11th July 2012
15:57 GMT
Varnathon is… Plain-looking. Aside from a bronze-coloured cranial cybernetic on the right side of his forehead, I don't think I'd look at him twice if I passed him on the street. Kalmin is short and muscular, and glares at everything around him as if its existence offends him. Which it probably
does. Varnathon's calm and polite smile makes me think of an actor or a politician of the Tony Blair school. Though I will at least credit him with the intelligence to use empathic shielding, because I can't tell for
certain.
His flying head robots take up station just ahead of him as Kalmin reaches for his qwa bolt. The blue one stops just in front of Kalmin.
"Kalmin, High Weaponlord, deposed. Most notable projects-."
Illustres, kill it.
I trigger my armour's flight systems and lunge at the robot, grabbing it with both hands-
"Unknown automato-."
-and triggering my crumbler gauntlets. The flying blue head's protective energy fields preserve it for a few seconds, then the material of its construction begins to abrade. The facial armour peels away slowly, but the more vulnerable systems built into the rear vanish almost immediately. I shut down the crumbler effect when all I have in my hands is a scoured mask, which I toss at Kalmin's feet before returning to my corner.
Varnathon holds his breath as he looks at the broken mask, then takes a deep breath before putting the same smile as before back onto his face.
"Strategos wasn't a battle automaton. And frankly, aren't we both a little old for 'robot wars'?" He shrugs, and smiles condescendingly. "Though if you want to give me a few days I'm sure I can come up with
something?"
"
Qwa matter, Varnathon.
Explain yourself!"
"I'm really not sure that I understand your problem, Kalmin." Varnathon looks upwards at the Councillors. "Does the Anti-Monitor himself not command us to destroy all with his gifts? Yes, I freely admit that I sold qwa matter and qwa energy based weaponry to these... Aliens. What of it? The secrets of its utilisation and creation remain ours. All they can do is use what I've provided them. And consider who they're fighting! A new Lantern Corps, sworn to the Maltusians, the very people who cast down the Anti-Monitor! I am only
surprised that a man as
faithful as Kalmin does not see the glory of it."
He stops, swivelling on the spot to stare directly at Kalmin.
"Oh! But of course! He
joined them, didn't he?"
The green floating head that had hung back turns upwards and fires a small bolt of plasma at Kalmin's projector before projecting its own hologram of our meeting with Kalmin.
I wonder where he got the recording from? I mean, it would make sense for him to keep his predecessor under observation, but I doubt that Kalmin would be so negligent as to fail to check for things like that. Ex… Cept that he wanted to die and thought that Varnathon should kill him. So he might have left an opening deliberately.
Kalmin raises his hands slightly.
"Do you see a ring here, Varnathon? I've studied power ring technology for years. I don't use other people's weapons. And besides, I've already been cast down. I don't dispute that I'm unsuitable for office."
"If I
must defend my actions, I've been trading qwa matter to better enable aliens to destroy one another. I think that we've long been too conservative in our use of the substance and I'm perfectly within my authority as High Weaponlord to make this change." He looks up again. "Unless anyone wants to dispute
my right to trade the products of my own labour?"
"
Destroy one another? They are using it as simply another weapon!"
"And so do
we. That's literally all it can be used to do: destroy things."
Kalmin's face falls slightly and he stares directly at Varnathon.
"That's all it is to you?"
"That's all it is to
any of us." Varnathon doesn't appear to pay any attention to the change in Kalmin's demeanour, continuing to focus on the crowd. "We can forge it into bolts to be thrown. We can bind small amounts to blades to create melee weapons of astonishing power. But that's
it. We don't… What? Mine with it? Drill with it? Use it as a scouring agent to clean the floors? No, the idea is absurd. I put it in alien hands. And by doing so I gained a new flow of raw materials and novel technologies, and an in with another enemy of the Green Lantern Corps."
"You-? Varnathon, are you able to forge bolts yourself?"
He stops and looks at Kalmin, but he's not letting himself get angry or look anything other than totally confident in the situation.
"I didn't realise you were challenging me on the strength of my ability to perform apprentice work. I have admitted to trading qwa matter. If the Council think that's worth overthrowing me over, they can. As for the educational curriculum, I freely admit to having different priorities than my predecessors." He makes an exaggerated shrug. "So what? Just about every High Weaponlord before me has made some change or other. I believe -and Thunderlord Brikan agrees- that discipline and obedience are more useful traits in Thunderers than personal ferocity and initiative. If anyone here disagrees then I'm willing to discuss it with them, but I hardly see that as a justification for these…
Histrionics. Now if there's nothing else, I have work-."
Kalmin summons qwa energy, and over the next ten seconds forms it into a qwa bolt.
"The ability to manipulate qwa energy is what separates us from alien chattel. It is a sign that the Anti-Monitor has marked us out. The idea that you can manipulate qwa energy sickens me, but you have the rank of Weaponer. You must be able to. The Anti-Monitor must at some point have considered you worthy of his blessing."
Kalmin holds out his newly created bolt slightly, inviting the audience to check it.
"Make a qwa bolt, Varnathon."
"Kalmin, you've lost. This is-."
"Make a qwa bolt, Varnathon."
"This is mildly insulting and also quite sad." Varnathon shakes his head. "Where do you think I got the qwa matter I traded to the Reach?"
Weaponer Lysis steps away from the wall a little way.
"Make a qwa bolt, Varnathon."
"Make a qwa bolt, Varnathon."
Varnathon shakes his head and spreads his arms. "Councillors,
really?"
A few frowns, a few nods.
He sighs theatrically. "Very well, then." He holds out his hands in front of him. "I freely admit that it's not my strongest skill, but…" He turns his hands palms up and curls his fingers slightly in a gripping motion. "As you can see…" Faint wisps of energy appear between his fingers. "I'm
perfectly capable…" It's still weak, but it's getting stronger, flowing outwards into the form of the traditional qwa bolt. "Of forging a qwa bolt. See?"
Kalmin doesn't look impressed.
"Robot."
"Directive, Weaponer?
"
"Come here."
I walk up to him and he holds out the bolt he just forged.
"Take this."
Inside my armour I put up the strongest construct shields between my right arm and my brain that I can before reaching out with my right hand and taking it from him. There's a faint… I can only describe it as a humming sensation, but it otherwise handles like a solid object of its apparent dimensions.
"Further directive, Weaponer?
"
"Go and stand in the corner."
"Compliance.
"
I walk backwards until I reach the edge of the room. Kalmin nods, then returns his attention to Varnathon.
"You see, Varnathon, that's how it's supposed to work. I admit, after I was deposed, I spent a good deal of time working on my skill at qwa energy manipulation. I might not be the most skilled here, but I am very good. I don't expect you to be as good as me. But I do expect you to be able to forge a
single bolt. And if that's your bolt, why not deactivate your personal forge and show us?"
