Page 0167

  << First  < Page 166  /  Main Plot  \  Page 168 >  Last >>  

This content is not published under a Creative Commons license! Text and images are used in this wiki only with permission of the author. The content should stay true to the original.
Follow this link to get to the original: http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/150505.html

http://cdn.drivecomic.com/strips/main/150505_1430837107.png

Transcript

show

• palacio real | calle bailen | madrid
• It's 3AM as I write this, and my thoughts are muddled by worries and wine -- so you'll forgive me if I start with a brief story...
  
• In my teenage years, I trained with the brightest minds in the Empire. Experts in History, Calculus, Elocution, Marksmanship, Krav Maga -- all flown in to Madrid for endless lessons with "the petulant prince". Training me, they hoped, to be a great emperor like my father.
  
• So when I was 15, I welcomed the freedom of going to Drive Corps. What others saw as forced military service, I saw as my first chance for movement, for travel! For anything other than a damned classroom. But even that joy was short-lived: At my graduation ceremony, I received a ten-word note from my (absent) father:
  
• "Congratulations. Report to Beijing Imperial University in two days. --Pablo"
• So off I went to my new jail, for four more years of studies. "The Great Libraries of Beijing..." and all that. But while I was there -- and I don't remember how -- I became fascinated with the Ming Dynasty. Odd, I know. But my mind was filled with fear about how I could ever follow my father...so I suppose it was natural to fixate on the histories of the Hongzhi Emperor and his son, The Zhengde Emperor. Was there ever a bigger contrast in leaders? The father: A noble, honorable exemplar of Confucian wisdom. The son: A corrupt, selfish bastard. Was that going to be my fate?
  
• But in my studies, I found the ONE SHARED SECRET that these two different men had in common. The just king and his terrible son? BOTH had their killers in the night. Their spies. Their assassins. Their guards of the highest obedience. Servants willing to do anything to serve their emperor.
  
• The Jinyiwei.
  
• I mention all of that because this business with Nuevo Chile can not be tolerated. My father thought it could be settled over cafecitos, but it can't. I sense collusion from the Centro Imperial de Intelligencia and IndustriaGlobo. Very few can be trusted.
  
• So now that I am emperor, here is what we will do: We will learn from the Ming.
  We will re-establish The Jinyiwei. And you, Captain, will be the first in that vanguard.
  
• You will be my eyes, my ears, and my knife-hand. You will speak for me. You will kill for me.
  You will be judge, jury, and executioner, wherever you go. You will answer to no governor, no jurisdiction, no familia member. You are to find my enemies wherever they are, and end them.
  And you will start by going to Nuevo Chile.
  
• You will be like a fist that comes out of nowhere.
  You will move mountains. You will move stars.
  You will keep us in power.
  
• R et I
  
• (First-Generation) Vid-Pack Letter from Emperor Osvaldo I to Captain Jane Rench. Held at the The Panopticon of The Jinyiwei, Brussels, Belgium

Trivia

• This page is called "Imperial Fears"
• Krav Maga is a self-defense technique
• Translations:
  • palacio real - royal palace
  • Jinyiwei - literally: "brocade-clad guard"
  • cafecito - black coffee
  • R. et I. (short for Rex et Imperator) - king and emperor
• This is the first mention of emperor Osvaldo.
• This is the first mention of captain Jane Rench.