The Offer 3D Render, Digital Artwork by RedSpartan

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The Offer

3D Render by RedSpartan

Continued on from 'Born Of War'

‘What happened next?’ Shaana quizzed, seemingly genuinely curious.

They had continued to walk as she spoke, and Mya noted that the water level was dropping slightly and the air was getting cooler the further away from the facility they travelled. The sewage pipe was beginning to feel a little claustrophobic, and a dank putrid smell was beginning to prevail. Years of use had inevitably infused the walls with the stink of human excrement and she inwardly shuddered at the thought, but the flowing water was still thankfully clean. The destroyed tanks must have held a considerable amount of liquid. She wondered again at what may have caused the explosion, especially at such a convenient moment. She glanced at Shanna, who was studying her intently. This conversation was probably the longest one she’d had with another person in years, she thought, and she felt a little sadness at that idea.
‘Turns out I attracted someone’s attention.’ She continued, searching her memories, trying to clear away the clutter in her mind to keep the conversation flowing. ‘I fought two more campaigns before they finally contacted me, both as brutal and horrific as Akashan. I quickly climbed the ranks and was a Captain when we eventually got some R & R and were sent back to Eliskia and Commonwealth headquarters.’ She remembered the beautiful blue skies and the gleaming towers of the capitol when they landed, glinting in the sun, the sound of the birds singing, the people, still not affected by the war out on the rim, laughing and playing in their illusory paradise. ‘I didn’t get much rest though. I received orders to report to the Military Intelligence Agency, itself a relatively new organization, and there to a sub department known as the Special Operations Division. I was shown in to what appeared to be a control room, but at that time devoid of any operatives except for a stern looking older man and a younger, attractive female.’

Her mind wondered for a moment, and when she regained her composure she found they had stopped walking and Shaana was looking at her with a slight grin on her face.

‘What?’ Mya asked, somewhat sheepishly.

Shaana shrugged and turned to continue walking. ‘I take it you were enamoured by this ‘female’’

‘What makes you say that?’ Mya growled, moving to follow.

‘Because your voice changed when you mentioned her. Your tone says it was a pleasant memory’

Mya smiled, she couldn’t help it, the girl was quite perceptive. ‘Yes. It was the first time I met Tali.’

Shaana remained silent at that, allowing her to elaborate further without interruption.

‘The man was Bryce, a Commander, battle scarred and quite a cold character. All business and no joy. Tali was his second and would be my main liaison with the Division. On the surface she appeared the same as her boss, but there was something about her that caught my attention immediately. That something would blossom and grow considerably over the next few months as I was trained in what they wanted me for.’

‘Which was?’ Shaana asked intently, (Get to the good stuff seemed to be her implication, enough with the gooey love story.)

Mya looked at her coldly, disgruntled that Shaana seemed disinterested with what was essentially the love of her life.

‘MIA had successfully implanted a number of operatives within Confederation space, particularly on the two central home worlds. They were gathering intelligence quite well, but were also identifying key players in the enemies military and social hierarchy. We began to get a better understanding of what made them tick, their idealistic and brutal motivations - why they hated us so fucking much.’

She paused for a moment. ‘And?’ Shaana said impatiently.

‘And a decision was made, to turn our backs on many of the fundamental principles of peace and harmony that were the cornerstones of our society. We would take the fight directly to them, straight to the heart of their communities and unleash the kind of hell they had subjected us to. They took something from us that day, and a cold dark shroud passed over us that would never be erased. The Commonwealth changed, and most of the population didn’t even know, but they’d have to live with its consequences for ever more.’

Mya stared intently at her companion, looked at the results of Confederation cruelty right there in the flesh, and it reaffirmed her conviction that the decision had ultimately been the correct one.

‘The Special Operations Division was essentially an organization devoted to instilling terror in the enemy, both its leaders and its general population. We couldn’t send armies deep into their territory, but we could send specially trained lone operatives, to remind the bastards that we weren’t as meek and pitiful as they seemed to think we were. When I said yes to their offer that beautiful sunny morning I sold my soul to the devil. I became a killer, without thought or conscience, an assassin and terrorist, no remorse, no mercy. I became an agent of bloody vengeance, and they would never know what hit them.’

Shaana had stopped once more and was again staring at her intently, but now with a slightly manic smile on her face that made Mya a little uncomfortable.

‘Sounds perfectly acceptable to me.’ she said, then turned and continued to walk towards the distant promise of daylight.

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Took a while to get this picture done, being side tracked with other stuff and the stifling heat of a half decent British summer making long periods at my computer more exhausting than usual being the main reasons.

I have to admit to a slight productive sin on this one in that I used Adobe's generative AI to help produce the background city. I'm not a great fan of AI in that, to me it takes much of the fun out of the creative process (and sadly AI images are now everywhere and for the most part they all look the bloody same, are incredibly boring and lack any sign of a creative soul), but to create a 3d cityscape with the tools and assets I possess was beyond me, especially with my limited time budget. In my defence I did enhance it a fair bit and added other stuff to it. Another benefit was that all I had to do was add it to a simple plane placed beyond the window and it gave me all the reflections I wanted on the shiny surfaces, which I felt were key in conveying the idea that the Commonwealth is a very crisp, clean and ultra modern society, as opposed to the Confederation, (which will be displayed in images that are coming up soon).

There shouldn't be such a long time lapse before the next pictures as they're already done and shouldn't require a long narrative to explain the story, which is the bit that tends to hold things up. It's starting to become a bit of a double edged sword deciding to write a story to accompany these pictures, but, in for a penny and all that...

Thanks as always for looking.