Urdeshi Redbilled Cupid
"I was visiting the cemetary, my mom had passed just this year."
"And so I came upon a great passerine group, two by twos, and much bowing they were."
"The males with their red crests, the females with their black."
"Upon the cemetary's great wrought iron, every pace or so."
"A grisly exemplar of the male's butchery on display."
"Some of the male birds had drops of red upon their beaks."
"A passing stoat made the mistake of being too visible, or perhaps too audible."
"To it's dismay it had become a target. Upon its hide, blood-dripping beaks soon set."
"Or so I thought, but in reality, the females had fled,, and the stoat had pursued."
"And like the manner of all bait, success depended on how believable they were."
"But this stoat had believed, believed until it was driven, to the pain, to death."
"Upon the great wrought iron spike of this tomb, no less than five of the birds,"
"Had driven their prey, a great fluttering of wings, no chance had they."
"That's some grim poetry, Stacey."
"Grim? I think it's romantic..." She fluttered her lashes at this outlander, he was better looking than most men she'd had to look at lately, fitter, certainly. And eligible, it seems, since she kept running into him talking to other women. There goes that legend that the outlanders never travel in mixed company...
"Err, Stacey?"
"Yes, Michael?"
"I don't think my girlfriend would like the way you're holding my lapels..."
"What, you got one of those?" Her eyes turned envious immediately.
"I..." He sighed. "I thought I did..."
"What is that fuss-budget I saw you with?"
"No, the fuss-budget is married. You didn't see the ring on her finger?"
"Here in urdim, such rings are like the butcherbird's trophies..."
"Err?"
"Proof that you know what you're about, and worth getting to know..."
He blushed, she was clearly flirting.
"Michael?" Came another voice, a lower purr-like voice from beyond the shadows.
"Yes, Carmine."
"Who's that? She's got the same uniform as you!"
"This is Carmine Petit, Officio Prefectus for the Van Doos Royal Canadic Regiment."
"So she is a peer?"
"Yes, her mob is deployed over east Urdim, while we're over the west."
"Commissar, I hope I'm not intruding..."
"Carmine, we've known each other since you had training wheels on your Trike, you don't need to be so formal..."
"I was doing it for the civilian, who is?"
"I am Stacey Robinson Senior, I am a landholder here in Urdim, hosting several of your platoons in my gardens..."
"Senior, because there's a junior?"
Michael had it ingrained in him at an early age to be impressed at how on the ball Carmine was, he would have trouble getting out of the habit, it seemed. "Her daughter's interviewed me for a local news channel, she's now a minor local celebrity." He added, funerally.
"Not just her, you too, I imagine?"
"What? Me? A Celebrity? Ha! Ha!"
"You laugh, but it's true. Many of the locals have reached out, trying to meet the powerful Commissar my daughter interviewed, certain I must know him, offering favors, promising to bury bodies, if I only tell them the name of my enemies..."
"What?"
"Commissar Goldenrod, it won't be the first time you give a woman wet dreams..." Her tone was tart. "Or a local political entity dreams of power. And it won't be the last, since you serve He-On-Earth as one of his most stalwart servants!"
Stacey was briefly reminded of Redbilled butcherbird's mating displays, and how, often, it was the female birds that fought over a particularly clever and inventive male with displays quite beyond his size and power. "The Commissar has impressed the locals, with his fire, and with his diligence, when he spoke. I intended no disrespect, I just haven't been exposed to your own faith and devotion quite so directly, so far..."
"She's thaught me everything I know." Michael said, glibly.
Stacey grinned, conspiratorily, thinking it was a jab at the younger woman.
Carmine, grinned, blushing, reminded of old times, they'd been friends so long, Michael was almost her word for friend, now, and while he tended to assume people felt she was the leader of the pair, she knew he had his own strengths.
Her own engagement ring was conspicuously present, since she hadn't been able to talk to Rajiv, not since he'd been sent back to Terra. She'd wanted to break it off, but it's not something you do unilaterally...
"Commissar Carmine is married?" Stacey said, like she'd been winning
"Engaged, for now."
"Who have you met, that Commissar Michael would be found wanting?"
Carmine laughed. "Michael and Rajiv were great friends growing up, and peers, with Rajiv only becoming our superior officer, recently."
"Superior? But Michael drives... a force of almost twelve thousand?"
"And Rajiv drives his force, and mine, almost twenty-seven thousand... And Simone, his superior, drove fifty-six-thousand, until her elevation, to Second Front, Sabbat Crusade, where she drives twenty-or-so million..."
"Tens of millions of fighting men? Under a singular command?"
"The Sabbat Worlds Crusade is close to a hundred million, but the Second Front's commissariat is only responsible for morale for twenty-two million..."
"And Michael, he's got prospects?" Stacey asked Carmine, almost off-handedly.
"Michael's her liaison with higher command, no one shines his medals like Michael..." She said, intending to needle Michael, since she was after all, Simone's second-in-command...
"I'm her liaison, and you're her X-O... We're both handpicked by her..." He tried to diffuse the tension between the two women, although he'd have trouble explaining why he bothered...
"Enough fighting men to fill this hive city? And your General-Commissar leads this force?"
"Lord-Commissar-General Thanh leads discipline for this entire theatre of war, for the Warmaster himself!"
"Is he handsome?"
"Lord-Commissar-General is a woman."
Carmine Sighed.
"What's the story there?" Stacey had been placated, whatever it was, she wasn't getting a new beau... Well, maybe Michael, but knowing who his bosses were might help him stay out of trouble...
"Lord-Commissar-General Simone Thanh, officio praefectus, Second Front, Sabbat Worlds Crusade, looks entirely too young for someone in her position."
Oh, this is getting juicy... Stacey thought to herself.
"She was caught in a warp transit accident, she looks thirty-two, even though her date of service is fifty years ago..."
"Her date of service? Like when she signed up, so she'd be sixty-eight?"
"Sixty-five, Terrans enter the service as cadets, a privilege of the terran-born."
"Is she that good looking?"
"Michael's pulse goes up, when she enters the room..." Carmine's tone was acid.
"So does yours..."
"That's rivalry, not lust..."
"Is it? I've never been sure, you've been looking at some of my best troops very closely..."
"You mean Tandy, Prun-Devi, Wanda and Marsha? Why wouldn't I be looking at the four best-evaluations in Sophia's entire command?
"That's not quite true, that's second-to-sixth actually."
"Sixth? Who got in the mix?"
Michael coughed.
"What, you're fourth?"
"You're first, I'm third. Knowing what people are evaluated on does help, you know..."
"How come you're not second, then?"
He couldn't tell her he didn't want to downrank Marsha over something so personal, and possibly petty, as dumping him... But it was the closest approximation to the truth, he just said: "Marsha's evaluations have been the stuff of legends, I had Colonel-Commissar Ibram-Gaunt in my office, asking if I could "liberate" Marsha for Crusade work."
"He's big potatoes now?"
"First Lord Executor Militant of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. He's the Warmaster's X-O."
"So you had someone who answers to the council of Terra in your office, saying: 'I want your troop!' What did you say?"
"I can't! She's the reason I have a regiment! Ask me about anyone else..."
"And the fact that you've dated her had no impact on this?" Carmine's soft voice hid steel daggers...
"Whether or not I dated her, I still would not have a regiment if she left! Ask me another, Captain-Commissar."
That stung, Carmine had reverted to Captain-Commissar when the VanDoos refounded, but Michael had been using the old title, trying to be nice, until now.
"Well, I shouldn't keep you two, I should get some rest, in my quarters." She threw a hooded glace at Michael, her hint lost on him, but he wasn't making eyes at the other woman, at least, so she thought she still had a chance...
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