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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3140489" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 407: The Enemy of My Enemy...Marix looked calmly at the image in front of her. She stood in a small room near the ‘north’ section of the Gate. It was the communications area, with long enough range to communicate with roughly anywhere in the galaxy with a fairly short amount of delay. The Gate was definitely more than physical, as this function had a way of keeping the galaxy out, and the Empire in.    But currently, the image in front of her was unlike anything the screen had ever projected. Staring back at her with a very predatory and angry look was Zeven Sacul, the current leader of the Mrrakesh Confederation. Truthfully, Marix wasn’t sure if it was an angry look, as she had never anything beyond the current one on a Mrrakesh before. Their lupine features and visibly sharp teeth seemed to make them incapable of any expression out of the ranges between mildly annoyed and murderous. Even though there were the human-like qualities there, just like the Alraxians had within the feline ones, the Mrrakesh just looked so much more...animal...    The line of thought went on its own in the back of her brain, while the front latched onto something else. There was a good reason that Sacul wasn’t looking very happy. As the Alraxians were a matriarchal society, the Mrrakesh were almost militantly patriarchal. One of the main reasons that the two peoples were always on the brink of a very one sided war was simply due to the fact that the Mrrakesh were downright insulted by the fact that they were forced to speak with a female.    But he was there on the screen, actually having answered the communication that Marix had reluctantly sent. That said a great deal about the situation, even if he was being incredibly difficult.    “You invaded our space, Sacul,” she said, speaking Trade, in a firm tone, deliberately ignoring the Mrrakesh’s formal title, “We had every right to act. You are lucky that was as far as it went.”    There was a soundless snarl on the Mrrakesh’s face and his eyes narrowed and he, too, spoke in a rather accented form of Trade, “The planets were within no borders according to our records. And if you cared so much about them then perhaps you should not have left them completely empty.”    On the inside, Marix laughed. On the outside, she did nothing but look right back into his orange eyes, “We protected them, did we not?”    That was met with silence.    What Marix was currently finding so interesting was the fact that Sacul was not being nearly as aggressive as was normal for a Mrrakesh, especially in such a situation. He was being cautious. She could not see it in his face because she had no experience in truly reading Mrrakesh expressions, but she could hear it in his voice and tell from the way he would not press a fight. The Mrrakesh were, indeed, having problems of their own...or perhaps just Sacul was. It wasn’t as if the rulers of the Confederation had very long terms. Assassinations were common enough that they were pretty much expected.    After allowing the silence to run its course, Marix allowed herself to blink before saying, “I did not contact you to discuss the attempted invasion of our planets. I also did not contact you to start a war.”    “Of course not,” Sacul cut in, shaking his head, “The destruction of our ships was enough to do that.”    This time Marix’s eyes narrowed, “If that began fighting then why is your fleet no where near our border? In fact, why is it that I have very reliable information that nearly all of your ships are on the other side of your space, fighting another war of their own?”    This was also met with silence, but also by the widening of Sacul’s eyes.    She had been bluffing, actually, but it confirmed much. Marix did know that the usual defense fleets that patrolled the Mrrakesh border were no where to be seen. Alraxian spies always had difficult getting into Mrrakesh space, due to Alraxians having a very distinct smell to their neighbors, even when in another form. So there, in fact, no spies. Instead, Marix had used the information she already knew about where the Vong had entered the galaxy and put a few pieces together and then...hoped.    She was right.    By now, Sacul had put himself back together and was back to being unreadable and angry looking instead of shocked, “If you are attempting to show off, end it. The business of my fleets is not yours, and I do not take kindly to your assumptions.”    So...the Mrrakesh were losing. That was why they needed more planets. They were losing planets. Losing space. Losing everything. And they didn’t even know the Vong were in their ranks...or did they? Either way, it didn’t matter. The Mrrakesh were being pushed hard and weren’t able to push back hard enough. Now that was obvious to Marix.    Not being a diplomat, Marix quickly tired of the dancing around the point and instead shot right for it, “I don’t care what you think of my assumptions or my information, Sacul. I contacted you because you have a problem. You are losing ground. You are losing your ground. I know who you’re losing it to.”    A strange look came across Sacul’s face, as if he was trying to inspect her through the image but failing to succeed. Slowly, he asked, “You would insult me by insinuating that we need your help?!”    “No,” Marix ended that before it went anywhere, “I do not care about your planets. I care about mine. And what is affecting you is affecting my people,” she put a firm note on the last few words, and then, before he could attempt to be insulted again, got straight to the point, “You are falling back, and the only place you can fall back to is my space. But it will do you no good. Not only do you know that will start a war between our peoples, and leave you fighting on two fronts, but the invaders you are fighting are preparing to attack us from the opposite end.”    There. She’d said it. Against all better judgement, she’d just told the leader of the Mrrakesh that the Alraxian Empire was in a weak position. They were exposed and vulnerable. But she was counting on the fact that the Mrrakesh were, too, and that this Sacul would be intelligent enough to see the danger this posed to his own Confederation. It was a time she hoped this Mrrakesh was selfish like the rest of his people.    But his expression did not change. He continued to examine her and, after seemingly finding what he was looking for, leaned back slightly, “So you are telling me that we are both trapped, and these invaders that you seem to believe are out there are going to pit us against each other while destroying the both of us in the process...” he trailed off a moment, and after not seeing any denial from Marix, leaned forward again, “Then you did not contact me to help me. You came for help. And you think I should care about you and your miserable Empire, don’t you?”    “No,” again, Marix put that to a stop with a single word, “I expect you to be intelligent enough to realize that, once they are done with my Empire, you will be surrounded and then destroyed even easier than you are being destroyed now. What will you do when you give yourself no where to run to anymore, Mrrakesh?”    The last word was said with enough venom to poison a dragon, but Sacul seemed immune to it. Instead, a grunt escaped him that could have been a short laugh, and then his tone seemed to change, “Then tell me, little Empress, why did you contact me?”    So here it was. This was it. Somehow, she’d managed to keep the Mrrakesh listening for long enough to get to the point. Though she was inwardly tense and was currently in the mood to hit something very hard, she kept her outer appearance as dangerously calm as it had been the entire time. She did, however, allow her narrowed eyes to widen slightly to remove a hint of the threat that was there when she finally spoke, “I want ships. You have more than enough to push back the invaders on your side if you start thinking like a pack instead of a bunch of lone wolves. Give me enough to fight the invaders on my end and I will allow you to settle your refugees on our border planets until this is over.”</blockquote>

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