The Antipapal Crusade was brought to an end sixty-and-nine years ago, following the surrender of Ua-Menlir and subsequent forfeiture of his holdings. His accomplice, the Antipope Al-Arsim, was arrested a year later by the Church. The Lords of the Congregation convened with the Church to determine the False Warlord's sentence. Ua-Menlir was delivered twenty-and-one deaths and forevermore branded Heretic. Al-Arsim remains confined to her cathedral. The Warlord Nosi, despite the injustices he dealt during his rule, was permitted by the Congregation to hold his seat as Warlord until his term's expiration. He was forced by the Congregation to relinquish the territories acquired during his rule, and the Church declared Nosi the Last of his bloodline.
Now, Ugar quarrels with his brother-lord Zisuthra, seeking to make him appear no longer able to rule as Warlord. The Congregation nears another election period, and Zisuthra holds presently holds his brother-lords favor. However, that favor is waning and Warlord Zisuthra may not be able to earn a second term.
- - -
The Warlord leaned wearily on his hammer, shivering as his hundreds of heartbeats fell out of sync. Behind him, half a dozen of his most elite warriors made their way through the corpses of the enemy raiders, setting the remains alight. An engineer was working ahead of him, preparing a breaching charge.
When Ugar's raiding party was shunted into the system, Zisuthra was waiting. His retinue's destroyers quickly dealt with the raiding frigates and escort corvettes, battering their hulls with coilguns and disintegrating their structures with nukes. Within an hour, the Warlord's fleet shared its orbit with nothing but spall and charred organics. The only remnant of the raiding party was a pair of transport vessels, intended to board and ransack orbital stations. They fled the battle untouched, poorly armed and not nearly armored enough. Zisuthra had them pursued and captured unharmed. The first of the pair was already gutted, with the evidence of Zisuthra's presence spelled out clearly in the gore and debris behind him.
The engineer announced the charge as ready, and Zisuthra's bodyguards returned to formation immediately.
The Warlord hefted his hammer and braced his magboots on the wall behind him.
The engineer rumbled a prayer to one of the ninety-and-nine names of god.
The hull tore open. Zisuthra shoved off from the wall.
The din of battle erupted immediately as he flew through the threshold, slamming into a warrior who was still stunned from the blast. A few cannon rounds deflected off the Warlord's armor; one found a gap. Bellowing a war-hymn, Zisuthra latched his magboots to the floor and threw the warrior he struck down the corridor. He brought his off-hand up, turning to face the other end of the corridor as several bursts of cannon fire whistled by, bounced off, or went through him. His bodyguards followed through the breach, responding to the raiders' cannons with weapons of their own. Gyrojet rounds flew from their rifles and erupted in white flame some distance away, bringing a quick halt to the firefight.
Continuing his hymn, the Warlord floated down the corridor slowly, his retinue in tow. They encountered a few more pockets of resistance on their way to the main transport hold, but they were quickly dealt with. The hold itself would be occupied by dozens of warriors, far too many for a direct confrontation. Instead of breaching the hatches, the engineer welded them shut. Outside the vessel, another team of engineers was accomplishing the same task on the boarding tubes. The Warlord's party continued to the bridge.
- - -
Days later, the transport returned to Ugar's territory. Attached to it, its brother vessel. Ugar wisely had the vessels boarded by a recon team rather than committing to the task himself. Inside, they found a pair of survivors. One was a pilot in Ugar's navy, restrained and battered but alive. The other was the Warlord's navigator, driven insane and barely capable of holding cohesive form.
The holds were filled with asphyxiated corpses, the boarding tubes blown wide by explosive charges.
The pilot was brought before Lord Ugar himself, refusing to speak to anyone else except to declare he had a message from the Warlord.
"Coward."
Then the pilot swallowed an incendiary charge and died honorably.