Prologue
The Masked Inquisitor looked warily at the blond haired, vaguely handsome man with piercing blue eyes and a harelip. He knew the reputation of the man who sat before him so calmly in this strange office in an even stranger cloning facility that dated back before this planet got its official colonial charter from the government of Earth.
The Inquisitor noted the signs labeling it a Mining Brethren production facility for future use by Republic Iron LLC. All trespassers would be shot and eradicated according to the signs the facility had during its initial production. The Inquisitor wondered how the Earth Authority didn’t realize the Iron Republic was going to turn on its government like a corporate viper with this lack of concern for citizens welfare.
Just professional courtesy after all, would dictate something was rumbling up those thousands of years ago. But back to the present and the facility’s current owner.
The average blue eyed man who stood across from him. A simple blue EEF uniform of the EEF Starforce. The Patch on the shoulder labelled him as Variable Light Assault Division. One side of his belt had a ceremonial pistol (fully functional as all EEF officers once did) and the other a sword of office.
The Old Vlad sighed, and said, “You see this uniform. It once meant something. Something that represented protecting all Earther life, and Earther interests on this planet and every planet. Over two thousand years ago when Earth fell, the I.R. killed every VLAD cell they could find. You see we were trained back on Earth to set up guerrilla units, and in counter-insurgency operations. We gave up our names, took a number. Accepted a life of cloned work to defend the life of the Colony General and all Legal Government in service to cause of Human life. No families, and only a few friends within the Colony General’s staff.
For us Colony General Glypson was the outsider.
The crew, under Interplanetary Gunship Captain Riley P. McMurphy had served with Glypson’s current Commissar, back when he had simply been Colonel Enric Von Glohammer, one of the heroes of the Silent Wars. As if anything was simple in those days. My first VLAD assignment, and the colony is a complete fake from its idilic reports. It’s got ravenous local flora and fauna. Oh and a radiation that didn’t get explained fully in the initial reports. They really slipped on that.
It was sad, now that look back on it. Glypson decided the radiation should be suppressed first, and I agreed with him. We both quickly realized that a place like this could make something amazing, but only if an elite, a few strong and willing could use this radiation.
We were going to show the Earth Authority, but we didn’t expect the Nightmares. We had to clamp down. Things went south quickly. Glomhammer and Glypson began to butt heads on how to handle things, and the K’ias played us all. Then again you are an Inquisitor, and you understand what I mean when I talk about the K’ias called Domino. And all the horror that one wrought.
Then there was the time after Glypson died, the centuries in the shadows serving the Commissar, hiding Glypson’s meltdown and eventual end. Hiding from Domino as well, prepping agents always, but always in the shadows.
I understand the shadows better than you Inquisitors sometimes, but hear me out.
My VLAD agents were very skilled in the Leyas, very skilled in various combat techniques and were the few who were really in the know. And when the Tyrant fell and the IR declared this place a penal colony, only VLAD agents and the EEF high command knew.
I did everything in my power to prepare the Colonies for a real battle against the IR and their freedom.
I prepared armies of vampyrs who could disable power armor with their hunger. I had cloners like Lurlock design special weapons, potions, and devices for me and field test them on our enemies in the northern kingdoms and elsewhere. Yes I traded technology to keep our colonies safe, and aided the Kasanthians in taking out one Northern Kingdom after another. I even helped the Tal Hanon Technomagi develop their technomancy and create the Legion Hivemind. I knew it could do exactly what the Unity used it for, the utter overwhelming of the Iron Republic’s oppression on world after world.
I did that.
And I convinced General Tharr that Humans had a place in this bright new future. That we were not simply the madmen your church keeps pumping out. Don’t get me wrong, the knights, they serve their purpose. They are the sword, when the aliens don’t accept a little diplomacy in the form of the glove.”
The Masked Inquisitor simply said slightly sarcastically, “I am so happy we serve a purpose in your grand design.”
Without missing a beat, or noticing the sarcasm, the Old Vlad said, “And it was a grand design until those three terrorists shut me down and set up their own VLAD. They stopped me from killing a devilish vampire who has gone power mad with his forced integration of alien species into the colonies.
But I have their number. They use such a wide array of weaponized aliens that I will take advantage of it. I have already gathered the Infamous OtO and use him regularly to make fools of the new VLAD agency. Don’t get me wrong they deployed him first.
I solely try and use their tools against them these days. That is why your payment, in the form of Lurtor’s DNA sample and memory scans will be such a blessing.”
“Will you send out armies of this green fur too?” asked the Masked Inquisitor blandly.
“No I plan on using him like a scalpel not like the wrecking ball that OtO is,” said the Old Vlad slowly, “Once I send in an OtO to wreak things, to blow up and destroy these enemies of humanity, I will send in a Lurtor to shoot that OtO in the face. Publicly openly. They were once team-mates, and they gained a hatred more deep than any I could create in my lab.
Let the colonial people see that and associate it with the V.L.A.D. agents who work as a secret police for the Colony General. Working outside the mandate of the EEF in Colonial territory and destroying the cities they serve.
Let that be their legacy, until I can regain control of my organization.”
“You have built quite a dark mirror of that organization down here in the Goblin Lands haven’t you,” agreed the Masked Inquisitor snidely.
The Old Vlad rose up quickly, “When the trio that now leads the VLAD agency took over they sent Strangulari Assassins to every one of my Cells. They killed so many of my friends, my wards, my subordinates that I would rather not discuss it. I never expected those terrorists to deploy that level of viciousness.”
“I hear you are employing the leader of the Mag Der’al,” asked the Masked Inquisitor.
“It is true, Alchemist Onderal is in my employ and under my protection for the moment,” said the Old Vlad, “He has opened the way to a dimension where I will be able to steal from the technologies of the K’ias and the Nightmare Lords without them even being able to stop me. A dimension where pacifists from those species escaped with all their wealth and knowledge and have been hiding ever since their ancient wars. And now they will all be mine.”
“You definitely think big,” said the Masked Inquisitor, “I hope it does not consume you. Or threaten this place. I have much work to accomplish. If your history lesson is over for this visit, then I will take my payment and go.”
“The equipment and scans you requested have been delivered as promised,” said the Old Vlad, “Mark my words, Shinefox Shrellfox, McMurphy’s failed clone, and Goliath Captain Terrance Terranovsky will be facing their own Strangulari’s garrotes if I have my way.”