Chapter 63

It should be noted that Ajax was a citizen of the Blauth Empire and being the leader of the now-rebranded Lazoole Society, he had been the one responsible for the massacre that happened at the border. In this massacre, people who were citizens of the Empire of Uz and were living at the border were also part of the deceased. It was claimed that what Ajax was trying to do was drive out anyone who was from the Empire of Uz before unifying the border.

Leonard had spent a shitton of eddies to buy out the media and make them blow this way out of proportion, that way public outrage would be created and action will be forced to be taken. Since the Blauth Empire wasn't willing to bend to his commands, then he would use the hands of the Empire of Uz to kill Ajax.

The citizens of the Empire of Uz were a patriotic bunch who, seeing these atrocities being committed by Ajax, were filled with anger and righteous indignation. Many took to the streets to protest and request troops be sent to the border to suppress this new warlord. The leadership of the Empire of Uz began to pay attention to this matter as public outrage and pressure increased.

After carrying out an investigation, it was determined that about 4,857 citizens of the Empire of Uz had met their demise at the border recently and their executioner was Ajax from the Blauth Empire, leader of the rebranded Lazoole Society.

Although those who fled to the border were not innocent people, they wanted to be the ones to pull the trigger on them. It was one thing for them to kill their own, but it was another thing for someone from the Blauth Empire to kill their people, no matter their crimes. 

As tensions kept on rising, Leonard spent another wave of eddies to bribe the media and make them guide public opinion once again. The new story that started to be circulated by the media was that Ajax was an elite soldier from the Blauth Empire who had been trained since childhood. The whole incident had been orchestrated by the Blauth Empire so that they could control the border.

With the spread of this new story, public outrage reached a new peak as hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest and request the Empire of Uz do something. It didn't take a day for these protests to turn into violent riots with multiple officers injured or killed, and so it became the straw that broke the camel's back as the Empire of Uz mobilized its military.

After all, if the rumors were true and there were no people from the Empire of Uz left at the border, then it would only take a few years at most for the entire border to be annexed by the Blauth Empire.

It had only taken 2 days for the Empire of Uz to rally over 10,000 mechs and jets of various types at the border, with more on the way. The Blauth Empire, unaware of what was going on, sent a large number of heavy troops to be stationed near the border and prevent the enemy from attacking. The standoff of over 30,000 mechs was a sight to behold, as both sides itched to press the trigger, war was knocking at the door.

Ajax, noticing the movements, quickly understood what was going on. He also determined that there was someone with a vendetta either against him or the rebranded Lazoole Society pulling the strings from the shadows. He knew that if war broke out, they would be the ones to bear the brunt of both sides attacking.

And no matter which country won, the border will likely be completely destroyed, allowing the wind to take with it all that was built. So after a night of discussions with his most trusted operators, Ajax decided to put on a play for all eyes to see from beyond the border.

2 days later, after the sun had fallen, there was a sudden burst of gunshots in the camp of the Reapers, explosions also rang out from time to time, and the whole ordeal lasted for over 6 hours. When morning came, someone started to spread the news that internal strifes had occurred in the Reaper's camp and that many operators had been killed.

Included in the dead was the leader of the Reapers, Ajax, who was reported to have been killed by a very skinny Uzian nicknamed Monkey, who had reportedly endured humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of Ajax.

After taking over the Reapers and all of its territory, he renamed the Reapers to "Vanguard Outcasts", and then announced that the entire border was under the control of the Vanguard Outcasts and that the previous rules would remain unchanged.

The news spread like wildfire and it soon spread to the Empire of Uz, where the people were elated and those who believed them began to cheer and celebrate, calling Monkey the hero of the frontier of the Empire of Uz. Those who didn't believe the news thought that there was no such thing as a coincidence at this level, so everything must have been premeditated.

Monkey took the initiative to contact the troops arranged by the Empire of Uz at the border, revealing his identity. While he was at it, he sent the Empire of Uz a gift, the captured guard pilots. He explained to them that these people were from the Blauth Empire and had helped Ajax kill many people.

But under his wise leadership, Ajax was outsmarted and killed, the people that had been sent by the Blauth Empire had been arrested, and the border had returned to the control of people from the Empire of Uz.

These pilots were the ones that Ajax had captured and imprisoned in hopes that they would be useful for something. And well, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make use of them had come along, so they took advantage of it and handed them over to the Empire of Uz.

Hearing that these people were pilots that had been sent by the Blauth Empire, the Commander of the garrison became interested, accepted Monkey's gift, and praised him as a good citizen...

***

After Monkey's departure, the Commander of the Garrison started his interrogation. During the first round of interrogation, the pilots of the security team refused to say a word, demonstrating their loyalty and the training they had undergone. But the Empire of Uz's interrogation methods weren't simple since as soon as the pilots refused to identify themselves, waves of psychological torture began.

After resisting the torture, which consisted of White Torture, Sensory Depravation followed by Sensory Overload/Assault, and Isolation, for about 3 days, the pilots yielded and admitted that they were pilots of the Blauth Empire, but that they were not here to start a war, but were instead ordered to sneak into the border to apprehend someone.

This made the leaders of the Empire of Uz very happy. They didn't care what these people had done at the border, as long as they had admitted that they had been sent by the Blauth Empire. After all, the treaty between the two countries clearly stated that neither party should send their people to the border no matter the reason or circumstances.

Sending their people in without the agreement of the other was tantamount to declaring war, and now that they had a couple of pilots on hand, they could gain a lot from this through the use of diplomacy.

The Empire of Uz then filed for a joint meeting on Bedrichi. At the meeting, the Blauth Empire was accused of not abiding by the peace treaty and warned the Blauth Empire to stop doing things to disturb the peace between the 2 galactic empires, otherwise, they would defend their interests on this planet no matter the cost.

They then presented the video statements of the pilots. These videos included details such as their names, identities, who sent them to the border, and what they were doing. Of course, the Blauth Empire denied having any ties to this, even going as far as to claim that these videos were all forged by the Empire of Uz, and then left angrily.

Once the representatives returned, they opened up an internal investigation along with taking action towards rectifying their internal affairs and decreasing corruption. All the names mentioned by the pilots were to be arrested and escorted for questioning. Even Leonard, who was the orchestrator of it all, accepted the questioning. If it wasn't due to his status, the consequences he faced would have been more severe.

The situation between the two empires on the border changed from the brink of war to the usual diplomatic banter, a war of words trying to sway the public opinion on Bedrichi. The Empire of Uz no longer cared about the border and was focusing all of its energy on suppressing the Blauth Empire.

This was all due to the fact that they had found out the identity of Monkey, and he was indeed a native of their empire. He had a humble background and had been working on a construction site until about 3 years ago when he got into an argument with the foreman and assaulted him with a hammer. Although he didn't kill the foreman, he still fled to the border as he feared retaliation.

As for how Monkey was able to make a living on the border and even become the leader of an organization? Well, that wasn't something they were interested in. As long as there were people from the Empire of Uz at the border, they had nothing to worry about, especially if they were the leader of the largest organization at the border.

However, the Blauth Empire guessed that the whole thing had been orchestrated by Ajax and that Monkey was a puppet. But they were still on the wrong side of public opinion and did not feel like making things worse. After this incident, many people from the two empires poured into the border...

And just like that, after staying at the border for forty-five days, Ajax left the border and stepped on a bus to Boirdale alone, not even trying to hide as he only wore a peaked cap.