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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3125250" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 404: What's Left“Jyren...you were right when you said things were going to get worse before they get better. We have just driven out a force of Mrrakesh ships that attempted to take three of the border planets, and though they have no retreated back into Mrrakesh space, it will not likely be long.    “But the attack on our planets is not the problem. There was a Vong leading them in one of their skin-suits. He looked like a Mrrakesh, spoke their language, and fought like them. If they Vong was commanding them, then they are behind more of this than the Mrrakesh are. They are being manipulated and driving our peoples to war. The only reason I can think to do this is to weaken both of us for the Vong to come through and destroy both sides. We know the Vong know where the Gateway is, and now we know the Vong are inside the Mrrakesh’s command structure.”    There was a pause, and the blue-tinted image of Marix shifted slightly, but still held the stern, neutral expression, “There are also likely to be more Vong among our people, also. We have found no others since the first, but they are there somewhere, hiding and waiting. I don’t know, and I don’t care why they are doing this, but they are. We need to find a way to stop the war that is coming. You know as well as I do that we cannot win in a fight. The Mrrakesh are better armed, stronger, and larger in number. The best we can hope in any war is to bring them down with us.”    Another pause, and a rarely seen shade of doubt crossed her face for a moment, “Despite this, the Knights are recruiting anyone that can fight and training them as quickly as possible. The Jendari are...assisting us in ways I would never have dreamed, as if they were waiting for a war all along and just holding back. But even with all of this, it is a delaying tactic for the next time our borders are breached.”    Marix’s eyes narrowed for a short moment before she adopted a nearly unreadable mask, “The Mrrakesh know where we are weak, though, and they will fight us in the air. We will not fall so low as to harm the Kanyaks by grafting weapons to them, and we are therefore defenseless in space. We will attempt to capture a Mrrakesh warship in the next few days, but it will not be enough alone. What we need is a real defense against them, and that is something we simply do not have access to.”    The mask was lifted suddenly, and right there, staring through the blue-haze of the holoprojector, Marix’s emotions could actually be seen on her face, “I’ve sent your father and the twins away from Alraxia, to the other end of the Empire where they will be safe. Since the Mrrakesh have known where Alraxia is since Halpak gave them the location, we are not safe even here...”    The voice trailed off, and her eyes simply stared out as if waiting for a response that wouldn’t come. When it didn’t, for obvious reasons, the previous mask returned and she was once against defended, “All of our scouts have returned except for two ships. Hermes is one of them, and he and his pilot reported back to us an hour before I sent you this message. There is a small Vong fleet that is jumping from system to system within the same sector as the Gateway. They stay for only a matter of hours, then jump again to appear only a few lightyears away and repeat the process....    “There is nothing out there, as you know. Nothing but dead rock and empty star systems. It is the reason the Gateway has been safe for so long...it is empty. That is obvious to us, to the New Republic, and it must be to the Vong. So they cannot be simply jumping around for no reason. They are looking for the Gateway again, and they are going to find it soon.”    This was allowed to hang in the air for a little too long, and when Marix spoke again, her tone had not grown any lighter, “I know you can feel something coming. I feel it, too. I have tried but I cannot see beyond the haze and I do not know what is coming, only that it could end everything for all of us. This isn’t about you and me anymore...this isn’t about a rogue running around the galaxy for revenge and trying to take out our home and our people.     “This is a tipping point like our people have not seen for thousands of years. The last time we fell into the Darkwing Wars...this time I cannot imagine where we could fall to. But we must find something to stop this. We have to protect the Empire, our people, and the twins. This cannot tip against us, Jyren.”    A rare, true sigh escaped her and she shook her head, a lock of her white stripe falling down and in front of her face. Marix seemed to ignore it, “I know Tobias made his choice about what he wants to do, but it has reached a point where it is too dangerous for both of you to be away from the Empire. I cannot focus without you here, and I know you cannot focus, either. You know I will not order or beg you to come back, but you need to be here with our people and stand with us. Tobias needs to be safe with your father, also...this is not his war, and you know I will not let it become his war.”    And then she went silent. But with the silence came something else...the features of her hardened face slowly grew softer. Her expression did not change, but something happened in the eyes. Something that words could not accurately describe. And in them, were things that words could not describe.    The closest they would ever come was ‘I love you’, but that was also so far from what was there that it was almost laughable.    As the image disappeared, and the room was left silent again, Tobias looked at the empty space in the quarters where the image had hovered. He had not been able to identify the last part, and, in fact, much of it was confusing to him. Currently, though, his mind was latched onto the fact that they had received this message not a minute before the fleet had jumped away from Obroa-Skai...leaving Jyren behind...    Tobias had known he should have left the holo but...with Jyren gone and...and nothing he could do(and he had tried)...he just...activated it, needing to see some kind of familiar face. What he found, though, was not something he wanted, and it was something he regretted viewing quickly after it was over. That had been for Jyren, who was definitely still alive and was going to make it back soon. But not just that...more importantly, it was not for Tobias. Not just the part directly about him, but all of the details of what was going on.    He didn’t need that...and, honestly, he didn’t want it. But now it was there, sitting in the front of his mind with a thousand other things, and the young Alraxian could do little but wonder what was going to be left of his galaxy when all of this was over.</blockquote>

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