Capellan Empire IC Roleplaying Thread

[Dave Baughman]

Faction roleplaying thread

[Cannonshop]

Celestial Palace, Sian, Cappellan Empire

Kuan-Yin Liao strode into the security apartments without guards today.

"Nancy!" she said, greeting Nancy Bao-Lee warmly, "How is our girl?"

The former Director of the Maskirovka rose from her bow, "She is well, Celestial Wisdom."

"Good.  I have reports that she has been lax in her studies." Kuan Yin said grimly, "She is to be punished."

"Sophie-" Nancy began.

"no, she HAS been lax-less than eighty-five percent on the last examination.  Now, fetch her." Kuan Yin insisted.

Nancy bowed again, shaking and frightened, she fetched the girl.

Kuan Yin motioned to a guard, "Fetch Spelzer, and have him set the lash to setting five."

"Yes, Celestial Wisdom."  the guard replied.


Nancy Bao-Lee brought the girl, now Twelve, before the Celestial Wisdom.

"Sophie, some day, you will have my job.  Less than full commitment will ruin the lives of BILLIONS of our people.  Your father...would not like that." Kuan-Yin said, "Nancy, you may go, or stay, as you will."

Spelzer was a man chosen for this sort of thing-a defect that allowed him to be completely dispassionate whether making love, or murder, he was clinical and unemotional, and therefore, he would not exceed the parameters of his duty-today, it would be punishing the person likely to become his ruler some day.

"You will recite the tables to me-from memory, Sophie. Each time you make a mistake, will be five lashes, if you fail to explain WHAT that mistake was, it will be ten.  We will now begin..."

[Cannonshop]

The Garden, Sian...

"...success is collective, but failure, now Failure is individual, Sophie."  the Punishment yesterday had been harsh, today, the Celextial Wisdom had her down in the gardens, "That is how it is-how it should be."

"Why?" Sophie asked.

"Should an innocent bystander be punished because they saw a crime?" Kuan Yin asked, "Should the good workers be penalized because someone ELSE was slack?  That's the mistake Romano made-punishing the innocent for the acts of the guilty-when the Innocent are punished, it leads to witnesses remaining silent-the Guilty are more likely to escape, and more innocents harmed."

"But should we not reward individuals for excelling, as well as punishing them for Failure?" Sophie asked.

"The State is better served by enhancing Consensus, rather than the contentiousness of excessive competitions." Kuan Yin said, "Not to say we should not reward the occasional stand-out, but, rather that rewards of such nature should be prized, and rare, or would you have all of our soldiers leaning over from the weight of worthless, devalued decorations like the Lyrans did?"  here, the Celestial Wisdom's tone was light, and slightly mocking.

"Social Generals...indeed."  Sophie slid into 'the Gull wheeling heavenward', "But if we strive for consensus, should we not place justice in the hands of the masses?" she asked.

"No.  The Masses are, taken as a whole, too ignorant, emotional, and mercurial to decide who is guilty and who is not." Kuan Yin said, "They would not require US, otherwise."

"But what about...punishment?" Sophie asked, "Take, for instance, using the Romano years, if there is a failure, instead of outright execution, what if you left the Officer's actual Punishment in the hands of his surviving subordinates?  It would weed out the bad officers, as soldiers, or so I have observed, may dislike a harsh commander yet be loyal to him, while they may be utterly disgusted at a commander who tries to be everyone's 'best friend'."

Kuan Yin froze, looking thoughtful.  "Interesting idea..."

[Cannonshop]

Ceres Metals testing facility #41, [redacted]

The test plate blazed like the heart of a sun.  Jinquo Chen sighed in ecstacy, watching the result.  "It worked."  he turned to Vien Chanh Hong and Lu Casetes.  "It works!!!"  he shouted.

the others smiled politely, with their reserve intact, while Chen danced like the unstable madman that, after all, his psyche tests claimed him to be.

the weapon sat in the cradle, cooling, as the test article's temperature began to abate-leaving behind altered crystal matrices that made it brittle.  Instruments on the other side puddled-the burn had been so hot, that it had destroyed the measuring tools-but not before the data they accumulated had been fed into computers.

It worked.

Chen stopped bouncing, and came around to face his colleagues, "With this...we can burn the enemies!!  and at such range!!"

The rest of the team were very pleased.

Chen looked at his finest project, and smiled.  "We have stolen the technological march on the bloody terrans-let them call us fools now!!"

[Cannonshop]

3071.5.1, Celestial Palace, Sian...

"...these are the men responsible?"  She asked.  The smell of cordite, the electric smell of ozone, and the stench of scorched plastics almost...but not quite...covered the more delicate odours of blood, fear, sweat, shit, and urine-the smell of murder, a smell that had lingered under the harsh cleaning chemicals-which were, She knew, the true smell of guilt.

"Yes, your worship, Talon Zahn, his deputies...the men responsible for-" the Loyal one began, She held up a hand, stopping him.

"You?" She asked, setting a suede booted foot on the crotch of the most trusted man in the Cappellan Empire.  "YOU did this...atrocity, this betrayal?" she hissed, through perfect lips.  "YOU murdered them? what did you think it would avail you? What foolish delusion, what Arrogance would have you spill the blood of the Royal Line?  To kill a Child, a scion of the Liao Family?"

Zahn's confidence flickered, and she could see it, the fear beginning to build.  "I am most...displeased."  she said, "If I had desired to lower myself to a mere mortal's rule, I would have already done so...you have taken the choice from me."  Kali Liao gave the kneeling man a gentle shove with her boot, then looked to the Thuggee guards, "Secure the Traitors." she said, "and gather my...family members, for a dignified burial, find someone who can make Sophie look...decent for the cameras, and see if there is enough of dear cousin Kuan-Yin that the casket need not be a closed one."  she folded her arms, "Nobody is going to believe I had nothing to do with this." she muttered darkly.

"Mistress, what will you do, then, if this was not your will?"  one of the cultists asked.

"I will have to govern." Kali said darkly, "and punish those that brought this about-not just the conspiracy inside the court, but their masters...wherever they are."

"He did it for you." Miriam was a housemaid, and while she was not a believer, she WAS loyal to the family.

"I do not REQUIRE worship-what goddess would?" Kali shot back, "he did it for HIMSELF, in my name, in vanity-someone encouraged that vanity." Kali said, "Such true motivations are a desecration...how many of the staff survived this-besides you?"

"I know of fifty." Miriam said.

"as soon as replacements for the dead have been hired, you will all recieve vacations." Kali Liao told her, "after being screened by competent people.  I hardly think this could have happened without more inside assistance than the military side...relax, you will not be made to convert, false devotion is as bad as vanity masquerading as devotion, I prefer a loyal skeptic whom can be won over, to idiots...you may go now."