Horses charged through the dry Alsalsca Dalphan Savanna. A beige cloud of dust followed them as they galloped down the dirt road. Passing through areas of less and less vegitation, they entered the edge of the great desert, where the flat dirt plains extended as far as the horizon, broken only by the brown rocks and small tufts of tumbleweed that dotted the landscape. The party of six on horseback was well armed, with two swordsmen in front, two archers in the rear, and the two officers in the middle. The officer on the left was the oldest and had the most ornately designed armor. It was silver with green accoutrements and a long green cape that flowed behind him as he rode. His helmet was also polished silver and had a green plume that pointed up and flowed down the back of his head. His face was clean shaven which revealed his iron jaw set into his chizled face. An observer from far could even tell that this was a hard man.

The prison camp was sprawling in size and was surrounded by archer towers with a small fence that ran along the octagonal perimeter. The party of six rode up to the warden's office by the front gate. Armored guards came up to take their horses and the older officer conversed briefly with one of them before walking inside.

The Warden of the prison camp sifted through his papers, reading reports and running a hand through his greying hair, trying to aleviate the stress. The door openned in front of him and the officer walked in, his boots clicking against the stone floor.

The Warden dropped his papers and rose to his feet in surprise, "General, I was just finishing some things up. I have cleared most of the paperwork, but I still have not been able to get an office for you and your staff. I can move out and give you mine in the time being, let me just get these papers out of your way-"

"That is quite unnecessary Warden," the General said, looking around the small room, "you have a lot to do here, and so far my new position here has made no demands of me. I will be content just to get your reports as well as the reports of the other wardens and make a tour of this camp, if you can spare the time."

"By all means General," the Warden nodded, making his way around the desk to the side of the General, "If you would follow me sir, we could walk and talk about your new duties here."

The two walked around the inside of the prison camp's perimeter, the two guards following toting spears. The warden smirked, "Governor of the 15th territory, I did not know that we were even a territory."

The General shook his head, "It does not seem that three prison camps in the desert would constitute a new territory, but names and titles are mostly meaningless anyway. Yesterday, this region was considered a protectorate, now it is a territory. This is my new outpost. I suppose I will have to get used to this new reality."

"Well sir, a promotion is a promotion," the Warden squinted his eyes to avoid the piercing sunlight.

"The only reason I was moved was to relieve me of the command of the Southern guard. It is a lot harder to retire a General than it seems. I have enough popularity to make a lot of people angry if I had been forced out of the service. Only in Alsalsca Dalpha can they banish a man and call it a promotion," the General looked around at the towers, reflecting, "What fools they are back in the capital. We were in the perfect position to solidify our holdings in the South and fortify against the Starpians and then our government disbands half of my troops and orders me back to guard the mountain passes. By now, our enemies have taken all our Southern holdings and agitate for a war against us.

The Warden looked confused, "Our enemies, I always believed the Starpians were our allies."

"Allies?" the General scoffed, "Allies do not build up their forces against each other. Allies do not sabotage trade interests or steal territory. They tried to gain leverage with us by blaming us for that ambush years ago. I still do not know who was responsible for it but I always suspected it was an inside job."

"You mean that they would-"

The General grimaced as if it was obvious, "Of course. It is a perfect excuse to start a quarrel with us. I mean, they never needed an excuse before, but since we just helped them win the war against the Barbarians they probably needed to stage something like that to convince some of their politicians that we were really looking out for only our own interests. I asked one of their officers if he could show me some of the equipment that was supposedly left by our raiding party but he flatly said no, and then became angry that I even had the audacity to ask for something like that."

The Warden looked over inquisitively at the General, "I wonder why they didn't declare war on us? They seemed to have the perfect provocation."

The General smiled, "Well, most of that is politics. Don't forget that the Starpians were still recovering from a major war. Besides that fact, our government was so quick to make ammends, it would not have been prudent for the Stapians to fight us. They simply didn't have to. We just let them have the territory, plus all the trade agreements they wanted. Admitting that one of our militias was responsible for it was the peak of folly. I kept in contact with most of the local militia commanders and none of them would have attacked a Starpian battalion. They really had no proof, but compromise is what our government does best. I don't compromise, that is why I was sent here. There is no reason why we should have been afraid of war before, Starpia was weak and vulnerable. Their army was spread out across a thousand mile radius. But now they are consolidated and ready. They have spent eight years building up their forces again. They have been massing weapons and supplies. An invasion is coming but I think our Senate is to afraid to realize it."

The two completed their circle of the camp, and before them, in the center of the camp, the entire camp population was assembled. Their clothes were dirty and ragged, but they seemed healthy and well fed. The General examined the formation. It was about the nastiest conclomeration he had ever seen. Only the guards around the perimeter were in any kind of reasonable posture. The prisoners were talking, turning around to look at each other, and in general, making an obsene spectacle. As the Sergeant of the guard saw the General coming, he quickly stopped talking to the man next to him yelled to the prisoners, "Quiet down, quiet down, General Sihla has some words for you, hey, come on now!"

The plea was not being recieved well, and the General politely waved the Sergeant of the guard aside, then addressed the group, "When he says quiet down, that means shut your nasty freaking holes before I run my sword through your gut!"

The din of conversation eased mostly, except for a few prisoners that were still being a disruption. Suddenly the General became animated and charged across the courtyard. He aproached a group of prisoners in the front that were still talking, "Hey, you don't think I am talking to you?" A couple straitenned but a big prisoner in the front still had his back to him. The General butted the front of his helmeted head into him, "Do you?!"