Struggle. Prisoners of Darkness

Somewhere very deep and low

Manhr is the karak of the Donetsk-Makeyevka group. "Karak" — a slightly above-average official.

The highest title is "roh." It is one and belongs to Kronhru. This rank allows you to meet the Black Stone; he is the only one, apart from the High Priests, who can do so.

Next, within the Earth, comes the "proch". They are arranged by continents, i.e. there are three in total.

The European faction, with the Proch Brynchr in charge, is divided into three colonies: East Slavic, Central Slavic, and West European.

After "prokh" there is "broz". In the Central Slavic Colony, the duties of the broz are temporarily performed by Bluch. The key word is "temporarily". The point is that the last broz Krinhr had fallen ill with something particularly serious, and he was suspended from his work, and his deputy was appointed in his stead.

In order to stay in this position, Bluh began to look for any shortcomings in his previous work, among which he found Manhra's stealing. Not that he was so disgusted by it, he was stealing himself, but in order to "show off" in front of the center he could "cover up" another. He sent him an ultimatum, and a day later learned of his murder.

The new Broz saw this situation as a serious chance to establish his influence in the Eastern-Maloros region, and acting in accordance with the "Broz Code", he called a meeting for the reason of "murder of an imperial official".

The meeting hall of the Black Stone noble primes met twice during Krinkhra's eight-year leadership, both in his first year — it seems Bluh has decided to follow in his footsteps (you can clearly see how the plagues withdrew their support over time, gaining power and consolidating it).

The Council of Noble0prims always included the Imperial Army Chief of the Column (Donhr), the Chief of the Column's CCC (Zakinhr), the Chief of the Column's Transportation (Nenhr), the Chief of the Column's Logistics (Okinhr), the Chief of the Column's Mining (Venhr), and the Chief of the Column's Finance (Ubinhr).

With the exception of the head of SCK, all others were appointed by the acting Broz. The rule did not apply in case of broz's illness, then no changes could take place (only by order of the roch).

Bluh began the session with pessimistic rants, "The threat is upon us, plague brothers."

No one but Nenhr blinked an eye — it was a big phrase, but it didn't make much sense. Nenhr was a silent but obvious ally of Bluh, because he himself was under some threat: just before his illness, Krynhyr was about to fire him and put him on trial for mismanagement of the railroads — not only were schedules rarely kept, but the Road Inspection Commission (RIC) was no longer functioning (on paper it still existed, but in reality the funds allocated to it were not reaching him due to outright embezzlement*).

The head of transportation, sitting next to Broz, nodded defiantly and pushed his chair closer to the table, as if anticipating serious work.

"Today I was informed that an assassination attempt was made on the karak of the Donetsk-Makeyevka Manhra group. Unfortunately, a successful one… Plague brothers, we must act!" — exclaiming, Bluch continued, but at the end was interrupted by the head of the SCC, Zakinhr: "The day before yesterday you sent him an ultimatum demanding that he hand over what he had stolen. The day before yesterday you accused him of stealing, quite correctly, by the way. And today you say the word 'unfortunately'… What's your 'unfortunately', brother chum Bluh?"

Of all those present, Bluh hated him the most, and only because there was nothing that could be done about him — he was appointed from the center, which meant that only the center could remove him.

"Uh… Don't get me wrong, I don't like thieves myself… no, I hate them. — At the moment of this speech, Broza Nenhre nervously squirmed in his chair. — But that doesn't mean that some people can shoot them off! It's a pity you don't understand that. Better a corrupt chum than a hard-working man! And to you, brother chum Zakinhr, I will especially say this, we should not have people working for us."

"I will note, especially for you," replied the head of the SCC, "that it was the men who uncovered Manhra's theft. "Wo! What makes you think they're not lying?!"

"We checked with other sources… Don't be a fool, it's fashionable to get a lot of use out of people." "They're slaves!"

"Who's arguing with that? They're slaves, but that doesn't mean they can't be useful to us. We do use them in mining," the SSJ nodded at Venhra at the end of the line.

"You know, Brother Chum Zakinhr…" — Bluh was about to say that the latter might appear to be a traitor, but in time he considered it too defiant and dangerous for him — one should not forget who is a protégé of the center here.

"What, brother chum bluh?" — realizing what was happening asked the head of the SChK. "I can sometimes feel like you're being ceremonious with them."

"In vain. This is a proven tactic of the SCK."

Bluh had already realized perfectly well that it was time to end this dialog and get back to the point, "Well, okay, it doesn't matter… We need to decide what to do in the current situation… Brother Chum Nenhr, what do you think?"

The transportation chief seemed to snap out of it after a long wait: "I think it's time to act! The people are openly challenging us. I believe they are aware of the sickness of our honorable plague brother Broz Krinhra. They want to destabilize and de-balance the current situation with brazen acts in key areas and points! Plague brothers! They've destroyed over three hundred kilometers of track! And that's just in the past month. I'm sure the SAR commission will tear my heart out this month with their statistics!"

Watching the whole spectacle as a pathetic spectacle, Zakinhr was given an opportunity to mark the limits of what was allowed with veiled accusations: "The DCP commission was able to find out about so many destroyed tracks? As far as I know for the whole of last month a total of eleven kilograms of gold went in there, that is five percent of the allotted amount… Will you tell me how they were able to show such results with such funding?"

"My men work hard. They expect a paycheck, but in the meantime, they do their duty honestly for the Empire." "Ah, I think your men are taking credit for things that aren't their own. According to my figures, fifty-three

kilometers of track were destroyed last month. Give or take five kilometers."

"Well, that's a long conversation, Chum Brother Zakinhr… We're probably talking about different places of inspection…" — Nenhr immediately tried to get out of the awkward position.

"I'm talking about the entire Central Slavic Column."

Seeing that the circumstances were not in his favor, Bluh changed the subject again, "Brother plagues, let's take your official matters elsewhere. We have a serious matter here… Brother Chum Donghr, I will ask you personally to take care of the local Maquis group."

With any luck Bluh would accuse him of treason and then, citing the complexity of the circumstances, shoot him, but the point of the case is that the acting broz is still Krinhr and the circumstances aren't that complex, so if the Imperial Army Chief was accused he would be taken to the Imperial General Tribunal, where the firing squad would issue a firing squad, not him, but Bluh.

"Objection, Brother Chum Bluh. — the chief of the Cheka spoke as firmly as possible. — Bogdan Khmelnitsky's group is operating there. It is not large enough for serious resistance, and my men have just now received precise information about its whereabouts. We can finish them off within four days if we get the order. I propose to give this case to the SCS."

The long-silent finance chief, Urinhr, spoke up: "I approve. The army's operation will again hit the finances, which have not shown any comforting results in the last six months.

Bluh dreamed of shooting this plague for some non-existent nonsense even more than the chief of the imperial army: Urinhr was more supportive of Krinhr and even more loyal to him. It was because he had covered for him during an incident: three-fourths of a ton of gold had arrived at the Finance Department and disappeared without a trace (in fact, it had never arrived — the transport chief had changed the route and the train had gone elsewhere).

"What do you think, Brother Chum Okinhr?" — The acting broz took his last chance.

The logistics chief was neither friend nor foe to Bluh; he was simply doing his job, with imperial interests at heart: "We can supply the Donetsk-Makeyevka sector with everything we need within eight days. But we'll need the assistance of the transportation service to do that."

The Chief of Transportation immediately felt the waiting stare of the SFC chief, and what to expect from him in the event of a discouraging answer. "I'm sorry, but the transportation service doesn't need the extra workload right now," Nenhr didn't grimace.

"I propose to give the matter to the SChK," the chief of the imperial army finally made his choice. — and put an end to this matter."

Bluh had no choice but to agree: "Well, if brother-chum Zakinhr wants to deal with this issue so much, we will not interfere with him… It remains to decide on the appointment of a new karak in the Donetsk-Makeyevka sector".

"So as not to complicate matters, I will temporarily assign my man there," Zakinhr decided.

"You know the Charter, don't you? You have to name a specific plague," Bluh didn't quite expect such insistence from his main rival, because such a move shattered all his hopes of gaining influence in that region. He believed that a chum serving in the SCK was not capable of such hasty action.

But Zakinhra had everything ready, "Sister-chum Anahr. She knows this group very well. Worked there herself for six months. I have no doubts about her competence. She will bring it under control."

Of those present, except for the SS, no one knew Anahr, and Zakinhr spoke without a shadow of a doubt, so there was nothing to argue with.

"If everyone agrees…" — Bluh was almost resigned. Everyone was in agreement.

"Then the meeting is over," Bluh finally resigned himself to the fact that an opponent could be defeated not only at the table, but outside of it as well.