Sean Wolfe - The New Order

All those necessary for the trial, which was to take place in the Avery Memorial Courthouse, were present. The four surviving conspirators sat side by side, inside a machine designed by the Mechanist that restrained their movement.

Stan sat in the middle chair of the Panel of Judgement, with four members of the council on each side of him. Bill, Ben and Bob stood at attention at the base of the podium on which the Panel of Judgement was sitting. As the chiefs of police, it was their job to call in their forces if anything bad should happen.

Ben stepped forwards and, after opening statements and taking a roll call of the council members, he spoke out. “You four players before me, who have given your names as Arnold S, Stewart, Lilac and Roachboy, you are hereby charged with the crimes of attempted murder and terrorist activities. Do any of you plead innocent to any of these charges?”

“No,” came the reply. Completely in unison.

Stan’s eyebrows flew up. The Mechanist had designed the machine holding the suspects so they could hear the members of the Panel of Judgement, but not each other. Somehow, though, they had all answered Ben’s question at exactly the same time.

“In that case, I find you guilty of all charges. You are to be interrogated by Mecha11, and then, depending on how you cooperate, you will either be given a painless death by lethal consumption, or be imprisoned for life in Brimstone Prison.”

“We will not speak,” came the reply, again in complete synchronization. “And we would rather die than bear witness against our noble leader, Lord Tenebris of the Noctem Alliance.”

Stan leaped to his feet. “So you are with the Noctem Alliance! Where are you organized? Who is Lord Tenebris?”

The reply never came. All four of the co-conspirators smiled, again in perfect harmony. Suddenly, in a rush of clicks and whirs, the whole detainment machine sank into the ground, freeing the four players. The Mechanist’s jaw dropped. He had been standing by the levers that controlled the machine the entire time, and he hadn’t touched them. More incredibly, the four players, who had previously been searched thoroughly and were holding nothing, drew Potions of Harming out of their inventory and raised them to their mouths.

Stan bellowed in rage, and the police threw a storm of Potions of Slowness at the assassins to knock them out before they could drink their potions. But it was too late. The four assassins downed their potions in one gulp, and gave out one last valiant shout of, “VIVA LA NOCTEM!” The four hit the ground face-down at the same time. To be safe, the soldiers and police surrounded the four bodies, weapons at the ready should they be faking death, but when the four assassins disappeared, all doubt vanished.

As the panel started buzzing like bees, urgently discussing the implications of this latest turn of events, Stan’s face showed only grim resolve. He was mortified that this chain of horrific events should happen to him, to his people. He was furious that a new threat had arrived even before the last of King Kev’s supporters had been caught. Stan would not allow the Noctem Alliance to grow into an organization similar to the reign of King Kev. This time, Stan was determined to nip it in the bud.

The next day, Stan, on his first Proclamation Day of his second term as president, did just that. The court had decided with no doubt that the Noctem Alliance was supporting these assassins, and after a hastily organized council meeting, the Noctem Alliance had been pegged as a terrorist organization. When the citizens had gathered at the foot of Element Castle, Stan announced the new law, which had been implemented unanimously by the council.

“From this day forwards, it is illegal for anybody in Elementia to be a member of, or to be associated with, or to be sympathetic towards the terrorist group called the Noctem Alliance. This organization has tried to kill me as well as your councilmen, and they are opposed to equality for lower-level players. Any information regarding the Noctem Alliance and its members should be given to a soldier or policeman, and your help in defeating this threat is greatly appreciated.”

The cheers that reverberated over the packed courtyard seemed hollow and empty to Stan. He couldn’t help but wonder how many of those in the crowd were really advocates of the Noctem Alliance, whose applause of adulation were nothing more than facades, hiding true feelings of hatred, malevolence and spite.

Across the server, away from the fertile plains and forests of the motherland of Elementia, past the jungle, across the vast Ender Desert, sat the tundra, a dark plain biome of frigid badlands where no civilization had ever taken hold. There, deep in the most inhospitable stretches of the barren wasteland, another proclamation was imminent. If you looked hard enough through the snow that whipped the face and stung the skin, that kept the sky black even at high noon, you could see it. Indeed, there was a society out in the tundra, which at the moment was nothing more than one grand building, constructed of the finest stone brick and spruce wood. Makeshift dirt shelters speckled the permafrost surrounding the one ornate structure.

A total of about a hundred and twenty players stood clustered at the foot of the brick building. The wooden balcony above them sheltered them from the snow, and the torches on the walls provided heat. Though the warmth was faint, it was still a welcome break from the cold that these players had endured for months on end.

As they heard footsteps on the wood above them, the rabble of a hundred and twenty frozen players quickly rushed out from below the balcony, forming the rows they were expected to be in when addressed by their superiors.

Now that they had left the warm haven of the balcony, the players could see the three players standing on the balcony. These were the three generals of the Noctem Alliance, the organization to which all these players had pledged themselves. Barely visible in the torchlight, the players could make out the brown face and ornate armour of General Leonidas at the back right, the giant, hulking shape of General Minotaurus at the back left, and the white-robed form of General Caesar, head of the Noctem Freedom Fighters, at the front. Caesar opened his mouth and spoke.

“My brothers and sisters of the Noctem Alliance, I address you today bearing good tidings. The fifteen of our own that we have sent into Element City have submitted to the leaders of Elementia. They revealed their allegiance to our great leader, Lord Tenebris, before sending themselves in the same way as our great martyr, King Kev of Elementia. The beginning phase of our plan to retake Element City for our own is a success!”

As they were preprogrammed to do on such a rare occasion that news as good as this came their way, the hundred and twenty members of the Noctem Freedom Fighters gave the Noctem Alliance victory chant in perfect unison: “VIVA LA NOCTEM!”

“Furthermore, our spy within the hierarchy of the Element City government has informed me that Stan2012 has declared affiliation with the Noctem Alliance illegal. In their noble sacrifice, our brothers and sisters have instilled a germ of fear of the name of the Noctem Alliance. This germ shall multiply and spread within the populace, and shall before long infect the entirety of Element City!”

Again, the chant rang out in unison through the whistling winds of the never-ending blizzard: “VIVA LA NOCTEM!”

“Besides this, I bear news of even greater importance: our beloved leader, Lord Tenebris, has informed me that the construction of the Specialty Base is underway. In time, this shall spell doom for Stan2012 and the rest of the leadership of Element City, leaving the plot of land called Element City, which is rightfully ours, ripe for the picking!”