Legends of Galactic Heroes - The Sleeping Dragon

Chapter 18

Admiral Yang Wen-Li captured the impregnable Iserlohn Fortress without spilling a single drop of allied blood. The military victory then and would form into a narcotic. The bloodless capture of it produced a sweet intoxication which engulfed the hearts of the Free Planets Alliance. Almost immediately and possibly overnight, the public began greedily seeking total victory.

"I was naive, too. I thought that if we won Iserlohn, the desire of war would recede." Says the Commander-in-Chief and Fleet Admiral Sithole as Yang would quip up. "Your Excellency, the invasion into Imperial Territory hasn't been decided yet."

"Of course not. Just getting any firm decision is hard. But it's not for us to decide. That's for the politicians." Says Sithole as he knows how bad it goes when they make the decisions for the military.

"I'm not happy trusting our fate to that lot, are you?" Asks Cazerne as Harrow gives his answer, "no, I do not." The cars immediate stop as does the rest of the heavy traffic on the road.

Yang gets out and sees a police officer he calls for him but the officer was surprised to see him. "Well, well. Aren't you Admiral Yang? Imagine meeting you in a place like this. This is unusually..." but Yang beats the punch. "Uh, yeah. So, why is everyone stopped?" He asks as he sees the name tag for the officer: Goodman. 'Officer Goodman. What a fitting name.' Yang thought. "Well, the control center's computer is down."

"The computer's down?" He asks as the officer gives him as to why. "No, it's not the hardware. Someone probably fed it some bad input." Sithole, Cazerne, and Harrow exit the vehicle. "How soon will it be restored?" Asks sithole.

"Sir, it will be another 4 hours." Says the responding officer. "4 hours? Then we'll be late for the staff meeting." But Cazerne had an idea. "How about this, there's a public park just past here. We could get either a helicopter or the famed Rotodyne sent there."

"Indeed. Good idea. You, please arrange it at once." Orders Sithole as the officer runs to call either one in.

All four close the doors of the car and they start walking down the highway and run into someone they weren't expecting to meet this day.

"At this rate, I'll be late for the council. I'll be absent. All this is because of you didn't get me there earlier." The man says as Sithole walks up to him.

"Still a late riser." Says Sithole as the man turns around and for the ogher three they were surprised to meet João Rebello: Secretary of the Treasury of the Alliance and the one who runs the money. He is not only just friends with Sithole but also got along well with Huang Rui: Secretary of Human Resources. All three of them being good men incase if the Alliance goes to absolute shit.

"Well if it isn't the great warrior. What are you doing here? Taking a walk?" He asks to the Commander in chief.

"It's too bad I'm not a person of leisure."

"Me, either. I'm so busy my head spins. Generally, you soldiers are impossible. You took 500,000 prisoners at Iserlohn. Couldn't you just finish the matter cleanly? Where will we raise the funds to support them?" Says Rebello as the other three (Harrow, Yang, and Cazerne) trying to hold in their laughter.

"Then you're just suggesting we should've just killed the prisoners?" Sithole asks, "of course not. This is a democracy. We can't do anything that barbaric." Says Rebello being quick to the answer. As they were about to continue Cazerne and Yang heard the sound of a Rotodyne.*

"Admiral, our ride has arrived." Cazerne says as sithole looks up and walks to the secretary. "Rebello, don't be angry. Come with us."

"Where to?" He asks.