Act 1- chapter 8

The GDI

"This, this place is pretty damn noisy. Don't Halkeginians know how to be quiet during such a thing?" Isuka asked from the small balcony of the Tristanian Diplomat hall that the Queen had allowed Devon, Marcus and Isuka to use during the current hearing.

Upon having met the two men that had come out of the strange flying thing that had landed outside of the Magic Academy, Queen Henrietta had decided that speaking to them there would be far from politically correct. Realizing this she decided to move their conversation to the capitol, but doing so came with the expected outcry of many nobles; a demand to make it a hearing that all noble could attend. The nobles that were attending would be able to ask questions and speak their minds, but the ultimate decision of anything at the meeting would fall on the queen herself.

The two men who had introduced themselves back at the Academy were standing in the center of the hall, while every noble in attendance stood on a balcony that lined the halls walls. The idea of the hall was to make those being spoken to feel less than those above them, and therefore more willing to speak truthfully for court cases, but neither of the men seemed anxious, just bored, as numerous nobles spoke and bickered with each other.

"It gets that way. Nobles like talking," Marcus said simply, speaking from experience.

"Why though? Isn't the point of all of the nobles gathering here to speak together about what is to be done about any situation?" Isuka asked, having to raised his voice a bit just to have Devon and Marcus hear him, despite their being less than five feet away.

"Yeah, but in reality it doesn't work perfectly. Most nobles are here for their own reasons, and that is to try to sway the queen's opinion and give themselves more leverage with her in the future." Devon explained.

"Silence!" A cardinal standing in the Queens balcony called, making the hall quiet in a mere second as the queen sighed to herself and stood up from her seat, stepping forward to the railing of her balcony and looking down to the two men, and their retinue of four heavily armored soldiers, their armor brightly golden, but still menacing by Halkeginian standards.

"I'm sorry for that rather, prolonged outburst from our nobles. They should know better!" The queen said her voice full of spite that made many nobles cringe and look away. Despite being a loving and caring queen, she did have a way with words that she had learned over the years. And such skill was perfect and cowing to many nobles. "Please continue, Mister Granger."

Jack Granger nodded and stepped forward, allowing his full uniform to be easily seen as he spoke. To many in the hall he looked like a noble because of his more formal uniform, but that did not hide the obvious militaristic similarities it held to the other man's and their retinue. Slowly exhaling a deep breath he looked around the hall, his steel like gaze taking a moment to glance at every noble before he finally spoke, his voice strong and serious, filled with importance, strength, and the truth of what he was to say. "My name is Lieutenant General Jack Granger. I am the head of an organization called the Global Defence Initiative, more commonly called the GDI. I know for a fact that you have not heard of us, but despite this I must request a boon from your people."

"And what kind of boon would you want from Tristania?" one noble asked his voice arorogance.

"Yes, what do you want, and why does your organization matter!?" another noble asked, sparking many of the nobles in the room to begin loudly asking similar questions.

Jack Granger let them speak, but when the noise became too loud for his taste he placed both hands behind his back and spoke up again, his voice reverberating through the hall, seemingly amplified by the hall's shape. "To answer your questions, the GDI matters because we are a force that tries to keep the peace of our world while trying to remove the danger of an element known as Tiberium from it. That mission has brought us here, as just a day ago, our foe, an organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, came here to escape from our pursuit. As to the boon I am asking, I would like to request an area of land twenty kilometers square so that we may build a base to hunt down the Brotherhood of Nod, and to help protect you from them!"

The room was quiet for a moment, but the small noise of noble's whispering to each other was still audible. In the queens balcony though, there were no whispers as the queen looked to her side to see her lead guard and the captain of the musketeer squad, Agnes de Milan, standing at the balconies back. In the years past as Henrietta ascended to the throne, Agnes had never left her side, and had grown even more skilled as she had gotten older. Now the queen's personal military advisor as well as the musketeer captain, she held great knowledge, including knowledge from the past war. "Agnes, does either of those things sound familiar to you?" Henrietta asked, turning her head ever so slightly, as to not allow anyone to actually know that Agnes was standing just behind the nearby curtain.

Agnes shook her head, Henrietta and her Cardinal being the only people to see, "Tiberium doesn't, but that Brotherhood thing does, I'm not sure why."

Henrietta nodded shallowly and looked back to Jack Granger clearing her throat to speak. "This brotherhood you speak of does not sound familiar to us, nor does the other thing you speak of. Would you mind explaining them in a bit more depth perhaps? Otherwise I will not be able to even consider what you request."

The hall grew loud once more with shouts of agreement from many of the nobles, and a few shouts that were far less respectful, and ignored. In reply Jack Granger turned his head to one of the soldiers and nodded, speaking after the soldier took out a long black tube-like object. "That is understandable, and I shall do so. First I will explain Tiberium to you." Jack Granger said as he twisted the tube and slid out the contents, a glass tube, with a bright green crystal in its center, a crystal that many people recognized. The crystal that covered the battered remains of Albion that sat in the sea off the coast. "This is Tiberium. It may look pretty to some people, but it is the most dangerous element we have ever laid eyes on. It absorbs and transforms other elements into more of itself, destroys the environment, and kills people in the process. Worse even, it grows on its own, slowly spreading its danger across the world and-,"

"Why would you bring death crystal here?" a noble suddenly screamed, unable to contain himself any longer.

"Excuse me?" Jack asked, confused by the nobles immediate reaction.

"That crystal. It is what you call Tiberium, yes?" Henrietta asked, the room instantly becoming quiet so that she and all others in the hall could hear the reply.

"Yes, this is a small Tiberium crystal. As long as it is in this case though; it poses no danger to anyone. And even if it somehow left this case, it would only be a danger in direct contact to anyone."

". . . That crystal. . . . It is familiar to us here in Halkeginia. We call it Death crystal, a name we acquired for it from our elven allies, because all it brings is death and destruction wherever they go." Henrietta said calmly, trying to gauge Jack Granger's reaction as she spoke.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming you know of it because of that small chain of Tiberium covered islands off the coastline?"

Henrietta nodded, her face becoming slightly pale as she recalled the horrors of that time, a time when so much changed and so many had died. "Yes, those islands were once a large floating island, the country of Albion. Now it is merely a place no one nears, for fear of the death crystals. Is this, Brotherhood you spoke of connected to them?"

Jack nodded and passed the Tiberium filled tube to one of the soldiers as he took out a small silver disk and tossed it to the floor, the disk opening up a moment later. "Yes, the Brotherhood of Nod is a religious cult that worships their leader, a man named Kane, as the Messiah of a new world. They also nearly worship Tiberium, believing it to be the substance that will bring them to a higher place of being. They have been responsible for a total of no less than three conflicts encompassing our entire world, and are responsible for entire sections of many continents being uninhabitable, due to their actions of spreading Tiberium."

Henrietta looked at Jack Granger and somehow knew he was telling the truth, but this organization he spoke of only partly sounded familiar to her. It sounded like the organization that had appeared years before, the organization that had summoned demons from the sky and had plunged Halkeginia into chaos, the organization that had been run by her long dead childhood friend. "Do you perhaps have any visuals of what this Brotherhood looks like, their armour or something of the like? I'd like to confirm something and need to see such a thing to do so."

Jack Granger nodded and pulled out a small remote, activating the disk he had dropped down, making it project a large hologram into the center of the room. "This is what the Brotherhood of Nod's most common logo looks like," he said simply as the symbol, a scorpions tail inside of a border appeared in the hologram field.

"I'm sorry, but it does not look to familiar, honestly." Henrietta said simply, hiding her surprise at the hologram itself, and holding herself back from asking about what it was.

"That is all right. The other images we have are a few rendering of Nod vehicles and armour." Jack Granger said as he pressed a control, changing the hologram of the logo to three different holograms. One was of Nod infantry armour, the second was of a Nod scorpion tank, and the final one was of a Nod Avatar, and all of the images caused many of the noble in the room to begin to whisper. They recognized all of these images all too well for some of them.

Henrietta turned to Agnes and nodded, gathering her attention as the numerous nobles in the hall began to bicker and speak louder and louder. "Agnes, send messages to all of our allies requesting their presences. Put down what you believe will get them to come."

Agnes nodded and disappeared from the shadows of the curtain, leaving the queen alone with the Cardinal. "Very well!" Henrietta called, silencing the masses in the hall. "I will need to think this over, and would like to also have a meeting with the heads of our allied countries. Until that time, you and your forces may keep your, machine, outside of the city, and your men may move freely, with minimal arms. Is that sufficient until we have a chance to speak to our allies?" Henrietta asked.

Jack Granger did not move for a few moments, but did finally nod to Queen Henrietta. "Do you believe that this is something you need to speak with your allies about to come to an answer?"

"I do."

"Then I have no problems with it, you may send a message to us when your allies arrive . . . . Would it be alright for my men to have access to libraries or other places of knowledge while we are here?"

Henrietta nodded. "That is fine. This meeting is adjourned!"

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Walking out of the Meeting hall, Michel McNeil could not hold himself any longer and finally let out a long breath, along with his thoughts. "I don't like this, these people don't seem to understand what is going on, yet seem to know more than they are letting on."

Granger nodded as the two of them walked through the streets of the Tristanian capitol, the Kodiaks massive frame visible even over the numerous large buildings of the city as it sat just outside. "I know what you mean; their bureaucracy is just as bad as our own, if not worse. Monarchies have always been said to be bad. I guess we now know why."

" . . . . . . I don't know exactly what other countries they want us to meet with, but all they have appears to be carriages and those massive floating sailing ships. No matter what they take it'll be days before anyone else gets here. That means days before we get anywhere!"

"I know, and while I don't personally like using such means, I want you and a few of your best men to go out into the city and country and gather what information you can. Anything about what they know about Tiberium, and why they seemed to recognize Nod vehicles, but not the logo."

McNeill nodded, "What kind of operation actions are you allowing?"

"Anything within reason. We're still trying to make alliances here to get information and land the diplomatic way, so don't do anything to screw that up."

McNeill nodded again and turned away from Granger, walking down a different street toward the city center with a wave of his hand, "I'm going to go for a drink. I'll see you back at the Kodiak!"

Walking through the streets of the city McNeill could feel a very old world feel from its cobblestone roads, brick and wood buildings, and oil lamps that lined the streets. They reminded him of the old cities of Europe, and the lack of machinery only made it more obvious that this place was not the same as earth. Everyone he saw walking on the streets wore clothing he hadn't seen outside of a theatre, large dresses, coats with long split coattails, and even the occasional courtesan wearing dresses cut so low it was almost criminal. Every person that was armed carried a sword or knife, and the few guards he saw walking the streets seemed to carry primitive flintlocks. McNeill let out a sigh as he turned into a tavern and crossed the floor to a far side, hoping that no one would notice him and he would be able to listen in on other people.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

McNeil looked up to find a mid-aged man with dark hair standing before his table wearing deep blue robes and carrying a heavy wooden staff. He was one of the men who had been present when the Kodiak first landed nearby the strange tower they had found that was apparently a school of some kind. "It might be. Aren't you one of that school's people or something?"

"The Magic Academy of Tristian's Headmaster actually, Jean Colbert, at your service." Mr. Colbert said as he moved a chair out and sat down across from McNeill.

McNeil scowled to the side, he needed information, not a conversation with an overly friendly principal of a noble's school. "And what does a noble teacher want with a mere common soldier like myself?"

"I'd like to exchange information, but not as the Academies headmaster, but as a member of the Gilded Cage." Mr. Colbert whispered across the table, catching McNeil's attention.

"And what is this, Gilded Cage, that you are talking about?"

"It's a group that, well let's just say it's a group apart from royalty and nobles. I'd like to exchange information with you, mainly about that brotherhood you talked about in the meeting, and the fact that their weapons looked very similar to those of a group that appeared twenty years ago here. A group called the Crystalists!"

McNeil let a smile slip from his lips, "Alright, let's see what we can learn from each other!"