Laqi Hyrrion Reacts Too Late

The Dietsland Free State is a small autonomous territory centered on the city of Davignon, and is a small enclave of Batavers.

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Laqi Hyrrion
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Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:40 pm

Laqi Hyrrion Reacts Too Late

Post by Laqi Hyrrion »

"Can none of you see that this is an illegal order?" Asked Laqi wearily of those officers of the Puritanian Guidance Authority assembled around the table.

"These seals are valid." opined Director Raggi as she examined the physical copy of the signal they had received late in the evening of Oustfest. The courier, in a Crypteia uniform, was still sat waiting in an adjacent antechamber of the confiscated manor house in which the PGA directors were holding their deliberations.

"Don't be dense. The Magister Primum is acting outside the chain of command and you know it." The Security Director tensed and stepped back from the table as Laqi Hyrrion, Dux and Legatus Imperii to Dietsland, Puritania and Voltrue, dismissed her opinion so abruptly. As well he might. Her acceptance of the, apparent, veracity of the order, received not from Shirekeep but from Mishalan, was tantamount to a declaration of allegiance. Like most members of the Security Directorate, Lucretia Raggi had been brought in from the Imperial Constabulary, and that was now a deeply riven organisation. The Mango Rangers, field agents sent out into the Dominions and States, had largely sided with the Prætor and followed the example of the Scholae Equites Singulares in resisting the coup. The Shirekeep City Guard, evidently enough, were with the traitor Tokaray, while the Scholae Extraordinarii, the Scholae Principes & the Scholae Triarii, seemingly dumped into the Imperial Constabulary on the random whim of the Kaiser in his last decree had rallied around the improbable figure of the Minister of the Interior. All through the night and into the morning Laqi had wondered which way she would leap, and now she had tipped her hand. So be it then.


Laqi looked up from the map of the western theatre that was stretched out across the table and remarked jocularly "I'm sure if Albus were here, he'd sing a similar song.". Lucretia blanched and set down the piece of parchment. Everyone in the room had, by now, known what had become of Gwilherm Albus. Albus, the Director of the Political Directorate, was, in common with practically the entirety of the troop under his command, a man from the Chamber of the Crypteia. As it seemed to be a night to be prudent, Laqi had sent Gwilherm away with assurances of goodwill and loyalty for the, as of yet ill-defined, new order. Later he had sent his Minarborian henchlich, Hafizov, to fetch back Gwilherm's head. Concurrently he had sent his cherished clod-chompers, the legionnaires of the 5th Legion of the 5th Division, liquidate the remainder of the Crypteia presence in Dietsland by setting their barracks on fire and gunning down any man or woman who had staggered out from the inferno into the twilight of early morning. He had been surprised in truth to see that they had made no move except an attempt to defend their barracks. An attempt that proved ineffectual when curtailed by incendiary rounds fired along line of sight from a field gun. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps Albus might not have been a party to the coup. It seemed unlikely though, and Laqi wasn't willing to take the chance. Besides it sent a message that the Dux was in charge and not to be trifled with.

Maela Magali Soler, in charge of the Defence Directorate, was another likely suspect, yet she had issued orders to the XII Legio Scholae Evocati and the XIII Legio that they were to remain in camp and only keep out the small arms necessary for self-defence. Not the actions of a woman planning an aggressive move. But, just to be sure, Hafizov and a couple of squadrons from the 5th had been sent to secure the vehicle pools and armouries. And again, this morning, Maela gave Laqi no cause for doubt. "I cannot say that the seals prove anything except that offices they represent are either in collusion or under the control of the Crypteia."

"Assume the worst case." Laqi answered.

"That being so. Our oath of loyalty is to the Kaiser. For me, my commission states that I must obey the Martial Code. There can be no greater crime than treachery against the Kaiser and the institutions we are sworn on our lives to defend."

"Hear, hear." declared Waldemar Zinkgraven.

A local man, a junker or lesser-gentleman fallen on hard times, Waldemar was a tax-farmer employed by the Office of Bounties and Factorage. Hardly an imperial officer at all, the fact that he was counted as a fellow director on the board of the PGA was mostly on account of it being done as a favour to the weasel-faced pipsqueak from Blackstone. Let the money boys think that they have some clout. The man himself was a boorish misery. While his faculty for numbers was in and of itself quite formidable, his temperament left him quite ill-suited for anything more than beating coins out of peasants.

"Thank you Director Zingraven." Laqi remarked drily. "I trust that we can continue to rely upon the steadfastness of your collectors?"

"You may be assured, my dear sir." he answered "That me and the boys, we'll always do the right thing."

"That is indeed, good to know." Laqi replied laconically. Glancing across at Maela, he noted that the forty-eight year-old stern-faced brunette was sufficiently at ease to crack a rare, albeit cautious, smile at the thought of being protected from anything by militant taxmen. "I think we may be able to conclude this meeting without you Waldemar. If you have other business you might be about?"

"Most gracious of you, lord. Too much port last night, if I might be permitted to excuse myself. Death spare the Kaiser!"

Laqi gestured that Waldemar was, by all means, to disappear from his sight as quickly as possible. As the tribute collector departed, Laqi turned his attention back to Lucretia.

"So, I find myself wondering again, what it is about this order that does not trouble you?"

"My Lord," she answered, "Sir. Does it not occur to you that the Minister of the Interior could as likely be a prisoner or pawn of the Kampioens as the Chiefs of Staff may be of the Crypteia? How is a proclamation issued under the seal of the MinInt to be given greater credence than one issued by the MoMA?"

"Because, she is the Minister, and because she wasn't shown on a live feed gunning down the Kaiser's own sentinels." Laqi was slightly horrified that he was even having to make this argument.

"We don't know who fired first. All we know is that the Kaiser drew the Sword of Vengeance and then the City Watch took aim."

"At the Kaiser!" Laqi exclaimed, his voice hoarse and, as befits a revenant, breathless.

"We don't know that!" Lucretia answered.

"We don't?" Interjected Maela, her tone somewhat incredulous at what she was hearing.

Lucretia's porcelain skin flushed red as she now was evidently flustered, a not unappealing look for a raven haired beauty, Laqi noted with a singularly ill-timed lecherous thought. Defensively, Lucretia spoke on in self-justification. "The Kampioens were off screen. The City Guard weren't aiming at the Kaiser they were aiming at the advancing mutineers..."

Laqi started to feel his grasp of reality begin to slip away. "So you're saying that Kaiser told them to shoot through his bodyguard to hit the nasty soldiers following him up the hill?" he enquired. Not bothering to hide the sarcasm as he spoke.

"We don't know what he was saying!"

"I distinctly heard the words 'Tokaray' and 'traitor', and these ears have been dead for over a century."

"More like a millennia." muttered Maela.

"Give over. As if anyone uses short-count these days." retorted Laqi.

"Your 'friends' in Minarboria do." Lucretia answered back, by now happy to get a verbal jab back in any way that she could.

"Let's not bring them into it... anyway, what are you implying?..." Laqi's incipient tirade of a response was cut short by the echoes of gunshots and cries of agony reverberating along corridors, followed by the sounds of a great number of hobnailed boots pounding against cobblestones.

A moment of shock passed amongst all those present in the room. Exchanging glances with the remaining directors, Laqi remembered, with an inward groan, that Waldemar, the Financial Director, the man appointed as a favour, was no-longer amongst them. At the moment he turned to look over his shoulder to order Hafizov to fetch the traitor's head, he remembered that his Lichkossar lackey was presently guarding an arms dump on the outskirts of the city...

"Bugger" was the last word that Laqi was able to utter before a dozen armed men, locally hired thugs by the look of it, burst into the meeting room.
Laqi Hyrrion (dec'd)

[Legatus Imperii | Ambassador to Minarboria | Employee 1634-902 of the ESB-Jörmungandr Group]

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