The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Eighteen

Arvenall Dampiko had long kept reign over an enduring hatred for Teshiwahur's few remaining noble families. Dampiko was of the opinion that such privileged bloodlines and their tradition of passing along wealth, real estate, and their military and political influence along generational lines was a huge part of why the post-Emperium civilization of the Withered Land had partially descended into an almost medieval Dark Age following the deleterious effects of the Long Death. The Nobles, who'd always been inclined to follow their own counsel when it came to navigating the territorial political boundaries and social stratifications constructed by the Emperium's legal system, did not feel compelled to share any of their resources with Post-Wound survivors nor did they feel any responsibility to follow the rules of mercantile trade as the continental business infrastructure collapsed. They were, to Dampiko's mind, little more than inbred bloated parasites.

Like most egocentric, megalomaniacal despots, Dampiko, himself a product of the advantages of the Nobility system and an active participant in backroom power-brokering through the covert influence of his aunt, the Grand Vizier Karliandras Dru'ell, was unable to see his own complicity as a participant in the planet's current social climate. He did not possess the ability for self-examination, nor the emotional intelligence, required to detach himself from his personal involvement in illegal enterprises long enough to see outside his own desires.

Either way, he had a hard time not succumbing to the urge to punch a conceited, aristocratic peacock like Shrai'Lagmendo, Commander of the Warhound's Naval and Air forces, who was also not-so-coincidentally a double-agent working for Kolag Y'phree's duplicitous Grand Vizier, Karliandras Dru'ell, square in his smirking face.

Lagmendo was speaking to Zhe'Kae-Chah and the Dragon appeared to actually be listening to the refined and genteel fop's opinions. Dampiko considered the exercise a waste of time. The Dragon should, in no uncertain terms, just command the crowing doggitt's-ass to do what he wanted him to do.

"You're going to need a full division of ground-based armored infantry and accompanying mobile artillery command support to breach the land-side perimeter of Peravendath," Lagmendo unnecessarily advised the high-born, reptile mutant-hybrid. "It's going to be a very delicate, major operation to get that many fighting men and that much heavy weaponry into position for a physical assault with any degree of speed. Peravendath has coordinated, networked sweeper fields that routinely monitor all land-based approaches to the city. We'd need to shut those fields down without raising any network system security alarms and we'd need to do that from the inside. We'd have to have access to the network's internal command consoles. That means covert infiltration and that means activating a cell of spies. Do we have a team of double-agents already in-place?"

"While I appreciate your interest and diligence in the implementation of various preliminary strategies for an invasion of Peravendath, I have to tell you that such considerations are truly not needed," the Dragon said placidly. In the face of Lagmendo's exuberance in stating the obvious, Zhe'Kae-Chah's patience was, so far as Dampiko could observe, extraordinary.

Ptoleria, the Dragon's companion and Deputy-Commanding Operations Officer, slid over to Zhe'Kae-Chah's side and, stepping atop a platform step and standing on her booted toes, whispered something into the external auditory opening that was his ear. The creature nodded his huge head and uttered a very low-frequency growl, a sound of approval.

"We will need to table this review of attack and containment stratagems for the moment and proceed on to the star-room pavilion. There will be a gathering of the undertaking's section officers and battle officials in the amphitheater. We will all be participating in an audience with The Tammoom."

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