The planet Korbanis, capital world of the Avalon Empire, a planet full of naturel resources with rich greenery and an exotic wild life which blends mysteriously with the urban areas of the planet. In the center of the capital city, Florencia, stand a massively high skyscraper and at the highest level of this structure a meeting is being held.

In front of a massive semi-circle window, High Councilor Ziban was looking down upon this city. A city that was painstakingly fought for to be able to construct it. He started reminiscing the start of this great project, how he helped their leader to become the emperor that everyone loved… And how they wanted to share this happiness with the rest of the galaxy.

“This is complete non-sense! How can we make this monster in charge of such a great undertaking! We should be the ones leading this project! Those animals of the republic cannot be trusted!”

“I am of the same opinion! They should be prostrating before us for being so clement with them. We even given them one of the emperors High Guardians! Rav Talok! The Strongest and most powerful of them! He should be the one leading them!”

High Councilor Kalb and High Councilor Geirosh, respectively, were both great man of action that have gain their poste by sheer brute force. They were straightforward and ferocious individuals who thought that ‘might makes it right’.

“You both are right, however, Talok isn’t a man who has a lot of experience with leading a group as divers as this and his narrow views towards these scums will make it difficult for him to cooperate with them. I would not even be surprised that he would yell ‘for the emperor’ and start fighting them.”

“Our choices were limited, and I agree with Ziban on this. This soldier has worked with many kinds of people and making him the leader will grant us the possibility to monitor him. In addition, our list of individuals, on the other hand, isn’t one with individual with leadership skills…”

On the other half of the round circle sat High Councilor Rayvin and High Councilor Demetros respectively. Rayvin was a political snake and fervent believer in the empire. He maneuvered his way to his position through the backdoors of political life. Demetros in the other hand was an oddity where he looked like quite the intellectual with a calm demeanor. However, was close to be considered a sadist because of his personal interest.

Ziban didn’t interject and left the debate develop itself. He had brought the information and he knew nothing more could done. He simply interjected with the only questions that mattered for the moment…

“Alright, alright, what’s done is done. Now I want to know what you all have found out about this new threat while I was gone. We need to be able to understand what the motives of this enemy… So? What have you found.”

The councilors looked at each other, expecting someone to go first and after a few seconds, Demetros took the lead:

“According to my sources, a small team of unknown individuals have been searching caves in the cursed marshes. After assembling a specialize group to be able to approach the marshes, my agents have confirmed their deaths by the piles of ashes they found.”

“We’ve already explored these caves, and nothing was there that peaked our interest… Did you find what they were looking for.” Asked Geirosh.

“Nothing of particular interest, however the report says they were transporting some heavy equipment of sorts but those were destroyed by the beast inside. The equipment seemed to be for excavation and transportation. Nothing else was found on my side.” Answered Demetros.

The council was quiet, and everyone was thinking on the matter quietly.

Then Kalb broke the silence and asked: “Have we traced the equipment to whom sold it to them?”

“Yes, my network of agents has found some traces.” Said Rayvin, frustratedly. “But we lost the middle man to confirm it… That bastard blew up a dock on Meridian Station and took down three patrol ships before escaping just this morning!”

The councilors looked at Rayvin, shocked. They were aware of an incident that happen a couple of hours ago but weren’t aware of the extent of the damage.

Meridian Station was an orbital station That would house troops and acted as a waypoint to assemble their fleets close to the planet. It acted as an orbital defense platform and trade hub at the same time, which meant it was extremely well guarded and fortified… Well, it was supposed to be.

“How the hell did this happen!” Shouted Kalb.

“According to the troops, the man was a crack shot and had prepared explosives beforehand. Also, he would be an ace pilot that was able to evade fire from the authorities by dodging and flying through the middle of multiple docked warships before entering hyperspace.” Explained Rayvin. “Personally, I was about to sanction these men for incompetence, but then I saw the list and saw our culprit on it… Captain Slyborg Jones is how he calls himself.”

Ziban started to laugh. “At least we know that Arbiters will have a good pilot! Bahahaha! And here I was worried about a smuggler being on the team! This is to hilarious!”

Ziban was the only councilor able to laugh at such a situation. All the others were either giving rei-smiles or were holding their heads in dismissal. A headache was starting to grow while thinking of this project.

However, Ziban cut his laughter short and seriously asked: “So what was his relation to them?”

Councilor Rayvin took his notes and confirmed simply what he said. The man was a simple middle-man, a runner that only transported an unknown package for a customer.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“How do we know it isn’t a lie?” retorqued Geirosh.

“Because he told us everything we needed about the source of the seller and cooperated fully with the investigation.” Promptly said Rayvin.

All the councilors were again shocked and confused.

“Then why did so much destruction happen on the station?” asked Demetros bewildered.

“… The man got himself in a bar fight and was piss drunk to the point that when the dock officers came to resolve the situation, the man seemed to think they were the friends of the man he was fighting with… and then went to knock them out which started a gunfight… which resulted him to fight his way to his ship, use explosives as a distraction and to blow up the gravitational locks on the ship… which brought about a space battle where 3 patrols units where destroyed… Surprisingly, no casualties were reported.”

One word was written on the face of the councilors: Ridiculous! Complete and utter ridiculousness. They could not for the life of them comprehend how the scene played out. It was unfathomable.

“How the hell did he pass the security check points? Weren’t the beam fields activated to stop him from passing through?” Asked Kalb.

“They were… blown up, it seems.” Continued Rayvin.

“HOW?! They are reinforced stations that are laser and explosive proof! Even Biomentalist would have extremely difficult time destroying the security stations and would then need direct access to the control monitors to lift the lock down.”

Rayvin then activated his holoprojector, displaying schematics of what seemed to be the inner mechanics of a security station for all to see. I then started to explain that the explosions disrupted the connections to the beam transmitter array by the frequency they emitted… Also, the angle and the number explosive used affected the structural integrity of the checkpoint stations and simply crumbled away. This meant that Captain Slyborg Jones was either the most experienced and intelligent explosive expert they have ever seen… or he was the luckiest and most idiotic person they have known.

Using such explosives and standing in their radius could have killed him multiple times over… If his plan didn’t succeed.

All of this was done under fire of the dock security officers.

“This is complete and utter failure of our security personnel. Countermeasure must be put in place.” Stated Demetros.

“I have here multiple new suggestions on policies to put in place and I have assigned architects to work on these weaknesses to erase them to avoid such eventuality.” Confirmed Rayvin. “Also, because of the particularity of the situation, I suggest a simple administrative punishment would do for the guards.”

“True, we can show leniency. A summary execution for failing their duties in this kind of situation would be to much. Showing mercy would help their moral ever so slightly.” Said Geirosh.

All councilor all agreed.

Captain Jones was a new face in the underworld for a decade or so and some of his deeds were heard of, but nothing major since he didn’t operate in the empire’s territory. The fact this individual was selected by the DRA meant he was far more important, or dangerous, then they thought and would need to be more alert about him.

Ziban approach the table and sat down. “Now, what is the situation with the emperor.” Asked Ziban.

Everyone became somber around the table at those words.

“He came out from his meditated state while you were gone and stated that he will soon have a breakthrough in acquiring the ‘Battlefield Mind’ state. After presenting him your plan, he has agreed and gives you full rein on the project.” Reported Demetros.

“Hmm… Good. We will soon have a great weapon against the Alliance retches. We will have the upper hand once this new threat is quelled… How soon can we gather our selected ‘Arbiters’ to meet?”

“High Guardian Talok is at Garrison, training; The ghost of imperial intelligence is in return flight of an operation in Alliance space and will arrive in approximately three hours; the bounty hunter is on Meridian station waiting for summoning; and the minister of history and archeology is, of course, in his lab still.” Stated Kalb.

“We will wait for the agent to arrive, tell them to assemble on the stations in the imperial statesman meeting room and wait for further instruction. I will be meeting them personally before leaving with them for the first official meeting of the Arbiters.” Confirmed Ziban. “I’ll be leaving for a little while, so continue the good work.”

“Before you go Ziban, I would like to ask one more time. Can we trust general Grant?” Asked Geirosh. “I respect him as a fellow warrior, but I can’t trust an Alliance dog.”

“Trust has nothing to do with it, my friend. ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’, but this only right to the extent of the existence of such and enemy. Once we have concluded our dealings, we will be able deal a crushing blow to the DRA. That is IF we deal our cards correctly.” Explained Ziban. “We must remember that they too will try the same thing at the end of it all.”

“Wariness is key then but let’s hope this will not impede the progress of these ‘Arbiters’.” Said Rayvin.

On that note, the meeting ended and Ziban was the first to leave. The room was silent for a moment with the four other councilors looking at each other.

Kalb broke the silence. “I hope this fails, I can’t stand working with these scums.”

“I on the other hand can’t stand Ziban. This old fool with his aloof way of doing things… He simply ticks me off. I can’t wait that he kicks the bucket. How long can a Zirkan live?!” asked Geirosh.

“No idea, there is very little information on that race. For all we know, he might be the last of his species… I would prefer collecting him and study him.” Announced Demetros.

“Don’t even think of doing anything you two. I don’t want to lose anymore members of the high council. It’s been years since it’s been so stable!” declared Rayvin. “And you both wouldn’t even be able to touch a single strand of his hair before he would melt you to oblivion.”

If the politics of the Democratic Republic Alliance is based on dialogue, then the Avalon Empire’s politics is based on strength. Either through cunning or might, one can gain power and social status based of their own strength.

The main race of the Empire was humans and would generally discriminate other races. The only exceptions that would be races that proved their strength in some sort of way that would commend some amount of respect from the empire. They would then be integrated in the empire as citizens with slightly less rights then humans. However, they would have the chance to climb in power in society if they have a strong enough will.

Laws were strict, and punishment was stricter, but the benefits were immense. The fact that anyone could attain them by proving their strength was very enticing. All citizens were given a home and the basics necessities to live. Education was given to the children and all jobs were offered by the state. Poverty was inexistent inside the empire… if you weren’t any other race then human or the few exceptions.

Ziban was coming from one such race, but he has been in the High Council for so long that no one present knew when he started. Humans have transcended the age limitation a long time ago, but even still, no one knew how long High Councilor Ziban has been in office apart from the emperor himself.

He has been the only unchanging member of the council. Which this says a lot just by understanding the nature of politics in the empire.

“Look, let’s just concentrate on this new threat and hope we can go back to crushing the Alliance the fastest has we can. On that note, meeting adjourned.”

All four high councilors upped and left the room, hoping to end this new crisis soon.