The Eristic Illusion

[Cadmus]

Mallaig Station.

It was somewhere in the dark, smoggy space between space in Bretonia - in a rift between clouds, a negative void through which the solar winds whistle among the rusty outcroppings of the far-reaching redness. The stars shone erratically through the ripples of particles at one end of the chasm, and equally erratically through the other end. The station, a roundish, tower-like affair with a few gangly parts hanging off of it, stayed relatively motionless in relation to the Lochaber Formation. A battered pirate train was clamped into a rather excessive mooring structure along the columnal station, crab-like drones scuttling across its surface in desperate repairs. The utility lights were dim, flickering rays in the distortion of the cloud, weak against the rush.

Inside, the particles rushing past made it sound as if it were a high peak on some mountain on a planet, with winds whipping all around. Metal would groan and creak, much to the dismay of anyone who might happen to be inside the station - which was very seldom the case.

Cadmus, however, was in the station at this moment, watching a flickering holoscreen in the small bar's wall play the latest report of the Colony News Service.

New London -- 817 A.S. -- The beginning of the year 817 A.S. has brought us Bretonians a bitter and completely unexpected defeat at the Tau-31 Jump Gate. The heavily patrolled Gate had never been breached by any large Kusari force, and it was never considered possible that a large number of capital ships could come through the gate without being destroyed by Bretonian capital patrols in the area. Instead...

A sudden snap of metal made him glance upward from the report. The station creaked and groaned a bit, but it held steady. He turned back to watching the screen, hugging himself to keep warm. The life support still hadn't come up to full efficiency yet.

The news had said something about Kusari transports with EMP charges... go figure, they'd fight dirty. Bretonia could learn a thing or two from them. They shouldn't have lost to such easy tactics.

... this is a dire turn in the war for the Bretonians. With Kusari now having a firm foothold in Leeds at Stokes, none can deny that Bretonia now stands solidly on the lower ground in this struggle. Despite Bretonia's best efforts to retake the stations, they have only met with defeat against the entrenched Kusarian wall.

The admiralty has gone silent, we have not received any word from them in two sleepless days. The Armed Forces' sorties have ceased, and they seem to be consolidating their position now, preparing for the inevitable Kusarian flood upon Leeds. It seems that only courage, cunning, and the hand of God will save the day for Bretonia now. This is Laura Mitchell, for the Colony News Service.

Cadmus tapped the button on the screen with disgust. Cunning, that was one thing Bretonians didn't have. He didn't see how they could last against the Kusarians, not unless they had something up their sleeve...

He hoped to God that they did.
Kusari was unbalancing Sirius now, and all would come to naught if Leeds was taken.

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