"And to think," came a sharp voice from behind Nerec with a sarcastic tone, "I was sure we were friends."
Drion Nerec and Sundered Angel turned to see none other than the Haruspex himself, clad in all the finery a diety could ask for. Both were stunned: how could he get here without them noticing? And for that matter, why didn't his ship register a docking alert?
Nerec remained silent while he fumbled for words, and Sundered Angel leaned back trying to force back a grin.
"Come now," Sargatanus' tone became unervingly friendly. "Only three years ago, your people were more than happy to assist my forces. And now you claim that we are at war?"
Nerec regained his composure: "Your border patrols have been harassing ours, and you have been massing an enormous for almost two years now. These, when combined with your radical, militaristic expansionism, make a pretty distinct pisture."
"First off," Sargatanus began as he sat down at thier table, "all of my border patrols, the Salrilian ones anyway, have strict orders not to make any hostile actions until an aggressor does. Their Cantharan counterparts (the only other power with a border to you), are under even stricter guidlines from the Order. Now, Phylydions on the other hand, have had a long standing social stigma with the Salrilians and Cantharans, and have all the authorization they need to fire the first shot. When you figure in Phylydions' headstrong beligerence (let's not deny it, Mr. Octicate of the military), it makes for countless international incedents. But I suppose your pilots couldn't possibley shoot down a ship of their percieved enemy for no reason, now could they?"
The Venom and sarcasm from Sargatanus' remark hung so thick that it could almost be tasted. Drion remained silent.
Sargatanus continued: "And we did not start building a massive until you did. For some reason, you saw it necessary to work your shipyards overtime after the Verasi incedent. Knowing full well what your intentions were, we had no choice but to reciprocate."
Drion remained silent, but was becoming visably upset.
"And 'radical, militaristic expansionism'? Since my enduction as Haruspex, the only system we have aquired was Verasi."
"And more than half of Nijayias space!" Drion barked.
Sargatanus remained cool. "Ah. I'm glad you brought that up. Tragedy, really; almost fourty-five billion Nijayias have died in that fiasco. And all of their blood is on your hands, Mr. Octicate. And this may just be my opinion, but your actions in that case were thousands of times worse than anything we within the Divine Galactic Axis have done. Yes, we have set up a protectorate that spans half of Nijayias space, but if we didn't then your navy would have killed them all. We are keeping a race from becoming extinct."
"We were eliminating a large renegade menace that we have reason to believe was under your control!"
Sargatanus leaned back and became quite frank. "Am I the one who gave the ordered to have 131 planets slagged?"
"We were ensuring that the renegade threat was subdued."
"I see. So instead of sending a taskforce to hunt down the renegades, you send the full force of the Imperium to anihilate any concievable hosting spot."
"It's a tactic called assured supression. I'm sure you're familiar with it."
Sargatanus' face became all seriousness. "I am quite familiar with it. But I call what you have done to the Nijayias something very different: genocide. And I doubt there is a soul outside of the Imperium that would argue with me; that includes your alies."
Drion's face was becoming very red. He was reaching his limit for stomaching his anger.
Sargatanus continued his verbal onslaught: "So let's review shall we? Overwhelming evidance and logic suggests that it has been your pilots harassing my borders, you were the first to start building ships in what you jumped to as a 'wartime' scenario, and while I have occupied half of the Nijayias planets, you have visiously slaughtered some 45 billion, when you only needed to kill a few thousand." Sargatanus leaned in towards Drion to further drive in his point. "Who is the aggressor here, Mr. Octicate?"
The Octicate slammed his fist down on the table, nearly cracking it as he stood up. "That is enough!" He bellowed. His mouth was moving so far and so powerfully that his well trimmed beard was unraveling. "I am a Phylydion Octicate, and I will not tolerate this kind of talk from ignorant human, no matter what title you might give yourself! Continue with this disrespectful attitude, and I will not hesitate to have the supreme Octicate pass a declaration of war!"
Sargatanus shook his head and cracked a grin. "Typical Phylydion fatalism. You know, I oftentimes wonder how long you people would last without a common enemy to keep your crosshair off eachother."
The Octicate drew his blade and was about to shout before Sargatanus cut him off. "You really should try to control your anger; it's terrible for your blood pressure."
The Octicates face turned almost red with rage. Very red. Veins were popping out all over his face. But then something happened. This was something else aside from rage. The pressure began to hurt, and the pain was intensifying.
Sargatanus maintained his fixed stare.
Drion Nerec couldn't hold down the pain much longer. His eyes were becoming bloodshot, and his sinus passages were throbing. Then he couln't breath. His toung and throat had swelled to the point where they clogged his windpipe. The pain and pressure mounted to the point were he was on the floor. And then it was released when veins and blood vessels exploded all throughout him. Blood leapt from ebery orafice of his face, and shot from his sinuses and the veins that ruptured on his head and hands. Blood flowed like a firehose from his mouth where his tounge had virtually exploded. His aids stared in astonishment as they rushed to pick him up. He was alive, but in extreme pain.
Sargatanus kept his focused stair, and a smirk came across his lips.
The octicate was hurried off to his ship's medical facility. Some of his Taeskor aids had strongly considered making an attack at Sargatanus directly, but decided against it.
Sargatanus briefly relished in the amusement, then went back to his drink.
(Cicion: don't start a war with this. Have the Supreme Octicate try to move for peace)
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Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.
