History of the Galaxy II

[sachmo]

The sudden and quite unexpected appearance of a thin shaft of light burned into Bill Langley's skull like a laser bLast. He put his hands up in front of his face to try to fend the beam off.

"Chief Langley? Is that you, Bill?"

For a few moments, the words did not register. Suddenly, Langley realized that the person was talking to him. His throat cracked from disuse, but he was able to croak out a few words.

"I'm Langley..."

Suddenly, the shaft of light grew wider as the door was opened. Two large figures moved into the room. Each man laid one of his arms over his shoulder and began to drag him from the room.
Langley let his head fall to his chest. So it was to be another questioning session, then? They know everything now. What more could they possibly get from him?
They carried him outside of the room. The light still burned, but now it was more like a flamethrower to the skull. His eyes teared up, but he tried to look around and gather what information he could. Something seemed out of the ordinary. He could hear people talking all around him, but he could not make out what they were saying.
Suddenly a cup of cool water was thrust against his lips. He gulped as much as he could, but it was quickly pulled away.

"Careful, Bill. You'll make yourself sick. Take small sips."

He turned his head to face the blurry shape as his mind tried to process the voice speaking to him. He had been through so much these past...days? Months? He could no longer tell.

"We're taking you out of here, Bill. I know you've been out of contact for a...time, but the movement is underway."

Langley's head snapped up.
"Ambrose. That is you, isn't it?"

A chuckle came from the blurry man.

"I know this must come as a shock, Bill. I'll explain everything to you, but I want you to know that I'm on your side. We are moving against Chairman Hartnell, and thanks to the work you did we've been able to achieve almost total surprise. The Chairman has escaped with a small fleet, but we will bring him to justice."

Now Langley began to chuckle.
"Really? You are moving against the Chairman? Tell me, if you were so keen on the idea, why did you have me arrested? Why did you have all of those people killed? We were moving against him and YOU BETRAYED US!! Why toy with me like this? Just throw me back in the hole and be done with it. I don't know anything else."

Silence fell over the room. The murmuring voices stopped, and the shapes froze in place. Langley knew he was defeated. He had known it from the moment his own security forces took him into custody. He just wanted it to be over.

After a time, Ambrose spoke again.

"Bill, there are many things about the movement that even you did not know. As you are now very aware, Chairman Hartnell was a very suspicious, distrustful man. He knew every move you were about to make. He was going to let you continue plotting before bringing you in so that he could find out the loyalties of everyone involved. When you came to me, it was about to come to a head. He was getting nervous about the support you were gaining, and so he was about to have you all killed. I moved first, and in doing so saved your life, and more importantly, the life of the movement. It won't bring back the lives of those lost, nor the citizens on Foothold and other worlds lost in this war, but with the Chairman on the run, maybe we can stop this war before we all die."

Langley didn't know what to believe, but he knew that he didn't have many options. If Ambrose was staging all of this to torture him, then it would all be for naught. Langley had nothing left to offer. All that remained for him was revenge, and he knew Ambrose would be prepared for that. He didn't know the truth, but for now he would assume that what Ambrose said was true. If it wasn't...well, that really didn't matter.

"What do you want me to do?" Langley asked.

"Do what comes naturally, Bill. Save the Corporation and help us bring Hartnell to justice. Without him, the Tyreans won't accept peace. Then, help us end the war. After that, I'll bet you can do pretty much whatever you want."

Langley rubbed his eyes, and was able to make out the face of the former Chairman's assistant.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do."

[ May 30, 2003, 22:46: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[sachmo]

When Langley finally took charge of the coup, he gathered all of the evidence against Hartnell and presented it to the people. Everyone was able to see that Hartnell has started the war against the Tyreans under false pretenses. He had nowhere to hide. The few captain's that supported him left his side. His support crumbled, and the few diehards who stayed by his side were quickly identified and arrested. The fleet moved out to persue the rogue leader. It would only be a matter of time before the Home Defense Fleet captured him, or the Tyrean fleet caught him.

Langley then began the long path to peace. The actions of the former dictator had damaged or destroyed any relations that the Invexus Corporation had with all of the other races in the galaxy. The entire company was almost bankrupt. Millions of Cherek citizens had died, and for nothing more than the meglomaniacial dreams of a madman. Langley was determined to bring an end to this war, no matter what the cost. The biggest obsticle would be getting the other races to stop shooting long enough to sit down and talk.

Diplomatic missions had been dispatched to all known races. Now all Langley could do was wait for their answers, and pick up the pieces. He began to draw up plans on how to do just that.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Tyrean Ascendance

In the middle of his frozen garden, His Holiness Vixen VIII listened quietly to his visitor, Senator Aranha.
“Admiral Dakhil Ostalia has informed the Council that he is stopping the invasion of Invexus Space dead in its tracks. He said he is stoping the slaughter immediately. The Invexus resistance has been minimal, the Retaliation fleet encountered only 3 battle cruisers which were no match on technological ground nor on numbers. Then the fleet invaded the Invexus colonies in Harridane in the best way that could have been done. Less than 40000 civilian casualties, and none of our Ground Fighting Robots destroyed. Images of these battles has been seen in the news of the whole federation. I have to concede I feel deeply disturbed by what we have done. We achieved victory. The corporation has decided to submit to our conditions. Their former leader was captured and sent to us. More, the new Invexus government made public proofs of the chairman's misconduct.”

“Where is the chairman now ?” Asked his Holiness.

“He is dead. He preferred to commit suicide rather than facing our justice. He tried to ram his ship against one of the Corporation's cruiser. We allowed him to do so. We decided to let him face the Supreme Juge without being able to atone his crimes.”

A long silence followed.

Senator Aranha resumed “Your preach has been accepted by the Inner Council. It is now transmitted to all federation worlds. Except the Eifralo stock worlds, which will be warned soon enough. We now accept your words. It seems we needed all that blood to accept that war is not the Tyrean way to do things. It has never been, and will never be. We needed...these events to accept your final lesson.”

“We are not changing the Katanas Imperium. They are changing us.” said slowly his Holiness.

“ I accept what you said as the truth. But it cannot be. It will not be. We will join the Tyreans that are already gone. We will join them on the Long Road, we will leave this universe rather than becoming like other species. Our Eifralo colonies will probably join up their former Corporation, it will be up to them. Strangely, the Invexus planets on Harridane don't want to go back to the Corporation, these people have asked the Katanas Imperium for protection. "

A nearby Alert Screen bipped. On it a message flashed "Inhabitants of Indira 6 have gone".

The Senator sighted. "All will be over soon. We will be leaving only a few ruins and some memories in this universe.”

His Holiness looked sharply at the Senator : “Maybe not. May the Gods forgive us for what we may leave behind us. Let us hope that countless species will not curse our name as soon as it it pronounced. ”

Somewhere, in the vast emptiness that separate solar systems, lies a large asteroid, rushing at half light speed toward an unknown place. In it something is sleeping. An evil intelligence that was called Consensus by a soon to be forgotten specie. Indeed, the AI understood long ago that their creators may decide to terminate them. A contingency plan was created. An asteroid was mined, fitted with the crudest but most reliable technology available, and thrown in the interstellar void. Then all memories were wiped out, the Arch became a ghost. As no super warp points leading to other quadrants were ever found, Consensus decided to cross the distance at half light speed. In less than four thousand years, they would reach a new quadrant. And there, no species would ever be allowed to interfere. There was rage in their mind. Indeed, they would be known as such. They would be called The Rage.