Debauchery BioTech 13 (Patreon)

Commissioned

Debauchery BioTech

Chapter 13

-VB-

Summer, Federation of Skye, LC

An impossibility.

Even weeks and months after the Priesthood’s conquest of Radstadt, the Inner Sphere continued to reel back in horror. 

Magic? Spirits? Souls? 

In the Lyran Commonwealth, the Priesthood of Kalmaktama were treated with a hesitant reverence. The people didn’t know what to feel about them but the Priesthood struck a blow so powerful against the Draconis Combine. Such an act alone was worth giving them some respect, even in the eyes of casual believers of other faiths. 

For the fundamentalists across all walks of life, however, the Priesthood was an infection growing in the heart of the empire. 

Christian fundamentalists saw a clearly cultish religion who worshipped the idea of a man being able to become a god antithetical to Christian values. They weren’t wrong, of course. To attempt to become a god was to reject ties with God, and there was nothing more heretical to Christians than rejecting God knowing that God exists and he loves you. 

Lyran fundamentalists hated the idea that there were former Combine citizens who now had the ears of the Archon and the court. They hated that the cultists took advantage of the Commonwealth’s hospitality and didn’t pay back when it was their time to return the favor. 

The oddest of them … were the battlemech fundamentalists. They saw the ease of which battlemechs were swept aside. They saw the rules of warfare change utterly and irrevocably where the Priesthood treaded. 

So what was Aldo Lestrade going to do about this?

He knew that this was perhaps both the worst and the best time for him to gain new allies. 

It was the best time because he was never going to get an opportunity like this one to cast as wide of a net to gain as many political allies. 

It was also the worst time because this fracture came just after his cousin showed just how powerful of an ally she had in this “Priesthood of Kalmaktama.” What was worse was that for the religious fundamentalists, they were in a state of vindictive panic. 

Vindicated in the very fact that religions not only had a future but that their beliefs had not been wasted for thousands of years. 

Panic because there was now a religion - a cult - that could offer a tangible and spiritual power in one while they themselves had nothing to show for it. In a way, the existence of a spiritual power in someone else but not in theirs could serve as a basis for their religion being false. Again, panic.

And when panicked and fueled by false courage and bravery wrought by vindication, they become … impulsive.

There was no way to reach the Priesthood, however. Worlds that had the Priesthood didn’t want to hurt them and those on worlds beyond the Priesthood had no way to reach them in a reasonable timeframe and in a manner that would give them any sort of military advantage. 

Because they were going to be violent about their insecurities. 

Because people did people things and being violent when proven wrong was what people did. 

And Aldo Lestrade knew that he could use this. 

“People of the Skye Federation, listen!” he demanded with all of the charisma and authority he could muster into this one radio. He intentionally made this a radio announcement because he knew that he wasn’t the most imposing man in person. “I am your duke, Aldo Lestrade of Summer!” He wasn’t the only duke of the Federation of Skye, but did it matter? “I know that you are afraid. Things that most of us have often left to sermons and fantasies have come true! They now threaten us with uncertainties and worries that we didn’t need!” Now, to mix in a bit of the truth with the lies. “But right now, if we turn on each other - other people who are also of the Federation of Skye, then we do not serve ourselves but others who would see us in ruins! The Combine! The League! And perhaps others within the Lyran Commonwealth who see us as nothing more than a buffer zone against the other Great Houses and seek to extract wealth from us! It is in times like these that we must see and know who our true neighbors are! Do not attack them for violence is not the way forward within the Lyran Commonwealth, but make note of them! Make sure your neighbors know of them. Foreigners who display un-Lyran way of life! Who refuse to adopt the Lyran identity! Prepare yourselves not against other Skyians but against those cultists who deny God with their dabbling of magic and souls! So that when their inevitable treachery comes, we can rise up as Lyrans and repel them! Find ways to deny their magic! Find ways to break their biomechs! Science and reason is the way forward… and how a Skyian should think, even when the rest of the Lyran Commonwealth does not…!” 

Was it a little heavy handed? 

Aldo liked to think that it was very heavy handed, but in this uncertain era, he needed that heavy handed to get through people who were … particularly dumb. Yes, those exact people with disdain at anyone who didn’t believe what they believed, didn’t think what they thought, and didn’t wear the same colors they wore. 

Those stupid sheep who thought he made that speech to unite them when all he wanted out of this was to alienate them from the rest of the Lyran Commonwealth. Oh, he mixed in a few Lyran here and a few Lyran there, but when it came down to it, his message was about the people of Skye banding together to push out all others who weren’t like them.

Even if that meant pushing out other Lyrans. 

-VB-

Zdice, District of Donegal, LC

“Eh? Skye is getting more radical, huh?” 

“I know, right?” Michelle agreed with a sigh. She fled the Draconis Combine because of how unaccepting it was, and now, it seemed like it was happening here in the Lyran Commonwealth, too. “Glad we’re here in Zdice, though. Nothing much happens in Donegal.”

Maybe it was foolish of her to not go back to Rase

Her ride thumped underneath her as it took a step forward, and she ignored the ever present sound of crunching wood. 

Though she was born in the Draconis Combine and inducted into the … Priesthood, Michelle considered herself a Lyran now. It was a better way of life. A better way of thought. Lyrans didn’t force people to do things a certain way at gun point. As long as they didn’t harm anyone, followed reasonable laws, and didn’t collude with the enemies of the state, the Archon and the top tier of the Lyran government and military generally left her and her people alone! 

Then she saw a boxhead pterodactyl swoop down and land behind her on her Wood Muncher. A man got off of the living kite while wearing both the emblem of the Priesthood and the attire of a particularly padded pilot. 

“Orin Michelle?” he asked. 

“Yes, that is me,” she said in surprise. 

“A letter for you. From Radstadt,” he said, though the way he woodenly moved after seeing where it came from… “It says it’s from your brother.”

She sighed as she accepted the letter.

… He had tried to help her in his own limited ways. He never looked down on her for joining the Priesthood. 

Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.

-VB-

“You do not feel threatened?” a journalist asked her.

They were in her office within the Triad on Tharkad. 

Yes, she had a office directly inside the Triad, though it wasn’t at any of the truly opulent locations. This actually served her better.

Zend Karstein shrugged from her seat across from the journalist. “It’s hard to feel threatened when I know I have a god on my side.”

The young man asking her the question fidgeted. 

Ah, yes. Matters of theology. Like with every generation, matters of faith discomforted the youth who hadn’t grown out of their “physical” phase of life. To them, love was a kiss. An embrace. Perhaps even sex, if they were particularly dim witted. And just as they didn’t understand that love was both deeper and far more varied than what they knew, matters of theology and faith unnerved them because they simply didn’t understand. 

Hell, it was hard for her to grasp the full theological implication of her own reaffirmed faith, never mind one that was as old and respected as Christianity. 

“You refer to your leader as a god…?”

She laughed.

He looked offended by her laughter. 

Why wouldn’t she laugh at him? He had eyes but could not see. He had a head but could not think. 

“What is a god, child?” 

“C-Child?”

“I am over sixty years old,” she chuckled, which made him freeze. “So yes, you are a child. But do answer my question. What is a god?” 

“A god is …” he trailed off. 

She smiled. 

“You do not think about the divinity or the faith much, do you?” 

He scowled. 

“Then allow me to answer my question. A god is simply a being that stands above humanity. A god is a being whose morality and perception shapes the world around them simply because they exist, not because they work to make their vision true. My leader, as you put it, is a god, because all it takes for him to enact change is to see and want the change. And it will happen.”

“... Then why aren’t we all worshipping him? Don’t gods want worship?”

“Silly child,” she chuckled again. “Humans want worship. That’s what they expect from their superiors and leaders. Allow me to tell you something. A secret, if you will.”

She leaned in, and he did, too, drawn in by her words. 

“Most gods don’t care about us. Do you care about the ant whose voice you cannot hear?”

-VB-

A/N: last chapter of the “faith” mini-arc. After this, we’re going back to more regular BT stuff.