Approximately 700 Kilometers West of Giadian Borders
April 11th, Stellar Year 2142
"So are you actually a soldier from the Empire?"
Rei paused in the face of the question, asked by a younger 86 with black hair and a slight baby face. Externally, Rei probably looked like he was taking his time to consider the most diplomatic response. The Empire and the Republic were nations at war after all, even if their ground troops rarely met. To give a careless response could even spark hostilities.
Or so he might have looked, but really Rei's pause was more so he could silently wish to talk about anything else tonight.
The first time he was asked that question he tried to be careful, and was very slightly put out when his all-too-considering answer ("-more exiles than soldiers at this point, not to mention the Legion is our enemy as much as it is yours-") was met with the rather un-considered reply of '-oh, sweet. Hey, is it true that you guys have gladiator games in the Empire?'
If Rei was going to face any hostility from this country, it wasn't going to be from the 86. Alice had said as much, but her men proved it beyond doubt with their slightly silly questions and utter lack of concern.
And once the fear of a diplomatic incident and/or massacre had dissipated, Rei found himself bemused - and soon after very slightly bored - with the endless flow of questions about his homeland. It had never been his favorite subject, the very notion of home holding complication for him. And there were only so many times he could deny the existence of state-sponsored gladiatorial blood sport before he began to feel a sincere desire to strangle the next person who asked.
"Yep," Rei said, finally answering the baby-faced Processor. "And yes we have coliseums, but no we don't host gladiatorial matches in them anymore. Those were outlawed three hundred years ago."
"Wooow," the Processor exclaimed. "You just belted that out, huh? And the exact same answer you gave the last two - you must have it on auto-pilot at this point."
An unexpected response. It prompted Rei took another look at the Processor's face, because at some point he'd stopped registering them. Oh he was looking them in the eyes and all that, would have been disrespectful otherwise, but that didn't mean he was seeing them. After meeting so many new people, all their faces had begun to blend into one another.
But he took another look at this one, and after a moment realized he knew her.
"Oh, hey Kaie," he said.
Kaie flashed an easygoing grin. "Didn't recognize me at all at first, did you?"
"My brain checked out of this party about ten questions ago."
"Were they all about gladiator games?"
Rei smiled tiredly. "It's come up a lot tonight."
"I bet. You know, most of us went through training-" (Rei did his best to settle with the burst of silent horror in his stomach to hear that only most of them were trained) "-but the tapes didn't really tell us anything about the Empire, except that they were evil, built the Legion, and had these really cool gladiator games. Well, they used the word 'barbaric,' but same difference."
"Is that why everyone's been asking about that?"
"Pretty much." She took a surreptitious glance left then right before leaning toward him, standing on her tip-toes to get closer to his ear. Obligingly, Rei bent down to make it easier on her.
"Also," she whispered. "It might be some kind of strategy. We've got a betting pool going on who's gonna make you snap first."
"What? Snap? Why?"
Kaie shrugged. "You give off well, I dunno, a vibe, I guess? Like a proper military soldier-man. Like a 'yes-sir no-sir' kind of guy. You know, the ones that are fun to break."
Shourei favored her with a look of wide-eyed dread.
"And, uh, hey… so I've got like two whole chocolate bars on the line here… do you think you could help a sister out? Just start shouting a bunch like you're really, really mad, that should do it."
"You have a stake in this too," he said flatly.
"Of course!" She gave an absolutely shameless smile. "So how about it?"
"Give me one of them."
"What?"
"If you want my help, then I want one of those chocolate bars. You know how long it's been since I've eaten anything other than venison and pine nuts?"
She shrugged her shoulders with a look of 'I suppose it can't be helped.' "Deal. You drive a hard bargain, Rei. I respect that."
"Yeah right, you scheming puppet-master. Now stand back and ask me a question. Anything's fine."
"Anything?"
"Yep."
"Then you know this can only end one way, right?"
She took a step back as directed, clasping her hands together behind her back, leaning forward with great apparent interest.
"Hey, Rei!" she said brightly, voice a few decibels louder. Rei didn't miss the many Processors glancing at him from the corners of their eyes. "Is it true that you used to be a gladiator?"
Rei had never really been a great liar. He felt things too strongly and sincerely to be able to fake emotions. But there was no need to fake it this time. In the wake of that question, as the volume of chatter lowered throughout the room, ears straining to listen, Rei recalled every other time he'd been asked that same stupid question, and the annoyance that burst from him was very much real.
"No!" he spat, and swept his eyes around the whole room, meeting the gazes of several watchers-on. Very few of them were deterred by the eye contact. "And this goes to all of you! Every last one of you bastards! For the last! Time! THERE ARE NO GLADIATORS IN GIAD!"
And that was how Rei got himself a chocolate bar.
—
He woke up the next day nursing a very slight hangover. No headache or anything. It was more a sluggishness of the mind than anything else, and it wasn't painful. It might have even felt pleasant in an abstract sense. It had been a long time since he and his troops were able to get drunk. Not for lack of supply (Sergeant Bernholdt once very proudly informed him that all Vargus carried a flask of strong whiskey at all times) but for lack of any safe place to get drunk in. Just feeling comfortable enough to unscrew their flasks was a blessing, and in a way this lingering grogginess was a reminder of that.
When she saw a few of Rei's soldiers taking surreptitious swigs from their flasks, Alice broke out her own stash of scavenged alcohol. It made for quite an end to the 'Imperial Welcoming Party,' though there hadn't been enough to go around for anyone to get more than buzzed, and the particularly young, Kaie's age or younger, weren't give any at all.
Rei smiled at the memories slowly trickling in through his sleep-fog. It really had been a good night. Good food, good drinks, good company. After so much time spent on the march, surrounded by death and isolation, was there anything else he could ask for?
Yes, came an answer from within. You could ask to go home.
The smile withered. Rei sat up in his bed, covers pooling around his waist. He rubbed at his jaw and felt at the prickly layer of reddish stubble growing in. Somehow, last night, he almost managed to forget everything he'd left behind. The bodies of his fallen comrades, their families 700 kilometers east. His clan, who had placed him on the battlefield to redeem the sins of his fallen mother and father.
And his brother.
What right do you have to drink and party, Shourei? Have you forgotten about Shin? Your clan? Your blood? You can celebrate when you've done your duty, but not a day before.
No, of course he couldn't. He could never forget, and the voice was right. The 'voice' was his just own thoughts, of course. He was aware of that, but somehow it was easier to think of it as something separate.
He had a job to do, and he could not rest until he'd finished it. His brother was all alone in the hands of a clan that hated him. Rei shuddered to think of what might happen to him if he didn't get home soon. The clan promised to take care of Shin for as long as Rei continued to earn victories on the battlefield, but obviously Rei couldn't do that if he was tied up here.
He went to the bathroom to shave off his stubble, and as he looked in the mirror it was a grim face that greeted him; a frowning line of a mouth and tired eyes framed by hair as red as blood. Appropriate, he thought. Last night he'd smiled a great deal more than he had in a long time, and now he couldn't help but think such an expression must have looked alien on a person like him.
Rei stepped out of his room to find Alice waiting for him in the hallway, leaning on the wall, arms crossed. He vaguely remembered that they'd agreed to meet in the morning at some point last night, though he couldn't remember what for. Not even a little. And he wasn't sure if it should have been comforting or off-putting that the slightly-smug smile was still on her face like it always was. At least the expression that looked natural on her. More than Rei could have managed.
"Holding up okay?" she asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"You look like you've made a decision, is all," she said cryptically. "Fun party last night, huh?"
"Yeah. You got a minute to talk?"
"Sure. But let's get some breakfast first. Touka's on kitchen duty today, and she makes a mean mushroom omelet."
She pushed off the wall and started to walk. Rei followed after, rubbing idly at his jaw, smooth and clear of stubble. He'd managed to only nick himself in one spot just left of his mouth.
Minutes later he found out for himself that the mushroom omelet was indeed pretty mean, buttery and rich with a pleasant earthy aftertaste - a godsend to his somewhat hungover taste buds.
They weren't the only two in the cafeteria, but they had their own table in the corner, all others respectfully avoiding the nearby spaces. Informally trained and young as the 86 might be, they did have some kind of respect for the chain of command.
"Thank you for last night," Rei told her as he pushed his picked-clean plate aside. "It meant a lot to my men, being able to cut loose like that. We've been walking on a live wire for a long time now."
Her smile deepened at the corners. "But?" she asked. "Any time anyone starts right off the bat with a thank you, there's always a 'but' right after."
"Yeah." He chuckled humorlessly. "Ours is that we can't stay here. There's still a home waiting for us back east. I think you knew that already."
"Wouldn't want you around anyway," she teased, reaching out to thump his shoulder. "How do you plan to get back?"
"That's the hard part. The Vanagandr's not gonna get us anywhere, and no offense to you, but I don't think your Juggernauts would do us much better. I was thinking…" His voice trailed. He realized at once the folly of what he was about to say, given everything he'd learned about this nation.
But as the saying went, once you started eating poison, it was best just to finish the plate.
"I was thinking of going to the Republic," he finished.
Alice continued to smile, but the warmth had dropped from her face. Her lips pressed together in a sharp line like the edge of a curved blade. She said nothing. The silence prompted Rei to speak on.
"They might not even be aware that the Empire is still alive. The last news they would have gotten from Giad, before the Eintagsfliege cut off all communications, would be of the rebellion. They might even think the Legion turned on the crown and destroyed them all. But I could prove to them that the Empire has survived."
"And what do you think the Republic would do about that, Rei?" She cupped her head in her hands, elbows on the table. "Because you don't seem to think they'd execute you and pin your body to the Gran Mur for all their white pig citizens to see."
Rei grimaced. He tried to carry on. "They must want an end to the war. Attrition will grind the Republic down if the Legion doesn't deliver the coup de grace first. If they can get me home, and I can report the Republic's survival to the crown, then I could…" his voice trailed.
It took saying it out loud to realize how shoddy a plan it really was. What could he do? He didn't know. Probably nothing. Maybe someone in his position could have spun a convincing lie to get what they needed, but Rei had always been a shitty liar.
"We all want an end to the war," Alice said. "But the Republic believes it'll come on its own once the Empire destroys itself and loses the ability to make more Legion. Then it'll just come down to waiting out the six-year clock… and if it's just us 86 who pay to buy them time, then they have no reason to care."
"Don't they know the Legion is fully autonomous? If the Emperor doesn't give them the order to deactivate, they'll go on producing their own drones even after the Empire falls." And knowing what he did about the royal family, it was doubtful the Emperor would. His ambition of world conquest was about as insane as the man himself.
"Maybe. I doubt it," Alice said frankly. "The Republic keeps its head lodged firmly up its own ass, and they're never keen on disproving anything that gives them comfort."
She paused to take a drink, a mug of morning tea that was steaming nicely at the start of the conversation but now looked tepid and stale.
"The white pigs won't help you, Rei." She was still smiling. How could she still be smiling when her voice sounded so cold? "Even if you're a soldier from the Empire, to them you're just one more stain on their colorless ground. Anyone without an Alba's silver hair and eyes is just a subhuman pig that failed to evolve - and why would anyone listen to the words of a pig?
"Rei, if you get involved with them, they will kill you."
The hard, serious edge in her body language and posture, tone and diction was reflected also in her eyes. Black irises bled out of all humor, leaving only steel. Rei wondered for a moment if Alice merely acted her jovial, whimsical side in order to hide this part of her. But he disregarded the thought. A person could be both. And like himself, Alice seemed too genuine a person to lie so brazenly.
"What other choice do I have?" Rei asked her. Except 'asked' was too weak a word by far. Pleaded would be more accurate.
"Whatever your choices, the Republic can't be one of them. It just can't. It probably won't end well for you, and it definitely won't for us."
"What? Why?"
"Because they'd kill every last one of us if they learned we harbored the enemy. They would kill us just to stop the news from getting out. If the other 86 learned there were other nations still out there… and that it was possible to reach them, even if suicidally difficult, they'd abandon this country altogether."
Rei's eyes widened, hands clasping the edge of the table with a white-knuckled grip. "That's it," he said, suddenly breathless. "That's it! We can rally the others, pool our resources. Maybe if we could get enough Processors behind us, we could break through the Legion. I could get home, and I could help you all find places in the Giad, and-"
Alice tapped the side of her head, no longer smiling - but grinning irrepressibly.
"Now he's getting it. You see now why we didn't shoot you on sight when ya marched in yesterday?"
"I just assumed you were nice."
Her grin shone sharp, white teeth glowing in fluorescent light.
"That's a big mistake, my dear Shourei. The first thing you should know about women is to never, under any circumstances, assume we're nice. 'Cause when we need to be, we're downright vicious." She knocked back her mug and drained it, slapped it down on the table with a heavy thunk.
"And if we're gonna pull this off, we're gonna need every ounce of vicious we can get."
Most of y'all probably don't know anything about guns.
and that's cool. Just lemme ramble for a sec, okay?
So, I have myself a Mark IV Hunter, which is a .22 semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Ruger. I mostly shoot it for fun and aim training. Yesterday I got a new fiber-optic rear sight for it, which are more visible and and provide a clearer sight picture than the standard irons. And let me tell you, I had a HELL OF A TIME trying to swap those things out. I learned through miserable experience that Ruger sets their rear sights in with a really, really tight dovetail mount. Which basically means that to get the original sights out of the gun, you have to pound at it with a hammer and a metal punch (which is like a chisel, but with a rounded tip) with basically all your strength.
The problem with doing that is that if you don't have proper gunsmithing tools like a rubber-toothed vice grip, you're liable to ruin your gun's finish. And guess what your boy did? yep. My beautiful wood-gripped, blued-iron pistol now has an ugly scar right next to the newly installed rear sight, which has also been unfortunately dinged up.
so yeah, yesterday was fun.
Apologies for venting at you. Please have a better day than I did.
- Verbosity