Hopefully you caught Monday's feature for Topher's popular 2nd novel in the Falcon Banner series. If not, check it out! For such a long story, I thought there would need to be a nice long glimpse at Darien and his mission... but will he be playing right into his enemies' hands? 

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For the past six months the Excalibur had been undergoing repairs, after being beaten into something nearly unrecognisable by the trials at Arcanis and Taïr, and battling pirates in the far reaches of the former Commonwealth, chasing them up and down the Gorean border. It was better than the task of administering the newly formed Royal Navy. He was technically its most senior Captain, his commission being signed first by Walker before there was even a thought about reforming the Imperial Empire, but the fact that he was a Highlord meant that he wasn't tied to a desk pushing papers.

He hated the bureaucracy, the endless meetings, and the strategic planning. After the Empire had secured the Haligonian Jump Nexus and forged its beachhead, the Amsus forces had fallen back to their entrenched secondary defensive positions, throwing the bulk of their fleet into halting the Imperial advance. The grand invasion had stalled, and two years of bitter fighting had produced nothing more than a few captured systems.

Darien stopped by the window, looking down at the snow-covered rooftops of Karin City, a sprawling metropolis in the heart of what had been a backwater region, back before the Empire fell. It was a bustling city, filled with life, but held firmly in a war mentality. They had become used to the endless casualty reports, the new Imperial academies churning out fresh-eyed recruits to send to the front to serve in the Navy or under the intrepid General Iver, the Supreme Allied Commander overseeing the Imperial Armies. More meat for the grinder; it always seemed that the bodies returning from the front outnumbered those being sent to it.

Darien knew that he desperately craved being out there as well, craved feeling the ship under his feet as he actually did what he was asking so many people to do for him. He wanted to walk the decks of his ship, to make a real difference.

Excalibur was his ship; she wore VonGrippen's Striking Falcons on her hull. While the other ships recovered from the lost Imperial fleet were pressed into service under the von Karin banner, his ship remained independent, the Empire's only Command Carrier. She could provide the much needed fighter support to the embattled forces entrenched on the front.

Walker never stood on ceremony. He was wearing his customary roguish grin as he entered the small waiting room, leaning forward to shake Darien's hand firmly. "Darien," the Leader of the Empire said, greeting him with a simple nod.

"Walker," Darien replied, smiling and feeling awkward in the full dress uniform. On a world dominated by Yellow-trimmed Karin uniforms or the royal Blue of House Kardiac, the red was rare enough to catch the eye. It marked him and his crew and made them stand out. Heroes to the people who knew what wearing red entailed.

Walker smiled warmly looking about the room, "I thought you were bringing that young man of yours, after all this time I was looking forward to meeting him."

"He's around," Darien said, frowning as he looked towards the door, wondering where Elias was. The engineer had complained about needing to find a washroom, and - typically - had disappeared without a trace.

Walker smiled, looking up at a couple of members of his entourage standing uncertainly in the doorway, hoping to catch five seconds of his attention and draw him back to matters of state. "They seem adamant that I have to meet with the Gorean ambassador at this dinner, and I'm hoping to convince the Senate finance committee..." He smiled again catching Darien's arm and guiding him over to the large windows. "For the love of god, what did you get me into?"

Darien chuckled as he leaned against the masonry framing the window, shaking his head. "Sometimes I wonder that myself," he murmured, pausing to look back at his friend, sighing as he realized how much they both hated the roles they had found themselves in. "You need me on the front," he said firmly, "Not running around the back water systems playing police officer."

"I agree," Walker said, folding his arms and keeping his back turned to the entourage so that they wouldn't hear the conversation, "However, General Iver wants you as far away from 'his fight' as possible."

"General Iver's just worried I'm going to show him up." Darien retorted, "I'm not in this for personal glory, Walker..."

"I know that, Darien," Walker murmured softly, "However, you do have a tendency to manage the impossible... stealing a Jump Nexus out from under the Amsus noses to name but one." He shook his head. "General Iver commands a lot of Senatorial support, he's popular with the men, and I can't risk losing him over a perceived slight. If I send you to the front, I'd have to place you under his command, which means you'd be supporting ground operations and guarding troop transports. You're no good to the Empire there."

"And keeping me here is?" Darien pressed, shaking his head.

"No," Walker admitted truthfully, "I can't justify that either. What we should do is send you back behind enemy lines where you can do as much damage as you can, weaken their lines, supply routes and morale... anything to allow our forces to punch through their defences."

"Then I am going to go," Darien said nodding as he folded his arms, "I have an independent command, Excalibur belongs to my House, to hell with what Iver thinks." He shook his head, "It's better than simply sitting here with a perfectly good ship and an experienced crew..." He shook his head.

"I know," Walker said reluctantly as he rested his hands on the window sill and peered into the gloomy skies over Karin, "There's only one way that's going to happen. If I release you from Naval service, then neither the Senate nor Iver can stop you from doing what you need to do."

Darien folded his arms, looking out as well; they both knew that the rank was meaningless. He was a Highlord; he could be a lieutenant and still wield more power than an Admiral. It was just a way for Iver and the Senate to keep a reign on Darien. "All right." He said after a long pause.

Walker inclined his head. "You do better on your own, free of this bureaucracy anyway, you aren't a Karin officer, you shouldn't be expected to follow rank and file. Just, for god's sake, don't rub Iver's nose in it."

They both smiled, knowing that the eccentric General would have a fit if the Excalibur were to return to the front under the command of a Highlord. But both men realized that a protracted war accomplished nothing but to grind down the Senatorial resolve.

Walker shook his head with a tight smile. "You're on independent duty, the Excalibur is your ship..." he nodded, "clear the road to Earth."

 

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