“Good. Not that I’m expecting him to take inspiration from any of this, but still. Anyways, the reasons for Spiral HQ not running with Nether in any headlines was because of the other side of his stories. His first notable, dare I call it ‘achievement,’ was destroying a camp of Morai far out of the way of the frontlines. He and one partner, just the two of them, fought and killed two hundred soldiers in the middle of the night. Only, they weren’t just soldiers. They were cadets. Inexperienced and sound asleep, they were slaughtered in the middle of the night. What’s worse is, supposedly, it was a bet to see which of the two would walk away with a higher headcount. They knew the Morai recruits wouldn’t have stood a chance, no matter how many of them there were.”

“They…what?” I couldn’t help imagining it: a bunch of sleeping, inexperienced soldiers sleeping soundly, too far from the frontlines to need to worry about anything, only to wake up to an enemy attack consisting of two opponents rushing madly to kill more targets than the other. “That’s just…how did they get approval for an operation like that?”

“They didn’t.” Rhendon’s reply was flat and immediate. I could tell this was not a pleasant topic for him. “The two of them acted on their own after pouring through the most recent reports on Morai movements they could get their hands on. They were given the okay to observe the Morai’s position and report back, but instead they…” Rhendon shrugged and gestured emptily, words clearly not sufficient. “After that, they were forbidden from working together, and Nether was kept on a tighter leash for the next year. I’m not sure what happened to the person he was with.”

“What, they just up and vanished?” Balldrick asked. “Kinda odd, to put it bluntly.”

“I only know what Nether knew,” Rhendon replied. “Remember, this is all according to him. If there’s any missing pieces or embellishment, I apologize. But it took a lot to get Nether to the point he was willing to share anything about his days as a Golden Dragon, so I’d almost consider it a confession in a way. Hard to imagine he spun any of it to put him in a good light when this is the kind of stuff he told me.”

“He tell you about the Morai facility as well then?” I asked, almost dreading to know what really happened. Unfortunately, Rhendon nodded.

“He did. After a while, and with good behavior, Nether was granted more of his freedoms to operate as he saw fit, so long as it was with Spiral HQ’s best interests in mind. He worked in tandem with other Golden Dragons from time to time, but he preferred solo ops. His longest and most dangerous one was the one Balldrick explained, dubbed ‘Operation: Scorched VIP’. After months of surveying the facility with other Golden Dragons, Nether was able to determine what day a specific Morai General would be on site, and decided to act on his own before anyone else knew what he was doing. And he clearly knew what he was doing, deciding to call the operation that beforehand.” Rhendon stopped to take a long swig of his water. Balldrick took the chance for a sip of his own, but I couldn’t find myself to quench my dry throat. This guy sounds unreal.

“Another thing not put in the report,” Rhendon started again, “was that when he began, he rigged their communications array and all transport ships except for one to fail. And then, amidst the chaos, he sent the General’s personal transport elsewhere on autopilot, to make it seem like he’d left.”

“Hmm? Just one ship…oh. Oh, that’s messed up!” Balldrick set his glass on the table with a loud thud.

“Huh?” I looked between the knights on either side of the table, unsure of what was wrong about this new information. Rhendon let out a sigh and closed his eyes as he explained.

“No communications meant that the researchers couldn’t call for help in any way. That includes calling for more transportation to evacuate the rest of the people on site. Those people more likely than not knew the capabilities of the generator powering their research, including how it would destroy anything in a hundred mile radius. And they had a single ship capable of flying only a fraction of the dozens of personnel stranded there.” He opened his eyes and leveled them with mine as he asked: “How do you think they decided who got to board it? Who got to live?”

Oh…

“We don’t know what happened exactly, since Nether was already secretly occupied with the Morai General by this time, but in a situation like that, it’s everyone for themselves. Chances are they fought and maybe even killed each other to make it on board that ship to escape. Anyone else who wanted to survive would have to leg it a hundred miles, never knowing when the generator would go off. And with the facility all on fire and collapsing, there’d have been no hope of salvaging or repairing anything to escape. It was a certain death-trap, and they’d have to have known it.” Rhendon took another sip of water, and looked away. “While the Morai might have been the enemies, and I don’t necessarily condemn the operation itself, that kind of psychological warfare is a bit too much, if you ask me. And even then, that wasn’t the worst thing Nether says he did.”

“Oh fu– there’s more? Can it get much worse?” I couldn’t believe that anyone part of the prestigious Golden Dragons was capable of such monstrous behavior, even while at war.

“This one… I probably shouldn’t be telling you, honestly. But you need to know, just in case.” Rhendon took a deep breath, clasped his hands together, and asked, “do you know about the Miracle of F.O.B. Seven?” Balldrick and I nodded warily.

The Miracle of Forward Operating Base Seven. Two years before the Skylark left Isora, it was hailed as one of the luckiest days during the Morai War, where a base housing less than a few hundred Spiral Knights was besieged by several thousand Morai. Or it would have been, had the base not been smack dab in the middle of a snowy valley, and avalanches from both sides of said valley happened to bury the majority of the assaulting forces at the same time, forcing a retreat.

“For this last one, I’ll admit it was a warning from HQ directly,” Rhendon explained. “As it turns out, it was all a deliberate setup. Nether caught wind of the Morai assault, and instead of giving any kind of warning, he let it happen. Knowing when the base was going to be attacked, he took a transport ship loaded with munitions, under the guise of delivering it to F.O.B. Seven. Only, he dropped the cargo on one half of the valley, and jumped out of the ship as it flew into the other half, blowing up both sides and causing the avalanches. There was, in fact, no ‘miracle,’ as we know it.”

Rhendon picked up his cup, but set it down before taking a sip.

“I will add, he didn’t leave the base completely unaware or unprepared; they knew about an hour in advance the Morai were coming thanks to their own surveillance, but Nether had someone give them a forewarning half an hour later to pull back everyone within the base, to keep them out of range of the avalanches. That is why no Spiral Knights died that day.”

With that, he took a moment to quench his thirst. I glanced at Balldrick, but he was too busy staring holes into the table to notice.

“You wanted a guy like that… someone who put the lives of brothers-in-arms in harm's way, who used such messed up tactics on friends and foes alike, someone with an aptly put nickname like ‘officer from hell’ of all things…why? Why would you want someone like him to work for you? You!” My voice was quivering as I spoke, confused. “You’re crazy about always following the rules and keeping everyone safe. So much so that, I’ll admit, it’s annoying sometimes! ”

“Hey, I’ve been better lately!” Rhendon said, pointing at me, cup in hand.

“Oh really? How?”

“Well, I– look, don’t sweat the details,” he replied, not meeting my gaze. “But I have been trying to change a few things about that. In no small part because of Nether.”

“Really?” Balldrick asked, clearly shocked. “I’m surprised you let him influence you, of all people.”

“Well, he has a point,” Rhendon shrugged. “You asked why, right Blast? Why would I recruit such a loose cannon, with no regard for anyone else?” I nodded, unconvinced there could be any good reason.

I was wrong.

“Because it was just the opposite. It was never with no regard for anyone else,” Rhendon said. “It was with no regard for himself. When I asked why he did everything he did, as horrible as it was, there were three things that were always consistent. One: nothing ever went according to plan for him. Something or someone always screwed something up at some point, which is why he says things always turned out as horrible as they did. I don’t know how true that is, but I’m willing to take his side, after the other two points. And those are: he never went into any mission with the expectation of seeing home again, and he did everything for everyone else.”

“For…”

“Everyone else?”

Balldrick and I exchanged confused glances, but Rhendon continued.

“Each mission he undertook guaranteed more risk than possible reward for his actions. The way Nether explained it, he knew he was never guaranteed to see the next morning. So whatever it took to see his mission completed, despite any mishaps and unforeseen circumstances, well…” he trailed off, the stories he’d just told explanation enough.

“And he did all that stuff not for himself, but for ‘everyone else,’ huh?”

“Is it any different for you, Blast?” Rhendon asked, locking eyes with me.

That’s… very hard to argue.

I hadn’t wanted to be on the frontlines of Cradle after the Skylark crashed. I’d had no combat experience from the Morai War, having embarked on the Skylark and then finishing my training during our travels. But after seeing the attack on the Rescue Camp firsthand, being part of the first team of Spiral Knights to make contact with Gremlins and then the Strangers of Haven, wanting to protect the people I’d come close to…

“I suppose I understand, yeah,” I agreed, reluctantly. “I do what I do now to help everyone else, and protect those closest to me. Not that I’d ever use any of those kinds of tactics.”

“Nor would I,” Rhendon said, shaking his head. “Since landing on Cradle, and with keeping a close eye on him, Nether hasn’t done anything of the sort either. Then again, that might also have to do with him getting on in his years. He’s nearing fifteen years of service, and turns thirty-three soon.”

“Oh jeez, now I’m feeling old,” Balldrick mumbled with a facepalm.

“That’s not too bad. And you’re still plenty spry on the field, Balldrick,” I said.

“It’s plenty old for a soldier. Every year past twenty five or seven, you’ll notice you stop improving as fast, and after thirty you’ll probably notice some things getting slower and rustier,” Rhendon said. “Nether is lucky to have had so much experience and lived the life of a hardened knight to help keep him alive while in the Clockworks. But I’m afraid time is catching up with him, finally.”

“What makes you say that?”

Rhendon blinked at me for a second, closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

“Right. That’s enough rumors, side stories, and tangents. I believe it’s time I told you that favor I need.”