The War for Ghimderi continued to wage, much to the shock of the galaxy. And as time went on, and casualties began to mount, the Ghimderi Defense Forces were starting to lose morale. After all, aside from the high-ranking officers, the overwhelming majority of the GDF were foreign mercenaries.

What started as a small amount of hit-and-run attacks against military targets, and a series of large-scale terrorist attacks against economic centers, had quickly turned into brutal urban warfare. As the Parvaxian Insurgency, which now became known as the Parvaxian Liberation Organization or the PLO across the galaxy, had begun seizing cities and defending them against the GDF.

The heavy armored vehicles and overwhelming air superiority of the GDF became largely negated, as IEDs, MANPADS, rocket artillery, and ATGMs became employed all across PLO occupied territory. Over a three dozen GDF fighters had been shot out of the sky, while the total numbers of GDF Armored Vehicles that had been scrapped by PLO insurgents were quickly approaching the double digits.

Meanwhile, the Parvaxians had begun using the Ghimderi citizens as hostages, in an attempt to prevent them from outright glassing the cities that the PLO currently occupied. Every single attempt to take these cities resulted in heavy losses for the GDF, who had to kick down doors in an attempt to hunt down and eliminate the insurgents.

It was entirely unknown which of these houses and buildings had a fortified machine guns nest, or which room contained hostiles. Leading to an increase in battle fatigue among GDF forces, or at least those who survived the encounters.

For Erich, this was the best outcome he could have asked for. Thousands of interstellar civilizations poured in countless resources in aid of the Ghimderi Trade Union, all the while their economies were in a state of total depression.

Though they had not realized it yet, the galactic powers who did send military aid to the Trade Union, were quickly causing their own people to become dissident, as they wondered why their governments could afford to send trillions of credits in military aid to a foreign civilization, while their own citizens starved in the streets.

And while the Silber Enclave continued to make a fortune off of this crisis, which had increased the desire across the Milky Way for defense equipment. He had also shipped all the weapons that the PLO needed to continue their war of attrition directly to the front lines. How had he done this? With stealth freighters that were capable of getting past Ghimderi Defenses with relative ease.

By now Bixel had begun to suspect that the Silber Enclave was behind the PLO and their attacks, but he simply had no proof. After all, even he did not know how the Enclave had managed to produce such advanced stealth equipment, or how they kept sending weapons to the insurgents.

But the old goblin was almost entirely certain that it was the Enclave behind these attacks. After all, they were the ones who profited the most off of this galactic depression. Even though Tia Heavy Industries tried to hide where it was located, after exceptional efforts to dig out their base of operations, the Trade Union was able to reveal that their factories were most likely located in the Silber Enclave.

Still, other Trade Princes disagreed with Bixel’s theory that the Silber Enclave was behind the PLO. After all, it had been their IPO, which was bombed during the attack on the galactic stock exchange. And because of that, several Ghimderi Trade Princes were gathered to discuss this theory, and whether or not there was any truth behind it. One of Bixel’s rivals was quick to point this out.

“Why would Tia Heavy Industries and the Silber Enclave be responsible for the PLO’s attacks on the Galactic Stock Exchange while it was their IPO that was hit? They lost trillions because of this attack!”

However, Bixel simply scoffed, before pointing to a holographic projection that showed what his rival had said was patently false, while pointing out the brilliant scheme that Tia and Erich had come up with.

“Because they never planned to take their company public to begin with! It was all an elaborate ruse to maintain plausible deniability! Look at all the shares that were supposedly purchased by outside investors! If you did enough into their backgrounds, they are all dummy corporations set up by Tia Heavy Industries!

They bought their own shares! And those that were sold off to actual foreign investors were bought up after the economic depression at a fraction of what the investors had paid for them! Tia Heavy Industries is 100% under the control of its owner. And who is this owner? The self proclaimed Emperor Erich Jaeger!

You all know the threat he issued to us! He intends to destroy the Ghimderi Trade Union, and the Ghimderi Race as a whole! By equipping and training these backwards savages with modern weapons, he is able to send a message! This is nothing short of petty retaliation!”

Several of the other Trade Princes looked at Bixel in confusion before asking just what he meant by the last part of his statement.

“Retaliation? Retaliation for what? What exactly did we do to provoke such a violent response? Sure the Germanic people despise us, everybody knows that. But they have never outright attacked us before! Would this not be an act of aggression? Why did you use the word retaliation to describe these attacks?”

Bixel froze on the spot… He had completely outed himself, and was just about to deny and subvert, when one of his allies spoke up and revealed his schemes.

“It would indeed be an act of retaliation, because Bixel here decided to interfere with the upcoming Germanic Civil War by purchasing the services of the Deva Kali, who was a close personal ally of Erich until not very long ago.

Bixel paid Kali an astronomical sum to betray Erich, and in doing so, enabled the man’s enemies to neutralize the advantage that he had over them with his Iron Horde. Because of this, it is entirely reasonable that Erich would respond to Bixel’s provocation by arming and training the PLO to attack us.”

Bixel was indeed surprised by this sudden betrayal. The man who had testified against him to the other Trade Princes was a close friend and ally. Yet he had suddenly stabbed Bixel in the back. And immediately after revealing this information, the conference broke out into shouts of rage. All of his former allies, and all of his rivals, joined together to suddenly tear him down.

And why wouldn’t they? This attack was largely his fault. Not only that, but his allies and rivals had all been waiting for the day that Bixel finally slipped up. Four centuries of absolute power over the Ghimderi Trade Union, power which only increased by the year. And now they finally had their chance to dethrone the man.

“This is your fault! Without your provocations, Ghimderi wouldn’t be burning right now!”

“How dare you! Do you have any idea how many Ghimderi lives had been lost because of your schemes?”

“I call for a boycott of all Goldentooth goods! Bixel has finally gone too far with his plots and scheemes!”

“Second!”

Suddenly the entirety of the Ghimderi Trade Princes, men who ruled over galaxy wide merchant fleets, and banking clans had suddenly joined forces to bring Bixel to ruin. The old and slimy goblin could hardly believe this sudden betrayal as he tried to shift the blame to Erich.

“You fool! Why are you blaming me for what that silver-haired ** has done? I am not to blame for these attacks. If that filthy savage simply knew his place as our slave, then none of this would have happened! You should be blaming the Silber Enclave, and the Germanic Star-Empire! Not me! All I did was try to defeat a threat to our empire!”

Despite the fact that Erich was indeed to blame for the attacks, the Ghimderi simply had no evidence to corroborate these claims other than circumstance. And thus, it was easier to pin the blame on Bixel, and ruin his trade empire that had oppressed all the other Ghimderi Cartels and Banking Clans for centuries.

With this in mind, the Ghimderi held a vote, one that would thoroughly tear apart the Goldentooth Cartel, and divide its assets among the rest of the Ghimderi Trade Princesa. Bixel was ruined, and he only had one man to blame for it.

As for how the Ghimderi would use these assets to further fight the PLO. That was not their objective. The truth of the matter was that these Trade Princes believed everyone else in the galaxy was beneath them. Mere cattle, that included their own average citizens.

They would not spend a single credit of Bixel’s vast fortune on supplying the GDF and its war against the Parvaxian Insurgency. And why would they when the rest of the galaxy sent trillions of credits in aid each day? The greed of the Ghimderi knew no bounds, and what happened to Bixel was a perfect example of such a thing.