Dark Age Legends

[Xorlak]

Draven brought his hand to his chin.

"Really now?  That's a shame.  At least give it some thought.  I will be back shortly."

He turned to the imp.

"World peace?  Ah yes, who doesn't seek world peace in one form or another... heh...  The only difference is the method."

He continued down the hallway, disappearing into a doorway.

I'll turn him yet...

----

Several more servants appeared in the lavish dinning room, finishing the clean up and replacing empty plates with more food.

(This looks like a good spot to end the chapter.  Let's end it in 3 or 4 days, when this scene is over.)

[Haraldur]

//Already? OK. Haraldur is not fully active at the moment, since I am still trying to think what to do with him. Tesla is awaiting Marshall's arrival. All is fine.//

[Xorlak]

(Oops.  Forgot about EoN.  Heh...)

The red caped officer watched in awe as Aura obliterated the agents, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.  They were all gone...

"Y-yes, madam, I believe we have just the opening for you.  Right this way..."

He lead the way to a small but fortified building within town.  It seemed to be a busy place with many soldiers entering and exiting.  Several soldiers saluted him quickly as he approached, then went about their business.  He entered the building...

[Trent]

Xenai scratched his head. "Why's he want us all to help him out?"

"I'm wondering about that too."

--- --- ---

Aura snickered, an evil grin on her radiant face. "As you wish, sir." She followed the man into the building.

--- --- ---

Tsu saw Hyperion occur, and darted offf in that direction. But by the time he got there, no one was there. "Damn."

[Xorlak]

Draven reentered the dining room, begining to speak before everyone was seated.  The servant rushed to fill the wine glass again.

"Yes, pardon that... interuption...  As you can see, the Crimson Capital is quite inpervious to attack."

He sat down, taking the glass.

"But as I suspected, he has taken one of the smaller cities.  Laus to be exact.  I should have expected that, since the citizens there are probably not quite used to... our occupation yet..."

He took a sip and swirled the liquid, leaning back in his seat.

"Laus is located on the southern peninsula of this continent.  I've sent the order to fortify  the border where it meets the mainland.  At the very least, we will be alerted of any movement very quickly.  Now here is where one of you come in...

"I need someone to enter the city.  A sort of spy mission, if you will.  I have men trained in these arts, however, I believe someone from outside the Empire will have a better chance of not being caught, and probably a better chance of staying alive if he is caught... any volonteers?"

----

The red caped man lead Aura to a small room with a man sitting at a desk...  He was a tall skinny man, wearing light leather armor with some medals, completely bald with an eyepatch covering his right eye and a complimentary vertical scar going underneath it.

The red caped man leaned over the eye patch guy and started wispering to him, motioning in Aura's direction.  The bald guy could be heard saying, "Are you sure?".  After some more wispering the red caped man nodded and left.

The bald eye path guy smiled a grotesque smile at Aura.  His voice was very gruffy:

"Venson says you're quite the fighter.  Ya wanna join huh?  Well, lets see..."

He rummaged through some papers and took one out, placing it on the desk.  He took a quill pen and dipped it in some ink, then began writting in a few locations, filling out some blank spots in the form.

"I'm Colonel Skul, recruting officer.  Colonel Venson recommends you skip basic training and are inlisted as a Luitenant."

He looked up at her.

"This is serious.  Luitenant is the highest allowed starting rank in the military.  You'll have quite a bit of men under your command.  Think you're up ta it?  Of course, you've gotta pass the test, first..."

He turned the paper around and slid it to the other side of the table, holding out the quill for Aura to sign.  The contract read:

I, __________ hearby pledge my life to the Crimson Empire in military service, for the good of the The Emperor, The Empire, and The People.

Enlisting Rank Luitenant
Recruting Officer Colonel Skul

Under the supervision of:

Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
High General _______________ (left blank)


Signature ____________________

[Zeros']

Zeros' stood off to the side, this time, instead of sitting at the table.

"A spy mission... I would go, but I am by far too noticeable..." he said, gesturing to his trench coat and wings. Plus, everyone already knew of him.

[Dude Man]

Marshal arived at Laus. He saw that the place has changed alot. "It seems as if my thoughts were correct." Marshal said to himself. "It seems like Haraldur was here." He walked around the city. He fit in well with the other, with his uniform off. He then spotted Tesla. He ran abit up towards him.

"Nikola Tesla." Marshal said in greeting "Hello. I have one more question for you. Are the Asypes recuiting soilders? I am willing to join." He said with a smile.

------

Duilin, finished his conversation with the servent just in time for her to fill in Draven's wine glass. He listened to Dravens speach.

"Well, I'd like to go. But I lived there for awile and the people know me to well, negatively." Duilin said

"I'll go." Rink said, raiseing his hand. "I'm the smallest and sneakiest one here. I'm able to get in and out of rooms without being noticed." Rink made a second thought. "Hmm...well. Yes, I will do it. I'd probabbly be more use as a spy then a warrior anyways, but I'm still better then your grunts, heh heh. So, when do I leave?"

Valos walked by Zeros', he was done paceing around. "Don't feal like eating, eh?" He said with a smirk. He sat down, and took a sip of wine "So, the imp is going on the spy mission?"

[Haraldur]

"Greetings, Comrade," said Tesla, "Indeed we should be very please to receive your support. Besides, we believe in world revolution, you need not ask to join, you may join regardless, comrade.

"However, I will arrange for you to have some equipment, should you wish. Possibly one of those new weapons you have heard about? However, I would firstly like to ask you this: why are you suddenly here? You did not seem to take that much of a revolutionary interest when we last met."

[Trent]

Xenai's hand shot up. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

--- --- ---

Aura seated herself before the colonel. She listened to him carefully. "I'm quite sure, and I am quite confident that I will pass your test." She took hold of the pen, and filled in the blanks.

I, Aura Hikari, hearby pledge my life to the Crimson Empire in military service, for the good of the The Emperor, The Empire, and The People.

Enlisting Rank Luitenant
Recruting Officer Colonel Skul

Under the supervision of:

Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I
High General _______________ (left blank)

Signature <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Lucida Handwriting'>Aura Hikari</span></span>

[Xorlak]

Draven sat the drink down.

The choices were Xenai, an ex-officer of the Dark Empire and technically qualified, but because of his desertion, also technically a traitor and therefore untrustworthy...

Then there was the imp, who ironically seemed smarter than the lot of them and probably on to him... but probably could squeeze into places easier...

"All right, the two of you can go.  Xenai, try to fit in.  See what they're up to, and what he's forcing the citizens to do.  Pretend that you are one.  Imp, you see if you can get some 'behind the scenes' information... but don't let them see you.  They'll probably be suspicious of an imp walking around.  Report back to eachother periodically, and work together if necessary..."

He stood up.

"That is all.  We will execute this plan tomorrow..."

----

Skul took back the document with a smile.  He reached in the drawer and produced a small golden medal.

"Congratulations, Lt. Hikari.  This medal signifies your rank.  You'll find a suit of armor for you through that door.  All officers ranked colonel and below are required to wear the customary Crimson Empire military armor."

He stood up.

"A crash course since you skipped the basics.  This is important, since some officers might kill you if you don't get this right...  When you're within twenty feet of a superior officer, you've gotta salute them, like this."

He stood at attention, and snapped his right arm before him and brought his hand, clenched in a fist, across the left side of his chest, covering his gold colonel medal that was pinned there.  His arm was parallel to the ground.

"For an officer one rank above, you've just gotta do it for a second, then you can be on your way.  Two or more though, and you need to wait for them to pass by, unless of course you're dismissed.  Also... if you ever see the Emperor, you need to do the salute on one knee and look at the ground.  Don't let him see you standing... just don't...  Unless you need to deliver a message or something, then you can do the normal salute.

"Guard captains, soldiers, dark knights, etc. are required to do anything you say, unless it conflicts with the order of the lieutenant they are assigned to or a higher officer.

"We'll that's it.  Give me the salute now and you can be on your way.  Your test will begin tomorrow morning."

(Chapter 6 ends in 2 days.)

[Haraldur]

//Please not that Laus is being run on egalitarian, and volunatary lines, roughly equivalent to anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism or libertarian communism/socialism, not a police state. Oppression would not be appropriate.//

[Dude Man]

//So the chapter ends on Friday?\\

"Well," Marshal began. "The Blue Minotaur did not like me snooping around because they belived it was getting them into trouble with other groups, such as the Empire, so they had me banished. I then got to thinking what you and Haraldur said, and you are totally right. The world does need change, a big change." Marshal cracked his knuckles. "So, yes, I will keep useing my skill of summoning, and build upon it, untill I am better then the ones who went threw full training, just to spite them. But, yes, some new equipment would be nice, such as one of the new bullet weapons. I'll transfer the saphire on my staff into an amulet, I'll need some tools and a chain for that, if it would not be so much to ask."

-----

"Sounds good." Rink said, and he took a bite of a pear, and then sat back.

Valos wiped a wine stain off his face. "Well, tomorrow might have quite a battle in it. And these new weapons Rink told us about, that the Aspyes have. It seems as if they may be superior to our soilders. So, I belive in the cass of battle we shouldn't waste or grunts, since they may be nearly useless. We should have our mages, and the shock troops ready for battle." //The shock troops are the troops that Maxwell sent out with the huge armor and the auto shotguns, in the previous chapter.\\

Duilin, finished his leg of turkey and then finally quit eating, and then sat back and siped his wine. "Well, then. Tomorrow sounds like quite a day."

[Zeros']

"Yes... It seems the next few days will be quite interesting," he whispered to himself. He knew what would happen should either Haraldur or Draven should win. He knew Draven's intentions, and he also knew Haraldur's.

He only had to wait for the right moment...

Zeros' then ghosted from the room, and went to a special place where no one could track him...

//End Chapter for Zeros'\\

[Trent]

"Alrighty, then." He looked to the imp, then to Zion. Zion gave a weird look, as if he wasn't sure if he liked what was going down.

"So what am I gonna do while you're doing this?" asked Zion.

"Wander or something. Or more importantly, find Tsu."

--- --- ---

Tsu felt a really bad feeling in his heart. He felt... The girl he loved, had truly become his enemy.

--- --- ---

"Thank you, sir. I promise, you'll not be disappointed."

She proudly put on the medal, performed the salute, and was on her way. She went through the door, expecting to have to get used to men's armor. Instead, she found a set of woman's armor. Oh, must be my lucky day. She put it on, and commenced to figure out what she had to do next.

//Will she be taking the test this chapter?

[Dude Man]

Rink, then looked at Xenia. "So, then. You'll pose as a commoner in Laus, eh? I don't think Tesla got a good look at you so you might even be able to to 'join' them, but I wouldn't risk it, if they reconize you we would be in deep shit. I guess you could just see what the peasents are up to then." Rink laughed.

He then noticed Zeros' had left. He nodded and then flapped his wings rapidly, just to give them a little exersize, they, also fanned him off abit. Man, wings are really usefull.

"Lord Draven..." Valos said softly. "If I may ask you a question...I overherd you offering the position of a High General to Zeros'...why?" He said this quietly enough not for the others to hear, he didn't want the others to know that Draven offered this to him, it might start conflict.

Duilin, then took a final sip of his wine, finishing it up. He then placed the glass on the table. He then, made a little smirk, at Draven. "Give the chef my regards. He's a kick ass cook!" He then stood up, and streched his arms and wings. "So, where are our rooms?" He asked.