To Spearhead

[TennyoCeres84]

At what point did you realize you were fighting for something based on lies? How did you dissent and break away from Rendell and Elysium?

[IamLEAM1983]

"As much as I have been able to ascertain, my kind has no intrinsic genetic ties to the Japanese Fae. However, my fellow Red Chimeras and myself have always felt a profound attachment to the notion of honor. Whether it stemmed out of some ingrained tribalism harking back to our ancestors in Morgana's forests or something else altogether does not really matter. What matters is that for a time, Rendell was able to use this seemingly inured concept against us.

We were just, you were not. We were honorable and valued our comrades' deaths, while you tossed your own progeny and kinsmen to the front lines with no regard for potential losses. We were tactically refined, you were lucky to have developed tactical opportunities based on propulsion weapons. Those were the lies the maturation tanks fed us. We would claim our glory, and you would not care if you so much as died like dogs. You were sold to us as being unworthy.

For a time, this made you easy to hate. Disgustingly easy to kill, as well. Wartime, however, has a way of peeling back one's illusions.

It happened by degrees, I suppose. Flecks of doubt brought to my eyes and ears by soldiers running back to me with situation reports. Tales of mothers dying to protect their children, or fathers untrained in the use of weaponry suddenly becoming willing and able to cut through Father's chosen with the precision of desperation. Children awakening to their magic or their powers at the favor of a poignant loss my men had caused, and turning their fresh fury upon us. Those that had been described to me as subhuman showed themselves in their full glory, Gawain Machae's predecessor and the Lady Eirean raining death on an entire detachment on their own.

Soon, I heard of you kind mourning your dead, commending the fallen warriors that had protected you. I heard you agree to lay down your lives to protect what was yours. The savages with weaponry they did not deserve were no longer quite as savage, were they? All the while, Rendell kept speaking. Never acting, except whenever his twin broke through our defenses. Never defending us. Never singing our glory - no glory but his. We were but lambs being driven to the slaughter. Rendell hoped we would make quick work of you, or at least quickly enough to prevent the truth from reaching us. You saved us by lasting this long.

I began to use my position as field commander to advance on squadrons I knew to be particularly zealous, and terminated them myself, using your own weaponry to have it seem as though you had gunned my men down. It was not an honorable recourse, but I had little choice. I snuffed out countless teams that could have had the ability to turn the tide of battle back into Elysium's favor. Those who believed me followed. Once we were routed, my men and I merely put down our weapons and surrendered.

Your army took us in for questioning. Your courts believed us, and your morals asked that we repay our transgressions. Caliban's course was just; I was glad to carry out my sentence, so that I would better bury what Elysium had hoped to make of me.

My honour has been reclaimed, and I do good work. I kill still, but those I kill deserve it."