Summary of the Arc

SUMMARY: Arc V.5: A Game of Fates
La Terre was invaded by a man who called himself simply Savant. Armed with superior numbers and forces, he conquered the planet in mere minutes. An attempt on his life even failed, hinting at supernatural forces surrounding the newly and self-appointed leader of New Paris. In the weeks that followed, he solidified his position with extreme shows of power as punishment for insurrection.

A smuggling vessel known as the Faux was contacted by Barlov, a man who had in the past made use of their services. He offered warnings about the situation on La Terre and gave their captain a simple location in the middle of nowhere. Once there, the Faux encountered a group of beings who claimed to be observers of all things, in all planes of existence. It seemed one of their own had broken their covenant never to interfere and had helped Savant obtain great amounts of power. They asked the Faux to stop him and explained how to proceed.

The New Luna Militia also encountered the Azure, a vessel that claimed to have been attacked and was carrying Savant's pregnant wife to him. After some days of interrogation, the crew of the Azure was returned to La Terre.

During the period that followed, Savant put a call out for ships to come under his service, one which only the Faux itself answered. Under his employment, the once-smuggling ship undertook several diplomatic missions, some of which succeeded and most of which failed. Their last assignment saw them to Sivad where, unknown to them, the Zangali Urfkgar (who had been sent aboard with them by Savant) bombed the Victory Week parade, killing scores of men, women and children.

The day of reckoning finally came. General Savant began preparations for a ritual that would make his inhuman powers absolute. The Faux, in the meantime, passed through a gateway that put them in contact with a second version of Savant, one which needed to die before the one currently occupying La Terre could do so as well.

It seems that, in the words of the Observers, there was once a single act of Creation which ran like the current of a river in a single direction. This line was called Existence. Somewhere along that line, at one point or another, those with the natural ability to shape the course of that flow were born. They were called Crafters. They had no special powers, but simply the ability to affect events directly or indirectly. Such alterations, like a rock that falls on the river, split the flow of Existence in two. It was so that the fabric of Creation was branched into many different realities. Savant, who had come from one reality where La Terre had been a powerful world with great technology which had corrupted itself to near extinction, procured from the rogue Observer the power to infiltrate a different reality -- ours. This power did not come without a price, though, for it rightfully belonged to another and as such, that other would need to be put to death in order to seal the pact.

Beyond the gateway, the Faux found the barren remains of what had once been the New Paris landing pad. Now torn and destroyed, it played host only to various beds with lifeless bodies in them -- the bodies of those who had sacrificed their life in order to fuel the journey of the few who traveled with Savant to the other side. There, also, they found an older version of the General, for in order to maintain the link, Savant had been split in two.

Meanwhile, a cloud of cosmic dust which had mysteriously appeared near La Terre set off on a course for Sivad. Electromagnetic emissions made it impossible to trace. Hidden within where hundreds of vessels from Savant's fleet who would use the advantage to once and for all overtake the Imperialist Monarchy.

In the real version of the New Paris landing pad, Savant had set a pedestal of stone where the person whose death would make his power absolute would be put to death: his own newborn son, the true heir to the power the General now wielded.

Simultaneously, the Faux crew heard the alternate Savant's story and decided to end it once and for all.

While the alternate Savant was being shot, the one in our reality began to feel a decrease in his power. As the alternate version was destroyed by the Faux crew, so was the one from ours shot by Jack Wiendrbac, thus severing the link and finally killing General Savant in both realities. Once dead, all his soldiers vanished. In the chaos that followed, his wife and his baby boy also disappeared, though not in the same fashion.

The HMS Indefatigable, rendered helpless by the electromagnetic fields (which did not seem to affect the invading force), was made to witness the approaching cloud. Yet luck was on their side as the death of both Savants destroyed the cloud, leaving no trace of even the assailing vessels.

Eventually, La Terre recovered and order was once more restored.