Termination

Ermengarde Lewsburg, Emmy to her friends, stood at an intersection near the center of the modestly sized town of Forlen. A collection of decaying shops and houses lay along the streets nearby. She was out of uniform, dressed in the same manner as the local townspeople, but her posture set her apart from them all the same. She had been waiting for some time, and was evidently none too pleased about it. The townspeople had started avoiding her due to the sheer aura of negativity she was projecting.
If Anton Weber didn’t show his face in the next five minutes, Emmy would arrange for his execution. Irrespective of his supposed ‘value’ to the military, finding another two bit gangster with underworld connections couldn’t be that hard. She was fairly confident she could grab one right off the street if she went to the correct section of the town.
A cart passed by, loaded with boxes from the mine. A crowd of dirty and exhausted townspeople followed shortly after. Forlen had been fairly unremarkable until 5 years ago, when a sudden discovery of coal deposits in the area led to a moderate economic boom. The townspeople would learn to curse the discovery in time though, when prefect Gaufrid arrived to stake his claim.
The whole town had been declared a ‘special industrial district’ by the prefect, who promptly assumed absolute authority within its vicinity. The town was exempt from normal taxation, but in exchange they were obliged to serve as corvee labor for the prefect in the mines.
Naturally since Gaufrid could not pass the lands down to his descendants, he had no incentive to do anything except maximise his own personal wealth, exploiting the townspeople far above sustainable levels. He was little more than a maggot feasting on the corpse of Domeris.
The state of the town contributed in no small part to her foul mood. The sheer inefficiency of it offended her. The prefect was already relying on imported prisoners to supplement the increasingly overworked townspeople. The output of the mine was already starting to decrease. Once that well ran dry the whole enterprise would collapse in on itself, and the coal mines would most likely be abandoned.
If Emmy had her way, this much would be enough to earn the prefect a trip to the gallows. But inefficient use of natural resources was unfortunately not yet a codified crime. Gaufrid was suspected of something far worse than getting a few prisoners and townspeople killed. He was suspected of treason, and Emmy was here to determine his guilt. She estimated that it would take less than a day to resolve. That is, if Anton deigned to show up to their arranged meeting place.
Just as she was drafting his execution warrant in her head, she spotted him slowly approaching. He was rather unremarkable all things considered. The first thing she noticed was his limp; he was approaching quite slowly. He had a cane in one hand and a suitcase in the other. She had seen the same manner of walking in many veterans of the war who had suffered injuries to the leg. Her opinion of him softened a tad, but the man should have been able to factor in his disability when arranging a time to meet her.
He perfectly matched the photograph she had been provided with. A man with sharply angular facial features, most likely in his early 30s and a slight slouch in his posture. His hair was brown, and rather unkempt. He wore an obviously cheap suit, alongside a red shirt. He looked every bit like the small-time criminal she knew him to be.
A few seconds later she had made her way over to him. “You are Anton Weber, correct?”
“That I am, and I have a pretty good idea of what you’re about to say. I’ll go ahead and preemptively beg for mercy, the shrapnel in my leg wasn’t too conducive to my optimistic schedule.” His tone was far too jovial for Ermengarde’s liking, but she would grant his request.
“As long as you see to it that the rest of this operation proceeds smoothly. You’re already on thin ice with my superiors. I’d hate to report your untimely demise to them.” She would tolerate no further delays. She had better places to be.
“Crystal clear, my lady.” He paused to point at a door to a small house nearby. “Everything we need is in there, and the added privacy won’t hurt.”
Ermengarde practically dragged him to the door. He produced the key and they disappeared inside in short order. She then followed Anton into the living room. The inside was nothing of note, simply a table and a few chairs.
Anton took a seat, put his suitcase onto the table and produced a book from it. It had a black cover, with the simple inscription of “Ledger” visible on the front.
Ermengarde frowned. “I already inspected the ledgers a few hours ago. They were clean. If this is all you have then I suggest you start writing your will on the margins.”
Raising his hands in mock surrender before going back to the suitcase, he quickly produced another, identical book. “The ledger you inspected was a fake, one maintained in case of a situation just like this one. This is the real one”
He turned the book over to her. “Look at the entries for prisoner acquisition costs.”
Ermengarde opened the ledger and flipped to one of the pages detailing a day where a shipment of laborers had been requisitioned from one of the neighboring industrial zones. The numbers didn’t add up. In the fake ledger there was a large payment marked down for the acquisition of the laborers, the payment in the real ledger was less than half of what was in the fake ledger.
“So he’s been skimming off the top and writing it off on labor acquisition costs? Hardly something unexpected for a prefect.” Ermengarde commented as she went through the ledger. Embezzlement was a crime, but not one that would necessitate her being dispatched.
“If it were only so simple.” Anton stated, before pulling out a series of rail transport records. “The output of the mine has been decreasing a tad too quickly to be realistic, no?”
Ermengarde looked at the transport slips. They detailed a series of rail transfers to Aronica chartered by the prefect, but any description of the cargo was missing. “So he’s been transferring a portion of the output to the rebels, and they’re selling it to fund their activities I presume?”
“Right on the money. The embezzled funds are just used to bribe everyone involved in the transfers, and to keep anyone from looking too closely at the output of the mine. I believe the deposits here are quite a bit richer than reported.” Anton smiled as he cut in to answer her question. “He pulled all the right strings in all the right places, that’s for sure. Just a teeny tiny thing he didn’t notice, the inspection program run by your little death squad. Never saw it coming.”
Ermengarde frowned slightly at his description of Spearhead, but she supposed it was accurate in most respects.
“He tried to correct the course immediately.” Anton continued. “By the time he realized you were coming, he dispatched an errand boy to meet you, alongside quite the stack of cash.”
Anton pulled an envelope from the suitcase, opening it to reveal several 1,000sv bills. Ermengarde regarded the envelope with contempt. “And that was supposed to be you?”
“Bingo. Unfortunately for my good friend, the prefect, I can spot a sinking ship when I see it.” Anton had a look of smug self satisfaction on his face. Ermengarde was dearly hoping his pardon wasn’t already signed. “While picking up your bribe I also made sure to give his offices a quick visit and liberate some documents for you to peruse. That’s the real reason I was so late, never would have thought he’d splurge on an actual safe to keep the real ledger inside.”
Ermengarde’s glare turned icy as she cut in, her hand moving to grip the revolver she had hidden on her person. “You’ve just admitted to a whole host of crimes. While the military appreciates your service, I’m afraid that y-”
Anton quickly produced another envelope from his suitcase, this time one bearing the seal of regional general Hella Brandt - the person in charge of Ermengarde’s entire squadron. “No need to get ahead of ourselves.” Anton commented as he broke the seal, revealing a pardon signed by the general. “The military appreciated my services so much that they decided to forgive and forget my involvement in this little escapade.”
Ermengarde frowned, but a pardon was a pardon. He was an innocent man now. She relaxed her grip on the revolver. Unfortunately for Anton, she was not out of cards to play yet. “Indeed special constable, the military has further need of your services.”
For the first time in the conversation, Anton broke his smile. “Come again? What was that about a special constable?”
“You’ve just been deputized, congratulations.” Ermengarde would see him punished for his actions one way or another. “I’ll be counting on your assistance to arrest the prefect. I’ve heard he used to be quite the duelist with his Crux back in the day. ”
Anton looked at her in silence for a moment, before his smile reappeared. “Guess this was never going to be easy. You just want me to be there for the arrest?”
“Yes, meet me in front of the town hall in an hour, I need to get properly dressed.” Ermengarde stood up and made her way to the door. “Oh, and if you’re late by so much as a single second, I’ll assume you’re deserting.”
With everything resolved, Ermengarde made her way out of the house, and started walking to where she had stashed her equipment. It had been a while since she got to personally execute a traitor, and she was looking forward to it.
A few hours later a decidedly more militaristic Ermengarde made her way to the town hall. She was now clad in the red and black uniform of a Crux wielder, armored plates covering her chest and shoulders. She had a revolver holstered on her hip, alongside a rapier. The townspeople avoided her like the plague, they knew the colors of the military all too well. The town hall was a modestly sized two-storey wooden building, not much larger than the surrounding buildings. Another floor was being added on the prefect's orders, and two neighboring houses were being cleared out so they could be merged with the town hall. Two soldiers stood guard at the entrance, currently chatting amicably with Anton.
As Ermengarde approached they stood at attention. She addressed them with a tone that allowed no questions. “I will be taking command of all local forces within the town. You are to return to your barracks and wait until a relief force arrives, upon which you may expect a rigorous investigation into your conduct over the last few months. Dismissed.”
The two guards looked at her dumbfounded for a second, before wising up and giving a quick salute before departing. At least their instincts of self preservation outstripped their greed. “Poor bastards are probably gonna end up in the mine themselves.” Anton commented with a smile.
“I see that your punctuality has improved Anton, make sure it stays that way.” Ermengarde opened the door and stepped inside. She walked past the lobby and into the offices, where the functionaries of the town sat at their desks writing or filing some no doubt falsified records.
The administrative staff stopped to stare at her as she entered, causing her to frown. She briskly moved past them and went up the stairs, their complicity in the crimes committed here could be dealt with later.
Anton followed shortly after her, addressing the crowd. “Show’s over, everyone. I suggest you get your stories straight in the next hour, you’ll be getting a visit from a detachment of the 4th division courtesy of the lady who just barged in.” A small panic seemed to come over the crowd as Anton proceeded up the stairs.
As Ermengarde stood before Gaufrids office, she took her rapier into her hand, and spoke a short incantation.
"Throughout the course of a dreamless night The soul resigns to steel held aloft Mine is the way of the sword Come to me, Feint!"
Power filled her entire being. She felt herself get stronger, faster, hardier. The power of the Crux was now hers. She was going to enjoy this. She also felt a familiar voice inside her head. “Is this what the house of Lewsburg is reduced to? Kicking down doors and arresting petty criminals at the behest of some far off bureaucrat?” The voice belonged to an old man, her ancestor to be precise.
She looked back to confirm that Anton hadn’t run off, before addressing Feint in her mind. “Don’t act so surprised. I’ve read our histories, this really isn't that far from what we were doing during the conquest”
She then proceed to kick the door to Gaufrid’s office off its hinges. It landed on the front of his desk, shattering into two pieces from the force of her kick. Gaufrid didn’t look too surprised by this, indeed he looked more annoyed than anything. A man pushing fifty, his thin face sported a black moustache that was starting to grey. He was wearing the red and black of the military, his chest covered with a steel plate.
“Lieutenant Ermengarde, what a pleasant surprise. I thought you had confirmed that everything was in order this morning.” His tone was flat, almost comically so.
“I’m placing you under arrest for treason. Remove your armor and surrender your Crux, or I’ll have to remove them for you.” Ermengarde spoke with steel in her voice. She knew this would end in violence, but she’d follow procedure all the same. She wasn’t a psychopath like Sibylle after all.
A short period of silence reigned as they stared at each other. Three soldiers, no doubt loyal to Gaufrid, approached from behind. They looked unsure what to do. The office was a small space all things considered. Only containing a table, chair and a few shelves and cupboards.
Gaufrid broke the silence once he saw Anton approach from behind Ermengarde, coming in between her and the soldiers. “I believe I sent this man to sort out any issues that arose. Do you want a higher payout? It’s well within my abilities.”
Ermengarde gave him a withering look. “Attempting to bribe me might have been your stupidest move. I can simply seize your accounts when you’re dead, you have nothing to offer me.”
In response, Gaufrid offered a look of profound resignation. “I think we can both see where this is going, but I have to ask you, what did I do wrong?”
He paused for a second, before continuing as his face visibly contorted with rage. “I’ve given Colonel Reiner everything he’s asked for! I filled his belly, wallet and bed. And now he decides to cut off the stream of gold because of greed!? Does he truly think that killing the chicken will get him the egg?”
He paused for a breath. “A full tenth of my budget is going directly into his pockets, and in exchange he promised that there would be no interference!” His face was red with anger.
“Oh my Anton, did you hear all of that? Quite the confession.” Ermengarde spoke with a smile. The joy in her voice was unmistakable. This was what she lived for. The moment they realized that they had nothing to offer her.
Feint chose this moment to pipe in. “A decidedly amateur operation, all things considered. Did he truly not realize that he should have been bribing the generals too?” Feint sounded slightly offended, as if Gaufrid’s sloppy attempt at concealing his crimes was a personal slight.
Anton looked decidedly amused by the whole affair. “I’m shocked that a servant of the state would resort to such corruption and greed, Lieutenant.”
Gaufrid refocused on Anton. “And you, selling me out to the military in the hope you’ll get to pilfer something off my corpse? They’ll take you in the second I'm dead.” Anton offered no reply, save a smile.
Ermengarde found all this quite amusing, but all good things must come to an end. She withdrew her revolver from its holster, and pointed it at Gaufrid’s head. “You have five seconds to surrender your Crux, or your head will be getting some extra ventilation.”
The soldiers behind her were pointing their guns at her, but she’d be able to escape into the air before the cowards fired a shot. If she was lucky they might even fire at Anton. Then she spotted a light emanating from beneath the table, the telltale signs of a telekinesis scroll activating. She pulled the trigger, but it was too late. The bullet harmlessly impacted the wall. Gaufrid was flung through the roof and into the air. He’d no doubt activated his Crux before she entered.
She activated her own telekinetic scroll with a thought, and joined him in the air. Anton could deal with the soldiers behind her, or more likely they would deal with him. She felt the flight enchantment within Feint activate, using her existing speed as a perpetual motion machine to generate more energy.
The wind was rushing past her. Nobody was around to see it, but she sported the smile of a predator seeking its prey. Two voices spoke out, united in house and in purpose. “The hunt is on.”
She flew up into the air, gaining altitude. As she ascended, she felt the link of Gaufrid’s metal echo in her mind. They could now broadcast to each other. “Following me are you, little girl? A foolish mistake, you won’t live to regret it.”
She cut the channel. No need to suffer the opinions of imbeciles. She was passing through the clouds. Feint suddenly cut in. “He’s quite a distance above us to the north, he has the advantage in altitude, let’s see if he can use it.”
Altitude was everything in Crux combat. Attacking an enemy below you made gravity itself into your ally. While your opponent would have to fight against it to strike. It made piercing Crux-enhanced armor far easier.
Unfortunately for Ermengarde, Gaufrid was no amateur. She saw him closing in on her from above. He was using a mass-produced Crux, which inherently put him at a disadvantage, but he had years of experience to close the gap.
She moved up to meet his offense, positioning her armor in the way of his possible angles of attack. He was approaching with tremendous speed, and only the mental acceleration provided by the flight enchantment allowed her to react.
His sword was raised above his right shoulder, a standard stance. She moved Feint until it was just above her head, aiming at Gaufrid’s incoming neck. She twisted her body to the side in the fraction of a second before they met. They clashed for an instant, before the sheer speed of their flight separated them once again. The first strike was hers, but she felt Feint clash against metal. Unfortunately, he was wearing a neck guard and she hadn’t accrued the speed to break through it. A few fragments of his armor were shorn off, but not enough.
His strike came later, and hit true. He was wielding a simple arming sword, the standard Type-10 "Raven" that was used by the majority of the Crux corps. She felt a sharp stab of pain in her left arm, and saw several of her armored plates fall to the ground below. If she hadn’t twisted her body to meet his strike with the plates, her head would have joined the falling debris.
“Pathetic. Is this the best you can do?” Feint chided her. She had resoundingly lost the first engagement.
“Keep your commentary to yourself,” she responded with a snarl, “I doubt you ever stepped out of your torture chamber long enough to fight a duel.” She ascended for a few seconds before diving once again to avoid a stall.
This was her fundamental disadvantage. The flight spell could only be maintained if she stayed above a certain altitude. When attacked from above, she would have to fly up to meet the attack. This would cost her speed, which she could only regain by diving. Meanwhile Gaufrid could use the speed from his diving attack to regain altitude, placing them back in their original positions.
Half a minute later, he was bearing down on her once again. The time had come for Feint to earn its keep. She flew up to meet the attack, while commanding the Crux. “You seem so eager to criticize my performance here, why don’t you take over for a second?”
“With pleasure.” Feint responded. Despite this, she seemingly continued on to meet the attack. There were now two versions of her, one moving up to clash with Gaufrid, and another currently diving down to re-engage the flight spell.
This was the power of Feint. It lasted a mere fifteen seconds, but that was all she needed. As Ermengarde dove down she reengaged the flight spell and immediately started ascending. She had activated Feint’s ability while Gaufrid was diving to attack her, as this would veil her duplication from his perspective. He had simply seen her charging up to meet him, and nothing else.
Three seconds had passed. She was now ascending as fast as she could without stalling. Her double was little more than a trick of the light, no more capable of damaging Gaufrid than the rays of the sun. But he would be distracted for long enough.
Five seconds had passed. Her vision was doubled, she saw both from her real eyes and from the eyes of her double. But Feint was in charge of its movements, and it could dance the dance of Crux combat masterfully. She saw her double meet his charge with supernatural grace, twisting its body inhumanly to dodge the strike. Gaufrid might have noticed it if he had time to think, which was why Feint gave him none.
Seven seconds had passed. Her double had avoided attacking in favor of dodging, that was really the only course of action it could take. But with Gaufrid now below it, it dived. Dodging a strike from a Crux was extremely difficult, but not impossible. Ermegarde was not sure she could pull it off. But if done correctly it allowed one to dive to follow their opponent as they continued their dive, forcing them to engage again without the advantage of altitude.
Ten seconds had passed. He was surely getting suspicious now. Her double had clashed with him again, narrowly missing and allowing him to regain his height advantage. A Crux wielder skilled enough to dodge a strike from above would not normally fail during the follow up.
Thirteen seconds had passed. Her double was gearing up for its final performance of the day. Twisting itself with supernatural grace, it bore down on him with impossible speed. She saw the suspicion in his eyes.
Fourteen seconds had passed. Gaufrid hadn’t bothered to meet the illusory strike. He’d simply dived right through her double. He had realized what had happened, but now it was far too late. She was already bearing down on him from behind.
Fifteen seconds had passed. Her double gave a bow as it disappeared. She felt Feint pierce through the back of his neck, and then through the armor that had deflected her previous attack. He was dead. She grabbed the Crux from his hands, before kicking the body off Feint. It fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“An acceptable performance. But you’ll have to do better than that if you want to meet the standards of this house.” Feint never praised her without a caveat, but she knew its nature, and accepted its comment with grace.
After taking a second to reorient herself, she dove back towards the town. She spotted a train approaching the recently constructed train station. The detachment from the 4th division was no doubt on board.
Observing for a moment, she watched as the train stopped at the station, a platoon of soldiers emerging to secure the surroundings. Satisfied that everything was proceeding as planned, she dove back down towards the town hall.
She cut the flight spell off at just the right time to land safely outside the building. There was only one loose end, and hopefully the soldiers within had already tied it up for her. She opened the door, only to be met by a soldier's body on the floor right in front of it. He’d been shot in the back of the head.
Stepping over it, she continued into the office space, where another soldier had died trying to dislodge a dagger from his neck. Her good mood was rapidly spoiling. Walking up the stairs she saw the body of the last soldier a short distance away from where she had kicked in the door to Gaufrids office. His holster was missing its revolver.
With a sight she looked on to see Anton smiling at her, sitting in Gaufrid’s chair with his feet up on the table. His bloody cane lay on the table, alongside a revolver. He stood up, grabbing the cane and the revolver, before walking towards her. His limp from earlier seemed to have disappeared.
“These lads didn’t seem very keen on suffering through whatever punishment you were gonna cook up from them. I tried to place them under arrest using my authority as a deputized constable, but they decided to resist. Despite my utmost attempts to take them in alive, it was not to be.”
At least he wasn’t useless in a fight. Feint chose this moment to butt in. “Now there’s an asset waiting to be seized! How much do you think it would cost to hi-” Ermengarde cut off the connection to her Crux. She studiedAnton for a moment before sighing.
“I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it. You’ll submit a full report of what happened to the detachment that just arrived. Fail to do so and I’ll hunt you down for violating paperwork regulations.”
“Crystal clear boss.” Anton replied with a smile. Ermengarde didn’t return the gesture. At least she would be rid of him now. She walked back out of the town hall, seeing the soldiers from the 4th approach the building. Pulling a list from a pocket in her uniform, she crossed off Forlen, leaving three entries remaining.
Only a few days more and she’d rejoin the squadron. Hopefully they hadn’t set fire to anything or anyone important while she was gone.