A War within a war (Borland Spat -Open RP)

[DaveIronside]

It had been two weeks since the assassination of "King" Kyle Barren, the figurehead of the Borlanders, the group committed to what they aw as the restoration of the official bloodline of the throne of Northfort and more importantly the truest heirs of Raimond Unasson the most beloved of Helus' humans. There had been tense meetings across the Alps between the various cells that Barren had so carefully arranged and managed over his time as their leader and while some living intermingled with the Morelanders the vast majority of Borlanders preferred to live in the cold Alps close to the border giving them an escape route made up of hundreds of zig zag alpine roads to escape on. Today though was special, today the group found itself at Maresbrook, a small village high up in the foothills beneath East Moreland's highest peak Highmoor. The large castle that was imposing on the hill over the village was owned, at least if you dug around, by a Charles Menworth, a businessman who owned several large properities across East Moreland that were holiday lets and spas. It was a useful front for meetings, just block out the ability to book for the general public and the Borlanders had a useful meeting place. They also had an income stream to help support their actions against the Morelanders. There today several of the high ranking Borlanders had already gathered and in the large dining room it was clear there were two factions forming as each huddled to their side of the large wooden panelled walls. At the head of one was Robert Wallis-Campbell the brother of Kyle Barrens third wife Alice. His sister was not there today preferring to mourn in her hiding in Zimalia. Across the room from him was Thomas Edward, a tall square shouldered man who was a cousin of Kyle Barren. As Borlander, and also ironically East Moeland tradition dictated at the death of a King an appointed Duke would ensure the coronation of the next King, in East Moreland this was the Duke of Ostlake, for the Borlanders this would be the Duke of Keepton (OOC- Borlanders maintain their own nobility and so for some places there will be a East Moreland (official) and a Borlander (secret) Duke/Duchess etc).

Today that job fell to Richard Hollins, the 70 year old had fulfilled this sacred duty on a previous occasion, today though was different to those as he had no Priestess here as so far the High Priestess of The Cult of Helus (OOC- Also different to the "official" one) had failed to arrive and any communication had to now been impossible. It was a situation though he had considered and now he was prepared to start without her which was already bringing protests from Thomas Edwards and his supporters. "No King may rule unless authorised by Helus, and that needs the Priestess." He yelled across the room to cheers.

"Needs must" Hollins said as he climbed the steps to what at one point, and soon would again, be where a throne would have sat. "I'm sorry but we must press ahead. Helus has more than enough power to stop us if what I do is not his will." He retorted which saw the Campbell-Wallis' nod their approval. "Today we must crown a new King to ensure the connection to our ancestors is kept unbroken. As the appointed Duke I name William Barren as the new King of Borland and the Borland Folk, Duke of Northfort and beloved of Helus."

"He's not a Barren" Edwards yelled. "He's a bastard". There was a smartly dressed 7 year old boy clinging to a womans hand, almost trying to hide behind her white skirt. "Look at the boy" Edwards continued, "He can't lead us and the Campbell-Wallis lot haven't picked up anything other than their skirts to help our cause in decades." Across the room the woman, Alice Campbell-Walls stepped in front of her son.

"He is the rightful heir" The room fell silent, it was Beatrice Barren, the first wife of Kyle Barren. She looked ill, her face was pale and there were large bags under her eyes. Since the news of her husbands death she had not been eating or sleeping well. While first the young girl Rebekah had become a wife also to her husband that was only ever to father an heir, after her execution by the Morlanders there had been Alice and that too had been nothing more than a loveless convenience. Beatrice though was a devout follower of their cause and knew the bloodline had to be preserved so had both relented to her husbands involvement with both women but also supported young Williams cliam. "The blood of Unasson flows through those veins full bodily, deep in the love of Helus. Yours..." she scowled at Edwards, "Is merely a poor polluted trickle" there was another chorus of shouting. This shouting however soon stopped when the sound of a bugle filled the air.

Mary Sutton, the lady whom the Borlanders considered the true High Priestess had entered the room backed by a group of around ten men wearing ceremonial uniform in Black. "This is why we lose." She pointed first at Edwards then at Beatrice. "When things go wrong we shirk away, we hide, we point fingers and we rebuild. Kyle knew that and did his best to create permanence for us, you failed him and now you fail Helus. Kyle will be watching us, once he has paid his penance for turning his back on some of our laws, alongside Helus united with Unasson and he will feel shame." The room this time did not erupt. It didn't matter what side of the metaphorical, and in this case actual, divide in the room you supported this was the High Priestess and her word in the absence of the King was enough for most. "Both of you are right, but for very different reasons" She walked forward dressed in a red dress a black shawl over it with the hood pushed back. She was just the wrong side of sixty but was still a woman you could say was beautiful. Her face carried a kind of stern elegance and her piercing pale blue eyes scanned the room. She walked slowly and deliberatley as though trying to make eye contact with everyone in the room at least once and in her wake came the Black jacketed men, each with a sword at their hip and an assault rifle on their backs. "I bring with me the Black Riders, the men most loyal to the Barren cause. Each has dedicated their life to the pursuit of getting the Morelanders to be nothing but history. Each of these ten men are more important to our cause than anyone in this room at this moment for they don't stand around talking, they take action. Just like Kyle did." Mary took the steps up to the awaiting throne and sat down. "Duke Richard" She said turning to Richard Hollins who was still in a state of uncertainty. "You're task is done, get down" she pointed to the floor and the man poddled down to stand with the Campbell-Wallis group. "My decision is this, while not a true heir in the sense of the word, William is of the bloodline. He however has no chance of being King while simply a child, and he certainly needs some toughening up looking at him" the boy was still peering out from behind his mother. "Therefore I will be ordering a regent until the boys turns 18 years of age. That regent will not be the Campbell-Wallis." her glare silenced the protests even before they began. "That regent shall be myself and Giles Gedding." The room began to murmour again but by raising a sword and clanging it on the throne the room once more fell silent. Giles Gedding was something of a myth among the Borlanders, he had once been inseperable from Kyle Barren but an arguement 15 years ago had seen him leave the group, only to resurface in Bakkermaya five years ago as Giles Cameron, a rich IT tycoon who was investing left, right and centre in business there. All filtering money back to fill the "royal treasury" In truth he had lead several hacking attempts and was linked to many of the major hacks of the 21st Century. The door opened and rather like a scene in a movie in walked the 40 year old setting foot in East Moreland for the first time in 15 years.

[Norgeras]

Somewhere Zimalia, around the same Time as that meeting.


The Alchemist walked into the dingy back alley lair, his leathery coat and the beaked mask covering him, as he let out a raspy laugh:


"Someone got careless." he announced as his breath echoed in a crazed tone through the mask. The man cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms as the henchmen cleaned out the servers, laptops and computers in a haste. The Alchemist glared over at the group of barely men tied to their chairs, gagged, beaten. With the Death of Kyle Barren they finally had gotten the nick in their defense Vigilance had been looking for. Usually the Morelanders where on any clue like flies circling shit, but this time, this one time, Rudolph and his Vigilance finally got a proper score.

"Leave Redfern a couple Breadcrumbs, but clean out the Rest." he rasped through his mask, while placing his left boot in the crotch of one hacker:

"No Messages this time. We need all of these lowlifes breathing for now."

he glanced around the room, before announcing loudly: "Make sure we keep tabs on each of their families. We wan't to have some bargaining chips once we torture these fuckers." he pushed his boot deeper, making the man below him scream into the gag.

"That's enough for you already?" the masked Rudolph tilted his head and laughed maniacally: "Oh, do you even realize who you guys worked for? Don't cry now, I'll give you plenty time regretting ever working for the Borlanders."

The Morelanders arrived only about six hours later, but the den had been cleaned out mostly. Only a beaker with Sulfuric Acid left inside.

[DaveIronside]

After the scene at the supposed "coronation" Giles Gedding had called for various leading members of the Borlander network to meet with him. Giles sat at the head of the table with the Borlanders Chief Priestess of the Cult to his right. Mary looked down the table where four other people sat. Closest to her was Alice Wallis-Campbell, the mother of the seven year old King, she was here representing both the crown and one of the more influential families. Next there was Thomas Edward, the cousin of Kyle Barren who had been very vocal at the coronation, he was here as he carried a lot of support from the rank and file of the movement and many considered him perhaps the actual heir to the throne. Next there was Roger Allen, he'd been a trusted commander of units within East Moreland and was considered to be the field commander of their forces. Finally there was Leo Kensington who was best thought of as the Borlanders media manager. "I've gathered you here today" Giles began, "because we need to formulate the future of the Borlander movement. At the moment we're on the back foot and the recent loss of our King and his inability to leave us a proper heir has made our situation even worse. However not everything is on such a downer." He said as he distributed a folder to each of them. "You see while I was not involved perhaps with the movement on a day to day basis I've been busy. While the rest of Mundus may know me as Giles Cameron and that I am a wealthy man that is far from the truth." He could see each of them examining a series of accounts, "You'll see approximately $38million in cash " he said proudly. "That is the arms chest I bring back to the movement, each penny of it acquired fair and square through my IT companies and their various investments. We also however have this" he flicked to the next page, "That's a series of shares in various companies that are the equivalent of some $40million. Next we have the deeds to property across Mundus. These assets and these funds will be the basis of the future direction I will take us in so that by the time young William turns of an age to take the crown he will, assuming we've not been victorious, have a sizeable defence budget of sorts and a network across Mundus that will allow us to put the Morelanders to the sword. Now for the time being none of your are to do anything to cause a problem. What I intend is for young William to gain a decent education. Kyle, as intelligent as we may have considered him, lacked real knowledge of Mundus and in the 21st Century rulers must have that sense of place within the world. So we're going to pack him off somewhere safe and somewhere he can gain a good education."

"We need to protect him." Alice protested loudly. "If the Morelanders know where he is then he's as good as dead."

"I know" Giles said calmly placing a hand on her shoulder, "and I'm working on a plan that will ensure just that. I have a meeting arranged with Charlotte Reensburg, the leader of the Charterlands. For some time I've dropped enquiries about a little village on their coast where I own a small villa. I've asked several times about acquiring the whole village. If I can persuade her and cut a deal it shall become Cameronville, on paper my own person fifedom from which my IT companies can operate under rules I establish, so long as course as they are compatible with the Charterlands. One of the things we'll do is bring in some migrant workers to help with my next project, that will include several of you" he gestured to the table. "It will also include a school, a place where we can essentially borrow the Bene Gesserit ideas of teaching our next generation. Cameronville will basically be a new version of Kyles Zimalian attempts at a community. I've learned the lessons of that and I think we need follow the Bene Gesserit approach." There were a few nods of support around the group. "For now you are to head back to your homes, stay hidden, stay secret and let me be about business." while some didn't look too happy they each agreed and soon headed back to their homes in hiding.


Next Day on a plane towards the Charterlands.

Giles Cameron and his business secretary, Corinna Fields, had boarded a flight from Northfort early that morning. They would be flying out to the Charterlands where the authorities expected the duo to visit Giles' lovely seafront property for a few days. While there he'd a visit with the Charterlord pencilled in and was hopeful of a successful outcome. His private jet, while nothing as luxurious as a royal or presidential flight, was comfortable enough and he had found himself snoozing as the phone located in the arm of his reclined seat went off. "Good Afternoon Roger" he answered seeing the details of Roger Allen appear. "What do you mean they've not checked in? Who the hell even are they?" he listened as Roger explained that one of his teams within Zimalia had gone missing. To Giles they were not important, they were part of the old system which was largely now redundant for the next few years at least. Losing a team of people up to Helus knows what in the backwaters of Zimalia was not part of his planning and even if something terrible had happened he wouldn't let it derail his new direction. "Well good luck finding them, if you need anything let me know" he said only half meaning what he said. His biggest concern was that he get this deal with the Reensburg sorted.

It was 24 hours later that he had the meeting arranged. He'd made his way to he Charterlords official residence and presented his credentials at the gate.


"Well isn't this lovely" Kelly Matthewson said as she lead the team into the room. "Where the fuck are they" she added as Graham, Amir and Michelle, followed her in pistols at the ready.

"Good question" Amir asked as he scanned the room. All the intelligence they had suggested they'd have found at least four of the Borlanders here but that now wasn't the case. They double checked their details as Graham kept watch at the door but after double, then triple checking, they were sure they'd found the right place. They then found the beaker. "Acid" Amir said rather quizzically.

"I bet its the same guy" Michelle said referring to how in the past they'd mysteriously found someone else hitting their targets. The Nightwitches may be secret but many of the people they went after where not exactly well liked.

"Got to respect someone who tidies up neatly after themselves." Graham added as the group began considering their next move.

"Have HQ post a thank you on the usual page." There existed a "Community Support Group" page on facebook that several of the intelligence agencies from East Moreland used from time to time and it was suspected that the group they believed responsible would see it too.

"Sending appreciation to those who aren't afraid to handle the tough stuff, like Uncle Boris and his secret formula. Your dedication doesn't go unnoticed. #BorisSolution #ThankYou" appeared that evening and Kelly would watch to see if anyone responded.

[Norgeras]

The Alchemist brewed himself some green tea as he glanced out from his cabin on one of their mobile bases. The sweet irony was this one paid for itself, it smelled like a cheap fish market and oil but it got them mostly around the oceans almost undetected. Of course, that's because most of the time it wasn't a vigilance base. It was just a fishing vessel and onboard processing facility. The Seaforthian Fishing Line Family had lost several members to the Borlanders in the Past - their current Head now a Vigilance Member, quite fittingly going by codename Neptune. The Ship was filled with crew from Zimalian Slums that lost their families to the Borlanders, and sailed under Zimalian flag.

But today, today part of the hold was holding stored servers. And one of the gutting rooms was hosting eight Hackers, bound and tied up ready for Rudolph to go to work. He glanced over at their newest member. The young man had lost his only living family to one of their guests, and when looking for a job had whined about the borlanders being responsible. Technically the gang attack wasn't borlander territory, the guy just worked as a hacker for a borlander. but to vigilance it was one and the same. Rudolph put his cup down after enjoying the drink, rising from his seat, donning his mask:

"Got a name for yourself yet?" the mask muffling his voice and hiding his wide grin while the young man seemed unsure. He shuffled around and glanced to the ocean.

"Are you guys really doing the right thing?"

Rudolph shrugged and looked out the window:

"No, and we don't pretend we do. But all we, and you too, have left is take vengeance. Barren is dead, but many of these arseholes are out there, ready to kill again." 

Rudolph held his arms wide, palms pointing up:

"Let yourself be consumed by the rage, join me. He's down there, and not even important. We can make a little show."




Their main guy was bound to a chair and unharmed, minus some smaller abrasions from struggling against the cuffs - Rudolph sat across from him and various torture implements lay behind him, ready to be used. The fun part? The life stream of the guys kid at school on a monitor:

"I expect every password, every name, every access code you have. also, seriously? A School in Neu Uburzis? you could have as well mailed your kid to me with a bow around the neck!"

His raspy laugh  through the mask as he grabbed a knife from the implements and handed it to their new recruits:

"Just to drive the point home. You won't make it out alive, but your kid might if you play nice. If you don't? I already know enough people at that school and without you around no ones going to protect your kid."

Rudolph walked to one of the others on their chairs, grabbed him by the hair and dragged the screaming man across the floor. Together with his new recruit, they forced the mans jaw open in front of the borlander. Of course, they didn't remove the gag. they didn't care if he was ready to talk yet or not. The new guy grabbed a knife while Rudolph held the tongue out with a pair of pliers, showing it all good to their main target.

"See, you can avoid us getting ugly like this. You could die cleaner than him if you cooperate."

Then they cut it out, as rudolph pushed the guy to the ground:

"Be quick and make sure he survives." he ordered, his goons dragging the mutilated man out. Rudolph turning the light out on the remaining other prisoners as he and the new guy leaves.

"Is Apep taken?" the young man asks, as rudolph laughed under his mask:

"It is now, Apep, it is now."




In truth, Rudolph didn't care about hurting the kid, but it was another lead. Chances where the borlanders would attempt getting custody on the kid and give him more names and leads. He grinned as he thought about some clever ai uses for the man though. Didn't have to be real to make it seem so.

[Beatrice]

Lucinda had been reluctant, yet once she found her finger on the enter key, there was no going back. Her message, transmitted anonymously and securely, was out there. She wasn't sure she would find the answers she was looking for, yet, she hoped she would find some along the way regardless.

"Beatrice,

A name I've often attached to just one woman, so this is already outside my comfort zone, but please hear my request and speak with me frankly. How did he die and, more importantly, how did he live following our brief time together? Despite the reports I had before me a man in full command of his convictions and faith, not a mindless terrorist as much of Mundus painted him as. I must ask this as his passing stirred something in my soul to awakening, and the feelings I feel overwhelm me to an extent which is incapable of being put to pen and paper, so to say. I used to kill without restraint and now, I can no longer do that, I feel empathy for others and that is quite new to me, so I must know of his life, to see just what he did to me and fix it. I know those in my life love that I'm like this now but I hear alarm bells all around me, so if I can undo whatever he effected in me, no, a part of me says I should embrace this path. I still need to know those details but, from my point and don't broadcast it, Barren was a good man. Rooted firmly in his faith and tradition, and a kind soul to those who had none to offer him, I do admire the man he was. I feel as though a part of him latched itself onto me, help me understand it all please."

"PS:" she added, "Baxter JR is doing well, I can't say he came from your shores but, he's a little devil all the same and I love him for it, I could only hope Baxter Sr would be proud of his indirect progeny."

[DaveIronside]

The widow of Kyle Barren received the message and instantly wanted to throw it in the bin. The Rokkenjiman's, just like every other Helus-forsaken nation on Mundus could have easily brought her beloved Kingdom into existence but instead they had played the Morelanders game and branded her and her people as terrorists and criminals. She had no idea about what to respond with, at first she had considered ignoring it, then she wanted to spit venom at Lucinda, finally she went to see Giles Gedding.

"What was Kyle thinking" Giles said after reading the note, "Letting Rokkenjiman intelligence or whatever she is into the centre of Borland operations. We can't trust a word these Rokkenjimans say, they're not our way out of this and infact its clear they much prefer things in Northfort the way they are. I do not want you replying, I'll take care of this." Giles said as he slid the letter into his desk drawer. Beatrice was more than happy to allow that to happen, she just wanted to fade into the background now and watch after her sons interests and inheritance.

The next day Giles figured out a response.

"Lucinda. You'll know only too well we lived our lives together dedicating ourselves to trying to do right by the Borland Folk. We expanded that folk far beyond what people would imagine in our homeland. To have the person you love gunned down by criminals pretending to be heroes breaks my heart and I know I will never truly recover. You can be assured we will not forget him and his legacy will be built upon by generation after generation unready to be slaves to the illegitimate regime. For now my focus is on our son, the true King of Northfort. I hope that perhaps one day our paths, and his may cross on better terms."




Giles, had left instructions to his subordinate that he expected to be followed to the letter. The subordinate in this case was his nephew, Riley Meadows, a man in his mid twenties who was well versed as one of Giles' legitimate businesses "White Knight" hackers, testing cyber security for a fee. Today though he was up to no good. For the past few years under Giles instruction the group had run a neferious website known as the Valerian Bazaar on the Darknet. The concept was easy, sellers signed up and created digital wallets and utilised the sites "auto-encrypt" functions. Once a buyer had ordered their drugs, contraband, weapons or other nefarious items the buyer transferred digital currency from their regular wallet, to a Valerian one, then to the seller and then days later their goods turned up wherever they'd wanted them. The seller could then move their currency from their Valerian wallet to their digital one and then if they wanted into their bank account. Several tens of millions usually sat in these Valerian wallets any single time as sellers became buyers and vice versa. Today they were in for a nasty shock. No sooner would they have logged into their account to do business than a message appeared telling them the site was shut forever and that their Valerian Wallets were now the property of the Bazaar. While this loss of funds would be bad for most of the people using it the next message was even worse. It appeared the "auto-encrypt" hadn't exactly functioned the way people thought, nor had the feature of deleting personal messages after 72 hours. Every transaction, every transfer had been saved and while the exact identities would likely never be fully known there was a significant amount of data that would be interest to authorities. There was of course a way of the user avoiding this, a simple one of payment could be made ensuring your data never found its way online. Failure to make this payment, determined by how much money you'd transferred, would see everything leaked. "You have 7 days" was the final message before the site plunged the users screen into nothingness.

[Beatrice]

Lucinda would chuckle at the emotionless response, clearly her message was interdicted in transit. She thought for a moment, she could end it here or continue it and, while the Lucinda of years before would wisely see to end it, she decided to respond.

"I don't know who you are, but you're not Beatrice," Lucinda started, considering her next words, "and maybe my own Beatrice is not even my Beatrice anymore; I saw them there, her, and Alex, celebrating the death of Kyle and I felt a sickness in my heart, and it was directed towards them, as death is never something to be celebrated. I destroyed the TV they had been so joyfully cheering at moments prior with a swift punch to the screen. I'll only say that I feel as though I saw the real Kyle, and I can say without reservation that he was a caring soul, someone whose soul would weigh less than a single strand of hair torn from Sehkma's head, in respect to your own faith I can only believe he's in a better place and I'll hope that is fact. I'll mourn his loss as I have those of my countrywomen and men, and will carry his memory into the future with me and, perhaps, there's truly nothing to fix, maybe he actually fixed me in the end of our story together. Perhaps he healed me and for that, I'll truly live and each day that follows and I will thank him for that gift. I don't care if this ever reaches Beatrice anymore, do what you will with my message, I was but one officer of the premier intelligence agency of Rokkenjima at the time; I held no influence over official policy, but I had my orders to follow, one guiding objective: to save Asuna."

"And he saved her," her message paused, "and I'll always respect Kyle for protecting those most precious to me, and I'll mourn him as I would a fallen comrade just as I will celebrate just how he unlocked my heart to feel, and to embrace feeling, well, feelings. I didn't know who to reach out to so I sought out Beatrice but, whoever you are, relay to her that I will cherish memories of our dinner, the charming face of Baxter, and the dedication of Kyle to protect his people first, not his own life, when we came under attack during that dinner, for the rest of my life. Damn your ascription to my feelings, they're worthless compared to the memories I share with Kyle and I'll be damned if you seek to belittle them with your emotionless response. That's all, it's all I have the heart to say, bye."

She then tossed the burner phone into the fire and giggled as the lithium-ion battery exploded, a scene she'd seen play out so many times before. As she did she looked to the stars, fixating on a cluster of stars that she did not recognize, yet recognizing their beauty. "I'll call this constellation Kyle, shine on you crazy diamond," she finished with a smile.