The Viscount is in the House

As Jopar walked through the opulent halls of the Opal Palace, the grandeur of it all was lost on him. The Viscount was dressed in his best three-piece suit rather than the formal robes he might sometimes wear, due in part to being summoned on such short notice. He was spinning a pair of metal stress balls in one hand, and not too happy to be here. He wasn't angry with Ceres, but the Muardu invasion had left scars on him, both physically and emotionally, and they had yet to fully heal. His only regret in the matter is that there weren't more of those bastards to kill. His attitude was noticeably darker than it had once been. In place of the man who had once been chipper and upbeat, there was and nobleman whose anger simmered just beneath the surface, waiting for the chance to break loose.

His finely shined black shoes made a small squeak on the white marble floor of the palace hallway as he turned sharply, moving down another hall. Past grand statues and paintings framed with gold, doors of the finest woods, and high vaulted ceiling, Jopar grumbled to himself. The Empire was still reeling from the devastation and he knew there would be many who would see this as a chance to gain an advantage and exploit others. He just hoped someone would try to do that with House Tanaka... just one excuse, it was all he would need. Knowing they wouldn't be allowed inside the audience chamber, Jopar tossed the stress balls to one of the Sardaukar guards standing outside. They were caught with a swift motion, and he never broke stride.

The floor was shined to the point that Jopar could see his own reflection as he approached the throne, and he looked around at the other nobles who were so puffed up, he considered jabbing a few of them with a needle to see if they popped. Stopping at the appropriate distance. He stood tall, without looking Ceres in the eyes, offered a perfunctory bow, then noticed a Harkonnen delegate nearby and gave them a dirty look while waiting to be spoken to. It was followed by a smile that was anything but friendly.

Although it was unusual, Jopar looked Ceres in the eyes. For a time that was all he did, looking at him with a cold intensity. There was a lot going through the Viscount's mind, he knew this day would eventually come if he survived the battles that were now past. He'd been the Siridar of Arrakis, the single most important planet in the whole Empire, and he'd walked away from it without so much as a goodbye. Rather than answer with words, he took out a small palm sized holo-imager, having been cleared during inspection, and tapped at it a few times with his finger. It caused a spray of light to climb upward, like fingers reaching toward the ceiling, then they formed a sphere. As the image took shape, all there could see it was planet, seemingly a blue green beauty.

“During my brief tenure as the Siridar of Arrakis, I had this growing feeling that something was wrong, and for a time I ignored it, thinking it the stress of the job. But one night, I woke up in a cold sweat. I didn't know why, but that feeling had grown far worse. Something so terrible that I could feel it in my bones. I didn't know what, or why, but I knew where.

The feeling drew me to a planet beyond the rim of explored space. To this planet to be precise. The local population called it Tarsonis, and it was here that I found the Muardu. It wasn't just a few battalions, or even legions. It was a full scale invasion force, intent on striking deep into the heart of Imperial Space. And so, I did the only thing I could.”

Tapping a few more buttons the image changed to a rectangular window, like a viewing screen. From there it displayed some of the recorded data from the battle in space. Showing the Tanaka and Muardu fleets tearing each other apart in space. Entire ships erupting in brilliant balls of fire, and weapons firing from every imaginable direction, the drop pods being launched toward the surface of the planet, some being shot down before they ever made landfall.

Then the image changed again. This time it was shaking, like someone recording while trying to keep out of the battle playing out before them. There were Tanaka soldiers fighting the Muardu in the streets of a city. The sound of battle could be heard as gunfire erupted, blades clashed, and men screamed as they died. It looked like someone out of one of the worst war movies one could imagine, and yet Jopar watched it without any sort of expression at all. Then he began to speak, but in a manner as if he were remembering much of this from personal experience.

“They fought like animals... they were animals, and we slaughtered them as such. There were enough bodies to stack like wood... and the pyres... the pyres lasted for days. It took us years to drive them off the planet. So long that I began to draft and train the local population, who hated the Muardu almost as much as we did. Blood, steel, and death... day, after day, after day. There were times it seemed as if it would never end...” Jopar blinked after that and seemed to come back to the present. Then looked to Ceres, waiting to see how he would respond.

Jopar remained silent as the Emperor spoke about events both past and present, and maintained eye contact, but he was only partially listening. His mind was focused enough on the matter at hand to understand what was being said. He was being thanked for helping to destroy the rest of the Muardu invasion, and being reprimanded for abandoning Arrakis without any word being given to the Imperial House about the matter. This was about as he expected, the demotion in title and the restoration of his status as a Great House was something that Jopar could accept. It could have been a lot worse than it was. The images of the battlefields of Tarsonis continued to replay in his mind, over and over.

“What say you, Excellency?” Ceres said. Jopar offered a small nod, then stopped, the memory of gunfire and screaming soldiers echoed through his mind. The court scribe, just out of view, dropped the pen he was using to write down everything that was said. As he scribbled in shorthand that would be written out later, the pen slipped and fell to the floor with a tiny clatter. Before even realizing what he was doing, Jopar's eyes darted in that direction, and he reached for a hip holster that wasn't there. Seemingly realizing what he was doing, the Viscount stopped, clenched his hand into fist, then relaxed. He looked back to Ceres with a small nod, then followed the Emperor into the office to speak further on private matters.

The psychology of the office set-up wasn't lost on Jopar either. His chair was smaller and set slightly lower than the one the Emperor would sit in. It was enough to make him laugh... almost. Right now Jopar was curious what there was to talk about that needed privacy. Seated in his chair at a table with one leg crossed, the man's hand moved in a fashion similar to the way it would were the stress balls present. It seemed more an unconscious motion than anything else. Jopar quietly watched Ceres, seemingly taking stock of the man, and what he was about. Remembering the forms however, he decided to wait to be spoken to before doing the same.