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Unity Day Aftermath and the Drax Elections
Topic Started: May 12 2007, 04:03 AM (1,335 Views)
Draxis
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Alexander Drax sat in the center of the Senate Inquiry Room, the smaller structure's dome above him, displaying a massive mural depicting the March on Arrakan by Senate Forces which ended the Rule of the Tyrants of the First Drax Dynnasty. Alexander never really liked the mural as at its center a depiction of the beheading of one of his relatives surrounded by angry mobs which in truth never existed. I

In fact as the Drax Oral History taught to all members of Family Drax states it was much more of a private affair held in this very room. The "Tyrant" Vychas the first was dragged out wearing barbed wire chains, wrapped around his body in tight circles around his hands, chest and neck, he was forced to bend over the very table Alexander was sitting at which still bearing a slight smear he knew to be Vychas blood, and shot thirty three times with automatic weapons as the "Rightful" Senators watched almost in joy.

Alexander saw that video, and heard the story at the tender age of ten. At first he tried to close his eyes when the blood stained soon to be corpse of Vychas was dragged into the room trailing blood over the floor, when he was grilled by a hostile senate and forced to sign over the rule of Draxis to the Sentate relegating House Drax to less than a figurehead, but he was forced to watch as his father forced open his eyes and told him to watch when he tried to turn away or close his eyes. He then had to watch the video several more times over the next few days until what had happened had been ingrained so deeply in his memory, he himself could have lived through it. He then as was customary did the same to Anton at the same young age at the beginning of his indoctrination.

Alexander pondered his plan, and wondered his place in history, would he be remembered as a Tyrant at the fall of the republic, would he be fondly remembered by history as was Ceaser, or would he be relegated to the bogeyman of history as were many other Tyrants. This question was plaguing him of late as he had amassed close to enough support within the government and within the populace to finally strike the deathblow and finally redeem his family's name. He still remembered being told that the only reason he and the family still existed was because the Senate had made one crucial mistake when they were trying to kill House Drax, they had placed the decision to the people, albeit it reluctantly, as to what they wanted to be done with the Drax.

They had thought the people would move to kill off the rest of the family, and in fact they had prepared fro that and kidnapped most of the families and removed them to small shacks out in the country ready for their execution. But the people flush with power moved to let the House and Families remain as figureheads and only hold power within the sphere of Military affairs. Though they were weakened relegated to figureheads in everything the families knew what to do and who to thank for their lives.

They would play nice and play the Senate's lapdogs until they could have their justified revenge, and regain their honor. The feeling of this was a seething anger bred into him, and when he was first asked by Party Drax to run for Consul of the Senate he leapt at the chance, the ability to drive the thorn in their side deep and to create a wound from which they may never recover. Thankfully now the inquiry was not hostile, it was to look into the events as seen by him of the Unity Day Attack on the Citadel, and the Unity Day Massacre at the Harkon HQ.

The temporary leader of the inquiry Alekar Bolzher, into the events, which normally would have been Alexander as acting Consul, cleared his throat to continue what had been a long speech clearing House Drax of any wrong doing at the Harkon HQ as the Harkon had been found to be the aggressors and thanks to the large crowd the "Evacuation Attempt" had failed, "And now Consul, as you and your House have been found innocent of Inter-House crimes, do you have any closing statements about this event which have not been stated before in the previous four hours?"

"No I do not at this time, I believe that all evidence showed we acted as anyone would have under those circumstances." Alexander said.

Subdued grumbling was heard from most of the Party Harkon in attendance who were not on the Senate Jury.

Alekar raised his hand for silence from the crowd, "At this time may I ask all senators observing this inquiry and final proceedings to please remain silent."

The grumbling subsided briefly to a very low murmur.

"Excellent, now we are to open the inquiry into the events regarding the Attack on the Ducal Palaces..." Alekar continued relieving Alexander of his position at the central table.

Alexander took his place in the large box of stands behind the table, the light fell away from these seats, most people were able to sit in close to total darkness waiting for their turn to be asked questions.

Alexander heard Anton come in over his ear-piece he had placed on his ear, which gently moved the bones in his ear so only he could hear Anton.

"Father, I brought up files on all the Senators who we deemed as "Anti-Ducal" from this inquiry, it has almost matched up against party lines. Most being within House Harkon, or some of the smaller parties. We are processing names now, we expect to have their files ready in full by the time you return. And yes we do have clear visibility on you currently."

Alexander flicked back, "Understood, what is the remaining time that I am required here?"

Anton came in again, "About four more hours. And one more questioning, and because I know there is not clocks or sunlight in there, it is currently three in the afternoon."

Alexander could just make out Anton and his cadre's position high up in the secret Intelligence room that could only be seen if one knew where and what to look for. He sighed, most of this was just a circus to say the Senate was actually doing something about the situation. They had come face to face with an angry populace who felt threatened by such an obvious attempt at usurpation of the Ducal Throne. Alexander really did not want to be involved in this circus, he knew the verdict even before it started as he had been briefed by Party Drax who held an almost unchallenged say over the outcome. Some might say it was conflict of interest but the rules of Inquiry selection were clear it had to represent the division of Parties within the Senate and it did, with Party Darx in the majority.

Alexander could already mark out several of the targets he knew he would see in Anton's briefing and Information Reports when he went back to his office.

But the question for Alexander was now, where to read the files, in his office at the top of the Citadel, his work room on a slightly lower floor, his bedroom, or in his private dining hall. Well Alexander had four hours to decide so he could take all the time he wanted.

OOC: This RP is set before the War with Q. Just thought it bared mentioning.
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The Grand Duke took the reports in his private dining room. Really nothing he did not expect was in the reports. Most of those who were labeled as "Against" were under serious threat of not being elected again in three months time, they were not under threat from their bad policies or not serving their constituents, but because they were in the wrong party after the Unity Day Attacks. Alexander was sorting the reports on various senators into piles as he ate. He could barely notice the servers coming in and out replacing his food, they were almost an invisible mechanism moving food away when they knew he was done with his serving. Anton sat across from him at the table silently feeding him notes and once in a while exchanging glances. The Duke was mid way through the third course when he finally finished sorting the reports into piles.

"Anton,"The Duke said as he finally looked up form the reports pushing a pile at him," these are the senators who will more than likely win re-election. I want them removed from office or replaced after their victory. No sense dirtying our hands now while the press is sniffing the ground for anything reeking of scandal. That could hurt our plan this near completion."

"Yes Father," Anton said without emotion still unsure of the exact shape the plan was taking now after the Grand Duke had refused the first two offerings by Party Drax to have him be an incumbent Consul of the Senate for close to his fifth term.

"It is funny how some things never change" Alexander said pushing a small piece of chicken across his plate signaling it was time for the fourth course, "take for example all of this," The Duke motioned at the room elegantly decorated in the House colors, Green Draperies, the family shade of dark green, around the windows holding the family crest, the golden scales climbing the edges of the Venetian Red walls which appeared much more recent than the other furnishings of the room. "Almost everything here except the paint on the walls predates our unification. These servers, they have always been here, different people but always the same degree of perfection and devotion in all of them."

Anton eyed the eight servers standing at the walls, all female and all holding tightly pinned back hair with their bodies in the perfect form of youth wearing the servers robes with the family seal on the chest, as though he had just noticed them. While he knew this was not the first time he had seen them, he had seen many in his life and especially so in his adolescence and early adult life, but now he had just come to the realization for almost the first time in years that they were here by choice and served their needs unquestioningly and were the silent cogs of their lives.

The Grand Duke was still talking partially, but Anton was caught up in the realization at just how many cogs there were which helping ease his life. This though brought a smile to his face, knowing that in this entire nation there were those that would follow him unquestioningly.

"All of this, is our right, passed on by our fathers and their fathers for hundreds of years. All of this we get for free in our life, but someone out there had to toil over them, their crafting had to be just perfect for their liege and was an honor so great that they dropped everything else to make it. And that is why," The Grand Duke went silent as he was mid way through the fourth course, he realized he wanted only this next sentence to be heard by Anton.

Alexander flicked to those in the surveillance room to shut of the cameras briefly, the servers left silently and almost unnoticed.

The Duke moved Anton's attention to his hand which was communicating all that needed to be said, as if he were to speak them and if the Senate or anyone aligned with them heard it could be the doom of all their positioning and plotting for the past near 200 years. And that is why there will always be people like the Senate who wish to strip away everything we have, everything our family worked to achieve, everything that is our birth right to hold and to lead. That is why our lives are always in danger because of the power hungry who wish to steal, rape and plunder before their time is up in this world with no though to those that follow.

The Grand Duke started to speak again, the surveillance cameras also went on as he started to speak again, "To those types of people the long view of the world never applies They never see how fluid and temporary all they have done is and will be."

Anton agreed with this sentiment that the Senate was essentially a group of criminals, rapists and thieves who had plundered long enough. But he knew that his time would herald great changes in Draxis more than likely not involving the Senate if everything worked. "All that aside father, you have the party heads outside again pleading that you run as consul, and Sigmund is currently in his private dining room and asked that you see him some time later tonight. Probably involving asking if how the rebuilding of the Head Quarters in the city is going... but we all know that he just wants to leave the city for the other place."

"Yes send in the party leaders, and inform the cooks they have the rest of the night off, their Corrin Chicken was excellent tonight. See to it they receive some sort of commendation for excellence." The duke said wiping his lips with a napkin.

"Yes Father." Anton said as he got up from the table, almost instantly the servers had placed two more chairs to accommodate the extra company.

Anton had just moved outside the door when the duke looked over at one of the servers, "See to it that my guests have some of the leftover Corrin Chicken prepared for them, and a sampling of tonight’s appetizers. After they leave you can have the night and most of the morning off as I will be having a late breakfast tomorrow."

A slender woman wearing the servers robes with her seemingly bleached blond hair tightly pinned back replied "Yes m'lord Duke." The table was silently cleared without the clinking and clatter of plates and silverware, and then restocked only Alexander did not have table placements in front of him.

The three men came into the room, all strode confidently, but Alexander could see desperation in their eyes. This stage was set, they no longer expected him to do anything, they now needed him to hold onto the consulship. The last two months of bargaining like this in three separate meetings had given Alexander the edge he needed. Now he was not the Parties man, he was his own, and they needed him. He could see it. It was now he made the decision that he would allow them to experience his gracious acceptance of their offer, but no longer would they make the terms, he would make his own terms for accepting this. But that would be in an hour, now he would just string them along, let them eat their fill and have a few drinks then and only then would he start to talk seriously about accepting this. The iron was hot for the striking, he could see only one or two more consulships before his part in the plan reached its peak and it became Anton's plan. This was a necessity in the long the view his family took of life and plans one year in their scope was nothing five was the blink of an eye, his plan was his fathers, which was his fathers, which was his fathers dating all the way back the the successor of Vychas in the early days of the senate when the family was at its weakest. Now the story was different and finally honor would be restored to his family and the great families of Draxis. Even the Harkon had a part to play in the plan, they just did not know that they were in it.
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Sigmund walked around his room impatiently, even though it was fit for any member of a royal bloodline, and to many would have been an extravagant and luxurious room, but to him it was a prison, he knew he was closely monitored, just about everyone was closely monitored in the Citadel. But he could feel the eyes watching him, even though there were no cameras visible to the naked eyes he knew they were there. He was waiting for one of his aides to return from their temporary HQ a floor down, the Grand Duke had been "Gracious" enough to provide them with. He did not allow any of the high level traffic to go through that glorified routing center though, it was all monitored obviously. and even if they only caught half of a high level conversation that would be too much. He was under a form of house arrest, most of his days were separated from his House and Party where, before his capture in the crumbling dying city of Voryan, he had been inseparable. The only reason he still held onto his position of the Head of all House functions was because he was the only thing keeping a ravenous population at bay by showing that he and the Duke were working closely and as though their historic friendship had resumed again.

Because of this his house was not run out of the country by an angry populace. Sigmund knew one thing, that he could have been killed by the Duke that day in Voryan, the duke had enough reason to carry through and remove a thorn from his side, and when your in a city that does not exist... how can you die there. But now he spent most of his time studying his enemy, seeing how soldiers moved when the change of the guards was, when drills were run in the exercise yard, when meal times were, and how often high level guests arrived. He had asked to see the Duke tonight but he knew that would be another hour at least if he were to come, the Duke always made him wait as a show of how unimportant he was.

The faint din of a television was in the background around his usually dark room. His aides were taking longer and longer to relay information to him these days. In his mind they were becoming as bad as the duke himself. He was starting to hear about events in the news before his own House relayed most information to him, but it was good for the House that way, at least their actual HQ was still secret and secure, so this show of faith and brotherhood did not have anything serious flying near it.

The television was on the Drax News Agency, a channel no better to him than a stream of propaganda from either House or Party Drax. Mostly he found some of their news to be unbiased but they really laid it on the Harkon when they had the chance, most of their international news was regularly unbiased unless it was involving nations considered to be unstable, an embarrassment to international politics or ones that seem to string along an array of faceless and characterless politicians as their presidents or prime minister. Then they tended to take pot shots at them equal to character assassination.

The aide finally arrived, the light from the hallway pierced the self made darkness Sigmund was living in, "Sorry to be late sir but Party Drax just announced that they are intending on putting the Duke up for Consul of the senate about an hour ago. they basically just ensured their dominance in the electoral cycle as most people will vote Drax if they think the candidate will agree to place the Duke as Consul."

"Damnit," Sigmund muttered, house Harkon finally had a good candidate that could beat just about anyone other than the Duke in elections. He was a strong populist, but the Duke and his populist leanings and his recognizability would just make the elections a cake walk for the Drax Party.

Sigmund continued after a small sigh, "Well, any word on how long it will take for our new House center to be built?"

"None yet sir, do we have any hope in your mind in these elections?" The aide said.

"No, the Unity day fiasco which thanks to them," Sigmund pointed at the television tuned to the Drax News Agency,"the whole event looks like an attempted take over, hell to them it seems like the Duke fought off the attackers with his bare hands."

The aide cracked a slight smile at this, "Though, I know you won't accept it, we were offered one of the Drax Winter palaces during the summer reconstructions, its about 10 kilometers up the river from here, and while you would probably still have the same restrictions placed on your movement it may be a... better, change for you and many of us down stairs. And I don't see why you even watch the DNA..."

"To see how they think! To know just what lies the people are fed each and every day! Know thy enemy. And what better way to know him then to know how he thinks and his beliefs. Thats why, and I do think a move and change of scenery would be good for all of our health. When our Harkon district is rebuilt, then we will move there. But make sure that it is clean before we do."

"Yes sir," the aide left the room as Alexander Drax was making his way up the stairs and towards Sigmunds room.

Sigmund sighed with a resigned "Typical" hiding somewhere under his breath. He was under house arrest and all his staff could think about was moving slightly up the river to a more out of the way position.

Sigmund went to the bar in his room and started to mix himself a drink, slowly pouring in the alcohol over the ice, mixing in a few other flavors, when it struck him, that trapped feeling, it was not like any other feeling he had felt before during his confinement. Now he felt as though blinders were placed over his eyes so he could only see a small amount, and strings attached to his arms surrounded by a web, he could feel it, Alexanders web. He could not make out the shape or size but he could feel it just coming into focus. It was his plan everything he was doing to Sigmund, the Drax, why he was running yet again for Consulship... and then as suddenly as it came, the feeling was gone. Alone in his dark room, drink in hand, Sigmund wondered what exactly Alexander was doing, or not what he was doing but how he was doing it. Sigmund did not know the answer or even the question, but he knew what he felt, and he could almost see his redemption in it. Almost.
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Deep in the catacombs underneath the Senate Complex...

Light flickered in the darkness, there was near zero electricity in the catacombs, these had been built in the early days of Draxis before the unification back when the Senat Complex and the grounds that now housed the Citadel were the large winter palaces of House Drax, most of the House had been situated in the North but their official Seat was in Arrakan in Winter and Summer Palaces. The Winter Palace was the original building that had been transformed over the years into the Citadel a massive military and political powerhouse for House, Party, and Family Drax. The Summer palace now housed the Senate complex and its catacombs, the large former wine and food storage cellars.

It was here somewhere deep in these catacombs a group of five men stood waiting for their sixth member. They were all high ranking members of the Senate many had been there close to thirty years, some had been there before the seventy year depression.

"Where is he damn it, I have lived to long to have to wait this long for a meeting." Anatoly Gerlukovich said.

In Latin: "Peace Anatoly, he will come, or he will betray us all. We have come far, but we still are not whole." Lisko Jonsovich testily replied.

In Latin: "If Caeser were alive you'd be chained to an oar. How dare you ever attempt to tell me to hold my peace when someone could get us all killed. In my day people like Joliko would never have been allowed to enter the Senate."

The sounds of slow plodding footsteps moving towards the group echoed throughout the catacombs, "Do you now see why I chose the catacombs as our meeting place, if there were more people, we would have heard them and had time to flee. He is a good five minutes away."

Lisko and Anatoly eyed each other hiding their dislike of each other while waiting for Joliko to arrive.

Minutes passed in silence as the men stood around waiting for him to arrive, Joliko finally came into view and walked up to the group calmly like he was not late brushing off any questions about where he was simply by mentioning he had duties to perform that required his presence.

Lisko clapped his hand bringing the group to attention, "As you all know my party and the party of many of you here just placed The Duke back up for Consul. I and most of you argued against this measure and even the Duke hesitated, but certain members of our party who will go unnamed saw to it that he had to run again. This means that he will be up for his sixth term as Consul, he will after the elections have the power to strong arm anything he wants through the senate. Several of you are from other parties but as we all are part of this republic I believe that many of us can see that we may have entered the twilight of the republic. We may have another Caesar on our hands."

Anatoly then spoke, "As we have seen throughout history rarely are republic overthrown with a grand march on the capitol, here it will be the same, there will be no march like Mussolini's violent suppression of critics and outright murder, or Hitlers burning of the Reichstag. It will be a much more silent thing where the Senate slowly hands over power until it has nothing left to give to that family of tyrants. And then they would just brush it aside. And that is why Lisko and I called you here, we need to have a cabal of senators who will do everything to guard the republic and the people of Draxis from madmen like Alexander. He would wipe us away if he could do it."

Oleg Klaschin spoke up, "Yes, you are right, he would be the doom of us, and it is our duty to protect the republic even if it means our deaths. Our Senatorial rings represent that oath to uphold the values and laws of the republic," The last part in Latin, "Death to Tyrants and death to all who enable tyrants."

Lisko held up his hand to silence the men who were now chanting "Death to Tyrants" in Latin, "Enough, right now if we were to remove him from office permanently it would not help us, first we need more members, at least six more, and if we were to go through with his permanent removal as a threat to our state, and of course the all important tyrannicide would have to be declared after his death, not only would it make his death legal, but it would strip his family of nobility and all their belongings removing any further threat from them. We were not allowed to declare Tyrannicide after the last Tyrant was killed and it only delayed the problem.
now we must be the forefront of this movement, find any and all people who are not following him like sheep and find out if they would join us. This is all that I believe had to be said, if we all have nothing more to say we can all leave."

The men all looked around at each other in silence, nodded their heads in silence and left the catacombs.
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For Sigmund the hours since he left the Citadel creeped by at a seemingly ever slower rate. This is why he, like most Drax, preferred to use helicopters for long journeys unless their car (if they were lucky enough to have one) was needed.

He was still not sure of what happened, but the steady thunderous march of boots rang out all over the citadel, he, like most of his staff, was awoken late at night from a sound slumber. He had been informed he had five minutes to pack all of his things he was being moved.

After that ordeal they were all rushed into government vehicles and escorted out of the city. At first he had hoped that it was out towards Corrin city, it sadly was not.

Instead he was going north, maybe they had past the ruined city of Voryan, maybe not, he was not sure where they were.

It had been over 16 hours maybe 18 since his last meal, he knew they would have to stop sometime to eat. Even the guard sitting up front promised to inform him of something when they reached their stop to fuel up before they reached their destination.

They had stopped for gas before but he had to stay in the vehicle. Something was clearly up, and most of the men were of Antons personal cadre.

Several more hours passed, until finally the convoy pulled into a small out of the way eatery off the main highway.

"Alright everyone can get out, we are here fro the next twenty minutes. At which time we will all leave change vehicles and take the last leg of our journey. We know this has been long, especially because we are avoiding all highways and other major traveled routes. But we have no choice. Lets move people." The guard who was obviously in charge of everything said, high ranker in Antons cadre...

This man must be a monster or at least capable of it if he is ranked this high under Anton. Sigmund thought.

Everyone was rushed into and sat down at secluded tables, blinds drawn completely, the high walls around the booths and tables concealed their existence. Out of sight out of mind.

Large bowls of steaming hearty soups were slid in front of all the guests, none of the guards were served or ate. They all still held their stern disciplinarian faces exuding their authority.

Sigmund glanced at the lead Guard in between sips, waiting for him to divulge anything. His curiosity was raging. though in the deepest parts fo his mind he thought that maybe he was being executed, as he no longer had worth the the Duke now. And placing that in human son of his in charge of it seemed like something he would do.

Sigmund remembered hsi childhood, he grew up with Alexander and they were near to best friends back then until around age twelve or ten it seemed the humanity of Alexander was beign drained from him. His personality become colder, and his thoughts seemed to look much more brooding. Ever since he went through indoctrination it seemed to change Alexander at the core. Sigmund was not sure of what they did exactly but it was something that altered the very core of humanity, warped, twisted and changed it to an "Any End Justifies the Means" mentality.

Sigmund finished his first bowel, and another was brought quickly to him, the guard in charge of this started to speak, "Now that you have had at least something to eat you can focus on my words. I will say this only once, no questions will be asked by you, when we arrive at our destination you will be presented with the information, but for right now ignorance is bliss. But a very close ally of ours just underwent a military coup. Nothing about the state of the leadership, or how much blood was spilled has been released. All royal families and royal bloodlines are to be dispersed across the nation just in case it turns out to be a hostile regime. Now get back to your food."

Sigmund nodded, nothing was certain but at least he was given something. Right now Draxis had no close allies, other than Quaon. If they fell he understood the ramifications, especially if a hostile regime emerged. That would be a near slap in the face to the Duke and the nation.

How I wish the simple days of the Catholics would return. Why do they always seem to collapse when you need them the most.

Sigmund remembered something Alexander had told him many years ago during his indoctrination, "For all their faults, the Catholics are a stabilizing force in Europe, no one near them dares to move and leave themselves vulnerable."

The remaining drive took six more hours, and finally he arrived at some of the Drax Family Winter Estates in the north. No doubt he would be watched as closely here as in the citadel, especially with Anton taking a keen interest in him it seemed.

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It had been many months since the Battle of Unity Day, but Anton had not shaken a nagging feeling since then. It was the man he found in the guest quarters. Months had passed and yet everything was a dead end with the corpse before it was cremated. Anton had sent out an edict to find out whoever this man was or any information about him. Every person who is born or enters or exits Draxs is logged and tracked. If he needs to find someone in Draxis it usually takes upwards of an hour at most.

But this corpse he had, it was as though it had just dropped out of the sky one day and never walked a foot in Draxis until the attacks and he magically appeared in the Citadel.

he found nothing, no DNA records of parents, families or relatives. No facial comparison matches, nothing.

He had even tried to use less than savory contacts in the Drax Underworld. Those people who can find anyone period. And still nothing. They were just as baffled as he was. HE had several small Cabals of operatives looking for this man, both in Government Organizations and the Criminal Elements his family had close relations with.

At first they sent near daily reports, never turning up anything new, just the same old reports of nothing, or the occasional recognition by a citizen. But never anything substantial.

And soon the official Drax Operatives were withdrawn. And then most of the para-government forces, soon the entire search relied on one man Niko Gradenko. Niko would not give up on the search. And while he searched he still got a stipend from an unnamed account and an unnamed customer. But he would not give up the search, nothing before in his time doing what he did had someone quite as eluded him as this dead persons identity.

All the interaction, reports and payments were done via Proxy, Anton never met Niko, and Niko never met Anton. It was better this way, plausible deniability for Anton if things got messy, and for Niko he could easily say he worked for no one when dealing with people who were less than favorable to the government or the Aristocracy of Draxis.

It was a fair deal that worked for all ends. Anton had his continuing search for the person who was the unknown corpse, and Niko had well paying work.

----
----

Niko was at home resting, relaxing, letting the world fade away. Everything in his life had become so complicated that month, he had not slept in over three days, two members of his family were currently lying in pools of their own blood, one of the people responsible for it was in the hospital near death and yet so near life. And the other... he was an unknown, Niko would find him of course, he just needed to think.

The light creeped through his blinds and into his dark apartment, ceiling fan whirring into oblivion.

Out of the corner of his eye he kept the door in view, hand slipped under his pillow holding his gun. Some would call Niko paranoid at this point. But to him it was just being prepared.

Staring at the ceiling letting his fan go he faded out and away, all he knew next was the ringing of his phone, and the sudden lack of natural light. It was not night but maybe early evening at most. Sometimes it was hard to tell evening from night from his side of this apartment building.

Trying to wrench away sleep as he answered the phone, "Yes?"

"Niko Gradenko?"

Niko responded to the voice, obviously a customer, but still trying to shake his paranoia and his sleep induced mental block Niko answered yes.

The voice started, "I represent a group, a group with a vested interest in finding out who a certain person is. Would you be the right man for this?"

"Alive or dead?" Niko replied coldly.

"Very, very, dead. It does not even appear in government data bases. Or records of any kind. If you can perform this task, meet me at Unity Tower in two hours time."

"But isn't Unity Tower closed at this moment?" Niko asked.

"I'll inform them to allow you entrance. Two Hours."

The voice hung up.

Niko was left in the dark wondering if it was just a trap or an actual job. Niko had just under two hours to decide whether or not to take the risk.
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Up high in the Citadel the tides of war seemed distant to the regular Drax citizen. From what they saw the royalty were acting as though nothing had happened while the meadia started to beat the slow plodding drums of war.

But what the public saw and the reality could not have been starker, Alexander had just gotten back from his "meeting" with Great Russians new self proclaimed Tsar, and Alexander was already laying the groundwork for the justification of the war. In a small meeting in his Ducal offices He, Anton, several generals under Anton and the owner of the Drax News agency.

The lighting in the room had been turned low casting shadows across the members faces as the sun hung low on the horizon mere minutes before sun set. Everything in the room that was not essential had been dimmed or completely covered, as the meeting began, a small plate of appetizers was served to each member and glasses full of water with many pitchers placed near the center of the table. This was going to be a long meeting, and they all knew it.

"Gentlemen, I believe we can begin our meeting now." Alexander said coolly, his face a mask showing no emotion, "as you can see we are prepared for a long meeting, and our chefs have prepared upwards of seven courses I am told."

He motioned that they could start dining, "I have just returned from a meeting with the 'Tsar' of "Great Russia' and it was," Alexander chose his next words incredibly carefully not wishing to even hint at the boiling rage inside of him, "Less than productive."

Some of the men around the table grimaced, they had learned over time just how to read him to find out what he was thinking, and the cold inflections on those last words sent chills down a few generals spines.

"The man is obviously in less than a stable position of mind. And seems obsessed with race, going so far as to draw false conclusions about himself and his state based on their 'slavic heritage' alone. War is not inevitable but favorable for us and our cause. Every day they exist is a black eye to our continued presence internationally. You all know the details of our former relationship with them, I have no need to go into it. What I want from you are ideas of how to stir up the populace into a war mentality. Which is why our friend from the Drax News agency are here."

Vladimir Duloshkoy gave a small bow of the head in acceptance.

Anton picked up from where his father paused, "And we all know that if we were to declare war now the Senate would never agree and would quickly end anything we did. Their goals are simple, stagnation, decadence, and the slow decay of our power. Just look at where we are now, not even a shadow of our former glory, and none of the nobility we used to hold. This war could be a good starting point to regaining that power."

When Anton appeared done, Vladimir spoke up, "I know we can help there. I'll inform the editors of a change in our message and see if we can subtly rack up the drumbeat for war. We will continue doing it until the public is demanding the war take place and the Senate has no option, especially with elections so near." Vladimir gave a confident little smirk, deeply satisfied he could provide such a role for the Duke.

Alexander kept his emotionless mask, "Naturally."

Vladimir's smirk faded faster than it had appeared.

Anton motioned to the generals to announce their plans for the defense of Draxis in case of an invasion and for the preparations for war. One of the CCTV monitors was moved within line of the meeting table and their plans and ideas flashed across the screen. All of the plans were variants of their plan for the defense of Draxis against any Catholic aggression from the south.

Fresh coffee was brought in after the second hour of defense screenings and debate.

Finally the eighth course was served sometime past midnight and quickly encroaching on one in the morning. When the meeting finally started to grind down.

Everyones positions had been worked out, and the Drax News Agency knew exactly what to do and how to do it for the creation of a war that would help rejuvenate Draxis as complacency was a states worst enemy.

And all this would be choreographed to the steady unrelenting sound of drums. The Face of Draxis had its first major change in over 150 years. It was the first signal of the new era and the first warning sign of a major shift in power.
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The meeting had been over for hours, but still two men sat in the Ducal offices, while the Ducal quarters were still higher in the tower, the offices were as high as many of the highest ranking officials in Draxis would ever go.

But these two men sitting there now all these hours later were the Father and Son of Draxis, Anton and Alexander Drax. And their attention was on a much, much more personal matter and concern of theirs.

Sipping his tea the Duke had to make sure his orders had been followed. "Anton, did you release Sigmund as I ordered, I see his offices in the tower are empty, but a significant portion of the palace guard are still away."

"Yes Father, Sigmund is free to his own whims and will. And those men are of my personal cohort, they all requested time off to see their families at least one more time just in case they were needed in the war." Anton said.

Alexander could easily tell Anton was not telling the whole truth but rather a rosy colored version of it, that he would find pleasing. The line of his face and eyes did not look right for one supposedly recounting facts.

Alexander sighed over the hot steam in his tea, "Good, that is one problem I did not want to deal with, even though I regret having to release him, I do not want his blood on our hands if the war comes home and he is killed under our supervision. That of course would break the convention, and many senate laws relating to royals. All of which you already know. Said happening would be a disaster for us, politically and probably destroy any shape of our future plans for now."

Anton said blankly, "Yes father."

Inform Anya to investigate his cohort, and see where they moved... Anton is definitely up to something. The Duke thought.

Alexander let the silence pass between them a little while longer, watching Anton thinking mulling, and planning. Anton was definitely not wool gathering, he had plots and counter plots and ploys and feints, the war had not yet touched his mind yet. One does not teach their student for near twenty years in the rigid, some might say dehumanizing, indoctrination of the Drax Grand Dukes without being able to read their student just as student can read their master.

"How is Octavian doing Anton. Is he near ready for indoctrination yet?" Alexander said breaking the tense silence.

The sentence broke Antons string of thoughts he had placed together, he would find the Harkon base of operations, hidden for all these years no matter how many laws he had to break to do it. After all he was above the law, and if they said he was not, he would make or change a law to place him above it. But that was all broken with Alexanders jab, straight at his plans as there could be no other plans than Alexanders own.

"He is well on his way, another six months I presume. Though I will wait until after this war is over with, I want him to see the errors of that failed state loud and clear when I start his indoctrination." Anton replied the tips of his words biting cold.

"Excellent, but now I must change the subject, your sister uncovered what appears to be the source or destination for a substantial amount of power outside a mid to large sized city out west. Not surprisingly a Harkon Stronghold. Not their former House Chair city, but a different one, seemingly far away from our eyes. I'm going to assign you a few units of my men, you will be going as an "Inspection Tour", I want you to see if you can explain any of this energy."

Anton nodded, the Duke flicked him the message that he was allowed to leave.

Anton got up and slowly left the room an air of menace drifting after him.

It is a shame that in one of the three endings to my life, that the tip of my own sons knife has to be one of them... but it is tradition for us Dukes to die at the hands of others. If I wanted a natural death I would go into exile... the Duke Sighed to himself and slowly finished his tea before leaving for his own bed which had remained empty since the death of his wife all those years ago, while he could have easily replaced her with any number of other nobles... his path he knew, since that day, was one to be walked alone.
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When Niko finally finished the meeting with the "representatives of a 'large' interest" he was shocked with what little had had to start on for this paycheck. He would of course be given a stipend monthly from his 'source', but still, he barely had barely a photograph of a living person from the Palace, and a few ones of the corpse. But nothing he could really use, nothing substantial. The only real information they gave him was, "we believe he may have been a member of House Harkon, may have been at some point in time..."

Everything about this seemed a little off, as though he was given a puzzle, but all the pieces were blank, and none of them were edge pieces with many of the pieces missing. He let the night air wash over him, sometimes he found it strange that if he had bothered to take a car he would have had many more ways of being watched or followed than when he took the metro. At this time of night, just before the Metro closed down for its nightly maintenance, the metro was near empty. While owning a car in Draxis was no longer such a statement of class or work, many still preferred the metro. It was fast, cheap, and they were used to it. Anyone that had grown up in Arrakan had the metro map near memorized. Most directions relied on Metro stop names and not street names when they were given. And when the Inter-City Metorpolitan came into being at the beginning of Grand Duke Alexander's reign it probably helped boost the popularity of the Metro.

All roads in Draxis end up leading to Arrakan. And as such many Drax find themselves ending up there at some point in their life.

Niko sighed as his train rolled to a stop, one other person was seemingly asleep in the corner. Niko chose an opposite corner and holed up in one of the seats. Four stops until he had to change trains over to another line. He counted them down, three, two, one, there. He made a quick move out the doors only noticing that the other person had stirred and moved out as well.

Niko quickly sized him up, foreign features, well worn clothes, long ragged hair. Possible threat.

Niko moved to his next line, the other followed, Three stops and then a change to the LRT, two stops then. Metro shuts down... but what if this other person follows... what if he is here to kill me... Jesus.... did I just say that?Niko thought, wondering if he had just said his train of thought. Looking into a mirror that lined the ceiling he saw the other seemed to take no notice, No, no, he would have noticed if I was muttering to myself... I'm just being paranoid, just a little shaken up after the last few days. Just a little paranoid. Remember what happened to Mischa, paranoia gone to far destroys the soul and the body.

Niko felt a small amount of relief to see the next line come into view. The train had not arrived yet, so he only had a few minutes wait.

Never sit with your back to any door. A random incomplete thought popped in and out of Niko's head. now where do I remember that from. Good advice, especially in times like these, but where did that come from?

Niko escaped into thought for a while, remembering his early days as a runner for his family, not from there, maybe as his days as an enforcer, nope, as a collector? Yes, it must be something I was told back then, must have been.

The train started pulling into view when Niko came back into awareness, he noticed he could not see the other person... doing a quick survey he noticed the other blissfully leaning up against a cylindrical advertisement near the main exit of the platform.

If he is after me, he is not from one of the main families, they would have just done me rather than run around chasing me. So he is probably not a threat. Just some other night owl.

One stop passed, and as they reached the tunnel portion before they came above ground and to the next stop the other guy got up and faced down the hallway of the car. He stood there, seemingly at the edge of a great wave.

"I love the calm before the storm, don't you Niko?" the other said.

Why must I be right when I get paranoid... why?

Niko said nothing but slipped his right hand over his gun when the passed a particularly rough stretch of tunnel.

"I thought about getting you when I first saw you get on the train, but no... I had no clue where you were going then. And then again at the stop... but then, too many cameras... but here I realize where you are going... back home, where I had just gone and waited. I have waited long for this day."

Damn revenge freaks, too hopped up on the idea of the monologue before anything happens thanks to films and television. an idiot with a gun is just as deadly as a professional with one though...

Niko moved his gun into a better drawing position.

"Whats the matter, don't you even want to know who I am, or why I am here. How you ruined my life? How you destroyed what little I had built. Won't you say anything?"

He sounds desperate... god damn, why can't they just move on. Business...

"Not really," Niko said,"I don't really care, and whatever happened was just business. You vengeance freaks are all teh same, taking your business way too personally. May we just get on with it, I'm tired enough as it is without your old and worn out speeches."

Niko stood up and fired off a quick shot into the mans hip. Howling in pain as he fell backwards the other man fired off a few of his won wildly inaccurate shots, just meeting the air. The other fell onto the side of a seat, and fell onto the floor, Niko fired off another one, hitting him in the shoulder.

The other made a slight move towards the gun he just realized he dropped. Niko fired off a warning. The other stopped still. Niko coolly walked over to the gun and picked it up.

"My suggestion is to get over whatever perceived wrong 'I' did. and move on. Because this revenge fantasy you had was piss poor in planning and execution. You can try again once national health has fixed you, but next time you had better a. do it instead of having a monologue akin to masturbation, and b. understand that next time I will aim for the head rather than just a stopping blow, narrowly avoiding attempted murder according to our court system."

The train rolled to a stop.

"Adieu..."

Shaking his head Niko stepped out of the train walking back to his apartment, not one step closer to his goal, but he already had a gun fight.
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Anton was fifteen kilometers outside of Corrin when their reading on the flow of power stopped finally. Thinking they must have found the source Anton ordered the pilots to continue circling the area and scanning it. Anton himself was inside one of the new VTOL transports which had been in development for years, they were going to be used for hard insertions in the future, but now they were just being issued out for training, only seven pilots had completed the training, most of whom were the surviving test pilots.

"It's nothing but farmland and forests out here... something is definitely wrong." Anton growled at his instrument display. They were defiantly near the source, but he could see nothing but farmland and forest.

Grabbing his microphone Anton announced to his crew, "Alright, mark the area, we'll be back here tomorrow, I want the AWACS to monitor any transmissions they might find here, and for some better sweeps before we set out in earnest tomorrow."

Anton sighed as the VTOL came to a stop over the forest, hovered for a few seconds, swung around and left at high speed. He'd be back, something was amiss here. First the Harkon were more uncooperative than usual, and now forests and farmland suddenly requiring the energy of a small city. Something was here, he just could not see it with his eyes.

***

Under the canopy two patrolmen stared upwards towards the sky, above them hung forest and farmland. Only here was it a cover, they needed to hide the road entrance to the base.

One lent over to the other and whispered, "Holy Christ, will he just fuckin' leave already... I'm tired of standing under this damnable canopy without a chair.'

The other shot him a dirty look and raised his finger to his lips making a "Shhh" motion, and pointed up. These patrolmen were high enough to work at the HCA (Harkon Central Agency), but not high enough to be allowed any battle language.

Watching Anton's VTOL hover a few meters to their right they were hit with a moment of horror, what if he found them. What if he knew. It quickly faded when it spun around and left, back to Corrin, back to somewhere they could track his moves, follow him, watch him, and worst to worst end his life.

Thirty Minutes passed in silence, everyone staying in their hiding positions, finally when it was deemed clear the facility burst back into life. vehicles loading and offloading supplies went about their business, the blast doors to the facility opened as the danger passed.

The commander of the two men ran out of a bunker to their left shouting orders at all the patrolmen finally reaching them, "Well come on! Get back to work! Both of you, man the gatehouse. And you," he said pointing to the one furthest away, "I saw what you did, your already down to two leave days this month, don't make us take any more away. Also half rations tomorrow! any more shit from you and your both going to spend a few days in solitary!"

Both men saluted, and said simultaneously, "Yes Sir!" and ran off to their posts.
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"Anton, we have to call you back, we just got word that the Quanians are amassing a force on our border, looks like they decided to finally invade." Anton could hear his father saying over the encrypted radio.

Damnit, don't these bastards have any consideration for time? Anton thought to himself.

"So we are recalling your tour early. You can start up again once all this is over. It should be quick. Our defenses were meant for forces much larger than they could ever muster. Let us just hope the Catholics stay in anarchy long enough for our ascent. I will see you for dinner I assume."

"Yes father. We'll probably be in Arrakan in a few hours. I'm torn between the Speed train and this new VTOL I've been flying around in. They both could probably make it in close to the same time." Anton said into his speaker. The sound of static echoing in his small confined room as the VTOL sped towards the next city, its destination was one of the Royal hubs nearby.

The Duke replied after some time. "Go for the train, we have one prepped and waiting for you, and remember that VTOL is just exiting the testing stages and entering service soon. I don't think we could risk your life just to see which is faster yet. And I doubt Nadia would be happy with me if I let you die. In that thing."

"Right, give her my best, I'll see her later. And with this war I am thinking I will start Octavian's indoctrination. Do you have any quarrels with that?" Anton sad.

"None. I will call him back from his studies then. He should be here just after you arrive. Until Later Anton."

"Until later father."

Anton sat alone in his small room with only the static for company. He could remember his indoctrination vividly. Those first few years were trying, and thinking back on it now he was not sure of just how he survived. The indoctrination cut deep, sometimes he felt it took away most of his humanity. Afterall he only regained some of it back when he met Nadia.

And coming to mind as he thought about his journey back was that video of Vychas in the Senate. Anton felt a burning sensation in his stomach at that thought, rising and falling with his breath.

Ah, Rage... how I missed you.

***
***

Niko woke up to the sound of his window rattling, helicopters were scrambling all over the city. Its usual daily grind which had gone uninterrupted for several centuries had now changed. A much more violent feeling was all around him. It took him a few minutes to realize what it was. The city must be under threat.

But what could stir up this hornets nest? Niko thought.

It took him a long period of time for him to rub the sleep out of his being, it clogged his mind strangling thought and memory.

Oh right the Fascists... must have invaded. Oh well. They will learn their lesson eventually.

Niko spun his blinds open. wincing at the noontime sun.

Ugh... damn them, why couldn't they have picked a nice overcast day. We have plenty of those.

Niko groped around his nightstand, keys... wallet... redens for the shoe... ah, finally sunglasses.
Niko gave a pleasant sigh once they were safely covering his eyes from the blinding light.

Kicking aside a few old newspapers in his step he opened his refrigerator, a cool blast skirting his face pushing him slightly further down the road to being fully awake.Grabbing a bottle of Vodka he raised it to his lips and forced down a few gulps.

Now to finish off this well deserved hangover...

Niko tossed into his blender a strange cocktail that he found worked, he was not sure what portion of it worked weather it was the animal blood, or the spices, but that blended with some hideous assortment of breakfast staples and he was good.

Niko grabbed his bottle of Vodka and continued on over to the shower. forcing down a few more gulps and setting it on his sink.

After his shower he placed it back in the refrigerator for another morning, or night, depending when he was next home.

Grabbing his belongings, and replacing his House Drax card with a House Harkon one, a well made forgery produced for him by a corrupt Harkon City Boss out in Corrin, he opened his door and went out into the hallway.

His neighbor across the way was blasting whatever electronic, synthetically produced music was hip that week. Niko stood there for a second gazing at the door, realizing the peephole had shadowed over for a second when he left.

The door flew open flooding the hallway with sound, it was his neighbor Kostya, maybe eighteen or twenty he never bothered to ask, and he still had no clue what he did, or if he was a student, standing in his door looking at Niko, Kostya was only half dressed missing his shirt and seemingly several steps behind Niko in preparing for the day, "Oi Niko, our patrons called meeting at five today at the usual place. I figured with your late night you would miss the call." The door flew back shut again.

Right. I wish I had just missed the call and did not need to bother with those bastards... but they must need something big to call on all of us... I guess I will just visit a few Harkon Way Houses today. Niko opened his door and decided to bring his Drax Identification, sliding it into his boot next to a wad of Redens and setting off on his first full day of having to find some deceased Harkon.
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It was four thirty in the afternoon. Niko had gotten nowhere in his search today all the Harkon heads of the Way Houses got suspicious of him, they may have known something or may have not. It was probably that damnable Harkon Secrecy rearing its ugly head, but when it comes to the Harkon which head is not ugly?

Rounding the corner at such a pace Niko was shocked to see all of his Patron's Clients outside waiting to be addressed. Niko counted an easy five hundred, maybe one thousand. Niko's Patron was some Noble born into the upper reaches of House Drax only a few generations removed from Anton Slavic Drax I, but still removed enough that he would never, ever see the Ducal Robes. On second thought seeing one thousand here was not surprising, but someone in his Patron's position could also have five to ten thousand.

While the world moved on and away from Feudalism in most cases Draxis still kept a loose for of it. Everyone was somehow linked to the leaders of their born house. And most people had a Client. Niko used to have one, back when he was an enforcer, but his Client died several years ago.

All that was visible from where Niko stood was the wall around the low lying villa of his Patron. Its light Mediterranean tones echoing of a Roman past the nation had never seen but always glorified. The house was of the typical Neo-Romanesque architecture that had been popular before the Unification Wars. But the iron gate was strictly a piece fit for British Colonial Africa, back when their empire straddled the Globe.

People kept turning up until three after five, most arrived at five to the hour, but the stragglers came after. But still his patron had not shown. Now the crowd was brimming with energy, excitement, worry, anxiety, even dread fluttered all around him. Niko strained his head to see around him, he was glad that he had arrived early, the small plaza out front of the Villa had run out of room quickly as everyone had squeezed in to get as close to the gate as possible.Niko could count easily two thousand people here, maybe even three. It seemed his Patron had assembled a small private army.

Several armed guards walked out carrying crates, laying them down by the gate. Finally the Patron walked out assisted by his cane. Moving towards the gate with slow methodical footsteps being sure to minimize the use of his lame leg. Finally reaching the door he held a microphone to his mouth cleared his throat and started to speak.

"I am glad that everyone arrived here in good time. I am afraid that my leg has been bothering me lately since the news of the invasion, I guess that this is its way of telling me to stay and not flee the city. These damn birth defects always acting up... but now onto the subject that I brought you all here for.

"I have done many deeds for everyone, always having my service delayed. Sometimes having jobs done for me, other times not. But now as the Quaonians invade I look towards their embassy, which is just across the river from me. While they have left, their stain has not. And it needs to be removed. I need to clear untainted view of my fair city. After this deed is done many of your debts will be paid in full, though you will still remain as my client in case you require assistance ever again. My guards will be handing out weapons at the gate. In three hours I expect you all to move across the river and tear the place down as was done to the Harkon building and many of the buildings in the Harkon district. And may I remind you that many of those people were unarmed.

"You may begin. And once the deed is done I expect all of you to return here to turn in your weapons."

He waved his hand towards the crowd in a dismissive tone. And began his slow hobble back inside his home.

The crowds moved into lines and it took near the three hours to hand out the last of the weapons. Ignoring the traffic the crowd took to the streets, cars came to a complete stop as five thousand people moved past them in a flood of heavily armed and focused glory. The crowd was well behaved at first, ignoring the occasional horn. But after the sixth block, just before the bridge to the other side of the river any horns were taken as a personal affront and the car was then destroyed and in some cases, where the driver refused to lay off the horn, beaten.

The walk was a blur for Niko. He did not remember anything until the crowd slammed up against the gate for the first time displaying the old emblem of the Quaonian Republic, the empty gatehouse by the time Niko got within sight was a burn shell, the gate was crushed and statues were being pulled down all around him. And the rest of his Patron's Clients were already flowing through the front doors and ground floor windows.

He stood back as the crowd moved around him, he could trace the positions within the building by when file cabinets, chairs, computers and desks were thrown out of the windows in an act of destruction.

Niko heard helicopters, and when he looked up he realized what was going on with this call. His patron was creating a media event, the police would not be called, at most they might see a fire brigade, but by this point there was nothing they could do to save the building.

And the only ones reaching the scene were reporters. Some form of rallying cry was what his patron wanted, he wanted some display of anger for the media, was it for the Drax populace or for the international media.

It was not Niko's job to think or know these things, those were the worries of his patron.

He cocked his weapon and turned his back on the building, an older man with an intense look on his face yelled at him, "What the hell are you doing man, you heard what our patron wanted, this place torn down, don't you understand even the simplest of orders!"

"Fire Brigades. We don't want them stopping us now." Niko sneered at the older man with the intense face.

"By god your right." The older man started going about, apparently trying to play general to the chaos.

Niko had not turned around for that reason, no he just hated being an obvious pawn, and being lied to, if he were to die or do such acts he would rather at least be given a reason that was not a veil.

Bitter Truth is Better Than a Sweet Lie. Niko thought. Quickly followed by God, how old is that proverb... must be pretty ingrained in us if it just pops in like that... too bad that in itself is a diversion and a lie for the commons.

The fire from the building lit up the night sky, Niko lost himself in the chaos, the emotion flowing around him in its basest forms. Others had gone to join him in his "lookout" role. At least when they were all being played by their betters, he could still play these clients and poor fools trying their hardest to "Pay Off" a debt they never could. They were indebted more than they could ever know just by being born under their Patron.

I guess if I am going to be indebted to the bastard I am going to have to use him for something, might as well earn my debt to him.

Niko decided right then and there where a good enough starting point for his search would be, the logical first place, the one that would most often be used by the commons but for some reason he never saw. His Patron.
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The war, it finally ended, not with Drax tanks rolling through Kiev, not with large parades for the triumphant soldiers. But with the Socialist sacking of the city, there was a trial for the Fascists, more of a show and no Drax was even invited to attend, and even less to help present evidence of his war crimes. The Duke was not happy with how this ended, neither was Anton, nor the Senate.

Though truth be told they were just happy it was all over and they could unpack their things and settle right back down.

"Argh, those damn socialists put him down, and they did not even bother to invite any Drax, those bastards have no idea what they are doing in that country now do they?" The duke yelled at the window overlooking the courtyard, it was now covered in snow, the harsh drax winter had come early this year.

"I know what you mean father, just this morning I got a communique from them requesting our removal of troops from their lands as well. We spilled blood to get there and now they just wish to ignore it. I'd not be surprised if they give themselves a big pat on the back in retrospect. Probably will write us out of the histories as well."" Anton spat.

"You're right but in the world of politics we can have our own sweet revenge in a million ways. We'll be civil about it, remember the indoctrination, remember our lessons." The duke said, seemingly more to remind himself than Anton.

"Give them a smile to the face and a knife to the back." Anton smiled a bit to that, but it was quickly wiped away.

"Not even a knife dear Anton, a knife is too obvious and leads to somewhere. No it will be by a thousand cuts that we shall be avenged and it shall be a thousand self inflicted ones. We will just stand back, and play nice. And when the time comes, well you know what to do." The duke said returning to his normal composure.

"Father, on another note the Ark is almost complete by the end of the week it should be fully operational, and within the month the Arkbird will be operational as well." Anton said, changing the subject.

His father sat down behind his desk and pulled the files on screen. "Hm, ahead of schedule, most excellent, if only the war had lasted the rest of the month, we could have used them and received a more..." he thought for a few seconds trying to get the perfect word," desirable outcome. At least it is over, no doubt the Senate will want to dither about in a discussion of the war and propose some ceremony for the fallen Drax and Socialists."

"I think it would just be better without them in moments like this, and just about any moment throughout the day father. I do not see why you even bother with this charade." Anton said.

The Duke stood up from behind his chair and moved over to pour himself a drink, "Anton, that is one thing you should know that always works, destroying them from the inside, create the situation in which they will destroy themselves and be glad they did it. Create the timing in which your plan is the only acceptable one out of the other millions of other ideas and plans that are alongside it. Make your plan inevitable in at least their minds and you have won." The Duke lectured almost verbatim from indoctrination, "And anyways it is not like if my plan succeeds that you will have to worry about them. Now if you excuse me," The Duke finished pouring his drink, drank it, and put the glass away,"I have a Senate to destroy."

Anton watched as his father left, and once he was alone in the room he said under his breath so soft that it might have just been a thought, "I can only hope. For your sake Father."

---
---

But what is he planning Sigmund thought as he marched down yet another hallway, passing an innumerable amount of sensors tracking his every move and position in the palace.

He cannot be planning on destroying my house as he would have already done so, and holding me prisoner is not the main portion of his plan... that is disturbing... His train of thought continued as he passed guards, some moving to block off hall ways and entrances others parting to let him pass. But none saluted, they just silently watched him.

Here I am, trapped in Alexander's web struggling to free myself and tangling myself even more in his intricacies every action of mine played out... He paused in his march through the palace as the next through crashed through his mind.

But what if it is not his plan, what if he is just a small part in a larger plan, one that has existed for almost as long as this nation, if it was afgainst the Harkon then it would have existed for centuries or even the length that our houses have known of each other... no this is a different plan, he is just the latest to add to its workings. But who is the greatest threat to his power, we've proven that we are their allies in times of need and in fact them gaining more power gives us more power. He was staring at a large television screen tuned to the Drax News Agency, Alexander was giving a speech inside the Senate, the usual lines of peace and harmony the end of wars, it was all fluff for the masses they would eat it up.

Alexander was facing the Senate, and in the smallest millisecond he let his guard slip, no one in the senate saw it, it passed by their untrained eyes, no one in the public would see it. Sigmund only saw it because he had helped Alexander practice masking his emotions, and his thoughts during their long friendship, they had been best man at each others weddings, Alexander even allowed Sigmund to marry his sister.

So Sigmund saw it, his plan finally made sense, he loathed the Senate all his workings as Consul were just a charade to lay the seeds of their destruction. It was only in how they would do it, what would be the catalyst for its destruction. He needed to be removed so he could work unhindered, the time, in terms of the plan and its lifetime, was nearing the crescendo soon the snare would snap the neck of this festering wound inflicted upon the country. His attack had just been a small part designed to make sure he would have the support necessary when the time came.

So he wants the senate gone. That magnificent bastard, daring to do what we have dreamed of since they usurped power. I must remember to give him a token of my affection when it is all over.

A guard walked up alongside Sigmund, seeing the smile on Sigmund's face the guard spoke, "Yes I'm glad the war is finally over as well, too bad we didn't get the final blow against the fascists, but at least peace has returned. All will be better now. The Duke will assure this."

Still smiling Sigmund replied, "More than you know soldier, more than you will ever know."
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OOC: There actually was a trial for all captured fascists, including the "Tsar".
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Quaon
Dec 27 2007, 07:23 AM
OOC: There actually was a trial for all captured fascists, including the "Tsar".

OOC: Hm... I remember him getting shot for some reason... guess I'll retcon it.
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Draxis
Dec 27 2007, 04:59 PM
Quaon
Dec 27 2007, 07:23 AM
OOC: There actually was a trial for all captured fascists, including the "Tsar".

OOC: Hm... I remember him getting shot for some reason... guess I'll retcon it.

OOC: He was shot, after being tried.
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For Alexander time was catching up to him, he was now pushing sixty, those delightful old Drax genes which seemed to preserve youth were failing him. His energy levels had dropped considerably in the last five years. Sometimes he blamed the news that surrounded him back in Arrakan. The senate was a place of intrigue once again, it had not been like this since the days under Vychas. There had been two attempts on his life in the past year by republican extremists after he dismantled the lower councils, and moved to make the Senate the only level of democracy in the land. rumors were that the extremists were part of an organization, possibly funded by the Andorans but he did not believe this because they had been imploding for years now. Its role was now Autocratic it was the law of the land and he strode above it.

His word, edict more like, was enough to pass entire laws and renovations to Drax society and government.

He was the Autocrat of Draxis the rightful way it was supposed to be ruled, all he lacked was the title.

Of course this had not come without its price, dissent was growing in some portions of society, namely new immigrant families and old Harkon groups and familial houses. Thankfully Anton had been removing these unsavory groups from society. They would just disappear once the black bag was pulled over their head. Not even Alexander knew, nor did he care.

It was sometime around five am, the sun was still asleep at this time of the year. Alexander rarely slept now. He felt as though he were near the end of his portion of the plan. It would pass on to Anton as the plan had been passed on from Duke to his successor over the generations. His time would come. Wether or not it was this year it did not matter, just knowing that it was going to come and to go valiantly towards his death was enough.

Alexander was lost in his thoughts when an aide knocked, Alexander beckoned him in.

"You may speak."Alexander said.

The aide was nervous and breathing heavily, "I just got word from our northern palaces, there has been an incident. Apparently someone broke out Sigmund during the night and stole an unmarked blackhand vehicle. We lost seven Royal guards."

"You may go." Alexander said sternly.

The aide quickly moved out of the room.

Alexander pondered the statement briefly. I thought Anton released him from captivity at least a decade ago. If I don't find him within the next few days this will cause an incident.

Alexander picked up the phone and called Anton, it rang several times before he picked up, "Father." Anton said emotionless.

"There has been an incident, I will rely upon you to control it. Understand." Alexander said cooly into the reciever.
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It had taken him ten goddamn bloody fucking years to find the only person in all of Draxis who knew the information he had been searching for. Ten years he had to bow, curtsy, and do the dirty work for an old dying man with little to no sense of the state of the world much less the nation.

Ten damn years. They had stopped paying him to find out the identity of the dead man almost six years ago. Much had happened since then. But still he would receive requests from an unnamed source to find out the identity and be paid once it had been found.

Niko did not need this to keep searching it had become the single goal he obsessed over for ten years. The single goal that drove him deep into the pocket of an aristocratic bastard who used him for anything he could not do himself. In those ten years Niko had done much he wished to forget.

But now he did not care. Now... now was his moment, the moment when it all was made worth it. He would find out the identity of the corpse he was sent to find.

Niko turned his car off the superhighway, he was far in the north, about 35km out of the nearest city. He was on Royal land now. It was illegal for him to be here, and by now several satellites were tracking him, probably a few cameras and a few militia.

He continued to drive. Royal palaces came into view off in the distance behind a large swath of trees, the gold encrusted gates, the general level of decadence in front of him sickened him and yet it strangely drew him towards it.

Off in his peripheral vision he saw several unmarked vehicles driving towards him across the grounds, moving to intercept him. Unscrewing the silencer from his pistol he cocked it and held it in his right hand just below the dashboard.

So much for a quiet insertion...

One car stopped up ahead of him, blocking the road as another pulled alongside him. Regardless of what happened next he was not going to stop...

The one next to him signaled him to stop. He could see the glass was bulletproof. So his gun was useless, he decided then to do a very stupid thing.

Niko tapped the break and used a P.I.T. maneuver on the car alongside him on the right.

---
---

Guards all along the palaces scrambled. It was going to be interesting to see how far the unknown vehicle got into the compound. No one had attempted anything like this ever before.

"Scramble all of the guards. Do we have his files yet?" The Security commander asked someone to his right.

"I just found them... either we have almost nothing on him other than a birthdate, and name, or the files have been clumsily tampered with." The man on the right said.

"Whatever you have give them to me now."

"You should have them, now. I've run a security check on him to see if I can get anymore on him."

"Good, do you know if he is one of us, usually us black-hands have a profile resembling this."

"Not that I can tell, but his file has been slowly edited over the past seven years so we would not notice this. But I have all of the security shots of him within the past six months. After that it hits the burn wall." The man on the right continued.

"Keep with that. Sergivich make sure the guards are all in position I do not even want him getting to the gates much less through them. Jovivias do you have any other mentions of this 'Niko Gradenko' person in any files?"

Jovivias nodded slightly, "Seems that he was an enforcer for several of the crime families. Then migrated over into "Governmental Work" for several aristocrats, namely his patron. Nothing is actually logged, but with his patron's background it has to be some seriously dirty work."

"Good, keep with that now if we can just-" The lights within the entire complex went out.

The commander reached for his com-set it did not work, the entire compounds power had gone out. Even the backup generators, and those backup's backups.

---
---

Just need to reach the gate... and if everything works out... Niko sighed and continued to drive towards it as fast as his vehicle would allow him to go, he was thankful the glass was bulletproof and the hood as well when he had encountered sniper fire.

The gates opened. the guards tried to block it with APCs, but by the time they reacted it was too late Niko was through.

He grabbed his gun and dove into the gravel as his car propelled itself through the entranceway. gunfire greeted him when the guards realized he was out of the car, but Niko had been prepared for this, he had a custom made suit for this particular mission of his. It was essentially blast proof from anything a regular gun could throw at him, anti-armor would get through, but such a situation would be utterly ridiculous.

Then again, so was this attack. Niko ran through the destroyed entranceway. The whole interior of the building was filling with smoke as the fire his former vehicle had created began to devour the building. He set his watch fro ten minutes. It would be fifteen minutes for the nearest reinforcements to arrive, and if he could not escape in fifteen minutes he would not deserve his reputation.

The third floor of the Anton I wing is where Sigmund had his living quarters... well living floor... that is where Niko had to be.

Into the belly of the beast...

---
---

"WHY IS THE GATE OPENING! WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCKING CHRIST ALMIGHTY IS IS OPEN!" The security commander screamed at everyone around him. He had finally got the communications back up and this was not a good greeting to him.

He was nearly in tears, years and years of planning and preparations, tactical analysis had just gone down the drain because of one bloody fucking pleb.

The whole building shook.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE DUKE WAS THAT! BY ANTON THE FIRST WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"

"Well It would seem that from com chatter that-"

"I HEARD THE SAME THING YOU DID, JUST GET A GUN AND COME WITH ME. WE WILL END THIS BASTARDS LIFE OURSELVES."

The room emptied out as everyone went to the wall and grabbed their assault rifles and munitions.

---
---

Second floor was dark and from the stairwell was not interesting other than the shouts of soldiers and men beginning to flood the entire building.

Niko burst through the third floor doors.

He fired the occasional shot into the occasional guard as he ran down the hallways.

Two hallways... then a right... one hallway then a right... immediate left... end of the hall.

---
---

The guard commanding Sigmund stiffened he just wished Sigmund would shut up. But he did not.

"Well this whole situation is rather interesting, wouldn't you say. some of the best defenses the Drax have to offer, undone by a single man. I do hope he is a member of my house. That would be a lovely sight."

The guard gritted his teeth just to contain the "Shut up" that he wished. He and his four men had to wait until they received word that the helicopters were ready for their escape.

"Of course even if he is not. And if he is here to kill me or something like that, at least it will be an interesting report to my good old friend Alexander and that demon child of his Anton the... uh... what number was he again?"

"The... fifth... you... bloody... harkon... maggot..." The guard let the whisper slip throgh his gritting teeth.

"I'm sorry, I seem to have missed that. Maybe your plebspeak has changed over the years of my imprisonment so I am no longer unable to understand a lowly pleb like you and your dirt encrusted children.

The guard spun around and raised his gun at Sigmund. the other men in the room were shocked and watched in amazement, almost hoping he would just pull the trigger.

"Listen here you-"

The doors to the room flew open. Sigmund smiled almost in triumph.

---
---

Niko opened fire the guards were distracted by that screaming he interrupted. He hit them all in their stopping zone. Most fell.

Once they were on the ground he put the finishing touches on them.

Sigmund reached out his hand, "Sigmund Harkon, leader of house Harkon. Glad to make your acquaintance. What do they call you?"

"Doesn't matter now. Just follow me. We have four minutes or we both die."

Niko made for the hallway again, now guards were swarming the floor. He sighed.

"Take the immediate left, down two floors, down the hallway, you will pass the armory, next door leads to the garage. In the event of a break-in it will be empty other than a few guards by garage door. the cars are Black-Hand and thus untraceable. they will be ignored by security cameras and police." Sigmund said.

Niko gaped at him.

"Ten years here of never leaving the building, I just happened to find blueprints five years ago to entertain myself before sleep. I have the whole compound memorized. Even the underground tunnels, but those are of no use to us now. They have been sealed until reinforcements arrive through them. Now go. Let us not waste time here."

Niko nodded and followed the directions he discarded his pistol and picked up a rifle dropped by one of the fallen guards, it was unfired. Thankfully for him, most of the compound was in reactionary mode, the armory was more or less clear, except for the one unarmed attendant... now deceased.

The garage, as Sigmund promised was also near empty, except for the few guards protecting the doors... no deceased as well.

The keys were all in the vehicles, and all the vehicles unlocked. Life had just become a few thousand times easier.

"So where do we go, now that we have nowhere safe to go?" Niko asked realizing his plan had never intended him to get this far... and that it stopped at escape.

"I know of a place. Its a fair drive... but it is safe for at least a night." sigmund said as Niko began to drive.
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In an Unknown Location in Draxis...

The drive from the palaces took a long time, it took them almost twenty hours of driving to reach the place Sigmund kept informing Niko was there. No matter what Niko asked Sigmund just mentioned that it would not be on any maps, but it was there. Sigmund had tried to fill Niko in on the history of the place as much as he knew, but niko was not listening, he had heard stories such as these before and they were always from conspiracy nuts.

If this was the guy who was going to tell him all he needed to know, Niko was not impressed.

It was just before dawn when they finally reached the "inn" somewhere in Voryan. Niko was staring in shock at the buildings that surrounded him. The whole place was pretty decrepit, but still he felt he was being watched all the time. When they reached the inn, they found it unoccupied. The lights were off.

"Some place you got here Sigmund..." Niko said.

"Well I can only guess we were not expected, or watched on our way in. The last time I was here I was pretty desperate to find shelter and we were, as a group, fairly loud."

"Whatever..." Niko said walking to the door, he felt that annoying feeling of being watched still. This led him to draw his weapon as he went to check the door.

"You shouldn't need to do that Niko. They are friends." Sigmund said.

Niko did not reply he just walked to the door.

---
---

In Arrakan City at the Same Time...

Anton was not angry, nor happy, he lacked emotions as a cold seething rage gripped him. He had been shamed to his father. He had failed to contain the threat posed by Sigmund. And now he had to clean up his mess. He had mobilized all the regiments of the Black Hand and sent them about combing the entire nation. Nadia was busy with the intelligence agencies monitoring all traffic in and out of Draxis. they would have the location of every cell and landline in Draxis, they were filtering for keywords as well. All of the Criminal underworlds slang was in the filter, the names, both formal and informal, the names of certain aristocrats and their families and of course any mention of any crime family activity was traced and recorded. This was normal procedure. Except for now they were on high alert, trying to ferret out this "Niko" as soon as they could.

Anton had finally located the house of this "Niko Gradenko" and had mobilized several squads under his personal command to raid the building. They had the lists of everyone in the building, any redflags on any person meant they would be "black bagged" and brought in for questioning. There were three minor redflags in the building, two marked informants, and one major redflag. this major redflag was named Kostya and lived across from Niko.

He was going to interrogate Kostya himself if Niko was not home. But he should be there, as it was a little before dawn and most Drax were home at this time. He was now all of a minute away from the building. One team would go in through the top of the building and grab all the minor flags, while Anton and his team would go in through the front while the VTOLs patrolled around the building making sure no one escaped.

Anton felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins, but it seemed to do nothing to him. The pilot came over the loudspeakers, "thirty seconds!". The other VTOL rocketed over their ship and hit the roof. his VTOL hit the ground and the back doors opened the roar of the engines deafened the entire neighborhood as the blackhand moved into the building.

Hitting the floor his team followed the walls. They came to Niko's door. It was a traditional door, unlike many of the electronic locks that had been in the process of being phased into service recently. This just gave Anton an excuse to do it the old fashioned way. One member carried an extendable battering ram. The door flew in and the team entered. Two stood watch at the doorway. The place was filled with remnants of Niko's search. He was not home, and had not been for several days.

"Tag everything i want this place wired up the ass within the next fifteen." Anton said.

The other members just nodded and went to work.

One of the door guards leaned in, "Sire, the peephole across the way just ghosted. Somebody is home at least."

"Right, you and you, continue with your work, everyone else come with me." Anton said. Of course everything they had said was in the Drax Battle Language so no one was sure what had just been said.

The door to Kostya's had been busted down even quicker than Niko's. As they came in Kostya was tied to his phone. He shut up as they burst through his door and clubbed him. Anton clubbed Kostya as several other team members bagged him and readied kostya for transport.

---
---

The Inn at Voryan...

Niko approached the door. Hand outstretched to grab the handle when his cell rang. It was Kostya... at this time in the morning something must have been wrong.

Sigmund yelled, "Don't!" as niko reached for his phone. Making a long reach for the phone but failing as Niko's basic instincts took over for a second.

"Kostya. What happened?" Niko said into his phone quickly.

"No time. They just busted down your door and are trampling through your apartment. I don't know who they are but-" The sound of Kostya's door being slammed in followed by screaming, mostly Kostya's greeted Anton.

A strangely familiar voice was on the other end, Niko could not tell what he was saying, but he was ordering people around that is for sure. The phone was then hung up.

This was not the least of Niko's troubles as a stranger sound surrounded him. All yelling in harsh tones from female voices. This was then accompanied by gunfire.
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The ringer tone dully beeped at the other end of the line. Nadia was waiting for Alexander to wake and and answer, she had urgent news to hand him. She knew that the Duke had to handle it himself, just like the last time. Not because Anton would handle the situation wrong, but because Alexander knew the city of Voryan better than Anton.

Finally after an eternity of waiting Alexander picked up the phone, tired he spoke.

"Is the line secure?" He asked.

"Yes the line is secure." She replied.

"Obviously this is urgent I assume. Did we get a trace on Sigmund or his captor? Or has something happened to Anton?" Alexander asked.

"We have a lead on Sigmund's location. A call went out from the apartment block anton was raiding to a mobile in Voryan. The call was placed to 'Niko Gradenko' from his neighbor. As such we have reason to believe they are still there. We have some men ready to depart for the city at a moments notice." She said.

"Good, good. Inform them I shall accompany them to the city." Alexander said.

Before Nadia could say anymore Alexander hung up.

Now all she had to do was inform Anton. Though his reaction would probably be slightly more heated than Alexander's.

---
---

Anton was shocked to hear this good news. It was the best news he had heard all day. He could now find and hopefully neutralize 'Niko', and re-capture Sigmund before any damage could be done to him or Alexander. He just had to get to the forgotten city of Voryan.

"We need to change course. We are going to Voryan. So we will need to refuel, load up several vehicles and go. We can offload all the prisoners except one. We might need him." Anton said to the pilot.

The pilot muttered a "Yes, sire."

Refueling took thirty minutes. In that same thirty minutes he watched as preparations were being made for a royal departure for somewhere.

I guess father had somewhere to go that I did not know about...

Anton shrugged and continued to refuel.

Soon they were back in the air and flying at full speed towards the city of Voryan. The journey necessarily would not take that long, but it was still far up in the north and unknown to all but the Royal Family and the Black Hand.

Finally the old, crumbling and more or less dead city came into view.

"Alright Pilot, bring us down on the outskirts. We will advance into the city by ground transports. You and the other pilot will stay airborne and circle the city just in case we need air support."

"Yes, Sire." The pilot said as he brought the VTOL down, they offloaded their new transport, and left only the pilot and the gunner in the VTOL. From there they would move by the APCs.

---
---

Alexander arrived in the city by the Royal Line. He had one hundred men, comprised of two tanks, and several other support craft which were then supported by infantry. If this 'Niko was able to take down a fortified palace then Alexander knew he would need all of these men. From the train he tried contacting the leaders of the Voryan. there was no response.

"Damn it." Alexander muttered slamming the phone down after the second attempt.

Alexander bade one of the commanders over.

"Ready the men. I fear the worst has happened to the Voryan Leadership. I do not know how Gradenko discovered the city. Or even our program here. But he must be neutralized by any means necessary. Sigmund is to be kept alive at all costs. Understood?"

"Yes, sire."

Everything on the train had been loaded and stocked so it could be rolled out quickly. Alexander and his men left the station within five minutes. They were going to end this threat.

---
---

Niko and Sigmund had taken refuge inside the "Inn", to Sigmund it was a mockery of what it once was. The whole place was covered in a fine layer of dust, possibly a decade old. Everything had been kept the same, but ignored like the rest of the city. Now that it held no use for the Voryan, he could see what they did to items and objects they no longer needed or wanted.

He would have had more time to marvel at the Inn and its condition but the gunfire had not stopped once since they arrived in the city however many hours ago. He did not have time to think about hours. All he knew now was that the sun was up and oppressive as ever. Niko had been out of ammunition for over an hour now. He just held his knife ready and hoped that the "Inn" itself was not assaulted.

"God damn them. Damn them all." Sigmund said.

"Great friends you got there Sigmund. I can see why your House is held in such high regard now... I can even see why you are hailed as the best head of house Harkon, ever..." Niko said with a dry sarcasm that was punctuated almost by the syllable with gunfire aimed at them.

"Quiet. This place was different a decade or so ago. It has changed now. It sure has changed.

Niko paused and did not respond.

"Sigmund... is that far off sound... Tanks?" Niko said.

Sigmund said nothing.

Niko went up to the window, he could see several of their tormentors. Niko yelled at them, "You don't need a bloody, fucking tank to get us! We have no ammo... We only have a God. Damned. Knife. Between us!"

But Niko could tell that those tanks were not those of the Voryan, the Voryan Guards were giving nervous looks to him, and between themselves.

"Sigmund, I don't think that is us... or them... I suggest you take cover..." Niko said as a tank began to come into view.
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The city of Voryan lay in ruins. Well more ruins than it was at the start of the day. It had always been a wretched hell hole. Even when it was a grand city, before it was forgotten, back when it and the Harkon were the Scourge of the Drax. A long campaign to cleanse the city, its inhabitants and its role in the forming of the nation from the memories and culture of Draxis had been in effect. It was a forgotten city, and now, finally after hundreds of years, the city was put to rest. Those few buildings that had been operable now were not even recognizable. Almost nothing within the center of the former city stood above a single story. And most were merely rubble. The project that the Voryan had been working on for the Duke was almost entirely destroyed. Most of the Voryan soldiers were now dead, and their scientists were being rounded up with some difficulty.

That was the good news of the day's labors.

Everything else had not gone to plan. Sigmund escaped by stealing the Ducal train. There was no way to stop him or warn the palace guards to seize him once he left the train. The worst part was the simple fact that Anton and Alexander had essentially created this problem, and opportunity for Sigmund to escape. They had fought each other without knowing who it was they were fighting. Each had been ignorant of the others presence and thought it to be some form of Voryan trap. Sadly they had wasted most of their momentum, and soldiers in order to figure this out.

For this the Voryan would have to suffer. The city would be dismantled, the land salted, and the programs placed in an easier to control area. The Voryan would continue to exist, but now they would finally lose their (unknown) rights as a house. Now they were just a group who lacked all the rights of a citizen of Draxis.

Their one great victory of the day though, lay at their feet. Alexander and Anton were using him as a footrest. Anton would occasionally give him a swift kick if he moved too much. Niko had been bound, gadded, and lain at the feet of his new masters.

"Alright, so where do we go from here Anton. We have something we have been searching for, but we lost another. This means we will now have to deal with a fairly large House Harkon problem. What is your opinion." Alexander said. He needed to test Anton as Alexander felt that hsi time as Duke was coming to an end.

"Well, we need to ensure our new tool," he paused only to kick Niko just to ensure he was listening, "is working for us, after that we just have to ensure the media toes the line and everything should be fine." Anton replied trying to avoid the question of House Harkon. They would more than likely do all they could to thwart the Duke now.

"Oh course right now our largest problem is getting out of here. As we destroyed most of our own vehicles. Do we still have a VTOL?" Alexander asked.

The VTOLs had been rendered inoperable during teh fight, one was shot down and the other forced to move to the nearest airfield.

They had a long journey ahead of them.

--
--

Sigmund was proud to breath free air again. He was no longer imprisoned and now he could make his own decisions. Now he just needed to get back to the Harkon Headquarters and he would be safe. Sure he needed to sacrifice his savior to be free, but sometimes that was the way things were sometimes. Each and every tool has its purpose.

Sitting in his chair inside his office at the sub-headquarters in Arrakan, Sigmund relaxed. He just needed to wait for one of his personal cars to be brought out to bring him back into the fold. The office had not been touched in all of his time he spent imprisoned. SUre it had been cleaned, but all of the papers and documents were old and out of date. Nothing of interest for him was here. He just needed to be safe once again in the fortress just outside Corrin. But Sigmund could not help but wonder over the fate of Niko.

--
--

The drive was long and dark. Niko lay in silence in the back of what he thought was a standard model transport. Sometime, he thought at least a day or so later they stopped. They had finally arrived at Arrakan city.

The convoy had stopped and he was dragged out with the rest of the prisoners. They were quickly brought into a small building which could barely fit any of them. It was here that his blindfold was removed finally. The room bore no remarkable features. All of the prisoners were informed to form a single file line. They did. It was then that they were marched onto a cargo train somewhere underground. The rest of the journey was short.

The train stopped again, the first batch of prisoners were marched off, but when Niko tried to move with them he was stopped. The train started again, but this time the journey lasted another minute before they found the next station. It was here that his new home was located. Somewhere deep in the bowels of Arrakan City, in a concrete hell filled with soldiers and guards Niko had found his home. It was a small spartan room. He had a desk, a small lamp, a bookshelf and a bed.

It was here he was left. He slept.

After an unknown time he awoke, a meal had been brought and was set on his desk. The tray was silver, and three courses were placed in front of him with a small mug of strong coffee.

A note was left with the meal. Your life begins today. You will begin to pay the debt that all Drax pay.

By the time he finished the meal he finally noticed that a single book was on his bookshelf.

The History of Draxis, with a forward by Alexander Drax updated 2XXX edition

'Well, it is better than nothing...' Niko thought as he took the book off the shelf. But upon opening it he discovered that it was not the standard edition. Corrections had been made in a tight script filling the margins and many portions crossed out. It was a handwriting he would come to know as Anton Slavic Drax the Fifths. Today was the first day of his indoctrination.
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The bookshelf had grown, each book had sections crossed out and corrected. Some books had margins that were nearly black with notations and expansion on events or people who were glossed over. People Niko had deemed unimportant suddenly became nation shattering villains or heroes of order. Some books were those on the general history of Draxis, its military, sociology, political structure. Others were biographies, occasionally just a page from an encyclopedia was used and then many pages of handwritten script accompanied that page.

Soon these books changed to military tactics, strategy for single people stealth insertions form any way that was theoretically possibly. Others were stratagem for guiding militaries and units to achieve a maximum success ratio. Or a maximum cohesion with an ongoing operation. Occasionally he was given a general knowledge book on nations bordering Draxis with an attached file regarding military structure, strength, political structure and will.

Niko was being carved, the perfect tool for the exercise of the Royal Families will.

While his mind was being expanded in all the areas they would need it, all those they did not require were being stripped away. He was kept deep inside the citadel, with no calender to tell the month, much less what day it was or even the time. His physical training was held in a drab concrete box. He was taught and retaught his hand to hand skills. Optimal kills points, pressure points, vital arteries and systems. He was taught the same with weapons as he had to be familiar with all manner in the deadly arts. Eventually he moved on to capture, then interrogation and its enhanced forms soon that moved on to body disposal.

It was like that for a long time, months, maybe years. Niko could never tell, all he knew was that this was his existence now. There was some part of him which secretly enjoyed this training and stripping of his humanity. He no longer needed to worry about social status, what his friends were doing, who owed debts, who needed finding, or even his own personal finances. It was all taken care of. This new life was strangely liberating.

One day the guards opened his door, Anton motioned for Niko to follow in the Battle Language. Niko silently did so. On the ride up in the elevator Niko saw, for the first time in a very long time, daylight as the sun rose over Arrakan. At the top they walked into the Duke Quarters where Alexander had just returned from his morning exercises and was eating breakfast. The Duke motioned for Niko to sit.

A plate of food was placed in front of Niko. He eyed it for a few second before joining the Duke in his meal. When both had finished the plates were removed and a file was slid in front of Niko.

"You know, you can tell a lot about a man by the way he eats. Eating is a very personal thing no matter what environment you are in. You can tell someones status, upbringing, their wants and desires by how they eat. Do you know what I saw in you Niko?" The Duke said.

"No, sire, but I expect you will inform me."

The Duke paused considering his words, "I saw that you are a survivalist, deep down you are hungry, starving and you see nourishment as a means to an end. Not a thing of pleasure no matter the delicacy. This is good, for today you will be allowed to satiate your hunger."

Niko did not reply but opened the file. Inside was a picture followed by a dossier. It was his former Patron.

"You may recognize your former Patron. He's recently become a thorn in our side. He was always old fashioned and loyal to our family. This worked well for him, his estate grew and so did all of his patrons. Though recently he has become confused with his loyalties, between us and the Senate. He has been funneling our opposition information, currency, and in some cases arms. We are sure that you know of his deeds and his less than public sides. So we are sure you can deal with him." The Duke said in a tight business like manner.

"Of course sire, who better knows ones dirty laundry than those who have to clean it." Niko said gave a bow and got up to leave.

Anton showed him the way out and into the Royal Armory. Stopping only to remind him that they wanted a clean disappearance before leaving Niko to his task.
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Sitting across from his old patron Niko held his composure in a look that was was a calm mask which only seemed to curl menacingly at the sides which would to the trained eye reveal the beast hiding within the man. His patron had a look that betrayed nothing of his rotten soul, one composed of blood and as all evidence pointed, traitorous intent. This was a man who had his rotten fingers in everything in the city and there was something going on in the Senate which involved this man as its mover and shaker. Niko did not know what, neither did Anton or Alexander, they did not even know this man was involved, but Niko could see this in the way his former patron moved, the documents he chose to reveal casually on his desk and of those he had hidden. He had chosen to show himself as the voice of power and authority, and to give the impression of welcoming Niko back 'from the grave.'

"Ah, it is good to see you my boy, I have much work that needs doing, and you are that dependable type. I can unleash you anywhere and against anything and you will come out standing and alive, no matter the odds." He said, voice would show nothing to a regular civilian, and would have betrayed nothing to Niko before his training by the Duke and Anton. But now he could clearly hear that this was a deception, a front, Niko was an inconvenient loose end now, for he had revealed himself to the only powers in Draxis bigger than the man across the desk from Niko.

Niko replied, "Whatever you may require, my patron, allow me to be your weapon and you my guiding hand." He had said this many times, and for a while when he lost himself in his work for this man he had believed it. Now though he too was putting up a front and deception, only the man across from him was not looking for the deception. He bought it but only temporarily, if Niko were to have a shot soon that time would be coming quickly. Though his senses told him 'not now, not yet, more to learn, find what he is hiding.' And so he would patiently wait.

His former patron pulled out a stack of files, all carefully wrapped, he knew there was nothing to find in these files but what his patron wanted him to see, but he must play along. He picked the top one off, it was a mid-level enforcer he turned out to be spying for a nearby power. The power was not mentioned, which meant it was not a hostile power, but still worthy of note... but not for what Niko needed to find out. No that would not be in this stack, nor in this desk, or even in this room. Given the security size guarding the place the sensitive material would surely be destroyed if he attacked at the wrong moment. Though he knew there would be a delay as he had quietly killed off the three captains of the guards whom had trusted him far, far, far too much. Their bodies would not go undiscovered forever, but given the nature of the guards here he knew that he had at least an hour before the hourly reports and updates went unanswered and the compound went on high alert. Today the threat level was low and if there were no unexpected events he was in the clear to get the information he needed one way or another.

"Interesting, a little lower than what I used to handle, I assume this has to do with my disappearance and recent resurfacing?" Niko said, again calm, and trying to provoke some reaction from his former patron.

"Both yes and no," his former patron replied, revealing nothing. But then continued with a nervous flicker in the back of his eyes which said he found a sore spot, "Your disappearance came at a bad time, but is understandable considering who was after you, I watched and found as much information as I could until you fell off the grid. At first you were fairly sloppy, but then one day you seemed to use those skills I expected of you and 'poof' you were gone." He said with a simple diversion aimed at trying to provoke Niko.

"So you know who I had as company then?" Niko countered.

"Yes, Sigmund Harkon, prestigious company. It was he whom I assume taught you how to cover your tracks."

"Yes, to some extent, I assume that my unsatisfactory performance is why I am doing peasant work." Niko replied.

"No, its mainly that this is the only work I have right now but am working on something big that will require plenty of information. I am sure that you can help out in some way with that once these matters have been closed." His patron said with a change in his eyes like that of a panther getting ready to pounce, Niko had said too much or had been reading him wrong all along.

"Interesting, would you define what you mean by help? I am to gather?" Niko said watching his Patron's eyes and body, they betrayed the subtle game of chess going on between the two, his patron thought he had a check-mate coming up in the next few sentences but did not yet see the subtle flanking maneuver Niko had put into place before he had entered the room.

"I think you know exactly what I mean Mr. Gradenko." His voice betrayed the predator within. He felt that his coup d'grace was forthcoming.

"Ah, I see, to be gathered then?" Niko calmly replied waiting for that moment when his patron realized that he had betrayed too much.

"I know that you were captured by the Drax, then trained and have now been turned against me by your new master, the Duke. He banked on my trust being too overwhelming in you so I would ignore all the redflags in your new mannerisms and character. All while subtle, betray your superior training. I know I will get no information out of you, and sadly you will not see the glorious day that is about to come. Rebirth for Draxis." His patron almost growled the last few lines, his patron was not a panther, not any predator of grace, more like a rabid dog that needed to be put down. Too bad for him he would not see it coming until it was too late.

His patron pushed a small button under his desk that would normally open up a small panel in the wall where a well hidden assassin would shoot Niko with a debilitating poison, and if required his patron would then use the revolver in his desk to end Niko permanently. This was all IF Niko was considered enough of a threat to be given one last 'superiority' speech and then removed by his patrons hand. A faint click could be heard, the many who had been in this situation before would not have heard it, and his patron probably never noticed it, but with his training Niko could sense the change in the rooms air a few seconds later.

Time passed slowly. Niko silently and calmly stared into the rabid eyes of his patron, only growing more and more rabid with the passing seconds that Niko was not shot. Five seconds passed when Niko finally spoke.

"By now you may have finally pieced it together, or maybe not, but I killed that man before I entered, I also killed all of your guard captains on my way here. And that escort. I know the information on your rebirth is somewhere here... just not where. I will know where soon enough when I force it out of you."

His patron put all of his force into opening his desk drawer that contained his revolver.

"Another mistake of yours, I had it removed three hours before I arrived, when you were having your traditional 'light' three course meal."

Panic washed across his patron's face, blood drained, eyes widened then narrowed. "You dirty treacherous serf! I built you, made you and watched as you became glorious! I will destroy you, if not today then my plan will succeed and you will be cast aside anyways. Either way I will win, even if I cannot see that day!"

Niko stood up and shrugged his voice showing complete indifference, "Either way you die today, its just a matter of length, you tell me everything now and its quick, you take your time and we shall see how you look when you finally meet your maker. I do so hope it will be the long and painful road. As really inflicting that much pain on someone such as yourself will be vengeance for everything you have destroyed you rabid dog."

His patron could see that there was no escape, he was not a fast man and at his advanced age could not outmaneuver Niko. But he still tried... and failed. As he tried to dodge left Niko hit him hard in his soft stomach knocking th ewind out of the old man.

"Now, let us begin O' Patron, my Patron..."
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There are problems with interrogating anyone, especially with last minute interrogations where all of the proper tools and instruments cannot be counted on to be there or exist on the premises. Afterall how many patrons would keep a torture room on hand in their palace, or mansion or whatever they felt like describing their opulent living spaces. One would be surprised. Sadly, as far as Niko knew his patron did not have one that he could readily access. Also given the intelligence that he was provided by House Drax he knew that none existed officially or unofficially. So interrogation it was, for now.

Niko knew at least one thing, there was incriminating evidence somewhere in this building. It would be found, whether it took hours or weeks it did not matter. Of course there was the possibility that it would be destroyed upon the guards realization of what was occurring. Thankfully Niko had been proactive and given Anton all the information that he had been able to piece together, three Black Hand VTOLS were on their way to the Palatial Neo-Roman... he paused and still could not come to a decision on what to call this building, other than a palatial compound. Mansions were for plebs who had earned enough to be considered rich, rarely wealthy, and wished to show off their new 'status.' Having a nation go through over seventy years of economic depression, slaughtering the economy for all but a wealthy few, causes most people to be aware of how much monetary worth is connected to social status. When that depression finally lifts, those scrambling few wish to show off their riches to all who have eyes. This was not one of those types of compounds, or buildings, his patron had much social stature and much clout amongst the aristocracy. This building or compound or whatever it was would soon be crawling with members of the Black Hand. Purging any guards insane enough to confront them.

Then the Black Hand would go from floor to floor, room to room, and try to find every secret, every skeleton hiding in the owner's closet that they could. By the time they arrived they would also bring him a field torturer's kit. While torture was frowned upon by any Drax government, Royal House, Aristocratic House, and Drax Society, Niko was no longer a part of any of those, he was above it all, below it all and beside it all. Always nearby, always close at hand if he were required to interact with any of those groups. He was officially nowhere in Draxis, not even in the Black Hand. But he was lost in thought, he must focus on his interrogation.

Looking down at the beaten old man laying in front of him, bloodied and beaten he realized he had received almost no information in the last ten minutes of this beating. Each time his former patron had pleaded, then given him some form of intel that to anyone else would have seemed to tell him the truth. But each time he saw the same subtle diversion form the truth. Each was a grain of sand on a beach. He didn't have names, or places, or the what, but he now had the why. An old man's greed, wishing to form his own powerbase and power structure. Looking for an empire to be built within an empire. The Senate was key to his plan. Niko did not know why though. And now he could see that the man could not take much more in the way of a physical beating before he would exhaust all other interrogation possibilities.

But now he had a question, one which needed answering.

"What would you call this building? I honestly have no real idea." Niko said.

His patron was caught offguard, but quickly readjusted, thinking this was a diversion technique. "You know you don't need to go off-topic in hopes of getting me to divulge me, I can't tell you anymore than I already have."

"Not the point, what is this building?" Niko said.

"A mansion." his patron replied.

"Ah so would I, and I did at first but now I realize that calling a mansion lacks all that status you so preciously cling to. A mansion is almost derogatory when you apply it to this house, bringing up visions of those nouveau riche we've seen spring up recently." Niko said, everything being calm, controlled, passionless.

"Well when you say that, I don't know. What are you getting at exactly?"

"Well, I guess it is important. Your status is important and you want more. You were, or at least were viewed as,a loyalist to the Duke. But then you can go to another part of this structure, with its labyrinth of hallways and you can see the Citadel in all its beauty, opulence, jutting up out of the earth, immobile, all encompassing. Everything leads to it. And then you are, off to the side as it were. Then you go through more labyrinthine hallways and corridors, and there is the Senate, it too is important, and cast aside to the glory of the Citadel. While it is also beautiful and glorious, it is outshone by the Citadel by the sheer force and power of those who built it and reside there. So, what you call this building is important, because either you can go toe to toe with those giants, or you are cast aside with the plebeian nouveau riche who think they are your equals. And to think you called it a mansion, which you now agree it is not." Niko said, almost lecturing.

He could see that it was bothering his former patron, so he continued. "So if I may ask, what are you? An immortal god towering over all those who come before you, or are you simply another mortal clawing his way out of the muck and posturing as an immortal unchanging god?"

His patron smiled wrinkles carving deep canyons across his face. "I am a god, you will see much later today. Everything will change. You think you reside with the gods, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you are soon to be cast out. Back with the plebs where you were raised and belong."

"Ah, and now we have a when. All I need is a where and a what and a how and we will be almost done." Niko said as he went to his patrons desk, removed the pitcher of water and a glass and set them next to it on the floor.

In one quick movement he brushed aside everything that had once lived on the desk.

"I think I am about to make you regret trying to project your power via this room. Making your guest chairs shorter than your desk. Tsk, tsk."

He positioned one at the far end of the desk and removed his scarf, it would probably do for what he was about to do. All he needed was a flat surface, an incline for the head, some cloth and water. He would need more, but this would probably be enough to last until the black hand arrived in a few minutes.
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To waterboard a person is a fairly simple task once you have the knowledge of how. Niko knew this and many other advance or enhanced interrogation techniques. Those were the polite terms used by government officials, or in reports, but he knew what it came down to in the end much as it always had, old fashioned torture. Obviously there were problems with torture, namely how good the information gathered would be and if it was in fact true. But right now all Niko cared about was inflicting as much suffering on his former patron as was possible. If he got the information he wanted, then he got it but if he didn't get anything more than he already had it was no big loss. The only great news was that the Black Hand soldiers were using silenced weapons which meant that he could operate in silence and that the news of an incursion in this compound would not spread quickly. It would be awkward to have to interrogate his former patron with the media circling like vultures. Though he did hope that the media would arrive eventually once the black hand had cleared out, just so that there could be some spectacle. Of course that would require the mutilated body of the man before him, but he knew that could be arranged.

His patron was restrained by two black hand soldiers on the desk, his head held slightly back covered in a hood with a bunched up cloth shoved into his mouth. Pitchers of water were being cycled, one after the other until they felt it was time to once again ask a few more questions. Again and again he would answer to some extent, but not really enough to have them satisfied as he tried to find the story they wanted to hear. Sadly he had changed it enough times that even the soldier with the weakest grasp of interrogation, and a bad sense of poker faces could tell that the man was trying to find a diversion. Niko knew that the truth was still there, just buried deeper than he had hoped. Each time he felt that maybe the next few pitchers would find the truth.

He had talked to Anton to report their current status maybe an hour ago, Anton told him to report to him next only if he found something or needed some of the more interesting interrogation tools at the disposal of House Drax as he had other matters to handle. Sadly that would require moving his patron, and that might give him a moment of respite or even the briefest time to think. That was something he did not want.

Niko was handed the next pitcher and went dutifully to work.

"If he does not break in the next thirty minutes get me my box that should have been brought with the second team. Wooden, about this big," he said as he moved the pitcher and his left hand apart around to around the size of a large wooden tool box, "has a leather handle."

The attendant bringing him pitchers of water nodded and went off to fill up the next one.

***
***

"So what you are saying Anton is that we need to increase security..." Alexander said in a cold voice with a slightly cocked eye.

"Temporarily Father, just for the time being, Niko turned up something that is of some concern, possibly big but we are not sure. And with you going off to sign the treaty with the Romanov's and probably the largest reforms vote in the Senate this evening I believe that you can understand that this may be the perfect time for a well informed person to do their damage. And by all reports that bastard was too well informed. He should have been snuffed out long ago and had his family stricken from the book of nobles and the book of hours." Anton responded.

"Alright, if you are that concerned I understand but if you try to bring the security with me to the Senate grounds you understand that they will pitch quite a fit that could destabilize the country. They have their own armed forces too you know."

Anton sighed, "Yes, Father, I understand that but your security and that of our family comes first and I don't care what they say our own security will be there. I'll go through the appropriate channels but if they resist I will just have to push it through anyways."

"Anton you know that won't happen, either they have their own security protect me, or you will have to charge into the Senate building firing all the way. And gunfire is not conducing to senators voting, at least without coercion, just as bombs are bad for tourism." Alexander replied.

"Father we will speak of this when you get back, we can't delay any longer, you have to be on your way. We will continue this later though."

Alexander nodded, "Since you are so concerned I'll have Octavian and his wife sent out to russia to visit me and the Romanov's. So at least the succession is secure for the time being."

"Alright as long as you are taking this seriously thats all I require. Let me know once the treaty is signed and I'll ready your security. Hopefully the Senate will not put up too much of a fight." Anton said.

"Anton, you know they always do and always will. They've been antagonistic against our family for obvious reasons. I doubt they are happy of my position within the Senate, but as the people elected me not much they could say. I'll let you know about the treaty is signed and I'll give the Romanov's your best and let them know that they will have some visitors for some time. Don't worry I won't tell them of the security worries, nor should we let any member of their family know. Though I expect you to tell Octavian just so he is appraised of the situation." Alexander said as he motioned for his security to ready themselves to leave for the Ducal Train.

"Alright Father, its done, we'll talk about this after the vote." Anton said.

Alexander replied, "Of course, of course, no need to think that far ahead now. Let us focus on this treaty and the reform vote this evening, then we can focus on security until this crisis is over. But just in case have the intelligence agencies on high alert form now on, as well as beginning the mobilization of the security forces within the city, that we can pass off easily to the press as necessary precautions for the vote, though mobilizing the rest of the House Forces across Draxis will take some time, but we can handle the details tonight over dinner. Give Anya my best Anton."

"Of course Father, we should get the entire family together for dinner, obvious exception for Octavian, tonight. It has been a long time since we have had a full family dinner." Anton said as his father left.

"Good plan, see to it Anton, I expect to see everyone for dinner tonight, I guess I'll have to settle for the Romanovs and Octavian for lunch then." With that the Duke left for the train and Anton was left to his duties for the day.

Turning to one of the attendants in his party Anton tersely said, "Get me an update from Niko, its been too bloody long, he should have something by now damn it."

The attendant gave a salute and briskly left, the mood in the citadel had changed into that of a crisis, only without any seeming real and absolute reason.

***
***

Anatoly was awoken to the sharp sound of his telephone's ringer, picking it up and sliding it to his ear there was the familiar sound of the line becoming secure. This woke him quickly because he knew this to be important. He could hear the breathing of Oleg and Joliko, but he knew Lisko would be there as well.

"Alright so what is it if we have to have this meeting over the phone," he yawned and looked at his bedside clock, "at four in the morning. I should be well rested for the damn vote today."

Lisko spoke, "As I have told everyone as I put together this teleconference already," Lisko did not try to hide his dislike for Anatoly, "something has happened, we have not received any word from our dear leader, this means that we will have to go ahead with the plan today before the vote, so we all need to spread word to our allies in the senate, I believe the last number was twenty five?"

Joliko replied after a yawn, it seemed everyone here except for Lisko had been woken up, "Yes, that was the number six months ago, we managed to get it up to thirty, so if he tries to enter with guards ten members can resist and try to stir up the Senators enough to have them separated. If they do this we'll need to also try an get a rise out of our compatriots. I believe that we can easily get the Harkon party as well as most non-Drax aligned parties to easily agree with this."

"Good, good, do we have the cache in place?" Lisko asked.

"Yes, yes, as they have been for weeks, enough for all thirty." Anatoly said.

"Also another matter has been brought to my attention, apparently the Duke is off today to sign a secret agreement with the Russians, if the intelligence is right its some form of alliance or pact to bind our two nations closely together. As we all know the Russians are anti-republicans and are interbred with the Royal family. So Anatoly, you have the best contacts in the foreign offices, and the diplomatic corps, if you can get a full text of the treaty that would be appreciated, I will also require a bill of nullification of this treaty ready to be passed as soon as we possibly can." Lisko lectured.

Anatoly sighed as any chance of a good nights sleep had to be abandoned, he could run on six hours but his body would not be happy about it.

"Is that all?" Anatoly asked.

"For now, we will need to gather over Lunch to discuss any changes. You will also all need to visit our cache and prepare yourselves for our triumphant moment." Lisko said as Anatoly hung up the phone, reset his alarm for fifteen past five and went back to sleep.
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