategy that they understand is to rush straight in and create as much destruction as they can", piped in a Corps Commander, this one so old he looked as if he might keel over and die at any moment. Nicols had dubbed him Long Fang. He hadn't even needed Leon's emotional indicators to know that these three weren't worth remembering. They were exactly the kind of officers that Leon had warned him about; old men who dreamed of the days when Ritterlich raiding parties proved their superiority against unsuspecting Adonese fishing villages. Ritterlich existed in a completely different time now, a world consisting of hundreds of systems and dozens of armies the equal of any Ritterlich Brigade Group. If Ritterlich wanted to become the prominent nation in the galactic community it needed to change with the times and adapt, not hold on begrudgingly to the past. They were fools, all of them.

"If I remember correctly Sir, the Rach employed enough strategy to ravage Jig 92." Nicols hadn't needed Leon to point the new speaker out to him, every war college recruit wanted to serve under General Vilhelmz of the First Nebunzee Brigade Group. He also happened to be one of Leon's oldest friends and staunchest allies. "Not only was the damage estimated in the millions of Krooni, but nearly a thousand civilians were killed. Isn't your son assigned to Jig's First Brigade, Corps Commander? Perhaps you could enlighten us, were the First out-smarted or just out-fought?"

Long Fang's sputtering made Nicols want to double over in laughter, but he maintained his composure as was proper. Equal waves of rage and embarrassment rolled off of the old man, but the Chancellor intervened before he could form a retort.

"These very attacks are why many of you are here this week. The recent transgressions by the Rach mercenaries can not go unpunished. Confederate Intelligence has verified that all of the mercenary companies involved in the attacks were absorbed by the Rach Empire shortly after completing their assaults. Not counting the company that Corp Commander Vandegaarten's brigade group crushed. This absorption has led C.I. to the conclusion that the attacks were most likely at the behest of Emperor Mongkach himself, perhaps as early probing attacks to test our readiness. Using the forces while they were still licensed mercenaries simply gave the Emperor plausible deniability of any involvement.

"C.I. has also discovered that over the past few months the Rach have shown increasing military activities. They're definitely preparing themselves for a large operation of some kind and I will not allow Ritterlich to be the objective of that operation. As we speak, brigade groups across the galaxy are redeploying in the largest military maneuver Ritterlich has ever executed. In two weeks time we will have completely redrawn our front lines and be prepared to take the fight to the Rach in their own systems.

"We've taken care to leave none of our systems vulnerable, but have deployed the majority of our unassigned brigade groups to front-line locations. We will strike at Rach assembly zones in five different systems and destroy them before they have a chance to deploy against us. The Rach will not stand a chance against us!"

At the mention of unassigned abdeilusches, Nicols noticed Leon showing visible signs of anxiety. He could tell Leon was doing his best not to interrupt the Chancellor while he spoke, but he wasted no time once Albrecht had finished his speech. "These brigade groups Sir. They don't include those from Avalorr do they? Surely you haven't stripped Ritter of its defenses."

"Of course not Corps Commander," replied Albrecht. "Both the First and Second Graustein remain on Ritter, as well as one brigade in each state."

Nicols couldn't believe what he heard. Someone behind him actually gasped out loud. Only six abdeilusches defending all of Ritter? That was barely a third of the forces usually devoted to the continent's defense.

Someone in the back of the group voiced the question others dared not to. "What of the Adonese, my Prince? What if they try and take advantage of the situation?"

The Chancellor took on a posture that Nicols had seen hundreds of times during politics classes at Yvaaris, it was the same pose that Albrecht assumed anytime he gave a prepared speech in public, his body and mind in perfect harmony, perfectly neutral. "The Adonese are a minor concern to us at this time, gentlemen. C.I. assures me that all indicators show the Adonese are content to maintain the political relations we've shared with them since our alliance during the Galaxy War. In fact, many signs show they are trying to strengthen their ties to us. Twice in the past several months High Command has received requests from NADO to join them in multinational war games and readiness drills. Of course our situation with the Rach meant we had to regretfully decline, but I assured their representatives that we looked forward to a long and fruitful era of co-operation with the AEC." Albrecht let ample amounts of sarcasm creep into his voice and posture as he spoke those final words.

"No gentlemen, we have no reason to fear the AEC at all. Especially considering the defeats they have recently suffered at the hands of the Templars. Let us turn our focus on the Rach as need be. The galaxy needs to be reminded that no one assails Ritterlich without paying for it with their own blood. We will loose the Grand Fleet and the galaxy will watch as the Rach run in fear, scattering to the distant corners of the galaxy. Our brigades will grind their army under its tracks. When this campaign is done, Ritterlich will once again take its rightful place as first among the stars!"

A cheer went up from the crowd who had gathered as the Chancellor spoke, but Nicols noticed that more than a few refrained from joining in. "But tonight," continued the Chancellor, "tonight is a night of celebration. Please, return to your festivities and enjoy the evening." With that, Albrecht turned and walked away from the assembled officers, members of the High Command forming a perimeter around him.

Leon turned to face Nicols and Roschlaan. "Captain, find your wizzo and report to the ship in three hours. We're heading back to Rigel tonight. Come with me Nicols. You and I have people we need to talk to before we leave. I fear that my friend may have just doomed us all."

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