Siregar and Ibn Jameel convened inside the base commander's quarters at Tiger's Nest, the pro-coup forces' last remaining stronghold.

Also present were a small group of officers. Each of them had sworn their loyalty to Siregar and the coup, and were handpicked by the Field-Marshal himself to lead the units that had joined him to wage war against the Empire. This was what he had called his Council of the Righteous.

Seated beside Siregar was Brigadier Davon Kusnanda. A thin and wiry man with a somewhat hawkish appearance, he once served as a commander in Special Forces Command, an elite infantry unit in the Army which specialises in covert operations. In the heyday of his career he and a few other members of the Red Berets – a sobriquet for SFC members, named after their crimson berets – had infiltrated an Israeli command post during the Mid-East War, killing the commander and his staff, thus allowing the Sixth Army's armoured spearheads to launch an attack which succeeded in pushing the Israeli forces away from the Syrian capital of Damascus. During the coup he and his unit were tasked with carrying out the assassination of the Emperor and his advisors, failing to do so due to a joint BKN-Marine effort to evacuate the Emperor and his staff from the besieged Imperial Centre.

Next to him sat Colonel Djunaedi, former head of Military Intelligence's Foreign Division. In the weeks leading up to the coup, he and his former superior General Abdat had approached several Arab Sheikhs and asked for their support in deposing the Emperor, in exchange for the renegotiation and revocation of several treaties ratified in the aftermath of the Arab Gulf states' military defeat at the hands of the Empire during the First Mid-East War.

Though the Empire was swift and thorough in its purge against pro-coup elements in both the Army and the Senate, it had far less success in dealing with the intelligence community to which Djunaedi had belonged, many of whom were capable of hiding their true loyalties. This allowed him and others to escape when the Empire was closing in on Abdat's spy ring, thereby giving pro-coup forces access to crucial information, enabling them to fight regime forces on equal terms during the first few months of the insurrection.

Across the table sat Lieutenant-General Luthfi Ahmed Prawiro, former commandant of the Imperial Academy at Semarang in Central Java. He'd also once served as commander of the Imperial Army's Armoured Corps training division. A thick-necked bull of a man, his physical strength belied an intellectual fascination towards the combat psychology of soldiers. Unlike the rest, Prawiro had second thoughts about lending his support to the pro-coup forces; doing so only out of loyalty to his peers, many of whom had Islamist sympathies and supported Siregar's faction within the Army leadership.

Last was General Eko Arief, commander of the infantry units. As the oldest council member, he was already active during the Civil War, fighting on the side of the Fascist Alliance against the Republic government. Under the Empire, Arief led his forces in combat against numerous leftist anti-Imperial militia groups. When the time came to choose a side in the power struggle between Hakim and Siregar, the veteran commander chose to support the latter; unable to stomach an Empire that was to be led by a non-native ethnic Chinese, who only rose to power for having been a trusted confidant of the late Emperor Byoma.

These were all hard faces, Ibn Jameel thought. Hard, serious faces.

"Gentlemen," Siregar began. "I've received information which demands our collective attention."

Ibn Jameel pressed the button on the table as soon as Siregar gave him the signal. The table's holoprojector flashed immediately, and with it a few moving images of Imperial loyalist units engaged in battle with pro-coup forces across Central and West Java.

Siregar moved the holovid forward, to a scene of Imperial shuttles landing at Bogor Aerodrome, from which convocations of officers disembarked. Many of them were dressed in battle camo, instead of the field-grey or olive tunics worn by members of the Imperial officer corps.

"Our spies reported the arrival of Imperial shuttles and transports at the Aerodrome just two days ago. Based on the sudden increase of regime troop concentration in the area, it's safe to say they are preparing for an attack against Tiger's Nest."

Siregar's loud and rousing voice, typical of the Batak Muslim people he belonged to, was enough to elicit the desired reaction from the other officers. Djunaedi and Kusnanda voiced their dismay at the situation. Only Prawiro was somewhat tepid in his reaction – merely drawing his eyebrows together and, for a brief moment, showing an expression betraying some sort of foreknowledge and inevitability to the situation at hand.

"A dire situation," Kusnanda exclaimed. "We're reeling from one defeat after another, and now the Imperials are coming in to bring the final blow."

"A year ago we had the Emperor hunkered down inside the Imperial Palace," Djunaedi said. "If only we'd dealt with him and his lackeys, we would certainly have been the ones on the offensive today."

Amidst the bickering and lamenting of his fellow council members Prawiro felt compelled to speak his thoughts. "If only," he exclaimed. "Wishful thinking gets us nowhere. Face it, Djunaedi, the Empire is too powerful for us to defeat through brute force."

"We'll fight on," Djunaedi said. "We shall give the Emperor and his lackeys all the fight they want, even if it means sacrificing ourselves for the cause."

"And so you intend to lead our men to their foolish deaths," Prawiro remarked.

"Watch your tongue, Prawiro! Your defeatism does not –"

"Enough of this, both of you!" Siregar exclaimed. "Prawiro, I'm interested to hear more from you regarding our future prospects in the struggle."

"Sir, our prospects of winning against the regime are practically nil at this point," Prawiro said. "They outnumber us by more than thirteen to one. As I've said many times before, our only option is to convert our forces into smaller guerrilla cells and keep a low profile. That way we'll continue to harry the regime forces until we can engage them openly again."

"And how many years must we wait to do so?" Djunaedi asked. "Ten? Twenty? The Empire would've killed us all by then."

Arief, who had remained silent thus far, decided to speak up. "Unfortunately Prawiro is right. Our forces are only a fraction of what the regime has right now. On the other hand, transitioning to guerrilla warfare will make it more difficult for them to hunt us down. Such has been my experience fighting leftist militias back in the early days of the Empire."

"So even General Arief agrees," Kusnanda said. "Then it's true. These are dark days for all of us."

Siregar rose from his chair and paced a semicircle around the table. "I'm aware of our limitations in light of recent setbacks. I know the war is as good as lost the moment we failed in the coup. But let us recall in the months that followed, we made the regime pay a high price for each victory. We must ensure that they will never fully eradicate our movement despite their best efforts.

"That said, some matters must be addressed first," he continued. "Most pertinent is the Imperial troop concentration in Bogor. Normally I would allow our forces to abandon Tiger's Nest in the face of an inevitable regime attack, but this time I won't allow it."

"Why not?" Kusnanda asked.

Siregar did not reply and touched the interface on his side of the table. Hovering above the centre of the table in high-res were the holograms of Assegaf and Hadisubroto, both in command of the Imperial loyalist forces.

"They're the reason I decided to pursue this course of action," he said at last. Though Siregar tried his best to hide it, Ibn Jameel could see the change in his expression as he stared at Assegaf's holoimage. The look was that of a predator waiting to meet his prey, relishing each and every moment leading up to the fateful encounter.

"The Empire still deems us enough of a threat to send their best commanders against us," Siregar continued. "But time after time Assegaf has always denied us our rightful victory. Now it's time to stop him. We shall lure him into a trap and straight into our hands. With him gone, we can finally begin to turn the tide of the war."

The others did not immediately respond. From his position, Ibn Jameel wondered whether or not Siregar was about to break into his usual lengthy tirades against the Empire. He did not.

"How do you plan to do that?" Prawiro finally asked.

"That's for General Arief and I to discuss," Siregar replied. "Now, let us discuss how to best defend ourselves from the coming attack."