The Seeds of Rebellion

## In the Night

It is another long night of work for you today, between overseeing the completion of the construction of the newest Forge City, Osiris and beginning the first steps to consolidating Atlantean governance , you have barely had time to write your book ; which is what you are doing right now .

If it had been a baseline human , they would have collapsed from exhaustion by now but luckily your augments allow you to get away with four hours a sleep with no ill effects.

You stop for a minute to take a look at the window and your eyes manage to catch the faint outline of Dis. The moon that managed to remain undiscovered for nearly a century.

Probably for the best if the reports you have been getting recently are any indication: Psykers hearing screams from its direction(some even seeing faces on the surface), mysterious vox transmissions coming from the moon that are nothing but endless terrifying laughter and that’s without going into the resurgence of chaos cults .

Before you could think further on it , you hear a door knock and you tell the knocker he can come in . He is none other than Talios. One of your first allies he has proven invaluable ever since his arrival , even if you distrusted him at first .

Talios seems rather pleased as he enters , he tells you that he has a surprise for you and asks for you to come with him . Deciding that the book can wait you follow him .

As you walk to the lower levels of your tower , Talios strikes up a conversation ; he says that the progress you have made is remarkable but still might not be enough when the time comes to break off from the aegis of the Golden Throne.

You sense that he is hinting at something and ask him to elaborate . His tone becomes serious as he recalls that you are not the first would be empire builder he encountered , he had met plenty during his years as an inquisitior and Atlantis isn’t the first world that rebelled and successfully held off imperial assault.

He tells you of a strategy followed by the inquisition when a world proves to be too tough a nut to crack ; simply put in most cases it would begin directing all manner of threats at the world in order to either soften it up for a future reclamation or simply annihilate the planet along with whatever “heretical “ ideals and technology it might have held . These threats can be anything from xenos or chaos army directed at the planet , to genestealers seeded to lure a hivefleet and up to paying Ork mercenaries to attack .

He says that for this reason Atlantis must not only strong enough to survive imperial retribution and the following economic isolation but also the slew of invasions that are sure to follow. And for that allies would be invaluable.

He says that as you reach your destination in the underground level which Talios has made his secondary headquarters recently. He directs you to a room where two stormtroopers stand guard at the door ; through the glass you can see what is clearly a human albeit one with a somewhat unnatural greyish black skin tone and rather eerie bluish glowing eyes .

From the markings on his arm you could tell he was an Ansazian “serf” : humans whose constant exposure to the irradiated and polluted ground environment of Ansazia have gained many mutations, though some can be classified as abhumans. You have seen many of them in your time with Alera but not this one .

You ask Talios who that is . He says that he is called Sephyr and that he might be the key to conquering Ansazia. Sephyr has been leading something of a smuggling ring between Atlantis and Ansazia , using the diplomatic ships as their method of travel back and forth .

The ring was monitored by Talios for quite some time now and his informants on Ansazia have linked to some of the resistance groups that so often spring in that totalitarian society. They smuggled in people whom they rescued from prosecution and smuggled out lasguns, flak armour and other now obsolete equipment that are now cheap to obtain .

The ring had expanded so much in time that it now has a well hidden headquarters somewhere in the Forests (that they survived there is a testament to their determination ) with some one thousand souls living there.

Once he had reasonably determined that this interplanetary network has not been subverted by chaos yet , Talios has his agents find and bring Sephyr to him to propose an alliance. But the mutant leader has been resistant, likely deducing that Talios is affiliated with the inquisition.

He says he will only talk should he meet the leader of the supposed Atlantean rebellion personally which is where you come in . This is a very scrumptious opportunity but Sephyr seems a little hostile and might prove uncooperative should you take the wrong approach.

## Now we're talking

As you enter the room to have a chat with Sephyr your mind begins to weigh all possible options to convince him. While the idea of giving him a tour of Bermuda , to establish trust has crossed your mind you have brushed it aside as you are still not entirely sure if Sephyr is truly a rebel or if this is an Ansazian attempt at infiltration.

You see his eyes follow you , silently studying and judging you as you sit opposite to him . You decide to begin with a bit of formality , asking if he is comfortable and if he wants to move to a more comfortable setting.

He snorts a laughter and says that compared to what he experienced at the hands of the Ana’si this is luxurious in comparison. You can tell from the scars covering his face he isn’t joking .

He then follows by saying that the inquisitor told him that you supposedly have similar plans to his but says he doesn’t believe this and that this is an elaborate act to get to him to provide information ; in which case he tells you to get it over with whatever torture or brutal execution you have in mind , he won’t talk .

While his bravery will be admirable in any other situation you really have no time for this bravado so you cut to the chase . You tell him that if you truly wanted him and his potential resistance dead then you wouldn’t be having this conversation.

His face drains ?! (It’s hard to tell with his ashen skin color) a you list the names of his fellow ringleaders and tell him the location of his hideouts (all helpfully provided by Talios beforehand ) .

Giving him a moment to collect himself you continue by saying that you are currently in the middle of finalizing a promising deal with the Ana’si which will definitely bring you a fortune in thrones and potentially allow access to lost technology. By all means handing you over to them along with the previous information will seal the deal much more quickly and it would be in your best interests to do it and get this over rather than waste time talking to you and risk being implicated in this mess.

Doesn’t the fact that you have everything to lose and he stands as the one who benefits the most if he gains your support. Isn’t that enough proof of your intentions.

Silence reigns for a moment as he absorbs the information you told him , he eyes you for a moment as if seeing you for the first time , you notice a slight dilation of his pupil before he takes a deep breath and says that he is willing to hear you out.

You sport a triumphant smile as you signal for Talios to enter as his insights would be invaluable in the coming discussion.

You ask Sephyr of the resources currently at his disposal on Atlantis . He hesitantly replies that there are at least 5000 escaped slaves living solely in Bermuda . Most are non combatants with most of the fighters staying behind on Ansazia .

Most of the movement’s actions have centered on smuggling out particularly at risk individuals and known opponents of the regime out and on the opposite side bring in goods from Atlantis (mostly medical supplies and food but many peices of obsolete military equipment has been smuggled out).

Their mode of transportation has been restricted to the attendant fleet of lady Alerea whose ships are the only that make regular back and forth trips between the two planets.

You ask how long this has been going on and he replies that they have been at this for 3 atlantean years . Talios seems somewhat annoyed that such a railroad has escaped his attention for so long.

He finishes with the implication that the Ana’si are getting more brutal in their suppression back home and are beginning to implement what they call the “End solution “ but whatever that plan is he has no idea but this piece of information is promoting several members to more violent and confrontational resistance .

He finishes his explanation and You take a few moments to think on what approach is best here .

## Final

You take a breath before telling Sephyr you decision .

You have concluded that you will help him in any way possible with his resistance against the Ana’si. He seems surprised yet somewhat relieved (and just a bit suspicious).

After his release, you ask him to contact his fellow ringleaders to help arrange the weaponry and aid shipments not to mention the preparations needed to house any escapees they bring.

Sephyr , though still suspicious, is grateful and says he will do it as soon as possible but will take time to convince the others he has not been compromised. You accept and Talios orders the guards to release him and escort him out.

As he leaves Talios says that this went better than he expected, and seems almost disappointed that he didn’t need to bring out his myriad of mind tricks and threats to convince Sephyr to cooperate. Nevertheless he is satisfied but will be watching them closely he says and adds that he has a present for you.

You are intrigued as he pulls out a ring from his pocket. Its nothing special really, it seems to be made from silver and has a hexagonal center dotted with gemstones. You ask him jokingly if he is proposing and he laughs and says that this is a digital weapon, recently created by his troop of Jokearos . It fires what is likely an antimatter beam that can kill virtually anything in its path, however this comes with the drawback that they are only useable once every week.

He says it will be more useful for you than him and so you take it , though Jewelleries never really interested you can’t help but feel this looks good on you .