Almost a full minute passed in silence as Eirik tried to figure out how he should react, the gathered people held their collective breath as they waited for his reaction and the faintest of giggling could be heard from the speakers.
"Aren't you happy?" Sif finally broke the silence which seemed to snap Eirik back to reality. "How far out are you?" He asked in a sharp voice. "I am waiting for permission to approach the planet as we speak." She responded and Eirik had to suppress the urge to curse loudly.
"Docking bay 17. Stay on the ship until we have talked." Eirik said and immediately ended the conversation. Looking up from his desk he took in the atmosphere of the room in an instant. They were all dying to ask questions but they waited for him to engage. "Meeting is paused. Stay nearby, this will not take long." He decided to leave everyone behind for this confrontation. It would not do him any good to give them a reason to gossip more than they already did. He quickly left the office and headed for the secluded dock usually reserved for arriving diplomats and officials. At least this would be private and he could tell Sif to bugger off and stop pretending they had a daughter together.
Sure, it only took once and they had several encounters before he pawned her off to Terra to face prison for her crimes, only the gods know how she got out of that one, As he approached, he could see the soldiers milling around in a state of confusion. There had been nothing on the schedule and yet this ship had arrived out of nowhere and gotten the emperor's seal of approval to approach the diplomatic dock. Seeing the emperor himself walk toward the ship, unaccompanied by his usual personal guards was twice as surprising, and had it not been for the high demand for discipline in Eirik's armed forces, they might have asked questions.
But they did nothing except stare and do their job which was standing guard over the area as Eirik approached the landing ship. The ramp lowered and he took a moment to collect himself as he stood at the base of the ramp. What if Sif was being truthful and he had indeed fathered a daughter? Why would she wait until now to come and tell him? He would have thought she would have jumped at the first chance to try and weasel her way back into his life.
He would never admit to it, but he feared this meeting. He was scared that he might be as smitten as he had been last time. His marriage was already on the fence and Sif being here could very well end in blood if Freja found out. His or Sif's, he was unsure. Hel, it might be them both that ended up in pieces. He had to settle this and settle it fast. he walked up the ramp and took three steps inside before he had his thoughts interrupted by the scream of a little girl
"DADDY!" and he saw a mess of dark blonde curls and a smile that was unmistakenly his own before a small body had thrown itself into his stomach and almost knocked the air out of him. "MOMMY SAID YOU WOULD BE HERE!" The little girl squealed and clung to him like she was never going to let go again.
"Dirty trick, Sif." He thought to himself as he looked down at the little girl and he couldn't help himself but smile back at the face of pure happiness that beamed back up at him. He knew that look so well from his sons and on a whim he reached down and picked her up, situating her on his shoulder where he kept a hand on her back to stabilize her and she put an arm around his head as well. They were standing like this when Sif entered the room. Eirik sighed deeply. This was going to be an absolute minefield of a conversation.
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Kyr'Tai was in the middle of rage-induced thrashing of her current sparring partners. After her casual defeat by Eirik's hand, she had become determined never, EVER lose a fight again. She was currently fighting no less than 5 of Mur'Sai's soldiers simultaneously and winning, despite the difficulties the fight was bringing. But she wanted to be challenged, to be pushed to her limit. She had been deeply humbled by watching her mother, her frail, old, dying, mother, fight as an equal to the Terran waste that had humiliated her. She had even wounded him!
All her great strength, all her rage, all her raw power, it had all been dismissed. Swatted aside like an annoying bug. She finally understood why her mother had gone through the training schedule every morning, no matter how slow she was moving. The years of repeating the motions of combat had ingrained them as natural responses rather than conscious efforts and it had shown in that last glorious fight. As her third opponent hit the floor, she could feel the rage threatening to overtake her fighting mind, but she refused to let it. Not in the training hall.
It took another few minutes, her two last opponents being cut from different stock than the rest, but she finally emerged victorious, heaving for breath and feeling cathartic after the release of energy. They might be using training weapons but she still left her opponents tethering on the brink of being useless in battle, a testament to her outlandish strength among her kind
Mur'Sai was waiting for her with an annoyed look on her face. "Are you finally done throwing my soldiers around? An emissary is waiting for you from the Plyxii. They... Request, your presence as soon as possible." She said sourly as she watched Kyr'Tai equip her blades to take a drink of water.
"Ah, they arrived. wonderful. I trust they are gathered in a private meeting room?" Kyr'Tai answered in a surprisingly good mood.
"You were expecting those loathsome brutes?" Mur'Sai was genuinely surprised, the 2 species, despite both being martial, operated from vastly different philosophical views. Where the Kloxna desired honorable combat and respected tradition, whereas the Plyxii saw victory in battle as the only goal worth pursuing, and how you attained it mattered little. Power was gained through victory and thus victory was the ultimate goal, no matter the cost or approach.
This caused a cultural divide between the 2 races, resulting in mistrust at the best of times and open hostility at the worst. They were a diplomatic nightmare to host at the same time as they would inevitably end up in an insult war that took away the focus and time from the real issues being discussed. So for a Kloxna, and a high caste bloodline Matriarch at that, to have requested a personal meeting with them was unusual, to say the least.
"No need to worry about that, if you could just point me in the right direction I will have them off of your ship very soon," Kyr'Tai replied smoothly and went down the corridor that was pointed out with all the dignity she was able to muster. She arrived at a heavily guarded door and walked past the guards as if they didn't exist. They were all of them beneath her and ever since Eirik had humiliated her, some of the fear in their eyes had gone. She was no longer unbeatable in their eyes and that took away from the mysticism she had managed to cultivate around her person. She would have to make EIrik's death a spectacular and public one to remedy this little mishap.
As soon as she entered the room a dozen Plyxii that had been standing around, turned to her and bowed deeply. This obvious show of respect from such large and physically imposing creatures caught the eyes of the guards outside before the door closed behind her. Her mother had taught her well, let your subordinates see you in positions of power over others. Let them think your will is absolute.
"Honored matriarch, we come in response to your request. Now, what do you wish of us?" One of the Plyxii stepped forward and spoke.
This was the first time the official title of the matriarch of her bloodline had been used to address her and the experience was intoxicating to Kyr'Tai who had to restrain herself from reveling in the fact.
"I wish to extend an offer of mercenary contracts to as many of you kin as can be reached. I have a feeling you would be interested in accepting the offer, on account of the enemy you would be facing." She stated as she looked up at the towering beast before her. Significantly taller than Terran's he dwarfed her with almost twice her height, and she was the largest specimen of her species that she knew of.
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There was a glint deep in his eyes at her words and he kneeled to look her square in the eyes before he replied "And why would that be an interesting foe to us?" He already knew, every Plyxii in existence would have known, but he wanted to hear her say the words that would see his people unite once more to walk the path of war. It might not be against Terra, the hated foe that had brought the Plyxii to heel and scattered them all over the galaxy as a race of security guards, raiders, and mercenaries. But it would be against a splinter empire created by the very man that had inflicted the killing blow on the people during the height of the war with Terra. Sure, they still had their home systems and other colonized planets, but they had no collective identity.
"I would wish to pit your people against Libertalia, governed by Eirik, the very soldier that lead the team that killed your entire council and military leadership in a single operation." She said, using the knowledge her mother's endless lessons had imparted to her to push the Plyxii messenger towards her goal of adding an entirely new chapter to the war, one that would additionally be positioned on the flank of Eirik's empire and Terra, forcing a redirection of troops and war materiel that would leave them open to a new offensive.
a vicious snarl replaced the Plyxii's previously neutral expression at the mention of their greatest shame, but it was not directed at Kyr'Tai for mentioning it but rather at the memory. He was there that day, on guard duty along the outer perimeter. Everything had been going according to plan, the ambush had been in place and they were waiting for the saboteurs to arrive. Only too late did they learn they had slipped through the net. In the ensuing firefight and chase, they had captured many of them, but they had been liberated several years ago, by the very same man. He was a curse on the Plyxii people and deserved only death.
"Tell me more." He said with the sound of agreement coming from the other eleven Plyxii in the room.
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Eirik looked at Saga, his daughter, as she played by herself while he talked with Sif. There was no denying that she was his daughter. She had his hair color, his smile, and his pure joy for life. Her mother's curls were dominant, as were her green eyes, but everything else was Eirik.
"So, after arriving at Terra, you escape prison by claiming you were not the one to pull the triggers or commit the horrible acts that led to your being a wanted woman. Furthermore, you argued that you didn't even give the orders, you were just advising them on possible courses of action. You are then released, for reasons only the gods can fathom, and you go on to hide away and have a child that you claim is mine. Finally, after not telling me this for almost 6 years, you show up out of the blue and want to play family with me, hoping that by waving my daughter in front of me you could convince me. That is low, Sif, even for you. Tell me the truth, who and-or what are you running from?" He said in an annoyed tone. They had talked about mundane things in the beginning, Saga clinging to Eirik as if she feared he would disappear in a puff of smoke. Of course, she was eventually distracted, as children are want to be, and started playing around in the ship as Eirik and Sif started talking more seriously.
Sif looked immensely annoyed at his words but didn't take the bait. She had also grown these past years. "Those are harsh words, Eirik,"
"You are putting me in a harsh situation!" He snapped back before she could continue. "I have no time to try and do this right now, Hel, I don't have time to deal with it. If you are truly serious about this, you will go to a set of coordinates back on Terra and wait there for a full year. I will transfer funds so you want for nothing while you are there, but as a condition, you cannot leave the area until I have been there, which will be within one year. That is my condition, take it or leave it. I have already used more time than I planned on this."
"Where are you going, since you don't have time, I wonder," Sif remarked and stared Eirik down but he didn't buckle
"In case you didn't notice, I'm in the middle of a war, and recent... developments, have forced me to take more immediate action against the enemies of my empire. I am headed to Terra to kick some diplomats in the ass until Terra abandons the defensive doctrine and moves to go on the attack, at which point I will join the frontline. I cannot ask men to die for me if I am not willing to fight alongside them!" Eirik explained impatiently. "In any case, I have given you the conditions under which this could perhaps become reality. but for now, I need to get going."
As he got up, Saga came running and locked her small arms around him. She had heard him saying he needed to go and, naturally, she wanted to prevent it. Eirik picked her up and hugged her tightly before he looked her in the eyes "I have to go, little one. There are things I must do to keep myself and everyone else safe and happy. But I will return, have no doubt. I promise you will see me again." Despite her protests, he kissed her forehead and handed her to Sif before he turned around and headed for the ship's exit. He needed to distance himself from all of this for a while and it fit into his plans perfectly.
As soon as he left the ship he headed for his private docking bay that contained several shuttles, his old ship, and the prototype FTL bomber that they had begun mass producing and introducing into their fleets. He made his way unto the *Void Wolf* and ordered the skeleton crew on watch to start up the ship immediately and set a course for Terra, after which he headed to his room and typed out a message to Signe, detailing his needs for one of the FTL bombers in his docking bay to be outfitted for combat with rations for at least 2 months, a PESSA suit, his personal weapons, and regular kevlar suit, a report over the theatres of the war were the fighting was hardest along with a list of planets lost to the Kloxna, a closed 2-way communications device, and the picture of his sons from his office desk.
He received the affirmative from her the day after and settled in for the following days of travel to Terra. He spent his time in the training room and his temple room, focusing on the task at hand. His arrival on Terra was less than glorious. First, they were hailed by planetary defense platforms demanding them to declare their ship's information and their intent in Terra's system, followed by whoever was on the other end of the communicator laughing as Eirik identified the vessel. The laughter turned to nervous stammering when he turned on his video feed and stared at a random Terran navy communications officer.
He declared himself on an emergency diplomatic mission and informed the stunned officer that he would be landing on the lawn of the TA headquarters momentarily. Before the protests could begin he terminated communications and switched the ship to manual control. He slowed it down to a leisurely cruising speed as he slowly guided it toward Terra, and he saw the chaos the Terran Navy was experiencing at his blatant disregard for proper procedure. He was already receiving calls from his diplomats in Terran space, no doubt calling to figure out what was going on and, in their snarky way, admonish him for breaking protocol. He didn't care, he had things to do.
When his ship touched down, word had reached the forces on the ground as dozens of heavy weapons teams had their weapons locked on him the moment he touched down. As he lowered the ramp and left the ship he was approached by an old security officer. The red face and deep scowl were a good indicator of the man's mood, and long before he was within earshot, Eirik could see him yelling and gesturing.
"YOU HAVE LANDED ON MILITARY PROPERTY AND WILL SURRENDER YOURSELF AND YOUR SHIP IMMEDIATELY UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO WITH YOU!" Was the first words Eirik could make out of the ranting as a vein threatened to pop on the forehead of the head of security.
"If you detain me, you will be causing a diplomatic incident that I can guarantee will end with your immediate dismissal from the TA, provided you are not thrown in front of a military court for putting your hands on a foreign ruler. I understand that my arrival is, in the mildest of terms, unorthodox and against every rule in the book, but my situation calls for action, not bureaucracy. With this in mind, are you going try and stop me?" Eirik said as soon as the man had stopped at the foot of the ramp of the ship and started walking toward the security officer with the confidence of a man that knew he would not be challenged.
A lot of sputtering and heavy breathing came out of the security officer before he managed a simple, "Why would you not give us at least an hour to understand and prepare for the situation?"
Eirik stopped in his tracks and stared the security officer down. To his credit, the man didn't budge, and Eirik answered him with a malicious smile, "Because I would have been deprived of the joy I get out of making life miserable for the TA." With that, Eirik walked on, past the stunned soldiers who parted in front of him. Anyone able to checkmate their chief was a man you didn't want to get in the way of.
Eirik marched through the building, people staring at him as he went. He hadn't bothered changing into the black uniform shirt but was wearing cargo pants in a camouflage pattern, a black shirt, and a leather jacket. He stuck out like a sore thumb among the suits and other attires of diplomats from all over the universe, but his face was well known among these people. The way his empire's military power had been growing, even during a state of war, nobody could ignore him. He was receiving petitions for escort ships from his navy almost daily
He reached the large doors that marked the war room and he wasted no time knocking. With a mighty push, he flung the doors open and strode into the room like he owned the place. The entire place that had previously been bustling with activity, was now staring silently at the man walking into the midst.
"I seek Colonel Holm-Hansen! Someone point me to where he is!" Eirik bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls.