The Other Witch; The Secretary-General of Gravaga

The battle was in full swing already.  Salvia could have sworn it had only been two days ago that they'd met with the Alpha.  How was it then that all the armies were already in place?  Gravaga made sense; this was their territory, they'd have been fighting for months most likely, but she'd spotted a band of the Seraph, an elite band of Harakai warriors, flying overhead.  They would have needed at least a few days to reach this far into the Empire, and unlike the Ga-Vok and Nieldic troops wouldn't have been able to move in through the gates opened by Star Haven and Stormguarde's forces.
It was, Salvia quickly discovered, no easy matter to cross the warzone and find the headquarters set up by the Commanders of the united armies.  Luckily, it seemed that the gates had been opened within the city and while there was still stiff resistance around the palace, the worst of the fighting was on the outskirts, where those Gravagans aligned with the usurper had been driven back and had now dug in.  Even without military training beyond that common to any Nielda who had grown up playing TacSim, Salvia knew that it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived and the defending Gravagans launched a counterattack.  Unlike the armies, who's arrival had been hastened by uncommon feats of magic, fleets still had to take the time needed to travel between worlds.  It was the navy, as it so often was, that would be able to decide the fate of the battle.
"Halt!  For whom do you fight, woman?"
She could have just as easily asked the silver armored Gravagan the same question, word for word.  Even though they fought for both sides, all of the Gravagans wore the same, antiquated armor that they would have worn while united under the Dark Lady.  There was no way of telling which answer would get her out of this without a fight.
"I'm looking for Prince Curt and the Alpha."
They leveled their weapons and delivered a line they'd probably spent years rehearsing for those times when they encountered Hack's many adventuring parties.  "Drop your weapons and come with us."
What was most likely less rehearsed was the way the building behind them exploded as a three-story tall Gravagan mech burst through and leveled its weapons upon them.
"In the name of the Empress, I claim this witch as my prisoner!"
The soldiers didn't freeze, they didn't panic, and they didn't reply.  The entire unit began to scatter in the same breath, spinning around to pop off shots at vulnerable points on the mech.  Each shot was deflected harmlessly by the unit's shields, or else absorbed by its heavy plating, but the pilot was unable to track down all of the soldiers.  Which was not to say it did not deal better than it got, several soldiers were shattered by great, lancing bolts of energy, and one soldier, too slow to react, was caught up in the war-machine's triple claws and wrenched apart as he called out to his fellows to save themselves.  There was no blood, Salvia had never fully realized this about Gravagans before that moment.  All that remained of the slain man was fragments of purple crystal and silver armor; his eyes frozen still as if they had never been able to move in the first place.  But his hair, fine as threads of silk and glimmering violet in the light of the battle's fire, still moved in the light breeze; a last testament to his once living nature.
"Now, Witch, my master has given me orders to..."  He was cut short by a lancing bolt of crimson energy.
"Now that I have your attention, Samuel, release the Witch and stand down."  The voice was amplified in much the same manner as his, betraying it's owner as piloting a mech of her own.  But this new voice was more resolved, determined even.  It was not unlike listening to the Alpha or Price Curt when they spoke to their subordinates.  There was even a part of it that sounded like Katherine; frank, direct, and to the point.
"General Sharon, I should have known the traitor would reveal herself in these days.  Repent, and perhaps our Mistress will forgive you when she returns.  Though," He trained one great cannon on the mech that had now climbed over the rubble, "I rather doubt it.  You know how she can be."
"You think me traitor for seeking to cast out those who would enslave our people?  Gravaga deserves better than to be pawns of Immortal games.  Join me and we can make Gravaga the nation it deserves to be.  A nation that builds, that lives, not one that simply waits for the next round of adventurers to come and kill our sons and daughters in some eternal plot."
An amber blast coursed from the cannon above her.  Sharon, the pilot of the other mech, not only dodged it but returned one of her own crimson bolts.  Unlike Samuel, Sharon seemed to have taken lessons in proper marksmanship, and the blast splashed across his shields with an ear racking explosion.
"I will not betray my creator!  You and your rebels will fall, and I will stand at the master's side triumphant."
He began to charge.  Sharon sidestepped gracefully and spun around, tripping his mech by the leg.  She planted one of her feet on his right arm and held one arm aloft.
"No, but I am at least certain you will stand by your master's side before day's end.  You have died a General of Gravaga, defending it against its threats, and your children shall remember you for what you were."  The mech's claw began to rotate at considerable speed.  "A good man, and a hero to your people.  Good Bye, old friend."
The claw drilled through the back of his mech.  The sound of steel rending steel overpowered his final screams, but did not hide them.  Sharon stood over the ruined mech for a moment and then turned to face Salvia.
"Climb on, the other Commanders will want to know you are safe.  Convincing Prince Curt not to come looking for you himself was no easy task, and I daresay the Alpha will be at far greater ease knowing you are safe as well."  She lowered one claw gently, allowing Salvia to take hold and be hoisted onto the Mech's giant shoulder.
"I don't know if I can face the Alpha right now.  Braga is..."
"Yes, Hal disappeared several days ago.  Braga's body appeared the same day hanging from the palace gate.  We were forced to launch our assault early when the Alpha ordered the Oracles to tear open the gate from their end.  It has set us off plan noticeably, but not affected our success in any manner.  In fact, the Harakai devoted several additional fleets to the battle and dispatched a unit of the Seraph under the command of the High Inquisitor herself.  They've been invaluable in dispatching of enemy necromancers and scouting the battlefield."  Sharon paused for a moment, still running across the battlefield with a surprisingly great deal of gymnastic skill for a mech, then she asked quietly, "I am sorry for his loss.  The Scholar of the Falling Leaves was quite dear to me as well."
"I just woke up today, I haven't really had a chance to take it all in yet."
"Ah yes, you are Nielda after all."  She took a deep breath.  "I will miss our nights together.  Few men, much less wolves, have ever held my interest for so long."
Salvia almost lost her grip on the Mech's shoulder handle.  "You what?"
"He told the most wonderful stories.  I was there for many of the events he studied and saw them first hand, yet when he told them I could scarcely help but be enraptured by them."  She paused.  "Oh, you thought I meant something else entirely.  Sorry, I forget how you organics feel about the reproductive process."
The mech came to a stop in a large plaza, from the looks of things a bazaar of sorts.  Salvia dropped carefully off the mech's shoulder, just as Sharon, a fairly tall Gravagan woman with slightly smoother features than your average Gravagan, dropped out of the mech's back.
"So you and he never actually did anything, you just misspoke then?"
"Now," She winked, only noticeable by the fact that her eyelids were a rather darker shade of purple than her eyes, "I never said that, did I?"
"Ah, so you were his 'sweet secretary on Gravaga'?  I knew as soon as I met you that I'd read a description of you somewhere!"  The Alpha, boisterous even in the midst of battle, practically bounded up to them.  "It is good to see you again Spiderskirt, we feared the worst."
"I'm sorry about Braga."
"Not as sorry as that knave James will be when next we meet.  I knew he smelled suspicious the moment I saw him."
"James?"
Sharon nodded.  "Head of the Black Hand, Thalia's personal assassins.  He's been hiding out ever since she died.  ZG and I have been hunting them down in our spare time, of which I'm afraid neither of us has had much.  I knew that when this day came they would be a dangerous asset in Hal's hands, so we've been trying to deny him their use."
"ZG?"
"You've met, nothing else about him is important for you to know.  Just understand that there are many plans coming to fruition today."
"Sharon, the Prince, and I have been working to disrupt Hal's work.  But time is short, come, you must tell us everything you know."  The Alpha motioned for them to follow him to a nearby, shattered cafe.