Jack of Harts

Tarian was the commander of an orbital station over Arnami Prime when I first met him. I didn’t expect to see him again, at least not anytime soon. So it was a bit of a surprise when I found him at the head of an Arnam fleet. Well, technically he found me, but who’s counting? For a man who never thought of himself as a warrior, Tarian became the mother of all headaches for the Shang. And you know what else? I think he’s an example of just how all that Albion engineering is starting to break down after over two millennia. He didn’t go back to his little pond after War’s End. He’s still one of the mildest-mannered people I’ve ever known. He’s still got all the control they built into him. But I think the Albion would be worried about all the control over the controls he achieved after twenty years of War. He can start a fight now. That alone would scare the Albion spitless, but it’s not the only change. The War forged him into a far more implacable foe than the Shang ever wanted to see. I can’t help but think that was one of the better-earned and well-deserved changes The War brought about.

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