Debauchery Worlds 54 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Southmonk

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 54

-VB-

Alan Marris

Cylene, Coreward Principality

2982.12.03

We were slowly moving many of our major operations to Cylene as we built up its defenses. 

But infrastructure was not the only thing we focused on. No, now that we had conquered planets and took people under my banner, willingly or not, and a lull in the offense bought many of our clones time to work with, it was time to feel out the people. 

And where best to do that if not bars and coffee houses? 

---

One of my clones sat drinking coffee. 

Thanks to Warcraft arcane magic, changing the appearance of the clone had been too easy. Mannerism had been harder. So instead of trying to fool the locals of Cylene into thinking that he was one of them, he made it clear he was a displaced dispossessed mechwarrior from Raselhague Military District, having become dispossessed due to the new rulers of Cylene.

That got the clone a lot of credit and pity. Here in the Draconis Combine (or rather the former territories), dispossessed mechwarriors were looked upon with both scorn and pity. “How dare they lose to the enemy?” was the general sentiment of the nobles.

Speaking of nobles, all non-essential nobles had been stripped of their titles.

Some of those very nobles were here in the coffee house, grumbling alongside him. 

“The Coordinator will come back,” one of them to his right hissed. 

The clone, going by Georgio (not exactly Scandinavian but who cared?), hummed. “Maybe I’ll get to take one of their mechs when the DCMS comes to this world.”

“Hah! You jest! DCMS will sooner kill you then let you back in!” someone else shouted. That person wasn’t a noble, and was in fact very happy with the current state of things. 

“Bah! If I have a mech and a few heads, they’ll let me in!” he snapped right back over his shoulder. “Probably from those mercenaries.”

“... But is that the right thing to do?”

A lot of people in the vicinity of the latest speaker turned to look at a woman.

Cylene had been a very traditional Japanese planet, something that had been forced down upon its people. This included a lot of the traditional values as well as modified ones. Unlike in actual Medieval/Edo/whatever era Japan, women had not been allowed to roam freely in certain sections of the capital city. Such rules did not exist for small towns and farming villages, but it was still a rule that had existed. And the commercial district where this coffee shop was had been one such place a woman could not visit. 

And now, there were women here, which was already getting frowns from some of the men.

“What do you mean the right thing?” he probed.

“Tell the woman to piss off!” a deep baritone shouted from the other end of the shop and a few people laughed along. 

The woman, a black-skinned and lithe woman with a few scars, glared at the baritone toned speaker before glancing back to temp-Georgio.”I mean… Marris isn’t an asshole like the Coordinator.”

Someone shot up from their seat. “You take that back, you traitorous bitch!” 

“Or what?” she snapped right back. “Are you going to kill me?”

“You think I won’t?!” There were people getting shoved and things getting tossed aside… until a white man stood up and stopped whoever that had been. “Get the fuck out of my -!”

There was a snap and then a thump.

People backed away, but Georgio didn’t. Instead, he looked over his shoulder and saw someone who looked like a veteran.

“... I am Joshua Matohira,” the man spoke to the entire shop. “I am a veteran of DCMS. I was let go because I lost my leg in combat in one of my battles that happened in Dieron Military District. I was told by my superior that I, who had fought for two decades for the DCMS, was now a liability and told me to go die in a ditch.”

Some people grumbled and grunted while others nodded.

“I found myself here in Cylene because my relatives were too generous and kind to leave me to die when my family did.” He looked around. “Only months later, Marris came and conquered the planet. And then they medically treated me and anyone else, local militia included, without asking too much questions. All of you know someone died in the invasion but you also know someone who lived because of the invaders. These invaders - these conquerors - are soft, but because of that softness, they provided me with a simple prosthetic,” he said and lifted up his pants leg.

It was then that Georgio and the rest of the hivemind remembered him.

Joshua Matohira. A veteran mechwarrior. Piloted a Panther, and according to the files held in the local offices, lost his leg and mech defending Altair during a raid. Nearly got captured. For his loyalty, they didn’t kill him.

Yup, that was what was on his official file. 

“My enemy has shown me more mercy, more kindness, and opportunity than my own Coordinator, who abandoned me immediately for defending his world!” 

“YEAH!” “Fuck the bitch!” 

People were getting riled up.

Georgio took a sip of his now cold coffee. 

But before Joshua could continue, someone came rushing from the side and punched him.

That’s how the entire shop descended into a bar fight. 

---

While scenes like those weren’t common, they weren’t rare, either. People generally liked what we did.

But we had done was, in our books, not giving a shit about them beyond basic human decency. I made sure the hospitals were stocked with necessary materials, didn’t execute enemy soldiers and militia, and then allowed the militia to go back home sans their equipment. 

I still deeply hated the Draconis Combine (and I will hang the nuke-to-face over them for the rest of my life), but I wasn’t going to torture people for it! 

And I hadn’t.

And … And that was apparently more than they expected to get. 

Outside of the ruling nobility that had somehow survived, Cylene’s populace generally liked what I brought to the table, even if that was just human decency. 

It made me hate the Draconis Combine even more. 

Situation on Cylene was stable. 

That wasn’t so on Markab and Skat, the larger colonies of the three worlds I’ve conquered. They had many reasons to hate me. 

I didn’t mind.

Loyal, disloyal, or whatever. I just needed to who stood where. 

… But it was also nice to know that there were people who wanted stand by my side. 

-VB-

 Alan Marris

???

2982.12.05

While our operations in the Inner Sphere continued, it did not mean an end to our exploration across the multiverse. 

The latest planet we arrived at was a water world! 

It was nice. 

What was even better was that there were human settlements that got picked up by our long range sensors, and they looked advanced if all of their sensors reading was anything to go by. 

So we hid on the small rock cropping we found ourselves on and continued to receive local radio waves from those settlements, listening to their strange language and tried to decipher them as best as we can. 

And by the end of the day, we even understood a few worlds. 

Like … imperator had to be emperor. Mundus was world. 

Though one world that we couldn’t quite translate stuck out between ships in orbit and what had to be the local spaceport authority, and often used with mundus, the world for world, so it had to be the name of the world or something close to it.

Was Tyran the name of this world?