Vincent Trigili - The Enemy of an Enemy

“Proceed, Vydor,” said the Emperor with atone of curiosity.

“Andreya, please show the fleetdemonstration,” I said aloud, then across our connection, “Canyou make an illusion of this?” and sent her a series of mentalimages.

“Sure, Vydor, but next time how about abit more warning?” was her reply across our connection. “Yes,Master Vydor,” she said aloud with a tone of extreme respect. Ourgroup then spread out into a circle. Jerran helpfully reached outand lowered the room lights a bit as a 3D image of the DragonClaw’s fleet appeared in the center of the circle, high enough upin the air for all to see.

“Honored One, what you see here is the mostpowerful arm of the Navy, the Dragon Claw and her fleet,” I said.Then the image shrank a little and off in the distance we saw asmall shuttlecraft. “Here is a single, simple shuttle to representthe number of sorcerers needed to completely defeat the DragonClaw. Now watch how it plays out. Andreya, play it through to itsconclusion without stopping.”

“Yes, Master Vydor,” she replied.

The scene that followed brought gasps fromall of High Command and a look of worry on the face of the Emperor.What I had Andreya show was the fleet turning on itself, shipagainst ship, and crewman against crewman. It was a bloodbath, thelike of which had never been seen in all of history. When theillusion finished, the lone shuttle was left flying through agraveyard of destroyed ships.

“Honored One, that is what will happen whenthe sorcerers decide to move in force against the Empire. What yousaw there was one of their simpler but devastating attacks. This isnot a theory or a guess; they have already used it on us once. Itis a combination of a fear weapon and a hallucination weapon. Inshort, they can turn us against each other completely eliminatingany chance for an Imperial victory,” I explained, then over ourconnection I said, “Andreya, can you display the invasion ofLieutenant Tom’s forces?”

“No, I did not witness it, but I did seethe final battle of the Dark Knights. Would that work?” sheasked.

“Yes,” I said with some hesitation. Iwas not sure I was ready to see that yet, but this was tooimportant to stand in the way. Aloud I said, “Andreya, please showthe final battle of the Dark Knights. Just bring up the initialscene and hold it there.”

“Yes, Master Vydor,” was her reply.

Upon hearing her say that it occurred to methat I was not speaking to the Emperor as a lowly soldier, for Iwas speaking now as an equal, a fellow ruler. The formal title ofmaster which everyone would have to use to me now scared me alittle. Instead of executing orders, I would have to give them. Theburden of that was starting to weigh on me as I realized that thefuture of the Empire might depend on my presentation right now.

“What you see before you is the best of thebest, the Dark Knights. At the start of this battle there weretwenty-five of them, heavily armed and ready for combat. Earlier inour mission we had discovered how to block the fear andhallucination weapon. What you are about to see here is how easilyour elite forces were defeated. Andreya, let the scene play out,” Isaid.

They all watched in horror as the Knights’weapons proved ineffective against the shields of the sorcerers. Inoticed Andreya had left me completely out of it, which I wasthankful for since I did not want to distract from my presentationby explaining how I had lived through it. As she got to the end ofthe battle I saw for the first time how they had died. One of theseven appeared. Unlike the other sorcerers, he stood tall and didnot hide behind a shield. Instead, he walked forward, completelyimmune to all the weapons being brought against him. He casuallylowered his staff and fired a single blast. Andreya masterfullyshifted the scene so that everyone’s eyes followed the bolt ofenergy right down to the center of the Dark Knights’ position. Theresulting blast ripped a hole right through to the outsideatmosphere, sucking any who might have survived out on to thesurface of the planet to die. The sorcerers were safe behind ashield wall, but the Greenskins all perished, as they were with theDark Knights. The scene faded and everyone was silent.

“Andreya, please bring up an image of thatmaster sorcerer just before he blasted, and nothing else,” Isaid via our connection.

“Honored One, the sorcerers break up theirforces into seven ranks. They are prospect, student, apprentice,journeyman, elite, master and grandmaster. Each level isexponentially stronger than the previous level. We do not have acount of their total forces but we know there are six mastersorcerers and one grandmaster who make up their ruling council.This man here is one of seven known to be on their ruling council.As you saw, his power is far greater than any of the others and hedoes not care how many of his own troops die, as long as he wins.The hard truth is that the Empire presently has nothing that canstand against him, and he is but one of seven,” I explained.

“Vydor, what about the Black Adders?” heasked.

“Honored One, they fought hard and well,killing many of the sorcerers, but when this one and the other sixarrived on the scene, they were outmatched and almost all of themwere killed.”

“Vydor, you said that you found a way toblock their hallucination attack, so we should be able at least toprevent what we saw in your first video?” asked the chairman.

“Yes, I did, but it requires a very strongmind and a dedication that I would say fewer than ten percent ofthe Imperial forces can muster,” was my reply. I let that sit for abit. I needed to prepare myself for the hard part: our resignationand request for recognition as a separate nation. Every life in theEmpire depended on me pulling this off; I dared not fail. I wastempted to reach out with my powers and force the situation to playout the way it needed to, but a voice deep down inside me that Ihad not heard in a very long time cried out against that. I couldbarely hear it, but I knew it was right.

“Honored One, if this was the end of myreport, it would be a sad day indeed for the Empire, but there ishope to be found. We successfully contacted a second group ofaliens, known as wizards, and through them we learned much aboutthe sorcerers, namely that they are currently locked in a very longand closely-matched war with the wizards. It seems that thesorcerers are in our realm looking for some new weapon which theybelieve is here, and they believe that weapon will grant them theneeded edge for victory in their realm.”

“The enemy of an enemy is a friend,”commented the Emperor with a smile.

“Well spoken, Honored One. A representativeof the ruling Council of Wizards who simply goes by the name Mantiscontacted us. He is the one who showed us how to create the shieldthat just saved your life, and how to fight a sorcerer likeLarath.” I paused here to think about what I should say next.However, before I could formulate my thoughts, the Emperor stoodand raised his scepter. I knew that meant he was about to speakofficially and whatever he decreed would be law.

“I have heard enough. I can see how the restof the story plays out. Do not be surprised, there are after allseven of you,” he said with a smile, and then a serious look cameover his face.

“By the power vested in me, I hereby grantVydor, Kellyn, Andreya, Jerran, Gafar, Darnath, and Luke honorabledischarge from their positions in the Imperial forces, and releasethem from their citizenship. Let the record show these men andwomen are worthy of the highest honor and respect for theirdedicated service. So let it be written, so let it be done,” hedeclared.

“The High Command witnesses this declarationand shall obey,” came the reply from the chairman, who looked veryconfused.