Scavenged Restoration 46 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 46

-VB-

Could she do this? 

Her plans were simple. It was simple because she learned from an example that complex plans had many points of failure. She knew there was a weakness, not a perceived one but a real weakness. She knew that there were enough in the army who felt upset with her mother’s rule. 

But would it be enough for her to sway them to fight for her in the middle of a war? 

It was … not an entirely calculated risk. 

There was a hefty bit of emotional decision behind this as well.

If emotions hadn’t been in play, then she wouldn’t even have thought about doing this. But it was, so she was. Did it make her too similar to her mother? 

Maybe.

And she hated it. 

The first thing she was going to do once this war was over was to get herself trained in emotional discipline. 

If she survived. 

At the same time, she was not doing this completely for her own sake. 

The war was unwinnable. 

The fucking Free Worlds League just raised their hands up and surrendered a whole duchy without even trying for a strongarm tactic. 

‘But the Capellans have the stronger arm, don’t they?’ her mind supplied with a snark. ‘Strong arms that beat you like crazy.’

The thought demoralized her as to what the future of the magistracy will be like. 

… But that was for the future. Right now, she had to save it from the one who was steering it into its early grave. 

“Ma’am?”

She looked up and saw a major. 

“We’re ready for you.”

She gave him a nod of thanks before a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

Then with one final breathe, she stepped into the room. 

The room was filled with MAF officers, and they looked at her. Some nodded while others looked doubtful. A few of her fellow company officers looked surprised by the wound she had. 

And then she went up to the podium at the front.

She stood before the 1st and 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers’ officers. Those she knew were fed up with the war or pissed with her mother. 

“Sorry about the secrecy,” she began from the head of the meeting room. “But all of you know have an idea as to why I brought you here.”

“To complain about your mother?” someone snarked, and the room chuckled along.

“No.” Then she tilted her head down so that her eyes came under shade to give herself a more menacing look. “To put an end to my mother’s idiotic rule.”

That made several faces pucker up while a lot of other faces looked … interested. 

“Yesterday, I went to help the magistrix,” she began. “There, I overheard a lot of discussions and facts that will soon impact the economy of our magistracy. While these informations themselves are damning enough regarding the magistrix’s lack of diplomatic prowess, the more damning action lies in what she did when she found herself without control.”

Emma Centrella pointed to her left temple where there was now a bandage covering it. 

“Yesterday, I walked into her court to provide her my best support. She may have made mistakes. She may have erred. But she is still the magistrix and my mother. And for my loyalty and support, she nearly killed me. And to prove my point, I’ve brought the palace’s chief doctor.”

The chief doctor, someone who had been around since she was a little child, walked up to the room. Unlike most of the people here, the doctor was a man, which made a few women sneer.

“Hello, I am Doctor Tyn Tamagura. Most of you haven’t met me before, but all of the colonels should have.”

“Yes,” Colonel Samantha Carter of 1st Caonoian Cuirassiers spoke up. “You are the head physician of the palace.”

The physician gave her a nod of thanks. “I’m just here to confirm that Major Emma Centrella did nearly suffer an irreparable wound from the Magistrix’s … tantrum. Had the throw been any weaker, then it would have struck her eye. Had it been any stronger, her skull would be broken and bone pieces would have been shunted into the brain.”

Emma tried not to shiver.

But she couldn’t help it. 

She came very close to death because … her mother had a temper tantrum.

That made a lot of the officers tense up.

“And if I, her daughter, came this close to death, then how will you fare if her sights land on you? If you make a mistake? If you ever give the idea that you might not like the direction of the battle or her rule? Your reports go to her. What then?”

A few didn’t take the bait. But many did. They looked worried. They looked suspicious.

Was this a test? 

Was this a loyalty test? 

Were they being tested?

Was this real? 

Was the heir of the magistracy… possibly advocating and planning for a coup? 

“And even if she didn’t do this to you, do you think you can survive what is coming?” 

Her words about the future invasion of Canopus by the Capellans made them sweat a little. 

In every engagement, the Capellans have been dominating the skirmishes and battles. When they weren’t burning metal in the form of Firebees to take over planets, then their new heavy mechs and superior firepower melted their mechs. 

If the fight came to Canopus and the magistrix chose to fight…

Then they would die. 

“What do you propose, Miss Centrella?” someone asked. 

“... We must sue for peace,” she replied. “Even if it means handing over my mother to the Capellans.”

The officers all looked warily at each other … before a consensus began to form. 

“If your mother is no longer the magistrix…”

“Then I would be the magistrix,” Emma stated clearly. 

“... Very well,” Colonel Carter bowed. “How will you get us in for the coup, Magistrix Centrella?” 

She took a deep breath in and looked around. The rest of the officers looked uncertain for a moment before they all stood up with the colonel. 

“Then we don’t waste any time. The palace guards are light, so we will move tonight and arrest my mother.”

-VB-

Was she moving too fast?

Maybe. 

However, she didn’t know if all of the officers she invited for the coup conspiracy would remain loyal if she didn’t move quickly enough. The nerve of being part of the conspiracy would take some people to report the conspiracy as a way of saving their skin.

She could only trust half of the officers. Instead of allowing them to go out and about, she had them all inside their mechs with the power down. 

The 1st Canopian Cuirassiers were charged with preventing anyone from interfering and to capture the spaceport. 

The 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers moved in with her. 

Servants moved out of the way as they saw almost a hundred officers and soldiers marching through the corridors of the Magistrix’s Palace. 

She knew that this was more or less blatantly announcing what she was doing, but it was needed. She could not allow herself to get caught up in the intrigue and espionage of the Canopian courts. Right now in this hour of need, the Magistracy of Canopus needed a strong hand to deal with the problems it faced. 

And her mother was not that strong hand.

Even so, her mother probably didn’t get a warning, because when she barged into the Magistrix’s Throne Room, her mother was sitting at the head of the table. When she saw who entered and how, her mother’s face immediately changed.

“... Emma!” she hissed out her name like it was venom.

“Mother,” she replied as the officers and soldiers she brought with her quickly spread out, holding their rifles at the ready but not pointing them at anyone. A few of the soldiers and her mother’s personal guards drew their guns, but the result was clear as to what would happen if an actual firefight broke out. “You’ve done enough damage to the Magistracy of Canopus. It’s time you stepped down.”

“... No, you don’t get to come here and say that when you haven’t done anything!” her mother screamed. 

But it was also clear to everyone in the room that her mother was at her wit’s end and that this was the end of her rule. 

“Guards,” she spoke up not to her soldiers but the Magistrix’s personal guards. “I will forgive the fact that you drew your guns if you arrest my mother and take her to her room. She is no longer the magistrix of the Magistracy of Canopus.”

The guards looked wary, looking at each other and at her.

But when it was clear that this was close to a formality and that she wasn’t looking to purge the court…

One of them had a hand to their ear and obviously heard something because she grimaced. The blonde bombshell of a guard closed her eyes and holstered her weapon. And then gestured to the rest of the guards. 

They grimaced before they holstered their guns. 

Her mother whirled around, looking at her once loyal guards. “What are you doing?! Shoot them!” 

“Magistrix… no, Miss Centrella,” the one who looked like the captain of the guards sighed as her shoulders drooped. “We lost even before she entered the room. The 1st and 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers are holding the entire capital city and the spaceport under their control. The 1st and 3rd Canopian Light Horse surrendered to them, too, without firing a single shot. There’s no one who can come to help us.”

The former magistrix whirled to her before whirling back to glare at Emma.

There was real hate in her eyes. 

But also resignation. 

“I trusted you!” she hissed.

“You don’t try to kill someone you trust, mother,” she replied coldly but not unkindly. “You should have been more disciplined with your temper. Isn’t that how you also killed father? Take her away.”

The guards, disheartened, gently pushed her mother off of the throne and two platoons of her soldiers followed them out of the throne room and into the corridor to make sure there wasn’t an escape attempt. 

With a heavy sigh, she walked up to the throne and stared at it.

Then, after only a brief contemplation, she whirled around and sat down slowly. 

“All hail the Magistrix! Long may she reign!” Colonel Ericka Jones, her once commander, shouted.

Everyone who came with her quickly repeated her. “ALL HAIL THE MAGISTRIX! LONG MAY SHE REIGN!” They chanted that for a few times and the others who had been here to witness the coup chanted along toward the end.

She raised her hand, calling them to silence. 

They did.

“There will be no political purges or the like,” she spoke up. “I did this to save the magistracy, not for political gains.”

They all looked at her expectantly.

“... Call the Capellans. We will negotiate.”

-VB-

When I received the message, I raised an eyebrow. 

This was … actually opportune.

The current campaign in the magistracy was starting to strain the jumpship usage and the economy of the confederation, despite the new jumpships that were being produced. 

Hell, I didn’t even to resort to threatening them with the warship.

“Looks like someone’s not dumb as the dead,” I muttered as I looked over the correspondence. 

The new magistrix of the Magistracy of Canopus, Emma Centrella, had just reached out to me for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations to put an end to the foolish war that her mother started. 

I was more than happy to accept… but I could not be seen taking the deal so easily or so quickly. 

Which meant that I just had to do what Capellans were expected to do.

I gestured to one of my secretaries. The young and spry woman stepped up, dressed in a more 2000’s fashion twist to the Capellan attire. “Yes, sir?”

“Send a message to the HPG station. Tell them to contact the Magistracy of Canopus. I will agree to a ceasefire… but the negotiation, the Magistrix must present herself in my court on Sian.”