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Dark Lord Substitute

Chapter 3

By Draconicon

It didn't take Data long to compile the information that Bertram needed. As soon as it was ready, he ordered the assistant to display it. It came through as a hologram, something that could be tapped here and there for extra information, almost like a floating wiki in front of him.

Of course, a floating wiki didn't come with models that were displayed in 3D, and when it came to models of known star systems, that helped a great deal.

"Data, what's this?" he asked, pointing to the blacked-out part of space.

"As defined by your gesture, 'this' is the territory currently held by the Dark Lord of the Void, or, in more colloquial speak, this is your territory."

"And why is it blacked out?"

"It is the current designator for what you have."

"Unblack it."

"Please choose: White-out, Purple-out, Blue-out -"

"Do you have a transparency option?"

"Yes. It is currently set to 0%."

"Well, turn that to 100%."

"Processing." The black faded from that chunk of the star map, leaving him with only a black border on the edges to show what was still outside of it. "Done."

"Thank you, Data," the ram muttered, leaning down and looking at what he had.

The answer was, not much. Despite the army that he'd seen, and the fact that the Twist siblings were generals in it, there wasn't much actual manpower behind him just yet. This planet - which he assumed was the one that had an arrow over it - was the most recently conquered one, at least if the dates above the different spheres meant the dates that they joined his cause, but that was one planet, one of - he counted quickly - eight different habitable worlds across six different star systems. Not that much compared to what the rest of the universe had.

He turned his attention to that part, which, well, was probably a good twenty times bigger. At the very least, there seemed to be far more habitable planets on that side of the universe, and there were quite a few more different symbols that he didn't understand.

"Data, group the different members of the Federation under different colors. One different color for each separate over-government."

"Processing."

The other parts of the universe slowly coalesced together, forming eight different major governments. Not quite as many as he had expected, but more than sufficient for any two of them to smash him. His army outnumbered any of them individually, but if he didn't do something about that fast, then he was going to lose out in raw numbers.

At least, if he was reading the map right.

"Data. Set to red-out for Federation space, adjusting transparency for number of troops available to each over-government."

"Processing."

That was a little bit better. The ones bordering him were all weaker than him, and looked to hold no more than 15% of the total military force of the entire Federation. That said, tempting as that was, it was something of a trap, and he knew it.

The moment that I strike at that border, they'll be able to start luring me out, forcing me to move faster and faster so that they don't get to fortifications. That would stretch out supply lines, and that would leave me vulnerable to them snapping around, cutting the supply lines and then hammering me between two forces...

He wasn't exactly an expert on military theory or history, but he could see the problem that presented. As easy as it would be to punch a hole in that space, it'd be a hole that he and his forces would get stuck in.

Tapping the display, he brought the text of the previous war back up. He scrolled through it to the opening moves that each side had made, and -

Yep. That was exactly what had happened. They had lured the previous Dark Lord of the Void into a trap through nearly-undefended space, and then when he had stretched his army out too far in pursuit of the small force in that galaxy, they slammed down the walls of reinforcements behind him. A valiant fight, but one that had gone down as a defeat for the previous Dark Lord.

And one of the quicker ones to be defeated, too, he thought, flicking through the history. In fact, that one was an utter moron compared to some of the others.

Admittedly, none of the Dark Lords got very far. He was sitting on the edge of 'civilized' space, meaning that he had the equivalent of sub-par Vikings striking against the continent. He might get pretty far through brute savagery, but unless he had brilliant tactics, he was doomed to failure. He was almost doomed as it was, but Bertram was desperate to find a way forward, something, anything that might not have been tried before.

He tapped away from the text again, looking down at the galactic map. Zooming out until he was able to hold the entirety of the known universe as a ball in front of him, the ram turned it this way and that, holding it at arm's length and then closer to his face for details.

"This whole thing would start off at the ass-end of nowhere, wouldn't it?"

With the exception of King Soledad's planet, the entirety of the power of the Dark Lord of the Void was concentrated out at the edge of the known universe. His Dark Citadel - one would be built on every planet that they captured, apparently, but the core one, the one that this one was modeled after - was located in a cluster of black holes that pulled one another into an orbit around a single planet, one that was lit by something called the Dread Star.

He tapped over to that one again, trying to sort through the odd pseudo-mysticism that surrounded it, something that felt entirely out of place for something so futuristic. Rather than science that he couldn't understand being laid out for him, like there had been with the black holes, this read more like a cultist's texts.

Shaking his head, he flicked it up and down, seeing if it made any difference to read it out of order or in it. Not really, he found.

"The Dread Star shines at the end of the universe, lit by the light of a dark intelligence. Malevolence and power, strength and hunger, all burns through the light of the Dread Star, and from it, once in a while, is birthed the Dark Lord, to feed that hunger and spread its reach across the universe. Raised with chaos, steadied by order, such is the power to rule the rest of the universe."

It was a great deal of gobbledygook to him, and hardly the sort of useful thing that he had hoped for. The one thing that he did find out was that the Dread Star was the source of all the little bits and pieces that they had for the Dark Citadel, and that it had inspired a great deal of research into creating that sort of material artificially.

Which meant that the Dark Citadels that they would find on other planets would be the ones that previous Dark Lords had placed, that would only activate under the light of the spreading Dread Star.

"Data. Open a window pointing towards the Dread Star."

The wall opened, and as it did, he found himself staring out into a dark, empty sky. The stars were not particularly present, but there was a dim sun off in the distance, something that looked like it was shining through a smoggy atmosphere rather than through the night sky. He blinked, cocking his head to the side.

"Data, is this an error?"

"No."

"Is that the Dread Star?"

"Yes."

"..." He looked at the map again. That was impossible. Even a supernova wouldn't be seen that brightly from this far away, not from the naked eye. He looked back at the Dread Star, and then back, and then back again. "How?"

"The light of the Dread Star follows the Dark Lord. Where the Dark Lord conquers, the Dread Star shines."

"Yeah, but how?"

Data was silent on that point. He imagined that it was one of those things that worked in cycles, and nobody really knew how it worked. All that mattered was that it did, to them, and that was how they operated.

Well, that wasn't good enough for him. The ram made a mental note that he would need to get a research team on that, and went back to the data that Data had compiled for him.

Of the eight habitable worlds that were under his banner, the majority were populated by rodents. His army, as far as Data was able to tell him, was 60% rat and mouse, and that meant that they were going to be getting by with numbers for a while rather than with brute force. They might be better equipped than he thought, but he mentally shuffled that to a reminder to assume that rodent numbers were probably only worth about half of what they displayed as.

The rest of the army was split between 15% badger, 15% goat, and 10% hyena. That meant that the Twist siblings were at the top of the army, but they only represented a tenth of the entire force. That was probably not going to sit well with the rest of the species, but for the moment, he wasn't going to rock the boat. He might raise a few more officers later if it ended up being a thing, but for now, he needed to keep the order that he had and hope that it stayed stable. The last thing that he needed was to lose what little he had.

As for actual military vehicles and material, again, not as much as he would have liked. He had three fleets, yes, two smaller, one larger. The two smaller ones each had a flagship super-capital ship, four smaller capital ships, two destroyers, and ten each of fighter-interceptors and mine-sweepers. From what he'd been able to read, a super-capital ship had the power to get rid of a city from orbit in ten minutes, razing the area on the planet to glass, but that was the highest power that it had. The other capital ships would take an hour to do it all together, which meant that he needed to keep the big guys back for the real threats.

The biggest fleet? Well, that was a different story.

He brought an image of it up. Rather than a super-capital ship, this one had a flagship that looked like a black diamond, one that spun around a central axis. It had the appearance of a floating space station, bristling with weapons on all sides, and he could tell from the numbers of antennae on it that it was meant to serve as a command station. That said, there was more to it than that from the files that he had been able to study.

"Controller-class Super Station. Built to extend the reach of the Dark Lord of the Void, and bring the Indoctrination in his wake," he muttered, reciting what he had read in the files. "So, it's a mind-control station. And why isn't that anywhere else? Why don't we have more of these?"

"Files state that the technology is able to be used, but the army does not know how it works, nor how to replicate it."

"Of course..."

Still, just having that on the battlefield would be a horrendous blow to morale. It would leave the enemy soldiers terrified of it once they realized what it could do. The downside, of course, was that it would become a target, but that was something that he was pretty sure that the larger fleet could handle, most of the time. Provided that they didn't get completely outnumbered, he was sure that they could keep the Super Station safe.

And even if it didn't outright control his enemies, the fact that it would be working on their minds, distracting them, making it harder to keep their own orders in mind, was something that would be invaluable.

Rather than encouraging him, however, the realization disturbed him.

If the other Dark Lords were losing when they had this, then the Federation has some kick-ass tech, as well. I can't get over-confident.

Still, it was worth knowing that they had it, and it was something that gave him some slight hint of hope.

Leaning back on his bed, he buried his head in his hands. Here he was, trying to make something out of nothing, trying to build a hope for himself when there was no hope to be had. The entire universe would be set against him soon, the Federation of Allied Planets coming down on the back of his neck to see him chased into the void and their own supremacy reassured. All because of this stupid cycle, and all because he'd had the bad luck to be dragged out of his world to this one.

But...

There was still a chance. If he could fight them hard enough, take even a third of the Federation, then he would have a chance of showing them that he was a different Dark Lord than they were used to dealing with. If he took that much, and then turtled up, then there was a chance of surviving this for a little while longer.

And more to the point...

He dragged his finger through the map again as he pulled it up. He traced different planets to take, different lines to hold. Depending on how he did it, there were possibilities of choking off different points of Federation space. He didn't know how light speed or long-distance travel worked in this universe yet - something else that he needed to research - but when he found that out, then he could come up with more strategies.

The downside with a federation. Any federation. Any empire, he thought, looking at the map. Once you have many territories, you start to specialize. The food-rich ones become responsible for the food-poor ones. The military-rich one become protective of the military-poor ones. A good system, but one that can be taken advantage of...

Once he found out how to isolate key areas, then he could start reducing the ability of the Federation to fight back. And as long as he did it right, and did it right from the very first step, then there was a chance of him surviving long enough to make a deal.

Because he sure as hell wasn't going to win.

"Ugh..."

He leaned his head into his hands, rubbing his eyes. This was going to be a nightmare, and he still didn't know very much. Hell, he still needed to find out -

Whoosh, whoosh.

The ram looked up as the portal to his room opened, and out popped the male hyena. Mark Twist. He was still in his full attire, though he kept his creepy helmet at his side, holding it against his hip. The hyena chuckled, slapping his fist against his chest.

"All hail the Dark Lord of the Void."

"Cut the crap."

"Well, you're in a bad mood."

"You summoned me here to die. I'm allowed."

"Well, we didn't aim for you specifically, if that helps."

"It doesn't."

"Yeah, didn't think it would."

Mark put his helmet down, glancing at the hologram. The hyena cocked his head to the side at the spread of the universe, glancing at the map as a whole, and then at the various lines that Bertram had drawn through it.

"You're not making plans, are you?" the hyena asked.

"I'm studying. Contemplating."

"Well, don't. You don't know how the tech works, and you'll just mess things up. Zelda's right about that much."

"Says the general to his boss?" the ram asked.

"Until you learn enough to not be a liability, yes." The hyena pointed to the systems that the map had designated as weaker. "We were serving along the border here. This is the weakest spot. Best place to start our assault with minimum casualties."

"Yes, and the best place to get overextended due to some of our officers pushing too far, too fast."

"...Why do you say that?" Mark asked.

"It's what happened to the last Dark Lord. He didn't last long, because he tried to end this too quickly, in the wrong way. Look."

Bertram flicked up the information, both allowing Mark to read the text and having a play by play battle map display on the side. As the hyena went through the details, the show continued, right up to the point where the previous Dark Lord of the Void had been utterly obliterated by doing the very thing that Mark had suggested.

General Twist looked rather green around the gills as he realized how close his tactics had come to getting them all killed. Mark looked at the map, then back at him.

"Maybe you won't be so useless."

"Maybe not." He shook his head. "I need more information. Slavery and indoctrination. Go."

"Huh?"

"Slavery. How much of that are we actually doing? Are there any free members of the empire, and if there are, who are they?"

Mark stared at him, and Bertram groaned. It was the same sort of stare that he'd gotten from his boss at the library more than once. When he came into work a little tired, the boss always got the wrong idea, assuming that he was a lazy man, someone that didn't really want to work, that was going to check out and just be a useless lump looking up porn on the computer for the entirety of his time at the library. When he ended up being effective, the boss was always surprised, always looking at him like he was someone else.

Well, pardon him for having moods. If he was going to live through this, he had to take an active role.

"Either tell me what I need to know, or send your sister in here. I need this information. Now."

"Uh...right. Well, slavery-wise, the army is the only way out of slavery. Everyone else is a slave."

"Right. And are the soldiers slaves while they serve?"

"A step above, but technically still under the same restrictions, yes."

"And what are those?"

"..."

"Mark, keep up. What are the slave restrictions?"

"Sorry, I'm just...not used to someone not knowing."

"Yes, well, as you stated, I'm not from here, so start filling me in. Slave. Restrictions. Now."

"Well, they're not allowed to own property, and they are all slaves to, well, you. You can assign slaves to other individuals, making a slave a person's dedicated property and setting up a hierarchy of slavery, but ultimately, all land, possessions, and people belong to you. You can revoke this at any time."

"..."

That was what he had both anticipated and been afraid of. The fact that he would need to micromanage so many people was not something that he was looking forward to, but on the plus side, that did mean that he had authority to offer things to his people that he could never have done under anything but a full dictatorship. The money and the wealth would flow, and he could use that to keep control where he needed it to be. That was something.

"And are you a free man, Mark?"

"I defected to this side, didn't I?"

"I didn't ask that."

"..." The hyena's eyes widened.

"That's right." Bertram smiled slightly, almost snidely, despite everything that was going on. "You jumped right in on it, forced or otherwise, and became a slave soldier yourself. Congratulations. You belong to me."

"I - you - what? How the hell - that wasn't -"

"Yeah, well, something tells me that most of this was never supposed to happen. But it did, and that means that we need to deal with it. One way, or another. So, slave-general Mark."

"Stop calling me that."

"Sorry. Really, sorry." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I've had a poor time of it myself, and I'm tired. Very...very tired."

"Tired and still this sharp?"

"Well, needs must." He sighed. "Alright. I'm going to need to think of a way to overhaul the slave system later, but for now, indoctrination. What's that?"

"Well, um..." Mark shook his head. "Well, at the core, that's mind control. When the slaves go through it...oh, god..."

Maybe I shouldn't have shattered that little part of his self-image, Bertram thought, shaking his head. It seemed to have pushed the hyena right to a crisis point, which wasn't what he had been wanting, nor what he needed. He sighed, giving the hyena's shoulder a shake.

"Stay with me."

"I'm a slave..."

"Mark. General."

"I'm a fucking -"

"Mark!"

Shouting wasn't his usual method of going about things, but he needed a sharp, sudden shock to bring the hyena up short, and it worked. General Twist gasped, looking him in the eye again. He wasn't out of the woods, but he was no longer falling into hysteria. The hyena shook his head, taking a deep breath, forcing himself to focus.

"I'm alright...I'm alright."

"No, you're not, but you're not getting worse."

"...No. I'm sorry. That was...unprofessional."

"It was, but so is this whole operation. Are you able to function now, or do I need to send for your sister?"

"...I'd appreciate you not letting her know that I went through that. And more, I'd like to be there when you tell her."

"Granted. Now." He took a deep breath, letting it out again. "Indoctrination?"

"Yes. Right. That. That's the big power of the Dread Star and the Dark Lord of the Void. We have technology that attacks the mind and basically fills it with propaganda. It drags the mind forward towards believing in the power of the Dark Lord and the Dread Star. None of it is lying, but it does present all that we do as being for the best, as something that benefits them in the long run if they side with us."

"Brainwashing?"

"Not entirely. Think of it like...like those old stories of shoulder devils and angels. Except that indoctrination only puts one of those voices in your head, whispering what-ifs, and encouraging you to agree with it.

"Sometimes, people figure out what's going on and fight it, but the indoctrination is almost impossible to fight over extended periods of time. Eventually, it finds a crack in your arguments, something that you want, something that you miss, something that you need, and it makes it clear that you can get it under the power of the Dark Lord and the Dread Star. I've never seen someone completely resist it, though there's a few slaves here and there that manage to keep some hints of their old selves."

He thought of King Soledad, and how the monarch had managed to keep some part of himself, despite everything. There'd definitely been a mind behind that man, someone that had been pissed.

It's not emotion, as everyone would feel emotional about it. It wouldn't be logic, or determination, because both of those can be argued around. Stubbornness can be worn down. So, what might be the weakness of indoctrination?

That was something else that he'd need to sort out, something else that he'd need to understand. He didn't know how the universe worked, but he was slowly getting bits and pieces of it figured out.

"One more question, then we both need rest," Bertram said.

"You're telling me. What is it?"

"The act."

"Oh, that." The hyena rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm still figuring that out, myself, I gotta say."

"Tell me this. Is it going to make us murder people?"

"Um...it hasn't so far."

"Uh-huh. There's a compulsion of sorts, though?"

"Yeah. Whenever we're aware that someone from the other side is watching, we have to put on at least a bit of that script."

"Please tell me that it's limited to grandstanding, for the most part."

"Well...mostly. We have had a few moments of lining people up for slavery when the enemy was watching. The whole forced-march thing and all. Soon as we're out of sight, we can get back to normal, and we give them what they need, but...yeah, it gets a little crazy sometimes."

That wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he supposed that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. They could be in a far worse situation, and he could work with that. As long as it only made him 'evil' and not stupid, he could work along with those lines.

"Get some sleep, Mark. We're going to need it."

"Yes, sir."

"Tomorrow, I examine the troops. I want to understand their weaponry."

"Yes, sir."

"And Mark?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Nothing's changed. If you were a slave before, and just didn't know it, what's the difference with knowing it now?"

"Well...it's the word, sir."

"A word only has power if it has the potential to reflect reality. Order, structure; those things only matter if they provide what they define."

"Sir?"

"Go to sleep, Mark. You need it, and I probably do, too."

The End

Summary: Bertram learns more about the world in which he has found himself, and doesn't like what he finds.

Tags: No sex, slavery, AI, ram, hyena, sci-fi, science fiction, mind control, worldbuilding, exposition, freakout,