Divide and conquer, deceive to prosper

[TheJarl]

Freya Eistochter

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Life is complicated. Politics are complicated. Being an outlaw is complicated. These are observations that few people would disagree with. It’s no wonder then that dedicating your life to an outlawed political movement can give you quite the headache sometimes. For Freya Eistochter, the infamous leader of the Bundschuh party, such a headache is felt today as she prepares for the trial of Nika Haupt.

Sitting in her office with several of her confidants, Freya looks through the documents on the screen of her datapad. “Dr. Annika Haupt, Kommandant der Vereinigte Widerstandsarmee. Accusations: Insubordination; murder of a fellow party member; conspiracy against party leadership.” It doesn’t even matter of which she is guilty and of which she is not. What matters is what verdict would benefit Freya and her followers the most.

The circumstances make things a lot more complicated than she would have liked. Normally Freya, as head of the Central Committee, would be one of the judges for the trial which would’ve made things easier. It hadn’t been possible to deny any involvement by herself however as Die Festung had betrayed her and revealed her to have at least some involvement. Thus she has already provided the committee with her story beforehand. She now has to rely on her allies in the committee, her own performance as a witness and a little bit of help from another sect with their own agenda.

She takes a deep breath. “Alright, Genossen, it’s almost time. Shadiya, is Nika fully informed of our strategy?” Shadiya, a young woman with olive skin, sitting at the side of Freya’s desk, replies. “Perhaps after all this is over you should consider introducing stricter regulations, Freya. Although, for now, the lack of a proper internal judicial system is favourable to us.” Freya nods. “Noted.” She turns to a man standing next to the seated Shadiya. “Lars, do you expect any trouble from Klugmann’s dogs?” The man grinned. “They will be all too happy to portray you as reckless and with Jannik as deputy leader heading the committee they will be a lot less suspicious.”

Freya smiled. It might not be easy, but success seems likely. The failure of the previous operation might now turn out to ultimately strengthen the party and avoid a devastating split.

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