Office of the Tsar
Alcibiades, Wilkonc System — Severian Principate Territory 43 ABY

Darnic Herharl shifted uncomfortably in his seat and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

These damn meetings.

He sighed and brushed his thinning grey hair out of his eyes. His annoyance was less at the content of the meeting, for there was much potential here to make more credits, and more at the tugging discomfort of his formal attire he was expected to wear during it. If this meeting went as he hoped, he would have to treat himself to some liberating freedom in the Twi’lek bath house at his estate. Of course, if it went poorly, he would have to console his failure in the Twi’lek bath house at his estate.

In both cases, the formal attire would be long gone.

“Another round of taxation!” the holovid of Julibrad Whitfer said. The Prime Minister of the Sancanu System was everything Darnic thought of himself in his mind. Fit, strong, charming.

Probably going to celebrate with a jog.

“Taxation for defenses,” the image of Madiaja Farhol said in an attempt to soothe Julibrad. The expression on the female Kaminoan’s face, however, indicated that even the aging Governor of the Triccarri System was growing weary of the increased emphasis the Principate had been making on military spending. Julibrad waved a hand in dismissal.

They’ve known each other a long time.

Darnic was still technically the new kid on the block, his system being one of the most recent additions to the Principate’s territories.

He and his people thought they were getting support. Better lives for the people of the Wilkonc system, and less work for himself. More time for more enjoyable activities, and less time spent on politics

Yet here he was. Experiencing the exact opposite of that. He cleared his throat and took a small sip of water.

Read the complete fiction here.

Welcome to the sixth chapter of Parabellum, kicking off our third cycle adventure with the Severian Principate.

Summary

• Darnic Herharl the Severian Principate Leader from the Wilkonc system meets with fellow leaders Julibrad Whitfer and Madiaja Farhol.
• They discuss the costs rising on their systems to further advance the Principate’s efforts to better arm themselves, all going to their close ally the Brotherhood.
• The Triumvirate tour The Prism, ACE’s new state of the art shipyard.
• While impressed they disclose feeling short changed by the deal with the Brotherhood, they have not received everything they have paid for.
• The Brotherhood begins to investigate the missing weapons.
• Pirates attack the Hirkado system, and their local leader, Jaxues Reymon expresses outrage at the death toll, as they couldn’t properly defend themselves due to the missing weapons.
• Darnic, Julibrad, and Madiaja further discuss these events and decide they would like to explore alternative means of bettering their systems.
• Data analysts from the Brotherhood and Principate pin point that these weapons all went missing in dealings with Mozt Theahis and Nadee Loorlervarr, neither of whom are part of the Brotherhood or Principate. However, since the events on Coruscant, these two have been unseen completely.