DUNE-A False Haderach (OC X Shishakli) (OC x Alia)

Part 11

Chapter 6b

~At the beginning of Dune 1~

DUKE LETO ATREDIES-The Duke of Arrakis

House Atredies had officially completed its move from Caladan to Arrakis as the last of the ships landed on the desert planet, signaling a new beginning for the House of Atriedes.

Caldan had been home to their house for twenty-six generations, yet no longer would the House of Atreides call the planet his home. Now, this desert wasteland was their home, and Leto already missed the air of Caladan.

Arrakis was a hard planet, its environment unsuitable for life, with its sweltering air and frequent storms.

Of the two settlements they had chosen to settle down on Arrakeen, the city was evaluated to be a better fortress defensibly by Hwatt, though it was less luxurious and comfortable than the settlement of Cartagar on the other side, where Harkonnen's had once lived.

House Atreides and its men worked quickly to secure the settlement so they could continue with spice production, an endeavour extremely vital to their survival. The revenue of many Houses of the Imperium depended on the CHOAM company profits, which were highly linked to Spice production.

House Atreides's survival depended heavily on the support of these Houses, whose support he intended to use after thwarting the Harkonen attempt as he would take the case to the Landsraad Council.

"So, have you made any sense of Idaho's message?" he questioned as he found himself sitting alone with his war master, Gurney Halleck, once more.

The burley man nodded.

"I thought much about it, scouring all the records and rumors, and I believe I have an idea of whom the message was from," Gurney replied as he opened up a holographic screen and opened a video file.

"I was able to retrieve this clip after scavenging through the Harkonen security drives," he began as he played the video.

It was from a camera in the city, and he watched as a Harkonen guard unit made their rounds of the city, but it suddenly happened.

It all began with a simple explosion, basking the area in the smoke.

And then a figure blurred through the dust cloud, as sounds of screams and gunfire filled the area, yet the sounds ended quickly, and all that remained of the Harkonen soldiers once the dust settled was only unmoving bodies.

The screen vanished as he turned towards Gurney.

"The Harkonnens wiped away every second of security footage when they were leaving. I was able to scavenge this after a lot of hard work."

"This is the Kazab," he confirmed, and Gurney nodded.

"Indeed, he moved as a blur, using some foreign technology to move through the cloud so swiftly," Gurney added as he brought up the video and showed the moving blur in slow motion; the quality was poor, and he could barely make out the figure, yet it was human nonetheless.

"You believe the demand was from him," he questioned, and Gurney nodded.

"I do," Gurney agreed, and Leto leaned back as he contemplated this piece of information. He had suspected so, but this more or less confirmed his suspicion.

"According to Duncan, this Kazab is a Freman but works independently of the others. He is described as a freedom fighter. He has considerable numbers under his command and has years of experience fighting the Harkonens. He could be a very useful ally in this fight," he reasoned out, and Gurney nodded.