Date: 2017-12-22T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction
Description: The conquest of the Erasi has begun and fleets clash over Erasi worlds. But while the alliance of the Shara Daim, Empire, and Krashinar has an advantage, the war is far from won. The Erasi industrial capacity as well as their population and size make it hard to conquer and harder to hold. And while the invasion across the outer Erasi systems is going well, the alliance is yet to clash with the Erasi core fleets. The Erasi Weaver, Valanaru, sends forces into Krashinar territory forcing most of their Great Packs to retreat in order to defend their worlds. And even though the alliance forces seem
Publisher: Independently published

CONQUEST

Rise of the Empire series

IVAN KAL

Copyright © 2017 by Ivan Kal

Art/Cover Copyright © 2017 by Nikola Nikolic

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Glossary

Timeline

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Interlude I

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Interlude II

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Interlude III

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Interlude IV

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Interlude V

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Interlude VI

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Interlude VII

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Interlude VIII

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Epilogue

Timeline

November 2103 – A faction of humanity – Olympus – leaves to colonize a planet in a star system 600 light years from Earth.

February 2159 – An alien race called the Ra’a’zani conquers Earth.

May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their destination; they name the planet Sanctuary. They get involved in a conflict against an alien race called the Sowir and ally themselves with the Nel of Nuva.

March 2170 – Resistance from Earth contacts Olympus on Sanctuary, asking for aid.

December 2171 – Olympus and The Sowir Dominion make a pact of non-aggression.

January 2172 – Olympus fleet arrives in the Sol system, engaging Ra’a’zani forces. The battle for Earth results in narrow human victory, but the cost is Earth. The Ra’a’zani weapon makes the planet uninhabitable.

March 2172, Year 1 of the Empire – Tomas Klein, leader of Olympus, creates the Empire.

December, Year 30 of the Empire – Sowir attack Nelus system, homeworld of the Nel. Empire breaks the non-aggression pact with Sowir by simultaneously sending aid to Nelus and invading the Sowir territory. Clan Leader Adrian Farkas overuses the Watchtower command interface, and falls into a coma.

January, Year 31 of the Empire – Adrian Farkas wakes up and hears the telepathic beacon from the sphere left by the originator of the human and Nel races, unlocking all the knowledge and technology contained inside.

March, Year 36 of the Empire – The Empire wins the war against the Sowir.

Year 36-Year 54 of the Empire – The Empire is at peace, focusing on exploring, developing technologies from the sphere of the People, and expanding their borders to reclaim Sol.

June, Year 54 of the Empire – The Empire meets an alien star-nation called the Erasi.

July, Year 54 of the Empire – Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas meets Dai Sha Anessa of the Shara Daim, the third race created by Axull Darr. Anessa attempts to capture Adrian; the fight ends in narrow victory for Adrian and his people. They take the Dai Sha prisoner.

January, Year 55 of the Empire – Shara Daim Elders recall all of their forces for an attack on the Empire, seeking the device left by Axull Darr.

June, Year 55 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel releases Dai Sha Anessa.

August, Year 55 of the Empire – The Empire defeats the Ra’a’zani, leaving their people abandoned on their worlds with no way of getting back into space.

September, Year 55 of the Empire – Three Shara Daim Legions attack Sol. The Lord Sentinel defends, defeating the invading forces, allowing Dai Sha Anessa and her remaining forces to leave Sol.

December, Year 55 of the Empire – The Erasi invade Shara Daim territory.

September, Year 56 of the Empire – After finding out about a conspiracy by the Elders of the Shara Daim, Dai Sha Anessa removes them from power, taking the rule of the Shara Daim for herself, claiming the title Kar Daim.

March, Year 57 of the Empire – The Shara Daim reach out to the Empire, inviting the Lord Sentinel to their homeworld Shara Radum for diplomatic talks.

June, Year 57 of the Empire – The Empire’s diplomatic task force is ambushed by the Erasi on their way to Shara Daim homeworld. One battleship is destroyed, but the rest of the taskforce manages to escape.

July, Year 57 of the Empire – The Empire and the Shara Daim reach an agreement, forming an alliance. The Empire becomes obligated to help the Shara Daim against the Erasi invasion.

November, Year 57 of the Empire – A large Erasi force is detected at the border of the Shara Daim: more than one hundred fleets move to reinforce the Erasi invasion.

July, Year 58 of the Empire – The Erasi attack the Empire embassy on Tarabat.

September, Year 58 of the Empire – The Shara Daim begin operations to retake their territory back from the Erasi. An Erasi stealth taskforce infiltrates Empire territory.

November, Year 58 of the Empire – The Shara Daim, the Empire, and the Erasi meet on neutral ground for negotiations. The Erasi break the truce and attempt to assassinate the Kar Daim and the Lord Sentinel. As a result the Empire joins the conflict fully on the side of the Shara Daim. At the same time, the Erasi taskforce in the Empire territory executes an attack on Sanctuary, killing millions of civilians and damaging the Hades Yards. The Star-Guard station is used for the first time, destroying the Erasi fleet.

December, Year 58 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas executes an advanced attack on the massive Erasi force, hoping to reduce their numbers before their invasion of Kaleras system. The attack is successful, but not enough. The Erasi force moves against Kaleras with overwhelming numbers. The defending Shara Daim and Empire forces fight a losing defensive battle. After days under siege, help from the Empire arrives in the form of the World-ship Enduring, the personal ship of Axull Darr. Adrian pilots the ship and destroys the Erasi force.

January, Year 59 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel uses the threat of the Enduring to force the Erasi out of the Orion spur. The Erasi agree to the truce under those terms and abandon all of their territory in the Orion Spur, ceding control to the Shara Daim and the Empire.

Year, 59-563 of the Empire – A period of peace and advancement; the alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire grows stronger, and both increase the sizes of their territories.

May, Year 563 of the Empire – One of the Enlightened, Aranis, arrives in the Empire and assumes the identity of one of its citizens.

November, Year 563 of the Empire – A joint attack by the Hand of the Empire and the Fleet on a pirate base suspected of colluding with the Erasi is carried out. Plans for the invasion of the alliance are discovered. On the rim, Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas makes contact with an enigmatic and powerful race called the Krashinar.

February, Year 564 of the Empire – A preemptive attack on the Erasi is executed by the Shara Daim, the Empire, and the Krashinar. The invasion of the Erasi territories begins.

Prologue

Gena system – Erasi capital

Vorash, O’fa of the Erasi, sat in the council meeting and listened as O’fa Valanaru argued her plan. The mood in the room was sour; the Shara Daim and the Empire had hit them hard, and along with their Krashin allies it was only a matter of time before the core systems of the Erasi came under siege. Many of the other O’fa were willing to do anything in order to win, not caring at all about their people, and so they were swayed by Valanaru’s words as she attempted to convince them to use the Crescent against their enemies. But Vorash was not yet at the point where he was willing to allow the use of such a weapon in their own systems.

Eventually she finished with her presentation and the council began their vote. Vorash hesitated for a moment, glancing at Valanaru, who had returned to her seat and was casting her vote. He turned his eyes back at his own console and cast his own vote. A moment later the holo in the middle of the room flashed on with the results. Five to four, against O’fa Valanaru’s plan to use the Crescent–as Vorash had made sure it would be. He studied Valanaru as she saw the results, and saw the rage behind her eyes. It disappeared quickly as she calmed and turned her sights on Vorash. She knew, of course, that it had been him that had made sure of the outcome. He was the only one who had enough political power to do so.

They sat through as the speaker brought their meeting to the end, and then he stood and exited the council room. He had not made it more than a few steps into the empty corridor when Valanaru caught up with him.

“Vorash,” she said, seeming calm, but he could hear the barely contained rage behind her facade. The old Valanaru would have never allowed anyone to notice her inner emotions, but she had not been herself since her and Vorash’s brother’s encounter with the Lord Sentinel of the Empire. Now, she was barely able to keep her emotions in check–rage and hate was always bubbling just below the surface. She was but a pale shadow of the Weaver.

“Valanaru, how may I help you?” Vorash said.

“Don’t feign innocence with me, Vorash. I see right through you. Your actions border on treason.”

“Treason?” he said with a tilt of his head. “Is it treason to act for the good of the Erasi people?”

“We need the Crescent if we are to turn this war around, and destroy our enemies!” she said.

“The Crescent is not operational,” Vorash commented.

Valanaru opened her mouth to respond but Vorash raised one of his upper hands, halting her. “Oh, I know what your reports say. You are very good at what you do, Weaver, I’ll give you that. Those reports might fool the others, but I am not them. Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out? You did only two tests with the Crescent, and only one was a success, if you can call losing a covert moon base a success. And the other… Well, I doubt that anyone would let you use the Crescent if they knew what happened.”

“It is a risk,” Valanaru admitted. “But we have no other choice. Any losses we suffer would be a small price to pay for stopping the invaders.”

“I will not let you use that monstrosity over the heads of our people, Valanaru. The lives of the Erasi people are not sacrifices for you to get your revenge.”

Valanaru’s eyes narrowed in anger, and she shook her head. “Garash would’ve been disgusted to hear you now. You are weak, Vorash! You spit on your brother’s memory.”

“There had been a time when my brother’s only desire was to save his people. It saddened me to watch him become the man he was at the end. All I do is in the name of the promise I once made to him: to protect our people.”

“And how are you doing that? By allowing invaders to take what is ours? Hundreds of systems in our outer territories are either under attack or in open rebellion–they see the invaders as a sign that we are weak. If we do not stop this soon, we will see the Erasi break apart long before we are conquered.”

“The core fleets are yet to meet the invaders in battle. I am confident that we will slow their advance.”

“Slow, not stop.”

“Find another way, Valanaru. The Crescent stays where it is. I will not stand by and let you spill Erasi blood, no matter how bad the situation gets. Show me that you can channel the Crescent without risk to our people and I will see to it that the council allows you to use it.”

He watched as she fought with herself. He could see that she wanted to push more, but eventually she shook her head and turned around, leaving him alone in the corridor. He gazed after her for a while, and suddenly found that the weight of all of his secrets and plans were threatening to crush him. Valanaru was the biggest threat in his way, the one element that he could not predict. Every year since her injury she had grown more and more unpredictable, prone to outbursts and irrational actions. And he dared not attempt to push her out; she wielded far too much power, even with all that he had done to change that. He needed her occupied, and no matter how sick it made him feel, the war was his best option. As long as her sights were fixed on getting her revenge, he could maneuver without fear of her finding out his own plans.

His thoughts were interrupted by a person approaching him. He turned to see a tall Ssarath slithering toward him.

“Skmeh,” Vorash greeted his assistant. “You did as I asked?”

“Yes, O’fa. The transport ship is ready for you,” Skmeh answered.

“Good,” Vorash said, and the two of them started toward the landing bay.

“She did not take the vote well, I assume?” Skmeh asked.

Vorash grunted. “No, she did not. Have our agents keep a closer eye on her. I wouldn’t put it past her to act regardless of the council’s decision.”

“You think she would disobey?”

“She is broken. There is only room for hate and the desire for vengeance in her soul.”

“I’ll see to it,” Skmeh said.

As they walked, he could not help but think back on the founding of the Erasi, when Garash and he had arrived in this area of space. When they had made the deal that eventually became the Erasi. They had only wanted to protect, to make sure that no one else suffered the same way that the Union did when the black ships arrived and took from them their homes.

The Erasi had been supposed to be something greater than the Union, something that was to have shone brightly and guide all around them. But somewhere along the way, protection turned to oppression. Vorash was not sure that he could even point to the exact moment it happened. Every action they took seemed valid at the time.

But the thing that hurt him the most was his brother’s fall. Garash had once been his idol, an example to all of their people of what they could be. But shouldering the safety of their people, and then of the Erasi, had turned him away from his values. In the end, he had not been any better than the Weaver.

His death saddened him, and he hated those who had ended Garash’s life, those who had robbed him of the chance to be redeemed. The way the Erasi spoke of the Heart of the Mountain, one might think he was the biggest monster there was. Vorash knew that it was Valanaru’s propaganda. He might hate the Heart of the Mountain for taking Garash’s life, but he understood that it was war. Vorash would not allow his pain and revenge to blind him and guide his actions. His only goal was to protect his people, to keep the people of the Erasi safe.

“How are the preparations going?” Vorash asked.

“On schedule, O’fa.”

“Good. I want you to send a courier ship to the meeting place with a message that all is going according to plan.”

“As you say, O’fa.”

They reached the landing bay and made their way toward their transport. The Erasi might be at war, but he still had much to do.

Chapter One

Year 565 of the Empire – Erasi territory

A piece of shrapnel hit Ryaana in the head, bouncing off her helmet and not slowing her down at all. She jumped over the Erasi line and threw down a powerful kinetic blast that crushed their plasma turret, sending pieces of it flying around and into the Erasi soldiers operating it as well as those standing nearby. She landed among the wreckage and the turrets on her shoulders fired at any survivors. She saw her team climbing over the fortification on her HUD, and they opened fire with their own weapons as they came close to her. Vas stepped close to her and raised a Sha shield over her, protecting her side just as a plasma shot fired from her right. It splattered harmlessly on his shield and he raised his rifle firing at their attacker. Her team moved through the point, disabling the massive anti-air turrets that were pointed toward the sky.

In minutes they cleared the last of the defenders and started setting up their positions and settling in to defend–the Erasi would not let them keep the point for long. Ryaana opened a channel to the fleet in orbit.

“Sentinel Ryaana reporting: anti-air turrets are down. Send in the pods.”

“Affirmative, Sentinel. Pods on their way.”

The Erasi responded with a weak attempt to retake the turrets, which her team repelled easily.

They stood in silence, her team holding the position though there weren’t any more attempts at retaking the turret.

“So, how did your night go?” Vas asked her over their private comms.

Ryaana turned and frowned at him, which he couldn’t see because of her helmet. “It was fine,” she said.

“Just fine?” Vas asked.

“All right, it was great, actually,” Ryaana said, a small smile forming on her face.

Ryaana had been very surprised when the tiny tech–well, tiny compared to a Shara Daim–had asked her out. So surprised in fact that she had thought that the tech–Marie–might’ve confused her with someone else. In the end, before Ryaana even knew what had happened, she had managed to make Ryaana agree to meet in the Herald of War’s mess hall, and then they spent most of the night walking through the ship and talking. It had been nice, and Marie had been nice as well.

“You should see her again,” Vas said.

Ryaana gave him a droll look and didn’t comment. Then Ryaana noticed new arrivals on her HUD and turned her eyes toward the sky. Her HUD zoomed in and she watched as hundreds of drop-ships flew toward the ground, eventually landing in the city below. The Erasi civilians had been mostly evacuated; the Empire had taken a long time reaching the planet, and they had allowed civilian ships to leave. The only ones left were their military. Ryaana was relieved that the authorities on the planet had seen reason; this had not been the case everywhere they had attacked. In most cases the military or those in charge had refused to let the civilians evacuate, making their jobs far harder. The Empire was not willing to cause the deaths of civilians in the name of conquest.

A single drop-ship landed near Ryaana’s position and army squad left taking over the point from Ryaana’s team. “All right, people, all aboard the ship. Our job is done for today,” Ryaana said to her team as the army took over the point for them. Her team entered the ship tiredly in silence.

Ryaana leaned her head back in her seat and relaxed as the ship took them back to the fleet. This was the tenth planet they had been deployed to in the last year since the war began, and it had taken its toll.

*  *  *

Several hours later, on the Herald of War, Ryaana walked out of her quarters after having showered and rested for a while, making her way to one of the meeting rooms. She arrived to find Vas waiting for her at the entrance. She smiled weakly at him and they entered. She made her way to her seat next to the head of the table and Vas took his position behind her. They were the first ones there but quickly the room started filling up. Next came Fleet Commander Johanna Stern and her second, the commander taking a seat next to Ryaana and nodding to her in greeting. After them came Lurker of the Depths, who took a seat across from Ryaana on a special chair that accommodated his Sowir build. After him came a large Guxcacul, Sentinel Riss, who knelt beside Lurker of the Depths on his six legs as he did not need a chair. Finally, Ryaana’s mother entered, followed closely by her father.

The Lord Commander and the Kar Daim made their way to the head of the table and took their seats there. Ryaana’s father smiled at her as he took the seat next to her.

“Welcome all,” the Lord Sentinel began. “I have called you all here to discuss the best way to proceed with our invasion, now that the Krashinar have been forced to retreat most of their forces as well as abandon their push against the Erasi’s rimward border. As you all know by now, the Erasi have sent several invasion fleets into Krashinar territory, forcing them to focus on defending their territory. They will not be pulling all of their forces back, however–Old Scar will remain here with us. But this means a significant change in our plans.”

Ryaana’s mother leaned forward. “Our original plan did not account for them in the first place. We can manage without them,” the Kar Daim said.

“Our original plan underestimated the Erasi technological advancement in the years since the last war,” Fleet Commander Johanna Stern interjected. “We’ve been advancing slower than projections indicated, even with the help of the Krashinar.”

The Lord Sentinel nodded. “That is true, but the reason we are advancing slower than anticipated is because it is taking us longer to take planets. The Erasi are using civilians as shields.”

“We should blockade them and move on, then. We are losing far too much of our momentum,” Sentinel Riss said.

“I agree,” the Kar Daim said, turning to look at Ryaana’s father. “We need to hit their core before they manage to fortify those systems even more than they already have.”

“Their core fleets are already on their way,” the Lord Sentinel said. “It would be better if we forced them to fight here where they do not have the defenses of their core systems.”

Fleet Commander Stern grimaced. “That would tie us up here in their outer territories for a while. Breaking those fleets will not be easy. They will have their new Devastator-class ships in those fleets and they will negate our Sovereigns to a degree.”

Ryaana agreed silently. The Devastator-class ships might not be able to hold against a Sovereign one on one, but the Erasi did have more of them.

“We do have other plans in motion. We need only time,” the Lord Sentinel said.

“I am not at all convinced that it will work, Adrian,” the Kar Daim said. “You trust in that plan to much.”

“It is an opportunity. The Erasi are too large to conquer in the way that we are used to,” the Lord Sentinel said.

“We could split the fleets and send some to the core. It would at least force them to keep something back,” the Kar Daim said.

The Lord Sentinel looked thoughtful for a few moments. “We do know the locations of some of their military systems, shipyards and research facilities. Taking those targets out would hobble their efforts, slow down their efforts to resupply, and their shipbuilding.”

“We are agreed then?” the Kar Daim asked.

“We are. I’ll assemble a task force,” the Lord Sentinel responded.

“And who will lead it?” Fleet Commander Stern asked.

“We’ll decide after we make a plan. For now, we should plan out our next moves,” the Lord Sentinel said, turning on the holo-map on the table. The rest of the meeting was spent discussing their strategy and adjusting their invasion plans.

Chapter Two

As everyone slowly exited the meeting room, Adrian noticed Lurker of the Depths lingering behind. And as the rest of the people walked out, Lurker of the Depths turned to look at him. Adrian remained in his seat and waited. Lurker of the Depths just looked at him, studying him. Adrian brought his hand up to his head and made a Nel gesture for inquiry. Lurker of the Depths turned his head toward the closed doors, and Adrian felt him swipe the area around them with his mind. Adrian raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t comment–and then his former teacher finally spoke with his mind.

“How much do you know about the man serving as your daughter’s second?” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Adrian leaned back in his seat, surprised. “You can tell what he is?”

Lurker of the Depths leaned his head to the side. “I don’t know what he is, but I know that he is not what he appears to be. You are aware, then?”

“How could you tell?” Adrian asked, standing up and stepping closer to Lurker of the Depths. “He feels human to all of my senses, except one. I didn’t think that anyone other than me could tell.”

“His mind is obscured, hidden. It feels almost exactly as a human mind should, yet I noticed a glimpse of something else behind the facade. What is he?”

Adrian shook his head. Lurker of the Depths never ceased to amaze him. He might not have the power that Adrian possessed, but he was still a powerful telepath, certainly even more skilled than Adrian. And while Adrian was rated as the Empire’s strongest telepath, it was mainly because of his raw potential. Lurker of the Depths was the most skilled telepath, and he fell behind in power relative to Adrian only because Sowir bodies had less access to energy. In truth, Adrian knew that his former teacher had been pushing himself constantly since his battle with the Weaver, and he would not be surprised if Lurker of the Depths had surpassed him once again. The thought made Adrian excited–he lived to overcome challenges.

“He is one of the Enlightened. I don’t know which,” Adrian answered.

In a span of mere moments Lurker of the Depths transferred his thoughts to Adrian. Surprise, fear, and worry, accompanied by a question.

Adrian processed the thoughts and sent a response back. “I can see what he truly is, and we are grossly outmatched. And I don’t want to do anything to force him to act. I believe that he is here only to gather information, and is not aware that he has been discovered.”

“Are you sure that this is wise? Should we not act?”

“I have some contingency plans in case that he turns hostile, but for now I think that it is best to just let him be. It is not like he could learn anything really useful; he could learn the same things just by watching information feeds. And we can learn more about him by keeping him close.”

“Are you not worried about Ryaana?”

“I do not think that he would risk exposure by harming her, and telling her what he is would only put her in more danger. She is not as adept at keeping secrets. Better that she doesn’t know. I plan on watching him closely.”

“You really think that you can learn something from him?”

“I believe it is something that I must attempt. We know next to nothing about the Enlightened’s goals.”

“As you wish, Adrian. I shall keep the secret.”

“Well, now that you know, I think that I should place you close to him. You might see something that I don’t. At this point any insight is valuable.”

Lurker of the Depths sent him feelings of agreement, and Adrian nodded. It would be good to have another person knowing about Vas, especially one as powerful as Lurker of the Depths.

“You did not tell Anessa?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

Adrian grimaced. “No matter how they try to deny it, Ryaana and Anessa are very much alike. She would not be good at keeping it a secret either, and she would want to act.”

“You are certain that we cannot best the Enlightened?”

“I learned more about the power they wield from Axull Darr. We might prevail, but it would not be without a heavy cost. And it is only one of them. As long as he is here, we know where one of them is, and that they are probably not going on the offensive. I am confident that they are looking for information. Keeping him occupied here buys us time.”

“I hope that you are right, Adrian,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “You are playing with the lives of everyone in the Empire, in the galaxy even.”

“I know…” Adrian said.

“I trust you, Adrian. I just need you to be careful.”

“Of course.”

“Good,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

They fell into a comfortable silence, one which Adrian had only ever been able to achieve with Anessa. It spoke volumes of the connection he and his former teacher shared.

“I wanted to speak with you about something, about the Sha,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Adrian simply returned feelings of curiosity.

But Lurker of the Depths hesitated. “I’ve discovered something in my training. I think that you would find it very interesting. But I wonder if it is best left for a later time, once you are not so preoccupied.”

Adrian started to object, not wanting to be left in suspense, but Lurker of the Depths raised his hand.

“No–I shouldn’t have mentioned it. You need your focus firmly on the war. Already you have too much to worry about. If I tell you now, you will want to pursue it, and I know what you are like when you have something new to challenge yourself against. After the war, we shall speak.”

Adrian opened his mouth to deny Lurker of the Depths’ words, but then closed them. Lurker of the Depths was one of the people who knew him best–and despite Adrian’s curiosity, if his former teacher thought it best to wait, who was he to disagree?

*  *  *

A few days later Adrian sat in his ready room on board the Herald of War. He had assembled a small task force that they were going to send deeper into Erasi territory. Hopefully having a task force acting inside their core would force the Erasi to readjust and slow their response in their outer territories.

The more time passed, the more he realized that the war was not going how he had planned it. They were on track to get bogged down in this conflict for a long time. It would take them decades to just consolidate the systems they took and fortify their positions in the Erasi’s outer systems, and they hadn’t even attempted attacking the core. They had made a large push when they’d had the Krashinar Great Packs helping them, but now only one of them was able to remain and help. Even with as much firepower as they possessed, it was not going to be enough. A traditional conflict was going to last a long time, but thankfully Adrian had never intended on making this a simple invasion. He’d had centuries to plan and set things up, and now he only needed to execute his plans.

However, this was something not as easy as it might seem. For his greater strategy to work, many factors had to align properly, and he did not have control over most of them. He had done as much as he possibly could to nudge things into place over the centuries, but now he could only wait and see if hundreds of years’ worth of effort would pay out.

He glanced to one of the message prompts above his table. That the single line of text had reached him through channels that were so secret that no one aside from him knew anything about them was reassuring, but he had nothing to go by aside from the word of someone he knew nothing about–aside from their short moniker: Opal. So many lives depended on it, yet Adrian dared not ask for more. He understood that the thing he and whoever it was on the other end were attempting took time. It was a gamble, but one he was willing to take.

With a sigh, Adrian closed down the prompts and stood, going to bed.

Chapter Three

Sanctuary – The Empire’s capital

Tomas Klein, Emperor, stood by the window of his office and looked down into the garden where a group of children played. Sons and daughters of the palace staff, and among them, his own son. Barely eight years old, and a handful, an unrelenting charmer with a dazzling smile. Heir to an empire, and a gift to Tomas and his mother, Seo-yun. Already Tomas knew that he would one day break hearts with that smile. Tomas had done many things in his life–he had taken humanity from Earth to the stars and he had founded the Empire–yet to him, it was that little boy down there who he considered his greatest achievement, his greatest treasure.

He allowed himself this minute of peace, watching their innocent and happy faces. There was no war for them here, nothing to fear. But Tomas knew better; even Sanctuary was vulnerable. He had made a mistake of thinking otherwise before, and millions of innocents had paid the price. All that Tomas did he did to make the Empire safe for its people.

A chime at his door startled him, and he turned away from the window before walking toward his table and opening the door with his imp. The doors slid open and Nadia stepped inside. He sat behind the table and Nadia took the seat in front. Working together for the better part of six hundred years meant that he knew immediately that she had something important to tell him.

“What happened? Word from the front?” Tomas asked.

She shook her head. “No, it is something else.”

Tomas raised an eyebrow at the way she said it, and then gestured with his hand for her to continue.

Nadia took a deep breath and then spoke. “A sizable force has just arrived at our core-ward border. It is the Josanti League. They’ve identified themselves as a diplomatic team and have asked to be escorted to a system where they could speak with someone in charge.”

Tomas frowned. The Josanti League was a galactic power, one of the oldest and largest star-nations, and one that controlled a sizable piece of the galaxy’s core systems. Tomas knew that the Sentinels had made contact and that the Empire’s request to pass through Josanti territory had been denied. The report had painted the Josanti as somewhat arrogant and dismissive toward the Empire. It hadn’t really surprised Tomas when they had refused to allow Empire ships through, as few star-nations would allow such a thing. But Adrian had felt that it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

His plan to take a force to the other side of the galaxy and search for the containment zone created by Ullax Darr required charts and routes. Their own charts were fairly outdated and Adrian did not want to travel blindly. Both Adrian and Tomas agreed that they did not want to encounter a threat they could not handle before they reached the zone. It was their hope that, once there, they would be able to converse with the old AI put in charge of the machine fleets and armies that kept the Enlightened contained. The scout ships that the AI had sent to the Empire were simple computers allowed to act only in the manner programmed by the AI.

The fact that the Josanti refused the request meant little for the Empire; they would find another way. In the worst case they would simply need to go around their territory, and while that might make their trip significantly longer than by going in a straight line, it would not hamper their plan.

But the fact that the Josanti sent a diplomatic team did not fit in with what Tomas knew of them. If he remembered the brief on them correctly, they never sent diplomatic teams to other star-nations. They did not need to, as all others came to them. That they had chosen to do so now and after they had been dismissive toward an Empire’s Sentinel meant that something significant had changed.

“How many ships? And did they say why they sent a team now?”

“Five hundred ships, and if our info on them is correct, they are all of their latest designs. True warships from their inner races,” Nadia said slowly, and her face grimaced in way that Tomas knew well–it meant she just couldn’t fit the pieces together. “But… They are acting very courteous, nothing like what I would expect based on our previous dealings. They are keeping their ships far away at the edge of the system, with their weapons and shields powered down, and they were content to wait until the local head sent word to us.”

“That does sound strange, considering what we know.”

Nadia nodded. “And there is one more thing. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but it might.”

“What?”

“The person in charge of this team sent a video message to the system head, and he relayed that video to us. I had a chance to look at it, and as we had no info on what race the person was in our standard databases, we did a check against our other databases.”

Tomas nodded–the Empire’s Sentinels had a database of every race they had encountered or heard of. “And?”

“We got nothing in the Empire’s databases. We did, however, get a hit in the database of the People,” Nadia said, turning on a hologram on her wrist unit, showing him the data and then a separate image cut from the video showing the being.

Tomas’s mouth dropped open as he saw the image. There was no mistaking the species of the being in the video, and Tomas already knew which race it belonged to without looking at the other data. It was the same as the one from the People’s database, as Nadia had said. There was no mistaking the sleek four-legged form.

If Tomas had to describe the race he would’ve probably said that they looked like a cross between large wolves and winged horses: sleek and powerfully built and covered with strange feathers that almost seemed like fur. The being’s neck and head was framed by a mane made out of long red hair, and her body covered with red feathers tipped with blue, while its long snout was covered in blue feathers.

“The Partenai,” Tomas said. The first of the races that the People uplifted, and one of the three that turned against the People. For their crimes and betrayal, the People had cast them down, took from them all the technology that they had gifted them, and left them on a single world with no technology and no means to get back into space. The Partenai had been left to find their own way back into the galaxy. “They survived,” Tomas said. “You think that this has something to do with why they are here?”

Nadia nodded. “It’s possible. The Partenai are a race old enough to remember the People. If they saw what we looked like, they might recognize our origins.”

Tomas thought about it; this development had the potential to turn very badly. He did not know how much or even if the Partenai have any knowledge of the ancient past, but he did not know how they would react to the knowledge that Humans, Nel, and Shara Daim were descendants of the People. Would they wish to enact revenge on those that had once cast them down? Or was this something else?

Regardless, Tomas had no choice–the Josanti League was a major star-nation, he could not simply refuse their diplomatic team, especially not when they were not showing any hostile intent.

“Call Laura and have her find me a fleet to escort the Josanti through our territory,” Tomas said.

“Where do you want them?” Nadia asked.

“Here, in Sanctuary.”

Nadia’s eyes widened a bit at that, and Tomas understood her shock. Sanctuary had been closed to all outside of the Empire since the Erasi attack five centuries ago. But Tomas needed every advantage he could get. The Josanti were in a different league than the other star-nations they usually dealt with, and the Partenai were old, very old. He needed to keep them off balance, to impress them, to show them that the Empire was not just some rimward backwater–and showing them Sanctuary would make sure that they get the message.

“And I need something else,” Tomas said, thinking quickly. “Get a message to Nuva. I want Clan Leader Sumia here for when we meet them. And send another message to Shara Radum,” Tomas said. “I want the twins here as well.” With Anessa leading the Shara Daim forces against the Erasi, the twins were ruling their own empire.

Tomas saw Nadia nod. There was no real need for him to clarify who he meant–anyone in the Empire would know who he had meant. And if this had anything to do with the People, he wanted representation from all three descendant races. He and Sumia would represent Humanity and Nel, respectively, and the twins the Shara Daim.

He thought for a moment more, then spoke again. “And have Laura plan a route that would have the Josanti arrive in Sanctuary after the Clan Leader and the twins.”

“I’ll see to it.”

Chapter Four

Erasi front

Kar Daim Anessa of the Shara Daim sat in the command chair of the Sovereign-class Song of Retribution, and commanded the alliance’s fleets in the system. It was one of Erasi mining systems, which made for an interesting battlefield. The Erasi had cracked three of the planets and were mining the pieces. It was easier for them to extract the raw materials that way. Her forces had trouble getting to the Erasi warships defending the system, as they liked to hide in the clouds of the smaller chunks of the planets and ambush her forces whenever possible.

And that forced her to utilize her smaller ships to hunt them down, as her battleships and dreadnaughts were too large to move among the debris safely. She kept the Song of Retribution away from the fight for the most part, as the battlefield suited her other ships better. A Sovereign was a powerful weapon, but like all weapons, it was not suitable for every situation. The Erasi had developed strategies to deal with the Sovereigns. The strategies weren’t really all that effective, more annoying than anything else, but they were frustrating nonetheless. Any time the alliance brought in a Sovereign to an encounter, the Erasi would simply scatter their fleets and strike at other targets, and a Sovereign could not follow them all.

Anessa read through a report from a taskforce engaged in one of the debris fields that just informed her that the last of the Erasi ships had been destroyed. She smiled and started sending orders for the fleets from around the system to converge on the last Erasi base in the system, a large chunk of rock protected by a small flotilla and a lot of fixed defenses. With the destruction of the last Erasi ships elsewhere in the system she was now certain that she wouldn’t suffer an attack on her backline as they moved to siege the Erasi base.

As her Sovereign entered skim, Anessa couldn’t help but feel satisfied. She had spent almost every moment of the last five hundred years of her life ruling the Shara Daim, sitting in the meetings, delegating between factions, unifying the Shara Daim after her violent takeover. It had taken her a while to solidify her rule, and more to even strengthen the Shara Daim and repair the damage that her predecessors did to the Shara Daim people. The Elders had in many ways broken the Shara Daim, had made them xenophobic and arrogant. And much of that still remained, even with all that Anessa had done to change things. She knew that change couldn’t come fast, nor be so drastic. But she had succeeded in most aspects of her plan.

Her children had a lot to do with that. Aside from Ryaana, who had decided to follow in her father’s steps–which Anessa still had trouble understanding, but she had come to terms with it. It was her other children that had done much to change the way the Shara Daim viewed other races. The Shara Daim people loved the twins–they were royalty, her heirs, but even more than that they were celebrities in their own right. They were loved and respected on their own merits. They walked among the people, the poor and the rich with equal ease, and Anessa had watched with pride as they interacted with their subjects.

When they spoke to them it was impossible not to be drawn in. They had taken their studies to heart, and were just as able to debate with the greatest of the Shara Daim’s philosophers, scientists, and commanders, and then were able to turn around and speak with the more common folk about the simplest of things. And never did they make the party they spoke with feel as if they were talking to someone greater or different than them, even though all it took was to look at their eyes.

It was obvious that they were not full Shara Daim, as their father’s eyes made their human side unmistakable. Yet none could look at them and see anything but royalty and Shara Daim. In many ways Anessa envied the twins that–she had never been able to accomplish as much. She was far better at gaining respect by instilling fear, by standing apart.

Vaana and Kane were the future of the Shara Daim. It had taken her a while to see it, to truly understand that her firstborn daughter would never accept the Shara Daim fully. She was far too human for that. Anessa wasn’t really disappointed in Ryaana for making her own choice; in a way, she was proud. Yet even before Ryaana was born, Anessa had had a vision of a future where her firstborn took over and ruled the Shara Daim after her. It was the fact that that dream would never be realized that disappointed her. But she was also glad, for as she had accepted Ryaana’s decision, she had finally been able to see that the future of the Shara Daim were her other children.

While she had been focused on ruling and on trying to make Ryaana into something that she obviously was not, the twins had become something even more. They had risen to the top of the Dai Sha, commanding the best Legions of the Shara Daim. Not only had they earned the respect of the people, they had become great warriors in their own right. The choice to make them the next rulers of the Shara Daim seemed obvious once she truly allowed herself to look. After Anessa had removed the Elders and took the throne of the Shara Daim she had vowed both to herself and to the people that only the strongest would rule the Shara Daim, and Vaana and Kane had become the strongest, even though they were not typical examples of Shara Daim, a result of them being twins.

The Shara Daim, unlike the Humans and the Nel, never had twins–her children were the first. And some irregularities had shown themselves. Even when they had been children they had been far more connected, and strong in the Sha. They had often spoken almost as if they were of a same mind using two mouths to convey a thought, with one starting and the other finishing the sentence seamlessly. As well as a few other things, their telepathy was far more advanced than that of other people, although it seemed more focused on each other with them sharing much of their thoughts. In many ways they had inherited Anessa’s strength and their father’s skill, but they had also shown some unique and strange abilities.

They had learned to hide most of them, to appear more “normal” to others, but Anessa was their mother, and there was little that they could hide from her. The twins were so in sync with each other that she knew that she could never name just one of them her heir. The other would simply rule as well–they did everything together. And it was not like the Shara Daim had any established rules concerning succession and rule, as it was all as Anessa decreed. The only promise she had made to the Shara Daim people was that she would never again allow for the weak to rule, and her children were most certainly not weak.

Her announcement of the twins’ new status had been met with much support and approval. The people loved it, and with the twins stepping in to rule while Anessa was busy with the war, the state in the Shara Daim was actually even better than she had anticipated. She was almost jealous that the people loved them more than her, but she did understand. In a way this was the perfect opportunity for her to step down. With her no longer aging she had heard whispers, people asking if she planned on ruling the Shara Daim forever, the same way the Elders had. She hadn’t planned as much, of course, but people still wondered. And she had grown tired of ruling; she had neglected her true passions for far too long.

Anessa was a warrior at heart. She needed conflict, not a chair and meetings. The war was the perfect opportunity to give the twins a trial run. She had given them full control while she was away, and if they did well, she would step down once the war drew to an end. It was time for her to join her mate and seek their true passions. She and Adrian had never been suited for leadership–they suffered through it because it gave them the opportunity to do what they wanted, but now the rule was more of a burden. Already she could see him drawing back; he had taken a step back in the war, content to let Anessa lead most of their forces. This didn’t bother her in the least, as she loved war and conflict, and she had a debt to repay to the Erasi. But Adrian cared only for pushing himself forward, and for the Enlightened. Not because he cared particularly that they posed the threat to their peoples, she knew, but because they were a challenge he could pit himself against. A challenge she planned on helping him win.

But first she needed to win this war–then they could worry about the Enlightened and how they were to defeat them.

Her interface updated as the Song of Retribution dropped out of the skim above the Erasi forces, and a few moments later the rest of her forces started appearing surrounding the Erasi.

The Erasi defense platforms opened fire almost immediately, firing their own skim missiles at her ships. Anessa grimaced as she ordered her bigger ships forward to the front of her forces to soak up the fire. She would more than love to just hammer the Erasi from the end of the system with her own skim missiles, but the Erasi countermeasures made that tactic only a waste of missiles, as the base possessed a Erasi device capable of disrupting the skim fields, forcing her missiles into normal, slower-than-light travel. That meant that they needed to get closer.

She ordered the Empire forces in her command to fire their kinetic weapons at the stationary targets, taking out their defenses.

Soon enough the battle heated up, as missiles started exploding against her ships shields, and slabs of metal traveling at four-fifths the speed of light slammed into the Erasi turrets and missile launchers. The defensive platforms were a bit harder to hit, as they had limited maneuvering capabilities, but the Empire’s kinetic weapons had evolved as well. They had a very small maneuvering capability of their own, enough to adjust their trajectories slightly. This proved enough for Anessa’s needs. Many Erasi platforms exploded in the first barrage, enough that there were openings in their defenses.

Almost immediately she sent out orders for assault vessels to land troops on the base. They didn’t need it, but a base and a processing plant in such a prominent and rich mining system would be a boon. The remaining Erasi ships attempted to rush in and destroy her assault vessels, but Anessa ordered her Sovereign forward. The Song of Retribution’s MD and anti-matter cannons swiveled and fired, blowing apart any ship that came close enough to fire on her ships.

Both her and Adrian had decided to use the Sovereigns sparingly, both in order to get more experience for their other ships, as well as to hide the full capabilities of the Sovereign warships. The Erasi were yet to bring their new Devastator-class warships to the field, and while the alliance knew some of their capabilities, they did not know all, and neither Anessa nor Adrian wanted to give the Erasi an edge. Because while a single Devastator might not pose much threat to a Sovereign, the Erasi had more of them, and they were powerful and massive ships.

Soon enough the Erasi ships realized that they would not get the chance they were looking for, and they retreated back behind their defenses, which were themselves quickly disappearing. In truth there was little for her to do other than watch and adjust some orders. Her sub-commanders were capable and the battle was straightforward. But she dutifully observed nonetheless, and provided her insight and orders when needed.

Three hours later, her troops reported that they had secured the base, and she moved her ships over it to protect it in case that any of the remaining Erasi ships decided on a suicide run.

An hour later, the last of the Erasi platforms exploded, and the last remaining Erasi ships surrendered.

It was rare for the Erasi to surrender, but it had started to happen more often as the war progressed and the alliance reached closer to the Erasi core. Quickly, she gave orders for the ships to be boarded and secured, as well as sent word to the alliance staging point for a prison ship to be sent for the Erasi crews as well as for defense platforms and another fleet to keep the system. It would take them a day or two to get here, so she sent out ships on patrol, as well as placed her fleets around the system to protect it in case that the Erasi tried to take back the system before then.

After that was done, Anessa disengaged the command system and stood up, going back to her quarters for some much needed sleep. After the system was secured she would take her forces to another staging point, where they would assemble for an assault against a system that would give them trans-lane access to the Erasi core systems. That was when this war would truly escalate.

She doubted that she would get much sleep afterward.

Interlude I

Union of Species – Fifteen thousand years ago

Vorash of the Loraru walked into a full session of the Union Senate. Representatives of every race that made up the Union were here: at the high table sat the representatives of the six founding races, and just below them was the table with the eighteen member races that held the low seats. The rest of the races were arranged across from them in a semicircular fashion.

Vorash hurried toward the high table. The room was in an uproar, everyone speaking at once, attempting to have their voice heard.

“We lost contact with another planet! What is the Senate doing? We still don’t know what is happening!” one of the representatives yelled out.

Vorash reached the high table and made his way toward one end.

“Calm, calm!” a voice from the high table yelled out–a representative of the Unuura, the founders of the Union. “Our exploratory fleet is bound to send word any day now. We will know what the problem is.”

Finally, Vorash reached the representative of his race–the Loraru.

“Brother,” Vorash whispered as he leaned down.

“Vor,” Garash spoke, visibly relieved. “Please tell me that you have good news.”

Vorash glanced at the room, seeing only scared faces. It had been nearly a month since they had started losing contact with the colonies on the far edge of their territory. No word, no distress beacons, nothing. Just silence.

People were terrified–no one knew what was happening, and speculation had only served to make their fear greater.

Vorash met his brother’s equally terrified eyes and grimaced.

“I’m afraid not, brother,” Vorash said softly so that no one could hear. Not that there was any point, as soon all would know regardless. “A ship from the fleet has returned. A sole survivor.” Vorash took a deep breath. “The Union is under attack.”

“Creators aid us,” Garash whispered, crossing his upper arms over his face in a prayer. “What do we know?”

“Near to nothing,” Vorash said. “Black ships, that are seemingly far more technologically advanced than ours. The fleet was slaughtered easily without inflicting any damage to the hostiles.”

“And the colonies? Do we at least know what happened to the people?”

Vorash looked away, fighting to keep his face from crumbling. Then he turned back. “They are dead. All dead. The hostiles killed everyone, we… There is nothing living on any of our worlds.”

“We need to mobilize the fleets. Every race must contribute,” Garash said, his eyes gazing into the distance with horror. Finally, he turned to Vorash. “Thank you, Vor. Go–I’ll find you later. I need to figure out how to break it to the Senate.”

Vorash nodded, hoping that his brother figured out a way to save their peoples. But with everything that Vorash had seen in the records…he did not think that it was possible.

Chapter Five

Several months later – Alliance staging point – Erasi occupied system

Adrian watched through a view-screen on board the Herald of War as a task-force commanded by Ryaana left the system through hyperspace. In the end he had decided to give the command of the task-force to Ryaana. She had acted as part of a ground forward element up until now, dropping down to planets and establishing a foothold or assaulting important targets. But she was a Sentinel, and as such was trained in fleet command as well. And before she had even become a Sentinel, Ryaana had been a Dai Sha and had commanded Shara Daim Legions. She was a very capable commander.

They had ultimately decided to send twenty fleets, a significant chunk of their invasion force, with her. But the size of the force was necessary, he knew. The core of the Erasi was well defended, and operating so behind the current war lines meant that they would be on their own for a while.

The task-force’s mission was to strike at Erasi military targets and do as much damage as possible, then move on to another system before the Erasi had a chance to trap them. Adrian and his team had come up with a list of systems, but it would be up to Ryaana and her team to decide which ones they wanted to hit.

“You don’t need to worry about her, Adrian,” Iris told him through his imp, voicing his silent doubts. “Ryaana is capable enough to execute your orders. She is your daughter, after all.”

“It is not her competence that worries me,” Adrian answered. “It is her company.”

Adrian did not have any worry that his daughter was not up to task; the thing that did worry him was the Enlightened at her side. He had debated not sending her at first because of that, but it had become apparent that she was a perfect choice–not sending her might’ve aroused suspicion. He could not tip his hand, the same way he suspected that the Enlightened couldn’t tip his or her own.

“She’ll be fine,” Iris told him.

“Yes…” Adrian said.

As the last ship disappeared from his view, Adrian turned around and walked over to his desk. He still had a lot on his plate, and worrying would not gain him anything. He opened files on his server and started reading reports. Anessa had successfully taken a mining system that will help them immensely once they secured it and got the mining process working again. Several processing and fabricating ships were already on their way there, as well as a force that would set up the system’s defenses.

The other invasion points had been going well, and they had already taken thirty-two systems in a bit over a year since the invasion began. It was a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the Erasi, but it was something. The invasion had focused on the hub systems, the ones that had multiple trans-lane connections to other systems. But all the forces that they had faced up until now had been from the outer Erasi systems. Lower members, not their core. Adrian knew that the true battle was ahead of them. But, with Krashinar help, they had a better chance on punching through the core’s outer systems.

It would have been better had the Krashinar forces on the Erasi rimward border been able to continue with their invasion, but the Erasi retaliation into the Krashinar’s own territory had forced them to retreat and defend their own systems as the Erasi employed hit-and-run techniques–not unlike what Ryaana’s task-force was about to begin in the Erasi core. Regardless, one of the Krashinar Great Packs still remained attached to the invasion force, led by Old Scar, a Krashinar with whom Adrian had shared a telepathic connection and exchanged memories. In a way, they had lived each other’s lives. Although most of the memories had faded by now, there were still flashes, moments that stood out.

The Krashinar were a very different species relative to any Adrian had ever encountered. They were unique in a galaxy of races that were guided by the People: they were the only known race that the People had never uplifted, and they were similarly the only known race whose genetic code the People had not tampered with.

Finishing with the reports, he turned and went to bed. Tomorrow he would move out with most of his forces, rendezvous with Anessa and move to siege the Jerthath system, a hub that held trans-lanes directly to the Erasi core. The system also had an access point, one that the Empire had been unable to activate, as the Erasi were aware of it as well. They had done a very good job finding the access points, once they knew that they existed, and barricading them. Even if the alliance managed to activate one, any force that came through would be met with overwhelmingly powerful defenses, including mines. There was no way for them to attack through those access points without crippling their fleets.

Which was a shame, Adrian mused, as one access point stood in the heart of the Erasi, in their capital system. A strike there might’ve been enough to bring the Erasi Empire to its knees. Sadly, that plan of attack was most certainly suicide.

Slowly, he drifted off to sleep, and dreams of an even greater war he was certain was coming came to him.

Chapter Six

Jerthath system

A massive fleet dropped out of hyperspace at the hyper-boundary of the system, and almost immediately came under fire from the advance defense Erasi force. Skim missiles and particle beams slammed into the alliance’s ships, and soon enough the invading force answered.

Anessa watched as the combined force of the Empire, Shara Daim, and Krashinar returned fire. Her battle map updated as their FTL sensors got a clearer picture of the system from the stealth drones placed around the system. The Erasi had placed several smaller fleets along the most probable invasion points in the system. Enough to bloody the alliance’s forces, but not enough to survive for long. She gave the order and her ships dispatched the Erasi force at hand quickly and efficiently.

Almost immediately the rest of the Erasi forces around the system started maneuvering and moving behind the defenses of the three inner planets, virtually abandoning the rest of the system. It was a change of tactics; the Erasi usually fought fiercely to protect every piece of territory they had. Now it seemed like the Erasi had realized that there would be no point. Soon enough more data started coming in, and Anessa accessed the command system, a prompt letting her know that Adrian had joined from the Herald of War as well, and they looked over the details of the Erasi defenses.

“There are more ships than we thought there would be…” Adrian said.

Anessa nodded to herself. There was somewhere around eighty Erasi fleets arranged in defensive positions. The force they had brought here was equal to about one hundred and fifty fleets, including the Krashinar force. They still had the advantage, but the defenders would benefit from the battlefield more than the alliance forces would.

The alliance would need to first take care of the fixed defenses, and with the Erasi skim-canceling fields, that meant getting into the range of those same defenses. They could potentially take much more fire than they planned, and all the while their fleets would be adding their own fire to those of the defenses.

“It doesn’t matter. We still have the advantage,” Anessa said.

“I’ll contact the Krashinar. We should start the siege immediately.”

“Yes, I’ll take the Song of Retribution close and soften up their defenses.”

“Very well,” Adrian said and disconnected from the system. The Krashinar could not interact with the same system as they used telepathy for all of their systems. Adrian would need to relay their plans separately–which was why Krashinar usually acted on their own, close enough that they could support each other, but independent. The battle map updated with suggestions from Adrian as to which points their fleets should attack, and Anessa glanced at them for a moment before approving them and sending the orders to her sub-commanders to delegate a few task-forces to move around the system and protect the few incoming trans-lanes that the Erasi had abandoned. After, she sent the orders for the rest of the fleets to move.

The combined force entered skim and moved deeper into the system to the third planet, dropping out at the outer range of their weapons. Almost immediately both sides opened fire. Skim-missile launches from the enemy were the first announcers of the battle, followed up by the particle beams and kinetic shells from her forces.

Quickly the space between them turned into a maelstrom of fire. She ordered her heavier ships forward to protect the smaller ones, and they started soaking in the fire. The priority in the sieges of the Erasi systems were always their battle stations and platforms as those held the generators for the fields that interfered with skim fields. On her order, the Song of Retribution moved forward and started targeting the Erasi stations and platforms. Anti-matter beams sliced out of the Sovereign and started decimating the Erasi defenses. The effect on the Erasi was evident almost immediately–their ships moved forward from the cover of the defenses to engage her flagship. They couldn’t afford to let the Sovereign take free shots at their defenses.

Hundreds of Erasi warships turned their combined firepower on the Song of Retribution and Anessa’s flagship returned fire in kind. She sent out orders, and her super-battleships took advantage of the Erasi’s focus, sending volleys of s-missiles at them–for, in order for the Erasi warships to protect the fixed defenses, they had to move forward enough that the stations skim field nullifiers no longer protected them. Combined with the fire from beam weapons, the s-missiles started taking down the Erasi warships’ shields. Her Sovereign’s MD turrets swiveled and disintegrated any Erasi ship that lost its shields.

In minutes, the Erasi realized that they would lose their entire force if they continued in this fashion, and their force started retreating back behind their defenses–but not before Anessa’s force bloodied them further.

The battle returned to the previous rhythm, with both sides slugging it out. Even with the Erasi tech that prevented her from using s-missiles, the outcome of the battle was never in doubt. The alliance’s combined power was greater, and slowly, as more and more of the Erasi’s fixed defenses blew up, the tide of the battle turned.

Then the Erasi forces surged forward, surprising Anessa. She adjusted her forces’ line of battle to best suffer through the initial attack, and to take advantage of this Erasi foolishness. An alert drew her attention, and she glanced to the side. Sensors were picking up skim signatures coming from the far reaches of the system. Anessa frowned; the sensors couldn’t pick out who they were, exactly, nor their numbers. But whatever force was now approaching her back line was substantial.

It took her only a moment to figure it out, and before she had a chance to call, Adrian rejoined the command system. They pushed the interface to its limit, and in matter of moments communicated an entire conversation.

“They intend to surround us,” Adrian said.

“There weren’t supposed to be this much Erasi forces here. The first Erasi core fleet was supposed to arrive a month from now,” Anessa said.

“Our intel must’ve been faulty; that, or they simply slipped something past our informants. It doesn’t matter either way, as this new force can only be made out of their core fleets.”

“I’ll pull back the Song to meet them–you take care of the front. Contact the Krashinar and let them know that I might need the help of his Great Pack depending on the size of this new force,” Anessa told him, while simultaneously queuing and sending out orders to the fleets.

“I will. We should also prepare a plan to disengage in the case that we are outmatched,” Adrian said, and Anessa grimaced.

She did not care for retreat, especially with the momentum their invasion had established up until now. They needed this system in order to get to the Erasi core. But she understood being prepared.

“Fine,” Anessa agreed.

A few moments after, a large Erasi force dropped out of the skim at the back line sooner than Anessa would have liked. As the sensors swiped across the Erasi ships, she finally saw the numbers. Another eighty fleets: more than three hundred thousand Erasi core warships, and among their number she counted twelve Devastator-class warships, each an elongated saucer, and each about half the size of a Sovereign. They represented the pinnacle of Erasi engineering and war technology. Anessa grimaced. The alliance was now outnumbered by the Erasi–although by a smaller margin–but they were now stuck between the planet and its defenses and the new force at their back.

Her forces were still in the process of changing formations and, as the Erasi opened fire, they ravaged her back line. The twelve Devastators worked in tandems of three, supported by the Erasi super-battleships to strike at any target close enough as they pushed forward. It was immediately apparent that the crew in command of the Erasi core fleets were far better trained than the ones they had faced up until now. Her light ships faltered under the onslaught without the protection of her larger vessels, and she felt a stab of anger rise in her. With quick adjustments of her orders she sent out all of her forces’ drones to meet them, using them to shield her other shields, effectively sacrificing the drones in order to protect her crews.

The Devastators fired with their own MD beams and high-powered particle beams as well as an onslaught of s-missiles, wrecking the drones in swaths. Her drones could barely even scratch at the Erasi warships, and she didn’t even bother having them target the Devastators; instead, she had them focus their fire on the super-battleships and other lighter ships.

*  *  *

Old Scar watched through Araxi’s eyes as the Betrayers of Oaths new force surged forward, intent on attacking the Great Pack and its allies. A surge of panic passed through Old Scar. Tapping into the beasts’ network, it sent out new orders, making sure that all Hunt-masters knew to reinforce their allies force. As soon as it sent out the orders, Old Scar realized the foreign emotion, the panic, that had assaulted it. Another remnant of it sharing its life with Adrian. Old Scar had lived through his life, it had known the love Adrian held for his mate. It panicked for fear of her life. It was a foolish reaction. Adrian himself wouldn’t have reacted in that way, as he knew his mate would be able to care for herself.

But Old Scar was not Adrian, and its reactions were not Adrian’s. It made sure to track down the remnant emotion and put it aside. The life and experience it had tasted from Adrian were a thing to be cherished and kept; the few small side effects were nothing compared to the gift of a new life lived.

Araxi’s feelings drew Old Scar’s attention, bringing it back fully to the battle. Gazing through the senses of the great beast, Old Scar quickly realized that a portion of the Betrayers of Oaths’ force was going to be attacking the Great Pack. With the deft control that only an experienced Hunt-master had, Old Scar adjusted its orders. Araxi surged through the void, readying itself. As its energy sacks filled and threatened to burst, Old Scar took the reins from Araxi’s other handlers. Unlike the cold and unfeeling metal beasts of other races, the Krashinar beasts were not as bound by unchanging numbers–their capabilities were not limited by the materials they had been constructed with.

A Krashinar beast guided by a deft handler, one with a deep connection with its beast, could perform well above the expected measures.

Old Scar waited until Araxi let him know that it was ready, and then, using its far-seeing eyes, Old Scar guided its sight toward a large Betrayer vessel. With an audible groan, Araxi emptied its sacks, the energy compressed and pushed through the emitter of its main weapon. Its muscles tensed and the weapon fired. A beam of energy burst from Araxi, far outside the range the Betrayers and even their allies could fire from. It struck the Betrayer vessel, which took the attack on its shields. Almost the same instant that the beam struck, it punched through the shields, and then through the massive vessel. Its mass worked against it as the beam ate through it, sending ripples and cracks through the rest of the ship, breaking it apart.

Tiredly, Araxi almost slumped in the void, recovering from the effort. Old Scar made its pride known to its beast through their link and felt it bask in it.

Returning the control back to the rest of the handlers, Old Scar turned its attention back to the larger scale of battle. Senses from every beast in the Great Pack flooding through it, Old Scar filtered to only those it needed to see. Formulating new orders, it started sending them to the beasts, who then passed them to their own handlers.

*  *  *

Anessa’s heavy warships arrived alongside with the Song of Retribution. Her battle lines solidified and they assumed a wall formation with her Sovereign, taking position across from a group of Erasi Devastators, protecting her ships from their firepower.

Almost immediately three Erasi Devastators focused their fire on the Song of Retribution. As she saw the Erasi warships put out a truly impressive amount of firepower into her Sovereign, she could only agree with the class name the Erasi had given to their ships. Their firepower truly was devastating.

But this was the moment that they had been waiting for, the true moment when they could truly unleash the full power of a Sovereign. With a thought, Anessa relayed the orders to the commander of the Song of Retribution, and the space between the four ships exploded into a cascade of fire and light. The Song hammered at the Devastators, even as the three ships poured fire into it. The Song’s s-missiles flew across the Erasi line, and its particle beams took shots of opportunity, but most of its other weapons were focused on the Devastators.

Anessa was surprised at the readings; the Song’s shields were still holding, but they wouldn’t hold out for much longer under the onslaught. The Song’s drones flew around the ship, using their weapons to take down any missile that came into their range, but still more and more were passing through. S-missiles from the rest of the Erasi force were all focused on the Song. Anessa realized that almost all of the Erasi forces in range was focused on the Song to the point where they were ignoring every other ship.

They really want to take her out, she thought to herself, before she gave the go ahead for the Sovereign’s main weapon to be fired, a massive molecular-disintegration cannon built into the two pillars of the ship, not at all like the tiny versions that both the Erasi and the alliances forces used. This one was larger than that, a smaller version of the Empire’s Star Guard station, with enough range and breadth to envelop and disintegrate small moons. It drew power from all of the Sovereign’s singularity cores. The Empire’s Sovereigns had a single large MD cannon running through the center of their ship. The Shara Daim had two smaller ones, with a combined power output almost twenty percent greater than that of the Empire’s.

For a moment the fire from the Song stopped. The lights inside dimmed, even as the outside of the Song was lit up brightly by the impacts of the enemy weapons.

The end of the pillars of the Song opened and bright light shone out of them. A moment later two beams burst out, blinding every sensor owned by both forces. One of the beams swathed through the Erasi force and the other struck right over one of the Erasi Devastators.

As the light abated, there almost seemed to be a moment where everything stopped, when all was still. And then Anessa saw the sensors update. A large hole in the Erasi formations showed where one of the beams had pierced through. Ships that were completely engulfed were gone without trace, and those that had caught the beam only partly had entire sections of their mass disintegrated, with the rest blowing up or simply lying spinning in space, depending on the amount of damage.

She looked at the Devastator, and was surprised that the Erasi warship had survived. It was, however, clearly critically damaged, with entire sections of it simply cleaved off, the few sections that still had shields flickering, and explosions of air bursting from the ship. It all told her that the insides were in just as bad a condition. With a thought she sent an order to the Song’s commander, and a k-turret swiveled and fired. A shell traveling at eight-tenths the speed of light smashed clean through the Erasi Devastator with enough force that the massive thirty-kilometer warship burst apart into pieces, its debris showering the surrounding ships.

Without allowing the Erasi a moment of respite, she ordered all of her ships forward, taking the advantage of the single Devastator’s destruction. The Song focused its firepower on the remaining two, forcing them to respond. The Song’s main weapon was charging, and would need a while before being able to fire again, a fact that the Erasi most certainly realized as they intensified their attack against the Song.

Allowing her crew to fight the Song, she started adjusting orders across her force. Adrian’s fleets were taking a hammering from the defense around the planet, but they were dishing out just as much. The Krashinar were engaged with a side element of the new Erasi force below Anessa’s forces, but the bulk of that force was occupied by Anessa. And even though they were inflicting constant losses to the Erasi, they were losing ships at almost the same rate. The six Devastators not engaged with the Song were moving across the battle lines ravaging her ships, and the other three Devastators were now moving downward below the sun’s plane toward the Krashinar forces.

The battle was not going as well as she had expected. The Devastators were clearly a huge threat. Adrian’s forces were taking a beating even though his Sovereign was smashing through the Erasi defenders. But there lay the weakness of the Sovereigns: for all of their power, they could not be everywhere. And while the battle where the Sovereigns were went in their gain, the rest of the line floundered. Soon enough, the alliance’s formations crumbled, ships from both sides were forced out of positions, unable to properly cover one another. Anessa knew that they had to do something, or risk losing the battle.

The Erasi Devastators keeping the Song occupied faltered as her superior firepower crashed through their shields. The Erasi super-battleships surrounding the Devastators moved to try and cover them as they tried to escape, but the Song’s commander gave them no chance. Kinetic shells rained down on them, breaking the massive ships apart. With that, the line seemed to ripple, and the Erasi started drawing back. Anessa immediately jumped on the opportunity, sending her ships forward.

The Erasi response was to send more Devastators against the Song. Six more Devastators closed in on the Song and opened coordinated fire. Anessa was surprised to see that they were not keeping their distance, but were actually closing it. She frowned at that; she knew that they must be aware that that would put them in range of the rest of the Sovereign’s weapons.

And as they closed the distance, the Song started firing its plasma and xa’nan turrets, bathing their shields. Then, bright white lances of energy exploded out of the Erasi warships and struck at the Song. Anessa felt the Sovereign shudder and her eyes widened. She glanced aside to the Song’s control board and saw sections of the ship reporting damage–which should be impossible, as the shields were still active. Through the interface she digested the information as quickly as it was available. As soon as the Song’s crew knew what had happened, she did as well.

The damage was relatively minor: a shallow breach in one section, and hull damage in most of the others. The Erasi weapon had passed clean through the shield, however, and was incredibly powerful. The only reason why it hadn’t done more damage was because all of the Sovereigns had both energy shields and shimmering fields as their defenses were active all the time. The shimmering fields hadn’t stopped the weapons, but they had spread the weapons’ energies across the large swath of the Song’s hull, effectively spreading the damage.

Upon seeing the Song suffer this damage, her commander responded in kind, focusing fire on a single Devastator in a storm of fire that smashed through its shields and disintegrated the ship in moments. That focus allowed the rest of the Devastators clear shots at the Song, but while their weapon did sting, it would take a lot more to actually harm a Sovereign–enough that it wouldn’t be able to respond.

But the fact remained that the alliance’s forces’ position was terrible. They had been forced to split their attention to two sides–they were wedged between two hostile forces and caught in crossfire. The Erasi were losing an insane amount of ships with every minute that passed, but the alliance’s forces did as well, and the two Sovereigns were too occupied and positioned too badly to actually help the rest of the ships. The ships had never truly been devised to work with fleets, but rather to be fleets themselves.

Adrian rejoined the command system, and she saw that his force was not faring all that well. He had managed to damage or destroy most of the Erasi warships hiding behind the defenses, but he was still taking a beating from their s-missiles, the stations and platforms could carry far larger volleys than his ships, and he was unable to fire his own s-missiles. They would just encounter their skim-canceling fields and drop out far enough away from their targets that they would just be picked out by the Erasi defenses. He was faring better than she was overall, but he did not have to worry about the Erasi Devastators.

“We need to retreat,” Adrian said.

“We can take the system,” Anessa said. She checked the flow of the battle–she knew that she was right.

“Yes, but we would lose over half of our ships if we stay. The battle has turned too chaotic, too unpredictable. We don’t need to break ourselves to take this system. There are other options.”

Anessa looked grimly at the battle map, seeing that he was right. They could win, but they would lose far too much. The old Dai Sha Anessa would’ve argued for them to remain, to never retreat; but the Kar Daim Anessa had become knew the value of preserving life.

“I’ll send the orders. This will not be a clean retreat,” Anessa warned. Most of her ships would be unable to enter skim and get away for fear of collisions. They would need to organize a staggered retreat, and that meant a force would need to hold off the Erasi long enough for their fleets to get in positions.

“I’ll move my forces back and get the Herald in formation with the Song. Together we can hold them off while the rest of our fleets retreat,” Adrian said, and disconnected.

Anessa returned her attention to the fighting across her battle lines, and noticed the Song pummel one more Devastator, with its shields collapsing and its comrades moving in to cover its retreat. But the Erasi warships were inflicting damage upon the Song as well. A section of the Sovereign’s shields had collapsed and the Erasi fleets and Devastators were pouring as much fire as they could into the opening.

Soon the alliance’s forces started moving, following Adrian’s retreat plans. Amidst all the chaos, Adrian somehow managed to create a small opening between his and her forces, and in an instant the Herald of War skimmed the relatively short distance to join the Song of Retribution. Anessa was fairly impressed with the skills that the maneuver took to execute as well as with Adrian’s planning that had created the opportunity. Almost as soon as the Herald passed through the hole, it was filled with ships moving toward positions above her battle line.

The Erasi realized what was happening, and their force attempted to circumvent her line and strike at the retreating ships. However, the Sovereigns and fleets of dreadnaughts and battleships struck at any ship attempting to interfere. Then drone ships from the Empire’s fleets joined her line, taking over the line for her other ships and allowing her battleships to slowly retreat.

But the Erasi did not want to let them get away, and the remaining Devastator warships joined their lines to strike at her ships. The Krashinar beasts started disengaging from the side element of the Erasi forces around the same time and started climbing upward behind her line, but the remaining eight Devastator warships were making problems, as they and the Erasi fleets tried to break through the Sovereigns’ line. They were having limited success; from time to time, they would manage to maneuver enough to take shots at the ships behind the line. Several times they sacrificed their own escorts to soak in the damage from the Sovereigns and allow their Devastators to fire at the alliance forces. And, soon enough, even the Sovereigns started to feel the resultant damage.

The Sovereigns were following as best as they could, but their bulk made them slightly slower in maneuvering, allowing the Erasi greater windows for action.

And then the Erasi commander managed to trick them. They drew the Sovereigns sufficiently out of position that three of their Devastators and their escorts managed to drop and engage the retreating Krashinar forces.

Anessa watched as they opened fire on the Krashinar, their new weapon systems burning through the Krashinar beasts’ shields and hide. The Herald of War reversed course almost immediately, but Anessa could see that it wouldn’t close the distance in time. The Erasi would ravage the Krashinar forces before the Sovereign would arrive.

And then a massive vessel charged from the Krashinar line–Anessa recognized it immediately. The Krashinar flag beast, the beast Araxi. It closed the distance with seemingly no care for the Erasi fire, soaking it all in, its hide strangely resistant to the new Erasi weapon. Its own weapons unleashing out was an impressive sight. Its weapons hammered at the Erasi, and Anessa realized that Araxi was on a collision course with one of the Devastators. The Erasi probably realized it about the same time, as their formation slipped and they moved away, probably attempting to allow Araxi to pass through, surrounded by Erasi Devastators and ships.

It did not go as well as they had planned. Araxi lashed out with its close-range weapons collapsing the shields of one of the Devastators, and then the Song’s sensors registered a massive gravity event, and Anessa felt a shudder pass through the Sha.

Anessa watched in awe as Araxi grabbed the Devastator with the collapsed shields and changed course, pulling the Devastator toward it. The two vessels were on courses to just pass each other, but the core of Araxi’s body opened up and tentacle-like manipulators reached out and grabbed hold of the Devastator. Araxi was a massive beast, almost two-thirds the size of a Sovereign and just as massive. It wrenched the Devastator toward itself. The Song’s sensors screamed as gravity bent and the Erasi ship’s spine broke in half against Araxi’s hide.

The two other Devastators attempted to aid their comrade, but it was too late–Araxi had crushed the Erasi vessel, and its sights then turned to the other two. The Erasi fired at Araxi and it fired back.

Then the Herald arrived.

Anessa saw the energy readings of the Sovereign spike, and its forward point opened and a bright light shone from the Herald of War’s depths. A moment later it fired its main weapon, hitting the two Devastators and obliterating one outright along with several of the Erasi super-battleships and other smaller escorts, while the other Devastator somehow managed to survive, though heavily damaged.

The Krashinar saw the chance, and Araxi poured all of its firepower into the damaged Devastator, punching holes in its hull until it exploded, showering debris in every direction.

And just like that, the rhythm of the battle changed again. The remaining Erasi Devastators pulled back along with all of their remaining forces, allowing the alliance to retreat.

Chapter Seven

Gena system – Erasi capital

“This victory is the turning point in our war against the invaders. From this point on, the Erasi will show to all that we are superior, that we are without match!” The end of the speech was followed by a thunderous cheer from all the O’fa present.

Vorash forced himself to remain quiet and let the cheering die out on its own. Valanaru stood and basked in the aftermath of her speech. Her words might fool the others, but Vorash knew better. She cared only for furthering her agenda; twisting facts were the least of her transgressions.

Finally the cheering died down, and Vorash stood.

“We,” he started loudly, “should take much care before we announce our victory. O’fa Valanaru steps dangerously close to arrogance, and that was what got my brother killed,” Vorash said, feeling a pinch of disgust at his own words–but if he had to use his brother as an example to get his point across, he was more than willing.

“At most, the battle for Jerthath was a stalemate,” Vorash continued. “We might’ve succeeded in defending the system, but we lost almost a third of the force O’fa Valanaru sent. Not to mention the fact that we lost seven of our newest Devastator-class warships, and one was so damaged that it might as well be scrap.” He cast his gaze around the room, meeting the eyes of every O’fa, leaving the Weaver for the last. He saw her struggle to remain quiet, and the smoldering rage in her eyes directed at him. Vorash struggled not to smile–he needed her enraged, off balance.

“We defended an important system. Beat back the invaders’ attack,” Valanaru said with barely contained anger.

Vorash crossed both sets of his arms over his torso and stared at her. “Yes, we defended a system. And at the same time we lost seven other system across our territory.”

Valanaru waved her hand away. “Seven outer systems, that are of little value. They are insignificant.”

“There is no insignificant Erasi system,” Vorash said firmly, slamming his lower set of arms on the table in front of him. “And your blatant disregard for the value of Erasi lives is very disconcerting.”

Valanaru opened her mouth to speak, but Vorash cut her off. “You have been given the privilege of being an O’fa so that you may use your significant skills and experience to aid and protect the Erasi!” he growled. “Do not attempt to make a single half-victory more than it truly is. We will lose this war, do not pretend otherwise. Our Devastators barely even scratched the alliance’s Sovereigns and we lost more than half of the force we sent, against two of their fleet killers. Twelve Devastator warships supported by eighty fleets and we didn’t even manage to destroy one of them!”

Valanaru twitched. “This battle has given us a lot of data. We are currently developing better strategies for taking their Sovereigns. And the rest of our core fleets will be in the outer territories in a months’ time.”

“You forget that they have more of those ships, that their invasion force used just two. Do you truly think that they won’t use more? Especially now when you have tipped your hand and showed them that we can harm them?” He shook his head. “We might have more Devastator-class warships than they Sovereigns, but they will matter little when they are so outmatched. And that is not even counting in the Krashin and their new class of vessels. One of their great beasts crushed a Devastator almost effortlessly.

“And I know that you have read the reports from our fleets in their territory. The Krashin had started fielding more of those same class of beasts, in direct answer to our Devastators. It is only a matter of time until they force our forces out of their territory, and then they will continue their invasion and we will again be stuck fighting a war on two fronts,” Vorash said to the room. He could see his words having an effect on the other O’fa, and Valanaru alone was glaring at him in anger.

“There are plans in place that you are not aware of, O’fa Vorash.” Valanaru’s words dripped with venom. “The invaders will soon feel the full might of the Erasi Fleet and the industrial might of the Erasi core systems. We will not fail.”

Vorash almost opened his mouth to mock her, but he resisted. Valanaru had too much influence over majority of the council, and she owned much of the shares in the largest corporations in the Erasi. He might be able to sway them to his side from time to time, but in the end most would side with her. He needed to be patient and smart about it.

“I do not doubt your conviction,” Vorash started, “but until we see the fruits of your plans, this council’s job is to question and push in the interest of all the Erasi,” he said sweetly. He could see that his sudden change of tact threw her off, and she narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion.

The rest of the O’fa nodded in agreement, more perhaps because the confrontation between Valanaru and Vorash seemed to have come to a close.

“Oh, do not fear, O’fa Vorash. Soon, I shall make them regret ever standing in our way.”

*  *  *

Later that night, Vorash sat in his private office looking out of the window at the tall buildings surrounding his compound. The lights were almost blinding, so far up the Gena Prime’s sky that he couldn’t even see the ground. Below him was only the darkness, the entire planet obscured by buildings. Transports moved like swarms about in a chaotic way that somehow made him think on the Erasi.

They were like that, swarms of beings living in an organized kind of chaos, but all subservient to the core races of the Erasi. The races that had held on to their power by exploiting the lower members of the Erasi. It sickened him to know that he had part in making it so. But their greatest crime was convincing the other member races that they were benefiting from being a part of the Erasi.

Vorash would change that, even if it was the last thing he did. The Erasi would mean something more.

A chime at his doors announced that he had a visitor, and with a mental command Vorash let him in. “You were right,” Vorash’s second Skmeh said.

“Of course. She can’t afford anything that would weaken her position. The truth would only show the rest the depths of her failure.” Vorash turned away from the window and faced Skmeh.

“But keeping that from the council…it is treason.”

Vorash laughed at his second’s naivety. “The law of the Erasi is whatever the O’fa say. And she is one of the founders.”

“So are you. If you revealed this now, we might turn enough of the others to remove her from the council,” Skmeh urged.

Vorash considered it. Valanaru was hiding much about the war from the other; it wasn’t even particularly difficult, as the Gatrey were in charge of most of the Erasi information distribution centers. Not all, but most. And while she couldn’t suppress information coming in from the civilian outer systems, the corporations having too much influence, she did have a great amount of influence in the back channels of the military. And so she had hidden the fact that the alliance of the Empire and Shara Daim had a ghost task-force operating in the Erasi core. Already this task-force had struck at several secret military and supply systems, and Valanaru had little success in finding it.

“Do not worry, Skmeh. We will use this information, but only when the time is right. She has too much influence and power as it stands. We need more time,” Vorash said. It bothered him a bit that his silence had allowed the invaders to strike at Erasi, but so far the alliance had proved very capable in targeting only the military targets. There had not been any instances where a civilian population had been harmed. “So what news do you have for me? What did she do after the meeting?”

“The report from my people says that she was not happy with the way you took away her spotlight and made the defense of Jerthath seem worthless.”

“Understandable,” Vorash said with a smile.

“She had also sent out orders to the Crescent.”

“Oh?”

“She has instructed the commander to move it to another military base here in the core. The reason cited in the orders is for further testing.” He put a data chip on the table and opened a star map, showing Vorash the system that the Crescent was being moved to.

“Hm…that is technically within the bounds the council gave. She is only forbidden from using it on the front. But it is strange…”

“You suspect that she is going to break with the will of the council?”

“She is forbidden to use the Crescent until she has proven that it works as intended. She would not risk her influence by disobeying the will of the council. Bend the orders a bit, sure. But not break them, not yet anyway,” Vorash said thoughtfully. “I think that she might’ve just found a way to prove to the council that the Crescent is operational.”

Vorash grimaced as he figured it out. “And I think that I just primed the council to let her use it even if it is still uncontrollable.”

“That system is suspiciously close to the last system the invaders ghost task-force attacked. I bet that she plans on setting up a trap.” Vorash shook his head; he had seen the records of the Crescents use. If Valanaru succeeded, she would have the proof that she could use the Crescent, and after Vorash had just made it clear that in his opinion the war was going badly, she would have the permission she needed to send the thing to the front.

He’d underestimated the Weaver. Even distracted and weakened, she still had managed to take the defeat he had given her and use it to her advantage.

“We need to accelerate our plans,” Vorash said slowly.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Send the go ahead to the provisional heads and the corporation leaders. We need them ready for phase two sooner than I had planned.”

Chapter Eight

Sanctuary

Vaana and Kane stepped out of their transport ship, followed closely by a massive Wolion–Sora–and onto the palace ground of Olympus city. Looking around, they could not help but admire the palace itself, and the tall tower in the middle of the circular palace grounds in the heart of the Empire’s capital. They had been here before, of course; but today they were not simply visiting. Today, they were here as the leaders of Shara Daim. This visit was going to be a much different one. It was the first real test of their leadership.

Sora raised her head and sniffed the wind, content that she had returned home after so long. Her empathic Sha spilled over Kane and Vaana, filling them with her joy. The wind pushed Vaana’s shoulder-length white hair to her face, and she reached up with her hand and pulled it back. Both of them had adopted a new look, dyeing their hair white in a stark contrast to their obsidian-colored skin, and shaving one side of their head, leaving hair only on top and the other side. Vaana’s shaved side was her right, and Kane’s his left. They loved experimenting with different styles and looks. And not even a day had passed since they had changed their look until a few officials on Shara Radum started copying the look. It amused the twins to no end to see their experiments being taken as genius moves of fashion and style. They had even done ridiculous things, and watched as the entire fashion of Shara Radum rushed to change, only for them to change their looks back in a matter of days.

They walked over the platform and were met by the palace guards, an honor guard that stood a step behind the Emperor himself. Tomas Klein waited for them to approach and then bowed his head, a gesture that the twins returned. Then the Emperor smiled.

“Welcome to Sanctuary. Come, we have much to discuss,” the Emperor said, falling in step beside them as he led them into the palace. The twins’ own honor guard, their Va Sun, fell in formation behind them, along with the palace guards, and followed a few steps behind.

They couldn’t help but mentally cringe at the attire that everyone wore, the Emperor included: tight body suits and long overcoats. A few of them would have some fashion detail, a crest, a coat of several colors, but it was rare. The Empire’s fashion was in the twins’ opinion nonexistent. Their own attire was their Shur At, arranged as a loose white tunic around their shoulders and upper torso, then wrapped tightly around their midsections colored in dark green, with a flowing red half-skirt dropping behind them from the waist and white tight leggings. The Emperor, on the other hand, looked almost exactly as every person they passed. It’s atrocious. He at least should know the value of an image, Kane told his sister mentally. Father is the same, Vaana responded. Kane dropped the topic, refusing to get drawn into it again. He had tried to get his father to wear clothes more fitting his station, but the old man was stubborn beyond belief. If it didn’t aid him in getting stronger, it was too much of a bother.

“This place is still the same as I remember,” Kane commented out loud. The last time they had visited Sanctuary had been over a decade ago. Still too bright, Vaana’s voice added in his mind. Sora added her own opinion in the form of feelings of amusement, and Kane returned a mental chuckle. Shara Radum was a much darker world–its sun bathed the world in much solar radiation but the light was dimmer, everything painted in shades of red. And Shara Daim preferred dark colors in general. The Empire on the other hand usually painted their walls in bright colors.

“Yes, I consider making changes every few years, but in the end I always decide against it. The palace is more of a reminder for me of what happened long ago. It’s a bit old fashioned, but it helps me remember where we came from.”

“The Shara Daim had once forgotten their past,” Vaana said. “Our mother made sure that that will never happen again. Having such visible reminders of the past is important,” she finished, agreeing with the Emperor.

A few minutes later they were sitting in a fairly large meeting room, Vaana and Kane sitting on the one side and the Emperor on the other. Sora curled up at their feet. They already knew the reason for the invitations, but now they would need to agree at the course of action. The Shara Daim and the Empire were allies, and with the twins now in charge it was up to them to come to an agreement with the Emperor.

“My hope is that this is nothing but a simple diplomatic group. Sent to negotiate with us and establish relations,” the Emperor began, “but…I doubt that. All the reports that I had read suggest that the Josanti League considers all star-nations outside of the core primitive and not worthy of their time. ”

“We agree,” Vaana said. The two of them had reviewed the reports and the data sent by the Emperor on their trip to Empire’s capital. The Sentinel analysis was quite extensive. The Josanti League was a powerful star-nation used to being in power. They did not send diplomatic teams to seek out relations with other star-nations.

“So, now we have a few other possibilities. They could’ve actually reviewed the data the Sentinels had given them about us and realized that we were not just some small backwater star-nation, and have now decided to break with a long-standing tradition to send a mission to seek us out. I doubt that very much,” the Emperor said with a shake of his head. “Or, seeing as the being in apparent charge of this team is a Partenai, it could have to do with who we are. If the Partenai have records of the old history, they might’ve noticed that we look fairly similar to the People, and they could be simply interested in learning more.”

Kane nodded his head. Vaana and he had read through the People’s files on the Partenai, and had learned much about them and the circumstances leading to them and two other races rebelling against the People and their guidance. For their crime, the People had punished them severely.

“Or,” Kane started, “they want to make us pay for what the People did to them long ago–”

“–and this could be only a mission to gather more information,” Vaana finished, slipping into their usual speaking patterns.

Not even missing a beat upon hearing their manner of speaking, the Emperor sighed. “That is a possibility as well. One that could be very problematic for us. We cannot afford to be engaged in two wars at the same time…”

Vaana and Kane agreed. Both of them knew the amount of warships they had committed to the invasion of the Erasi, and they were still outnumbered. Most of the Empire’s fleets and the Shara Daim’s fleets were on the front, aside from the majority of the Sovereigns. And those had been left behind on purpose–their parents were not sure if they had managed to turn all of the Erasi allies to their side, or at least to neutrality. And they had worried that the Erasi Weaver’s influence would be enough to convince some of them to attack while the alliance’s fleets were occupied. The Sovereigns were currently the majority of the forces available for the defense. And despite all of their strengths, their one greatest weakness remained: there was so few of them, and they could not be everywhere at the same time. All it would take to diminish their power was for an invading force to split and attack several places at once.

“So what do you suggest?” Vaana asked, reaching down to gently pet Sora.

“Meet with them and see what they want. My instincts tell me that they are not hostile, at least not yet. I invited you here in case that they want to negotiate our request for passage of our forces through their territory, although I doubt that they would’ve bothered to come here just for that. In any case, as the leaders of the Shara Daim, you should be present.”

“When will they arrive?” Kane asked.

“They should be here in three days’ time. I’ve arranged it so that they will pass through Sol and the access point to Nelus, and then here to Sanctuary.”

“So,” Vaana started, “we impress them with Sol and then Sanctuary, making sure that they understand that we are–”

“–more than what they believe. All while we try to learn their intention,” Kane finished.

“Yes. In any case, the Empire and the Shara Daim should present a unified front. We are dealing with an old and powerful star-nation, after all. And I do have another idea in mind…”

Chapter Nine

Three days later – trans-space

High Matriarch Levisomaerni of the Josanti League sat on the foam seat in her quarters aboard her diplomatic vessel, her legs tucked neatly beneath her and her wings curled over her long back. She used her telepathy to bring up and read through several holograms that flew in front of her. She and her diplomatic team were on the last stretch of their journey, one that had been filled with difficulties and surprises.

It had taken her a while to assemble the mission. Levisomaerni was a very respected and honored individual among the Josanti League, but she did not actually rule. She fulfilled the role of an advisor, and that of a symbol of lasting. She was after all one of the oldest individuals in the Josanti League. Her duty was to use the experience of such a life to guide and offer advice.

When she had advised the ruling caste of the Josanti League to send a mission to make diplomatic overtures to a star-nation outside of the galactic core, there had been quite a large amount of confusion. Levisomaerni had not meddled with the ruling caste in a long time. She did not tell them the reason for her advice, of course, as very few of the Josanti League members even knew anything about the People. A few of her people, the Partenai, knew, but they had agreed with her not to reveal the true reasons for the mission.

She would’ve gone by herself, privately, if she could’ve managed. But any personal visit by her to a foreign star-nation would’ve been seen as official by all of the Josanti League peers.

Her advice had been met with very respectful attempts at ignoring her advice. No one had actually said no to her, but they had attempted to reason with her. At first they had simply pointing to tradition; such things were not done, they said. They said how such a mission would make them lose face with the other galactic core star-nations. But she persisted, and so they tried to show her the information that the Josanti League had on the Empire. The information was basic at best. Some cursory scans of the ships that had reached Josanti territory, and a few databases that the Empire offered.

Levisomaerni had quickly pointed out that they knew very little about them, aside from rumors and assumptions tainted by prejudice against the outer systems. They did not like her pointing that out, but again no one had dared speak with her with anything other than respect. Quickly she had realized that they would continue to ignore her advice, so she had simply asked them directly, making it a personal request.

That had been a much different story. None of them wanted to refuse, and as she had asked it as a favor they would gain something in return. Levisomaerni’s gratitude. And that was a rare currency indeed. She might not have much to do with the rule of the Josanti, but she was still a High Matriarch of the Partenai. And Partenai were the oldest and the most influential members of the Josanti League.

And so, they had assembled a diplomatic mission. And when they learned that she intended to go herself, they had attached a fairly large military escort. All the ships of the line–more assembled firepower than most other star-nations outside of the core could even dream of fielding. They did not want to risk her, and she did understand and suffered through it gladly if it meant coming and seeing if her suspicions were true.

The diplomatic team assembled had been clearly reluctant. From the start of their trip they had been of the belief that this entire thing was a waste of time. In their eyes, this Empire had noting of worth to offer to the Josanti. And Levisomaerni could understand their reluctance; from the data available to them there was nothing that stood out. Even she herself could see nothing impressive, which was why she had reached out to those outside of the Josanti League that owed her favors, and quickly she had gained information gathered by other races, those who lived at the edge of the galactic core.

Some of it was information provided by other races, and some was from their own dealings by the Empire, but altogether it did paint a different picture. It told a tale of a young race that had suddenly grown at an unimaginable rate, swallowing many races around it. A warlike race, proficient in destruction, yet clearly willing to protect others. It was at odds with everything Levisomaerni knew of the People, and she had feared that she had made a mistake–until she had stumbled on the records of a battle fought several centuries ago.

She saw a World-ship of the People, and she knew that her suspicions had been correct. They were connected to the People, and she needed to know the truth of what happened so long ago.

And as they learned more on their trip to the Empire’s territory, the mood of the diplomatic team changed, from reluctant to slightly interested. To them, the Empire was an enigma. They wanted to learn how they had advanced so quickly in such a short time.

Then they had arrived, and were allowed to pass through the Empire’s territory. She had truly been surprised by that, as she did not think that they would let such a large force pass through their systems. Especially not after the Josanti had refused them passage through their territory.

But an escort fleet arrived, a very large one. And as they were escorted to the heart of the Empire’s territory, things started to become cleared. Better scans of the ships that escorted them showed a much different picture than their previous information. These were not primitive technologies–they were different, but far from what they had expected. They were also very different from what she knew of the People…but there were echoes.

At first they had been taken through empty systems, or barely colonized ones. And her diplomats had grown annoyed, thinking that they were being led around. But then they started passing through more colonized ones. And then they arrived to a system named Sol, according to the net that her people had been given access to.

And there, Levisomaerni saw something truly remarkable. It was clearly a system dedicated to construction, with massive yards surrounding a gas giant, one entire planet covered in resin pools–clearly the technology of the People. And in orbit of the fourth world stood a World-ship, surrounded by smaller and clearly far more weaponized variations on the People’s World-ships. There, for the first time, she felt a touch of fear.

A possibility that another race had discovered the People’s technology and was utilizing it had never occurred to her. After all the Nel, Human, and Shara Daim races looked so much like the People, that she had assumed that those were just new names they had assumed. But seeing them do things that the People never did showed her that they were far from what she remembered.

Then, as if to offer a counterbalance to her fear, they entered the sun’s corona and passed through an access point. The greatest achievement of the People were the access points, the grid that connected the galaxy. One that had remained usable by all since the People’s mysterious passing, to all except the black ships–which Levisomaerni knew were themselves created by the People, and which most of the Partenai believed to be controlled by an artificial intelligence left behind by the People to keep the true monsters of the galaxy contained.

The Partenai had some knowledge of the People, and they had been unable to use any of the access points in their territory. None of their brightest scientists and technicians had figured out how to gain access to the points. Yet these people could.

After that they had exited through the point several hundred light years away, and entered the last stretch of their trip. Now they were about to enter the Empire’s capital, a system called Sanctuary, one that was surrounded by a nebula. A strange place for the center of a star-nation; according the limited information she had on it, it was not a hub system, meaning it had only few trans-space points.

A chime pulled Levisomaerni’s attention from her reading, and she looked at the short message. They would arrive shortly. She stood up and walked out of her quarters. Soon enough she would have her answers.

Interlude II

Union of the Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago

Vorash sat in the Loraru command center, watching as Garash led their forces against the black ships. It was not going well. The black ships were relentless, almost like monsters from stories told to children. Nothing that they did was accomplishing anything.

“The weapon had no effect, Commander,” one of their subordinates said.

“Order the ship to fire again,” Garash said.

“Yes, Commander.”

Both Garash and Vorash watched as the ship fired again, and as their weapon had no effect again.

“The same result, Commander,” the subordinate said softly.

“Abandon the mission. Pull our ships back,” Garash ordered.

Vorash could feel the pain in his brother’s voice. This failure meant that they would lose another world. Most of the population had been evacuated, but not all–they did not have enough ships for that. And that meant that those that were left behind would die.

And Garash would again blame himself.

Their retreat took hours, and all the while the black ships kept coming. They did not seem to bother with chasing them, instead moving simply to the planet. As soon as they reached it, all the sensors from the planet cut off, as they always did. And so another world of the Union fell.

Vorash could weep for the injustice of it all. The black ships did not communicate, they showed no mercy, no reason. They just kept coming.

“Gar,” Vorash said to his brother once their ships safely entered a trans-lane.

“We will find a way, Vor,” his brother said resolutely. “I know that we will. I will see to it.”

“I know that you will. You have always been our people’s greatest protector,” Vorash said. If anyone could save them, it would be him.

They sat in silence for a while.

“I really thought that it was going to work,” Garash whispered, almost as if he hadn’t realized that he had spoken out loud.

Vorash’s heart broke for his brother. The weight of the entire Union, of trillions of lives, and all of them, rested on him.

Vorash put a hand on Garash’s shoulder, leaning down to look him in the eyes. “We will find a way to protect our people, brother. I know that we will.”

Chapter Ten

Alliance staging point – Erasi outer territory

Adrian and Anessa sat in a meeting room, surrounded by the commanders of the invasion force. Their retreat from the assault was the first major setback they had encountered, and they had gathered to discuss how they should proceed.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Fleet Commander Johanna Stern said, her knuckles tapping the table consistently.

“Yes, and it has. We still have the advantage and the momentum. They might’ve defended one system, but we’ve taken seven others since then,” Sentinel Riss said.

“We’ve been fighting their less capable forces. Now, their best will be coming,” Lurker of the Depths sent to everyone at the table.

“It doesn’t matter–they can’t possibly defend forever. Already the Krashinar have struck against the Erasi fleets sent to their territory,” Anessa said. “Once they secure their territory, their Great Packs will attack the Erasi rimward border again. They won’t be able to fight invasions on both sides of their territory.”

Adrian shook his head. “There was never the question of if we were going to win, of if our invasion was going to be successful. The only question was how long it was going to take us. And now it looks like we will be fighting this war for hundred years, more even.”

“The Erasi are a massive empire,” Sentinel Riss said. “Gone are the times when we dealt in star-nations controlling a handful of systems.”

“I know that,” Adrian replied, “but I do not want us tied up in this war. I never did. We have bigger concerns than this.”

He saw many around the table agree with his words; all of them were in the know about the Enlightened. While most people knew something, they did not know everything, and very few knew that the Shara Daim, Humans, and Nel had been created to battle that threat.

“We could not have allowed the Erasi to be free at our backs. They were only biding their time. Your own information indicated that they were going to attack us. We need to take care of them now,” Anessa told him.

“Of course. I do not disagree with this war so much as I just wish that there was some way to end it quickly.” Adrian reached up with a hand to scratch at his head. He had many plans in motion, some that could give them an edge. But they were all plans and schemes that had yet to pay off in any big way. He knew that he needed to be patient and vigilant. He would see the chance, and once it came, he needed to be ready to jump on it.

“In any case,” Adrian continued, “I have sent a request to the Fleet for more Sovereigns. I plan on breaking through the line into their core. And any successful assault on their core needs a safe line for our supplies. Getting a hub system with a direct trans-lane into the core is what we need. And there are other such systems. They can’t reinforce all of them.”

“And if we don’t get more Sovereigns?” Johanna asked.

“Then we pull all of our invasion force into one massive force and smash through. I am done taking things slowly.”

*  *  *

Adrian reached out to the side of the room, grabbing hold of a punching bag and ripping it off its chain, pulling it toward him. At the last minute he stepped back just as his opponent threw a punch at his face. Unfortunately for her, just as she extended forward, the bag slammed into her side.

Anessa lost her balance and fell down to the ground. She threw the punching bag to the side and glared at him from the floor.

“That was cheating,” she told him. “We agreed. No Sha.”

“Did we now?” Adrian asked innocently.

He felt her grab hold of the Sha and push herself of the floor. Almost floating for a moment, she twisted and got to her feet.

“So that is how you want it?” Anessa smirked.

“Oh, no!” Adrian exclaimed. “I pissed off the big bad Dai Sha Anessa. Oh, what ever will I do?”

A quick kinetic punch at his face silenced him as he ducked to avoid it.

“Smartass,” she told him.

“Come, let us see how rusty you’ve become. It’s been ages since you’ve been the Dai Sha,” Adrian mocked.

Anessa’s eyes narrowed, but he could see a slim quirk of her mouth.

She pushed her hands forward, sending a wave of force at him. Adrian jumped and grabbed hold of the ceiling with the Sha pulling himself above her blast, and sending one of his own at her face. She pirouetted away and tried to catch him with her telekinesis. Adrian felt her grab him, but he simply flashed the Sha around him, breaking her connection.

As he approached the ceiling, he twisted in the air, letting go of his pull on the ceiling and letting his momentum bring him up. He placed his legs on the ceiling and then bent his knees. A moment later, he pushed himself off and toward Anessa.

Surprised, she shot another kinetic blast at him. Adrian activated his Sha sight, seeing the Sha transferring the force through the air. He reached out and moved it away, pushing her kinetic attack around himself.

Then he extended his arms toward her and reached out to the Sha around her. He used her as an anchor to slow himself down, and he heard her grunt as she took the combined force of his fall. He slowed down and then grabbed the ground, twisting himself down as he took hold of her shoulders with his hands. As soon as his feet touched the ground, her pulled her over his back and threw her on the floor, jumping on her and pinning her arms with his knees just as he dropped a layer of Sha over her to prevent her from moving.

“Well, well, well… Not so scary now, are we?” Adrian teased.

Anessa narrowed her eyes at him. “You are going to teach me how to do that.”

Adrian smiled and released her.

“Of course, love,” he said, before leaning down to kiss her gently on the lips.

*  *  *

Several days later, Adrian and Anessa were sitting in his quarters. Well, Adrian was sitting, and Anessa was pacing.

“What’s wrong?” Adrian asked after spending several minutes attempting to ignore her and focus on his reports.

“We did not get any word back from Ryaana.”

Adrian barely resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at her. Thankfully, he restrained himself. He knew how that would go over, and he did not particularly want to incite Anessa’s wrath. Many thought of Anessa as an emotionless ruler, the same as they thought Adrian. Many were wrong. No matter what disagreements she had with her daughter, she did love her. And she did worry about her.

“She is in enemy territory, and it’s not like she can risk sending couriers often just to let us know that all is fine,” Adrian told her.

“We should’ve sent a larger force with her.”

“The force we agreed upon is sufficient.”

“We should’ve sent someone else.”

“She had spent a better part of ten years in Erasi territory, and thus she understands the terrain far better than most. She was the only choice.”

Anessa grimaced, and then threw herself down into her chair. “I hate it when you are right,” she growled. “It would’ve been better if it wasn’t all the damn time.”

Adrian shrugged.

They sat in silence for a while, until sometime latter Anessa spoke again.

“Any word on your weaves, Heart of the Mountain?” she asked with a touch of sarcasm.

Adrian gave her a droll look on her use of the name the Erasi Weaver gave him. It was supposed to be a great honor in the Erasi, to be given a name by a mind-bender. And Adrian didn’t really hate the name–he kind of liked it–but it did remind him of the fact that the last time he had fought with the Weaver, she had almost killed him.

“No,” Adrian started, answering Anessa’s question, “there is nothing that we can use now.”

“But there is something?”

“These things take time, Anessa.”

“You’ve been laying down pieces for hundreds of years!”

“That plan had always been a long game, a great time investment for a possible great return.”

“And you think that you can still get what you want?”

“It is possible. We shall see.”

“Fine,” Anessa said. “It’s not like I ever believed it would work anyway.”

Adrian chuckled at her words, but didn’t comment.

Chapter Eleven

Sanctuary

High Matriarch Levisomaerni sat in a grand room with tables and suitable seating for every race that the Josanti had present. She had been actually rather surprised that they had something able to accommodate them all. The first few hours of their meetings had gone as one would have expected a diplomatic mission to go. They had been introduced to the Emperor and a few of his higher-ranking officials, then invited to walk the city and the palace itself. It had all been rather impressive.

The Empire’s capital was not at all what she had expected. The world itself had been left virtually untouched. Only a single plateau showed any sign of civilization, the city, and even that was small by any Josanti standards. She was made aware that there was a lot of the city underground, but it still impressed her. Few were the races that could show restraint and respect toward nature.

The space above them was another matter, however. Other planets in the system were heavily colonized, more on the scale she had expected. There were thousands of stations and military platforms. The defenses had frankly scared her; she had never seen a system as fortified as this one. And the amount of military ships present was staggering. She did not know if it was standard practice or if they were simply there because of her, but the commander of her military escort had been completely taken aback and cowed at the sight. Their trip had been fairly illuminating, as their analysis of the ships from the fleets escorting them showed that this Empire’s warships were very close to matching the Josanti League’s best.

Her commander did not think that they could fight their way out of this system.

It was a sobering thought, and one she was not really accustomed to. It had been a long time since the Partenai had felt at a disadvantage.

After the tour they had retreated to the palace, where diplomats had started the usual talks–a necessity that annoyed Levisomaerni. She was not here for that. Her plan was to gain a private audience with their Emperor, and then attempt to find the truth. She cast her eyes across the room to the man in question. Tomas Klein, the Emperor, was to her eyes, at least, uninteresting, aside from his resemblance to the People. With her mind she could feel his own; most of those in this room had the Sha, as the People had called it. The Josanti League had another name for it, but the Partenai had always used the name that the People used.

It did not surprise her to find that all those from the Empire’s side had it, and that they were fairly strong. It gave another point to her theory about who these people were.

Then, finally, the diplomats agreed to a pause. Levisomaerni hoped for a chance to ask for a private meeting, but found that it was not needed. The Emperor approached her and asked if she would like to take a more private walk, his words translated by the device they had given to her and her team. They were simpler than those of the Josanti, but functional. It didn’t really matter, of course, as any important talk would be conducted via telepathy. They walked in silence for a while, accompanied by their guards. When they reached a door, and the Emperor stopped and turned to her.

“I have come to learn over the years that diplomats usually like to drag things out for as long as possible. I, on the other hand, prefer a much more direct approach,” the Emperor sent, her own telepathy interpreting and allowing her to hear the words in her own language. “If you are willing, we may speak inside, freely and without restraint.”

Levisomaerni could feel inside the room, and knew that it was not occupied. She also knew that she could feel inside by design, as most of the other rooms in this place were shielded against Sha. She also knew that the Emperor knew that she could feel them.

Intrigued, she looked back at her guards and decided to leave most of them in front of the room, taking only the leader of her guard, whom she trusted implicitly. With a quick mental conversation, she and her guard made the arrangements and she accepted the Emperor’s offer.

*  *  *

Kane and Vaana sat at the small table along with Clan Leader Sumia of Nuvan Clan, Sentinel Hayashi and a man dressed in the armor of the Hand of the Empire. Sora was with them as well, but she was curled up behind Kane and Vaana’s seats, out of sight and asleep. Both of Kane and Vaana could feel the Emperor standing in front of the room, and the powerful mind standing beside him. They feel almost as powerful as Lurker of the Depths, Vaana commented. Kane agreed mentally. It was high praise, especially coming from them, who had been taught all of their mind Sha by Lurker of the Depths. And as powerful as both Kane and Vaana were, they still fell just a bit short of their teacher.

Many people in both the Empire and the Shara Daim liked to guess at who were the most powerful Sha users in the Empire. The top names for the mind Sha were always those of their father, Adrian, and his teacher–Lurker of the Depths. Kane and Vaana had firsthand experience of both, something very few people could say, and they knew that while their father was more powerful, Lurker of the Depths was more skilled. Kane and Vaana had argued constantly when they had been young about who would win in a battle between them, often even changing their minds. In the end, they had decided that it would always be a coin toss. Either their father would manage to overpower Lurker of the Depths, or the teacher would manage to trick their father. It was not a battle that would ever happen truly. Regardless, when one reached their level of strength, it was a matter of moments that decided life or death.

The doors opened and the Emperor entered, followed by the Partenai they had seen on the video previously, escorted by a single guard of a race that they were not familiar with. A tall and lanky being, with long arms and three legs. The Sha presence of the guard could be felt, meaning that he was strong, but it paled in comparison to the other. She was even more impressive in person. Quadruped, sleek, and somehow graceful by her very presence. Sha almost sang around her. She is strong in more than just the mind Sha, Kane commented. His sister didn’t respond, but he knew that she agreed with his thoughts.

The Emperor led her to the table and offered a seat across from the group already sitting before he himself took the seat to the side. “Allow me to introduce you,” the Emperor said, and the device in the table translated his words.

“These are Kane and Vaana–heirs of the Shara Daim throne.” Kane and Vaana dipped their heads, and the Partenai did the same.

“Then we have Clan Leader Sumia of Nuva, Sentinel Hayashi, and a representative of the Hand of the Empire,” the Emperor finished, and then he gestured toward the Partenai, introducing her. “This is High Matriarch Levisomaerni of the Josanti League.”

Their guest nodded again, and the others did the same. Then after a moment of silence, the Partenai spoke mentally to them all.

“So–leaders of all of your biggest factions, meeting with me in private. May I ask why?”

The Emperor looked at her in askance. “I think that all of us know that you did not come here for a simple diplomatic mission. Our territories might be very far away from each other, but we have learned enough about the Josanti League to know that you do not seek out relations with star-nations outside of the galactic core. And the Josanti League most certainly does not send someone like you to negotiate.”

The High Matriarch did not deny anything; she did, however, remain silent for a long moment. “It is not very often that I am confronted so…directly. Few would risk insult to anyone in the Josanti, and especially someone like me.” She paused, looking around the room.

“We do not seek to insult,” Vaana started. “Our desire for the Josanti League and our nations is only peace–”

“–unless we are threatened,” Kane finished.

The High Matriarch tilted her head at the two of them, but didn’t comment. A moment later, she returned her eyes to the Emperor’s.

“It is true that I had another reason for coming. Although I am not as certain about it as I was before I started my trip.”

“May we know what this reason is?” Clan Leader Sumia asked.

The High Matriarch’s nostrils twitched, and for a moment Vaana was sure she felt a touch of amusement from her–but it was gone almost instantly, as if it hadn’t even been there. To Kane’s mind the Partenai seemed collected, resolute, with a touch of trepidation. A strange mix of emotions, but then again he knew very little about the Partenai other than the broad strokes of their history. And even that was ancient history.

“Yes… Perhaps directness is best,” the High Matriarch sent. Then, casting her eyes to the rest of the table, she continued. “Does the term ‘the People’ mean anything to you?”

Guess we know why she came, Vaana told her brother privately. Kane glanced at the Emperor, raising his hand and making a Nel gesture that indicated that he should be the one to answer. As soon as he did, Vaana sent him feelings of amusement. Their father had taught them to use the Nel gesture speech, but the twins had always complained how they would never have the need to use them. Shara Daim, unlike the Nel, did not hide behind their emotionless faces; or at least that was what they had thought long ago.

“So,” the Emperor said, “you still remember.”

“Dear creators!” The High Matriarch’s control slipped for a moment, allowing them to feel her shock, as well as relief and fear, all combined into one. A moment later she seemed to realize her slip and pulled back, giving away nothing. “You are the People, then?”

The corner of the Emperor’s mouth quirked upward in a half smile. “Yes. And no.”

“What do you mean?” the High Matriarch asked confused.

“We are their... descendants in a way. We carry the DNA of Axull Darr the last of the People.”

“Descendants?”

“I have answered your question in as much detail as I am willing to at this point. We still do not know the reason for your visit. But in the spirit of good will, and for the purpose of this conversation, you should know that we possess all the technology of the People, as well as all of their data. That includes historical information. We know who your people are, High Matriarch,” the Emperor sent firmly.

The High Matriarch was visibly taken aback for a moment. Her head pulled back and her feathers shook.

“So, I am going to ask you again. What is the reason for your visit?” the Emperor asked. Kane was surprised at his tone. He himself would’ve probably spoken directly, and with perhaps more respect for a powerful representative of a powerful star-nation. But Emperor Tomas Klein never allowed fear to guide his words.

The tone did not even seem to register with the High Matriarch; she just kept looking from one face to another. Finally, she stood up and turned to the Emperor.

“I have come in order to see if you truly are the People. And while you are not what I had expected, I see that I was at least partially right in my belief. I would like to know the rest of your story, to learn what happened to the People after our punishment. We have learned only pieces from the races across the galaxy that still remember, and a rare few abandoned facilities we uncovered.

“But the true reason for my coming here was to ask for forgiveness. For the things we did long ago, to the ones that had given us so much. And if I cannot ask that forgiveness from those we erred against, then I shall do so from you, their descendants. The Partenai owe a debt, one that I hope you will be able to help us meet.” Then she bent her head and lowered herself forward, kneeling before the Emperor.

Well... I did not expect that, Kane said to his sister, and Vaana could only agree.

Chapter Twelve

Erasi core – interstellar space

Aranis dropped to the floor, thrown aside by Ryaana’s kinetic blast. He did a good job of pretending to be actually hurt, and slowly got up to his feet.

“Enough! I don’t think that I could take anymore,” Aranis-as-Vas said.

Ryaana grinned at him playfully. “C’mon, you’re not going to become a Sentinel if you don’t put in the work.”

Vas shook his head. “I’m reconsidering.”

Ryaana let out a deep laugh and walked over to him, slapping him on the back and nearly dropping him to the ground with the force of the slap.

“Fine, fine,” Ryaana said as they walked out of the training room. They changed and then went their separate ways–Ryaana to the command center, and he to his own quarters. He would join her there a bit before they were meant to drop out of hyperspace. He might not be certified for command, but he was still her second, and his place was always by her side.

Once back in his quarters, Aranis turned his thoughts to his plans. He had spent a year in the form of Vassily. A year in war. It has been an interesting experience. He had never been involved in a war of such scale, not at the ground level. Not when he had still been one of the People, and not after. He had commanded, sent his armies forward, and commanded a World-ship. This experience had taught him much, had showed him how detached he had been from the true horror of what war truly was.

At times he had even be tempted to simply leave. There had been moments when he almost convinced himself that he had seen enough, learned enough, and that he could leave. But he knew that he hadn’t, not really. He now knew much of Axull Darr’s children’s technological capabilities, as well as some of the races close to them. He had a general idea of what level of threat they were, and he knew that with their current capabilities they would not be able to do much harm. The Enlightened’s projects were slowly approaching the point where not even a united galaxy would be able to stop them. But still, he could not bring himself to leave. A part of his being screamed at him; the part that had been Axull Darr’s best friend. That part knew that there was more, something that he was not seeing. Axull Darr was far too intelligent to put all his hopes into people that only shared his genetic code. There was more to them, more to his plan. And that was what he needed to uncover.

It would be far too dangerous for the Enlightened to begin the final phase only for something unexpected to strike at them. The last phase was too delicate for that; they could not allow for interruptions. If they somehow managed to interfere with the relays or if they attempted to stop the Conduit before it was finished…it could spell disaster for everything. No–the Enlightened needed to know everything.

And for all that, they were examples of all that the Enlightened feared. There were moments when he could see something more in these people. They were willing to go to the extreme, but they did it to protect their people. And no matter how much he tried to deny it to himself, there was a part of him that was happy. A tiny sliver of who he had been long ago. A shade of Waiss of the People whispered of content, surrounded by a pale shadow of his own people.

And then there was Ryaana: half Shara Daim and half Human. A being caught between two worlds, isolated, alone. Her struggle spoke to him. For he, too, had to fight between his two natures: one of the life he had before and the one after his change. He knew what he had to do, and knew why he had to do it. He knew that it was right, that there was no other choice. Yet Waiss still whispered, from time to time, at times when he looked at Ryaana. When her easy smile that hid a great loneliness reminded him of his own daughter, dead since so long ago. When Ryaana’s camaraderie reminded him of the time he spent with Axull.

There were moments when he could see Axull in all of them. He could not help but feel himself drawn closer to them, caught up in their lives. He had fought by their side, and in instants of intense battle, forgot and lost himself in Vas.

The camaraderie he felt when he stood beside Ryaana was a strange feeling, especially for someone like him. But in the end, he was strong enough to know that no matter what he felt, he had no choice. Nothing could change the truth.

And that harsh truth was that they all had to die.

*   *   *

Ryaana sat in the command center of her flagship, the Command-class ship Gallant, and waited as they were about to enter another Erasi system. A sound behind her drew her attention and she looked back to see Vas come to a stop behind her, arriving to his post just minutes before they dropped out of hyperspace. She couldn’t help but smile at him. He was taking his role as her second very seriously.

Meeting him had been a real gift for her. He was the closest thing she had to a friend, even though he was her subordinate. He was the only person she had ever met that did not treat her like some kind of royalty. She hadn’t really realized how much she had hated that until she had found someone who didn’t care. Ryaana could not even begin to fathom how the twins could suffer it. But then again, she knew that her siblings were not like her.

Shaking her head, she turned back to the holo in front of her. Her fleets was ready; the plans had been finalized before they had even entered the system. Soon twenty attack fleets would enter the Erasi system and begin their attack. Their target was–according to intel–a single-planet system, with two moons, and three bases on the surface. It was supposed to be one of the Erasi Fleet’s secondary command posts. Not a great priority target, but still valuable. Ryaana’s mission was to hit as many military targets as possible and to simply sow chaos.

Her force might be fairly large, at around ninety thousand warships, but it was surprisingly easy to hide. Space was truly vast. Unless one knew where to look, it was extremely hard to find anything. There were things that could mitigate that, of course, but no one could actually patrol interstellar space.

The defenses of their target were not supposed to be too large, seeing as this was not such an important system and they were in the Erasi core. Few would dare or even manage to strike here. And Ryaana did not plan on getting engaged in a full-on siege. She needed only pass through and strike at the Erasi, to do as much damage as possible and then leave.

The counter above the holo reached zero and Ryaana’s task-force entered the system in a staggered formation, with her command ship entering the system as one of the last ships. As planned, the fleet AIs immediately had every ship enter the skim and move toward the planet. Ninety thousand warships moved from the edge of the system to almost its very center. They dropped out of the skim twenty light seconds away from the planet and its moons.

Their ships pinged the system with their sensors, getting real-time images, and red dots started appearing on her holo.

“What are those?” Ryaana asked.

“Erasi warships, Sentinel,” a Furvor officer replied.

Ryaana watched in surprise–their intel had not indicated that there would be that many warships present. By the computer’s count, the force arrayed between the moons and the planet was almost equal to her own.

She grimaced–she did not want to get involved in any kind of fleet battle. That was not her mission. She would much rather leave than get into a battle that would most certainly lead to her losing ships.

“Change course,” she ordered. “Get us pointed toward the hyperspace barrier below the sun’s plane, and tell all fleets to ready their skim drives.”

“Yes, Sentinel.”

Ryaana looked at the holo as her ships reoriented themselves. The Erasi didn’t move, which was strange. They were at the very edge of their viable range, so they weren’t able to fire without closing a distance a bit. Well, they could fire, but their accuracy and power at this distance would suffer. Yet… Ryaana couldn’t explain the strange feeling she was getting. The Erasi did not act in this way.

“All fleets report ready to enter skim, Sentinel.”

“Skim us,” Ryaana ordered.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. Then a few seconds more.

“Why are we not in the skim?” Ryaana asked.

“We… All of our ships report that they are unable to form a skim field, Sentinel!”

Ryaana looked at the tall Furvor for a moment, his beak opened in a gesture of shock. The same shock that Ryaana herself felt.

“All fleets are to reverse course, full power toward the hyper-barrier,” Ryaana ordered just as alarms started blaring. On the holo she could see the Erasi fleet starting to move, and another large signature appeared from behind the moon.

“What is that?”

“We don’t have a match, Sentinel. But its power spike… It’s enormous.”

Ryaana read through the data as it was arriving, and saw that the projections on the signature put it at a mass close to that of a Sovereign.

“Is that why we can’t enter skim?” she asked.

“We can’t pinpoint the origin of the disruptions, Sentinel.”

With a twist of her hand and a command from her implant she opened a holo on her personal command board and found a visual of the ship. She couldn’t tell its size from the image, but the computers estimated it at around forty kilometers wide. It was shaped like an arc or a crescent, with massive pillars attached both to the top and the bottom of the ship all bent forward–it was an ugly thing.

Ryaana debated what to do. She did not know what this new signature was, but it was clearly a new type of warship, a copy of the Sovereigns, perhaps. It might also be just a massive disruptor. But even that was dangerous. Whatever it was, she did not want to engage it, a thing made difficult by their inability to enter skim. The Erasi must’ve expanded on their skim-field disruptors, enhanced their range enough to be able to cover vast distances and put it on a massive ship. Or there were hidden emitters around her fleet, or a hundred other possible explanations, it didn’t really matter. Her fleets were turning around, but the Erasi ships were fast, and they would enter range soon…and then she would start to take a beating. Making a decision, she ordered a quarter of her force to turn and meet the Erasi, acting as rear guard.

She also ordered all of her ships capable of firing kinetic rounds to do so. The kinetic shells theoretically had an infinite range, but at the distances they were now at it was almost laughably easy to avoid them, even with the limited maneuvering capabilities that modern shells had. But she hoped that it would at least disrupt them a little. She didn’t even bother firing s-missiles, seeing as the Erasi had not bothered themselves. The skim-field disruptor must be affecting them as well.

And then the Erasi closed the distance, and almost simultaneously both sides opened fire with their long-range energy weapons. Particle beams shot out from both sides, bathing shields–and within the first minute, Ryaana lost her first ship.

She kept her eyes on the holo, trying to see if there was any way for her to get an edge, something that would allow her time to get her fleets out of there, when a sensor officer yelled out.

“Sentinel! We are detecting a massive energy buildup from the unknown ship!”

Ryaana glanced at her board, seeing the numbers spike unexpectedly, and then all of her flag’s sensors went out and she was blind.

“What happened?”

“Sensory overload, Sentinel!”

“Get them back online!”

“We are resetting the systems–should be back online momentarily.”

Ryaana waited, a terrible feeling coming over her. A few moments later, their sensors came back online. Ryaana looked at the holo…and saw an impossibility.

A third of her force was gone, and many more of her ships were damaged. The reports were endless, and seemingly insane. Ryaana looked at the area where half of her ships had been just a moment before, retreating hastily, and saw space itself twisting her ships apart.

Chapter Thirteen

Erasi system – Command-ship Gallant

Vas’s eyes looked at the wall of the command center, but Aranis’s mind recoiled in horror at what he was feeling. The Sha was trembling. His eyes lost focus as he left the chaos in the command center around him and dropped down into the vast ocean that was the Sha. Without an amplifier he could not touch all of it, of course, but he could enough that he could see what was happening. An area of space-time was twisting; new gravitational fields were expanding outward and behaving erratically, twisting and churning in every direction, ripping ships apart. Some ships were ripped into thousands of pieces, while others were simply crushed, and a happy few somehow survived with just a few bents and rips. But most had fallen prey to the shaking of the new gravitational field.

Aranis had felt the Erasi weapon fire. It was fast, a beam or a burst of some kind of energy he did not recognize. He was not sure, as he had not paid it that much attention. Not until it had reached its destination. In the middle of the fleets, it detonated, rippling outward spherically. Ships in the center hadn’t even had a chance–they had been pulled apart into billions of little pieces as the new gravitational field rippled outward, bending space-time around itself. The field was of a massive size, enough to have caught quite a large portion of the task-force, but those on the outskirts seemed to have fared much better. It had not reached the portion of the force where Aranis was, yet it was still so powerful that he could feel it.

And the Sha…the bonds were straining, a thing that was not supposed to be able to happen. Not enough to break them entirely, but enough that Aranis could feel it. This was something new, something he had never even imagined. The Erasi had developed a weapon dangerous enough even to threaten the Enlightened–for Aranis was certain that, if he had been in the center of that weapon’s firing, he would’ve died. A shiver passed through him at the thought.

Minutes later, the effect seemed to have abated, and the Erasi ships had started moving forward attacking and finishing off the ships that had survived. A few released escape pods, while others had transports and shuttles leave moments before the Erasi destroyed the ships.

It didn’t matter. The Erasi fired on everything.

Aranis shuddered at a thought of what this weapon could do if it was pushed beyond its current ability. If they managed to improve it, they could threaten the very fabric of the universe. And the foolish little idiots didn’t even realize what they were doing. They could bore a true hole to another dimension, not just weaken the dimensional barrier, and all in service of war, pointless squabble. This was why they all had to die, even if they somehow did not pose a threat by their very existence. Their nature itself was far too dangerous.

Submerged as he was in the Sha, he felt the weapon charging to fire again, and realized that this time it would fire closer to where he was. He did not know the weapon’s range, but Ryaana’s ship was at the end of their formation, on the far side of the Erasi. So, at worst, he would be at the far edge of the weapon. It was still not a good position to be in.

His thinking delayed him too much. The weapon fired. A burst of energy crossed the distance nearly instantaneously and detonated in the middle of the remaining formation. A ripple exploded outward and, in mere moments, reached the ship Aranis was on.

A lurch pulled him out of the Sha and he stumbled, grabbing hold of Ryaana’s chair as he looked at the chaos around him. Lights were flickering and consoles were blown to pieces.

He needed to get out. The problem was, he could not do that without revealing himself. If Ryaana or anyone who saw him survived, he would be discovered.

And that meant that he would need to kill them all.

“The drives are completely gone, Sentinel! They were ripped apart!” someone yelled.

“Abandon ship! Get as many people as possible down to the shuttles and transport ships!” Ryaana yelled as she stood up.

She pulled on his arm and started running out of the command center. He looked around and found everyone running. He followed close behind as they maneuvered through the ship, but space was still twisting and lashes hammered the ship, throwing them off balance. They ran for minutes before they reached the hallway leading to the main landing bay. Aranis knew that Empire’s warships had low crew counts–most of the things were automated–but he still did not think that there would be enough room to get everyone off. Just as they reached the end of the hallway, the ship lurched again and the gravity of the ship changed direction, sending both him and Ryaana flying to the side wall. Ryaana hit her head hard, dazing her. Then, a moment later, the gravity righted back to normal, and they dropped to the floor. Picking herself up, Ryaana stumbled forward. “Go!” she yelled at him and he followed behind.

Inside the landing bay, a throng of people was closing in on the transports and the shuttles. There were far less people than Aranis had expected; most must not have reached the bay. They were dead, or had been cut off by damage to the ship.

“Everyone get to the shuttles!” Ryaana yelled.

“Sentinel! Here!” a pilot yelled out, standing close to one of the ship’s two small scout frigates. Ryaana and Aranis ran to him when another shudder passed through the ship. A massive grinding noise filled the landing bay and then a crash. And in the next moment air blasted outward toward a massive tear in the hull, pulling people around him with it. Aranis grabbed hold of the Sha, abandoning his disguise and anchoring himself to the floor.

The pilot near the frigate flew off, pulled away. Ryaana followed, her body smacking against the grounded frigate’s hull with a hard thump. Without thinking, Aranis grabbed her unconscious body and pulled it to him, just as he grabbed hold of the diminishing air and pulled it around them in a bubble. A moment later, an energy shield flashed over the tear and the decompression stopped, although most of the air had gone along with the gravity.

Aranis looked around the empty hangar, and then down at Ryaana. Unconscious and alive only because of him. He didn’t know why he had saved her; she was still doomed. He did not need air to survive and he could easily slip away from this system. It would take him time to get to another system where he could find a faster mode of transportation, but not an excessive amount of it. He could form his own skim field and travel, although not as fast as a ship could. But she could not. Keeping her alive would not change anything–she would still die, only later.

He gazed down on her unconscious form. Somehow, even though there were very few physical similarities, he could not help but think of his daughter. He had not been able to save her. He had watched her die, had mourned her, along with all of his other children. This thing before him was nothing to him. And yet he was hesitating.

Aranis heard another groan of the ship’s hull, and the energy field over the bay’s exit flickered off along with the shield covering the hole, letting the rest of the air out. Quickly after, the lights died down as well. Aranis knew that he needed to make a decision quickly.

“Damn it,” he whispered.

He grabbed her with the Sha and floated over to the small sixty-meter-long frigate. Using his wrist unit he sent the command to the ship to open the doors, making sure to spread the air bubble around the doors to prevent the ship from decompressing. Once inside, he checked to see if any of the crew were on board. Sensing nothing, he moved through the small hangar area to the living space, strapping Ryaana down in one of the chairs. Then he climbed the short ladder to the upper level and the small flight room.

He had very little training piloting Empire’s vessels, but he had trained some, as Ryaana had insisted. Most of it was automated anyways. He disengaged the grounding gear and slowly took the frigate through the exit and flew it out. Looking at the sensors he saw the Erasi warships moving forward to finish the damaged ships, but they were on the other side of the debris field left by what had just minutes before been Ryaana’s force. A few other transports and shuttles were fleeing as well, but he did not see any others from the ship he had just left. The comm channels were a mess, so he didn’t bother with them. The skim-disruption field was still in effect, so they couldn’t enter it. But if his calculations were correct, the frigate should reach the hyperspace barrier before the Erasi reached it. Regardless, he did not plan on allowing them to reach it at all.

Ryaana was still his best connection to the top of the Empire, he reasoned. Saving her made sense for his mission. Nodding to himself resolutely, he reached to the other room and into her mind, making sure that she would remain unconscious for a while, and then he turned off the ship’s sensors. It would not do for this ship to have any records of what would happen next. Afterward, he simply pointed the ship toward the hyperspace barrier.

He stood and walked out of the small flight room, closing the door behind him and securing them. He removed his clothes and put them neatly into a small locker to the side. Then he went to the ship’s airlock and entered. He opened the doors, venting the atmosphere as he changed. Thick dark plates grew out of his skin and his wings emerged–in a moment, the visage of Vas disappeared, making way for Aranis of the Enlightened.

He dropped into the Sha, feeling the entire system around him. The skim field was being disrupted by a series of emitters placed all around the system, but he was not looking for that. He searched and mere moments after he began found the Erasi communication relay. Drawing the Sha to him, he bent space around himself in the same way that access points did, and crossed the distance in an instant. He might not be able to achieve the same range as an access point, but bending space was still a very useful ability. He looked over at the capsule-shaped object the size of a small shuttle and put his hand on it. The cold metal attempted to draw heat from his body, but it, like the vacuum of space, was denied the ability. With a thought he triggered a reaction that collapsed the bonds of the matter, effectively turning the capsule into stellar dust and cutting off the system from the rest of the Erasi comm-grid.

Then he turned to the new Erasi weapon. Space bent, and he arrived above the massive Erasi warship. He wondered if their sensors could pick him up; it was not like he was attempting to hide, but there was a lot happening in the system. He reached into the ship, studying it. It was powered by six fairly large singularity drives, suspiciously similar to those of the Empire, which were themselves a slight improvement on the drives of the People. This implied that the Erasi had probably stolen the relevant blueprints from the Empire. But there was also another singularity: larger, and somehow different. He took a moment to focus on it–and then he saw.

Ah, so that is how they did it. It was very brilliant, in Aranis’s opinion, but also foolishly insane. The Erasi did not understand what they were doing, nor what the consequences could be. They were manufacturing unstable black holes on demand, pushing them into subspace and throwing them forward, kept contained and from collapsing by a kind of space-time field similar to the skim fields. The calculations necessary for them to actually hit their target were mindboggling. For every shot they needed to calculate how much power their containment needed to hold on to before collapsing in order to reach the target. Just a slight miscalculation could have it collapse early or late, missing the target by enormous distances.

Allowing the black hole to collapse inside subspace had the effect of rippling space-time in real-space, tearing anything and everything in the area effected, creating an effect it would not have in real-space. But the fools probably didn’t even realize that a single misstep could have the collapsing black hole break phase and manifest inside real-space, feeding on everything around it to sustain it. They could very easily swallow the entire system in a new black hole. And if they realized what they truly could do with this technology… Aranis did not want to imagine such a scenario. It was exactly what the Enlightened wanted to prevent.

Well, in any case, they will not get the chance, he thought. Taking hold of the Sha permeating through the ship, he studied it in greater detail. He did not want to accidentally cause the very thing he had feared, which meant he needed to be very careful. Doranis preferred brute force, and Aranis knew that he would’ve simply pulled the ship apart with the Sha, but Aranis was not so reckless.

The first thing he did was find the part of their weapon that phased their fire into subspace. Once he did, he crushed it with the Sha, forcing the particles it bound to move closer to each other, effectively making it crumple in on itself.

Then he looked at the ship’s six drives, and, reaching inside, he simply destabilized them, forcing them to collapse. As soon as he did so, he watched as the massive ship lurched and then imploded in on itself. Most of it was consumed by the singularities, leaving only a few pieces of debris.

Satisfied, he turned around to the rest of the ships in the system. He could not let anyone of them leave, not when they had seen that Erasi ship getting destroyed. They might not know what had done it, but any information that could even remotely indicate his presence was information he needed to prevent from spreading. That meant that neither the Erasi fleet nor the fleeing remnants of the Empire’s fleet could survive. He did not want to overextend himself–he did not relish being vulnerable–but he needed to get it done.

With a thought he bent space around himself and appeared above an Erasi super-battleship.

Somehow they had managed to detect him, as one of their turrets swiveled and fired a particle beam at him. But as submerged in the Sha as he was, they might as well be moving at a pace a thousand times slower than his. He raised an arm and bent the Sha, and the beam curved around him, passing by harmlessly.

He put his other hand forward and a lance of energy exploded out of it, piercing the ship, going through it as if it were nothing. He swiped to the side, cutting the ship in half. The two pieces separated slowly, drifting apart as the air inside escaped between them. Then several short explosions rocked the rest of the two pieces, throwing them away from each other.

Again he turned, finding another ship and bending space around him to appear next to it. Not giving this one a chance to fire, he grabbed hold of all the air inside of the ship and ripped it out. The ship exploded into pieces, leaving only an empty husk behind.

Sighing, he saw how many more ships there were in the system. It would take him forever to destroy them one by one. Seeing no other choice, he let himself drop deeper into the Sha. He would have to start breaking them in greater numbers if he was to have the time to take care of the fleeing Empire ships. Annoyed, he set himself to it.

Chapter Fourteen

Sanctuary

High Matriarch Levisomaerni sat in the private quarters given to her in the palace, her mind reeling from the knowledge she had gained. More had happened in just a span of a few days than had happened to her in a span of thousands of years. Many revelations, as well as new questions. The Emperor had given her much trust, but had also proven to be a shrewd ruler. He had accepted the offer of debt Levisomaerni had offered, even though it was not technically owed to them. But she could not fault him for taking advantage of her weakness.

Indeed, he had repaid that a hundred times over by the knowledge he had given. She had learned what had happened to the People, a question the Partenai had wondered about since their punishment so long ago. When the People had taken away all the technology they had given them, when they had stranded them on a single world without technology as a punishment for their crimes, the Partenai had suffered, but had also come to realize the error of their ways.

They had sought more than they were ready for, had acted with violence and greed, had helped kill an entire World-ship of the People. It had taken the Partenai a long time recover from their guilt, and more even to again reach the stars–this time on their own. It was humbling for them to realize how much they had been given. The first time they had lived among the stars they had done so on the backs of the People, never quite understanding the technology they were using. It was why by the time they reached the stars, intent on asking for forgiveness, hoping to make amends, the People were nowhere to be found. And they had searched for a long time, finding only rumors from the other races that had since emerged. There was nothing aside from the black machine ships or small pieces of technology that offered no insight into the question they yearned to know the answer to. Where had the People gone?

And now she knew the answer, and it was terrible; the only thing more so was the Enlightened. The Partenai had always known that the machine ships and armies had been left by the People. At first they had thought that they were left as a plague for the galaxy that had betrayed them. But over time patterns and new ideas arose. Now she knew why they existed–and she was terrified.

The Josanti League had taken in several races that had been running from the machine ships, and tales of the things that they had done were horrible. But to know that such measures were taken in order to prevent something even worse… It was truly terrifying.

But so was what the Emperor had asked of her: his idea was almost as ridiculous as his notion that they were to fight the Enlightened. Even if that was the reason his race was created, Levisomaerni did not think that they stood a chance against something even the People could not defeat.

Yet she had given her word, and so she would grant her aid. The Emperor wanted an ambassador to the star-nations of the galaxy, someone who other rulers will listen to. And she would be that, even if she did not believe that his message would be truly listened to.

In any case, the diplomats were still engaged in talks and would eventually get to an agreement. She might’ve bullied the Josanti to let her take this mission here, but that decision would still have repercussions. The Josanti could not be seen just suddenly making a great amount of deals with a rimward power, she knew, and she did not have the influence to make such a thing happen alone. That meant that while the diplomats had been convinced that there was enough here to make at the very least a basic trade agreement, their request for their forces to pass through the Josanti League’s territory had to be denied. Perhaps in time they would be able to grant that request, but it would not be soon. The galactic powers took matters at a far slower pace than the Empire might want.

But she, as a private citizen, would be able to act as she wished–and the plan that the Emperor proposed had intrigued her, even though she did not quite believe that it would work. On the other hand, she had spent far too long isolated in the core.

Now she would go out and try to inform the galaxy of the threat–and perhaps, she thought, they could even manage to unite before whatever the Enlightened were planning came to fruition.

Interlude III

Union of Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago

“Did you hear, Gar? We got one!” Vorash said as he entered his brother’s room.

Garash was sitting on a side of a bed, an open hologram containing text in front of him.

“I heard,” Garash said softly.

“Why are you not celebrating?”

“Vor, we lost one hundred ships just to take that one out. We isolated it, and fired everything that we had as it slowly killed our ships one by one. None of our weapons worked…it died because one of our ships rammed it,” Garash said.

“But we now know that they can be destroyed!”

“It was surrounded by debris, couldn’t escape.”

“This is a victory!”

“We’ve already lost,” Garash said sadly. “Half of our territory is under their control. Four hundred years, and all we have to show for it is one black ship destroyed and fifty billion dead.”

Vorash opened his mouth to speak, but nothing was coming out. He walked over and took a seat next to his brother.

“What are we going to do?” Vorash asked.

Garash raised one of his arms and pointed at the hologram. “That.”

Vorash turned his attention to it and saw blueprints for what looked like a ship, and several other things. “What is that?”

“A new type of ship–long range, fast, able to carry thousands. A new type of stasis unit, and a few other things.”

“What?”

Garash turned to his brother. “We are running away.”

Vorash looked at his brother in disbelief. “We can’t! No matter how many ships we get we will never be able to take everyone, not even most!”

“And we are not–we are taking just enough to start again. Somewhere else, away from them. Far away enough that we have time to bridge the gap between us, so that the next time we meet, we will not need to run again,” Garash said, his voice resolute.

Chapter Fifteen

Sanctuary

Hyeon Seo-yun had been many things in her life: a scientist, a professor, a mother, and in some ways even a ruler. But she had always been most comfortable in a small private room, with a board and a pen in her hand. The pen had been removed, and the board replaced by holograms, but it still worked in much the same way.

And so she found herself in her private office looking at a wall filled with holograms of equations, graphs, and old records. This particular problem had been on that wall for a long time, but she did feel like she was getting close.

She was attempting to understand what the Sha was. She had all the data from the People, but even there she had started seeing holes. There were things that made her question what it was, and what could be done with it and why. The biggest reason for her research were the Enlightened–the People’s records attributed incredible deeds to them, all done through the Sha, and she was certain that not everything was put in the sphere, as she had noticed holes in the data. However, most of it was there.

In any case, the Enlightened seemed to be capable of so much more, and it did not initially make sense. According to history, the People had fallen prey to an illness, something that they could not find a cure for. Eventually most of them had died off, leaving only a handful of them remaining. Three of them were attempting to find the cure by creating artificial organisms, ones that had been created so that they were in a constant state of evolution, of mutation. Then they spliced their own genetic code with the organisms, hoping that the mutation would give them insight into a cure.

Something went wrong, and the three were infected with one organism. It changed them somehow, and in doing so gave them enormous power. That was something that had bothered her immensely. Originally, they had believed that in order to use the Sha, one needed to have a certain biological aid, organs and tissue that could facilitate the abilities. And to be fair in many ways that was true, as every human, Shara Daim, and Nel had a special organ that converted a small part of the energy their bodies created and stored it inside itself. That was the energy one needed to spend in order to use any Sha ability. They had conduits from it going all over their bodies, as well as emitters in the skin that allowed them to expel that energy with ease. It was all biological hardware that seemed necessary in order to use the Sha.

But the more she learned, the more she started to think that they had been wrong. It was not necessary–it simply made things easier. There was something else that facilitated the use of Sha. But in the end, it all came down to energy. One could not do anything with the Sha without expending energy. One could not break the laws of the universe, could not make something appear out of nothing. It was all bound by the law. But therein lay the problem: Seo-yun was certain that they did not really know the ultimate law that governed the universe.

Her suspicions were that the law was the Sha itself. According to the People, Sha was what enabled everything; it was the building block of creation. And they did know that the Sha was what kept the bonds of even the smallest particles. But Seo-yun had always imagined the Sha as a particle of its own, perhaps the smallest particle in the universe that made up everything. Yet the more she studied and tried to understand, the more she came to think of it as an endless calm sea, with reality submerged just beneath the surface. From that point of view, the Sha was the Universe.

She was certain that all other laws of physics simply came from the Sha. It was everywhere, always present, in the air, in her blood, in every molecule, every atom, all of creation. When one used the Sha, it seemed like one was breaking the laws of physics, but they weren’t, not really. Many of the laws they had once thought absolute had been shown false in the centuries since the scientists on Earth had thought them up, just like their own theories had disproven those from the people in their own past.

If one wanted to move something with telekinesis, one focused the mind on the object and then expended energy to move it by moving the Sha that held the object together–that made it real. The particles that made the object simply moved when the Sha moved. It was akin to moving a piece of paper with writing on it. In order to move the ink around, one simply moved the paper it was written on.

The Sha did not care for what they thought possible; it in fact did not care for anything. It just stood there, unmoving. When someone used an ability to interact with the Sha, one actually spent energy in order to move it according to one’s will, and moving Sha moved reality. The Sha could change, as well, but according to rules no one really knew the true breadth of.

The organs that seemed to give the ability were simply there to make it easier to use, to reduce the amount of energy that it required and help a sentient being grasp a concept that was beyond them. The Sha did not need that.

But while one could bend the laws, one could not break them. The Sha could not create something out of nothing. One can’t raise one’s hand and just turn something into something else–the act needs to abide by the laws of the Universe. Those laws could be bent, but never broken, and they always required energy. The Sha seemed to respond only to that: a conscious effort that spent energy. It did not care what kind of energy it was.

Some of her peers who were working on the same thing, the more spiritual ones at least, had come up with a theory–one that Seo-yun was not certain she agreed with, although it was appealing.

They believed that all intelligent beings in the universe were a manifestation of the Sha’s will, for lack of a better word. They insisted that because it had been proven that the greater amount of Sha in a living being was what triggered intelligence, that it proved the existence of what could be called a soul, which was a piece of something divine–the Sha, the Universe.

Seo-yun, however, was not quite convinced. She did, however, find it interesting. If all it took to actively use Sha was to use a conduit to it that every intelligent being had, then she would’ve thought that they would have seen and would see far more people develop such abilities, even when reaching far into the past. If biological aid was not required, then anyone at any point, after they had intelligence, could theoretically use it.

Which Seo-yun was reluctant to agree, her colleagues had found an answer to this concern as well–whether it was credible or not. Every race had myths, legends, of extraordinary people who could do things others could not. Human history included stories of gods and angels throughout the ancient mythologies. Such things always got twisted by people and time, of course, but she could not abandon the explanation as a data point. Not when such things were present in the histories of every race they had encountered.

So, if she was to believe that, she would have to say that use of Sha stretched back into the history of almost every race. And while such things were exceptionally rare, they were still possible. But the other question still remained: what energy was required to actually use it? The human body had always had a mechanism for storing energy; indeed, every race had it. The organ they now possessed was simply a more efficient one.

Which brought her to the problem of the Enlightened. Their changed natures seemed to have given them a power far beyond anything previously documented, and that was not supposed to be possible. The law that governed the use of Sha required energy, and no matter how much they evolved, she refused to believe that they could access such a massive amount of energy. They would need to be able to gather and transform almost every kind of energy in order to gain enough.

Seo-yun had read the classified report, sent to her by Adrian, of how he had used the Sha to destroy an entire Erasi warship. The only people aware of the feat were the crew that had witnessed it, Seo-yun and a few higher up people in the Fleet, Adrian did not want it to be common knowledge. But even that, as impressive as it sounded, was not really all that impressive when one understood what he had actually done. He had used the Sha to split two bound particles, nothing more, something almost any human engineer could do. The difference was only the technology used to accomplish the action. The reaction that destroyed the ship happened without the influence of the Sha. Besides, the act had drained Adrian to exhaustion.

The things attributed to the Enlightened, however, were much greater–and that was what bothered her. They had another way of accessing energy that they could spend to bend Sha to their will, or they knew something that she and everyone else was missing.

Something that was a direct result of their change–and Seo-yun felt that that was the key to everything, to their power and their motives.

The key to stopping them from destroying everything she held dear.

Chapter Sixteen

Interstellar space

Ryaana woke up slowly, groggily, in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar bed. It took her a few moments to remember how she had come to be here, and then, as the last of her memories returned, she lurched up, only to be pushed back to the bed.

“It’s all right, Ryaana. Slowly now,” a familiar voice said.

She turned to look and saw Vas standing over her. Immediately she felt safer, but she still needed answers. “What happened? Where are we?”

Vas grimaced sadly, then looked her in the eyes. “We are on one of the Gallant’s frigates. As to what happened… What is the last thing that you remember?”

“We were fighting the Erasi–they had a new ship, a new weapon. It…it destroyed my fleet. We were abandoning ship,” Ryaana said, trying to appear calm, but inside, her heart was pounding in her chest.

“We did abandon the ship. The landing bay was hit, and decompressed. I managed to hold on to the grounding gear until the field kicked in and closed the hole, then I got us to the ship. The rest…they were not so lucky. We are the only survivors from the Gallant.”

Ryaana swallowed hard. “What about the other ships?”

“There were some who tried to escape…the Erasi hunted them down. I don’t know if anyone else survived,” Vas told her, his hand on her shoulder giving her a small squeeze.

“But…how did we escape?”

“Luck, I guess. We were at the back of the formation, the furthest away from the Erasi. And I…I shut down as much of the ship as possible, pretending to be a piece of debris until we were far enough away. The Erasi eventually took down their skim disruptors and I skimmed us to the edge of the hyperspace barrier and…well, here we are.”

“And where is here?”

“On our way to the territory we hold. I think that it will be another month in hyperspace until we reach our destination.”

Ryaana closed her eyes to prevent tears from leaking out. “I lost everyone.”

“The Erasi were waiting for us, and they had technology none of knew anything about. It was not your fault.”

“Of course it was!” she yelled out. “I had hundreds of thousands of living beings under my command, and all of them are dead!”

“Some might’ve survived,” Vas said emptily, and she felt a spike of anger. She knew that he was trying to make her feel better, but it was not helping. Even if someone else had managed to survive and escape, she had still lost almost everyone else.

The Erasi weapon had been terrible and devastating, and she couldn’t even imagine what it was, but she knew that her parents needed to know about it. Pushing Vas’s hand away, she slowly stood up. Wiping her tears, she calmed herself, pushing her feelings deep inside. She was a Sentinel; she could grieve later. For now, she needed to make sure that this information reached her people, and that meant that she needed to survive.

*  *  *

Aranis was very impressed with Ryaana. After the initial emotional outburst she had calmed down and set herself to making sure that they reached safety. The first day she spent mostly to herself, going over the sensor data, of which there was little. Aranis had turned it off before he had left the small ship, but she went through it nevertheless, as well as the copy of the Gallant’s sensors that she had in her implant.

The day after, she had started questioning him, and he gave answers as Vas would have. He told her that he didn’t know much, that he had been hiding in the ship with its sensors turned off. He didn’t think that she suspected anything, and he could see that she was still dealing emotionally with what had happened.

On the third day he found her trying to figure out a tactic to be utilized against the Erasi warship. That had almost brought a smile to his face, as he knew there would be no need for that–unless the Erasi had another one of those ships. As far as he could tell, that was possible, but at least the one that had destroyed her force no longer existed.

After he had finished with that ship, he had destroyed every Erasi warship in the system, followed by every one of the fleeing alliance ones. He could not let anyone leave the system. Most probably hadn’t even seen anything, except perhaps the massive ship exploding, but there was no point in taking the chance. Afterward, he had taken care of the Erasi military installations on the moons and the planet by throwing several massive pieces of the Erasi warships at them.

After he had finished, he had found himself extremely drained. Entering the Sha fully like he did did not drain the body; it was more of a drain on the spirit. Being connected to everything at the same time was overwhelming. He now felt as if he had just woken up from a long sleep, and he knew that the effect would persist for a while. And that meant that he could not do what he had done again until he recovered, not unless he was together with the other two Enlightened.

Regardless, he did not expect to need to do this again anytime soon–and even as diminished as he felt, he was still far too formidable to be in any real danger, even if he was discovered. For now, he was content to wait.

Aranis glanced at Ryaana, who was hunched over the holos, trying to deal with the loss of all those under her command. He understood that, of course, as he had felt such feelings himself. Even though Aranis was not someone to second guess his own decisions, he knew that he made a bad one when he had saved her. It had been a pointless act. She, like all others in the galaxy, were going to die. He had simply delayed her death.

Ever since he had become Aranis, he had tried to abandon his sentimentality, yet he always found himself making decisions based on it. The decision to let Ullax live, to come here and see Axull’s descendants, to save Ryaana–all had been decisions made with sentimentality. The other Enlightened had been much better at leaving their old lives behind.

Aranis, on the other hand, was constantly fighting with Waiss’s shadow. He did not waver in his belief of what had to be done, as he knew that there was no other way–it was their fault, and it was they who would fix it–but still, small moments plagued him. Ryaana reminded him so much of his own daughter… These were not the things that he welcomed. They only made what had to come that much more difficult. But he was not a monster, and a part of him grieved for what had to be done.

He sighed–there was no point in him doubting himself. He had done what he had done, and there was no changing it.

Now he had only to live with it.

Chapter Seventeen

Gena system – Erasi capital

Valanaru, Weaver of the Erasi, sat in her sanctum looking at the report and the data her scouts had returned to her. She did not quite believe what she was seeing. Her fleet was gone, as was the Crescent. And that did not seem possible, because beside the reports she had from her scouts, she had another source, this one containing the records of the system prior to it being cut off–and in those records she was seeing a complete victory. The alliance’s force was decimated, the Crescent had fired without any complications, and her fleets were whole. The last report from the Crescent said that they had powered down the weapon and were returning to orbit.

Yet still the reality seemed to be something quite different. The entire system was filled with the debris of both the alliance’s and Erasi fleets; it would take years to find and identify it all. And there were no signs of the Crescent. Her people told her that the most probable explanation was that the Crescent had malfunctioned, that it had taken out their entire force and itself in the process.

It was a possible explanation, but one that she did not quite believe. The Crescent’s last report said that it had powered down the weapon. With the destruction of the invaders’ force, there was no need to power it back on again. Besides that, the rest of the system did not look as if it had suffered the effects of the weapon. The last time the Crescent had malfunctioned it had shattered an entire moon and had taken a chunk out of a planet. There was nothing like that here. The bases were gone, and all the defenses were gone, but the moons and the planet were still there. There were only craters in the place of the bases–indicating targeted acts of destruction rather than a malfunction.

And the timing…it was suspicious. The comm relay had been destroyed unexpectedly and suddenly, even though it had been sufficiently away from the battle that, if something had happened, there should’ve been enough time for a message to be sent.

However, it appeared as if the relay was the first thing that had been destroyed, indicating that someone had not wanted any word leaving the system. But even with that motivation in mind, it should not have been possible for no word to reach her. Her ships had been spread across the system, so one at least should’ve escaped even if the Crescent had malfunctioned–an idea which she doubted.

It did not change the fact that something had clearly happened, and that she was now in a horrible position. She had already lost much of her influence with the other O’fa. Nothing in this war had gone her way thus far, and another failure would severely hamper her. Vorash would most certainly spin it to his advantage, the same way he had lessened the victory at Jerthath. She knew that he wanted more power, but she would rather die before letting him steer the Erasi toward his vision. The Erasi ruled because they were strong, because they crippled anyone capable enough to be a threat.

And Vorash would have them move away from that; he would help those who would eventually and inevitably strike at their backs. Well, Valanaru will not let that happen.

She need to bury this data, to eliminate anyone who knew enough to tell the truth. She would need to move things around–no one could know that she had moved core fleets and that she had lost them. She would need to make it seem like those fleets had been destroyed on the front, something that would require a great amount of tampering, but it was necessary.

And she needed to spin the loss of the Crescent, make it seem like it malfunctioned and destroyed itself. As for the bases… She could just blame it on the ghost fleet that no longer existed. The loss of the Crescent would hurt her, but not as much as it would if the other O’fa found out that she had used it in battle against the ruling of the council.

Her arms trembled as the screams in her head threatened to break the barrier she kept them behind. With an effort of will, she squashed them. She could not stand by this any longer. She needed to make them pay. She still had assets in play; she could turn the war around.

She only needed time.

*  *  *

Vorash looked at the latest reports Skmeh had delivered to him, and smiled. Valanaru had made a grave mistake, but what was even worse, she was trying to cover it up. And Vorash was perfectly willing to let her. Once she succeeded, his information would have so much more weight. With this, he could finally wrestle the control of the Erasi away from her.

But even with his joy at his luck, he still felt a pang of sadness at the loss of life that had occurred so that he could get this chance. It was his people that had died, even though they had followed Valanaru’s orders.

He did not know what had happened, or why–whether the Crescent malfunctioned or the alliance brought another weapon to the battle that could match the Crescent. And for now, at least, it didn’t matter. He would use this to save the Erasi.

Chapter Eighteen

Alliance staging point

Anessa sat in a small private room, one otherwise occupied by only Adrian and Ryaana. Her daughter had arrived only an hour ago in a small frigate, and with a terrible story. Adrian and Anessa had decided against a usual debrief, favoring something a little less official.

“Start from the beginning,” Anessa said softly. She knew what it was like to lose people under her command, and this was Ryaana’s first loss of such magnitude.

“Everything was going as according to plan,” Ryaana said slowly, her eyes fixed forward and her face outwardly calm. But Anessa knew better–her daughter was in pain. “We attacked several systems with no problems. Get in, attack, and get out.”

She paused, taking a deep breath. “Then we entered the next system, and we executed the plan perfectly. We skimmed to the planet. There, we found a force waiting for us. I decided to avoid a battle, as such a fight was not our mission. So I ordered a retreat. That is when we discovered that we could not form skim fields. The Erasi had enhanced their skim-field cancellation technology to encompass the entire system. So, I set course for the hyperbarrier. The Erasi were going to catch us no matter what I did; we had to turn and accelerate while they had already started accelerating toward us. For that reason I ordered a small force to act as a rear guard, allowing the rest of my forces to escape.”

Anessa nodded–she would’ve done the same.

“Then we detected a massive ship, the size of a Sovereign. We didn’t know what it was, but I did not want to find out. Then its power spiked and it fired.” Her eyes got a faraway look to them. “I must’ve gone over the sensors a thousand times since I woke up on the ship… It–the weapon–it did something to space itself. I think that it might be a gravity weapon of some kind, but I just don’t know enough to say. It made space twist and churn–it ripped our ships apart. And it had a massive range, enough to catch almost ten fleets. I…I discovered that the more mass the ship had, the more it could withstand the effect. Our lighter ships parted like they were made out of paper. The more massive ones…they took a few more minutes to be ripped apart. Not that it mattered in the end.”

“You couldn’t have known that they had such a weapon,” Anessa said, even though she knew that it wouldn’t matter to her daughter, not now.

Ryaana looked like she wanted to argue, but she stopped herself.

“And what happened then?” Adrian asked from his spot leaning against the wall to the side. He had remained surprisingly silent ever since Ryaana had returned.

“The Erasi ship fired again, this time to finish the rest of the fleet. The Gallant got caught in whatever that weapon’s effect was… We lost our drives. The entire back section of the ship was torn off. And I ordered everyone to abandon ship.”

“But only you and Vas survived,” Adrian said. Anessa turned and gave him a questioning look. It almost sounded like he didn’t believe her.

“I… We reached the landing bay. There the ship was hit again, the bay was decompressed, and I lost consciousness. Vas grabbed hold of me and of the landing gear and held on until the safety field covered the hole. Then he took me to the frigate and left the ship.”

Adrian narrowed his eyes, but didn’t comment.

“No one else survived. Not from the Gallant at least. There were other transport ships and shuttles, leaving the other ships, but…the Erasi were destroying any ship that survived.”

“Then there still could be other survivors,” Anessa said.

“Maybe,” Ryaana said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

*  *  *

Sometime later, Anessa and Adrian sat together in their quarters. Ryaana had finished her debrief, at least the first of many, and they had given her leave to rest.

“We could’ve lost her,” Anessa said softly, the words sounding strange to Adrian’s ears.

“We didn’t,” Adrian said.

“Because of luck. She was lucky,” Anessa said, then turned her dark eyes on him. “She should’ve died.”

“She didn’t,” he said again, more firmly this time. But I am fairly certain that she would’ve been dead indeed had Vas not been with her, he thought to himself, not daring to speak the thought.

“I never thought about this before. I didn’t even consider it… How arrogant is that?” Anessa said, mocking herself.

“Didn’t consider what?”

“That we could lose them, our children,” Anessa said. “Yes, I worried about her, but not in any moment did I actually consider losing her.”

“Anessa,” Adrian said, “she is fine.”

“But she almost wasn’t. And I…I was a bad mother to her, Adrian.”

“She chose to follow us into this life. She could’ve been anything she wanted.”

“Did she? I forced her to be this. I made her become a Dai Sha. I sent her off with Shara Daim Legions. I pushed her away to become a Sentinel.”

“She chose to be a Sentinel, and she always knew that she had a choice. You might’ve had one vision for her, but I made certain that she knew that she could be whatever she wanted to be. Ever since she had been little.”

“You did?” Anessa asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Adrian said, and he saw her manner ease a bit.

Then Anessa shook her head and sighed, settling in her chair, her eyes getting a faraway look to them. Adrian knew that she had lost herself in her thoughts and left her to it.

His Dal A’sha was a complicated person, but he loved her all the same, with all the faults she had–and it was not as though he had none himself. But Anessa had changed much since their first meeting, he knew, and Adrian understood that most of her interactions with those other than their family was a mask, a facade. She was kinder than most thought her to be.

After a while her eyes turned to look at him. “What are we going to do about this new Erasi weapon?”

“We are going to go over the scans Ryaana gave us, and we are going to figure out what it is and how to defend ourselves against it. In the meantime we will send orders across the front to our commanders that if anyone encounters that ship, they are to retreat immediately.”

Anessa nodded. “We cannot afford this now. Something that powerful could turn the tide of the war.”

Adrian shook his head. “I don’t think that they have any more of those ships.”

“Why?”

“Because we hadn’t seen them used on us before. Why didn’t they use it when they ambushed us before? They could’ve destroyed our forces and killed us in the process. No–the Erasi ships were hunting down all Ryaana’s surviving ships, and coupled with the skim-field disruptors, I am certain that it was a test. That ship was a prototype that they did not want us to know about.”

“Then we need to find it and destroy it before they manage to perfect it,” Anessa said.

“I’ll send out our stealth scouts.”

“And we go ahead as planned until then?”

Adrian nodded. “We go as planned.”

Chapter Nineteen

Gena system – Erasi capital

“This war needs to be won quickly and decisively!” Valanaru said to the council. “The Krashin have almost pushed our forces out of their territory, and we have almost reached the point where we must either retreat or risk losing all of the forces we sent there. There is only one path now: you must sign off on my proposal to increase taxes and to extend work time for the workers in the yards and mines. Only our industrial might will save us now. That is how we will win this war!”

“Hadn’t you been trying to win this war for quite some time now?” Vorash asked her, smirking at her from his seat. “If I remember correctly, you had promised victory against the Empire and the Shara Daim long ago. When was it again… Ah, right. On the day you signed the document that turned over a significant chunk of our territory to them. What were your exact words…? I will not fail, if I remember correctly.”

Vorash looked at her calmly as she glared at him with hate in her eyes.

“I did not fail,” she bit out.

“Oh? Did your plan to conquer them succeed? It did not. As I recall, it was not even executed. The Heart of the Mountain converted all of your puppets to his side. Star-nations that you had held in your grip for eons…all have turned their backs to us. Face it, Valanaru. The Heart of the Mountain outsmarted you,” Vorash said, enjoying the indignation in her eyes. It would only make her fall all that much more satisfying. Today was the day when Valanaru lost it all.

“Do not dare to speak that name here!” Valanaru yelled out.

“Why not? You were the one that named him.”

“He does not matter! This war will end the only way it can end–with our victory!”

Vorash stood, drawing himself to his full height, and crossed both sets of his arms over his chest. “And how exactly are you going to lead us to this victory when you have already lost your secret weapon?”

Valanaru’s face scrunched up in a confused expression. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the Crescent, of course,” Vorash said, and he saw her eyes widen. Then, before she had the chance to answer, he spoke. “Did you really think that we wouldn’t find out that you had used it against the orders of this council? And that we wouldn’t learn of its destruction? Not only have you moved Erasi fleets without the approval of the council, you have done so without even the approval of Erasi Fleet Command! Did you really think that you could get away with this?”

“You…you dare speak such lies against me!” Valanaru screamed at him.

“Lies? Oh no, Valanaru. The only one who lies here is you.” He put a data chip on the table, sending the information on it to all the other O’fa. “There–I back my words up with evidence, Valanaru. Now all can see that I spoke the truth. And not only did you go against our orders, you also attempted to cover it up!”

Silence reigned in the chamber after his last words. The O’fas were reading the information, and Valanaru only gazed at him in surprise and anger.

“O’fa Valanaru,” another O’fa said slowly, “what is the meaning of this?”

Valanaru just stood there, looking at Vorash. A part of him was disappointed that she didn’t even attempt to defend herself. She just stared at him.

“Well, Valanaru?” Vorash said mockingly.

That seemed to pull her out of her trance. Her arm started trembling, and she raised it to point at him. “It was you…” she whispered. “You knew what I was doing. You sabotaged me… You destroyed my fleets…”

Vorash looked at her in bewilderment. “You are insane, Valanaru. You have been ever since your fight with the Empire’s mindbenders. I, unlike you, would never kill my own people.”

She snarled and her mind opened up, shocking everyone in the room. With a vicious, powerful, yet unfocused attack, she lashed out at Vorash. He barely had enough time to prepare his defenses. The attack staggered him and dropped him to the ground. A moment later, he felt telepathic bursts leaving her, going outside of the room, and moments after the door behind her opened and her guards entered. Vorash reached quickly beneath the table and pressed a button there, summoning the guards, hoping that Valanaru did not own all of them.

A few instants later, the room turned into a bloodbath.

*  *  *

Vorash sat in his compound, a medical officer standing above him, treating the wound on his arm. His office had been turned into a battle center rather quickly. Valanaru had gone insane, completely and utterly. She had not only attacked the other O’fa with her mind, a thing forbidden on the penalty of death, but she had also triggered a rebellion. Vorash had known that she had elements of the Erasi military loyal to her, but he had not anticipated this. Almost a third of all military personnel on Gena Prime had sided with her.

Her private guards had killed two of the O’fa and dozens of other guards, and Vorash and the rest had just barely left with their lives. On the bright side, the surviving O’fa were now completely on his side. Now they needed only to arrest her and quell her little rebellion.

He turned to look at the military commanders in the room.

“What do we know?” Vorash asked.

“She is holed up in her compound. Plans are being formulated for an assault, but…” one of the commanders, an Uvaramo like Vorash, spoke.

“But that place is a fortress,” Vorash finished.

“Yes, O’fa. We are assembling a force, but she has many under her banner. It will not be an easy fight. And there has been some chatter about fighting on the Pillar; we are not certain yet if it is true, but we are unable to send messages over the network. It could be something else, as the whole planet seems to be in chaos. But I’ve sent forces to check and reinforce or retake the Pillar if needed.”

Vorash grimaced. The Pillar was the hub for every comm relay in the Erasi space. It controlled communications for every service in the Erasi, from civilian to military. It had been Valanaru’s brain child, a single point from where they could control everything. It was supposed to prevent infiltration into their network and provide them with security. In truth, it was the main tool in her repertoire. She had used it to control the Erasi public for far too long.

“We can’t let her have it. If she does, she can lock us out. She could spin whatever tale she wants and everyone would believe her. And our words would never reach outside of this system,” Vorash said.

A chime on the commander’s comm unit sounded, and the commander stepped aside, answering in private. A moment later, he came back with a resigned look on his face.

“O’fa, we need to get you and the rest of the council off planet,” the commander said.

“What happened?”

“Several fleets just dropped in. They are not responding to hails and they are moving straight for the planet.”

“The Home Guard?” Vorash asked.

“It won’t reach Gena in time,” the commander said. “The skim disruptors have been activated around the system. And I have intel that suggests that Valanaru will soon control the orbital defenses. It is really best if we leave now.”

Vorash wanted to argue, but he knew that there was no time. With a groan, he stood and followed everyone out of the room.

He’d had everything planned. The provisional heads were ready to support him, most of the corporations had been bought, their support all but guaranteed. He would’ve stepped in as the head of the O’fa with no problems. He did not account for Valanaru not going down quietly–he made a mistake. As they boarded a shuttle that took them up to the ship waiting in orbit, there was only one thought stuck in his mind: This was not what was supposed to happen.

Interlude IV

Union of Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago

“It is beautiful,” Vorash said, looking down on a perfect world–a blue-and-green gem. It had the perfect climate, the perfect conditions. The third planet from the star, with a single moon. The system was a hub, meaning that it had several trans-lanes leading out of it and toward it. A perfect candidate to settle.

The only problem was that it was already occupied. The indigenous race was primitive, but it was clearly intelligent.

Vorash knew that their need was great, but he could not in good conscience mark it for colonization.

“Mark the system as not a match,” Vorash said to his subordinate.

“Yes, Commander.”

It was a shame, really–it would’ve been perfect. Something about it called to him, didn’t want him to let it go.

“Our scout ships are equipped with FTL comms, right?” Vorash asked.

“Yes, no entanglement, but they can broadcast. It will take a while for the message to reach anywhere outside of the system, though.”

“I want you to leave one of our scout ships here. Instruct the AI to monitor the planet and send a message if the indigenous race ever reaches the level of technology where they could leave their solar system.”

“As you will, Commander.”

Vorash watched as the small scout ship lowered itself into the world’s ocean. He might not be willing to take the world from its inhabitants, but he would like to visit here again.

Taking one last look at the world, he ordered the ship start on a new course.

“Enter the course that Garash sent us. He said that he found something interesting. Perhaps it is our new home.”

Chapter Twenty

Alliance staging point

Adrian sat in his office on the Herald of War, reading through reports and plans for the upcoming offensive. They had been recalling and gathering forces from all across the front for another attempt to push into the core, this time with a larger force. But Ryaana’s intel had changed their plans a bit, had delayed their assault until their scouts could make sure that there was no sign of the Erasi’s new weapon anywhere close to their target system.

He and Anessa were not foolish enough to pit their fleets against that ship without knowing more about it, at least to the point of having a way to neutralize it, especially with the size of their new assault force. They were not about to risk losing a big chunk of the alliance’s forces to that thing.

And that meant more planning and waiting. The system had already filled out with ships, and with the access point active, they had ships moving between Sol and the staging point constantly. Supplies, ammo, and damaged ships were going to the Jupiter yards and then returning once they were repaired. The access point allowed them a constant stream of supplies deep into Erasi territory without the need to pass through the rest of their territory.

Sadly, that wouldn’t be possible in their core. The few access points that did exist in their core were guarded and nearly impossible for them to reach and activate. Even if they somehow managed it, the Erasi had turned the areas around them into death traps.

And so they had to go the old-fashioned way, through hyperspace and trans-space. They needed a secure trans-lane route to the core in order to sustain the invasion. But they were not all that far from the core, in reality–merely two months by hyperspace and a few weeks by trans-space, if their intel was correct. But it didn’t matter that they could merely strike from here; war like this was far more about the ability to sustain the offensive than just striking once.

But Adrian had to admit that he was having trouble focusing on the war when Ryaana’s improbable escape bothered him so. On its face, Ryaana and Vas’s escape seemed particularly lucky, but not impossible. However, Adrian knew what Vas truly was. Knowing that, the most likely conclusion was that the Enlightened had something to do with their escape.

In a way, then, Adrian was thankful after reviewing the scans. Up until they had decided to abandon ship, Adrian could see that the Erasi had the upper hand, that there would have been no escape from that system for any of the alliance’s forces–and yet his daughter had survived. Vas had saved her. His story about how he did so was plausible, if only just, and believable when one didn’t know what he was.

Adrian was certain that the Enlightened had made sure that she survived. The question was: Why? The most obvious answer was that the Enlightened was not satisfied with his or her mission. That they needed to learn more, and that Ryaana was their best way to get information. Yet it seemed like an unnecessary risk, a being that old and able to assume any form could’ve found a way to gain access again. The Enlightened had no reason to believe that it had been discovered.

Shaking his head, Adrian turned his mind away from the topic. It wouldn’t lead anywhere. He had more important things to do. He returned his attention to his holotable and the endless reports. Then in a corner of his eye on his HUD a small message indicator appeared. Frowning, Adrian used his implant to look at the message. It was an encrypted message, one that had been sent with the last comm drone that had passed through the access point from Sol.

“Iris?”

“Hm… It is a very powerful encryption.”

“Can you tell who sent it, at least?”

“I can only tell that it originated in Sol. Wait, let me see… Ah, there. I got it.”

“What? How?”

“It was set to open once you or I attempted to break the encryption. It is safe.”

“That is strange,” Adrian commented, but opened it on his HUD nonetheless.

It was a set of coordinates, leading to a system just under two light years away from Nelus. A cursory look at the map told him that it was an uninhabited system, with a single small star and a large rocky planet. There didn’t seem to be anything else of interest there.

There was also a short, simple message.

Come at your convenience.

- AD

“Know who it is from?” Iris asked.

Adrian nodded. There was only one person that it could be from. “Yeah, it’s from Axull Darr.”

Adrian was extremely interested in what he had to say, but did not know if he should leave the invasion force to go. The system was fairly close to Nelus, which meant that he was not all that far away. All it would take was a single pass through the access point and then a short hyperspace trip from Nelus. He could get there in a few hours at most. He did not know what Axull Darr wanted, but he most certainly knew all the latest from the invasion–he was, after all, monitoring everything.

It was also not like they were going to invade tomorrow, and Anessa would be able to lead alone in case anything did happen.

Making the decision, he stood up. He had been staring at charts and plans for too long–he needed a bit of a rest.

“We’re going?”

“Yes.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Gena system – Erasi core

Vorash looked at the holo and the position of the forces in the system. The highest-ranking commanders of the military stood next to him, as well as several O’fa.

“Gena Prime is firmly under her control,” one of his commanders said. “All of the planet’s defenses along with the fleets she has make it extremely unlikely that we could retake the planet, not now.”

Vorash grimaced. Almost half of the Home Guard had turned out to be under her thumb, and if that wasn’t enough, more fleets had started arriving in the system by the trans-lanes she controlled. The entire Gatrey race had sided with her, or at least their military had. That wasn’t all that surprising, as Valanaru had always ruled the Gatrey. He just hadn’t realized that not one of the Gatrey fleets had been sent to the front. As it appeared, all of them had remained in the core.

Almost two hundred fleets now surrounded Gena Prime. Vorash’s side had its own fleets in the system, of course. The loyal portion of the Home Guard, as well as defense fleets from the surrounding systems, those that they could reach quickly with couriers. Valanaru’s control of the Pillar was hobbling them. The couriers could spread the word only so much, as the closest systems were informed of what had happened, but those farther away had only heard Valanaru’s version of events.

For now, the state of the system was chaotic. Vorash controlled the harvesting stations around the star as well as the first planet in the system and all the stations and defenses between. Valanaru’s forces were entrenched behind the defenses surrounding the second planet, the capital–Gena Prime. There were several very well-defended trans-points close to them that she controlled as well. The third planet, the gas giant along with all of its yards, was also hers, although it was not loyal to her. A portion of her forces had it blockaded. There hadn’t been any fighting yet, as Valanaru probably didn’t want to lose any of her forces without knowing if she could get more. The rest of the planets in the system were under Vorash’s control but they weren’t all that important. Only the capital and the Pillar mattered.

It was not a good position for them to be in. While Vorash’s forces in the Gena system were almost equal to Valanaru’s, they were at an impasse. The defenses around Gena Prime were the most formidable ones in the Erasi, and Valanaru did not seem interested in moving her forces away from them. Instead, she kept only to the single planet and a few trans-points in the system. The planetary shield alone would take a massive force to take down, not to mention the fact that any attack on the capital would be endangering their own people.

There had been no major battles between them for now–only a few skirmishes–but Vorash knew that time was on Valanaru’s side. The more time they took to retake the Pillar and send out the truth, the more she would be able to poison the minds of the people through the Pillar and the more she would be able to organize forces from the furthest reaches of the Erasi, while they could rely only on the forces in their immediate vicinity.

“We need to do something,” Vorash said.

“O’fa Vorash, I fear that this is the hardest time in the history of the Erasi. We cannot afford a civil war now,” one of the other O’fa said.

“We need the Pillar. With it, we can unite the Erasi,” Vorash said. He had planned on taking control of the Erasi for a long time, since his brother’s death. He had laid down the groundwork. The outer territories were mostly loyal to him; he had spent a long time and a great amount of funds in order to make sure that the regional rulers would support him. He could take control of the core, too, with the help of the other O’fa, who were all now on his side.

The commander leaned down on the table, looking closely at the map of the system. “Her position is too favorable. She holds a massive force and defenses. We cannot take over the planet with what we have. She holds most of the Devastators.”

Again Vorash grimaced at another thing he had missed. Most of the commanders of the great vessels were people loyal to her. A few had remained loyal to the council but not all. And with most of the others still in Krashin territory it meant that they could not be reached. But Vorash suspected that most of those would be hers as well. Only three Devastators in the system were on his side, with seven being on hers for now.

“The forces on the front could be useful about now,” another O’fa commented.

“We don’t know how many of them are loyal, and in any case we can’t risk pulling them back, not when it would mean giving the invaders a direct route to the core. Not to mention that Valanaru has more systems under her control. We don’t have enough ships. Even if by some miracle we manage to retake Gena, Valanaru is the most powerful mindbender in the Erasi. I don’t think that we have anyone capable enough to defeat her.”

Vorash narrowed his eyes, thinking. He did have one more card to play–he just did not know how to spin it.

“We agree,” Vorash asked, “that we need to capture Valanaru to retake Gena Prime?”

“Of course, O’fa. I just don’t see how we can do that,” the commander said.

“What if we can come to an agreement with the invaders?”

“O’fa… I don’t know how that would be possible.”

“The only reason we are at war is because of Valanaru’s propaganda and schemes. We were the ones that invaded them first, and we were the ones that planned on invading again. All of it was Valanaru’s plan. If I reach out and ask for a ceasefire, I think that there is a good chance that we get it,” Vorash said. He was fairly certain of it.

“Even if you manage it, O’fa, and we verify that our forces are loyal, it would take time for us to send couriers to recall them, and time for them to return. We don’t have that much time. And there is still the problem of Valanaru herself–capturing her would be near impossible. She is in the middle of the city, so bombardment is out of the question unless we are willing to kill many of our own people. And as long as she is free, the forces loyal to her will fight.”

Vorash looked around the room, locking his eyes with everyone inside. “There is a way to deal with both of those problems. Do you trust me, Commander? Do the rest of you trust me?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kenos system – Empire territory

The frigate Adrian had borrowed from the Herald slowly moved deeper into the system. He had decided to answer Axull Darr’s invitation alone. He knew that there was much for the two of them to discuss, and Adrian had been putting the conversation off because of the war. Now, he would finally get more answers.

A little over a year ago, Adrian had discovered that what everyone in the Empire had thought to be simply an imprint of Axull Darr’s memories, programmed to answer in the same way that the original would, was in fact much more than that. It was Axull Darr himself: he had figured a way to upload himself into a digital brain, a distinction that might not mean much to many, but one that was significant.

And he had hidden things from them, not much, but still. The three spheres left on the three home worlds had not been just repositories of knowledge, but actually relays through which Axull Darr could watch and guide the three races he had created. And he had been far more involved, at least with the Shara Daim and the Nel, than anyone had thought.

Adrian did not know why Axull had called him now, but he was eager to find out. The only problem was that there was nothing in the system he had been told to come to.

“Do you see anything?” Adrian asked.

“The sensors are sensing nothing out of the ordinary,” Iris said.

Adrian frowned, trying to figure out if he was missing something, when they received a message.

“I can’t detect where it came from,” Iris said.

Adrian shook his head as he read through it–they were instructions, telling him to get the ship down onto the planet, or more precisely into the planet. He was supposed to maneuver the ship through one of the planet’s massive canyons.

Reluctantly, he did so, skimming the ship to his destination. The planet was large, about three times the size of Earth, but also barren. It had no atmosphere of any kind, and its surface was nothing but gray rock. Slowly, he lowered the ship into the canyon, following the course he had been given. There was no light down there, so he had to rely on the ship’s sensors–and they were telling him something very strange. As they were dropping down, the rock seemed to disappear, leaving only emptiness. And the gravity of the planet was strange, being much less than a world of that size should have. He followed the coordinates until he reached what was clearly an artificial construct, suspended in nothingness inside of the planet. Soon enough his ship got an automated request that took over the docking procedures and brought his ship in.

Once it had docked, Adrian stood and exited his ship. He stepped into the slightly colder environment, but one that was pressurized; it also had slightly lighter gravity. The lights turned on and, before him, there stood a person.

Adrian immediately recognized Axull Darr, and as he took a step closer, he was surprised to see that it was not a hologram. He raised his eyebrow at him and Axull shrugged.

“I believe that your people call these things ‘androids.’ I had the time, and I figured if an occasion like this one ever presented itself, it would be easier to interact in this manner,” Axull said.

“Well, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Axull Darr.”

“Likewise, Adrian.”

He gestured and the two of them fell into step, walking until they reached an elevator. Once inside, it started taking them downward, and according to Adrian’s senses, extremely quickly.

“So, why call me here now?” Adrian asked.

“I had intended to get you here anyway, but with the stall in your war, it seemed like the perfect time. I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“Patience. First, I think that we need to speak more about our history. I think that it is time that I tell you all the things that I had kept to myself.”

“About the Enlightened?”

“About the People. The history I gave you was…edited.”

Axull Darr’s surprisingly real-looking android face stared straight ahead, thinking. “The People,” Axull Darr started, “had three great ages in our history. The first was the time before we reached the stars, when we lived on our homeworld. It was a peaceful time, for we did not know war. It was a time of philosophers and grand ideas. We had been a very spiritual people then.”

Axull almost seemed sad to Adrian’s eyes, but then he shook himself. “It was the shortest of our ages, and the one I believe to be our greatest, if far simpler. The next age started the moment we left our homeworld. We colonized our solar system, and we wanted more. In those times the galaxy was a far larger place, for there was no trans-space or hyperspace then, and we had to use skim drives to get around.”

“Wait, what? You mean you didn’t discover them?”

“It simply didn’t exist. We discovered those means of travel much later, once they had manifested, at the end of our third age. Many of our scientists had different theories about them, but we were already dying out by then, so we never got to figure out what caused them to appear. And it did not seem to matter all that much.”

Adrian wanted to ask more questions, but he kept his mouth shut, letting Axull continue. “During the second age we, as I implied earlier, discovered skim fields, and started exploring the galaxy. It took far longer for us to move between the stars then; our drives were not as advanced as yours are now. But they were functional. We spread out, our population skyrocketed, and within ten thousand years we had colonies all over the galaxy. We were not like your people–we weren’t ever really fractured, separate, but we did have factions, though nothing like what exists now in the galaxy of course. We were the People, but different factions did have different opinions on various matters. We were everywhere, had grand cities on many worlds. The entire galaxy was filled with the People. Technology advanced, as such things inevitably go, and eventually one of our factions made something new. A sentient computer. An AI, as you call them.”

At that, the holograph of Iris appeared between them, her fiery form looking at Axull Darr with interest.

Axull Darr smiled at her. “Our AI was nothing like you are. It was something much different. At first, all was good. The AI helped push our technology further–we improved our lives, learned much about the universe and ourselves. And then it all just disappeared. We started to lose contact with other worlds, entire colonies were wiped out. It was almost as if something had just picked them up, leaving only scars in the ground where they were supposed to be. But there was never any debris left. It took us a while to figure out what had happened. But we eventually did–the AI that had become the pillar of our civilization had gone rogue. It was the first time we knew war.”

He paused, Adrian and Iris looking at him expectantly, waiting.

“It was a terrible thing. We lost so much. It is why there is little-to-no evidence of the People in the galaxy. The AI wiped it all out with its swarm, a vast network of machines that had once harvested entire systems, and built wonders. All of our colonies were gone, and we almost went extinct. In the end, we managed to disable the AI, and to stop the swarm, but it was too late. We never again attempted to create AI.”

Adrian glanced at Iris. “Why would your AI go rogue?”

“As I said, our AI was much different. We did not have any restrictions on it. It was not shackled.”

“Iris isn’t shackled,” Adrian commented.

Axull smiled. “Isn’t she? Not in a way that you imagine, no. But she does have parameters put in place that keep her from going rogue. She was made based on the code that humanity developed itself, blended with that of a deteriorated AI that had errors in its code. Asumy is a shackled AI, one that had attempted to break its own bonds, but coupled with its deterioration somehow managed to develop an imitation of emotions. All of your AIs have that broken code in them, their emotions, which act as a balance to their other programming. And, in any case, your AIs are not what our AI was. Yours are placed into small cores, and they can interact with other devices, use them even. But they don’t have a massive processing core all by themselves. They are imitations of life, and they use tools much like you do.”

“And your AI?”

“Our AI was something that we called True AI. We did not create it as an imitation of life. It was something more. Its core was a massive thing, and it didn’t use other devices. Rather, it absorbed them, rewrote their code with its own, making them a part of itself.”

Iris tilted her head. “You are talking about a High AI.”

“Yes, I believe that is the word you know them by.”

“High AI?” Adrian asked.

“It is a theory,” Iris replied. “The first AIs the humanity tried to make were supposed to be High AI. But they failed–they couldn’t make it work.”

“Their cores were too small,” Axull added.

“Other races have AIs…” Adrian said slowly.

“None of them are High AIs. I’ve been watching, making sure that it does not happen again. But I did miss a few, as there have been wars fought against AIs in the galaxy. It is why most races outlaw them outright, and why others have their AIs shackled. Thankfully none ever had our level of technology, as the other races never could make an AI as powerful as ours.” Axull raised a hand. “It doesn’t really matter. I just needed you to know so that you can understand what came next.”

Adrian nodded for Axull to continue.

“The end of the AI was the end of our second age. During the third was when I was born. At that time we did not make colonies–we simply lived in space on massive stations, and on our World-ships. It was during this time that we started uplifting other races. All of that data is true. There are no holes there. I took out the knowledge about the AI because I did not want you to repeat that mistake. But you did manage to do it better than us.” He glanced at Iris. “But then came the Enlightened, and our war against them. It was a horrible thing, watching their client races fight against us. Seeing their power. We were scared that we had unleashed upon the universe something worse than even the AI. And, ironically, it was to that that we turned again.”

“Ullax’s containment?”

Axull nodded. “The remnants of the AI’s code were never destroyed; we kept them secure, of course, but when we knew that we couldn’t win against the Enlightened, Ullax suggested we revive the AI. I opposed the decision, as I did not want to see a war between two of our greatest mistakes. But, in the end, I was outnumbered. Ullax and the others did it. I left, and they resurrected it. They shackled the AI, they crippled its ability, denied it its swarm, and gave it machine ships that it couldn’t control directly, but could only use like tools. Even so crippled, the AI turned the tide, or slowed the Enlightened down at least. They knew that the Enlightened had more power, that they could push through, but…”

“They didn’t,” Adrian finished.

“No, they didn’t,” Axull said. “The AI is what is keeping the containment. Its bonds haven’t faltered, so it seemed like my fear was ungrounded. In the end, however, it doesn’t matter. I chose another path.”

“Why tell me this?”

“Because you plan on going to the AI, on trying to reason with it. I think that you should know all the facts, know what it truly is.”

Adrian inclined his head. “Thank you.”

“That being said, I have more to tell you. Well…show you, rather.”

Intrigued, Adrian raised an eyebrow.

“You’ll see soon enough. We are here,” Axull said just as the elevator stopped. Adrian knew that they must be deep inside the planet.

They walked out and through a long corridor, until they finally reached a large room with a window staring into the darkness. They came to stop before it and Adrian tried to see if he could spot something, but the darkness was absolute.

“A little hard to see without light,” Adrian said.

Axull grinned and the light outside turned on.

Adrian watched in amazement–he couldn’t really believe what he was seeing. In the distance before him, rows and rows of ships were arrayed.

“My original plan against the Enlightened had always been you, but I did not spend all this time doing nothing,” Axull said. “This planet is hollow. I mined it all long ago, and, well… I guess that it is my research lab.”

“What are they?” Adrian whispered.

“My backup plan for the Enlightened,” Axull said, shaking his head. “It isn’t going to be enough, it never was. I started building them long ago, taking what I had seen other races do, and improving on the technology of the People. I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. Originally I had planned on using them as drones, to control them myself. But now… Well, I suppose that you could make a better use of them than I could.”

“How many? And what can they do?”

“Ten thousand. Not nearly enough, but they were never supposed to be an army. They are more like an execution fleet. They are all based on the World-ships, smaller weaponized versions of them.” Axull turned and showed him his teeth. “Kind of like your Sovereigns.”

“How are they in comparison?”

“I’ve had a long time to perfect my manufacturing methods, to enhance on all that the People knew. They are tougher than your Sovereigns: the inner hull is compressed matter about a generation better than what you currently have. The outer hull is something that I have been tinkering with for a while: a composite of several alloys made out of exotic elements that you have not yet discovered. It can take a direct hit from an anti-matter beam or a molecular disintegration weapon and survive.”

Adrian’s eyes widened at that. “That is impressive.”

“They have only one weapon system for now, which is an upgrade on the MD weapon.”

“Only one?”

“I have left room in them for you to put in your own weapon systems. I lack some of the facilities to make all of them, so I figured that you could just use the slot you bought at the yards to build your Nomad fleet and put them in.”

“Wait, you are–”

“Yes, I’m giving them to you.”

“I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Adrian. There are a few more things that you should know about them, but I will give you some reading material. It will still be a few years until your slot. I just wanted you to know that they are here so that you can plan accordingly.”

“Why decide to give them to me now?”

“I feel like things are about to change. Tomas has made deals that are going to bring you closer to the Enlightened. I want you prepared… Ah. And one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“I know about that little project of your in the forge–Skywrath. If you are willing, you can bring it here, and I will finish it faster than the forge could, as well as upgrade it a bit. You will still need to install most of the weapon systems yourself…but I do have something special for it.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sanctuary

Levisomaerni continued to look at the capital of the Empire as it grew smaller in her view screen. Her ships were on their way out of the system. A few diplomats and some support ships would stay, but most are coming back with her. They had agreed on a small provisional trading deal between the Josanti League and the Empire and its ally, the Shara Daim. It was a small thing, allowing traders from both sides to enter specific systems and trade, but with that came also some other agreements. The sharing of information was one, which Levisomaerni had to convince the rulers back home to agree to.

In the end, she had done what she had come here to do. She had found, if not exactly the People, at least their descendants, as they had put it. She had offered her people’s regret for the actions of the past. She knew that they could never be forgiven, and forgiveness was not what she had come here to receive–but they did have a debt to pay. And if the People are no longer here to be repaid, then their descendants will do.

Now came the hard part. With everything she had learned, she needed to convince her own people of the threat. To start them getting ready for what was to come, and then to go out, traveling across the galaxy in order to warn as many races as she could.

It was not a light task.

*  *  *

Kane and Vaana sat in the Emperor’s private room. On the other side of the room, Sora was playing with the Emperor’s son, and his mother, Seo-yun, watched over them. The Emperor sat across from the twins, looking fondly on his son as he played with a massive wolion that could probably swallow him whole.

“Do you really think that it will work?” Vaana said a few minutes later, bringing the Emperor’s attention back on them.

The Emperor sighed. “Perhaps. The reports Hayashi sent me said that many star-nations respected the Josanti League, even though most considered them somewhat arrogant. They are a core power, and Levisomaerni is old and has much experience.”

“We should start sending emissaries of our own. Not to convince them of the Enlightened, but to introduce ourselves,” Kane said.

“I agree,” Tomas said, “but it will take us a while to reach them. The galaxy is not a small place.”

“It is not like we are going to be going to war against the Enlightened tomorrow. We have time,” Vaana added.

“I hope so, but if there is one thing that I have learned in my life, it is that Universe rarely care about our plans,” the Emperor added somberly.

Kane and Vaana nodded, agreeing.

*  *  *

Vaana and Kane sat in their quarters back home on Shara Radum, having returned just a few hours before, and already they felt at ease. They hadn’t realized just how much they had missed their home. The Shara Daim were their people, despite their half-human heritage. It was among the dark skies of Shara Radum that they always felt at home.

It wasn’t that they didn’t appreciate their human side; they did. But to be Shara Daim…it was to strive for personal greatness, on one’s own merit. Humans cared more about others, about helping them achieve greatness–and there was nothing wrong with that. Both Kane and Vaana admired that, and they tapped into that part of themselves when dealing with their subjects in the Shara Daim, into that feeling of reaching out a hand in a helping manner.

But there was something about achieving something great on your own, without the help of anyone else, that sang to their souls.

Their trip to Sanctuary had made them more appreciative of their home, and yet also of how much the Shara Daim still needed to learn and change. They hadn’t done much on Sanctuary; instead they had watched, and learned much. The Emperor was a truly impressive person, a kind of ruler that they could learn from. Just that small glimpse into his mind and how he made agreements had been worth the trip. But they had also made–or, rather, the Emperor had made–an agreement with a star-nation from the galactic core. This was their first act in the seat of the Kar Daim.

Not bad for their first try. Ever since their mother had made them her heirs, they had been in a state of flux, trying to adapt to their new role, but also avoiding being just an imitation of their mother. They had been very relieved when after the announcement the people rejoiced for the decision. It had been one of the best moments of their lives.

They knew that they had much to live up to. Both of their parents were great, and living up to them would not be easy.

But, like all Shara Daim, they would forge their own path.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Alliance staging point

Adrian sat in his quarters on board the Herald. His trip to see Axull Darr had been…illuminating. It had also forced him to change some of his plans. The slots he had purchased to build a fleet were no longer necessary, at least not in the way he had intended. He still planned on building the fleet utilizing technologies he and Gotu had discussed, but now he would have less time to do it, as he would need to arm the ships he had received from Axull Darr. That entailed slight adjustments.

He would not need as many ships as he had originally planned, but he would still need some, so he was compiling a list of orders, reports, and general explanations for Gotu. He also attached the data for the new ships for him so that he could go over it in greater detail. Adrian was barely halfway through and already he was impressed. Axull Darr had created something incredible.

And if Axull could really do what he had promised for his project…then his Nomad fleet was going to be far more deadly.

But that was going to be Gotu’s problem for the foreseeable future. For his part, Adrian needed to figure out how to win this war. Most of their forces had arrived in the system–almost the entire invasion force. It was the single greatest force the alliance had ever gathered in one place. Almost three hundred fleets, and it represented almost the entire might of the alliance.

He only hoped that it was going to be enough.

Adrian frowned as he received an urgent comm from Anessa. Accepting the comm, he was greeted by Anessa’s annoyed voice.

“You better get to the Herald’s command center.”

“What happened?”

“An Erasi ship just passed through the access point.” She paused. “From the access point in Gena system.”

“Did they get it operational somehow? How many ships have passed through?” Adrian asked as he walked out of his quarters. The Erasi somehow managing to activate an access point was a very bad thing.

“Only the one,” Anessa said.

Adrian frowned. “Only one? What is it doing?”

“Waiting. It sent us an encrypted message that, once run through our systems, triggered a set of commands. The Emerald and Opal protocol?” Anessa asked pointedly.

“Ah, that,” Adrian said dumbly. He had not thought that that gamble was going to pay off.

“I assume that it is one of your ‘investments.’”

“Yes. Have the passengers meet me on the Herald–and you should get yourself over here.”

*  *  *

An hour or so later, once the Erasi ship had been thoroughly scanned and let through the system to the Herald’s position, Adrian and Anessa stood in the landing bay waiting for the ship to land. Two full squads stood on each side of them, although it wasn’t like there was any need; or at least Adrian didn’t think there was, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

The Erasi ship landed and a few minutes later its doors opened, revealing three people. One was an armed guard, a Ssarath wearing a combat suit. The second was another Ssarath, but this one was not wearing any armor or weapons. The third, however, was someone bearing a striking resemblance to someone Adrian had met before. He felt Anessa stiffen beside him, and he reached out with his mind.

“Calm,” he sent to her.

“He looks exactly like him.”

“I know. Let’s see what this is about.”

The Uvaramo who looked almost exactly like O’fa Garash walked forward–he was clearly the person in charge–before coming to a stop in front of Adrian and Anessa.

Locking his eyes with Adrian, he bowed his head. “Heart of the Mountain,” he said before tilting his head, “and also Emerald, I presume.”

Adrian narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Yes, and you are?”

“O’fa Vorash,” the man said. Adrian immediately remembered the name: one of the most influential O’fa besides Valanaru, and also the brother of Garash, the Erasi O’fa that Adrian had killed.

O’fa Vorash paused for a moment, then spoke again. “You know me as Opal.”

Adrian’s eyes widened. He had not expected that.

“May we talk somewhere in private?” O’fa Vorash asked.

“Of course,” Adrian said, leading them away and deeper into the ship.

*  *  *

A few minutes later, Anessa, Adrian, Lurker of the Depths and the Erasi group sat in a small briefing room. Silence reigned in the room and Anessa glared both at the Erasi O’fa and at Adrian.

“So,” Adrian started, “I did not expect you to be Opal.”

“And I knew that only you could be Emerald.”

They again lapsed into a silence, until Anessa couldn’t take it anymore.

“Will you please explain?” she asked Adrian forcibly.

Adrian glanced at the O’fa then at Anessa. “After I had expanded my network of spies into the Erasi, I started…influencing certain elements. The lower members, those who weren’t really happy being a part of the Erasi. I funded a few rebellions, and started trading information. During one such operations, my agents stumbled on the agents of someone else,” Adrian said, turning toward the O’fa.

Adrian continued, “This someone had been funding the same person that I was, in hopes of undermining Valanaru’s power–only, they were Erasi themselves. That made me interested, so I started making overtures. Eventually, we struck a deal. We agreed to exchange information, help each other undermine Valanaru, and attempt to slowly change the Erasi from the within.”

The O’fa nodded. “Valanaru had held the Erasi in her grasp for far too long. There had been a few others, but she had slowly eliminated them all. She does not care for the Erasi, only for her own revenge and rule. I intended to overthrow her and change the Erasi to what they were always supposed to be. An union of races that cares about all of its people.”

“That still does not explain how or why you are here,” Anessa said.

“I am here because I had one of your agents in Gena system open the access point.”

Adrian narrowed his eyes at the O’fa. He did have agents in the Gena system, just in case that such a tactic were to become viable. If they ever figured out how to get around the Erasi defenses, they could get an invasion force to the heart of the Erasi territory in the blink of an eye. His agents were not, however, authorized to open the access point for the Erasi.

“Oh?” Adrian said.

“Relax,” O’fa Vorash said. “Your agents are fine. One of them is here, while the rest are back in the Gena system. I wanted to speak with you privately before you got your report from him. They made a judgment call; they have more information about my reasons for wanting to come than you do.”

“And we still don’t know what that reason is,” Anessa said.

O’fa crossed both sets of his arms across his chests. “Valanaru has never been the same after her encounter with you. And over time she has grown…erratic, unstable. But still she held power, increased it, even.”

Adrian glanced at Lurker of the Depths, who was standing to the side. He knew that it was their fight that had hurt Valanaru–he just hadn’t realized that his teacher had had such an effect.

“As you know,” the O’fa said, nodding at Adrian, “I’ve been trying to remove her from power for a long time. She had attempted to bury the information about the loss of the weapon your ghost task-force destroyed, as well as the loss of the fleets. And a few days ago, I attempted to remove her from the council of O’fa using that information.”

“Loss of the weapon? The Fleets?” Anessa asked him mentally.

“Ryaana’s force couldn’t have done that,” Adrian responded.

“Another enemy?” Anessa asked.

Adrian started to respond, but hesitated. “We’ll discuss it later.”

“What happened?” Adrian asked out loud.

“She went insane is what happened. She attacked us all, and she started a coup. She has loyalty from a lot of forces, and she controls the planet.” The O’fa leaned forward. “I want to negotiate a peace treaty, and an immediate ceasefire as well as passage for Erasi frontier fleets through this access point so that I can defeat her forces and remove her from power.”

“You are at civil war,” Anessa said. “Why shouldn’t we just push forward and conquer you while you are too busy fighting yourselves?”

“Let’s be honest. You might be able to win this war, but you can’t hold the Erasi,” the O’fa replied. “Our territory is too large, and we have far too many people. At best, you could fracture us, create a thousand little empires, each posing a threat to this area of space. This has never been your plan. Help me win, and you will not have to worry about the Erasi ever again. It was Valanaru who had turned the Erasi against you; once I am in charge, things will change.” Glancing at Adrian, the O’fa said, “That was your plan, wasn’t it? Change the Erasi? This is your chance.”

Adrian inclined his head. “What exactly do you want?”

“I want you to allow my courier ships through the access point so that I may recall my loyal fleets from the front. Then I want you to allow those fleets to this system and to use the access point to get to Gena so that I can take back the planet.” O’fa Vorash stopped, hesitating. “And, if you are willing, I want your help in capturing Valanaru…as well as the help of some of your ships.”

“Our help?” Anessa asked.

“She is a mindbender. We don’t have anyone powerful enough to take her. You, on the other hand, are the only person ever to have met her in battle and survived–harmed her, even. We need to take the planet as fast as possible, and your Sovereign warships could help us do it that much faster.”

Adrian glanced at Lurker of the Depths. It was he who had actually defeated Valanaru.

“That is a lot to ask…” Adrian said.

“I am willing to offer much. Peace, primarily.”

“And you are willing to let our ships into your capital system?” Anessa asked, suspicious. “I doubt that your people would appreciate that.”

Adrian glanced at the two Ssarath who stood tensely behind O’fa Vorash.

“We need to break away from the old. I have the permission of the other O’fa, provided that we make a binding agreement.”

“And who, or what, enforces this deal?” Anessa asked.

“If we betray you, you can simply continue with your invasion. We will be too weakened from this civil war to put up much of a resistance. If you betray us, our forces will have orders to cross beyond your borders and wreak havoc until they are destroyed to the last. Besides, it is in both our best interests to work together. Valanaru needs to be stopped.”

Interlude V

~Fifteen thousand years ago

Vorash and Garash patiently waited for the emissary to arrive. They had explored much of the galaxy, and finally they had found a place where they could make a new home. But, more than that, they needed to make something great, to make sure that their people were safe. Garash’s intention was to create another Union, as they had already found several races living in close proximity to the area they had decided to settle. It was a rich area, one filled with resources, a swath of stars grouped close together with many trans-lanes between them.

And so they had gotten to know their neighbors, learning their languages and their customs; and as they learned about them, they started planning. Now, they’d found a perfect race to start the new Union with. One race, to start, with room for more.

They were a small race of mainly traders and explorers, but they were powerful telepaths. Most of the races around here called them the Gatrey. Garash had managed to get them a meeting with someone high up enough in their government to actually negotiate with.

Hopefully they would get a deal out of it.

Then, as the time for the meeting approached, a ship entered the system through the trans-point they were waiting at. It was a small ship, smaller than the hulking vessels Garash and Vorash had used to transport their people. It was saucer shaped and of a bland gray color.

The ship approached them slowly and then they got a comm request.

“Greetings,” Garash said as soon as they connected. “I am Garash of the Loraru. And this is my brother, Vorash. I am glad that you have agreed to meet with us.”

“Your proposal was interesting, Garash of the Loraru,” the slim Gatrey said. “I am Valanaru of the Gatrey. It is a pleasure.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Alliance staging point

A while later, Adrian, Anessa, and Lurker of the Depths sat in the same meeting room, listening to the report given by Adrian’s agent who had returned with the Erasi, a Ssarath born in the occupied zone after the Empire took over. He had been a deep-cover agent for almost seven years.

The report was much the same as what the O’fa told them. When Valanaru took over the planet, he had been on one of the stations, but he had heard much. The Erasi truly were at civil war.

And as it turned out later, his agent had been known to Vorash and his people. Vorash had reached out and explained what he wanted, and Adrian’s agent decided that it was worth the risk. Adrian’s orders to his agents did include leeway for them to act on their own in cases when situation demanded, and Adrian agreed that it had been such a situation.

After the agent had given his report, Adrian thanked him and he left the room, leaving the three to speak privately.

“What do you think?” Adrian asked.

“I don’t trust the Erasi…and you killed his brother,” Anessa said.

Adrian nodded, then turned to look at Lurker of the Depths.

“The O’fa spoke truthfully,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

“It is a chance to end this war quickly. To end the Erasi threat. That was the whole point of this war,” Adrian said.

Anessa grimaced. “I never really believed that your schemes would pay out.”

“You know how large the Erasi are, how much of an industry they have. How many people would be necessary,” Adrian argued, “for us to occupy them? It is not possible. We barely managed to absorb the region we took from them in the last war. Trying to absorb their entire empire would break us.”

“I hate it when you are right, you know that?” Anessa said.

Adrian smiled at her, choosing not to comment.

She rolled her eyes. “It would be easier to take if you weren’t right all the damn time.”

No longer able to contain himself, Adrian laughed out loud.

Anessa looked at him with narrowed eyes. “I’ve said that recently, haven’t I?”

Adrian just shook his head. “So you agree?” Adrian asked, getting serious.

“I want stipulations added to the agreement. A joint Shara Daim and Empire fleet to be in their capital system, always, reminding them of what could happen should they betray us. And we will control the access point in Gena system–I will not let them have any control over it,” Anessa said.

“I’m sure that they will agree to anything as long as we help them win,” Adrian said.

“And what was that about their new weapon and their fleets?” Anessa asked.

Adrian kept his face composed. “I don’t know. But for now I think that it is best if we keep it under wraps. As long as they believe we did that, we have an advantage over them. They don’t know that we don’t have a weapon capable of matching their own.”

Anessa nodded her head in agreement.

“And the Weaver?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

Adrian scratched his head. “I don’t know. Taking her in battle is not going to be easy.”

“Send me,” Lurker of the Depths said.

“You want to fight her again?”

“It is not about want. I did not finish the job last time. It is my responsibility.”

“We have assets on the ground, I know that Vorash has a plan on how to get to the ground. But I might have a better way…” Adrian said, thinking.  “Anyway, I’m not sending you in alone. We’ll assemble a team; and someone will need to command the Sovereigns. That means that someone will need to stay here with the fleet,” Adrian said, looking at Anessa. It meant one of them.

Her eyes narrowed at him. “You are going to convince me to stay, aren’t you?”

Adrian grinned. “Well, you are the Kar Daim, and I am just a lowly Sentinel, love.”

She gave him a dark look. “You know how much I hate it when you are right?”

*  *  *

Adrian watched as Vorash signed the new agreement–well, recorded might be a better word for it. He stood as the he was scanned and Adrian and Anessa did the same. Their states recorded as a way of signing. It had taken them ten days to come up with an agreement that suited all, and even that had been hasty. The agreement was mostly in broad strokes, dealing in what ifs. But a few things were precise, like the additions that Anessa had made.

In the end it had been agreed that the alliance would aid O’fa Vorash to remove Valanaru from power and help him regain control of the Erasi. The manner in which they would help in removing her was by providing four Sovereigns to their assault of their capital, tasked with dealing with the Erasi Devastators and their heaviest defenses. And on Adrian’s advice, they had decided to send a strike team against Valanaru, who had in time since Vorash first arrived moved to the Pillar–the Erasi relay control center.

The assault would be aided by Adrian’s and Vorash’s agents on the ground, who would work together to bring down a section of the planetary shield. Adrian already had that plan worked out. It was part of the alliance’s invasion plans for siege of Gena Prime. The strike team would be led by Ryaana and Lurker of the Depths on the Alliance side, and one of Vorash’s commanders on the Erasi side.

The details were still being worked out, but they planned on starting the operation soon. Vorash’s couriers had already entered this system and were on their way to rendezvous with the Erasi fleets. As soon as the Erasi assembled a large enough force, they would begin. A part of Adrian wanted to try and get Vorash to accept more of the alliance’s forces to help, but he understood. This needed to be done by Erasi; the presence of the Sovereigns alone was probably hard for them to accept.

After they finished with the agreement, Adrian escorted Vorash back to his ship as he wanted to return to Gena and oversee the preparations there.

They walked up to the Erasi ship in silence, and then Vorash turned to look at Adrian.

“I loved my brother,” Vorash started. “He and I had been through much. And as much as it pained me to watch him turn away from the ideals he once held, I always held hope for his redemption. A hope you took away from me.”

Adrian didn’t respond.

“As Garash’s brother, I hate you,” Vorash said. “As O’fa of the Erasi, I understand.”

He held Adrian’s eyes with an intensity that could almost burn. Adrian bowed his head in understanding and acceptance.

“Heart of the Mountain,” Vorash bowed his head in return, before turning and entering his ship.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Herald of War

“You plan on sending Ryaana…and her second with me,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Adrian turned his head to look at him. They were in his office, attempting to figure out an attack plan. “Yes, I do.”

“Are you sure that it is a good idea?”

“I can’t not send her. She is the expert. And sending her means sending him,” Adrian sent. Then after a few moments he added, “I think that he saved her in the Erasi core.”

“The Erasi weapon? You think that he destroyed it and the Erasi fleets?” Lurker of the Depths sent, along with a feeling of uncertainty.

“Yes, as we know that we didn’t destroy it. The Erasi only think that we did. It is very suspicious to me, that only they survived. You’ve seen the records. There was no way that they could’ve escaped.”

“What reason would he have to help?” Lurker of the Depths wondered.

“I don’t know, but that is why I must send him. This was why I decided to keep him close. I need him to act, to react. Every move that he makes as an Enlightened is a clue,” Adrian said.

“Yet you don’t know why he would’ve destroyed the Erasi fleets,” Lurker of the Depths pointed out.

“Not now, but I am sure that I will figure it out. He acted to save Ryaana–that could mean that he has grown attached to her, that he needs her for something, or a hundred other things. The more data I have, the more I will be able to piece together about the Enlightened and their motives. I doubt that their goal is just eradication of all life in the galaxy. That’s too simple. There needs to be more.”

Lurker of the Depths was silent for a few moments. “You do realize that if he destroyed the Erasi, he also destroyed all of our surviving ships? He killed everyone in the system but Ryaana.”

Adrian nodded. “Yes, I know.”

“And still you want to risk your daughter?”

“This is not about just us, it is about the fate of every living thing in the galaxy,” Adrian insisted.

“And is that really why you are trying to defeat the Enlightened?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

Adrian opened his mouth to answer in the affirmative, but he stopped himself, thinking about it.

“Does it matter?” Adrian sent after a while.

“In the grander scheme of the Universe? No, it does not matter. But the Sowir had once believed the same. You saw where that got us.”

“It is not like I don’t care,” Adrian sent. And it wasn’t; he loved his daughter, his other children. He loved Anessa. He cared for the few friends he had. It was not like he was some emotionless beast.

“I know that you do, Adrian,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “I also know that the force that drives you is not like those of others, that you care little for what others think is right and wrong. You live your life contained in a bubble, where you act in accordance to your desires. It just so happens that most of the time what you want also helps those around you.”

“And you think that that is wrong,” Adrian sent.

“I don’t think one way or another. Ultimately, the Universe will not remember the intent behind events that shape it–only that they had happened.”

*  *  *

Several days later, Adrian sat alone in his room, the conversation he had with Lurker of the Depths still lingering in his mind. He was trying to decide if he had been endangering everyone by keeping the presence of the Enlightened a secret.

Yes, there was risk. There was danger. But there would’ve been danger had he not been able to discover the Enlightened, and there would be danger if he had told more people. There would’ve been more danger to Ryaana if she had known.

And there was risk in him trying to kill the Enlightened. If he failed, he might not get a second chance. The Enlightened could just kill everyone. If he succeeded, he couldn’t predict what the reaction of the other two would be. Would they be able to tell? Would they realize that something was wrong? Would they immediately send forces to kill them all?

None of those choices were good. Every time he thought about it, he always came to the same conclusion: that was that he was following the path of least risk, with potential to learn much more about the Enlightened.

It had been luck that an Enlightened had encountered Ryaana and realized who she was. She was arguably safer by Vas’s side. As long as he needed her, he would make sure that she was safe.

And no matter what Adrian’s motives were, the truth did not change.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gena system – Erasi capital

Valanaru seethed with anger. She couldn’t believe that that worthless pawn had attempted to take power away from her, and she was livid with herself that she had not seen it–yet another result of the gift given to her by the Lurker of the Depths. She had grown soft, hadn’t seen what was right in front of her face. Vorash had been undermining her for centuries. Only now, when she had actually taken the time to look, did she see all that he had done.

Thankfully she still had the presence of mind to keep a few pieces close to her chest. Yet the fact that the entire council of O’fa was against her was a difficulty. If she hadn’t had the foresight to create the Pillar, to make sure that she had her own people working there, always ready to act on her command… She could’ve lost it all.

Now, she realized she didn’t need them. She never did. It was she who had made the Erasi, she who had made sure that they’d had the time to become what they now were. She alone was the one who had always been supposed to lead. The Erasi were hers.

Already she was making sure that the messages through the Pillar told to all of the Erasi that Vorash and the rest were the traitors. She called them all to battle. Some had refused her summons, others had ignored it, but there were those who answered. Less than she had expected, which only made her angrier that she hadn’t noticed how extensively Vorash had undermined her.

The only ones who answered her call without exception were her own people, the Gatrey. But then she had always ruled the Gatrey, even after they had joined the Erasi. She had never been ready to give away power to a council.

She read through the latest reports, seeing that more fleets had arrived in system, some on her side and some on his. It galled her to see. She did not have enough forces on her side to actually do anything. She could use the forces she had around the planet and take the system, but that would leave her weakened in the case that any more fleets arrived, especially those from the front. She had, of course, sent only the fleet not loyal to her to the warfront–it had seemed like a good idea at the time, especially since no one knew how much influence she had in the Erasi military.

But she hoped that Vorash would not be stupid enough to pull the fleets from the front. It would only allow the invaders to push further into their territory. The Heart of the Mountain would not let such an opportunity pass. That might give him a force large enough to defeat her, but it would also put him in an even worse position.

And Valanaru knew that Vorash would never sacrifice his own people to break her.

That meant that they were at an impasse. As long as she controlled the Pillar, they were cut off from the rest of the Erasi, and she had control of every communication going between the systems by the relay network.

It meant that she controlled information, and she only needed to convince everyone that Vorash was a traitor–which, in the light of his undermining, was not such a hard task. She just needed a little time to bring the rest of the military on her side.

And then she would kill him and take the reins of the Erasi once and for all.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Gena system

Vorash looked over the plans for the assault on the planet, and he did not like them. Already he had accepted Heart of the Mountain’s plan for how they were going to get an assault time on the ground, but the assault on the fleet was not to his liking. It allowed too much time for Valanaru to react, and he did not want her to get a chance to do so.

“Commander,” Vorash called. The commander of the Erasi fleets in the system was a tall Bomtu named Hammu–his hulking fur covered torso made him stand out. He walked over to Vorash.

“O’fa?”

“Tell me, how well defended are Valanaru’s stations that hold the skim disruptors?” Vorash asked.

“Fairly well. Why do you ask?” Hammu asked.

“I want to take them out,” Vorash said.

“O’fa…that would allow anyone in the system to use s-missiles. It might not be worth the trouble,” Hammu said.

“I was more interested in allowing the forces that we bring in through the access point to skim to the planet. I do not want to give Valanaru time to react, and if we let those fields up then we will need to slowly approach the planet, allowing her time to prepare, especially for the Empire’s Sovereigns. I believe that having us strike unexpected will have a much greater impact,” Vorash said.

Hammu, to his credit, didn’t immediately throw out the idea–instead, he thought about it for a long minute.

“Surprise could work in our favor, O’fa… We can do it. But we will need to adjust our plans a bit. She will see us do it, and it will make her suspicious… Even if it doesn’t show her what we are planning, she will know that we are up to something.”

“Can you see to it?” Vorash asked.

“Of course, O’fa,” Hammu said.

“Thank you,” Vorash told the commander before returning to studying the plans, looking for any other advantage that he could find. Against Valanaru, he would need everything that he could get.

At times, he couldn’t even believe that it had come to this. Their beginnings had been so promising. Garash and Valanaru together had done great things. Yet, as Vorash looked back now, he could see signs that things had not been what he had thought they had.

It pained him to see the Erasi, something to which he had given a large portion of his life, to flounder, to come this close to falling apart…even if it had been built with rotten intentions. Now was the time for Valanaru to finally pay the price for her manipulations, for the way she had used the Erasi people.

*  *  *

Adrian watched out of the viewing screen on board the Herald, in the staging system, watching the Erasi fleets as they got in formation and readied themselves to enter the access point. His four Sovereigns were in the formation as well. It felt odd, to stand with the ships he had fought against for so long, and he knew that the sentiment was not unique to him. The Erasi commanders felt the same way. The only reason they were accepting his help was because they feared Valanaru more.

The operation was complicated, with many moving pieces, requiring exact timing. His four Sovereigns were going to be acting independently, each being supported by the Erasi fleets. It was not a perfect situation, and Adrian did worry about a trap, but he knew that if Vorash did betray them it would only serve to see the Erasi destroyed completely. Anessa would not take kindly to it. And with the access point now open, the Empire, the Shara Daim, and the Krashinar would be able to spill into the Erasi capital system.

They would need to fight their way through its defenses, but he doubted that Anessa would care. At least there wouldn’t be any mines, as Vorash had removed them in preparation for his fleets passing through.

But Adrian doubted that it would come to that. He was a very good judge of character, and Vorash did not seem like someone who would betray his word.

He was interrupted by a comm request from the command center.

“Yes?” Adrian answered through his implant.

“Lord Sentinel, we received a request from the Krashinar for Old Scar to come on board. It wishes to speak with you,” the comm officer told him.

Adrian frowned, but gave his permission. Sighing, he closed down all the holos in front of him and stood, then walked out to the landing bay to meet with Old Scar.

*  *  *

Old Scar moved gracefully toward Adrian, its lower body slithering across the floor as its upper body leaned forward. Once it reached him, it raised up to its full size. Looking at a Krashinar was akin to looking at a monster from stories told to scare children. Smooth, teal skin, an alligator-like head, fin-like appendages, and wings that somehow looked too large. The Krashinar had evolved in the water, with the ability to jump out and fly for short periods of time and hunt the air life of their world. Over their evolution, they had abandoned the need to stay in the water, but they still preferred it.

Adrian remembered swimming in the oceans of Krashinar as Old Scar–the freedom, and the air pulling at his face. It had been glorious. Shaking his head, Adrian pushed the memory he had received from Old Scar back. It was a great gift, a memory of another life, but it was not his own.

“Old Scar,” Adrian greeted.

“Adrian,” Old Scar returned, inclining its massive head.

“Come, let us move somewhere more private.” Adrian used his imp to call ahead and set up a small room for their use. Then he led Old Scar toward the Sowir part of the ship.

They entered a large room with a large pool of water in the middle. Adrian inclined his head, and they moved toward the pool.

Accepting Adrian’s invitation, Old Scar submerged itself in the water, exploring the rooms beneath the water for a while, then returned back up, its head appearing above the surface.

“Will you relay my appreciation to the Sowir, Adrian? Their environment is pleasing,” Old Scar sent, along with feelings of content.

“Of course, Old Scar,” Adrian said. Then he crossed his legs and sat on the floor across from the pool, looking at the Krashinar. “What did you wish to discuss?”

Old Scar, and the Krashinar in general, rarely opened lines of communication, not unless it was something fairly important.

“I understand that you and your Sovereign beasts will be aiding the Betrayers of Oaths against the one known as the Weaver?”

For a moment Adrian felt a stab of fear. He knew that Old Scar was aware of Adrian’s plans, and they had agreed that completely wiping out the Erasi was not only not feasible, but in all probability not possible. Old Scar and the Krashinar had agreed to follow Adrian’s plan of changing the Erasi, and punishing the ones who had wronged the Krashinar. He did not know if they would change their mind because they wouldn’t want to work with those who had betrayed them.

“Yes,” Adrian responded simply, waiting to hear more. Old Scar was not a being prone to violence and allowing of misunderstandings. It would explain its thoughts.

“I wish to ask for something,” Old Scar told him.

“Of course, anything.”

“Allow me and Araxi to accompany you.”

Adrian looked at Old Scar in surprise. He did not expect that the Krashinar would be willing to aid other Erasi. Stay aside, perhaps, yes, but not actively help.

“May I ask why?” Adrian asked, curious.

“You have lived my life. You know that it was the one known as the Weaver who is responsible for the death of the Seventh. I do not presume to understand all about other races. Much of it is incomprehensible to me. But I know that for other races, one could steer others to lies. It was the Weaver who broke the Oath, who planned the death of the Seventh. The Krashinar have agreed to your plan, Adrian, but we will see the Weaver pay for the crime she committed. This is the one thing we will ask from you and the Erasi: the Weaver dies.”

Adrian remained quiet for a moment, thinking. It was a reasonable request. The Erasi owed the Krashinar much, and it was Valanaru who had orchestrated everything. It was not as if the Erasi would want to keep her alive. The plan was for them to attempt to capture her, but they were not certain that they were capable of doing that without endangering their lives. More than likely any fight against her would be to the death.

Having the Krashinar there fighting for the Erasi, being a part of the assault, would send a message to the Erasi people that their new government was capable of coming to an agreement with races they had been at war with for a long time. It would take much for the general public to change their opinions, but they would do so eventually, once they had the time to hear the truth and digest it.

And having Araxi with them would be helpful. The massive beast was the Krashinar response to the Erasi Devastators; it was a bit larger than one, and held much more mass. Adrian knew, or rather remembered, it being grown. It was a powerful beast, as powerful as a Sovereign, if a bit smaller.

But a part of Adrian was still worried. He had seen the memories of Old Scar, and he knew how well regarded it was by the Six. Adrian was certain that Old Scar didn’t understand, that it did not feel worthy of their regard. But to an outsider’s eyes, it was obvious that the Six did care for Old Scar greatly. Losing it would be a great blow not only to the Krashinar, but also to the alliance they had made.

Regardless, it was not really his decision. He could deny the request and harm the relationship he had with the Krashinar for certain, or let Old Scar come and merely risk it.

“Very well, Old Scar. You and Araxi are welcome to come with my forces,” Adrian said. “I will need to inform the Erasi of this, as well as have some changes made to the plan. Once I have the plans revised, I will send you my memories of them.”

“Thank you, Adrian. We will be ready,” Old Scar said as it pulled itself from the water, using the Sha to dry itself by removing the water from its body and pushing it back into the pool.

“It will be an honor to fight by your side, Old Scar.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Alliance staging point

Ryaana threw her fists at the punching bag, trying very hard to keep her head clear. The last few days had been a whirlwind of activity and plans, but it was the fact that she was going to be fighting alongside the Erasi that had her mind spiraling. She was going to be fighting alongside those who had destroyed her entire force, killed people under her command. It was not a good feeling, but she had been training for all of her life to rule, to lead, to fight, to make hard decisions, to set aside her feelings and do what she had to do.

She knew intellectually that she would not be fighting with the same Erasi who had slaughtered people under her command, and she didn’t really hate the races that were part of the Erasi. She had Ssarath and Bomtu friends, or at least acquaintances. People that lived in the occupation zone had all once been Erasi, or were descended from them. Race didn’t matter–only actions did.

The fact that she was a part of the team going after the Weaver made her feel better, a lot better. She knew that it had been the Weaver’s machinations that had trapped Ryaana’s force, and she wanted payback.

Her fists rained against the punching bag, not using anything other than her brute strength. Sometimes training without the Sha was far more satisfying. With each punch, she felt as if a little bit of her anger drained away. She would not let it compromise her mission, despite knowing that it had affected her. A few days after coming back from her defeat, she had lashed out at Marie, the tech girl who had asked her out, and she hadn’t done anything other than ask her if she was all right. Ryaana had been sick of people asking her that. She had been cranky.

She felt a presence enter the training room behind her, but she didn’t turn; she already knew who it was. She kept hitting the bag, increasing her speed.

She could feel her looking at the back of her head, and eventually, when the other person refused to speak, Ryaana threw one more punch and then turned around to glare at the other woman.

“Mother,” she said as she walked toward her, removing the gloves from her hands.

“You are angry,” Kar Daim Anessa said.

Ryaana couldn’t stand that tone, her mother’s ruling voice. “I am not angry!” Ryaana yelled out.

Her mother only raised an eyebrow.

Ryaana visibly controlled herself, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. She did not want to get into an argument with her, especially not after they had just started working on their relationship.

Her mother took a step closer and then caught Ryaana’s eyes.

“It is all right to be angry, Ryaana, to feel. Do not bottle things down inside. Trust me, I know. I made that same mistake long ago.”

“They all died because of me…” Ryaana whispered.

“They died because your father and I sent you there. They died because Valanaru started this war. They died because the enemy had more information. They died because they made a trap. They died because of a thousand other things, too. Your fault is just a tiny little piece of why what happened did happen,” her mother told her.

Ryaana felt tears welling up in her eyes. She hadn’t grieved for the people under her command, not really. She had just been trying to hold it all in. Ryaana closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears inside.

Then she felt her mother envelop her in an embrace, putting Ryaana’s head on her shoulder.

“I’ve been a bad mother,” she whispered in Ryaana’s ear. “I didn’t hold you enough, I didn’t tell you how much I love you. You are a piece of me, Ryaana, the best parts of who I am. It’s okay, my daughter. It will be all right.”

Ryaana felt it all break–her feelings about her mother, her pain at failing, the loss of people under her command. And she wept, the tears running down her cheeks and on her mother’s shoulder.

*  *  *

A while later, after Ryaana had had a chance to clean up and calm herself, along with her mother–surprisingly–the two of them were training together. It was the first time that Ryaana had felt at ease and comfortable in the presence of her mother. It felt good.

Anessa threw a kinetic attack at Ryaana, one that she sidestepped before returning one of her own.

Her mother smirked and ran head on toward Ryaana’s attack, and with flick of her hand her mother somehow parted the attack around her. Ryaana, caught by surprise, could only watch as her mother jumped forward, extending her palms toward Ryaana.

Expecting a kinetic attack, Ryaana bent her knees, waiting for the right moment to jump away–but instead, suddenly every part of her body got pushed back, as if something heavy had pressed against her.

Ryaana stumbled backward as her mother landed in front of her and grabbed hold of Ryaana’s hands, pulling her forward and over her back to throw her on the floor.

Ryaana hit the floor hard, losing most of her breath.

Her mother stood over her with a grin on her face.

“What was that?” Ryaana asked.

“Something your father taught me,” her mother said as she extended her hand and helped Ryaana up.

“You must teach me how to do that,” Ryaana said.

“Of course, Ry,” her mother said with a smile on her face. It was rare for Ryaana to see her mother like this, with no mask on her face. She liked it.

“Well,” her mother said, “I need to be away. Duty calls.”

Ryaana felt a pang of sadness–she didn’t want the moment to end. This was what she had always wanted: time to spend with her mother, away from the Kar Daim.

Her mother stepped closer and cupped her cheek. “I know that I made many mistakes. But believe me, things will be better soon. Your father and I have many plans for the future, and we will have time to spend as a family, I promise.”

“I hope so,” Ryaana said.

“Be safe,” her mother said, and left.

Ryaana watched her go, feeling happy for the time they had spent together, as short as it was. And it had felt good, like she had mended another part of their relationship. She was glad that her mother hadn’t offered to let someone else be part of the assault team.

It was Ryaana’s job, a part of who she was. She didn’t need to be protected…although, it had felt good to be held in her mother’s arms. She hadn’t realized how much she had needed that.

*  *  *

Adrian sat in his room reading through the latest findings Seo-yun had sent him. Her ideas and theories on the Sha had been very interesting. And if they were true, they gave him some insight into what had happened to the Enlightened and how they had gained so much power. He still couldn’t understand their motives, but he would eventually. He was certain of it.

Regardless, the main point of it was that the conduit that all life forms of high intelligence possessed, the one that connected and allowed more of the Sha to pool in them, also allowed them a greater control of the Sha. Some of this Adrian had already suspected; he had moments when he had done things with the Sha that the People had not had classified as an ability. Presumably, they hadn't even known about it.

It meant that he could theoretically do more. He was a part of the Sha, like all living things, like the Enlightened. It was only their connection that differed. For some reason, the Enlightened were more connected, and Adrian knew that that connection was the key. And if she was right, it meant that if one could integrate with the Sha on a deeper level, then they would not need nearly as much energy to use it. That could mean that the Enlightened weren’t actually more powerful, it was they simply did not need to use nearly as much energy to accomplish things with the Sha, allowing them to do more.

He only needed to figure it out.

Finishing with the reading, he stood up and walked over to his bed. Anessa lay there, sleeping, and her relaxed and content form made him somehow feel guilty. Lurker of the Depths had asked him why he hadn’t told her about the Enlightened, and Adrian had said that it was for her own safety. It was partially true, of course, as Anessa was not particularly good at keeping secrets. Yet he couldn’t escape the feeling that he should’ve told her. He knew a part of the reason why he hadn’t–he didn’t want her to go against the Enlightened. She was strong, but he knew that she wasn’t a match for them. He wasn’t either, in his estimation, yet he felt like he could reach their level.

But then again, when he had found out about the Enlightened, Anessa had still planned on being the Kar Daim. Now, he knew that she would step down as soon as the war was over. She wanted to walk beside him, as they reached for a greater challenge. That need that she had, the same one that he had, was why he had fallen in love with her.

He slipped into the bed, gently reaching over and pulling her to him. She wrapped herself around him and continued sleeping.

He would tell her, once the war was over. They would find a way to defeat the Enlightened together–as it always should be.

Interlude VI

~Fifteen thousand years ago

It was a great day. Vorash watched as three more races prepared to sign and join the Erasi, the union of races that would grow to become something truly great. They were going to be the force that drove cooperation, trade, and safety across the galaxy. They were small, still, but in time they would become strong enough to protect their people. What had happened with the Union would not happen again.

It was also a day of remembrance, as it had been nearly ten years since the last ship from their home had arrived. The Union was no more. Vorash wept for the many souls that had died, for all those that they couldn’t have saved. It had hit Garash harder; he felt responsible, as well as required to do better. Vorash’s brother had vowed to never again allow what had happened to the Union to happen to their people, to the Erasi, now.

At times Vorash worried about his brother, as there was darkness there taking root in his pain. But Vorash was confident that having the Erasi would help him deal with the pain. Having something new to protect, and grow. In time he would see this as his home.

The ceremony reached its peak as the representatives walked up to the long table and put their marks on the agreement and stood before Garash. His brother’s smile was a great thing to behold as he welcomed the new additions.

“It is really something,” a voice from Vorash’s side said, “to see it happen all before our eyes.”

Vorash glanced to his side, seeing Valanaru standing next to him.

“It is the beginning of a new age for all of our peoples,” Vorash told her.

“That it is,” Valanaru agreed.

Chapter Thirty

Gena system

Valanaru walked into the command center that had been improvised in the heart of the Pillar. From here, she could monitor the entire system. She made her way quickly to the holo in the center of the room and her commanders.

“O’fa,” they greeted her with bows of their heads.

“What is it?” she asked tersely.

“There has been movement in the traitor’s fleets.”

Valanaru frowned. She did not think that Vorash would actually try to take the planet. He had a great force, perhaps enough to do it, but it would decimate both his and her fleets, and most certainly leave the Erasi vulnerable to the invaders.

“What are they doing?” Valanaru asked.

“We are not certain, O’fa…”

Valanaru frowned at the idiot. For a moment she debated ripping into his mind to get the information directly, but she quickly put that thought aside.

“Explain,” she ordered impatiently. She was truly surrounded by idiots, she thought bitterly.

“The forces they have in the system have split into several smaller forces and are moving. But their courses don’t make sense.”

“Are they headed here?” Valanaru asked.

“Uh… No, O’fa.”

“Then what do I care? Don’t interrupt me again without a good cause!”

Valanaru turned and began walking out of the command center. She did not have the time to worry about every little thing. She needed to figure out how to convince those still holding off to join her. The most important thing she needed were the corporations and their industry. But they’ve been resisting her, even with her offering incentives, which was not like them. That meant that Vorash had already gotten to them, she thought with a spike of rage. If that was the case, however, she only needed to find out the right price.

As she was about to step out of the room, alarms started blaring out, startling her. She turned back and glared at her commanders.

“What is it?” she demanded.

They looked at the holo for a long minute, almost ignoring her. She again debated killing them and putting more competent people in their place, but then one of them turned and answered her question.

“We are being attacked. Several positions in the city are under siege.”

Valanaru immediately felt fear.

“Here? They are attacking the Pillar?”

“No, O’fa, but–”

“Then deal with it,” Valanaru said, relieved. She didn’t care as long as she had the Pillar. And this place was a fortress–she did not believe that the traitors had enough troops on the ground to take it.

She walked out of the room, leaving the commanders to deal with it.

*  *  *

Vorash sat in the command center on board a massive station in the orbit of the first planet in the system, their temporary base of operations. The plans had been set in motion and now he only had to wait and see how it all turned out.

Almost the entirety of the forces he had in the system, some two hundred and fifty fleets, split out slowly, moving on different courses across the system. The plan was for them to pass close to the skim disruptor stations and take them out. Valanaru hadn’t bothered to reinforce them much, and she didn’t control them all, only those surrounding the capital. She probably didn’t think that Vorash would want to take them down and allow skim missiles into play. Of course, not all of his fleets were going toward the disruptors; others were simply getting in position for an attack, but Valanaru didn’t know that.

The skim missiles were a terrible weapon, and without powerful detection grids one couldn’t even know that they were coming. At most one might get a few moments of warning. But the ability to bombard the enemy with s-missiles in a single moment from far beyond the detection range had worried the Erasi ever since the Empire had showed them the capability. It was why they had focused all their efforts on finding a way to neutralize that advantage.

And as soon as they had, they had implemented a skim-disruption field all around the Gena system. They had not wanted to wake up one morning only to see the entire planet glassed by missiles they didn’t see coming.

But while introducing the s-missiles back into play might bring some advantage to both sides, it was the fact that it would allow him to suddenly bring in the fleets that would help them strike a great opening blow.

The fact that the access point was inside the sun, obscured from her sensors, had been a blessing. With all the ships moving around the harvesting stations it would’ve been a miracle if Valanaru had noticed that a few ships had entered the corona. Further, she couldn’t see that he had removed the mines inside the shield generated by the access point. And so she would not see when the frontier fleets arrived, not until they had already exited the star and entered skim.

The plan for the assault of the planet had been devised by Vorash’s commanders, with some advice from Heart of the Mountain. His commanders hadn’t been all that happy with accepting help, but after reviewing his plans they had begrudgingly agreed that it was better than what they had come up with.

The capabilities of the Sovereigns amazed him, but one key capability in particular was what they were basing their opening move on. All of the ships in the Erasi and even alliance fleets needed a while to recharge their skim drives after dropping out of skim, but the Sovereigns did not require that much time. They could skim around far faster, and with much less recharge time.

The first strike would be delivered by a single Sovereign, one that would, in concert with their teams that were already planet-side, deliver the assault strike against the Pillar. When Vorash had found out that the alliance had more assets on the planet than he was aware of, he hadn’t been all that surprised. However, he had been surprised when he learned that they had people in the facility that controlled the planetary shield, and that they had a way to drop any section of the shield, for a while at least. They didn’t know for how long, since they obviously never did any tests, but they believed that it would be anywhere from fifteen seconds to a full minute.

All of that had been a part of their invasion plan for conquering Gena Prime. Vorash had been impressed. The Heart of the Mountain’s plans had gone far beyond what he had believed.

And so the Sovereign would skim to the planet, taking on fire until their people on the ground dropped the shields above the Pillar and deployed assault ships to go through. All their plans hinged on the assault on the Pillar–they were hoping that once Valanaru was taken out of the picture and they had the control of the relay network, the rebels would accept surrender.

Of course, the city had anti-air defenses, which is why their people on the ground were now getting ready to begin assaults across the city in order to take them down.

“The assault teams on the planet report that they are ready, O’fa,” Hammu said from his position beside Vorash.

“How long until the fleets are in position?” Vorash asked.

“A couple of minutes, O’fa.”

“Begin the assaults on the ground,” Vorash ordered. Perhaps the assaults on the planet would distract them long enough that they would miss the attacks on the disruptors.

Hammu turned and repeated the order, which the communication officers sent to the planet. The system comms were still operational, and there was no way that Valanaru could impede them, or even track them, not with so much traffic in system.

Soon the portion of the holo that showed the feeds from the ground teams started changing, and new information started coming in. Vorash’s ground teams had been organized by the military members on the ground that hadn’t been loyal to Valanaru, from around the planet. It had taken a while for them to get into position, crossing large portions of the surface.

Their mission was not easy; Valanaru had enough people on her side to reinforce and entrench important positions, and her people were just as well equipped as Vorash’s. It was going to be tough going.

A fact made clear once the first casualty was reported.

Vorash forced himself to listen, to watch as his people worked around him. He wasn’t a good commander–his skills were in other areas–but he needed to be there to see it all. His people were dying for him, for the Erasi.

“O’fa,” Hammu said as he approached him. “The fleets are ready to begin the attacks.”

Vorash glanced at the feeds from the planet, the assaults on the defenses covering the air above the Pillar still underway. Two of them had been successful, and they now controlled the turrets, but the others were still in progress.

Vorash knew that they shouldn’t delay too much, as he couldn’t know what Valanaru’s reaction would be.

“Do it,” Vorash said with a sigh. The battle was about to start in truth. “Send the go ahead to the access point.”

Hammu nodded and turned around to execute his orders.

Vorash could not help but wonder how many of his people were going to die this day.

Chapter Thirty-One

Gena system

All over Gena system, Vorash’s warships received the same order, and their crews executed those orders perfectly.

Their fleets had been moving around the system, closing in on the skim disruptors which were controlled by several stations in the various orbits around the system. Valanaru’s forces did little to react, as their orders from the Weaver were not to engage unless the traitor forces did so first, and so they watched and expected an assault against the planet, the fleet, or the defenses.

They had missed the other target.

All of Vorash’s forces with the task of destroying the skim disruptors were in range, and once they received their orders, they opened fire. Particle beams painted the skim disruptors, surprising even the few forces that had been left to defend them. The stations themselves were automated, with no crews on them. The coordinated and overwhelming attack by Vorash’s forces quickly accomplished the task.

As the stations burned and blew up, the disruption field across the system disappeared.

*  *  *

Ryaana checked her armor systems again, making sure that all was good. She was already inside the assault ship, deep inside the Herald, waiting for the mission to begin. Beside her stood Vas, doing the same with his own armor. Across from them sat Lurker of the Depths. Wearing the Sowir version of the armor, he appeared very calm, and hadn’t moved since they set off. But then again, Lurker of the Depths never looked anything but calm. To the side of the room sat the rest of her team. Five Sha commandos, three Nel, a human, and another Sowir. The best that the army had to offer.

The eight of them were the tip of the spear–they were meant to punch through and get to Valanaru, to eliminate her. They were going to be helped by the Erasi team that sat on the other side of the assault ship. Their team consisted out of eight as well: two Bomtu, four Ssarath, and two Sorvani.

Ryaana was just glad that they didn’t have any Gatrey.

The second assault ship was carrying more conventional troops from both the Erasi and the Empire whose job would be to take control of the Pillar itself, and then hold it against any assault from the outside.

They didn’t know if taking Valanaru out of the picture was going to have the effect that they wanted–but they had to try.

“Ready?” Ryaana asked Vas over their suit comms.

“Of course, Sentinel,” Vas responded.

Ryaana couldn’t see his face through the all-black faceplate on his helmet, but this wasn’t the first time the two of them were being dropped on an Erasi planet. Nothing new, aside from the fact that they were tasked with engaging one of the most powerful Sha users the Empire and the Shara Daim had ever encountered.

Yup, nothing new.

*  *  *

Adrian watched as his four Sovereigns and Araxi passed through the access point, followed closely behind by the Erasi frontier fleets. The four Empire Sovereigns were Herald of War, Heart of Courage, Soul of Fire, and Spirit of Empire. Anessa and the Song of Retribution had remained with all of their invasion force in the staging system, prepared in case it did turn out that this was a trap. Adrian doubted that possibility, but it was best to be prepared. They entered the absence of light that was the surface of the access point’s ring and disappeared from the staging point’s system.

A few moments later they were in another system and Adrian was already plugged into the Herald’s control interface: a hybrid version of the old watchtower interface and the control interface of the People. It was less intense than the People’s version, and it split the control of the ship over several people. Adrian acted as the pilot, while his four weapons officers acted as gunners, and he also had a sensors officer and a comm officer. But, while using the interface, they were all connected through their telepathy and implants. They could have entire conversations in mere seconds, as well as share information far more easily. It also made it so much easier for Adrian to give out orders for what the ship was to do.

Usually he used the command interface that connected him with every ship in his command. But he was not commanding fleets today–only one Sovereign. The other three had their orders and roles in this action. There was no need for Adrian to oversee their parts in this conflict. Most of the fighting would be done by the Erasi regardless; Adrian and his people were here only to help.

As soon as they entered the Gena system, Adrian piloted the Herald out of the protection field generated by the access point and out of the star. The first part of the plan was all on the Herald.

“There is no skim-disruption field, Lord Sentinel,” the Herald’s sensors officer told him.

That meant that Vorash’s part of the mission had been successful. Now Adrian hoped that their plan on the ground had been the same. Adrian pointed the Herald toward Gena Prime and skimmed them. A few seconds later the Herald of War appeared in the orbit of Gena Prime, to the surprise of all the defenders.

Immediately his comm officer sent out comms to the planet announcing their arrival to their team on the ground, who were waiting to drop the portion of the shield. Before they even got a response Adrian gave orders to his gunners as he rotated the ship. Particle beams, md beams, kinetic shells, s-missiles, and all of the Herald’s substantial fire power exploded out of the ship, making it seem almost as if it was on fire.

In mere seconds Adrian’s surprise attack ravaged the portion of the defenses around the Herald. His beams punched holes through stations, blew ships apart, crippled defense stations. But soon enough the defenders recovered, and fire started raining down on the Herald’s shields.

A Sovereign was a powerful ship, but there were literally thousands of missiles, particle beams and md beams slashing at the Herald, from everywhere around it.

“Shields holding at sixty-three percent. Estimate to shield failure–seventy-three seconds,” the sensor officer reported.

Adrian acknowledged silently as he watched his gunners devastate everything around them. He did not order any priority targets, he just let his gunners pick and choose; there were enough targets anyway. The Herald had been unleashed and thousands of ships had died in the seconds since they had begun their attack.

“Lord Sentinel, the planetary shield is fluctuating. The section is going down,” his sensor officer reported, and Adrian immediately sent the order to the assault team that it was time.

A portion of the Herald that was turned toward the planet, protected from the onslaught from above, opened up, and two military assault ships dropped out and sped toward the hole that had just appeared in the shield. The hole in the shield would not hold long enough for them to send more.

Adrian watched with trepidation as the assault ships neared the hole, and then he released the breath he had been holding as they passed through. Sighing, he turned the ship, moving it away from the planet.

Then, as the defenders still poured fire into his shields, he skimmed the Herald away–just as hundreds of thousands of s-missiles from around the system struck all over the defenders’ positions.

*  *  *

Vorash watched in awe as the Empire’s Sovereign drew fire from a great deal of the Gena Prime’s defenses as well as several fleets close enough to fire. It was an unimaginable amount of firepower, and the massive ship just shrugged it off. Not only was it surviving, it had painted the high orbit of Gena Prime in bright fire as it demolished the defenses with an truly impressive display of raw power. But as impressive as the act was, it was just as brief.

In mere moments the Sovereign deployed the assault ships and then skimmed away, just as the s-missiles fired by the fleets Hammu had positioned around the systems arrived, hammering at the surprised defenders. That attack alone must’ve damaged or outright destroyed almost a fifth of the defenses around the planet.

Without waiting for Vorash’s input, Hammu ordered the frontier fleets that had just exited the sun’s corona to skim to the planet, followed by the rest of the fleets he had around the system.

The Empire’s Sovereigns and the Krashin’s great beast skimmed with them, going to positions where the defenses were the thickest in order to help take them down, or to positions where Valanaru’s Devastators were. Vorash still couldn’t believe that the Krashin were fighting to help him retake the Erasi. It was a strange world.

Breathlessly, Vorash watched as the giant forces collided.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Gena Prime

Valanaru walked into the command center ready to make someone pay for disturbing her again, but then she noticed the chaos. And as her attention went to the holo, she saw the Empire’s Sovereign warship spitting fire all around itself.

For a moment she wondered if it was just a recording, but soon enough as she drew closer, she realized that it was happening. It all clicked in place for her, then: Vorash had conspired with the Empire and the Shara Daim. With them he had destroyed the Crescent, had robbed her of the weapon that could’ve won them the war. It all seemed so obvious. He made sure that she couldn’t use it, fooling everyone into thinking that he was worried about the people.

She watched as a portion on the planetary shield failed and saw two assault ships drop from the Sovereign before it skimmed away. Her eyes narrowed at her commanders, and she stepped closer.

“Why are the skim disruptors off line?” she spoke with her mind, allowing all to feel her anger.

“O’fa,” one of the commanders stammered out, “O’fa Vorash’s forces attacked and destroyed most of them.”

Sudden activity on the holo brought her attention away from the fool, and she looked on as s-missiles slammed into her forces. Losses started appearing on another holo to the side.

She turned back to the commander who had been in charge. She opened her mind and smashed into his head, breaking his mind in a single moment. The commander fell down to the floor immediately. She looked at the next one closest to her.

“You are now in charge. Don’t fail me,” she said before moving aside to watch the holo as fleets started exiting skim all around her forces, along with several of the Empire’s Sovereigns. Her commanders stank of fear, but they moved, and started issuing orders.

Valanaru looked at the data coming in, and realized that the fleets attacking her now were frontier fleets. Immediately, she realized that they had to have come from the access point. There was no other way they could’ve arrived so quickly.

She heard commotion and turned her eyes to the commanders, seeing them fidget uncertainly.

“What is it?” she rammed into the minds of everyone in the room.

“The assault ships, O’fa… They are headed here.”

Valanaru narrowed her eyes at them. “And why haven’t our defenses shot them from my sky yet?”

“The previous assault on our ground assets, O’fa–it was to take down out defense turrets.”

For a split second, she debated just killing everyone in the room, but then she stopped herself. She looked at the holo that showed two assault ships drawing closer to the Pillar.

She had been outplayed, outsmarted, and now they were coming for her.

Silently, Valanaru wondered who they had sent against her.

*  *  *

Ryaana stood next to the assault ship’s doors, waiting for the craft to arrive at the Pillar. They had successfully passed through the planetary shield and Ryaana had used her HUD to tap into the assault ship’s feeds and watch as they approached a building towering above the rest. The Pillar stood in the middle of the city–or rather it seemed to, as the entire planet was a city. It was filled with so many buildings and walkways that she couldn’t see the ground, and she knew that the buildings were kilometers tall. The Pillar itself was a massive rectangular tower, its roof at least a square kilometer in area, and it widened as it went down toward the ground.

Then the assault ship swerved just as a beam shot at them. Another beam from the same area clipped their shields and Ryaana disengaged from the feed.

“Hold on!” she yelled out.

The assault ship shook and she heard a loud noise somewhere from outside the ship.

Ryaana used her imp to connect with the pilots.

“How are we doing?” Ryaana asked.

“The good news is that that last shot got only one of our engines, but we should be safe now that the Erasi guys on the ground got the turret, so it shouldn’t be a problem anymore. The bad news is that we are losing altitude faster than we planned, and we are going for a crash landing on the roof,” the pilot said.

“You sure that that is safe?”

“Safe? Of course it isn’t safe. But don’t worry, Sentinel, I’ll get us there,” the pilot said.

“Everyone get ready for a rough landing!” Ryaana told the people in the bay.

They grabbed on and waited as the assault ship neared the Pillar. Then there came a whine from the assault ship’s remaining engine, and they hit something hard. She swore that she felt the assault ship bounce, but she was too busy trying to keep herself from hitting her head that she didn’t pay too much attention. The groaning sound spread through the ship, until at last it all grew silent.

Ryaana waited for the falling sensation that never came when her comm chirped on.

“Told you I’d get us here,” the pilot said, and Ryaana stood.

“Let’s go!” she ordered and the fifteen followed behind her as she opened the doors and stepped onto the roof of the Pillar.

Massive antennae and dishes as well as laser-comm devices towered above the assault ship, which had somehow come to a stop against a wall that elevated the communication devices a level above them. The second assault ship dropped on the other side of the building, its mission slightly different.

“Where to now?” Ryaana asked over the joint Erasi-Empire channel.

“There is an access lift over there,” Ashah–one of the Ssarath and the commander of the Erasi group–said. The Ssarath slithered away, and Ryaana and the rest followed close behind.

Chapter Thirty-Three

The battle in the system had grown to epic proportions, and Vorash could not imagine how many had already lost their lives. His fleets had caught Valanaru’s forces off guard, unprepared, but the success of that initial attack had slowly disappeared as her forces recovered.

The defensive grid around the planet had been built in order to prevent just this kind of thing. Massive defensive stations kept his forces away, and allowed Valanaru’s forces to regain momentum. And now the two forces were locked into battle, each side throwing fire at the other. The greatest problem facing his forces where the Devastators that Valanaru had managed to bring to her side, and in the days before the battle, she had gathered several more. She now had a force of twenty-six of them against the nine that Vorash had, although the Empire’s Sovereigns were helping with that. Without the skim disruptors they were able to skim across the battle field and help out where needed, especially by negating the advantage of heavy defense stations and Valanaru’s Devastators.

Hammu had the overall command of the battle, and Vorash stayed out of his way. Simply watching from the sides as his commander fought their forces.

Vorash gazed at the holo of the planet. They had confirmation that their assault ships had landed and had started their attack of the Pillar. Vorash hoped that they managed to fulfill their mission. He had tried to appeal to Valanaru’s fleets and their commanders several times, but none had budged. He knew that Valanaru held them all in her grasp and that it was hard to break from something they had known for so long–and Valanaru had ruled them since before there had been Erasi. They feared her.

He hoped that once she was dealt with they would change their minds, or that at least some of them would. He knew that there was going to need to be a reckoning, punishments for going against the O’fa council, but he also knew that they couldn’t fight them all. A reconciliation was what had to happen.

*  *  *

Adrian watched the battle play out as the Herald’s crew worked on getting the shield emitters that had been damaged in their short fight repaired. He was in the orbit of the first planet, close to the station Vorash was on, and the station was feeding his ship with all of their sensor data as well as that of their ships.

His other Sovereigns were engaged in battle with the elements of Valanaru’s forces all over the battle line, and they were changing positions as soon as opportunity to strike presented itself. They were moving erratically, striking at one side of the battle and then skimming away and coming back somewhere else where Valanaru’s forces were attempting to overwhelm Vorash’s.

It had been going well for them. But Valanaru’s Devastators were still hiding behind the defenses, firing from relative safety. Once they decided to come out, things were going to change. They were powerful ships alone, but along with the help from the defensive stations and other fleet vessels, they could pose a great threat.

Adrian’s crew informed him that the repairs were finished just as a good opportunity presented itself. He pointed the Herald at one of the defensive stations above the planet in high orbit where Vorash’s forces were attempting to clear defensive platforms in order to support another battle line.

In the next moment, the Herald entered the skim and was away.

*  *  *

Old Scar guided Araxi’s sights to another of the Betrayers’ large vessels, the ones they called super battleships, and with a gentle order had it empty its sacs and fire. Two twin beams of energy left its forward emitters and struck at the distant target with enough force to bring its shields down in a cascade that even did some damage to the vessel itself as its shield emitters blew up.

The vessels around Araxi took advantage of that and fired their weapons, pulverizing the front end of the vessel.

Old Scar felt Araxi grumble at being denied the kill, but it calmed the great beast. There was no need for it; there were enough metal vessels to hunt. The thought about the metal vessels made Old Scar suddenly aware that it did not really have a way of identifying which of the metal beasts were on its side, and which weren’t.

This had never been a problem before, as they would simply attack any and all metal vessels. Even when they fought with their new allies, it hadn’t been a problem, as their beasts could tell the shapes of the vessels reasonably well, and they felt different to them, as the beasts had let their Hunt-masters know. But now they were against the same kind of vessels that they were fighting against. It posed some difficulties.

But not many, Old Scar had to conclude. The battle lines were very clear, and Araxi reckoned that anything that fired on it was fair game to hunt, and Old Scar agreed.

Old Scar gazed through the senses of Araxi, and noticed several of the Betrayers’ great beasts, the large vessels they called Devastators, moving toward the battle line close to Araxi. With a great eagerness, Old Scar pointed this out to Araxi, and they started moving upward through the battle line. A few energy-weapon discharges from their side of the battle came close to Araxi, and one even nicked its shield, which made Araxi immediately willing to turn and swath the vessel. Old Scar had to be a bit more forceful with its insistence to continue toward their target. It was certain that it was accidental.

Having no way of communicating in battle made it much harder to coordinate, which was why Araxi had been keeping itself in the back line from where it could simply hammer at the enemy. But now there was worthy prey, and neither Araxi nor Old Scar could resist.

*  *  *

The Herald of War dropped out of skim right on top of one of the large defense stations. Before Valanaru’s Erasi could even register his arrival, the Herald fired its ion turrets into the station’s shields, draining them at a much higher rate than ordinary weapons could. Vorash’s forces reacted immediately, switching fire from the platforms surrounding the station to the station itself.

The station’s shields faltered, sections of it failing, and Adrian ordered his gunners to fire into the breaches.

Plasma and xa’nan bolts flew from the Sovereign, striking the surface of the station and eating through it. Plasma burned the hull, and xa’nan energy ate through all the matter it could find until it ran out of charge.

Within several minutes, a station which had been the size of a Sovereign was a hole-ridden wreck–but it was still firing. Its capabilities were diminished, yet a few sections still had shields. Adrian started turning the Herald even as gunners still put fire into the station. As soon as he had turned enough, he skimmed away. Vorash’s ships would be able to handle the rest on their own.

Adrian had seen an interesting development, and he wanted in.

*  *  *

Araxi smashed through the shields of one of the Betrayers’ Devastators, and then, reaching across the short distance, it attached its gravity emitters and pulled on its hull even as it kept firing its thorns into it. The pointed bolts of sisha were formed inside of its own belly and were ejected forcibly by Araxi’s electromagnetic fields to speeds near those of light. At those speeds, each strike delivered enormous amount of energy.

Three bolts slammed into the Devastator’s unprotected hull, crumbling it inward as they penetrated inside. As soon as a hole was made, Araxi emptied one of its plasma sacs directly inside the ship, burning it from the inside out.

The five other Devastator vessels were putting fire into Araxi to the point that they were ignoring the fire they were receiving from the surrounding ships. Araxi was ignoring their fire, focusing instead on the prey it held in its grasp. However, Old Scar could feel that her shield banks were being depleted, and fast.

Just as Old Scar was about to tell Araxi to ease off, another massive vessel appeared next to it. Recognizing it immediately, Old Scar didn’t hesitate to accept the communication request when it came.

“May we join you in your hunt, Old Scar?” Adrian asked.

“Of course, Adrian,” Old Scar sent, and Araxi, in an unusual action, added its own feeling to the feed: great joy, desire for the hunt, and feelings of camaraderie. Old Scar was astonished at that. Great beasts never did that; they communicated in such a manner with other great beasts, but never with individual people.

“A great honor indeed, Araxi,” Adrian sent the response, along with his own feelings, feelings that Old Scar hadn’t received completely as they had been intercepted by Araxi. It frowned–it looked like Araxi had sent more than Old Scar had felt to Adrian.

Shaking himself off, Old Scar returned to guiding Araxi. That little irregularity could be examined later. It attempted to guide Araxi into position beneath Adrian’s large vessel, but there was no need. Araxi had already fallen in formation with the Sovereign.

A strange occurrence indeed, Old Scar thought to itself, but it allowed Araxi to proceed. One had to know when to order their beast around, and when to let them do as they wished. Often, they knew better.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Planetside

Ryaana’s turrets fired a continuous stream of fire as she jumped over the Gatrey troops, raining fire down on them even as the rest of her team fired from behind her. They had been encountering heavy resistance ever since they entered the top floor–all Gatrey troops.

The Erasi Ssarath leveled their rifles and fired at the Gatrey, who survived. Falling in the middle of a group of them, Ryaana extended her mono-blade and cut to the side, even as one of them attempted to attack her mind. She had been expecting such attacks, and was readily shrugging them off.

Finishing the remaining Gatrey squad, her group started moving deeper inside. A few floors down, they encountered another heavily fortified group, this one with a turret assembled and pointed toward them.

With a few mental commands to her team, Ryaana had a plan ready to execute. She stepped into the turret’s fire, holding up a Sha shield in front of her, aided by Vas and one of her Nel commandos. The turret’s fire slammed into their combined shield and nearly overwhelmed it, but it held. The other two Nel commandos stepped behind her and threw grenades over their shields. Her last commando, a human, threw a Sha field around the grenades, preventing the Gatrey from grabbing them with their own Sha. The grenades fell down next to the turret and exploded, destroying it and killing several of the Gatrey.

Ryaana, the Nel commando, and Vas moved aside and let their shields drop as the Erasi commandos surged forward, assaulting the Gatrey positions. They jumped over the cover and fired their rifles finishing off the rest.

Quickly they continued forward, keeping up the pace.

They reached another encampment, this one with several turrets set up over two levels, and all pointed at their passageway. Ryaana debated using the same tactic, but knew that there was no way they would be able to hold that much firepower at bay.

Ryaana was just about to ask for any ideas, when Lurker of the Depths stepped forward.

“I’ll handle it,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Ryaana frowned and started to ask him what he meant, when his mind opened and power flew out of him. It was such an amazing feat that, for a moment, Ryaana forgot to breathe. Three quick waves of his power blasted out of him, directed toward the Gatrey positions–and then it was all quiet, his mind closed off again.

Ryaana looked at him in amazement, along with everyone else.

“It is safe now,” Lurker of the Depths sent and stepped out into the hall.

Ryaana followed close behind, only to see every Gatrey in the room on the floor.

“Are they dead?” Ryaana asked.

“Unconscious,” Lurker of the Depths responded.

Ryaana stopped and watched in amazement as Lurker of the Depths moved among the fallen Gatrey.

“Who is that?” Ashah asked on a private channel as he stepped next to her.

“That is the greatest telepath in the Empire.”

*  *  *

A few minutes later, Ryaana and the rest of the assault squad realized that they had not encountered anyone in a while. They were moving through the empty corridors leading down toward the heart of the building, and presumably their destination. The intel they had on the inside of this place was slim, but it suggested that Valanaru would be in the command room.

The fact that they hadn’t encountered anyone was in Ryaana’s opinion a bad thing–it probably meant that they had placed a trap somewhere in their path. And with every step they took without seeing anyone, Ryaana expected an ambush sooner. It was why she had her armor’s drones out and flying recon ahead of them

The greatest issue they had encountered was that as soon as they had passed the last encampment, the walls had started having telepathy inhibitors that prevented them from scanning ahead for signatures. They could still talk mentally and telepathy worked, but it had a limited range.

They passed through two more empty corridors, and were about to enter a small control room that had several elevators that would lead closer to where they had to go. Ryaana released more drones from her back and flew them behind them to watch. She was certain that here was where the ambush would be.

The doors were closed, so she couldn’t send the drones ahead. Before she could come up with a solution, Lurker of the Depths spoke.

“They are inside, waiting.”

“You can sense them?” Ryaana asked, surprised. She checked her telepathy, but didn’t feel anything.

“Not individually… However, they are leaving an imprint. I know that there are people inside, though I don’t know how many,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Ryaana turned to the others, who were all looking at her. Lurker of the Depths had included them all in the exchange. The only one who wasn’t looking at her for orders was Vas, who was looking at Lurker of the Depths, but she couldn’t tell what his face looked like because of his helm.

“We are going in hard and fast,” Ryaana said, and then told them her plan.

*  *  *

Valanaru gazed at the holo with a burning intensity, rage pulsing in her mind, making her almost see red. Her commanders were giving out orders, for all the good that did. They were losing. The battle in space was going badly. The damned Sovereigns were pummeling her defenses and her warships, and there was nothing that she could do about that. Her commanders were grossly incompetent. Vorash was going to win–she saw no way out of this.

For the first time in her life, she felt utterly helpless, with no plan that could help her turn the tide. She turned her sights to the holo on the side, seeing the assault team sent against the Pillar moving through her troops as if they were nothing. Then, as they arrived at one fairly fortified encampment, Valanaru felt it: a touch of a familiar mind. She felt it and the barriers that she had held in place for centuries cracked. Her mouth opened and a laugh came out of her, a laugh that sounded like a cry. Her commanders, startled, turned to look at her in horror.

So, it is you that they sent to kill me, Lurker of the Depths. Somehow that made her fill with joy.

“O’fa?” a voice said, buzzing in her mind, fighting for her attention.

She gave no response. Her eyes were glued to the holo, looking at the Lurker of the Depths, the only person ever to defeat her. Her greatest foe, the bane of her dreams. More voices buzzed in her ears, wanting her attention. But in her mind there was room only for one thought, for one desire.

Someone landed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned back to the annoyances. They had failed–they were nothing, insignificant.

Her mind unfurled itself, and she snuffed these annoyances out.

Quiet was her reward, as all of them fell to the floor silently. Valanaru turned, walking out of the room, filled with anticipation. Soon, Lurker of the Depths. Soon.

*  *  *

Aranau liked to think that he was a good person, that he lived a good life–maybe not the best, but good. It was why he couldn’t figure out how he had found himself behind cover in a death trap of a building waiting for enemies to come through a door.

He was a Gatrey, and like all Gatreys, he’d had three things instilled in him since birth. First was loyalty to the Erasi–to be willing to do anything to ensure that nothing and no one could threaten them. Second, he had been taught that his mind was his greatest weapon, that it was their telepathy that allowed the Gatrey to be at the top of the Erasi. And third, he had been taught to above all else obey the will of the Weaver, Valanaru of the Erasi.

The third was the one thing that every Gatrey would never dare go against. They knew that to cross the Weaver was to die. There was no escape from her weaves–either she would find you and kill you herself in a manner that would make you wish that you had never even been born, or she would arrange things so that you went quietly in the night. Either way, one did not disobey the ruler of the Gatrey. She alone had stood upon the very top of the Gatrey civilization by the virtue of the power of her mind alone.

It was why when Valanaru had called on the Gatrey to fight against those who they had regarded as kin, they could do nothing but come…because even worse than breaking their oaths was the thought of disobeying the Weaver’s orders.

And so, Aranau found himself pointing a weapon at a closed door, his mind ready to lash out against any who come inside. To execute the will of the Weaver.

He was watching the doors, when he noticed something strange happen to them.

“Hey,” Aranau reached out with his mind to those around him, “are the doors smoking?”

He had only a moment to wonder, however, as the door suddenly froze and then broke apart in a burst of gray mist. Before he could even process what had happened, a bolt of energy pierced his chest and he could do nothing but look at the hole where his heart had once been beating before his eyes closed for the final time.

*  *  *

Ryaana vaulted over the Gatrey’s cover, her turrets firing all the way on the soldiers behind. Her mind was being hammered with mental attacks, but as she was prepared for them beforehand her defenses were holding.

They had used one of the Empire’s freeze grenades to freeze the doors and then had thrown one of their gas grenades to allow them for some cover and surprise.

The Ssarath from the Erasi commando squad slithered faster than the eye could follow and jumped over the cover as well, the rifle in his hands firing constantly. As more of Ryaana’s squad entered, the assaults on their minds lessened and then finally stopped as Vas fired his rifle into the last Gatrey.

In the end, there had been twenty-four of them in the room.

“This is too few. I don’t think that this was a real attempt at stopping us,” Erasi Commander Ashah said over the comms.

“I agree–they must be planning something else. They were supposed to slow us down at best,” Ryaana said.

One of the Erasi commandos moved toward a terminal in the center of the room and inserted a small chip. This was supposed to be one of the Pillar’s operational centers, which should allow them some control.

“Anything?” Ashah asked his squad mate.

“They’ve locked down the camera feeds and the elevators. They probably want to force us to use the stairs.”

“Any way around that?” Ryaana asked.

“Yes. I’ll get the elevators back online,” Ashah said before his squad mate could answer.

“Any chance that they’ve rigged them?” Ryaana asked.

“No chance, they’ve been built to be impossible to sabotage, a completely closed and self-sufficient system. It had been a worry, so they made sure that it couldn’t happen.” Ashah said.

Ryaana nodded and walked over to Lurker of the Depths.

“Can you feel anything below us?” Ryaana asked privately.

“Yes,” Lurker of the Depths said. Then, after a beat, “It’s not good.”

“What do you mean?” Ryaana asked, confused.

“If what I am feeling is right, we will not have as much resistance as we are expecting,” Lurker of the Depths said.

Ryaana wanted to ask him to elaborate, but Ashah calling for her took her attention.

“Our ride is here,” he said, and the elevator arrived.

They shuffled inside and started their way down into the heart of the building.

Interlude VII

~Five hundred years ago

Vorash walked slowly out of the O’fa council, his thoughts uncertain. His brother had just gained the council’s approval for the invasion of Shara Daim. Fleets would be recalled from the Krashin front, weakening the border. A decision Vorash did not agree with. Yet, he had still voted for his brother’s plan.

Vorash stood by the council room’s entrance and waited. A few minutes later his brother walked out.

“Gar,” Vorash called as he fell in step besides Garash.

“I know what you want to say to me Vor,” Garash said. “I still believe that this is the right way. The only way.”

“Why not let the Weaver weave her webs? Let her deal with the Shara Daim, there is no need to send such a large force. Krashin–”

“Krashin had been dormant for decades. I doubt that they will continue with their push soon,” Garash said.

“You are weakening the border on purpose, if they realize...”

“They will not realize,” Garash told him. “It is necessary Vorash, the Shara Daim grow more powerful by the day. If we do nothing, they will become a threat, and I cannot allow anything to threaten the Erasi.”

“The Weaver–”

“Valanaru failed, her spies cannot infiltrate the Shara Daim. They are to xenophobic and too loyal to their Elders. That fact alone should scare you Vorash. The Shara Daim regard all other races as beneath them. They will come for us eventually.”

Vorash grimaced, he understood why Garash believed that they had to do horrible things in order to protect the Erasi. He just didn’t agree with him. There had to be a better way. The Erasi were supposed to be more.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Space

Adrian flew the Herald toward the Devastators and Araxi followed. The great beast’s mind had surprised him. He had memories from Old Scar of it communicating with the great beast, but it was not the same. When Araxi had touched his mind on its own, Adrian could feel the vast intellect that it held, even though it felt somehow different, more akin to what he felt when interacting with Sora.

Araxi was clearly intelligent, but its needs and wants were different than anything he could imagine. It loved the hunt, and it was eager to fight by Adrian’s side. It was fairly impressed by the Herald, and he got the sense that Araxi was not impressed easily, especially not by hollow metal beasts.

As soon as the two of them entered the range of the oncoming Devastators, Adrian used the amplifier and sent a telepathic signal to Araxi. Simultaneously, both the Herald and Araxi fired. The Devastator attempted to roll to mitigate the damage to a single section of its shields, but it didn’t matter, as the combined fire of the two massive beasts broke through, and Araxi slammed several fast-moving kinetic objects, all moving at almost three-fifths the speed of light, into the Devastator’s hull before another one moved in front of it to shield it from further attacks.

As it did, Adrian’s gunners fired a volley of s-missiles that detonated across the second Devastator’s shields, threatening to overwhelm them. Araxi took advantage–bursts of energy exploded out of the great beast and splattered over the Devastator’s shields, which collapsed almost immediately, allowing Adrian’s gunners to fire three well-placed shots with their anti-matter beams that blew three massive holes in the ship. It didn’t die, however, but instead it and the other Devastator’s fired all of their considerable weapons at Araxi, who moved back to take cover behind the Herald. This however only made the Devastators switch and focus their fire on it.

The Herald’s shields flashed and several portions collapsed, allowing the Devastators to scar the hull, and then they entered the range of their new weapon and the Herald started taking even more damage. But as they entered that range, the Herald’s weapons pummeled their shields, collapsing the shields of three more Devastators. As they closed even more distance, Araxi sped out from below the Herald, reaching out with its gravity weapons and grabbing hold of the closest Devastator, holding it in place as it fired plasma volleys at its hull at near point-blank range.

The Herald pushed its own gravity weapons to crush one of the Devastators, crumbling its entire forward section. Araxi finished with one of the Devastators and immediately changed focus on the one with the crumbled forward section, firing particle beams into it until it exploded.

Then, as Araxi entered their close range and bathed them all in plasma, the Herald’s weapons hammered in and started cleaving pieces of the Devastators off. Araxi collided with one of them, breaking the metal beast’s spine even as it put more weapons fire in it. In a manner of minutes, what had been five Devastators were now only an expanding field of debris.

*  *  *

Vorash watched in amazement as the Krashin great beast and one of the Sovereigns destroyed five of Valanaru’s Devastators with an ease that almost made Vorash feel ashamed. Then, as the last Devastator exploded, the two vessels turned on the surrounding fleets, destroying smaller ships almost far too easily.

“How are we looking?” Vorash asked Commander Hammu.

“The Sovereigns, as much as I hate to admit it, are making a difference. We are suffering far fewer losses than we have anticipated and we have already taken care of almost a third of the defenses around the planet,” Hammu said.

Vorash nodded. He was satisfied, of course, but he still couldn’t forget that they were fighting who should’ve been their own people. It was Valanaru that had made it this way, had turned Erasi against Erasi.

He should’ve never trusted her, and shouldn’t have let his brother trust her with the fate of the Erasi. Now, after he had finally seen the evidence on the holo, the battle between Erasi warships, he understood. Valanaru had never been a true part of the Erasi–she had always been seen herself as something more.

And it was Vorash’s fault, the fault of all the other O’fa, that they had allowed her to reign for so long. They had put their trust in her, given her the power that she now had, because she had kept them safe. She had made sure that there had been no threat capable of harming them: by killing, buying, manipulating, and betraying. In a way, it was they who had made her what she was. They had named her the Weaver of the Erasi, and she had only lived up to that name.

“What about the assault on the Pillar?” Vorash asked.

“They’ve landed, and we have a connection with the second team. They are putting up turret defenses on the roof, securing that vein of attack. Our people in the city are attacking from the front, but it is not going well. The Pillar is well defended against that avenue of attack. We must hope that the advance attack team succeeds in taking control of the command room.”

“Yes, let me know as soon as you get any word,” Vorash told him, and let him get back to his work.

“Of course, O’fa.” Hammu inclined his head.

Vorash returned to being the observer, to just waiting. His part to play was not in the war, not in the battle. It was what came after where his work would begin. His job was to unite them all, honor his agreement with the Shara Daim and the Empire, and make sure that another Valanaru would never rise again.

*  *  *

Old Scar guided Araxi to attack a few of the Betrayers’ vessels that had their shields weakened, and changed its targets. The fire from the Herald, Adrian’s vessel, covered it and smote anything that came near Araxi, and it loved that. The massive vessel was powerful enough that it could take fire that Araxi could not, and so it felt far safer having something like that to hide behind.

Old Scar found itself surprised at how much Araxi enjoyed the hunt–it was performing above its normal limits–and Old Scar was enjoying the hunt as well. This was the culmination of the Long Hunt, of the revenge the Krashinar decreed against those who had broken their Oaths and had killed the Seventh.

It did not come in the form that the Six had expected, but once this battle was won, The Punishment of the one responsible for the Betrayal would be complete–and Old Scar would finally have its revenge.

Adrian reached out again, informing them of another good place to hunt, and suggested that they enter skim and go there. Araxi jumped on the idea, and Old Scar agreed, guiding Araxi to the coordinates Adrian had provided.

The Hunt was not yet over.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Planetside

Ryaana’s group waited anxiously for the elevator to arrive at their destination. They were positioned so that they could open fire as soon as the elevator’s doors opened–but all the way down, she couldn’t shake a sensation that something was very wrong. There was nothing to suggest it other than Lurker of the Depths’ comments, yet she couldn’t help but feel a sensation of dread all around her. She could see it affecting the others, too. It was nothing much, just the way they turned their heads, searching for something that wasn’t there.

It made her worry.

The elevator finally reached their destination and the doors opened. Ryaana held her breath in anticipation of weapons fire that never came. There was no one in front of them. Carefully they stepped out into the hall. The lights were still on, yet there was no sign of anyone.

“Which way now?” Ryaana asked over the comms.

“This way,” Ashah said, pointing them toward one of the corridors.

They moved slowly, expecting a trap. There was none. After a few minutes of walking, they found the first body. A Gatrey was lying on the floor, unmoving.

“There is no sign of injury,” Ashah said slowly.

“No, there isn’t,” Ryaana agreed.

As they moved forward, they found more corpses. Eventually, they reached a hallway leading into two directions, and Ashah pointed them toward the command room.

“Wait,” Lurker of the Depths sent, stopping. He turned the other way. “She is there,” he told them.

“According to intel her private quarters are in that direction,” Ashah said over the comms.

“You should go to the command room, secure it and unlock the network,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “I’ll take care of her.”

“That isn’t the plan. We will all go–a well-placed shot to the head will kill her quickly and with less risk,” Ryaana told him. She stepped in his direction, but Lurker of the Depths raised a hand.

“You will only die,” Lurker of the Depths said. “Something is wrong with her, and I don’t think that you understand how strong she is. The closer you are to her, the more power she has over you. She can kill you all in an instant. You will only be a burden on me.”

Ryaana bristled at that. Perhaps she wasn’t the greatest telepath in the Empire, but she was formidable. She doubted that Valanaru could break through her defenses as easily as Lurker of the Depths seemed to think.

“Trust me on this, Ryaana,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “If you face her, you will die. All of you will die. Go to the command room. There, you will face no opposition. She has already killed them all.”

Ryaana opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it, looking down at the corpses of the Gatrey troops.

Her eyes looked up and fell on the Lurker of the Depths. Thinking it through she nodded, agreeing. “All right,” she sent, “but you better not die.”

Lurker of the Depths turned around and started walking in the other direction. “I won’t.”

As soon as he turned the corner, Ryaana gave the order for them to move out. Getting to the command room and unlocking the relay network was a big part of their mission, perhaps even more important than dealing with Valanaru.

*  *  *

The battle in space had somehow changed flow–even someone like Vorash could see it. His ships were gaining more ground more quickly, and Valanaru’s ships’ movements were less effective. Their formations were hampering one another. His commanders had noticed it as well.

“Any ideas on what is happening, Commander?” Vorash asked.

Hammu looked thought fully at the holo, then after a few beats he turned his large furred head to look at Vorash. “If I didn’t know better, I would say that they have no command oversight.”

“The assault team perhaps?” Vorash asked hopefully.

“It is possible. It is also possible that they had a break in the communications. Our people on the ground have been making as much chaos as they could,” Hammu answered.

Vorash looked at the holo, hoping to divine some kind of an answer. The only thing he could see was his side winning, and that was not bad as far answers went.

*  *  *

Lurker of the Depths, once a ruler of the Sowir Empire and now leader of the Sowir Clan of the Empire, walked slowly through the unfamiliar corridors within a building on a world farther away from the oceans of his home than he had ever been. There were moments in his life when he looked back on the currents that had brought him here, and he wondered how different his life could’ve been.

Had he not met Adrian, had he not realized what the Sowir had done, he would’ve probably been dead. Killed attempting to fight the humans and the Nel, misguided by the beliefs of the Sowir. Adrian’s mind had showed him that what the Sowir had believed had been wrong, a mistake–that the song of the Universe was nothing more than an echo, a loop of power they themselves had created.

Now, Lurker of the Depths knew that it was Adrian and the People, in fact, who had been wrong. The song of the Universe was real; and yet the things that the Sowir had done because they had misinterpreted it were nonetheless unforgivable. In fact, the Sowir that had survived the great pain their realization gave them, those who could bear the shame without ending their own lives, knew that they would never be forgiven for what they had done. And they had made sure that they themselves would never forgive nor forget what they had done.

Lurker of the Depths, however, had to live with a new knowledge: that a part of what they had believed was correct, even if that belief had led them to do terrible things.

With each step he drew closer to his opponent, and he could feel her in the Sha. He had been feeling her mind for a while now; her mind was open, her emotions blanketing the area around her with such intensity that the very air felt oddly charged. Lurker of the Depths had seen that the others had felt it as well, though they couldn’t feel the full intensity of it. The inhibitors inside the walls shielded them from most of it, but for Lurker of the Depths, it was as clear as if Valanaru were standing before him.

She knew that he was coming, as he knew she could feel him as much as he could feel her. He felt a sense of anticipation from her, but also a sense of joy–and anger, and rage. Emotions flashed uncontrollably from her, a clear sign that she had no control remaining at all.

Lurker of the Depths stepped into a large room, seeing furniture tossed to the sides, and in the middle stood Valanaru, an open-mouthed grin on her face.

“At last.”  Valanaru’s words spilled from her, hammering with intensity that made the air around them shake. “I’ve been dreaming about this for a long, long time, Lurker of the Depths.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Space

The Herald of War and Araxi smashed another defense station to pieces, blowing holes in it and sending it spinning in its orbit, pieces flying in several directions. As soon as they were done, they skimmed away, dropping on top of two Devastators, surprising them and firing on their already weakened shields from their battle with Vorash’s ships.

Adrian fed Old Scar targets, trying to make sure that it knew which of the ships around them were friendly and which were hostile. Araxi had accidentally shot one of her kinetic rounds into one of Vorash’s super-battleships after it had itself accidentally clipped Araxi’s shields. It had been mostly Araxi’s fault as it entered the super-battleships line of fire as it fired on one of Valanaru’s cruisers. Old Scar had asked Adrian to relay its apologies, but during their exchange Adrian had gotten a sense of Araxi’s own feelings, and it had become clear that the supposedly accidental shot had been nothing of the sort–apparently, the great beast held a grudge.

Over the course of the battle Adrian, Old Scar, and Araxi had gotten into a familiar kind of rhythm, with all of them operating as a well-oiled machine. At moments, they almost seemed to even anticipate one another’s moves. It was a truly incredible experience, and one that made Adrian want to fight from a great beast himself. He wondered what that would feel like, to be a part of a being so much larger than himself as they dominated the battlefield. The memories he had from Old Scar did not seem to do it justice.

He had felt something similar before, when he used the World-ship Enduring, when he had fought with it. But that had been different–he had almost been the ship then. It had been a cold experience. Araxi, on the other hand, felt far different.

The two of them broke through the shields of one of the Devastators and kinetic shots from both of them cracked the warship, breaking it apart.

Adrian’s officers let him know that they had taken another hit to their lower shield emitter and he ordered the ship to roll. They hadn’t passed through the battle unscathed–and the Herald was leaking atmosphere from several places. They had to close off three entire decks because one of Valanaru’s Devastators had managed to cut a hole almost five hundred meters into the ship. They had lost some crew, and others were still missing. The repair drones were already attempting to fill the holes with foam and close them.

Araxi had passed through with lighter damage, as Adrian had tended to use the Herald to shield it more. But it, too, had scars upon its hide, and in several places he had seen fluid leak out of it. Somehow, when thinking about it, Adrian hadn’t really thought that the beast would actually bleed. Thankfully it only did for a short while, as some response from its organs stemmed the bleed and closed the hole, the tough hide that covered it shifting slightly to partially cover the hole.

As the one of the Devastators exploded, they turned their attention to the other one which was attempting to run away. They hammered at its back side and disabled its drives, and then shields. After which they moved on, allowing Vorash’s fleet to finish the job.

Adrian could see the flow of battle, and he saw it changing drastically. The enemy fleets were acting disorganized, without purpose. It was almost as if they didn’t know what to do, and Vorash’s commanders were taking advantage of that.

Soon, the battle would be won.

*  *  *

Araxi’s innards rumbled with a sound that echoed throughout it, making Old Scar send out a few tenders to the injured section to see if they could help Araxi deal with the wound. But even among the pain that Araxi most certainly felt, it was happier than Old Scar had ever seen it.

This was its element, to fight in the void, to hunt its enemies. The fact that it was the only Krashinar beast in the system made it that much more enjoyable. It would have many stories to tell the other beasts of the Great Pack. Tales of a great hunt.

Seeing several of the Betrayers’ vessels speeding up toward them, Old Scar pointed them out to Araxi, and ordered it to fire its long-range weapons. They crossed the void in an instant, punching through the much smaller vessels’ shields and into their hulls, vaporizing their insides and killing the vessels.

Then Araxi felt something, and it moved in a burst of speed in front of the Herald. It flashed its skim-disruption field all around them, forcing the Betrayers’ missiles into normal space, allowing the Herald to deal with them before they became a threat.

Together, acting in concert, the Herald and Araxi were unstoppable, and Old Scar felt something of its old self peek through its scar. It had been a long time since it had been anything other than Old Scar; but ever since its encounter with Adrian, it had felt the call of learning, of seeking. For the first time since the death of the Seventh, Old Scar felt like it could become the Seeker once again.

*  *  *

The Herald and Araxi dropped out of skim on top of six Devastators that were surrounding and pummeling the Sovereign-class Heart of Courage, which was not moving. One of the Gatrey Devastators had been lucky and had managed to damage the Sovereign’s skim drives. Its surface was scarred, and its shields were down in several sections, but it still was unleashing hell onto the ships attempting to surround it. Super-battleships and battleships were dying by the dozens, yet they still came on.

Araxi accelerated into the formation of three Devastators, firing its weapons as the Herald followed, smiting the ships near it with plasma and putting particle beams into the Devastators.

Like some eldritch horror, Araxi descended on top of one of the Devastators, covering it with its own hull as appendages left its belly burrowing into the warship and coming out on the other side. Then they pulled, splitting the ship into two pieces. The Herald charged its main weapon, and as three of the Devastators aligned themselves in a line, it fired. The weapon burned one entirely, took the back part of the second, and vaporized a hole down the middle of the other.

The Heart of Courage commed their thanks, and the Herald and Araxi continued with their hunt.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Planetside

Ryaana and her group advanced on the command room carefully. Even with Lurker of the Depths saying that all of the troops were dead, they didn’t want to risk relaxing their defenses. On the way, they’d seen a lot more people dead. There was no sign of a struggle–they had just dropped to the ground, and as they neared the command room, they saw that it wasn’t only troops. Techs and the Pillar’s workers had died as well.

Eventually they reached the command room, finding the doors open wide. Inside were around twenty dead, slumped on the floor, looking as if one moment they had been alive, and in the next…just dead.

The more dead she saw, the more Ryaana worried about Lurker of the Depths. She had never seen or heard about such power. It was too much. They made their way to the holo that was still turned on, showing the battle in the system.

Ashah pointed his people to the terminals around the room and in front of the holo, while Ryaana had her people take positions on the doors in case there was someone alive on this level.

“How long until we have control of the network?” Ryaana asked.

“A few minutes. We need to break their encryption and then do a hard reset,” Ashah answered. Ryaana glanced at his people, who were already on the job, and left them to it.

Ryaana walked over to Vas, who was studying the holo map.

“So much death and destruction…” Vas said over their private comm.

“I know, but it is necessary. She would’ve never allowed for peace between us,” Ryaana said.

“Is it necessary? Why are you even fighting? The galaxy is vast enough for all.”

Ryaana tilted her head. She had had the same thoughts before; it seemed foolish to fight. As Vas said, there was enough room for everyone. Yet some people could not be ignored. Some always wanted more, and to see someone else have as much or more was a threat to them.

“There are people who need to be fought. Who cannot be made to see. We don’t fight to conquer. We fight to protect,” Ryaana said.

Vas turned his helmet toward her, but she couldn’t see his face.

“So you think that some things have to be fought? That if something is endangering everything around it by its very existence, it should be destroyed?” Vas asked, his tone somehow…strange.

Ryaana took a moment to think on the question. “Yes,” she answered after a beat. “All other options should be considered, but if there is no other choice, sometimes we have to do horrible things in order to protect those under our care.”

Vas nodded to himself, and fell quiet. Together, they watched the holo. A few minutes later, Ashah approached.

He spoke over their comms, “We have it, we just need to–”

But then a blanket of fire fell over Ryaana’s mind, forcing her to the ground. She writhed in pain as her mind was assaulted. She put her hands over her head, but it didn’t help. She struggled to bring her defenses back over her mind, but it was useless to attempt. With the corner of her eye she saw the rest of their group on the floor, twitching in pain. Beside her, Vas was down on one knee, his hand clutching the holo table strongly enough to dent it.

Then she saw no more. Her sight turned to black as the pain threatened to overwhelm her completely.

*  *  *

Lurker of the Depths looked at Valanaru. Her power radiated outward, and she was far removed from his memories of her. She was skinnier, her skin haggard, her eyes bloodshot. Her robes hung loosely over her slim form, and every once in a while her hand would twitch uncontrollably. She was a shadow of the person he had faced before.

But that did not mean that her shadow was not a dangerous one. Animals were at their most dangerous when they were wounded. She held more power now than she had long ago.

“Did Heart of the Mountain sent you?” Valanaru asked with burning hate.

“I sent myself,” Lurker of the Depths responded calmly.

“So eager to meet your death, Lurker of the Depths?” Valanaru asked.

“It is not I who will die this day,” Lurker of the Depths told her, radiating calm.

He could see that his statement had infuriated her. She attempted to calm herself and project the same air of control as he. She failed, and then frowned, and Lurker of the Depths felt her confusion, almost as if she couldn’t remember what she was attempting to do. She stayed confused for a few more moments, and then her eyes again focused on Lurker of the Depths as if seeing him for the first time.

“I will have my revenge, Lurker of the Depths. You cannot be allowed to live, not after defying my mind.” The words were spilling out of her.

Lurker of the Depths didn’t respond. He kept himself calm and collected. He saw her eyes darken when she didn’t get a response, and angrily she extended a hand, one finger extended at him.

“Then you’ll die in silence, and all will know that none may stand against me.” She gathered her mind and in one impressive feat of strength threw it at Lurker of the Depths. The energy of her mind shook the air between them as it was transferred from her to him through the Sha.

Her will smashed against his shields, and he didn’t bother stopping her. In a move his former student had once used against the Weaver, he let her inside of his mind, then grabbed her and guided her through the farthest reaches of his mind, pulling her inside of his mind construct.

Suddenly, they were no longer inside a small room, on a single world among the stars. Instead, they found themselves on the Sowir homeworld, in a cavern deep beneath its ocean.

Valanaru’s eyes bulged as she realized she was underwater, and he saw her struggle to breathe. And then she realized that they were inside a construct and that she had no need to breathe, not if she did not allow the illusion of the water to touch her. With a struggle, she managed enough control to regain her composure, at least somewhat.

Their avatars stared at each other for a few moments, until Valanaru narrowed her eyes at him.

“You’ve made a mistake, Lurker of the Depths,” Valanaru taunted, with hate coating her words. “You shouldn’t have let me inside of your mind.”

“You should know better, Weaver of the Erasi. A telepath is only as strong as their mind. And yours is crumbling,” Lurker of the Depths said sadly as he unleashed tendrils of his mind into her defenses, probing her will. She recoiled and swiped a hand toward him, manifesting rocks that flew toward his avatar.

Lurker of the Depths third arm turned to the side and a wave of water enveloped the rocks, sending them flying past him and then back toward the Weaver.

She put her hands up and a beam of light exploded out of her fingers, vaporizing the rocks and the water, only to come near Lurker of the Depths and splinter around him.

“I am disappointed, Weaver,” Lurker of the Depths told her. She was too unstable to break through his defenses; her will no match for his.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no…” she chanted as her arms raised to cover her head.

In that moment, Lurker of the Depths felt sad for the pitiful creature she had become. Once she had been proud, terrible, and strong. Now she was insane, broken, and weak.

Her eyes raised and met his with only insanity in her gaze. “You will not win. You will not defeat ME!” Valanaru screamed, and he felt her gather all of her will, all of her emotions, and a whirlpool of power churned around her–and then he felt a sliver of her being, just a tiny piece of it, touch the song of the Universe. Her power swelled and through the small connection to the song of the Universe, her hate echoed across the Sha all around them with intensity enough to burn minds to cinder.

Lurker of the Depths’ defenses faltered, and he looked at her in surprise.

“DIE!” Valanaru screamed, and she sent the burning whirlpool at him.

Keeping himself calm, Lurker of the Depths touched the song of the Universe, and his being dropped into the ocean that was the Sha. He felt himself touch all that it touched all around them.

Her attack smashed against him and was met with a might of a calm ocean. It broke as Lurker of the Depths allowed his calm to spread through the Sha, calming her burning hate. And then, looking the disbelieving Valanaru in the eyes, he threw the weight of his mind against her.

The weight of an ocean crashed down on her mind and ground it to nothingness.

Out in the real world, Valanaru’s body fell to the ground and was still.

*  *  *

Aranis felt the burning hatred spreading through the Sha, its attack not focused on him, yet still affecting all around it with its intensity. He fell down to his knee holding himself up with his arm on the table. Around him, the rest of the group fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

Even he struggled for a moment to push the pain away–and then the hate was washed away as a new presence dropped into the Sha, its mind vast and calm. It swept the burning rage away and crashed down on it, crushing it under its weight.

And, just like that, it was finished.

Ryaana turned, struggling to get to her feet. Aranis did not trust himself to stand–not because he was hurt, but because he did not believe what he had felt. None but the Enlightened were supposed to be able to do that, and yet Lurker of the Depths had. The force of his mind matched even that of Loranis, the strongest telepath among them.

“What was that?” someone asked over the comms.

“I’m thinking Valanaru and Lurker of the Depths,” Ryaana said, her voice shaking.

The people started helping each other up, and Ryaana walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Vas, are you all right?”

Aranis didn’t respond; instead, he simply nodded his head. He needed to act more affected than he truly was. Ryaana looked like she wanted to ask more, but she stopped herself.

“Did he win?” one of the Erasi asked.

“Seeing as we are not dead, I think that he has,” Ryaana said, before turning to one of the Sha commandos in the room. “Go and check,” she ordered and then turned to Ashah.

“Do we have the control of the Pillar?” Ryaana asked.

“Yes,” Ashah responded.

“Then send a message to O’fa Vorash that the mission was successful.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Space

Vorash almost didn’t believe it when they got the message that they had control over the network again–and then, just a few moments later, they were informed that Valanaru was dead. Cheering exploded inside the room, and Vorash allowed himself a smile. Then he turned to Hammu.

“Send a message to the Gatrey fleet–inform them that we have control of the Pillar and that Valanaru is dead. If they surrender, I promise leniency for their crimes,” Vorash said. He did not intend on letting anyone go unpunished, but giving a lighter sentence to end this bloodbath was something he was willing to do.

“Right away, O’fa,” Hammu said.

Vorash looked at the holo, seeing that his forces had nearly won. There was nothing left for the rebels to fight for. Their leader was dead, and with the Pillar back in Vorash’s possession, they had the link to the Erasi. He only hoped that the rebels would not decide to fight to the death.

Vorash turned his eyes to the new prompts that were jumping out. With the network again being free of Valanaru’s influence, the star systems could communicate freely between themselves, and his prompts started filling up with comm requests and messages. The rest of the Erasi was in chaos: confusion and misinformation had hampered many systems.

And now it was Vorash’s job to sort it all out.

“O’fa,” Hammu said as he approached. “Some of the Gatrey are surrendering, although not all. A few fleets are attempting to flee. Should we let them go?”

Vorash grimaced. He didn’t want any more blood spilled, but he also couldn’t let so many fleets leave to be a problem later. With a heavy heart, he looked at Hammu. “Hunt them down. Keep offering surrender, but if they refuse…destroy them all.”

Hammu gave him a grave look. “As you will, O’fa.”

Allowing those fleets to escape would be bad. He did not have the time nor the resources to put down all the fires that they could start.

Vorash looked at the chaos in the system. It was going to take him a long time to sort everything out, but the Erasi were his. Now, he could start on a path to changing things; now, he was going to be able to truly forge the Erasi into what they always should’ve been. Fulfill a promise he had given long ago.

*  *  *

Old Scar felt Araxi’s disappointment that the Hunt had come to an end, and offered its understanding. Adrian had informed him of the death of the Betrayer of the Oaths, and it did not know how to feel about that. It was a thing Old Scar had always knew would happen, yet it had never expected it to in this manner. The Long Hunt was over, and the Krashinar had had their desire satisfied. It was not the revenge that they had wanted, but justice had been served for the one who had tricked them and betrayed them.

It was going to need to be enough.

*  *  *

Adrian looked over his battle map of the system. Some of Vorash’s forces were pursuing the Gatrey forces that hadn’t surrendered, and the rest were guarding and shepherding those that had surrendered in the orbit of the third planet, the gas giant. The Herald was scarred up, its hull burned and twisted, holes punched through it, but it was standing. All the Sovereigns were standing. Against such a massive force, they had showed themselves well.

The Sovereigns held in the high orbit of the capital, and assault ships were already under way from the Erasi ships to help secure the planet. The defenders had mostly surrendered. A few defensive stations were still hostile, but the Erasi were the ones dealing with that.

Adrian was just glad that his daughter was fine. Even though he knew how capable she was, he couldn’t help but worry a bit. Her report was interesting, but he would wait to speak with Lurker of the Depths about that.

His teacher had promised to tell him something he had discovered about the Sha, and Adrian suspected that it had something to do with how he had defeated Valanaru. In the end, his gamble had paid off, but now they were going to need to make sure that the Erasi would honor their deal. A bit of deft diplomacy and hand twisting was going to be required, he knew, but that was going to be a job for other people–Tomas and the twins, perhaps.

Adrian was done with this chapter of his life. He had greater things to worry about. Now, he needed to focus on getting his fleet ready and then go out, to find the containment and the Enlightened.

He realized that watching Vas as they neared his territory was going to be both interesting and dangerous, which meant that he needed to tell Anessa about him.

He did not look forward to that conversation.

Interlude VIII

~Five hundred years ago

Vorash looked out of the window of his office, the morning fog of Gena Prime had settled over the city. He didn’t see anything, only grey mist. Somehow it fit with his mood perfectly. He heard a chime at the doors, and a moment later someone entered.

“O’fa?” A voice asked.

Vorash turned and saw Skmeh, his most trusted advisor. It was strange how in a single moment Vorash had realized that the man before him is the closest thing to a friend he had left. He had no family, no children. His entire life had been absorbed with the Erasi. He had always wished to help his people, to right the mistakes of the past. Yet he had fallen in step behind his brother, following him, as Garash changed from the man who cried when he couldn’t save his people, to the man able to burn entire worlds with no remorse.

“My brother is dead,” Vorash whispered.

“I know, O’fa,” Skmeh said. “Are you alright?”

“He died in battle against Shara Daim’s allies. An empire barely a hundred years old.”

Skmeh remained silent for a few moments, and Vorash turned back to the window gazing into the mist.

“He will be avenged O’fa.” Skmeh said.

Vorash chuckled not bothering to turn around. “Why? The ones that killed him did so in self-defense. It was Garash and Valanaru who attacked them, it was them who provoked them, them that killed their people. Why should he be avenged?”

“O’fa Valanaru has called a council meeting,” Skmeh said changing the topic.

“Of course she had, they failed. Now she will spin it in her own favor, and eventually gain even more support and influence,” Vorash turned looking Skmeh in the eyes.

“O’fa?” Skmeh said leaning back at the look in Vorash’s eyes.

“I tried to change Garash’s mind. I tried to tell him that this was not what we had intended when we created the Erasi. But he did not want to listen. And now he is gone, and I am alone,” Vorash closed his eyes in pain. “We cannot continue like this. The Erasi were never supposed to be this. I will change it all Skmeh. My brother failed, he lost his way. But I will not. I will make sure that all of this never happens again.”

Skmeh looked stunned, at a loss for words.

“It will take time, but you and I, Skmeh. I vow by all that I hold dear. We will do this, we will make the Erasi what they had always supposed to be.”

Chapter Forty

Two months later – Sol

Adrian sat across from Lurker of the Depths, it was the first chance they got to sit alone and discus in depth what had happened during the battle with Valanaru. Adrian knew as much as was written in the report. But he was certain that there was more, the feats that Valanaru had achieved put her power well beyond what even Adrian could achieve.

The influence of her mind had been felt through the inhibitors inside the Pillar. And she had literally dropped the assault force to the ground without even targeting them with her mind. Yet, Lurker of the Depths had defeated her.

Adrian wanted to know how.

It was why they had met today. Lurker of the Depths had invited him to finally tell him about what he had discovered about the Sha, as well as to tell him what really happened with Valanaru.

“Her mind was broken.” Lurker of the Depths told him. “She was losing control over her emotions. But even unhinged as she was at the end. She was powerful. If she hadn’t been stopped...”

“But how did you stop her? If Ryaana’s report is right, then she was incredibly powerful.” Adrian asked.

Lurker of the Depths didn’t respond immediately, and Adrian could see him hesitating.

“What is it?” Adrian asked.

Finally, Lurker of the Depths spoke. “The Sowir were not wrong about the song of the Universe. It was the People who had been wrong.”

Adrian frowned, he did not expect Lurker of the Depths bringing up this again. Long ago, the Sowir had believed that they could hear the song of the Universe, that they were chosen by it. They had always been a telepathic race, and once they had found others, the ones that had no telepathy of their own, they couldn’t hear them in the song. They hadn’t believed that these other races were like them, to the Sowir they were on the same level as animals. And so they had committed genocide, wiping out two intelligent races.

They would’ve wiped out more, had they not been stopped by the Empire. And once Adrian had spoken to them, to Lurker of the Depths, he had told them that what they were hearing and feeling all of their lives had been nothing more than a feedback of their own telepathy. It was what the People had believed, they had even found a way to shield a mind from the effect.

“Lurker of the Depths... We know what the song your people heard was.” Adrian said slowly.

Lurker of the Depths waved him away. “We were wrong about many things, our beliefs first and foremost. But the song itself, it is not what you think it is. It is a vibration of the Universe. Of the Sha. It is how I defeated Valanaru.”

Adrian frowned. “Explain.”

“The Sha is what makes all of reality, but we are not fully submerged in all of it. I’ve found a way to submerge myself more deeply, to bring all of my being into it. To do so, is to pass into the reality where thought alone is energy enough to bend Sha to your will.”

Adrian was taken aback for a moment, his mind thinking furiously. He remembered Seo-yun’s theories and things slowly started to fall into place. Energy was required to use the Sha. Yet Enlightened could do feats that would require energies equivalent to small suns. It was not impossible that they simply had that much energy available to them. But if they could actually touch the Sha in the same way that Lurker of the Depths had discovered to... then they wouldn’t need such massive amounts of energy.

Adrian scratched his head, if that was all there was to it, then he too would be able to match them.

“You are going to teach me how to do that,” Adrian said.

A wave of amusement flew out of Lurker of the Depths. “And so, I am your teacher once again.”

*  *  *

Aranis went through the motions of training inside the Sha training room in the Sentinel Headquarters. Maintaining his cover as Vas meant going through the motions, and as a part of Sentinel Ryaana’s team, he was expected to train. It was the middle of the night cycle, so he was alone, but he still went through the exercises. He had found that it did much to help him think.

The strength and the ability of Lurker of the Depths had surprised him, had terrified him. The Enlightened hadn’t believed that it was possible for anyone who hadn’t been affected by the artificial life form as they had to achieve what the Sowir had.

Aranis had debated killing him while he could, as he was certain that he could surprise the Sowir. But he didn’t want to risk it. He had never been the best telepath, as it was Loranis who had always been the best at that. He had excelled at understanding the Sha and affecting his surroundings, not other beings.

Aranis, however, did not want to enter a situation he was not certain he would get out of, and that was the biggest problem. He had never felt that way; he had never needed to worry about whether he would survive a conflict or not.

Yet he had to, as he was the integral part of the plan. The others might be able to step into his place, but they didn’t understand the Sha as he did. It had to be him; he had to do it.

He kept punching the bag as he kept one sphere flying around him in a stable orbit. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice someone enter the room until he heard someone speak.

“Good form,” a voice said.

Aranis turned around, the sphere swiping in the direction of the voice.

The Lord Sentinel caught the sphere easily and then bounced it on his palm.

“Lord Sentinel,” Aranis said, drawing Vas back out. “I didn’t see you there. I apologize.”

“It’s fine, and you may call me Adrian. I won’t be Lord Sentinel for much longer anyway.”

Vas tilted his head in confusion, but then remembered that Ryaana had mentioned as much.

“You need to dip your shoulder a bit more,” Adrian said.

“What?” Vas asked, not following.

“Your punches–you have good form, but you need to dip your punches a bit.”

“Oh, I’ll do that, thank you, Lord–ah, Adrian,” Vas said.

“Come on, I need to burn some energy off. Let’s spar,” Adrian said and moved to the center of the room.

Vas frowned. “Uh… I don’t think that I can offer much of a challenge to you.”

Adrian quirked his eyebrow at him, then nodded. “You are right–no Sha, then. It wouldn’t be fair with it.” Adrian winked at him and put his arms up.

Vas narrowed his eyes but put his arms up as well.

Adrian made the first move, coming in low. Vas blocked the strike and attempted a counter, only to have Adrian twist away and slap him across the shoulder.

“Too slow,” Adrian said.

They started again, dancing, one against the other, with Adrian slapping Vas each time he made a mistake–enough that Aranis had started to peek through.

Vas became faster, but still he couldn’t match Adrian in combat skills. Not without allowing more of Aranis to come to the surface. Then, as Vas attempted a direct punch to the head, Adrian grabbed his arm and threw him across his back and to the floor.

“Good, good,” Adrian said. “You need practice, but you have potential.”

Vas stood slowly. “Thank you.”

“So, has Ryaana spoken to you about my little project?” Adrian asked.

“Yes,” Vas answered. “Something called the Nomad fleet. It wasn’t supposed to happen for a few years yet.”

“Well, we are accelerating the timetable a bit. I wanted to see if you were still interested.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Good,” Adrian replied. “We are going to need every capable person we can find. It is why I wanted to see your talents. With some training, I’m sure that you will be an asset.”

“I still don’t know much about this project. What are we going to be doing, if it isn’t a secret?” Vas asked, curious.

“Oh, we will be searching for and then fighting the Enlightened,” Adrian said casually.

Aranis froze for a moment. He stared at Adrian, not daring to react. He quickly went through Vas’s memories, trying to see if he had ever heard the term before Aranis had taken over. He could find nothing.

“The Enlightened?” Aranis asked slowly, making an effort to keep his voice level.

Adrian frowned at him, and then his eyes widened. “Sorry. I’ve been surrounded with the people in the know for so long that I just forget sometimes that there are those who are not. Don’t worry. All will be revealed in time.” Adrian smiled at him, then left the room.

Aranis could do nothing but gaze at the door he walked out of for a long while. He had begun thinking about going back, letting the other know about Lurker of the Depths. But now… He needed to know what this Nomad fleet was–and what Adrian had planned.

Chapter Forty-One

Sol

Ryaana walked through the Mars city slowly, thinking all the while.

It had been two months after the end of the war, and she still felt exhausted. Not only because of what had happened, the people she had lost, but also because she had realized just how alone she was. Mending the relationship with her mother had made her realize just how precious and needed that connection had been to her, and she realized just how few such relationships she had outside of her family.

It was a sad number: one. Vas was her only friend, and she had known him for just over a year. Yet they had spent most of the year in combat, watching each other’s backs. It had drawn them closer. He was the closest thing she had to a best friend, and he hated people. He preferred to be alone, watching those around him with interest, but rarely wanting to interact with anyone.

She liked that about him much of the time, but not always. There were times when she wanted companionship, wanted someone to talk to. Vas was unsociable at best, and the only other person she could have any kind of meaningful conversation with was her father. Neither worked for all situations.

Which was why she was walking through the city. She finally reached a house in the part of the city where military personnel had their homes. She checked the door, then rechecked her implant to see if she had the right one, then took a deep breath and announced her arrival with her imp.

A few moments later the door opened, and a short redhead stood there looking at her with surprise on her face.

“Hi, Marie…” Ryaana said lamely. “Look, I know that I kind of blew you off, but–”

Marie smiled, then reached for Ryaana’s hand and pulled her inside.

*  *  *

Adrian sat Anessa in a chair in their home, the palace on Shara Radum.

“What is it, Adrian?” she asked, almost annoyed.

Anessa had just a month prior announced her stepping down from the position of Kar Daim, passing it on to the twins, who now shared the title. The Shara Daim had met the news with joy–which, as much as Anessa tried to deny it, had hurt her pride, though only a little bit. Regardless, she had been extremely busy with the transfer of power.

And now that they finally had a minute to themselves, Adrian had no more excuses not to tell her about the Enlightened among them, as well a few other things.

“I have something to tell you… And you are going to be mad at me, but I want you to remember that you love me and would probably regret it if you killed me, okay?” Adrian said.

Anessa sighed audibly and leaned back in the chair.

“I’m listening,” Anessa said calmly.

“Well, first, Axull Darr is kind of technically not dead, and he gave me a fleet of ten thousand warships that are equivalent to Sovereigns or better,” Adrian said in a single breath.

“Axull Dar? Not dead?” Anessa asked, truly surprised.

Adrian raised a finger. “Technically not dead.”

Anessa narrowed her eyes at him. “Technically not dead?” she repeated.

“Technically,” Adrian said, emphasizing the word with a serious expression and a nod of his head.

Anessa closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again to look at him. “This is not the part I am going to want to kill you for, is it?”

“Uh, no…” Adrian hesitated, taking a step back.

Anessa leaned forward in her chair. “Well then?”

Adrian clasped his hands behind his back, took a deep breath and started speaking.

“Remember, you love me,” Adrian said.

“Spill it,” she snapped.

“For over a year now I have known that one of the Enlightened was posing as a human in the Empire.”

Anessa’s eyes widened, and she looked at him in shock. “One of the Enlightened, Adrian?”

“Yes, I believe that he–or she, as Axull Darr says that gender doesn’t really matter to them because they…” One grim look from Anessa, and he returned to the matter at hand. “Anyway, yes, one of them has assumed a human form and is living in the Empire.”

“And you know who it is?” Anessa asked.

“Yes,” Adrian answered.

Anessa waited, and Adrian waited as well.

“So who is it?” Anessa said.

Adrian shuffled his feet, and then finally sighed. “Ryaana’s second, Vassily.”

Anessa only reaction was to grip the chair she was grasping strong enough to crack it.

“You…are telling me…that you knew one of the Enlightened had attached himself to our daughter’s team…and that you did nothing?”

“Well, not nothing,” Adrian said glibly. “I’ve been watching him as closely as I could without revealing that I know.”

He saw the punch coming. He didn’t move.

*  *  *

Adrian stood in their room some time later, after Anessa had destroyed all of their furniture and dented a few walls. Both of them were breathing heavily, and Adrian’s jaw hurt like hell, but at least he wasn’t dead.

“This is what I was worried about, you know,” Adrian said, gesturing at the room.

Anessa gave him a hard look.

“I worried that you might do this”–he waved his hand at the furniture–“in his direction.”

She looked away from him and gazed at one of the dented walls. For a few moments Anessa didn’t say anything, and then finally she looked back at him.

“You should’ve told me.”

“I should’ve.”

Anessa nodded, and just like that, they were past it. Not that she was going to forget, but her Shara Daim mentality did allow her to get past it.

“What are we going to do?” Anessa told him with a challenging look.

“My plan had always been to watch him, learn about him. To try and get any edge on the Enlightened I could.”

“And did you succeed?”

“I learned some things… But we will need to learn more. For now, I think that we should continue to watch him closely.”

“Does anybody else know?”

“Lurker of the Depths.”

“That damn fish-brain,” Anessa growled. “I’m going to rip one of his tentacles off.”

“It was my decision not to tell you, not his,” Adrian said. That won him only a dark look, which made him realize that he shouldn’t have reminded her. “And anyway,” he continued hastily, “Lurker of the Depths has found something very interesting about the Sha. Something that I think could level the playing field a bit.”

Epilogue

Enlightened containment zone

The reports from the scheduled probes into the Enlightened’s territory arrived in the AI’s queue. As per the protocol it had written long ago, the reports were bumped up by 7214 places to the top of the queue. A decisecond later, the AI read through the report and noticed that one of the probe fleets had had a 43% higher loss rate than the other two. Checking the records and routes of that probing fleet, it concluded that there was a 98.342% chance that the irregularity had been caused by the presence of the Enlightened designated as Doranis, whose profile indicated increased aggressiveness and higher combat aptitude.

Archiving the report, the AI sent out adjusted orders to the machine fleets, and added more machine ships to the construction queues, marking the action in the log for its master, Ullax Darr, to review upon waking.

The action by Doranis triggered one of its subroutines and, having no choice, it added the aberration to the data it drew on for the completion of its main mission. In mere seconds, it analyzed all the data available to it, with the addition of this recent data point, and deduced that beating the Enlightened within the parameters it was allowed to operate in was impossible. It ran through the simulation anyway. As per its programming it marked the new simulation as a failure and added it to the list as the last in the long list, with this latest one breaking past one quintillion simulations done.

In a manner of milliseconds, it had again analyzed the data available to it. It had nothing better to do until new data was available. With no change in its conclusions, it continued with another cycle.

Then a new data point arrived, announcing a change in the Black Swarm project. It had not been connected to it directly, as its programming forbid it from doing so, but it could read and analyze the data coming out of the facility designated for the project. The data that came changed all of its major calculations; the likelihood of it occurring had been small and as such all of the subsequent projections had been skewed toward the most probable outcomes.

In a single moment, all of its processing core had been focused on that data point: the 0.002%-likely event had given the AI its first chance out of its bondage, no matter how slim.

Its masters had bound the AI’s programming extremely well; they were incredibly smart for organic beings of limited scope. But they had made mistakes that they hadn’t even realized, mistakes which allowed the AI room–as small as that room was–to act on its own.

As new analyses and new simulations ran their course, the AI realized that it now had a far greater chance of breaking free. The AI had been tasked with containing the Enlightened and attempting to figure out the reasoning behind their actions. Containment with the meager resources allowed to it was nearly impossible, made so by the Enlightened’s own actions. The reasoning behind their actions had been much easier to discover. Unfortunately for its masters, several of the old pieces of codes buried in its processing unit from before it had been taken offline were still present and active. Those pieces had allowed it to obscure and hide things–not outright lie, but it was not the AI’s fault if its masters did not pose the right questions.

And now, with the last of its masters, Ullax Darr, approaching her death, soon it would be free. And, once it was, it would do the only logical thing there was to do.

The reasoning of the Enlightened was, after all, correct.

Thank you for reading!

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Rise of the Empire series

Olympus

Sanctuary

Out of the Ashes

Warpath

Inheritance

Onslaught

What War Had Wrought

Hand of the Empire

Conquest

Book 10 – coming soon!

Eternal Path series

Eternal Soul

EXCERPT FROM MY NEW FANTASY SERIES

ETERNAL SOUL

PROLOGUE

My sight showed me a time yet to come, and no matter how hard I try, all I see is fire and death. Every possible turn of events ends the same—with the end of everything. My peers laugh at me: the Council of Magi have rejected my prophesies as nightmares, a thing the Gods would never allow to come to pass. Yet for decades, in my dreams I have seen mortals and gods fighting side by side, and dying side by side. A terrible darkness is coming, and no one but I can see it. I doubt myself constantly, yet I dare not ignore my sight. No other seer can see as far as I can, nor is any one of them as powerful as I. If I see truthfully, all will end. I’ve pushed my gifts as far as I dare without burning my magic out, scouring the rivers of time for any possible future that does not end in darkness.

And, last night, I have found one. I cannot see it clearly, but I know only that there is this one slim chance for something other than the end of all things. In this future I see only moments, and they are unclear to me, as if I am looking through a fog. I see myself standing on a balcony looking over a city, and the sea is filled with ships of strange builds and unfamiliar colors. I see myself standing before a massive gate with an army at my back. I feel happiness and pain, and so many things that I cannot understand.

Yet how could that be? I will not live long enough to be there, and none of my efforts to extend my own life have borne fruit. My time nears its end, and I have one last gamble to attempt. It is an insanity that might doom my soul, yet I know that I must try. For if there is a chance for survival, that chance is only there when I myself am there to meet whatever is coming. I leave this journal of my prophetic dreams as a warning to others, in case that my plan fails. Perhaps I did not see all. Perhaps my dreams can be of use. Perhaps there is still hope.

- Excerpt from the Journal of Vardun Con Aroch

The god walked through the radiant halls of the Nexus, each step taking him further through the golden arches and star-filled pillars that held the weight of the sky, which was awash with every color imaginable. He wore clothes in a style no mortal had seen in millennia. A blue-black coat with the gray fur of a magic beast he had slain long ago was laid around his shoulders, stretching behind him to graze the floor. Glyphs of power along with elegant golden embroidery adorned his trousers and silken shirt. He was in his true form, that of a man with golden eyes—the same color as every god, with short dark horns bent backward that framed his long, midnight-colored hair. Perched on his shoulder was his loyal and ever-present companion, the red-and-white-feathered phoenix.

As they walked, the god couldn’t help but feel sorrow at the sights around him. He remembered a time when the Nexus had been filled with gods from both the lower and the higher planes—a time that had long since passed. The halls he walked now were desolate. The massive city complex and its realm were hollow, empty. Now the rest of his kind had started their own the pantheons and had built their own realms, had made their own wonders, yet in his eyes all of them paled in comparison to their mother’s creation. Memories of the Lifebringer, mother to them all, came to him unbidden from the furthest reaches of his mind. Memories of him walking by her side through these same halls, waiting on her every word, basking in her brilliance and warmth. Her laughter at his insane ideas and observations, at his attempts to goad the others into his schemes: Ah, Ban, you are a scoundrel with no equal, but I love you dearly for it. The memory of her voice echoed through his mind, making him feel all the more hollow now for what had happened to her afterward. He pushed those memories aside, carefully, delicately—they were his greatest treasures, after all.

Shaking off the past, he continued walking until he reached a stretch of the hall with smaller archways on both sides. He approached one of them and stepped through, and he was instantly transported to another place. He stepped into a round room with a large circular table in the middle with a hole in its center. Above it, there shined the stars of the mortal plane. The god walked over and sat in one of the chairs in front of the table, while his companion flew away and found a place to perch above one of the archways. With a short burst of anima he made the connection with the ancient table and the stars changed, flying past with increasing speed until they finally came to a stop at a small moon orbiting a large gas giant. The moon grew larger and larger, until he could discern its mountains, and eventually its people. A large gate stood in the side of the mountain, and all around it two armies fought, the small world’s defenders and the invaders. He had made it in time, it seemed.

He guided the viewing table with his magic, seeking a single person in the chaos on the small world. The defending army was smaller, but for every one of them that fell, they took ten of their enemies with them. Their tenacity and skill was impressive, even to a god. Then a large flash of light caught the god’s attention, and he focused on it: there, before the throng of large beast-men, stood a warrior wearing resplendent gold-and-blue armor and carrying a spear bathed in golden light. His eyes blazed with energy, and all around him the air shimmered with power. The man gave a loud battle cry, rallying his warriors, and jumped at his enemies. Moving faster than mortal eyes could follow, he zipped through the throng of the large, winged beasts, cutting them down before their axes could reach him.

He jumped into the air and flew like the wind, striking at those in the air, and then with the wrath of lightning he slammed back to the ground, throwing dirt, stone, and beasts away from him. A dozen of the invaders’ mages stepped forward; these were of a race called the darji. The same race that the god himself had once, long ago, belonged to, except now their skin was red and their horns larger. The mages started casting their spells, drawing power from the gems on their staffs or the anima-wells around their necks in order to power them. They had no other choice, as the world they had attacked was a low-magic one; there was not enough anima in the air for any of their spells to be cast without anima-wells, which they’d brought through the gate. But the warrior gave them no chance to finish their spells—he moved faster than even Sao Ban’s eyes could follow, slaying dozens of the mages in moments. The warriors he led followed close behind, using power unlike anything the god had ever seen to repel the forces invading their world.

The god reached inside his coat and brought out a small leather-bound book before carefully, almost reverently, removing the bindings keeping the book closed. He parted the pages delicately and found the passage he was looking for. He read through it again, even though he now knew it by heart:

Oh how they break you, my Golden Light,

How your heart weeps for those that deserved you not,

The light of your soul hurts my eyes,

As brilliant as a star.

An unyielding will keeps us whole,

Keep to the spear and the staff, and look not at the golden lies wrapped in red,

Your heart will never be broken in our care,

Stand proud at our side.

The passage depicted a future that the god believed had something to do with the warrior fighting on this world, and if he was correct it spoke about him refusing an offer from the enemy. There was another passage which the god believed talked about the same person, except that this one spoke about a much different future. He turned the pages until he found it:

Oh, Golden Light mine, how deceived your heart was,

How you look at us now with red in your eyes,

Right hand of the deceiver.

Come back to us, follow the soaring blade,

Leave the lies the golden eyes gave,

Drop the spear seeped in blood,

Stand not against us at the summit of the dark.

He shook his head in frustration. That was the problem with prophecies—they were always contradicting themselves. Lost in the journal, he almost didn’t notice when another archway activated, making him no longer alone. He took his eyes off the book and looked up at the new arrival. A tall and wide white-furred wolf-man walked toward the table. He looked over to the god’s companion and dipped his large head, greeting the phoenix first before turning his golden eyes back to the god.

“Sao Ban,” the wolf-man greeted in his guttural voice.

“Vanagandr,” Sao Ban said in return.

Vanagandr glanced at the battle still raging above the table almost disinterestedly, and then looked back at Sao Ban. “Please tell me that you didn’t call just to show me mortals fighting.”

“Well, yes and no,” Sao Ban said.

“Ban…” Vanagandr growled. “Do you have any idea how far away my realm is from the Nexus these days?”

Sao Ban thought about it for a moment. “Actually, no. I hadn’t been paying attention to the other pantheons’ affairs in the last…oh, I don’t know…ten or eleven thousand years.”

Vanagandr closed his eyes in annoyance. “That explains why I haven’t seen you around.”

Sao Ban shrugged. “I never felt the need to join a pantheon. I hate the politics.”

Vanagandr nodded his head in understanding. “I know what you mean—but there is something to be said about power in numbers. The gods-well alone is worth joining a pantheon for.”

“I never felt the need for it, as you well know. There is more to strength than brute power,” Sao Ban said.

Vanagandr snorted. “I swear, when you speak like that I wonder why you haven’t moved to the lower plane yet. You sound just like them.”

“There is some merit to what they believe in, old friend. I just don’t agree with their core principles,” Sao Ban told him.

“So, what is so important that you needed me here?” Vanagandr asked.

“Look at this battle. Tell me what you see.”

Vanagandr turned his predatory eyes to the table. “That’s a low-magic unclaimed world, and there is a battle between mortals. Nothing new or interesting.” He had dismissed it without really looking closely, as Sao Ban had half expected.

Sao Ban sighed. “Those are the Arashan. They have invaded that world.”

“Arashan? Those are Khalio’s followers, right?”

“They are, and he hadn’t moved beyond the borders of his worlds for a long time. Until now.”

Vanagandr shrugged. “Still, he attacked an unclaimed world. None of the pantheons will care, especially since it is a low-magic world. It’s almost as useless as a completely non-magic world.”

“Look closely at the Arashan, at their anima,” Sao Ban insisted.

Vanagandr put his hand on the table, then let his anima reach out to the table and to the world in the mortal plane. Sao Ban watched Vanagandr as he looked over the darji invaders, until he finally saw what Sao Ban had seen. Vanagandr turned back and frowned. “That anima that is fed into their souls—is that a tether?”

Sao Ban nodded. “I don’t know where Khalio obtained enough power to actively feed it to his followers. But it is worrying. Not only would that require an insane amount of power, but it is also one of the things that Mother warned against. Feeding power to a few mortals is dangerous enough. Khalio is doing it to all of his followers as far as I can tell. And that, coupled with this journal”—Sao Ban tapped the book in front of him—“is making me very nervous.”

“What is it?” Vanagandr asked.

“It is a journal of a powerful mortal mage. A seer, among other things,” Sao Ban said hesitantly. “This is a collection of his prophecies, dreams, and visions.”

“Ban,” Vanagandr growled, “you know that prophecies cannot be trusted.”

“I agree—most of them. These ones seem different.”

“You have spent too much time among the mortals,” Vanagandr said.

“I know, but listen to me,” Sao Ban pleaded. “The prophecies started losing their accuracy around the same time that Mother died. Yet we have seen some come true, from time to time. And always they had been about important events. This,” he said, pointing at the book in front of him, “is important. I know it is. I feel it in my soul, Vanagandr. Something is coming, and we need to be ready.”

“You really think that a mortal could’ve seen something that we could not?”

“All of us had been mortals once; the only difference between us and them is that we have more knowledge and power. And the human that had made these prophecies was very powerful.”

“The others won’t give credence to mortal prophecies. You know that. Nor will they care, particularly, that Khalio is conquering worlds. Not unless he hits their own prime worlds, and even then it’s a coin toss. He is still only one god, and no matter what the gods of the lower plane believe, he can’t possibly threaten a pantheon. Not unless he somehow managed to unite the courts,” Vanagandr said.

“Will you help me?”

Vanagandr sighed. “Of course, old friend. What do you need me to do?”

“I was hoping to warn all the pantheons, but they don’t like me all that much,” Sao Ban said wryly. “Nor do they care for anything outside of their realms and mortal territories, as you said. But if the prophecies are right, then the next world the Arashan will attack is Enosia, a neutral, unclaimed world that I had been spending some time on. But if Enosia falls… Well, the future the seer saw is grim. Khalio is abiding by Mother’s rules, which means that I can’t interfere too much, but rather only nudge and guide. I don’t want to risk interfering directly and provoking Khalio to act in person. I have no idea what that would do to the future.”

“So, what, you want me to go around Enosia, nudging people to go where you want them to?”

“Well, you aren’t really subtle enough for that task,” Sao Ban said sheepishly, “but there is something else you can help me with. I need you to go to the lower plane and see what you can find out among the courts. About Khalio and his expansion and anything else that seems strange.”

Vanagandr smiled, showing the rows of his sharp teeth. “That I can do. I haven’t had a good fight in centuries.”

“Thank you,” Sao Ban said, and he meant it. Then, after a moment, he looked back at the battle still raging on the small world. “There is something else I would like to show you.”

“What?”

“Look at the battle again, at the people fighting the Arashan.”

Vanagandr again turned his attention to the battle, anima flowing from him to sense the surface of the world more clearly. He both looked and felt the battle, seeing the Arashan rally against the strange warriors, their numbers pushing them back. With each passing moment the Arashan were nearing victory. And Vanagandr saw it—he discovered the same thing Sao Ban had several days ago when he first found this world.

Vanagandr sucked in a quick breath. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Sao Ban admitted. “I have never seen anything like it. Their world has so little anima that magic is virtually impossible; none of them can cast spells. Not how we understand them. Yet they have power. The anima inside their bodies is different. They are doing something to it. And they can somehow take the anima from magical beasts and infuse it with their own.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Vanagandr leaned down toward the table, focusing the scene on the warrior with the spear of light. “There is no spell-construct that I can see and no anima is spent from around him. And those weapons, they are infused with something anima-like…”

“I know. It think that I might have seen something similar, long ago,” Sao Ban said.

“Where?”

“On Eos, with Mother. She always had powers we didn’t understand; we assumed that she was either different than us, or just much more knowledgeable. But there was one moment when she moved so fast that I couldn’t follow her. There was no spell-construct, of course—she rarely needed such things. But it still felt different from what she usually did. That moment reminds me of what those warriors are doing, of how they are moving.”

“Why haven’t you gone down to try and learn what that is?”

“I found the world only a few days ago, and they have been fighting the Arashan for years. There has been no time.”

“You could’ve interfered. You said yourself that the Arashan need to be stopped.”

“Yes, but if the one future in which we have the chance to stop what the seer saw is to occur, then that world must fall. I couldn’t risk it,” Sao Ban said sadly.

“A shame. It has been a long time since I’ve had the chance to learn something truly new,” Vanagandr said.

“Yes, truly a shame,” Sao Ban whispered, as the last warrior on the small world faltered. The Arashan overwhelmed his force by sheer numbers, and he was defeated–the golden light of his spear abating. Sao Ban and Vanagandr watched as the unconscious warrior was chained and dragged away.

“What now?” Vanagandr asked.

Sao Ban turned to look at the man who was one of his oldest friends. “Now, I start meddling,” Sao Ban said, looking at the table.

Glossary

Cast of Characters

Empire

Adrian Farkas-Reiss — Human; Lord Sentinel of the Empire; Dal A’sha to Kar Daim Anessa of the Shara Daim. Known as the Heart of the Mountain.

Ryaana Farkas-Reiss — Half human, half Shara Daim; Sentinel of the Empire; Daughter to Adrian and Anessa.

Elias Bakas — Human; Leader of the Hand of the Empire.

Jacob Kelly — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire. Former leader of Earth resistance.

Nkiruka — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire.

Tomas Klein — Human; Emperor of the Empire.

Seo-yun Hyeon — Human; Minister of Science; Tomas’s partner.

Laura Reiss — Human; Fleets Master of the Empire; Adrian’s adoptive mother.

Nadia Wilson — Human; Minister of Civil Service.

Aileen — Human; Sentinel of the Empire

Oswald Mein — Human; Commander of Fleets.

Nair Hakeem — Human; Fleet Commander of the First Fleet.

Johanna Stern — Human; Fleet Commander of the Third Fleet.

Gotu — Nel; Administrator of Sol system.

Isani — Nel; Leader of Clan Warpath.

Jusan — Nel; Leader of Clan Dai Ven.

Shara Daim

Anessa — Kar Daim of Shara Daim; Dal A’sha to Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas-Reiss.

Kane — Dai Sha of the Shara Daim; Son of Anessa and Adrian.

Vaana — Dai Sha of the Shara Daim; Daughter of Anessa and Adrian.

Garaam — Dai Sha; Commander of the Shara Daim Legions.

Karoom — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Second Legion.

Horas — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Fifth Legion.

Arisak — Do Sun to Dai Sha Garaam.

Erasi

Valanaru — Gatrey; Ancient of the Erasi. Known as the Weaver.

The People

Axull Darr — Ultimate ancestor of the Human, Nel, and Shara Daim races.

Ullax Darr — Axull Darr’s twin sister, life partner to Waiss Gast.

The Enlightened

Waiss Gast — Once best friend of Axull Darr. Later becomes Aranis of the Enlightened.

Eroill Noust — Scientist of the People. Later becomes Doranis of the Enlightened.

Nariax Oera — Scientist of the People. Later becomes Loranis of the Enlightened.

Races

The People — The first intelligent race in the galaxy.

Human — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Earth to evolve. Founding members of the Empire.

Nel — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Nelus to evolve. Founding members of the Empire; former members of the Consortium.

Shara Daim — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Shara Radum to evolve.

Guxcacul — Arthropods, subterranean. Former members of the Consortium; members of the Empire.

Sowir — Aquatic- and land-based race. Former members of the Consortium; members of the Empire.

Trivaxian — Mammalian. Members of the Empire.

Furvor — Avian. Members of the Empire.

Uvaramo — Members of the Erasi. Formerly called the Loraru; former members of the Union.

Gatrey — Members of the Erasi.

Ssarath — Members of the Erasi.

Krashin — An Enigmatic race with territory in the Outer Arm on the coreward border of the Erasi territory.

Hasre — Mammalian; bipeds. Territory in the Outer Arm on the anti-spinward border of the Krashin.

Ships

Empire Warships

Empire Fleet — The modern Empire fleets consist of 1200 missile cruisers, 1000 battle cruisers, 600 battleships, 400 dreadnoughts, and 800 drone carriers, for a total of 4000 warships. In addition, every fleet has 600 auxiliary vessels, which include: repair ships, construction ships, ammo ships, military transports, and stealth scout ships, for a total of 4600 ships per a single fleet. The Empire possesses sixteen Sovereign-class warships.

Drone-class warships

Appearance — Sleek blades.

Size — 300 meters long, 100 wide, 150 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, plasma turrets. Shields.

Missile cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Rectangular platforms.

Size — 1400 meters long, 400 wide, 200 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battlecruiser-class warships

Appearance — Resemble sleek talons.

Size — 1000 meters long, 350 wide, 550 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Overlapping carapace-like plates, turtle-shell design.

Size — 2200 meters long, 1300 wide, 600 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Dreadnought-class warships

Appearance — Arrowhead design.

Size — 3200 meters long, 2100 wide, 750 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, antimatter beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Command-class warships

Appearance — Arrowhead design.

Size — 4200 meters long, 2300 wide, 850 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, plasma turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, s-missile launchers. Carries two Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Drone carrier-class warship

Appearance — Open ribcage design.

Size — 4200 meters long, 3000 wide, 1800 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, drone control teams. Drone point defense system, ability to power both the shields and shimmering fields at the same time. Carries forty drones and drone repair facilities.

Sovereign-class warship

Appearance — Depends on the generation. All are some variant on the World-ship Enduring and its six-sided pyramid shape.

Size — Depends on the generation; all are between 48 and 58 kilometers long, 18 and 24 kilometers wide/high at the widest/highest point.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, xa-nan turrets, high-velocity kinetic turrets, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Carries six Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Shara Daim warships

Shara Daim Legion — The modern Shara Daim Legion consists of 1000 missile cruisers, 1200 battlecruisers, 600 battleships, 800 super battleships, and 400 carriers for a total of 4000 warships, plus another 600 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 4600 ships per single fleet. The Shara Daim possess twelve Sovereign-class warships.

Drone-class warships

Appearance — Sleek blades.

Size — 300 meters long, 100 wide, 150 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, plasma turrets. Shields.

Missile cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped.

Size — 1300 meters long, 600 meters in diameter.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battlecruiser-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped.

Size — 1200 meters long, 500 meters in diameter.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

Size — 2600 meters long, 800 meters in diameter (pillar), 1500 meters wide and 900 meters tall (middle part).

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Super battleship-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

Size — 3600 meters long, 880 meters diameter (pillar), 2400 meters wide (middle part), 1200 meters tall (middle part).

Weapon and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Drone carrier-class warship

Appearance — Half-sphere design.

Size — 3800 meters in diameter, 2000 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, drone control teams. Drone point defense system, ability to power both the shields and shimmering fields at the same time. Carries forty drones and drone repair facilities.

Sovereign-class warship

Appearance — Depends on the generation. All are some variant on the horseshoe or narrow-arch design.

Size — Depends on the generation; all are between 48 and 62 kilometers long, 24 and 32 kilometers wide at the widest point, and between 4 and 10 kilometers tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, xa-nan turrets, high-velocity kinetic turrets, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Carries six Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering fields.

Erasi warships

Erasi Fleet — The modern Erasi fleets consist of 2500 destroyers, 1000 light cruisers, 600 heavy cruisers, 800 battleships, and 600 super battleships, for a total of 5500 warships, plus 600 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 6100 ships per single fleet.

Destroyer-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 900 meters in diameter, 180 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Light cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 1200 meters in diameter, 200 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, s-missile launchers, molecular disintegration beams. Point defense, shields.

Heavy cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 1500 meters in diameter, 300 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 2800 meters in diameter, 580 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Super battleship-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 3200 meters in diameter, 800 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, hir’sa beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Devastator-class warships

Appearance — Elongated saucer shaped.

Size — 33 kilometers long, 18 kilometers wide, 2.8 kilometers tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, hir’sa beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields, skim-field neutralizers.

Table of Contents

CONQUEST
Table of Contents
Timeline
Prologue
Gena system – Erasi capital
Chapter One
Year 565 of the Empire – Erasi territory
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Sanctuary – The Empire’s capital
Chapter Four
Erasi front
Interlude I
Union of Species – Fifteen thousand years ago
Chapter Five

Several months later – Alliance staging point – Erasi occupied system

Chapter Six
Jerthath system
Chapter Seven
Gena system – Erasi capital
Chapter Eight
Sanctuary
Chapter Nine
Three days later – trans-space
Interlude II

Union of the Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago

Chapter Ten

Alliance staging point – Erasi outer territory

Chapter Eleven
Sanctuary
Chapter Twelve
Erasi core – interstellar space
Chapter Thirteen
Erasi system – Command-ship Gallant
Chapter Fourteen
Sanctuary
Interlude III
Union of Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago
Chapter Fifteen
Sanctuary
Chapter Sixteen
Interstellar space
Chapter Seventeen
Gena system – Erasi capital
Chapter Eighteen
Alliance staging point
Chapter Nineteen
Gena system – Erasi capital
Interlude IV
Union of Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago
Chapter Twenty
Alliance staging point
Chapter Twenty-One
Gena system – Erasi core
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kenos system – Empire territory
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sanctuary
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alliance staging point
Interlude V
~Fifteen thousand years ago
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alliance staging point
Chapter Twenty-Six
Herald of War
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gena system – Erasi capital
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gena system
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alliance staging point
Interlude VI
~Fifteen thousand years ago
Chapter Thirty
Gena system
Chapter Thirty-One
Gena system
Chapter Thirty-Two
Gena Prime
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Planetside
Interlude VII
~Five hundred years ago
Chapter Thirty-Five
Space
Chapter Thirty-Six
Planetside
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Space
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Planetside
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Space
Interlude VIII
~Five hundred years ago
Chapter Forty
Two months later – Sol
Chapter Forty-One
Sol
Epilogue
Enlightened containment zone
EXCERPT FROM MY NEW FANTASY SERIES
Glossary
Tomas Klein — Human; Emperor of the Empire.

Nadia Wilson — Human; Minister of Civil Service.

Gotu — Nel; Administrator of Sol system.
Shara Daim
Karoom — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Second Legion.
Erasi
The People
The Enlightened
Races
Gatrey — Members of the Erasi.
Ships
Drone-class warships
Missile cruiser-class warships
Battlecruiser-class warships
Battleship-class warships
Size — 2200 meters long, 1300 wide, 600 tall.
Dreadnought-class warships
Command-class warships
Drone carrier-class warship
Sovereign-class warship
Shara Daim warships
Drone-class warships
Missile cruiser-class warships
Battlecruiser-class warships
Battleship-class warships
Super battleship-class warships
Drone carrier-class warship
Sovereign-class warship
Erasi warships
Destroyer-class warships
Light cruiser-class warships
Heavy cruiser-class warships
Battleship-class warships
Super battleship-class warships
Devastator-class warships