The Multiverse

Kouketsu · by **Kouketsu** on Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:05 pm

"I don't give a damn about how many civilians are present. Your top priority is Governor Wincester and if he doesn't make it out safe, I will have your head and the heads of every single one of your god damn children! You understand that?!" An angry voice barked out within the confines of an elegant chamber. Hanging on one of the walls was a video communications screen, a nervous-looking general occupying the picture and wincing as every word was yelled at him with an absolute fury.

"But Monsieur Gravois, won't that be considered a war crime? We might be in violation of international law here!" The voice of that battle-hardened general seemed turned to absolute mush before the incomparable Gustave Gravois. It wasn't simple intimidation - there was something more to the fear there. A might that truly did exist, manifest in the organization that this particular "monsieur" represented. They said no threat he'd ever utter should be considered an idle one. There were few things beyond his limits.

"You heard me the first time, god dammit!" The feisty Frenchman delicately picked up a champagne glass and not-so-delicately whipped it against the wall, the glass shattering serving as an additional emphasis to his point. "I will give you no more instruction. You do as I have commanded and make sure it gets done. Three hours. That's all you have. And if he has not been evacuated from that god-forsaken rat-hole by then, I will know, good God, I will know. And you will be praying to whatever blasted deity you adhere to that I don't find you and rip your heart out where you stand."

"Y--yes, yes, sir!" That general's tone was reduced to one of a defeated man, an audible second of static noise following the end of that communication. Gustave let out a heavy sigh and returned to his seat, scanning over stacks of papers and diagrams and maps that littered an ornate glass desk. His thoughts were somewhat preoccupied tonight with larger matters - those issues that might've been taking place within the municipalities were of little significance to something grander that was happening.

"Where the devil is Leonce? This is getting absurd." He glanced at an antique grandfather clock mounted against the wall, a unique centerpiece along that wall which contrasted greatly with the other digital clocks that occupied it - each one a different time in a different place somewhere across the expanses of space. A chandelier hung high overhead and cast a brilliant glow on the room as he waited patiently beneath its light, reading over those papers across his desk.

Treize Khushrenada · by **Treize Khushrenada** on Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:35 pm

The door opened softly, an effort not to disturb Gustave as he looked over his documents. A man entered just as soundlessly, a few years younger than Monsieur Gravois, making his way toward his associate's chair. Delicate, pale hands rested themselves on the ornately carved wooden back as those masked, knowing eyes perused the papers over Gustave's shoulder. At last, Leonce spoke, "Well it sounds like your little correspondence went as planned." There was the hint of a smile in the corner of those neatly composed lips.

Moving from behind the chair, he picked up one of the documents from the desktop, going to another chair along one of the room's walls and taking a seat in an almost sprawling fashion. His eyes never left the lines, scanning them slowly as he continued, "Wincester will survive and his debt will be to us. I'm sure even if no one tells him, he will know it was our hand that guided fate to spare him this day. So many across this galaxy seem to want him dead, after all. But of what use can a dead man be to us?" He chuckled softly, raising his gaze to Gustave at last.

"How are you, Mon Frère?" he asked softly. "You're always busy with all this work, it's almost as though I never get to see you these days." Almost without waiting for a reply, he shook his head, those eyes roaming to the shattered glass strewn across the floor. "I really think you need a break, but I suppose you would never take one, even if it was thrust upon you; even if His Excellency demanded it. Idle time is wasted time, isn't that what you always say?"

There was a lapse in his monologue as he played with the golden, sun-shaped pin on the lapel of his black tailcoat. "But I suppose there's really no time for any sort of break for either of us, is there? His Excellency has just informed me that certain... parties are being uncooperative as of late. A few names are floating around, Eudemonia, Trantor, Red Technocracy, at greater frequencies than are pleasing to him. Naturally he's called upon us to... step in. Make them very aware of the reason their nations were allowed to flourish in the first place. The usual ordeal."

His smile was more apparent now, with no effort to hide it. It was no secret within the organization that he enjoyed this sort of thing, and lately it had come around not often enough. Leonce Beaufort waited patiently for his friend's input, if he could even spare that much.

Kouketsu · by **Kouketsu** on Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:12 pm

The Frenchman continued reading over those documents with a rather irritated expression gracing his countenance, just barely hearing the entrance of his fellow comrade while keeping his eyes glued. It was all outdated information, the kind of intel one would expect from a second-rate township in some province somewhere, let alone the organization he was representing. He tossed that stack aside and brought his eyes to peruse those diagrams - complex machinery and weaponry dissected into their individual components. But to Gustave Gravois, it was nothing less than garbage. Why ever he would need to know the inner workings of some space craft in a star system where he'd never venture was beyond his understanding.

Eyes needed not glance aside to know that Leonce was there seated at the wall. He'd find about as much use in those documents as Gustave himself did. It was all just needless nonsense. There were business matters far more important to discuss in this little meeting.

The normal small talk followed, a bit of chatter about how he was doing, what he had been involving himself with recently while stationed there with the bureaucrats cooped up and far from the tides of battle he had grown up to live for. There was nothing of real note brought up until his countryman and ally brought up the matters of Trantor, Eudemonia, and the like. Some rumors had already reached Gustave's ears on the collision of sorts that had taken place there, but he wasn't nearly as informed as was expected of him.

"What's the Selekusion Commonwealth doing involved with the Trantor dogs? I could've sworn those fools were obliterated ages ago." He abruptly stood from his chair and turned about on his heel, glancing towards Leonce with that commonly seen fire in his eyes, his interest clearly more than just piqued now. "I was under the impression that His Excellency had Earth and the technocrats clearly under control. How are they involved in this mess? Far too many incidents in such a small region. I don't like it! A few too many dogs running loose through the streets!" He turned about on his heel with a scoff, attempting to control that temper the best he could. After a tense moment of silence, he finally cooled himself enough to speak once more.

"I'm surprised His Excellency took this long to involve us. When are we expected to move?"

Treize Khushrenada · by **Treize Khushrenada** on Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:38 pm

"As soon as we leave this room," Leonce muttered shortly, eyes on his nails as he casually rubbed out a small smudge of ink from one of them, a gift left behind by those insipid papers. "It seems as though all of the most bothersome forces decided to meet in one place and create quite a mess. I'm not even entirely sure what some of their aims are. We will be acting through the usual channels, of course, making contact with only those who will... see things from our point of view. No use reasoning with a party that is nearing obliteration, wouldn't you say?"

He followed suit with Gustave and stood, one arm behind his back in a rather noble pose, becoming of the young diplomat. "As for His Excellency, it seems his eye was turned to things of even greater importance for a mere moment, and it was in that moment that the universe deposited its waste for us to clean up. He has not acted until this point out of the hope that things would resolve themselves, as they sometimes do, but that obviously isn't the case. These insignificant battles are costing our organization in more ways than one." Those dull grey eyes peered through the window, or rather at the artificial projection of a European meadow. He knew that in reality only a few feet of metal behind the wood panelling separated him from the freezing vaccuum of space.

"And you'll do well to get a handle on that temper of yours," he continued. "I've heard that chewing mint leaves can actually help to clear your mind and ease your nerves, you know. I have no idea if it's true or not, I read it in one of the herbology books in the library. Herbology: now that's a concept that's fallen by the wayside in the past century. You know in the past they used to cure everything with the raw materials of plants? And in this day and age we spend millions, no, billions on medical advancements." He chuckled softly to himself. It was his way to read up on somewhat esoteric practices, almost as if he found such rudimentary ways superior to the new ones.

"Ah, Gustave, when this is over we really must return to the Earth. It's been too long, and quite frankly all of this spiralling through emptiness is beginning to grow tedious. In any case, which of the parties do you believe we should approach first?"

Kouketsu · by **Kouketsu** on Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:25 pm

"First we must make sure there's an Earth to go back to." Gustave Gravois turned back to his comrade, scooping up a particular document atop that desk and peering over the text, prepared to shift to the next order of business without any further hesitation. "But on matters of approach, something must be done about Trantor.."

Pacing about that ornately decorated office with slow and methodical steps, the short-fused Frenchman calmed himself enough to ponder a bit as he walked about, scanning the lines of that memo he was holding in his hands over and over again. When he had first received the thing, he hadn't any idea what was meant by it, but now their directive was clear. To make an example and in doing so take adequate steps to ensure the stability of particular galaxies within the range of Earth and other inhabitable Earth-like terrestrial forms. It was entirely their own choice what those steps and that example were to be, but Gustave Gravois and Leonce Beaufort weren't any amateurs to this game.

"Ahhh, so that's what he meant by it," He spoke considerably more subdued now, turning about gripping that memo folded in his hands. "Mon petit frère, have you heard of this...Ryand Smith?" Something about the name sent Gustave's thoughts into a subtle rage, his only recollection of the person being supposed reports of terrorist activities in Wing City and a myriad of other questionable events involved in his background.

Stepping back towards that desk, he moved through some stacks of weapons diagrams before coming upon a photograph, somewhat aged and partially torn, of the very man about whom he had just spoken. Turning to hold the image to his comrade, he adorned a visage most serious and spoke with that rage still burning in his vocals.

"This man, my brother, is a war criminal."

Treize Khushrenada · by **Treize Khushrenada** on Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:42 pm

As Gustave spoke, Leonce walked over to the glass-covered desktop, rolling a pen back and forth as he listened, eyes watching a lamp's reflection on the transparent surface. Ryand Smith, the other had said? He may have heard the name in passing, it did ring a bell or two, but nothing concrete came to mind at the mention of it. Nevertheless, he shrugged, a placid smile coming to his lips as he turned his gaze back to Monsieur Gravois, stopping the pen's motion with the slightest pressure from his index finger.

"A war criminal, you say?" His voice took on the tone of feigned intrigue as he lifted the pen from the table and began twirling it slowly between his fingers. "In reality, or by our invention? I suppose it really doesn't matter, it is the case against him that will be believed. Those who speak first hold all authority." He chuckled softly, allowing the pen to leap from his hand and land with a clatter back on the desk. He moved slowly around it, to stand beside Gustave, eyes glancing at the document he held for less than a moment before finding his old friend's own and locking with them, a restrained excitement visible within their depths.

"It so happens, Gustave, that I have the perfect man to bring him in," he spoke without shifting that heavy stare. "A mercenary of sorts on New Terra that has performed rather efficiently in the past. I'll have an agent sent there immediately to make our proposition." He paused then, as though considering something within that indecipherable labyrinth of his mind. "I am very sure the case will be helped along by the other governments throughout this area of space. Ah the folly of man, to covet his neighbor's property, when such property is meaningless." A white-gloved hand rose to sweep a few strands of that black hair from his forehead, a pensive glance thrown down at the table once more.

"Of course, as all this occurs we can not be idle," he continued. "Our other projects must be carried out simultaneously. What is a climax if there is no crescendo? I assure you, mon frère, you will enjoy this."

Kouketsu · by **Kouketsu** on Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:37 pm

"A mercenary, eh?" Gustave was always skeptical of hired help, but if they could get the job done more efficiently than the normal law enforcement, then he'd have no problem providing whatever assistance or payment was necessary to any vigilante aiding in the arm of justice. Or at least the brand of justice that his organization asserted. Their will was law - that's how it always had been, how it always would be.

"I'd sooner have the dog hung by the throat, along with the rest of his ilk. Bloody terrorists, bunch of foolhardy criminals, polluting our precious galaxy, destroying our star systems." He grit his teeth somewhat in rage from the fact - Gustave was one raised on one of the natural planets, not the many colonies and space stations now dotting the universe. Nothing got to him more than the destruction of all that had been built out in the cosmos, mostly by rogue nations and organizations without a single care in the world for the quality of anything. Scoundrels they all were, absolute scum!

He smashed his fist down into his palm and turned back to Leonce after settling himself down again, remembering that any more excess exertion on his heart could be rather troublesome, especially if there was more to be done. "Of course, there is much more to be done and many more strings to be pulled, but there should be no need to worry. We have colleagues of all types invested and involved across this galaxy.." He turned towards that communications screen and pressed in a code on a small keypad next to it, a universe-spanning diagram of the current star system in motion displayed on the screen soon after.

"Just look at it. So vast, so expansive. It's a shame that there's so much dirt and grime within it. But we're here to clean that." He turned back to his comrade and paused for a moment, letting that image sink in. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Treize Khushrenada · by **Treize Khushrenada** on Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:59 pm

"You must remember, Gustave," he spoke soothingly, laying a hand on the other man's shoulder. "The universe functions only because, despite how it may look, all of its parts act in complete harmony. Even such bad company as mercenaries have their proper place; their proper purpose. Just as we have ours. We have been entrusted with the task of being the watchful eye and the firm hand to keep that harmony. To do so we must employ all of the individual parts of the cosmos to create a most... pleasing symphony. And between you and me, there is no one more adept at the task than the two of us. Under His Excellency's rule, we were chosen out of trillions to give order and meaning to all of this."

As the screen displayed a stunning rendering of the great expanse of space he treaded slowly around the table, crossing his arms over his chest as those grey eyes roamed from planet to planet, searching for the one he knew so well, the one whose memory drove him on, whose preservation was of the highest priority. "Très joli," he muttered slowly. "Trop joli pour être vrai."

Averting his gaze and returning it to Gustave, he continued, "And like a shadow our House is spread over all of that. It's amazing to think that way, that something so finely spread can have as great effects as the tamest of whims voiced by His Excellency. Yes, we certainly have some strings to pull. And pluck and twist and snap, if things get interesting enough. Destiny awaits us, Gustave, not to join it but to create it."

His arms dropped back down to his sides as the smile only intensified on the smooth, sharp features of the young man. "Yes, I do think it's time to strum the first wire."