Despite your desire to go on an official mission, you feel that it would be worse to leave one of your team members behind, especially what would lie in store for him.

"I will not leave a member of my team behind. We need to be together to produce the best results, captain."
"I see. Well, we'll see how true that is when you're all cleaning out the toilets. You're on clean up detail until further notice. That will be all." Pollo says in a perturbed tone.

You leave Captain Pollo's office with the bad news to your team.

"WHAT?! I was ready for a fight!" Edgar yells.
"What happened in there?" Roldan asks.
"Yeah, we were going on a proper mission and not we aren't!" Gerald adds completely oblivious that he wasn't going anywhere to begin with.
"Look, there will be other times, let's not dwell on it, we've got toilets to clean…"

The rest of your team follows your lead and grumble a bit, but Edgar is doing the most of it. By the end of the day you've cleaned up a lot of the fort, but really, this isn't what you want to be doing.

The next day, Captain Pollo feels that you've done such a good job that he says that your talents would be wasted in battle. He feels that other more experienced soldiers can now be freed up from such trivial duties that your team is performing. You're kept at the fort doing all sorts of menial labor.

Day pass into months and the mocking never stops from the other soldiers in the fort who call you the "mop kids". This angers all of you, but of course once again Edgar is the one that nearly comes to blows with other soldiers. You have to stop him several times. Eventually his anger is directed towards you.

"Fuck! This shit is all your fault anyway! What the hell did you do to piss off Captain Pollo all those months ago?"
"Nevermind Edgar! And you're out of line, I am your leader!"
"Hah! Some great job you got us fearless leader! We're making the Empire safe from filthy shitholes and dirty floors!" Edgar says getting in your face.

Before the others can break it up, you grab Edgar and slam him up against the wall.

"You wanna know what I did? I refused to leave Gerald behind to get fucked by that sick dipshit captain!" you shout in his face.
"What?" Edgar says.
"He…he wanted to fuck me?!" Gerald says in disbelief
"Well it was pretty obvious when we first met him, Gerald." Brenda remarks.
"Surprised he didn't just order you to leave him, or more logically order Gerald himself." Roldan adds.

You let go of Edgar.

"I dunno, I think he's playing some sort of game. Maybe it's a test even. Like if I'm willing to leave a man behind or not." You answer.
"Well I sure wish you had sergeant, because that would've been the smart thing to do! So what if Gerald would've had to please the captain? It's not like it would've been a big deal. The greater good of the team and the Empire would've been better served with the rest of us chopping up some kobolds, not mopping floors and cleaning!" Edgar says unsympathetically.
"HEY!" Gerald replies.
"Right, Edgar, I'll remember your speech the next time some sicko wants me to leave you behind instead."
"Look all I'm saying, is you gotta make tough decisions like that if you want to be a real leader! Just think if we were on a mission and you had to leave Gerald or any of us behind to die, to complete it? You would've probably froze up and got us all killed. I'm not sure if I believe in you as our leader if you can't make simple choices…"

Between the monotonous cleaning, the mocking, Edgar's bitching and your own doubt about your leadership abilities, you can't take it anymore. You punch Edgar in the face mid-sentence and knock him to the floor, he's dazed for a moment, but doesn't hesitate to attack you right back.

The pair of you are going at it which draws the attention of several passing soldiers, who take the time to mock you. This is a mistake on their part as you and Edgar are in a heightened state of anger causing you both to attack them instead. This then escalates into others aiding them, which in turn causes your team to aid you as well.

The brawl is chaotic and counter productive, but for a brief moment you actually feel "alive" again. You imagine most of your fellow Eternals do too after all this is the first "battle" they've had in months. Unfortunately Kane feels so alive, he forgets that he's fighting fellow Empire soldiers and ends up killing three of them.

The brawl ends with the opposing soldiers running and the rest of you standing around looking at Kane who doesn't know why you aren't celebrating your victory.

When this is brought to the attention of Captain Pollo he's furious and has you all put in the stockade and mentions that a trial will be held tomorrow to decide what to do with you. He already doesn't like you, so you're guessing it's just going to be for show and then he'll do whatever he likes anyway.

"Look, Kane is the one who killed them, he should be the one to take the fall!" Edgar points out.
"For the greater good of the team huh, Edgar?" Warrick replies.
"Damn right! Look you know I'm right! If we try to fight this, the captain is just going to punish all of us!"
"He's going to punish us all anyway Edgar!"
"And you're probably right, but Kane here is the only one who'll get the noose. I mean no offense Kane, but come on even you know I'm right on this!"

As much as you'd like to punch out Edgar again, that's what lead to this in the first place. Actually if you had just left behind Gerald, this could've all been avoided. Maybe Edgar's right, the good of the many outweighing the needs of the few. You were taught that before in training, you don't know why you questioning it now.

Still, it doesn't feel right just throwing Kane to the wolves, just like it didn't feel right leaving Gerald behind.

You place all the blame on Kane

You already made one mistake by place one man's welfare above the good of the team. You can't afford to do it this time when all your lives may very be at stake.

Edgar is of course happy you came to this conclusion, the rest of your team isn't as happy. A couple even argue with you a bit, though it isn't over so much that you're not standing up for him, so much as you aren't consistent. Kane on the other hand seems oddly okay with your decision. He says if it's for the good of the team then so be it. It's almost as if he doesn't care.

The next day all of you are marched into the cafeteria, which is serving as a makeshift court room. Many of the other soldiers are calling for your blood, but some of them are just sitting quietly. Captain Pollo asks both sides what exactly happened, and despite the other side making themselves look more sympathetic than they are, you do nothing to protect Kane in any way. You say that it was all his fault and you had no control over his actions. Kane accepts full responsibility and doesn't even try to defend himself.

While this keeps you and the rest of your team from facing the gallows, it doesn't keep you out of complete trouble. Since you were the leader of the team, you are stripped of your rank and busted back down to private. Captain Pollo says that all of you are to be transferred as well since he doesn't want something like this happening again. Kane is scheduled to hang in the morning.

When court is dismissed all of you return to your room. Edgar goes on about how lucky you all were, but nobody is in the mood to hear it. Eventually he says he'll be glad to get transferred from everyone anyway since you're all holding him back, he then leaves to report to his cleaning duties.

The next morning when Kane is executed none of you attend to watch it, indeed you're all wonder where you're going to be transferred, which is supposed to be in a couple days.

As it turns out you didn't need to wonder at all. Mr. Mol finds out about what happened and isn't pleased about how it was handled. He allows the transfer of most of your team, since he believed you all would be better off separate to begin with, but you're left at Fort Glory since he also believes that you utterly failed to show any leadership qualities. As such you're not fit to be located anywhere important.

Captain Pollo, who never liked you to begin with is even more perturbed that he couldn't get rid of all of you (At least not the one he found attractive) keeps you on clean up detail and other menial jobs. You're a private now, so it's not even like you can use your rank as an excuse of how your skills are being wasted.

The only thing that keeps you going is the delusion that maybe your service is still benefiting the Empire in some small way, even if you aren't actively fighting for it. At least it does for a while.

Year 17

"But captain, you've got kobolds running all over the countryside, there are those desert nomads destroying entire towns in the southern part of Nalin, you're starting to get bandit reports…at least let me go on patrol!" you say to Pollo.
"Everything is under control private, the last thing I need is your help! And why aren't you attending your duties?"
"Captain, if I may say, we do need every man we can get out there. Most of the ones we got are reluctant to even leave the fort at this point. Surely you must see that someone who wants to fight is a benefit, not a hindrance." Lieutenant Anu interjects.
"And when I want your opinion lieutenant I'll ask for it! I gave you a chance to fight before and you didn't take it, when you had the chance."
"Oh fer…captain I'd think you'd want anyone going out there to fight if only so you won't have to do it."
"What are you implying lieutenant?"
"I'm implying you're a fucking incompetent asshole who worries more about procuring young boys from nearby towns rather than the safety of this province! And I for one can't stand by and watch it any longer! As of right now I'm invoking the right to take command; you have proven a complete fuck up since I've been stationed here. Private, I'm giving you permission to get on a horse and out to the town of Yalef. They're in the middle of a siege from the usksha there. Hopefully you can get there and do something."

Captain Pollo protests and he argues back and forth with his second in command, but when the guards enter the room, they are obviously on Anu's side. Not wishing to get involved in this anymore than you are, you take the opportunity to follow Anu's orders.

Part of you is very excited about this, at last you feel like a weight has been lifted off your chest and you're finally free to serve the Empire in a more substantial way.

Your journey to Yalef isn't an uneventful one. You're actually attacked several times by kobolds. One of these ambushes succeeds in killing your horse. You dispatch the kobolds, but even with all your training you find that not being in any sort of combat for a year has made you slightly rusty.

You carry on to the town of Yalef, fighting and resting when you must. By the time you get within sight of the town, half of it is in ruins and multiple horsemen surround the place. These must be the usksha or the desert horsemen you've heard about. Some of them see you and immediately attack.

You do well against them all things considered that you're outnumbered, fighting alone, tired and slightly wounded with your many skirmishes with the kobolds. The problems come when the usksha change up tactics and begin firing arrows at you instead. You're caught by a couple of the arrows before you can get cover.

As you hide behind a rock, trying to figure out how you're going to actually get to the town, you feel a sharp pain in your body. This is followed by several more and you slump into the rock, struggling to breathe. You notices several more arrows in you, but these are smaller and you from you've seen all the usksha were in front of your near the town.

Then sounds of inhuman high pitched giggling fill your ears. It's another kobold ambush! The little fuckers must've been hiding in the mud and dirt nearby waiting for their own time to strike.

You see several approach you, while others go off to engage the usksha, but you know your role in this is over. Your eyes close and are just glad your last moments were fighting for the Empire.