Any respectable adult had to understand that a hole you dug yourself had to be filled in, even if you had to use your own flesh; and that a boast you made had to be lived up to, even if it stank—you had to hold your nose and lick it clean.
So, with his mind hanging on the brink of collapse, Colonel Jaeger Sobeck somehow managed to keep up his righteous and dignified front. Weeping inwardly, he boarded a Clear Sky-class cruiser.
The cruiser was named the Etrida, a word in Saran secret speech that translated directly as "Blizzard."
She had sacrificed a little firepower to fit an additional source-matter wave transmitter and receiver, along with a wide-area gravitational-wave sensor array. In practice, she could serve as a dedicated flagship and communications vessel. Her captain was Lieutenant Commander Sadem Red Sand, a Kimeyan. He was experienced, capable, and senior in service, and twice Sobeck's age, yet at least on the surface, he remained perfectly respectful.
Of course, even if he hadn't been respectful, Sobeck didn't have the time to worry about the man's attitude. It had suddenly dawned on him that the workplace survival skills he'd honed while serving in a colonial suppression force weren't always useful. These Starrealm Knights, who supposedly valued honor above everything else, could be far craftier than ordinary people like us when they wanted to be.
Just look at Viscount Chamein! Aside from a recent stumble at the War God Festival, his life had been smooth sailing—he was a winner through and through. No wonder he'd become such a humble, magnanimous, brave, and exemplary knight.
But now? He could even turn someone else's plans to his own advantage and make use of their schemes! Who knew what kind of wickedness was brewing in his belly?