War Pigs

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

Kahlina was sitting up in bed for the first time since she had been attacked. She was working on a red jiggly substance , that Arisu called Jello. She wasn't a fan, but she still wasn't on solid food yet.

"What I'd give for a kyeshic leg right now," she said to Arisu. "You know you don't have to hang out here."

The door burst open, and several high ranking officers poured into the room with her doctor shouting protests.

"Your grace," the captain of her guard. "Tamerale forces are advancing on the capital.

Kahlina said a very bad word, and started to pull tubes and wires off of her to the complaint of monitors. "Your Majesty you cannot be out of bed yet!" He doctor cried.

"T'rek, get my armor. Sorry doc, but if don't get out of bed now, I probably never will, and they will finish what they started."

[Arisu Lei]

Arisu tapped her comm on the earring she wore. "This is Stiletto, team one to the infirmary, full protocol." she ordered and looked at Kahlina as she struggled to get out of the bed. "Tell me what you need K... your highness." she was glad she had opted to wear the traditional Jase'dasis robes, underneath she had a full 'work' uniform with armor and more hidden weapons, but she couldn't fight a war on her own. "I can have the TAS Mercury here in a half hour to provide orbital support."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"Do it. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. No one wants a civil war. T'rek have my old regiments meet the enemy."

The aging Narlin bowed his head. "Of course your grace."

"Get to it," she ordered. She winced in pain as she stood. "Master Jase'dasis why don't you stay close by?" She pressed a button on the wall mounted comm unit. "Palace control, two to beam to the armory."

"Understood." A voice replied, and a moment later she and Arisu were standing in a room filled with every conceivable type of weapon and defensive accoutrement. A squire was already there, and slipped a padded gambison over Kahlina's head.

He was strapping on peices of polished vibranium plate, "Arisu if you need anything now is the time to get it."

[Arisu Lei]

"Well your armor would probably not fit me..." Arisu selected a few sidearms and a couple of small knives. "But I'm a Jase'dasis... and I do have a SKIN armor generator under this. Admiral Ryder would not let me go without it. She plays dirty lately, 'you wear SKIN armor or no more free clothes." sliding a few of the small knives into her boots and the sidearms into holsters behind her back. Arisu looked at a particularly large rifle. "This have a sniper scope?" she glanced around the armory. "Shadow team will take up defensive points, but they won't fight openly, only if they see someone about to be attacked, me... I'm in it with you."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that. Traditionally we would fight these battle with traditional weapons." She shrugged as the squire belted on the various articulated plates of armor that covered her legs. The metal gleamed under the soft glow of electric lamps. The edges were decorated with punched copper trimming. "But, who knows now. The Gorvan War got really nasty quickly."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

<Later>

The battlefield stretched out before them. Infantry were mounted on electric motorcycles. Their polearms clashing incongruously with the modern and the ancient. They halted pushed out the kickstands and double time marched to the front line in orderly ranks. Even more jarring were the kite shaped shields slung over their backs with phaser rifles bouncing against the shield.

Mounted units galloped across the field, their banners with heraldic symbols, fluttering in the wind. Their beasts had the general characteristics of a horse, complete with the horse shaped head that was topped off with a single deadly looking horn. That was where the similarities of a horse ended. Instead of hide and fur was a shiny black or tan exoskeleton, and a long segmented tail that ended in what appeared to be a scorpion's telson.

The knights if it were flashed lances and taunted the other side, while archers brandishing recurve bows shoved arrows into the soil before them.

There were cheers from the loyalists forces as the command platform hovered silently to the rear of the formation. A squire approached leading two of the horse like creatures, who now close up stood nearly twenty hands tall.

Kahlina climbed into the saddle refusing any help from her attendants. It wasn't a fluid motion like the other armored riders, and after a bit of a struggle she was mounted breathing hard she an obvious expression of pain on her face. She removed her gauntlets and wiped the sweat away from her face.

She looked down at Arisu, "Last chance to get to safety. If not, you ought to get on." She said with a nod of her head indicating the other unicorn/scorpion creature.

[Arisu Lei]

"I'm not missing my chance to go into battle on a fuckin' unicorn." Arisu said as she got on the creature. "Besides, this is what the Alliance and the Jase'dasis do... we back up our friends and allies. Whatever it takes. When this is over... we'll have a hell of a story to tell."

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

Kahlina nodded, "It's a drilax." With that she reigned the drilax around and with banners flapping they approached the center of the field to be met by the opposition leaders.

"Lord Tamerale," Kahlina said dryly.

"Lady Breezecroft," he said coldly from behind the slit of his salet style helm. This was an intentional slight on both accounts by calling Kahlina by her old title, and not removing his helm.

"Your army will vacate this field and return home, and in return I will chalk this up as s misunderstanding."

Lord Tamerale ignored her, "Mistress Jase'dasis our quarrel is not with you or the Alliance. Only the pretender."

[Arisu Lei]

"The Alliance stands with Empress Starbreeze... Breezecroft... whatever her formal name is now." Arisu replied and ignited her kilden. "And we will defend her. "Emperor Magus named her his successor... lady's barely had the crown for five minutes. Give her a chance. Now... stand down and we won't have to make this bloody, like she said, we'll call this a misunderstanding and take this to a meeting room and discuss it like rational adults. You ARE a rational adult are you not?"

[Kahlina Starbreeze]

His eyes glared a Arisu, "For your sake I hope you do not speak for your people. I will remember how you stood against me, instead of alongside me in the future."

Kahlina was done being insulted, but she kept her cool somehow, "Lord Tamerale, if you go against me I will seize your lands, and every foolish noble that follows you." She glanced at Arisu, "How would you like to be Lady Tamerale? It has a nice ring to it don't you think?"