The situation in Lucis was serious, but Gladio didn't feel that it was quite the edge-of-the-void level of serious Ignis did. The Niflheim Empire were a problem, that much was certain, but they weren't quite congregating at the Wall with several fully armed battalions just yet. They were just growing in power, and dangerously so.
The rest of Jylland was safe but then... they would be. They operated as a Union, a Union that Lucis had declined to join when they ended their isolation a century ago, and had kept declining regardless of changes in circumstances or monarch since. If one of the Jyllandi Union city states got attacked by invading Niflheim forces, the others were duty-bound to come to their rescue. Lucis had no such assurances. It was an ally to the Union, but not a member of it, so while they had opened themselves up to trade agreements and any number of personal alliances with Jyllandi individuals of varying levels of power and influence, they lacked the protection that members had.
Joining had not been an option, Clarus Amicitia, Gladio's father, had said, not even if done nominally as Ankh-Morpork and Altissia had. Doing so would be too difficult to negotiate. It would involve giving the Lucian cities outside of Insomnia the sort of independence that shifted the balance of everything, on both sides of the scale. Insomnia would lose valuable resources and the other cities, Lestallum and Galahd and Balterossa... they would lose the protection that being within the territory of Lucis currently afforded them, and throw them into a state of governmental chaos as they scrambled to establish a leader, policies and a military of their own. They all lacked either the size, manpower or Remnants that the Union member-states had and, if separated from the country's protection, would render them easy targets for Niflheim's aggressive expansionist policies. That wasn't even taking into account the frontier villages, extra-city rest-stops or wilderness ranches.
Niflheim was currently comprised mostly of their capital city, a few nowhere-rivals to Lucis's own rag-tag bunch of settlements and villages strewn across the vastness of Überwald and Ueltham. They shouldn't be a threat, and yet... the intelligence they had suggested that they were and that they'd been gathering forces of late, new weaponry included. It was something they couldn't take lightly, even if they weren't lurking at their borders just yet, and that was why he and Ignis were wading into a nest of vipers.
Gladio hadn't been told which member or members of the Lucian Government were actually members of Clan Khamja, ostensibly for his own safety and also because he lacked the clearance for information of that level as yet. He was the Prince's Shield, not the King's. All he knew was that somebody was a member and had been since they had been approached by an undisclosed individual from the Clan. Ignis also had a contact associated with the Clan outside of Lucis, because he had family there. They were supposed to vouch for them, assuming they had already arrived.
He didn't know much about the Clan, either, not that he was supposed to. As far as he knew, they were variously described as a mixed-country Clan that did things below the table, never above board, and took on jobs and tasks of varying levels of legality, in secret. Some referred to them as terrorists.
His father had been clear on what to and not to do.
Listen to what is being said. Take in who is there, especially if they're Jyllandi. Don't start anything with any member or representative. Don't ask too many questions. Don't give away more information than you get. Don't volunteer information about Lucis when it's not pertinent to do so and even then use your judgment on whether to reveal any of it. Better still, leave it to Ignis.
It all fell under Ignis's training. Ignis was to do the talking. Gladio himself was there in his usual job roll -- a shield, albeit not to the Prince for the moment, but his Hand. Treat Ignis's safety with the same level of diligence as you'd treat that of Prince Noctis.
It was nerve wracking, but they needed the aid of the Clan if they were to remain safe against Niflheim, even if receiving it meant tap-dancing on very thin ice.
The entrance to the Clan's Headquarters was well-hidden. Nearly impossible to find from the air without a map and probably worse from the ground, it was surrounded by Jagd to make life even more difficult. Jagd-proof ships were hard to come by, especially on the continent of Jylland. There were specific non-Jagd flight paths designed to negotiate off-continent flight without falling foul of them. That didn't help when you had to fly to a HQ in one. As such, the royal mechanic, or at least, the granddaughter of King Regis's favourite mechanic, had managed, against all the odds, to procure an old Jagd-proof engine to insert into a new vehicle prototype for the trip. It was risky, and akin to sitting in a car for hours on end, but it worked well. Ignis even landed it smoothly, if amongst much larger and more impressive-looking ships.
"Is your contact supposed to be here yet?" Gladio asked gruffly, eyes scanning the hangar with the same sort of ill-disguised nervous curiosity seen on the faces of children visiting the houses of friends for the first time.
Even if they weren't, Clarus had assured them they shouldn't have a problem. Granted, he'd done so with the sort of tight-lipped expression a doctor might give somebody when telling the they should be able to save the limb, but it was enough. Members of Khamja were allowed representatives to attend meetings if they couldn't, if cleared with them first, and they definitely had been.
no subject
The rest of Jylland was safe but then... they would be. They operated as a Union, a Union that Lucis had declined to join when they ended their isolation a century ago, and had kept declining regardless of changes in circumstances or monarch since. If one of the Jyllandi Union city states got attacked by invading Niflheim forces, the others were duty-bound to come to their rescue. Lucis had no such assurances. It was an ally to the Union, but not a member of it, so while they had opened themselves up to trade agreements and any number of personal alliances with Jyllandi individuals of varying levels of power and influence, they lacked the protection that members had.
Joining had not been an option, Clarus Amicitia, Gladio's father, had said, not even if done nominally as Ankh-Morpork and Altissia had. Doing so would be too difficult to negotiate. It would involve giving the Lucian cities outside of Insomnia the sort of independence that shifted the balance of everything, on both sides of the scale. Insomnia would lose valuable resources and the other cities, Lestallum and Galahd and Balterossa... they would lose the protection that being within the territory of Lucis currently afforded them, and throw them into a state of governmental chaos as they scrambled to establish a leader, policies and a military of their own. They all lacked either the size, manpower or Remnants that the Union member-states had and, if separated from the country's protection, would render them easy targets for Niflheim's aggressive expansionist policies. That wasn't even taking into account the frontier villages, extra-city rest-stops or wilderness ranches.
Niflheim was currently comprised mostly of their capital city, a few nowhere-rivals to Lucis's own rag-tag bunch of settlements and villages strewn across the vastness of Überwald and Ueltham. They shouldn't be a threat, and yet... the intelligence they had suggested that they were and that they'd been gathering forces of late, new weaponry included. It was something they couldn't take lightly, even if they weren't lurking at their borders just yet, and that was why he and Ignis were wading into a nest of vipers.
Gladio hadn't been told which member or members of the Lucian Government were actually members of Clan Khamja, ostensibly for his own safety and also because he lacked the clearance for information of that level as yet. He was the Prince's Shield, not the King's. All he knew was that somebody was a member and had been since they had been approached by an undisclosed individual from the Clan. Ignis also had a contact associated with the Clan outside of Lucis, because he had family there. They were supposed to vouch for them, assuming they had already arrived.
He didn't know much about the Clan, either, not that he was supposed to. As far as he knew, they were variously described as a mixed-country Clan that did things below the table, never above board, and took on jobs and tasks of varying levels of legality, in secret. Some referred to them as terrorists.
His father had been clear on what to and not to do.
Listen to what is being said. Take in who is there, especially if they're Jyllandi. Don't start anything with any member or representative. Don't ask too many questions. Don't give away more information than you get. Don't volunteer information about Lucis when it's not pertinent to do so and even then use your judgment on whether to reveal any of it. Better still, leave it to Ignis.
It all fell under Ignis's training. Ignis was to do the talking. Gladio himself was there in his usual job roll -- a shield, albeit not to the Prince for the moment, but his Hand. Treat Ignis's safety with the same level of diligence as you'd treat that of Prince Noctis.
It was nerve wracking, but they needed the aid of the Clan if they were to remain safe against Niflheim, even if receiving it meant tap-dancing on very thin ice.
The entrance to the Clan's Headquarters was well-hidden. Nearly impossible to find from the air without a map and probably worse from the ground, it was surrounded by Jagd to make life even more difficult. Jagd-proof ships were hard to come by, especially on the continent of Jylland. There were specific non-Jagd flight paths designed to negotiate off-continent flight without falling foul of them. That didn't help when you had to fly to a HQ in one. As such, the royal mechanic, or at least, the granddaughter of King Regis's favourite mechanic, had managed, against all the odds, to procure an old Jagd-proof engine to insert into a new vehicle prototype for the trip. It was risky, and akin to sitting in a car for hours on end, but it worked well. Ignis even landed it smoothly, if amongst much larger and more impressive-looking ships.
"Is your contact supposed to be here yet?" Gladio asked gruffly, eyes scanning the hangar with the same sort of ill-disguised nervous curiosity seen on the faces of children visiting the houses of friends for the first time.
Even if they weren't, Clarus had assured them they shouldn't have a problem. Granted, he'd done so with the sort of tight-lipped expression a doctor might give somebody when telling the they should be able to save the limb, but it was enough. Members of Khamja were allowed representatives to attend meetings if they couldn't, if cleared with them first, and they definitely had been.