Liar's Gamble

The trip to the high council's space station went by without incident. The team that had taken the crystal from the ancient alien space station found themselves escorted from the ship to the office of one General Weller. They enter the room to see the headmaster standing beside the general's desk. The General himself looked to be barely older than Mrs. White. He had green eyes and brown hair. He wore a brown suit the displayed his many medals. The team was immediately put off by the fact that the headmaster was there. They had planned on not involving him to go over his head and get the credit for their mission. The general was the first to speak.

"Elanor White. Officer of class 4 authority and teacher at the high council's academy of battle mage officers. You are here by accused of treason, disobeying direct orders, theft of a class 3 power source, possession of a class 3 power source, the kidnapping of 5 students at the High council's academy of battle mage officers and the murder of one Lee Cen. How do you plea?" The general spoke with no emotion as he read over the paper in his hand. He glanced up his face conveying no opinion or emotions. He gently pushes his glasses up from falling off the bridge of his nose without his eye conveying anything other than emptiness. Elanor stared at him for several moments in confusion and glanced between the general and the headmaster slowly piecing together what the general must be thinking. "I Plea rather emphatically not guilty. I have no idea what you are talking about. Please explain what it is specifically I have been charged with. How did I commit treason? What direct orders did I disobey? What did I steal and who did I kidnap?" The General looks at her for a few moments and everyone in the room could feel the tension. Something about the general scared them. Even the headmaster looked uneasy whenever the general would glance his way. After what seemed like an eternity the general slowly began speaking again. "You have been accused of disobeying the direct orders to not go to the alien space station referred to in records as the unspoken temple. Did you go to this station?" Elanor glared heavily into the headmaster as she answered, "I did go there with the consent of the headmaster." The headmaster was quick to answer back "I gave no such orders. I have on many occasions specifically told you no to that requested mission." The head master then turns to the General "Additionally she left just after I had punished her for not upholding her duty. She made up this mission so she would not be near while her made up sexual assault charges against me went through." He turns his attention back to Mrs. White "She did this so that she could avoid getting punished." Elanor and the Headmaster began to glare daggers into each other. The General glanced between the two of them and started typing into his computer before turning his head to the headmaster. "When did she disregard her duty exactly?" The Headmaster turns his head back to the general with a small smile. "four days ago. On the 21st of this month sir." The General nods at that looking a few things up. "Oh yes she had failed to escort the squad under her instruction on their mission." The general squints as he reads something apparently in small font. "Oh, it says here that the mission was a danger ranking D-4." The general sits back up casually clearly not thinking much of this. The General glances back up to the Headmaster "Officer Elanor White leads class 1 squad 1 meaning that her team shouldn't be sent on anything that isn't at least ranked D-1 in difficulty. Why was her squad sent on this mission in the first place?" Allison raised her hand, and the General turned his attention to her. "I requested the mission sir." The General nods at that "Can you tell me why you had requested the mission officer 131?" Allison nods as she answers "Because we had not been given a mission in several weeks. I was worried that we'd get rusty." The General nods turning his glance up to the headmaster again. "That hardly seems like a breach of the rules. While technically against the rules I would not have issued a punishment, myself considering the implied lack of urgency and danger the mission employed. What punishment did you assign to Mrs. White?" The Headmaster turns away from Mrs. White again to look down at General. "I had intended to demote her sir." The General shook his head before looking up at Mrs. White "That was certainly uncalled for. I officially reinstate your previous rank Elanor White." Mrs. White shook her head "I'm sorry sir but what the headmaster is saying is utter lies!" The General looks confused for a second but the Headmaster buts in. "Even now you try to ge-" The headmaster stops as soon as the General puts his hand up to silence him. "Please continue Mrs. White." Mrs. White nods before continuing. "The reason I did not accompany my team even on an impromptu mission to easy for their abilities is because I had a hearing about my sexual harassment claim. You don't seem informed General, but I have an ongoing case against the Headmaster for inappropriate advances. I did not make them up to get out of getting in trouble in this case as the investigation was on going before this whole thing started. Additionally, he did punish me but to redeem myself I asked If I could be given a mission to go to the unspoken temple. He agreed as I had agreed to face execution or even the hallowing if I failed. He was supposed to put the mission into the database right after that! Which additionally means I did not kid nap anyone. I lead my team on a mission that I was sent on." She pauses and looks to Chris and Ashley who both just look away and whistle. "I uh... Do not know why those two showed up to help. But they really did help." Mrs. White turns her head back to the general "Lastly I didn't steal the power source I retrieved it and I have no idea what you are talking about with Mr. Cen."

The general looks at Elanor for a few moments. Under his gaze she takes a step back. The headmaster begins to speak several times but each time he stops thinking better of it as he can see the general's expression. Eventually the General turns his gaze to the headmaster. "Officer Charles Escrix headmaster of the academy of battle mage officers. Do you deny Mrs. White's recounting of events?" The Headmaster nods "Of course. It is utter fiction." Before the general could continue Nathan spoke up. "No, it isn't. I was there when the Headmaster agreed to the mission that Mrs. White suggested!" The Headmaster looked toward Nathan with clear anger. The General lets out another sigh as he looks at Nathan "Would you swear to that under oath knowing the penalty to lying in these matters is execution?" Nathan nods and the general rests his head on his hands clearly deep in thought. The headmaster started off clearly angry "This is ridicules are you actually listening to this? Of course, her squad is backing her up they want this pretend mission to add toward their glory. Besides whom knows if they were involved in the murder of Officer Cen!" The Headmaster turns to the group but gets cut off when Chris speaks up. "I can tell you they honestly had nothing to do with Mr. Cen's death. When me and Ashley approached to give aid to squad 1 of our own volition, we found Mr. Cen summoning devils to attempt to make sure that Mrs. White and squad 1 failed their mission. He shot at our ship and so we fought back." Chris then shrugs "He didn't end up winning." This caused everyone in the room to focus on Chris and Ashley. Allison was the first to speak up. "Wait did you two actually kill Mr. Cen?" Ashley looks over at Allison with a smile as Chris nods and answers "Yes well he did try to kill us first." The Headmaster points to Chris and Ashley smugly. "See they admit that the murdered him." The Headmaster looked ready to continue speaking but the general began speaking which shut him up immediately. "While you were talking, I did look up that Mrs. White had already filed the charges against you. Which means as far as I can tell the evidence most closely supports the version of events as explained by Mrs. White. Officer Charles Escrix I hear by demote you to authority level 4. You will be a teacher for your remaining time at the battle mages academy. I will find a suitable replacement for your position as Headmaster." The former headmaster turned toward the General clearly holding himself back from attacking the younger man. But looking at the general's still cold soulless eyes suddenly felt a chill of fear go down his back that was enough to talk him down from the course of action. The Headmaster walks out of the office leaving Mrs. White and Squad one and Chris and Ashley to speak to the General.

Allison was the first to answer. "What do you mean he was only demoted to class 4 authority!?! He gets to rearrange things like this to his own ends causing other honorable officers to get accused of things that would lead to execution and he doesn't even get like a broken hand!?!" The General frowns and looks down as he speaks "Unfortunately as satisfying as it might be to resort to that sort of barbaric punishment to deal with his besmirching of his position my hands are tied. He is the uncle of the king of a country called Ravain. People who have that high a level of authority in their specific governments are not able to be seriously punished by those in the high council. I will however of course make requests to the king of Ravain with a full report of what happened for more severe punishments to be enacted." Allison isn't able to stop herself from smashing her fist on the general's desk. "That is bullshit. The High council shouldn't need permission from a country in bum fuck nowhere on a planet in bum fuck nowhere space!" The General nods and goes to talk before the room's eye change to Mrs. White as she throws her badge on the desk. "If that is the extent of your authority, I appreciate you at least taking the right-side sir. But if he remains after this I can't." Everyone looks up at her surprised and sad before Nathan follows suit and takes his badge off and throws it onto the desk to. Mrs. White looks down at Nathan who just smiles softly up at her. Allison was the next to remove her Badge and drop it on the desk. "Yeah, you know what? Fuck this. If Mrs. White and Nathan are out so am I." Allison, then expectantly looked over at Maya but it was actually Chris next to put his badge down surprising everybody as their eyes went to him. "If Allison isn't going to be here then I can't prove myself her better. I have to go wherever she does." Allison raises an eyebrow at that. "That's a little bit creepy my dude but I appreciate it." Chris nods and Maya lets out a heavy sigh. "I uh. I also quit. But my suit and badge got.... squished on the mission. So, I can't do the dramatic throw my badge on the table thing like everyone else." The General sighs looking them all over then looking at Ashley who shrugs and gives him before putting her badge on the table. The General nods. "I am deeply sorry to see you go. But I will not invoke my authority to force you to stay given these... extremely specific circumstances. Just stay out of trouble. I will make sure you are paid for your work in retrieving the crystal so that you don't have to make do with nothing." Mrs. White nods at that before starting to walk off. The rest of the group followed behind her.