10th April 825 A.S.
The Order Protectorate
Omicron Mu, Taba Starbase
Admiral nervously paced back and from across the observation deck. Careful observation of Djeba’s deadly storms in its upper atmosphere already bored him given the circumstances. For uncountable years, he had to deal with loss, uncertainty and the burden of command with no principles and guidance save only his very debatable moral spine. Or so he thought. His entire legacy was merely fulfilling the last directives placed onto him as successor of the old Xander. His entire agenda shaped by Kell Tainer’s own ideology. It would come hard to him to admit that he was afraid back then. The methods he chose to pursue these goals made himself in his own perception a very antithesis for the Tainer’s ideals. Self realization that he was in most likelihood feared by Tainer, his most prominent protege mentored towards something Tainer could even grow to hate. Did he? By circumstances in which they had found former Colonel Kell Tainer of the Wedjat...
He was on the streets of New Tokyo. Damaged shadow of a man that guided not one but three Admirals of The Order. Ravenov retired of old age… and Jeremy Hunter likewise was lost. The Preservers, its name and purpose forgotten to all but few would not see reunion of all its original members. It was no longer possible. Rebecca, the old scoundrel’s wife had under Golanski’s own instructions nurtured Kell Tainer back into health and recover from immense physical and mental strain that the years of shock and substance abuse had lead him towards. When the time was right, his menthor would had been given access to Sirius at large and brought back into the fold. Yet first, they had to meet. None of them would had it any other way.
Regardless, his gambits had paid off and he had no regrets over the way he lived. While of minor consequence to The Order at large, today’s event was of significance to himself. His uniform sported a coat reminiscent of old Rheinland and Coalition officer cadres, although its style and colors left nothing to wonder who he is representing. With all pins and insignias attached, he awaited to meet his old friend.
Kell paused for a moment to calm himself. He faced a set of gunmetal blast doors, on the other side was an old comrade. It was their first meeting in over five years. Five years of turmoil, for both sides he'd surmised. The last time he'd seen the now Grand Admiral Michal Golanski had been just prior to the Fall. During the fighting Kell had been stationed at an installation on the outskirts of the system, among the first to be hit. Several days of intense fighting had degraded his command significantly until Core marines had boarded. He'd witnessed numerous atrocities committed by the Core upon his comrades. He'd nearly lost his wife to them as well. That horror had become buried in the frantic retreat following the appearance of the Nomads.
For the next year he had guided the few hundred survivors of Theta-7 to facility known as Avalon base in Liberty. There they rebuilt in secret, all the while trying to make sense of what had happened. Bereft of any communication gear, they were alone. Then in early 820, Kell disappeared. The trauma that had occurred during the fighting had finally caught up with him. He had spent the next years in the shadows, bouncing from planet to planet until his former colleagues had found him, passed out in a back alley on New Tokyo.
Rebecca, his estranged wife had been looking for him for the previous years and had enlisted the aid of the Order itself in finding him. That was 824 and he had been transferred to a facility on Gran Canaria among former allies to recover. Now the medical personnel had finally deemed him fit for active duty again and he, at the urging of his wife had contacted the Grand Admiral about returning to the fold. Golanski had requested he come to Taba Border Station in the Order's new home system of Omicron Mu. Now he was standing just meters away from meeting his former protege.
Five years is a long time Kell thought, I wonder what Michal will think? Exhaling deeply, Kell moved forward and motioned to open the doors, pausing briefly, his hand hovering over the door controls. He and the rest of the Order went through hell in my absence, it was not right of me to disappear for so long, let alone the harm it did to Rebecca he thought, wincing at the memory of the hurt he had caused his beloved wife. I forsook not only my wedding vows but my responsibility as a commander, now I can make things right. Feeling a surge of resolve course through, he triggered the doors to open and stepped through.
Kell walked towards his protege, stopping a few meters away. Saluting crisply, Kell addressed his old friend “Michal, its been too long, I see you have done well for yourself”, indicating his rank insignia.
Admiral saluted back. His face did not changed much, though he was no longer roguish idealist he once was. Tainer knew he signed up to Order for entirely selfish reasons but the ideas of society that The Order had built so far into the Edge nebula grew on him and made him believe. His face was far more serious, colder… and his eyes weren’t entirely as he remembered. Maybe it was just his faulty memory but his protege at times appeared not to be entirely natural, his expression threw daggers. He also had aged beyond his true years. Tainer had only seen briefly a poster of Grand Admiral posed to lead presenting The Order’s latest technological and engineering advancements. Name of the rifle evaded his memory but same model of sidearm was located at his body, he could note from up close.
“Those years had treated you badly…”
Whichever strong reactions he might have held in realization that his old commanding officer was alive died over the weeks and months of his required convalescence. He had time to think it over, subdue either negative or positive emotions related to his sorry state they found him in the rainwater flooded oldest, lowliest alleys of New Tokyo capital. Admiral grimaced in regret. He briefly looked at the Admiralty denoting insignias on his shoulder. It did not come cheap to hold onto it.
“I had taken absolute power over The Order in its worst. Endured stress and taken all consequences upon myself with disregard for my own health and wellbeing. Taken the decisions with zero considerations over how history would remember me. Why I do not see my own face where you stand, broken...”
In a way, he had crushed his glorified image he had about him, the hero of The Order of his time. Tainer could not tell what made him tick now, perhaps it was best not to know given by what personal horrors he had went though. In fact one of the few messages that went though in aftermath of Toledo indicated that Admiral had fallen on the surface. Whether it was over dramatization or his true fate would have not been established prior to Kell’s turning towards alcohol for answers. Bitterness in his following words was almost unpalatable.
“The Old Guard will not be assembling tonight in full. We are all that is left. How are your inner demons, Kell?”
Kell gazed at his old friend, feeling a surge of sorrow within.
"By that, I'm guessing that something happened to both Eriksson and Jeremy, though I imagine that's a discussion for another time" Kell replied.
"My demons..." he began softly, a look of pain briefly manifesting itself on his otherwise impassive face as memories bubbled to the surface. "Conquered. The last year gave me a lot of time to reflect on past decisions" he continued.
"It took four years, a verbal beating from my wife, and enough sake knock out the entirety of the Molly Republic, to realize that my methods weren't the cause of the deaths of our comrades, we all signed up for this" Kell moved to closer to the viewports, gazing out at the starscape beyond. "However, they were not perfect, I still consider force to be our last resort" he said, pausing "But there are some threats that can only be met with destruction" Kell finished coldly.
Turning to regard his old friend, he spoke "By the look of things, you've been through hell too, so what happened since I've been gone? Where are Eriksson and Jeremy?"
“I was promoted at the least opportune time. Salvaging all I could, I left very specific sets of orders with the Wedjat to carry out in the worst circumstances. The primary contingency addressed the most urgent need of establishing effective chain of command. It was a essentially a list, names upon which were de facto line of succession to Admiralty Board. It was specified that should I not make it for whatever reason, the first alive officer would be found and elevated to - depending on circumstances - either executive or commanding officer. Major Ravenov was the best pick, while I died…”
He stopped, looking for better ways to put what he wanted to say. He was never the same after the battle, his old scars and discreet augmentations reminding him of grave injuries. Michal paced again, turning towards sight of Djeba’s intensifying eternal storm way below them with clear fascination of stellar phenomena that were abound in immediate space.
“...Was incapacitated during battle of Toledo. Eriksson swore to command The Order in my name, in hope that I will eventually recover. I believe that I had spent him by this curse. Admiral Jeremy Hunter, yes you heard that right. I appointed him as my second much later and set him up with his own battlegroup in Liberty, the place closest to his heart. Jeremy got married, got kid too... We lost him last year.”
Kell gazed thoughtfully out the viewports. "So Eriksson retired, and Jeremy married, who'd have thought, though the fact he's gone is saddening" Kell stretched, "Jordana will be saddened, she loved Rika" Kell said, sadness tinging his voice as he recalled happier times with his wife and now 12 year old daughter, before Toledo.
Those times will return Kell thought, moving alongside his old comrade. "By the looks of it you were more than just incapacitated, what happened, augmetics?" Kell asked Golanski.
“Long story, lots of internal bleeding. Ellie Hunter rounded up every specialist in Order’s reach to tend to me. Nanotechnology, advanced bio-mechanical engineering and gene therapy been at play. Additional kilograms worth of metal, wires and artificial cells tucked nicely away under the skin. Could list you the augs but that’s not why we are here for.”
He sighed, reaching for something from one of his pockets. Admiral produced a silver badge in the shape of stylized wings of Old Terra’s birds of prey. Michal handed it over to Kell, intent for him to keep it until his hands turn dead and cold. Kell could saw there was a place for a rank or unit in the middle, left intentionally bare. Present in various forms and shapes, it denoted owners authorization and competence to independently pilot own starship.
“Things have changed and I don't even want to witness how rusty you became over the years, Kell. I am reinstating you into service of The All Seeing Eye. You were kept in the dark about a lot of things for regard for dubious state of your mental health at the time so I apologize for being the bringer of the dark news. We’ll take it in steps if you will forgive me caution.“
More machine than man eh? I wonder just how much of you is physically human still old friend Kell thought, nodding affirmatively and taking the insignia from Michal.
"Rusty would be an understatement, my entire network has been slaughtered or so I'm given to understand over the last five years, all that remains is the Avalon cell" Kell replied thoughtfully.
"I understand why believe me, you and Rebecca were right in that, I needed the time to heal" he said, gazing down at the insignia resting in his palm. "Much has happened I gather, however that brings me to my next point, where do I fit in? From what the briefing packet Rebecca provided me with mentioned, what little there was, the Wedjat is no longer an independent entity"
Kell gazed down once more at the insignia, memories rushing back in a brief instance before returning his gaze to Michal.
He leveled his gaze at Michal, his blue eyes gazing coldly. "What do you need old friend" he finished.
Without further word or delay, he showed him a datapad upon which he could clearly make out some sort of chain of command. Some departments were entirely in places he would not expect them to be. The Great Divisions of Wedjat and Black Fleet respectively were arranged in a way to complement each other, giving a different view upon modern Order. He could be surprised at disappearance of Order science division, its labs and personnel integrated as largely autonomous R&D of Wedjat . Another surprise would be lack of capital assets directly leased to Intelligence, clearly segregating The Order into ‘muscle’ and ‘brains’ of the operation. An odd addition, located directly under the Grand Admiral’s office would be the Inquisitorial Order, nature of unknown to Kell Tainer.
“It was necessary to shaft balance of power under the new Overwatch. At that rate it was either to draw responsibilities and forces involved clearly or to dump everything on one card. I will reinstate access to historical databases for your study and arrange your citizenship with Akabat Concordia. The Order Protectorate as we call it is devolved civilian government while admiralty board dictates mandates and foreign policy. It’s been great for morale and restored sense of stability on our colony while retaining power where it counts.”
Within the Colonies, the governments controlled the military… within the Protectorate, the military owned the state. Nevertheless the tone of Admiral’s explanation implied that it was island of stability within the Omicrons freeing High Command’s time and resources from tedious micromanagement of civilian ministries. Kell never had set foot upon moon world of Akabat, the new homeworld of The Order in advent of December 818’s apocalypse. He would not know what to expect as of yet.
“I cannot appoint you a Colonel as it used to be back in the day. Colonels are influential, knowledgeable flag officers owning a seat within The Order Overwatch General Assembly. It would compromise the very nature of the council to appoint an individual with no recent merits to his record, incapable of naming current war operation theatres. What I want… need you to do is to start with the grassroots of the cloak and dagger. Build up your network and influence and start netting us assets and manpower.”
“Your command, orders and additional assets will all come within due time.”
So much has changed Kell thought going over the datapad. Kell noted the classified section that reported directly to the Grand Admiral So, Black Ops I'd surmise, translation, above my paygrade, but someone to keep my own activities separate from Kell thought.
"A civilian government?" Kell asked surprised, looking up from the datapad. "Times change I suppose, so long as they don't get in my way" he finished.
He turned to face Golanski, his expression stern "I understand the point of it, I'll be heading for the Sigmas at the moment, an old associate has returned to the Blood Dragons, so I figure I'll start there" he began.
Turning away, his expression softened, "I also gather the Neith II has been scrapped, with that being the case, I'll take over one of the newer battleships, based what little I've read so far, I'm going to need a bit more firepower" Kell finished.
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