*

"Is the King out of his bloody mind?!" shouted Prelate Kreen, Governor of the largest Agricultural district on the planet Fero.

"The Imperial upstart wants to turn Guildway Three into a starship factory of some sort and the King is contemplating it, it's true!" insisted the man on the other end of the line, Kreen's insider within the King's household that kept him abreast of most of the Royal "talk" that went on in the household.

It had taken the Prelate several years to cultivate the right relationship free of suspicion from the King but it had been well worth it.

"That man," Kreen ground out, referring to the King, "will hand us straight into the hand of this Imperial for sure! The Imperial was shrewd to get between the legs of the King's daughter."

"Umm.. Lord. That rumor is unsubstantiated.." the voice corrected but Kreen would have none of that. "Then confirm it!" he nearly shouted and switched off.

This recent bit of news had soured Kreen's mood and his mind raced madly searching for the correct course of action.


How to rid us of that pup Kaine!


"Perhaps, I may be of assistance Prelate Kreen," a rather cultured voice interrupted and the Prelate turned in surprise. No one ever disturbed him in this portion of the house.

Recognition immediate hit and surprise struck twice.

"Y.. you!" he spat out in shock and fear. "Y..your supposed to be..." his voice trailed off.

"Come now, Prelate. Is that any way to greet a friend?" and the man stepped out of the doorway and into the Prelate's private study revealing that the man was not alone.

Several others, also recognizable, were with the cultured man. There was a scream and a struggling behind the newcomers and Kreen's eyes widened when he saw his wife and two teenage children dragged into the study.

The man, in a faded Imperial uniform walked over and sat down in a rather plush chair opposite the Prelate.

"I think it's time we all reaquainted ourselves." the man spoke calmly but the Prelate saw the odd gleam in the other's eye.

A gleam he'd recognized before and he shuddered inwardly.


Major Willam kept his expression mild as he began...

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the old man rasped as they watched the banks of computers relay quantum equations into the matrix that would coalesce into the event horizon of an ancient transportation device.



"I understand it is being shut down?"


"As with all technology derived from dying races, it has served it's purpose and now it is irrelevant."


"Palpatine thought the technology worth something."


The old man laughed harshly, "And look what it got him! No. The achievements of inferior races are merely a means to an end."


The INS reporter grinned, "A means to an end eh? So Kaine does not have hidden alien technology somewhere? Does not have something tucked away in the Aridian Empire?"


"Faggot,' the old man turned to the INS man, "the Aridian Empire does not exist."


"Then what is out there?"


The old man's eyes glazed over, as if remembering.

*



Aridia Cluster



Oddly, the political resistance in the House of Lords organized against the King's referendum to convert the incomplete Guildway Three into an interstellar shipyard quietly died. King Agreon wondered what had motivated the opposition's architect, Prelate Kreen of Fero, the Aridian Empire's agricultural leader.

But without the support he could have drummed up, most simply went with the decision to ratify the referendum. It was not a hard decision for Aridia already had two Guildway Stations. A third was redundant and the call of having craft designed and built to travel outside the realm of their empire proved to be a powerful enticement in itself. It would mean greater markets for businesses and access to a greater variety of products never before having been seen by the Aridians.

And so, construction to modify the framework began quickly as the Imperial Simon Kaine set up offices in the Palace of the King. Recalling the regimental engineers from Arcadia, he set himself to task in providing the logistical support for not only retooling and refitting the station turned shipyard but ensure that there was enough materials and specialists to apply their own brand of knowledge into the first starship created by the Aridians.

With mass media coverage, the construction was promoted with as much nationalism as possible. Pride in everything Aridian and their new destiny to the stars was the subject of the day.


So caught up were the people that no one on Fero questioned the reclusiveness of the Prelate and his family. His teenage children were removed from school to be taught privately. His wife soon defaulted on her obligations to the various organizations she had joined in the course of her husband's political career but even then, no one balked. There were many other rich women ready, willing and able to fill the vacancy.


Unfortunately the reality of the situation was that Major Willam owned the lives of the Prelate's family and exacted a heavy toll. It was a time when Kreen's family became subject to every sort of sadistic act and perverse pleasure imagineable by the Imperial Major. A Major who was intent on repaying ten-fold what he felt Kreen owed him since their last collaboration in the failed attempt to remove King Agreon from power.


And through his family, Willam owned Kreen.


And as Kaine's plans went forward with the shipyard, oblivious to Major Willam's return from exile, a signal was sent out from a communications tower owned by a company the Prelate served as nominal Chairman of.


The signal sought out the hiding place of Warlord Zsinj.


Willam felt the man too slippery to die at Slaggis (if the fractured reports were to be believed). As it turned out, he was right.

dasdfasd

"So," the INS reporter began, "Zsinj's cousin responded to Major Willam's transmission and came to the Aridian Cluster?"


The old man spent nearly a minute almost hacking up a lung before responding. In desperate short breaths he nodded.


"With the men and ships Zsinj brought with him, Willam had enough material to challenge Kaine and King Agreon once again."


"But they lost evidently." the INS reporter commented. "Kaine is alive now and I have not heard of this Willam character nor of any of Zsinj's family still surviving."


The old man laughed quietly. "You'd think that wouldn't you. But there are other ways of measuring victories and defeats. You think you know all, don't you?

You think that Kaine simply pulled another brilliant maneuver out of his ass and conquered?" The old man seemed incredulous. "Kaine was a mere boy!" he nearly shouted.

Then the aging man went quiet, his voice barely audible. "He was a boy finding out what it mean't to be in love."


"WHAT??" the INS reporter sat up. "A lover of Kaine?"

"Please!" the old man spat back disgusted. "Not like that bitch whore Arliss Kaine had a few times. I am talking about an emotion where even the Empire seemed to fade in Kaine's mind. The kind of emotion that makes a battle-hardened soldier weak."

"Your saying that Kaine was turning native? That's hard to believe. The Empire.."

"THE EMPIRE WAS DEAD, you moron!" the old man shouted, his teeth red with blood. "Fighting it's last battles in some obscure corner of the galaxy while the New Republic went on to victory after victory.

An Imperial had to ask oneself, just what the hell they were fighting for anymore?


Kaine was finding a new purpose. Aridian interests were slowly becoming his. He actually looked to the King as a father figure."


"Oh..." the INS reporter began to dwell on what that meant.


"Exactly, you faggot!" the old man spat.


"Willam and Zsinj presented themselves to the King asking for the Aridians to surrender to the Empire. So now what was a young Colonel Simon Kaine to do?


All his plans were in ashes the moment Zsinj's ship entered orbit."


The old man continued sadly, "Out gunned, out flanked, out numbered... Kaine was caught unawares. And he paid the price. Zsinj had him imprisoned and tortured. Willam gained control of the Royal Family and basically killed them at his leisure. The girl Mya was his plaything until she finally succumbed.

The Aridian Empire had nothing with which to combat Zsinj's warships and with the Royal Family gone, the older governors like Kreen, who was in Willam's pocket, sued for peace by unconditional surrender."

The old man laughed harshly.

"The Victorious Warlord and Major Willam. They had everything while Kaine languished beaten and bloodied into pulp in some nondescript prison."


"So, how did he win?"


The old man's eyes grew sly, "Because he had turned native. He had earned the people's trust on Aridia and he was already known to have been the consort of the King's daughter. That made him nominal heir to the thrown.. or would have if they had married.

But the Aridian's didn't care. They were already in hell due to Willam's self appointed Kingship.

The people spirited away Kaine from custody and Willam raged. Zsinj was not too concerned for he was more interested in the shipyard Kaine had set out to build. But Willam slaughtered hundreds of Aridians to find out where the Colonel had gone.

None of them would tell.


And so, Kaine recovered and the Guildway War began. Eventually, Captain Chandler returned with two Cruisers and a liberated naval contingent. Captain Chandler was the hero of the day on Arcadia and Kaine sent word warning Arcadia that Aridia was looking for their base of operations.


Chandler defeated Zsinj's ships and Kaine led the revolt against King Willam and retook Aridia and subsequently the Empire."


"So, victory all around." the INS man stated flatly.

"Not quite." the old man whispered, "Kaine had lost more in this action than he ever thought he could. The horrible death of Mya left him terribly scarred and there is a deep hatred that burns in the man. A hatred of waste at the ambitions of others.

The Aridian Empire is no more. What was left was turned into a factory for Kaine's war making capabilities. And in the interim, while Grand Admiral Thrawn went on to raise the Empire against the New Republic, Kaine remained in the shadows leaving his mark here and there on the galaxy."


"I never found any records of..."


"Not marks for galactic recognition. No, Kaine was placing seeds here and there for the day when he would be in a position to shape the galaxy as he saw fit.


Didn't you ever read just what the compliment was of the Old Imperial 256th? When Kaine came to Bastion after Thrawn's defeat, his regimental numbers were more.

Don't you remember the Sentinel Fleet's Second Division. Made up of Kaine's 256th?

Where do you think all these soldiers were coming from?"


The INS reporter grew serious. "Just what are you saying old man?"


The old man smiled revealing red stained teeth. "There are planets within the Empire that are controlled solely by the 256th. Kaine's private army and his own planetary systems of hidden starship factories."

The old man pointed a finger at the INS reporter. "Do you think that Kaine trusts anyone anymore? Do you think that he'll simply sit back and let the Empire proceed unobserved?

Kaine doesn't rule from the visible places. Kaine rules from the shadows now.

He is the power behind the Empire and the shaper of it's purposes.

Take a look at the machine being shut down. It is only being shut down because the gate on Coruscant is being moved to a fortress world of Kaine's choosing."


"Where?" the INS reporter asked, suddenly hungrily taking in the conspiracy theory shaping around him.


"Promise not to tell?" the old man asked and as the reporter nodded quickly, he smiled.


"Improcco."


"Improcco?"


"Kaine's 256th captured the rest of the system after Endgame while Regent Hyfe was setting himself up in the Imperial Palace. Kaine captured this planet during his conquest within the Unknown Regions."


"So, Kaine is a rebel?"


The old man laughed and ordered some drinks from a passing droid. Upon being given two glasses, he entered his credit chip and handed the reporter one.

Taking a drink and waiting till the other did so, he continued, "Kaine is not a rebel. He is the soldier's soldier. But his battlefields change as circumstances present themselves. Diplomacy, Politics, Military Tactics and strategies all are played on a grand scale to bring forth the New World Order as he's seen.

You see, Palpatine failed and look what it cost him. Kaine failed once too and it cost him."


"What does he want?"


The old man shrugged. "What most soldiers want. Peace, ironically enough. But he doesn't trust that peace to come from others. It is something Kaine will kill, manipulate and destroy for and anyone be damned who gets in his way."


"Our manifesto: Supreme Imperium, is it?"


"Something like that."



"I am grateful for your insights and I appreciate your candor. You've given me a great deal to think about. I think I may charter a ship to Aridia.."

"Aridia is not listed on any chart. It is a self contained system."

"But you know where it is?"

"Yes, I know.."

"So you could.."

The old man laughed, "I don't think so. Kaine's eyes are everywhere nowadays."


"What would he care about you?"


The old man smiled. "You never asked what happened to Major Willam."


The reporter brightened. "What did happen to him?"


"He was exposed to a great deal of radiation in his efforts to escape Aridia and a murderous Kaine."


"Where did he go?"


"Well, he did end up eventually on some backwater planet full of dead alien technology talking to some faggot reporter who actually was an Imperial Agent in disguise."

The other's eyes widened.

"Fortunately, the agent consumed a poisoned drink and proved no threat to the good Major."

The INS reporter/Imperial Agent's eyes began to bulge as the poison began to take effect. The man's hands began clawing at his throat, his wimpers pleading for relief.

The old man's hand suddenly took on surprising strength as he grabbed the choking agent and drew him close.

"You'll live long enough to give your report. I know your fellow agents are on their way! Tell Kaine that I never enjoyed any minute with her. She wanted to give herself to me to spare him but I had her anyway! I showed her the true meaning of what it was to hold someone else in the palm of your hand. I showed her the true meaning of power!" the old man hissed.

He took out a small pin and he violently stuck it to the flailing agent. "A token of hers to remember me by!" and he spit out blood at the other man as he pushed him back.

"Throw your rings around systems! Build your armies! You will not catch me, Kaine! This round goes to me."


He pulled out a recorder device from his pocket and threw it as the fallen agent before getting up.

Coughing once into a clothe, Major Willam slowly made his way to a transport out in the distance.