On Irk, Xilch was settling in for a glass of some Vortian wine before receiving an urgent message at her desk. A formal report from Major General Lopin on General Cagir's staff? Priority One for a status report? Surely this was a clerical error. Why was this being sent to her? She opened the report, immediately met with a graphic image of Cagir's decomposed head in a box.
T'daali Correctional Facility had been infiltrated, assaulted, damaged in combat. Blocks A, B, and D cleared of all inmates. Only C-Block remained in IIA hands throughout the battle. Colonel Niz was found dead outside D-Block, eviscerated during the prison break. Cagir's body was quartered and displayed at four different outposts near T'daali. Sweeps of the nearby countryside saw an abandoned Vortian resistance base in an underground mine, devoid of any life and intelligence. Only garbage and furniture remained. Even Red and Purple were gone.
Vort had been defiled…and Vaukt was behind it.
The Warmaster of Internal Affairs flew into a rage. Everything upon her desk was immediately swept to the floor, the desk itself flipped with sheer fury. As Grimm walked in the door, in a uniform fit for the Tallest with a smile and bearing wine and chocolates, her glass of wine impacted the wall near the door, shattering as its contents ran down the wall, startling the newly minted Tallest.
"Xilch, my dear, what's wrong?"
Bright blue eyes with livid fury wheeled around as she panted from her exerted rage. A brief moment of visceral, feral anger normally beneath a reserved placid surface broke through. Seeing who had appeared unannounced in her office didn't help matters any as she forced herself to stand upright, smoothing her antenna back with a grim face of indignation.
"...I…apologize for my outburst, My Tallest." She finally managed, awkwardly leaning to stand the chair normally seated before her desk upright once more. "You may wish to take a seat."
Grimm walked over, stepping over a toppled chair as he set the chocolates and wine on her overturned desk. A look of concern on his face. "Xilch, I've never seen you this mad. What happened?"
Forcing herself to remain composed and professional despite their very personal relationship, she stood before Grimm, hands placed behind her back.
"...Not long after my departure from Vort, there were a…series of events that took place at T'daali Correctional Facility…" She began, struggling to even find the words without flying off the handle once more at her simmering rage beneath the surface. Eventually, she settled for locating the cracked dataslate with the open report to hand off to her lover.
"My words cannot do justice of the report. My decision to leave and those I left in command are my fault to bear. I have failed you and brought great shame to what should be your crowning achievement."
Grimm took the cracked dataslate and began reading it over. He stumbled back into a seat that wasn't flipped earlier and collapsed into it. Everything so finely crafted had just been destroyed. Red and Purple were in the wind and it was all because of Vaukt. Grimm's own rage welling up saw the man take the dataslate and hurl it towards a window with great ferocity, the device managing to crack it, breaking the dataslate as it fell to the ground.
"That…that damn traitor Vaukt…he ruins everything."
She did not react to Grimm's justified anger at these developments.
"It is fortunate that both Niz and Cagir met their ends. I would have personally seen to it myself after such grievous missteps." Xilch commented, hesitantly placing a firm, consoling hand to Grimm's shoulder with a squeeze. "...if it is any consolation, My Tallest…so long as the two buffoons remain indisposed of, you are at the helm. The only exception being input from your Warmaster. All things considered…this changes very little."
"I suppose you are right, darling." Grimm gently pulled her down to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Also fortunate you departed or else I may very well not have my Warmaster of choice either." He paused to turn her head to face him before a communication device rang, causing the man to let out an exasperated sigh.
"What?" Grimm answered, annoyed.
"Um, sorry, sir," a red eyed female Irken answered on the other side. "Aega, Minister of Foreign Affairs and I um…have some very important information for you, Mighty One."
"Well, out with it."
"The Planet Jackers have declared that our non-aggression pact is null and void because of our actions, sir."
Grimm blinked, surprised to hear that. He looked at Xilch. "What's going on with the Planet Jackers? I thought everything was just fine with them."
"It is, surely this is a mistake." The Warmaster responded in kind. "I had just sent a formal missive notifying them of leadership changes with the appropriate contact information."
Xilch's terminal pinged again, another report coming across her terminal on her overturned desk. Grimm rose from his seat, grabbing his wine and chocolates and righting her desk once more. Another report…about…Onikaiah?
"Aega, what's Onikaiah?"
"Desolate world with no atmosphere, sir, barren as can be with the only real resource within being suitable for starship fuel. The Planet Jackers refine it and use the planet as one of their refueling outposts."
Each line of the hastily-written report full of punctuation and spelling errors increased Xilch's ire degree-by-degree. The events of Vort were a setback, but not crippling. This…this was an entirely different beast. A beast awoken by this rogue element operating beneath her vigilance and making its moves once exposed.
An unprovoked assault and sabotage of the outpost and several PJ vessels covered from several angles of security footage clearly showed Irken in Empire Elite uniforms wreaking havoc and engaging any PJ security forces able to put up resistance in their wake. No orders of deployment crossed her desk. Grimm's understudy and subordinate filling the role vacated knew nothing of it, let alone authorizing it.
Xilch growled into a scream of anger before putting her fist through the terminal projector, tearing the fabric of her white glove and lacerating her hand.
"Aega?"
"Yes, Warmaster?"
"Work damage control. Stall them if you must. I don't care how."
"Of course, Warmaster."
Hand trembling in pain with a stone-set expression, she turned to Grimm after he terminated the call.
"...I can rectify this but you will not like how."
"...How, exactly?" Grimm asked with a confused blink.
"Downshift Operation Impending Doom II into a defensive posture, hold and reinforce current acquisitions, and focus on the rogue element to hunt them down like the vermin they are and show the UNIVERSE what becomes of traitors to the Empire!"
Grimm was right he definitely didn't like it, but he didn't exactly see any other viable option in the matter. "So what about Jakri? You know that we're taking maybe a week or two just to take a single klik of territory out there. Should we abandon the campaign for now or keep the pressure on their Empire lest they also mobilize against us?"
An idea dawned on the High Marshal, pressing the redial key of Grimm's communicator for Aega.
"Yes, My Tallest?"
"Warmaster Xilch, Aega."
"Yes, Warmaster?"
"...offer Jakri to the Planet Jackers as a concession while we get to the bottom of what is going on." Xilch spoke, never tearing her eyes away from Grimm at her tactical brilliance on display. "...with Tallest Grimm's approval, of course."
Grimm smiled, rubbing the arm of Xilch's wounded hand rather than taking it. "She has my full approval on this idea, Aega. See to it and hopefully it will assuage their anger."
"Once the approval passes my desk I will make it so, My Tallest."
"Make it a priority. That will be all, Aega."
"Yes, Warmaster."
Finding solace in her quick-thinking to avert potential disaster from growing further, she reached up to snap Grimm's communicator shut with a smirk.
"What would you ever do without me?"
"Be a miserable, lonely man throwing wave after wave of men trying to find Vaukt wherever he is?" Grimm rose to his feet, giving Xilch a kiss on her cheek. "We should really take care of your hand first, my dear."
She glanced down at it, her cloth glove now all but green, saturated with her blood and dripping onto the floor.
"We should. My temper got the better of me…I will be sure to save it for those deserving of it once they are apprehended and brought before me. If you never want this to happen again, My Tallest, I have an…ambitious proposal. One that would require our presence on Judgementia before the Control Brains."
"Then let's get to the Massive and make our way there. You as my Warmaster have my complete confidence, my dear."
Xilch could barely contain her grin of excitement despite the severity of the situation. Just as quickly as events had sullied Grimm's coronation, they would return brilliance again. A new age and era of the Empire was just beyond their grasp.
Wrapping her bleeding hand in the cold-weather scarf part of her uniform hanging on the overturned coat rack, she returned to Grimm's side for a brief kiss before leading him out of the ruined office and past her secretary.
"Vila."
"Yes, Warmaster?"
"Send the Janitorial Drones up here to clean my office. I am departing for Judgementia post-haste. Forward my messages to my quarters aboard the Massive."
Vila, jotting down short-hand notes, nodded with each command.
"Yes, Warmaster, as you wish. Anything else, Ma'am?"
"Notify High Marshal Turu of Internal Affairs to expect an important missive from me in the future. Mobilize Internal Affairs in preparation. Mass recruitment and standby."
"Mass recruitment?" Grimm asked. "Like, forming infantry divisions and the like under their direct command instead of that of the Elites or Troopers?"
"Clearly Internal Affairs' ranks are lacking if this level of sedition is permitted to fester. Currently, an IIA liaison is embedded at the battalion level to notify Enforcement of infractions…our proposal will see that reduced to the platoon level, My Tallest. None will escape their vigilance."