Chronicles of Scaven

[mec7z]

tell me if any of this is good

“Sir, we just received a distress signal from an Adm. Wakeside.” Ryder discerned.
“Out here?” Scaven replied.
“It’s coming from the Toldegan system.”
Scaven walked to the window overlooking the planet of Filostra.
“I don’t understand how we could be at war with Toldega again,” the captain said.
“You said what?” Scaven asked, catching the fact that the captain had also retained his memory.
“How long have you been like this?” Scaven asked.
“Like what?” the captain asked not knowing what Scaven was talking about. Scaven didn’t think the captain knew what had happened to them or the rest of the crew for that matter.
Then it hit the captain, he knew something was up. “Oh. A couple of days now. Most of the men are having the same symptoms.”
“Good. But to answer the other question, I don’t know.” He turned back towards the window.
“Capt. Stone, get me Commander Mek, please.”

Mek and Don Sien walked onto the bridge to find their leader rather confused.
“We seem to have an opportunity to aid our old friend Nemke Wakeside.” Matt said.
“Wakeside is in trouble?” Don asked with shock. “Out here?”
“There’s no way to know unless we go there ourselves,” Scaven said staring out into the window.
“You do know, if we go to his aid, the Shadostrian will know of our conditions.” Mek said.
“I am ready take my revenge whenever you think it will be appropriate,” Mek continued. “If you think now is the time, then I’m behind you.”
“The men think they are so close to their own freedom. We could disappear. Runaway,” Don pondered. “If you make this move...if we make this move, their ‘freedom’ is lost.”
“They won’t be free, they would return and with the symptoms showing, they would be executed. We might live to see another day, but they would certainly not.”
“So they would have to watch over their backs for the rest of their lives? That’s not living,” Mek stated.
“I know it’s not the most popular move, but I think it’s the right one.” Scaven said.
“If we decide to help, there is no going back,” Scaven warned. “It’s either we take our chances here with a degree of certainty or we go back and chance that their lives will be spared. Which I would think not.”
“I’m with you Scaven,” Mek said.
“Me too,” joined Don
“You don’t even have to ask me, I hate confrontation.” Johnny added.
“Alert Shadostro of our intentions. I want them to know. I want them to fear that their secret is out. And they have unleashed their demise.”


**********************
A SR ship patrols above Sodoma, capital city of Shadostro. A young naval officer approaches two men standing at the bridge of the ship.
“Captain, it has come to our attention that Commander Scaven was given TX 109-C.”
“How is this important corporal?” the man retorted. He had no idea what the corporal was talking about. He could care less about Matt Scaven.
“Well sir, Commander Scaven was given the new strain of TX, but he was originally injected with the B strain.” This caught the commander’s attention now.
“Wait. What?” the commander said in disbelief. He turned around and grabbed the paper out of the corporal’s hand. He was glancing over it, and became agitated.
The commander was Krowe, who stood in silence. “Unbelievable!” he said.
The lower ranked officer still standing there, was clueless to the bearer of bad news. Krowe walked over to the window where the other officer stood.
“The senate just released its worst enemy,” muttered Krowe.
“What do you mean? Why was a commander given the B-strain?” the captain said. The captain has no knowledge of who Scaven was or what is was capable of doing. He wasn’t around fifteen years ago when this started.
Krowe reached for the intercom. “Admiral to bridge.”
Commander Krowe turned to the captain. “Matt Scaven was the only commander given the B strain, to control him. He was not likely to allow his men to be induced to this kind of tactic.”
“Why is this a problem now?” the captain asked. “No strain has been introduced into our own forces for quite some time now.”
“Scaven was on it for seven years. We stopped the so-called B-strain only four months ago.”
“Why?” the captain asked.
“Why?” came a voice behind Krowe. “Because the virus served it purpose.” It was Admiral Grove, who was limping toward the men with his cane.
“Shadostro got what it wanted: controlled resources,” Grove continued. “We have an endless supply. And we are well guarded against any threats. No one would wage war against us.”
“So why let our guard down?” the captain asked.
“We’re not. The B strain had an effect of a passive state. We could give orders and the men would follow them, with out incident. They would not know what they were doing: wrong or right.”
“Was this a bad thing?” the captain asked.
“At first. Admiral Roland and I were against it. But we soon saw the amount of problems that disappeared. No more deadly or serious accidents. No miscommunication.” Grove said.
“And we all forgot about Scaven,” Krowe added with a smirk.
“He was a good man, regardless of his judgment,” Grove quickly replied with a snap.
“Do you think he will know that now, after we all betrayed him?” Krowe ignorantly asked.
The three men were unaware that the corporal was still standing about three feet behind them.
“Um, sir? What do I do?”
“We’ll take it from here, son,” Grove said. “Thank you.” Grove turned to the captain.
“Patch me through to the directors.”


PACT

Back in the directors’ room,
“Why are we having a meeting?” Marcus asked, as if he had somewhere else to be.
“Krowe has just informed us, of one Matt Scaven,” Stevens said in a dry tone. He gave a large sigh, and ran his hands through his hair. He was agitated. “He was injected with the C-strain, instead of the B.” He threw the report on the table, papers sliding out of the folder across the black surface.
“My god,” Viktor said. For the first time, in a very long period he was in disbelief. He put his hand to his forehead knowing what this could do to them. How could they have not foreseen this scenario, forgetting Matt Scaven?
“How long has he been on the C-strain?” Marcus was quite calm for the news, but clearly didn’t know the repercussions that Scaven could be.
Sitting there all quiet, Marcus’ perception of the problem changed; he was now worried.
Darren looked up and said, ‘Two weeks.” Then he smirked.
“Unbelievable!” Marcus expressed, he was getting mad, and his tone had changed. “He’s likely to have his cognizance back, by now.”
“I agree,” Viktor said. “Where is he now?”
“They were heading back from Filostra when they responded to Admiral Wakeside in the Toldegan System,” Stevens said.
“What is going on in Toldega? There’s no business being in that system!” Marcus said not knowing of an operation already in progress. The Stevens and Victor were amazed that their esteemed colleague was actually keeping up with day-to-day operations.
Stevens handed over another report to Marcus, who snatched it out of his is hand. Marcus read through it briefly. “What is Adm. Wakeside doing there?”

“That was classified, but I can relinquish that information to you now,” Viktor said.
“Wait, you withheld from me?!” Marcus yelled. “Why was I left out of this?” Marcus didn’t care. He never did. It was his ego that was hurt, he couldn’t believe a major operation was being done behind his back. What else have they told him, what else could they be hiding from him.
“We didn’t want to alarm you, Marcus,” Viktor calmly replied. “We felt it best to keep you out, we needed to handle this without you ordering the fleets around for a assassination. You would have alarmed some of them if we did it your way. We needed the element of surprise. You’d have the entire fleet sent out to destroy 1 ship, and we couldn’t have it done.”
Marcus sat back down, slumped in the chair, knowing his colleagues know him all to well; he would of done what they said he’d do. It wasn’t the matter of overkill, it was the matter of the fact that Marcus got things done, the first time. No second guesses or near misses, it was done right or not done at all.
“We knew of Admiral Wakeside being on the C strain,” Stevens said. “We knew we would be out of his ‘coma’ soon. So, we had his group ordered to the Toldega to deal with the uprising there.”
“What uprising?” Krowe asked, entering the room. Behind him were Adm. Norton, Adm. Grove, and Adm. Roland.
“Toldega,” Viktor spoke with a reluctant tone, not wanting to divulge more information.
Darren started the history lesson, “After the first Toldegan Wars, the planetary system became a mining colony. The four moons were mined for Degan minerals and the planet enriched them. Only the cities Koli and Tali survived. The others were destroyed by the destruction-”
“We caused,” Grove interrupted. Grove sat down, and continued, “We asked for 30% of their profits, or 40% of their minerals. It was their choice.”
“They didn’t have a choice,” Roland argued with a sense of hostility. “They were afraid of annihilation.”
“Well, anyway,” Stevens continued, “the senate asked for more.”
“They’re too greedy,” Grove added.”
“It’s our own fault, we allowed them to make that decision, and did nothing about it,” Stevens said. He knew that the council could of added they two cents to the problem but allowed the politicians have they own way for once, and it cost them a war.
“So they rebelled against us?” Marcus asked eagerly to know what really transpired. “Why?”
“We broke them,” Viktor said is a loud voice.
“They would not turn the other cheek,” Grove replied. “And they said that to me, when I was there. They knew of the consequences….”
“Consequences?” Roland came back. “They were already strained from the war and felt the wrath of the Shadostrian already. How many did you order me to kill before you said it was enough?!” Roland was furious and was in Grove’s face, he was gnashing his teeth at him.
Karl Roland was the commander of the ground forces under Grove, who had thousands upon thousands killed for aiding the enemy. He knew what happened, he was there first hand. Grove was safely away from the fields of blood commanding from his ship ordering Roland like a puppet.
“Calm down, admiral” Stevens said. “We know you had seen it, and we know you were against this operation, that’s why we didn’t send you.”
”Nor will we send you to do our dirty work for us.” Viktor added.
“Well to continue now. Knowing they would lose a fight, they sabotaged the mines,” Norton said. “They blew up supply vessels, rigs, you name it. They thought of every conceivable way to make this system non-operational.
“They were wrong.” Stevens added. “This upset the congress in a hurry. They want something done as a political statement to other systems out there.”
“We are to do whatever necessary to get the operation back up and running,” Viktor said.
“We sent Adm. Wakeside as an ambassador, who will restore peace,” Stevens said. “Unbeknownst to him, we had sent that fleet to attack Toldega and he doesn’t know how hostile that system is.”
“He also doesn’t know Soltazo is in command of the SR Broadsword, which was an addition to Wakeside’s fleet,” Viktor added, with a grin.
“Why?” asked Adm. Norton, not liking the idea of losing a decent group of ships especially with Soltazo at the helm.
“What for?” Grove replied. “The Broadsword was ordered to take out Nemke Wakeside’s group... taking no survivors. Plain and simple.”
Adm. Norton was silent but he was angry. He looked at Adm. Roland who shared the same idea of losing a fleet to get rid of a problem, which could be easily rendered without having to do so.

Stevens was still raveled over the Scaven situation, which the admirals did not know. He looked up and said, “ He was given the B-strain just like Scaven. He was injected with the C-strain two weeks ago. Which you are a where is not effective at all?”
The admirals concurred. Then looked back at Darren for answers.
“Well” he continued, “He is a threat to us, just like Scaven. He knows of the TX. He would seek revenge.”
“Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?” Norton asked. Adm. Norton was hesitant, still trying to hide his feeling towards this mission.
“I wish I was, but Admiral Wakeside is not our only problem. As you may have already heard, Matt Scaven was given the C-Strain, along with these men. Stevens stood from his chair and dropped one by one, eight personnel folders of commanding officers who were affected by the C strain. Stevens then walked over to the window. The others just stood there, taking in this startling information.

“So where is Scaven now,” Adm. Norton asked.
Stevens reiterated, “He was returning from Filostra. He responded, on his own, to an SOS from Admiral Wakeside.”
“Responded?” Adm. Roland asked.
“It appears as if the C-strain has had no effect on him,” Stevens replied. “Just like the others.”
“You know that Scaven is aware of us knowing his condition?” Grove rhetorically asked. “I bet is planning on us to make a move on him.”
“I don’t know, and neither do you,” Stevens replied. “I don’t care, at this point. It must be done”
“We CANNOT allow this to go any further,” Viktor demanded. “We must act.”
“Is there anyway to get a hold of Soltazo?” Marcus asked. He was fearful in asking, but was now aware of the circumstances and now had the information needed to head this operation.

They did not like the possibility of being two fleets short: Scaven’s as defective and Wakeside’s as destroyed, and only returning would be Soltazo.
“Nope,” Grove said. “Their communication devices are either destroyed or jammed.”