ICHaFBI 19

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=I, Corvus; How a Fool became Imperator of the O'Reillys - Chapter XIX -=
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----<Character & Faction Directory of I, Corvus>----
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===Life of a CEO===
Alphard Trading Company Suetonius Headquarters
Suetonius, Marian Hegemony
Late 3034
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Livia picked at her tight, sticky dress tunic. The people of Suetonius were a stingy lot, and Livia thought executives in charge of the Suetonius branch of the Alphard Trading Company must be the stingiest on the entire planet. The world baked under a 40 degree summer day and even in her executive suite, she felt every degree of it. The building had air conditioning of course. It was a status symbol the company couldn't do without, but to dare to turn it on? Madness!
 
Or so the CFO she acted as assistant for proclaimed. Sure, it might cost a few denarii to run and maintain the thing, but if the woman ever bothered to take a walk outside of her office she'd see workers spending more time fanning themselves at their desk than working, and office slaves passed hiding in the service tunnels for a moment of relief. Denarii wise and talent foolish, as the saying went. When Livia was in charge, it would all be different. She added it to the growing list of future reforms the CFO didn't want to listen to.
 
She tapped her pen on the desk, puffed out her cheeks, and slowly blew the air out. Was this really was corporate life was like? Sitting around pretending to be busy until the boss needed you? Not that her boss ever needed her, just dragged her out for show. No, if she wanted to learn something, she had to drag a middle-manager in and have them teach her when they did. If she wanted to do something meaningful, well, c'est la vie.
 
It wasn't how she'd expected to make her debut on the corporate scene. Father had made no secret that she was destined the inherit the Alphard Trading Company from her mother's side of the family. She'd always had a head for numbers and organization that Sean had lacked. And Sean had seen the killer instinct and, to be frank, genitalia that the citizens of the Hegemony had come to expect from their Imperators. Crown and coin, he father used to say, rule the nation in tandem.
 
Yet here she was, in a do nothing prestige post at the second-most important branch of the company, and not a clue what to do with it. She kicked the side of her desk and spun her chair around. At least in her private office, no one could see how little there was for her to do. She'd already caught quite a few of the lesser employees desperately trying to hide the same thing as she wandered through the building. She'd reported them at first, but not, she understood.
 
She heard her bodyguard Maximus Phallus' voice through the door, challenging someone. Probably the mail clerk. The old warlord loved to hassle anyone who came to the door. He said it helped her to project her power, though she doubted it did more to alienate her.
 
She stood up and opened the door. Just as she thought, Maximus was manhandling the mail clerk. "Really Maximus, that isn't necessary every single time."
 
"I would be derelict in my dude, Mistress, if I didn't." His voice rumbled back, but he let go of the clerk and stepped aside.
 
The clerk slipped in, dropped off a stack of letters, and was off again in what seemed a fraction of a second. Livia closed the door behind him to hide her smile. Mail was the best part of her day! Something concrete to do, with a window into the wider world. She sat and began to sort them. Her favorite stack were the HPG printouts from offworld. They were mundane enough that no one bothered to hide them in an envelope, but important enough to merit the cost of an HPG. They arrived like the telegraphs some primitive worlds still used, as blocky text on a printout. They hinted at the wider world outside of these walls. She learned more about corporate communications from a week's worth of HPG transmissions than her boss had taught her in a whole year.
 
They came the actual letters. All from elsewhere on Suetonius, of course, and addressed to the CFO. A juicy one from a visiting executive from Hadrian Mechanized with little hearts written around the name caught her eye. She reached for her letter opener, but her hand closed on emptiness.
 
Livia looked up and saw it missing from her pencil holder. With nothing much to do, she took pride in managing every last detail of her office. That, at least, would be well managed, even if she wasn't. Things didn't just disappear from her office. "Agrippina!" she called, but got no answer. She turned around to the spot where her personal slave was supposed to be, but she too was missing.
 
She opened the door and looked down the halls each way. Maximus looked down at her. She looked back up at him. "Max, have you see Agrippina?"
 
"Yes, Mistress. She left half an hour ago."
 
Ugh, of course. She was probably looking for an escape from the heat. She wouldn't punish her, this time, but she would need to scold her into remaining. She ducked back into the office to grab her palla and wrap it around her head and shoulders. Even in this heat, she had to protect her virtue, or it would be the talk of the office for the next month. She wasn't about to make that mistake again. Especially since it was exactly the kind of mistake a personal slave was supposed to prevent you from making!
 
She stormed down the halls, her heeled sandals clicking as she went. She hated the things, but at least they were easier on the body than the high heels Inner Sphere women wore.
 
It was that time of day where much of the office who wasn't passing out from heat stroke were taking informal breaks to recharge with conversation and coffee, but a far larger crowd than normal was jammed into the floor's breakroom as she passed. The holo table in the middle of the room was on, loud too. She elbowed her way in, expecting to see Agrippina trying to blend in along the back wall somewhere.
 
She failed to find Agrippina, but the sight of two familiar faces on the holo filled her with horror. The holo was projecting a feed from the games at Pompey and she recognized the two battling to the death. Arpad Zrinyi, a senator who had snuck Livia her first taste of wine at a late night garden party held a Thraex' blade against the neck of Chetna Gupta, the kindly middle aged woman who had taught her and her brother singing lessons. Chetna fought to hold the sword with her armoured right arm, but the curved blade had dug deep enough that the white padding had turned red, and the tip was already digging into the flesh of her throat. Livia watched in horror as the vocal cords that had filled her childhood with song were ripped apart for all the galaxy to see.
 
She ran. They were packed so tightly, she must have bowled some people over before the rest made way for the heir to the throne, but she didn't care or remember. Only the brutality of the scene mattered, and getting it out of her head. She ran down the stairs, taking them three at a time and nearly snapping her leg as a result. She hurtled through the doors and hammered a code into the only room she knew no one could hear her cry. On the third try, it worked.
 
She hid behind a wall of servers, bawling. Minutes blurred into hours, or so she thought. Eventually, Agrippina appeared beside her, with a box of tissues and wet handkerchief. "Shhh, it's ok."
 
Livia grabbed the tissue and dabbed at her eyes. It came away black with makeup. Agrippina got to work cleaning Livia's face as Livia struggled to compose herself.
 
"What happened?" Agrippina asked once Livia had managed to calm down.
 
"The games….I saw people, people I know. Good people, killing each other. Chetna….she was so nice to us. So beautiful. She used to sing me to sleep after practice when mom wasn't around." She paused to blow her nose, then took another moment to compose herself. "How could he do that? How could Sean send people like her to die? It's horrible."
 
Agrippina hugged Livia close and gently rocked her back and forth. They stayed there like that for a long time before Agrippina broke the silence. "My uncle, Varro, had a beautiful voice too. He was wonderful at making up songs. Everywhere he went, everything he saw, he had a song for that. He had one for me, with a new verse every time I saw him. He was a wonderful man. I miss him dearly, he was sold to another owner when I was twelve."
 
"Can you sing some of it for me?"
 
Agrippina stopped rocking and went rigid and one arm released Livia. "No. It's not for your ears."
 
"You've always been good to me. I could try to find him for you. I want to meet someone like that."
 
"You did, once, in a way. He was at your father's triumphal games. He died in a naumachia, one of a hundred men who died in the same match."
 
Livia froze, mouth open. She stared into Agrippina's eyes for the first time and saw something she couldn't describe. The same hatred that she now saw whenever she looked at Sean, mixed with the sympathy she expected from a friend.
 
"I've been your personal slave for a long time, Mistress, and my mother before me. How many games have we accompanied you to? How many men and women died for your amusement? And how many, like your Chetsa, and my Varro, had no choice? Your Sean is a nightmare to you. Good. Your uncle, your father, your grandfather, they were all nightmares to me and my family." She fumbled around in a pouch and pulled something out, stopped and stared back at Livia a moment, and fumbled around some more. "Here is what's going to happen. I'm going to make you look like you did before. You're going to go out there when you are ready, and walk back to your office, like nothing happened. That is the way of women like you act. If you walk like you did nothing wrong, then people believe you. No one will ask and you will not tell. Do you understand?"
 
Livia nodded, and looked down to see a makeup kit in Agrippina's hands. Minutes later, Agrippina was done and Livia was alone again, with nothing but the weight of her words and the hum of servers to keep her company. She hated everyone one of the connections her brain was making, but couldn't in good conscious deny them. Something had to be done.
 
But that was tomorrow's problem. She stood up, adjusted her tunic and palla, and made her way back to the office as if she were the CFO herself. Maximus opened the door when she returned. She inclined her head slightly to Agrippina, who bowed low upon her entry and pulled out her chair. Livia sat and looked over her desk at the mail. Absentmindedly, she reached for the letter opener she knew wasn't there. She scolded herself with her thoughts, but froze when her hand closed around the letter opener, exactly where it should have been. Her mind raced.
 
Perhaps, the problem couldn't wait until tomorrow afterall.
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===Changing of the Guard===
El Destructo valley
Alphard, Marian Hegemony
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The vicious walrus-locusts filled the air in the El Destructo valley when the racers got to their marks. This was for the consolation prize; nothing like what awaited the victors at the Circus Maximus, but enough to make their participation worthwhile.
 
Assuming they survived.
Each wound down into the valley from a different entrance, picked depending on their known speed to maximize the opportunities for carnage, as befitted the Marian thirst for bloodsport. Immediately there was a fusillade of gun, cannon, and missile fire as the contestants faced off against one another. Dokkaebi stripped armor from the Goblin Tank with a direct hit that, thankfully for the Johnston team, did no other damage. A shot from the Crusader caused some steering hydraulics loss on the Flickertail, but after their failure in the Obstacle Course the Young siblings had fine-tuned the system such that it meant little to their progress. The Trident also took a potshot at them that missed entirely, so much so they didn't even seem to notice it.
The Goblin team decided to vent their fire at Blair and his tank, but Crusader was moving particularly well today, and her armor held against what strikes they did manage. The Atlas did more, as their rather more potent weapons damaged the elevation gear on the Crusader's turret, reducing the main gun's effectiveness.
 
Given the reputation of the Algenib, Jordan Young focused their SRM launcher on the Dokkaebi. He let loose the salvo and watched the missiles corkscrew through the air, too quickly for the wallies to snag onto them, before making contact with the Dokkaebi.
 
For all its fearsome reputation, it was still a vehicle made from what could be scrounged on Algenib. The SRMs were made to blast away 'Mech and tank-quality armor. One landed home on the armor plate with a direct hit, blasting a hole in Dokkaebi's protection.
 
The locusts flooded in. For the moment they ignored the flesh of Metellus Metalicus and his crew, preferring to munch on the electronic systems and wiring. The nomads within fought with determination to drive them off, but this was a foe beyond their experience, small and quick and voracious. When they got to the engine, it was all over.
 
Not just for the Dokkaebi, but for Metellus Metalicus.
 
For the Flaming Circus, for all of the tribes, success was life. Three defeats? His life was forfeit even if he made it to safety. What few remembered him would remember a failure. But if his crew got away, and if he made the enemy bleed… at least his name would survive intact. There would be honor for those who fought beside him.
 
Whether or not there was any regret in his heart for getting Sean his throne back, none would ever know. He manned the gun, ordered his crew to get away, and gave the locusts their meal. Before they could begin to truly swarm and feast on him, though, he would have the satisfaction of one final victory. A foe to bring with him into death.
 
He swung the Dokkaebi's guns on the nearest target: the Atlas. And he fired.
 
The blast would not have done in a proper Atlas. But this one didn't have the armor plate to survive the direct hit that was the final, defiant act of Metellus Metalicus. The shot cored the great 'Mech's gyro, and the pilot within screamed in fury and terror as the machine pitched over into the cloud of ravenous insects, which surged into the broken machine through every nook and cranny until they found the cockpit, where the desperate pilot was still fussing with his badly-cobbled harness. His teammates could only listen in horror from their place on the sidelines at his death cries.
 
Metellus, on the other hand, died with a smile on his face.
 
The remaining four vehicles had a tight race. Blair was in the lead, surprisingly, his Crusader's engine roaring almost in protest at the speed being compelled from it. Flickertail was close on his heels, the Gnawing Goblin and Trident trailing behind. Trident's failure to catch up seemed particularly surprising to the observers, but not as much as the tank being in the lead.
 
Still, Flickertail was close enough that Blair didn't take chances. Despite the turret damage he turned it around with the remote control system and fired a shot at his pursuer. Unfortunately the damage from the Atlas caused him to miss, badly.
 
Jordan Young was quick to retaliate, having fed another pair of SRMs into the launcher. He fired, and yet again, he connected. Only the armor of the Crusader and a last minute shift by Blair kept a more damaging shot from possibly taking him out of the race. As it was, the shot sent shrapnel into the tread controlling gear, causing Blair to lose some responsiveness form his controls.
 
Another burst of fire came in courtesy of the Gnawing Goblin, trying to take out the lead racer. This one too hit home, blasting away chunks of armor. A swarm of wallies tried to bite their way in, but an inner plate was just thick enough to deny them and keep Blair from meeting the fate of the Atlas pilot and Metallicus.
 
The Trident, meanwhile, took a shot at the Goblin, but its weapons were rather unimpressive and badly aimed. It managed nothing.
 
Despite the damage, Blair's Crusader was still roaring along at top speed, and Flickertail couldn't quite catch up. They still rapidly left the other two vehicles behind them, each trying and failing to connect another shot to anything. Blair and the Youngs were likewise trying to hit one another, but the need to focus on the muddy tracks and the damage to Blair's turret ensured mutual misses. Finally, a shot from Blair caused some armor skin loss to Flickertail, but the eight-wheeled machine kept roaring on, trying to maneuver closer. And indeed it did get closer… and closer… and closer…
 
...but not close enough, as Crusader made it over the finish line first. Blair, the living Saint of Hugo, was triumphant.
 
Flickertail followed seconds later. It took a bit of time for Trident to slip through, having gotten past Goblin thanks to superior handling in the mud. Goblin came in at the fourth spot, the last of the survivors.
 
 he consolation race was over. Yet with the death of the leader of the Flaming Circus, the ramifications would spread beyond the competition...
 
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===The Exhaustion of Death===
Vulcan Forgeworks Headquarters
New Venice, Marian Hegemony
 
Vulcan's hammer rang through the empty compound. The acoustics were just right so that it echoed throughout the vast space between office towers and warehouses. She could even hear it over the hum of the factories deeper into the compound.
 
She stalked towards the smithy with purpose. Father had taught her how to project confidence, even when she felt unsure of herself. It had served her well at the Alphard Trading Company, and it served her well now. The three hundred pounds of muscle that followed two steps behind did their bit to help too. She paused for only a moment before throwing open the doors to the smithy.
 
Gurdeep looked up in surprise, hammer in the air. An enormous smile spread over his face when he recognized his goddaughter. He set the hammer aside and rushed forward to embrace her. "Ah! Child! I did not know you were coming. I must have words with my security team, I receive so many unexpected visitors here these days." He held her tight for a moment, burying his mouth in her hair to hide his lips as he whispered in her ear. "Is it safe to talk in front of your man?"
 
Livia pulled back and nodded. She tried to fight back her tears at the reunion. Her voice wavered a little as she waved Maximus forward. "You can trust him."
 
Maximus Phallus clapped a fist to his chest. "I swore a vow to serve and protect my lady the day I met her. Among my people, a man who breaks a vow is no man. As long as I serve her, I serve my people."
 
Livia sniffed away the tears and said in a low voice. "Is it safe here? I could hear the hammering from a kilometer away."
 
Gurdeep had in the meantime walked to the wall, opened a hidden panel, and flicked a switch within, "No need to worry, child. It is part of the mystique. What amplifies the hammer has been turned off. I take it from your look and words that this is not a joyful reunion. Why can my godchildren never come just to visit their dear Uncle Vulcan? Must it always be doom and gloom?" He turned back to his anvil and picked up the glowing piece of metal and hammer. "If you will just allow me a moment to set aside my work, it is delicate at this moment."
 
Livia balled up her fists, took a deep breath, and tried to return to the confident facade she'd maintained on the way here. "Gurdeep, we need to take Sean down."
 
Gurdeep froze. The metal fell from his hand and clattered to the floor, scorching the stone floor. His grip tightened around the hammer. "Why, child?"
 
Livia could sense the movement behind her as Maximus prepared to pounce. She opened a hand and held it out to him, behind her back. "He's a monster, Gurdeep! Algenib changed him. He's…you must have seen the games. So many people, good people, our friends. His friends! Dying for sport for no reason! He's a mad man!"
 
"Algenib did not change him, child. I hoped that it had. It merely helped him to become who he truly was. I had thought, maybe, he'd learned to control his impulses. Your father set him on this path long ago with how he coddled the boy and kept him from any consequences. Tell me child, is he so different from your father? He sent just as many people to die. You weren't there for the purges when Lucius left with the IXth Legion."
 
"No! He always looked for a way to save them, even his worst enemies! Sertorius and Gibson, he sent them to the Morituri-"
 
"To die. He sent them there to die. He did the same as Sean, just with extra steps. Why should we tear him down? You were content under your father. Wait a few years, and maybe he will calm down, the same as your father."
 
Livia tightened her fists, her fingernails digging into the skin. The tears returned. She did nothing to hide it this time. Deep down, she'd known it for a long time. The same way she had about Sean until it was too late. She had to be honest with herself. "I can't watch our people suffer like that anymore. It all has to stop. The executions, the games, all of it! I have."
 
"You used to love the games. You would cheer with every execution. Why is it different now?"
 
"I was wrong. I'll never be able to take that back, but I can stop it. That's something. If you won't do it, then I will."
 
"Your father, I loved him. Because I saw greatness, I saw that he straddled the path the same in his life that Sean did. Marius tried to be both reformer and tyrant, and ended up neither. But there was always a chance he would step all the way, become the man he should have been. But there was always the danger he'd step the wrong way, and become the same sort of man as your grandfather was. The same sort of man your brother has become. Sean….I thought I might guide him down a better path. Perhaps if I'd gone with you to Alphard, things would have gone differently."
 
"Then…that means, you think I'm right?"
 
The fallen steel sigegd the wood block the anvil sat atop. Gurdeep picked up the steel from the ground and quenched it. Whatever he was working on was ruined now. "Child, I knew the moment he drew the pistol on your mother that he was lost to us." He turned to face her. "What I needed to know, dear child, is that you hadn't become like him."
 
"How can you know I'm not, that I won't change?"
 
"I can't. But I have to have hope. That's what this place is." He opened a window and pointed to the apartment towers in the distance. "I made this world to prove to your father it was possible to build a better world. There are no slaves here, and any patrician gives up their class rights. We are all just men and women here, all Marians. Stay here, with me. What you want will come to pass, but it will be a long road, a hard road."
 
"I can't just stay here. People are dying now!"
 
"They've been dying since Johann Sebastian launched his first raid! The people love him, for he brought them bread and circuses. The Legions love him, for they brought him victory. The Senate….one day they will turn from fear to rage, but it is not this day. Nero reigned for fourteen years before he was deposed. Domitian ruled for fifteen. Have patience, survive, grow, prepare, and be the better option when his time comes."
 
"But Caligula ruled for less than four. I'm not going to sit here and do nothing! Gurdeep, he's sending away all of his friends. Did you know Ambrose was sent away?"
 
Gurdeep started at the news. He turned over a barrel and sat on it, leaning forward. "No. Did he take his Vigilis team with him?"
 
"Yeah, went off on some missions out in Kashamarka, he'll be gone for a long time,"
 
"Auspicious, but the Flaming Circus provides security for the Imperator, the Vigilis were just a bonus. Sean may be weak, but so are we. We had an army last time. Or truthfully, three of them, between Lucius, Yassin, and Metellus. "
 
"Did you see Metellus die in the races?"
 
Gurdeep rubbed his forehead, leaving soot on his brow. "I did. The damn fool would still be alive if he'd accepted my offer of a purpose-built vehicle rather than the derelict deathtrap he drove."
 
Maximus stepped forward. "The Circus grows fat and weak. They will squabble and divide without his strength to lead them. They will not be a challenge. Burning Chrome stands with you."
 
Livia kneeled down next to Gurdeep and took his hand in hers. "You told me to have hope. I need you to do the same, and believe in me. We can take Alphard.
 
"I don't doubt you or your man. But the true test lies beyond. How do we convince the Legions to accept you? How do we prevent the distant provinces from declaring independence? What happens if a legion raises your uncle or cousin as Imperator, or worse, declares their own dynasty? Taking power is easy. Keeping it is hard. Twenty-six ruled in the crisis of the third century. We need to lay the groundwork for you to be Diocletian, not a Gordianius." He stood and tossed aside his hammer. "That will not happen if we remain here. There is much to be done. Come, there are people you must meet."
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===Living the Moment as if it were your Last===
Crimson City
Canopus IV, Magistracy of Canopus
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As rub and tugs go, this one was posh. The rooms were cleaned after use. Big bay windows that only allowed the client to look out gave a wonderful view of the sun setting over the beach. Lucius O'Reily stared out at the magnificent view, his feet propped up on a side table and a cigarette in his mouth. After years of campaigning and slaughter, it was like he'd made it to heaven. He was mildly perturbed by how bored he felt.
 
A knock at the door announced his prestigious guest. Lucius grunted in response but didn't bother to get out of his chair. The door opened and in walked a large man wearing what had to be the most colorful arrangement of clothes Lucius had ever seen. Everything, from the tip of the man's turban down to his bizarre looking sandals, screamed rich man with zero fashion sense on vacation.
 
Lucius vaguely waved towards the chair opposite him. "You took your time. Want a BJ? The ladies here really know their stuff."
 
Gurdeep gave an exaggerated shrug before flopping into a chair opposite Lucius. "Ah, well, you know how it is. I have to make a show of doing the expected things here. I assure you the lady in question was extraordinarily well compensated for the work I didn't have her do."
 
Lucius made a tsking noise. "You gotta let loose and live a little, Gurdeep. I mean you never truly know when that moment might be your last one. Given that you called me here for a clandestine meeting." He took a final drag on his cigarette before crushing it in the ashtray.
 
"I live my whole life to its fullest, Lucius. Every day I live my best life. I just prefer to pour my energy into the forge instead of into a woman." Gurdeep sat smiling, pleased at his own joke. But one hand played with the tip of his beard. Lucius knew from their childhood together it was a nervous tic, the only tell the man every gave in his otherwise serene exterior. "But yes, let us turn to the aforementioned business then. You did such a wonderful job overthrowing Sertorius that we would be extremely pleased if you could return for a sequel."
 
Lucius stared at his guest for a moment before chuckling. "Oh yeah? And who's the lucky winner this time eh? Who gets to sit their butt on that fucking throne?"
 
"Livia. The only choice. The one who should have been our choice last time."
 
Lucius began to guffaw out loud. He brought his feet down onto the floor with thump, grabbing his pack of cigarettes while continuing to laugh. "Round and round we go, Gurdeep! Where does it stop! Nobody knows!" Lucius calmed down enough to light his cigarette and take a drag.
 
"Look at it this way: we run out of O'Reillys after two more spins. Might as well ride while the roller coaster is open."
 
Lucius stood up from his chair and approached the windows, staring out for a time before speaking again. "You know, Gurdeep, I never did thank you… When that cunt Gaius had his bootlickers shit on me daily, you were there to hold them back. When Maruis decided to put me up on a tree, you stopped him… Why did you do that? You owed me nothing. I was the fucking unwanted half brother that had no power and the only reason Gaius didn't stake me was because in the end he didn't have the balls to kill a child."
 
Gurdeep shrugged again, then stared off out the window. His eyes spend a few moments drinking in the skyline of Crimson. "You want the real answer? Because you would owe me something. How many O'Reillys did I befriend in that time? No matter who came out on top, you, Marius, Sertorius, Vibius, whichever way, I would be a friend of the winner. It wasn't empathy alone, else I would have spend as much time rescuing that poor wretch Corvus. But I knew which battles could be won as a child, and every group needs someone at the bottom."
 
Lucius didn't turn around for some time. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that, or even why he asked in the first place. He felt an anger rising within him as memories of Alphard invaded the present once again. Finally he turned to his old companion from so long ago. "I don't fucking care what happens on Alphard or this fucking crazy empire that the O'Riellys have built. You know what an O'Reilly is? A lucky fucking bandit. A pirate warlord who stumbled across the richest find this side of the inner sphere…" Lucius spat on the floor and glared at Gurdeep. "Sean is a little cunt and you knew that but you put him in that fucking seat. You didn't have the balls to be there when Siobhan got gutted. I was… and I had to stand there and watch the only innocent person in all the Hegemony bleed out. She cursed all O'Reillys before the end."
 
"No no no, you didn't have to stand there. Yes, I am to blame for this, I accept that blame. But so are you. The Praetorians were prisoners. The Algenibi wheat before the scythe of your Boyz should you have chosen to intervene. You chose to do nothing, just as I chose to put that boy on the throne, and you chose to take the money to do so. You wanted your payday. There it was. Now here is another. Same price. Same job. Hopefully, a better spin at roulette wheel with this one."
 
Lucius glared for a moment further before turning away. "I always swore once I left Alphard the first time that I wasn't going to give a shit. That the c-bills and the Ninth Legion were the only things that mattered to me. But on Alphard I realized that something else did matter to me. And that was the simple truth that I will never, ever, for all the c-bills, power, or even the Ninth Legion will I step foot on that viper infested planet. All I ever got out of that place was pain. Whether it be my youth or when Sean sat there with a smug look on his face… Livia might very well be what this empire needs right now… but her children and her children's children will simply turn the hegemony back into the hell that it really is…" Lucius turned back with a grim smile on his face. "See I remember my history too. Rome didn't fall because of one Emperor. It took centuries of terrible and somewhat decent rulers to fuck it up so badly that it never came back."
 
"I'm not asking you to care for the Hegemony, or me, or anyone but yourself and your boys. I ask you this: given you know your history, how long until Sean runs the Hegemony into the ground? What happens to the land grants on Herzberg and Finsterwalde from which you raise your new recruits and hide away your treasure when the Bolanese return in the chaos? What happens to your yearly stipend? You have a cushion right now, Lucius, and an empire collapsing into chaos will end that immediately. Sean will be the ruin of us all. Unless, of course, you would prefer to disappear back into the deep Periphery."
 
"That's the problem, Gurdeep… turns out I do care. I fucking hate that I care. It was so much easier being Daryl the Hun. I got to forget about all this and just live in the moment. But every time I have to think about Alphard, you, Marius, Sean, Siobhan… all of it. It just brings it all back… how much it fucking hurts me…" Lucius let out a sigh. "Do you really think that simply changing butts in thrones will really change things?"
 
The omnipresent smile vanished from Gurdeep's face. For the first time since their meeting in the blacksmith's forge on New Venice three years ago, Gurdeep dropped his act and looked him in the eyes. "No, but I have to hope. She will have me by her side on Alphard. If we fail this time, then I will pay the proper penance for it. Give us this one last chance, Lucius."
 
Lucius let out another sigh and sat down in front of Gurdeep. He leaned forward, clutching his face with his hands as all his bravado dropped away and the pain of a childhood lost hit him for the first time in decades. He fought hard for control, desperate to not feel weak, even in front of this man who had been there for him as children. Eventually, Lucius looked up at Gurdeep and nodded. "Fine, Gurdeep. We do it your way… again. The Boyz contract will be up for renewal at the end of the year. I'll beg my forgiveness to the Lexington Concord and head this way… " Lucius stood and took a deep puff from his cigarette. "You're going to owe me personally for this… not just the usual C-bills for the Boyz. I expect you'll honor that when the time comes."
 
"Should my goddaughter and I live through this, then my kingdom will be yours. If you would only wish for it."
 
Lucius nodded and abruptly left the room without another word. He desperately needed to get insanely drunk.
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ICHaFBI 19