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at the Emperor's Birthday parades all over the planet.  In one fell swoop, these human children had killed, maimed, and injured more Imperial soldiers, senior officers, and officials in an instant, than all the human soldiers had in the entire rebellion.  It was by the grace of the Holy Mother he wasn't out on the reviewing stand with the other dignitaries that day, and yet.  In those dark lonely hours before dawn when he lay in bed, shivering at the memory, he sometimes wished had been.  At last, he managed to shake off the dark memories, and adjusting his cap he exited the ground car and walked into the Imperial HQ building.  He silently cursed the Director of IMPSEC for forcing him to relive those memories again. 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR:             
     
    Shackled to the floor in the center of the shuttlecraft, Richard Penn contemplated the view out the side window, seeing air cars zipped back and forth in the traffic lanes between the hellish glitter of the Capital City's mega-skyscrapers.  Garish advertising lit the sides of the tall buildings, promising everything from absolution to zarco sex, whatever that was.  This place was the epicenter of the Tellurian Empire, the gleaming metropolis by which they judged all other cities in the Empire.  Everything spread out from here to its far-flung reaches.  Its laws, fashion, culture, religion, even hairstyles.  It mattered not that the Empire imposed them at the point of a gun, as any dissent, or resistance could bring down the wrath of IMPSEC, and the Imperial Military at a moment's notice.  To Penn's eyes this place was nothing but a stinking cesspool, no matter how many twinkling lights they tried to cover it with.  There was nothing majestic, or grandiose about the place, and nothing to make it stand head and shoulder above other cities as it claimed.  It was nothing but a hollow shell, all glitter, and fakery.
     
    It reminded him of some over-dressed whore, trying to hide her faded glory under a new coat of garish makeup.  Only the country bumpkins from the outer reaches of the Empire, were fooled, and those that didn't know any better.  For a brief moment he looked wistfully up at the canopy of stars.  Somewhere out there was Earth, the cool green hills beckoning him home.  Sadly, Penn knew that day would probably never come, seeing nothing but a lifetime of servitude to the Director of Imperial Security and Intelligence stretching before him.  Penn looked out the side window at the lights of the Capital beyond, seeing them stretch away to the horizon.  Somewhere out there was the object of his hatred, so near and yet so far.  Out there, was Emperor Cytec and Director Markoff, but nothing he could do at this moment would, bring him one step closer to killing either of them.  Instead, he savored his ice-cold anger, and took in sights of the mega-city far below.  His time would come, sooner or later.  They’d make a mistake before, give him a longer leash, forget to lock a door.  It didn’t matter what, he’d be ready for that moment so he could kill more of these bastards.
     
    Even at this late hour, the streets below were full of people, mostly slaves coming, or going about their daily business, or heading toward some dirty hovel, they called home.  Penn saw how they lived first-hand during a prior escape, and it reminded him of the books he'd once read, about ancient Rome.  A small group of power elite at the top standing, on the backs of the poor and slaves, protected from the mob by the swords, or in this case, the guns of the military, and IMPSEC.  With implants and constant IMPSEC monitoring, it wasn't hard for the few to control the many.  Far below the denizen tried to scratch out a meager existence, or served the Empire in some way.  Down there was a cutthroat world, as each tried to claw their way out of the cesspool, and find a better life.  Not that there was much chance of that.  The Var power elite