Onslaught (Rise of the Empire Book 6) (10 page)

“If they get past Sol…”

“They won’t, I trust Adrian. Even if they did, they will break their forces against us, and there is little chance that they can take Sanctuary; it is a fortress. They would be forced to use trans-space to enter the system because of the nebula, and if they do, our defenses will rip them apart.”

“I trust him too, but he risks too much. We shouldn’t have sent the sphere to him. There are a thousand things that can go sideways,” she said.

“He knows what he is doing; he has trained and studied for these kinds of situations. That is what Sentinels are supposed to do you know.”

“I know…” Seo-yun said, and settled close to Tomas, closing her eyes.

Chapter Thirteen

One month later — August — Sol

The woman beneath Adrian writhed with passion. Both were breathing heavily. She bit his lip as they moved in a dance. He moved his palms over her soft, dark skin as she arched beneath him. He could feel himself reaching climax, and the white eyes looking at him told him that the same was true for her. Then, a sound intruded on his mind. He tried to ignore it, to stay with her, but the sound kept intruding…

Adrian woke with a start. His comms were going off. He blinked and brought forth his HUD, answering the call from Gotu.

“What?” he said crankily.

“We need you at the hub,” Gotu said.

Adrian closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll be right there.”

He sat up in the bed slowly. He remembered the dream; his body was still hot from the memory. He remembered Anessa’s bright white eyes looking at him with such passion. He shook his head. It had been a long time since he’d had this kind of a dream. It seemed that Anessa had gotten under his skin a lot deeper than he had previously thought. And no wonder—she had spent a better part of nine months as his prisoner. More of a guest, really. They had talked about their people, about their beliefs; he had walked and talked with her almost daily. He had a sense of who she was, even though he didn’t know really anything about her private life. With a sigh, he stood up and went to the bathroom. He needed a cold shower before he went to the hub.

Less than an hour later, Adrian leaned on the railing and looked over the data on the holo. The Olympus Mons AI’s hologram stood to his left, an image of a human in Warpath uniform, and Iris floated above his shoulder.

“And they don’t realize that we’ve detected their hack?” Adrian asked.

“No,” Gotu said from his left, “Atlas caught their malware the moment they triggered it, and he isolated it and made a virtual net where the malware is trying to break through our ‘defense.’ We weren’t sure how you wanted to handle it.”

Adrian turned to look at the holo of Atlas. “There is no chance that this malware can escape?”

“No, Lord Sentinel. It is inferior to our defenses; it appears to be a part of an AI, but one severely limited and constrained,” Atlas responded.

“So, can you make it seem like it uncovered something? Feed them false information?” Adrian asked.

“Of course,” Atlas said.

Adrian grinned. “What are they looking for?”

“Information about Sol’s defenses and anything about our weapons technology, such as skimming technology, and how many warships we have.”

“Alright, let’s come up with something that is to our advantage and seems plausible.”

***

Adrian sat in his quarters, Akash and Sora sleeping on the floor by his chair. He levitated a perfect silver sphere above his hand, and in the middle of the room floated the hologram of Axull Darr with its legs crossed. The human-like being was wearing long robes that left his hands and head free.

“So, what do you think?” Adrian asked the copy of his ultimate ancestor as he rotated the sphere in front of him.

“There is much that can go wrong with your plan. And even if she comes back, she can die in the resulting battle,” Axull Darr answered.

“Our assets in Shara Daim territory have confirmed that their Legions have left the system—Sol is the only place they could be headed, and I doubt that she would’ve let her Legion go to war without her, doesn’t seem like her,” Adrian said.

“You can’t control what happens in the heat of battle. You more than anyone should know that,” Axull Darr cautioned.

“Yes, I know that unpredictable things happen. However, I have done everything I can to minimize that. And once she sees that there is no chance for victory, she will listen,” Adrian said unsurely.

“You told me that the Shara Daim are proud, arrogant, and dismissive of other races. To me, they do not seem like people that listen.”

“If it was anyone other than her, I would’ve agreed. But she knows that we don’t want war. She will talk with me,” Adrian said.

“And you think that you can convince her now when you failed before?” Axull Darr asked.

“My plan was never to change her mind before sending her back. Her belief that they are the strongest can’t be shattered by my words alone. I needed to plant the seed that she and I are not so different, that we are not weak, so that when I do shatter the Shara Daim illusion of strength, she will lose faith in what she has always known to be true. Then you and I will show her the truth about their ancestors.”

“And what do you think that will accomplish? You think that she can convince her Elders and the rest of her race to change?” Axull Darr asked.

Adrian shook his head. “No, the Elders are the problem. They must have access to at least some information, and yet the rest of the Shara Daim don’t know about it. But she is influential and powerful. I can only show her the truth; it is her job to do with it as she wills. If she decides that her people are still right even after she knows everything, then that is her choice and we will go to war with the Shara Daim, one in which only one of us survives.”

“I hope that your plan works. It would pain me to see my children killing one another.”

“We shall see next month, when they arrive.”

***

Adrian stepped off the shuttle and onto the Jupiter shipyards. Hundreds of humans, Nel, and Sowir walked around doing their jobs. A single Sowir stood close to the shuttle and waited until Adrian walked over to him.

“Teacher,”
Adrian sent as a way of greeting.

“Adrian,”
Lurker of the Depths responded. Lurker of the Depths motioned for Adrian to follow, and they walked over to a small room already prepared for their meeting.

“Progress?”
Adrian asked once they were alone.

“We have done as you asked; the production will be done on time,”
Lurker of the Depths responded.

“Good, and what about the special project?”
Adrian asked.

“The technology is unstable; we can’t power it long enough for it to be useful weapon,”
Lurker of the Depths sent, allowing his frustration and apology to underline his words.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it. I’ve brought you some help,”
Adrian sent with just a hint of amusement. He reached into his pocket and brought out the sphere, throwing it in front of him and catching it with the Sha to keep it in the air.

“Is that…?”
Lurker of the Depths asked slowly.

“Yes,”
Adrian said as the hologram of Axull Darr appeared in front of them.

“Greetings, Lurker of the Depths,”
Axull Darr sent telepathically, or rather using the telepathic transmitter of the sphere.

“Greetings,”
Lurker of the Depths responded respectfully.

“Axull Darr here will help your people get the weapon done by our deadline,”
Adrian sent.

“Then we should get to work immediately, there isn’t that much time left,”
Lurker of the Depths said. Adrian gestured and sent for him to lead the way.

***

Tarabat

“Our people at the embassy finally managed to get us something,”
Hanaru’s aide Ubvaru sent.

“What do we have?”
Hanaru asked.

“We have confirmed the status of their defenses in the Sol system; they have only a few defenses. The signals in the asteroid belt are mining stations and mining ships; the construct at their gas giant is a storage base, a shipyard, and a research facility. And it seems that they are using the designs for our defensive platform—we found test records,”
Ubvaru responded.

“And do we have anything on their normal space FTL technology?”
Hanaru asked.

“Unfortunately, no. However, we always knew that it was unlikely for them to have that kind of sensitive data there. We have recovered some data about the number of their warships.”

“And?”

“They seem to have four advanced fleets, those that have their new FTL tech, but we didn’t yet find any details on their armaments, and we only assume that these fleets have the FTL tech because of some data we recovered about their movements. Their warships at least have advanced shields, as we saw from their skirmish with the Shara Daim. The rest of their ships seem to be obsolete and are used strictly for system defense, much slower than even our regional guard, using completely primitive kinetic kill weapons,”
Ubvaru said.

“Really?”
Hanaru said, surprised.
“Did we really overestimate their capabilities that much?”

“We were right about their technology; they should be on par with Shara Daim and us. But only their new ships. Their technology is new; they haven’t had the time to upgrade or build new ships.”

“Then they can’t hold the Shara Daim occupied for nearly as long as we initially thought. Why are the Shara Daim mobilizing all of their Legions? They could’ve taken them with only ten Legions,”
Hanaru asked.

“We leaked a lot of information about the Empire to the Shara Daim; they might think that the Empire has more ships than it really does,”
Ubvaru answered.

“They called for all of their Legions as soon as the Empire kidnapped a Dai Sha. Could it really be only because of that…? A Dai Sha has never been kidnapped before; they might want to make an example of them,”
Hanaru mused.

“So what do we do? Narrasak and the three Legions under his command have already left for an attack on Sol, and even without the rest of the Legions, they will surely take the system,”
Ubvaru said.

“We should have an extraction strategy for our people there. Moreover, I need to inform our superiors about the Empire. I must counsel them to accelerate the plans; we should strike now while the Shara Daim Legions are out of position, rather than wait for them to engage the Empire. If Narrasak takes Sol, they might even decide that they don’t need all those Legions and send them back, and we can’t miss this opportunity,”
Hanaru sent.

“It will mean a much larger timeframe between waves than what we initially thought; Legions will be able to respond much quicker. We will have more losses during the first wave,”
Ubvaru added.

“Yes, but there is no other way, the onslaught must begin now.”

***

August — Ra’a’zani space

Johanna sat on board the Argo, above the last Ra’a’zani world, and watched as a group of transports disappeared into trans-space on their way to the Empire’s space with the last of the freed slaves. It had been a tough few months; her fleets had hunted down every Ra’a’zani ship, destroyed all their space assets, and bombed every piece of technology and infrastructure on their planets. The surviving Ra’a’zani had no factories, no material processing plants, and no power. They would not leave their planets in their lifetimes, and would have no offspring; all of their worlds save this one had been infected.

The army had secured enough of their fertilized eggs that they could ensure that their genetic code survived—maybe altered, but still there would be something left. But the Ra’a’zani as a race would die. Johanna was surprised at how little the Ra’a’zani truly had; the Shara Daim had all but destroyed them. Their population had already been decimated, their best and brightest having died fighting the Shara Daim, and they had had few warships left. They didn’t really stand a chance against Johanna’s fleet.

The freed slaves were being sent back to Sector One where they would go through acclimation programs, and with that last group of transports, her job was almost finished. She had only to release the pathogen on this last world and then return to Empire territory.

Chapter Fourteen

One month later — September; Year 55 of the Empire — Bloodbringer

Anessa was one hundred and twenty-one years old on the day she passed judgment on a fellow Dai Sha. Jassarak, former Dai Sha of the Thirty-Second Legion, was on his knees in front of her. Six Do Sun kept him immobilized with the Sha. He had defied the Elders; instead of destroying the last remnants of an alien race that had defied Shara Daim demands, he had allowed them to escape while he stalled for time.

“Why did you defy the orders of the Elders?” Anessa asked him curiously. She couldn’t imagine ever going against the Elders’ orders.

“Because they were wrong. We are not better than other races, they have the same rights as we do,” Jassarak said.

Anessa angered. “We are the heirs of the galaxy; there are none who can stand alongside us.”

“You are wrong. You sit on your ship and reign chaos and death on the people that you don’t even know, certain in your Elders who gave you those orders. If only you would spend time with them, you would see that they are the same as us,” Jassarak said.

“The Elders are the ultimate authority of Shara Daim, the wisest of us. You knew that to defy them is paramount to suicide,” Anessa said.

“I knew. Better that I die knowing I have saved innocents from the cruel fate you would’ve rained down on them than to live as a coward hiding behind their orders.”

“Well, you will get your wish granted. You will die,” Anessa said as she stepped forward, a ball of orange plasma forming on her palm.

“You are worse than them, Dai Sha Anessa,” he said with a voice full of sorrow. “You have been granted gifts beyond anyone else. You could have been the best of us, and yet you are nothing but a slave,” Jassarak said, looking her in the eyes.

“To serve the Elders is the greatest honor there is,” Anessa said as she burned a hole through his chest.

Bloodbringer dropped out of hyperspace at the hyper-limit, followed by more than six thousand other ships. Three Legions assembled and immediately started moving deeper into the system towards the trans-exit point, the direct path to the Human system.

“Anything on scanners?” Anessa asked as the joint force accelerated in-system.

“Nothing, Dai Sha,” answered the Va Sun at the scanners. Then, a few minutes later, the Va Sun spoke up. “We got contact—a ship just powered up and is moving towards the trans-point.”

Anessa narrowed her eyes as the ship entered the trans-point and engaged its drives, effectively locking the point for the duration of its trip, which was only four hours. Something didn’t feel right. She knew Adrian was smart; if they had no defenses at their trans-entry point, then it made sense that they would have assets at the other end of the trans-point. But the ship was either powered down or had stealth capabilities. If the Empire was even close to Shara Daim and Erasi technology, they should have FTL comms, which meant that they already knew that the force was coming. That ship could have observed the Legions as they passed; by closing the point, they had gained nothing, as it would take the Legions a little over four hours to arrive at the point. The ship could’ve waited until the Legions were closer and closed it then, buying them more time.

Anessa turned the privacy screens on and requested a channel to Narrasak’s flagship, the Ravager, and Garaam’s Soulsworn. A moment later, two holograms appeared in front of her, both sitting in their own chairs.

“What is it, Anessa?” Narrasak asked from the command of the Ravager.

“I don’t like this, that ship had no advantage for leaving now,” Anessa said.

“Are we sure that they have inter-system FTL comms?” Garaam asked from the Soulsworn.

“We have never seen proof of them using them, but with all the other technology they have, I assumed that they have them,” Anessa answered.

“They are weaklings, slaves. They might’ve gotten lucky and scavenged technology far above them,” Narrasak said dismissively.

Anessa started to respond but paused. A year ago, she wouldn’t have questioned Narrasak; she would’ve agreed that their enemy could not have possibly pose a threat, even knowing that they had the device of their ancestors. After all, the Shara Daim had had it once and still had data from it, and it had still taken them a while to grow as large as they were now. If she hadn’t spent time as a prisoner, she would’ve dismissed her enemy. She thought about her response for a moment before responding, “We should send a scouting force first,” she said.

“What?” Narrasak asked incredulously. “That would give them another eight hours to prepare!”

“We are attacking a system through a trans-point on information that might be outdated. We should take every precaution,” Anessa answered.

Narrasak fumed. “We are Shara Daim, we are the strongest! You insinuate that we have something to fear from them!”

Before Anessa had the chance to respond, Garaam interjected, “I agree with Anessa,” she said evenly. “We are the strongest because we are the best, raised to understand war. Because we don’t take foolish risks. Sending a scout force is smart.”

Narrasak glared at her for a couple of long seconds, and then finally relented. “Fine, I will assemble a scout force.” And he immediately closed the link.

Anessa turned to look at Garaam, who remained studying her. “Your time in captivity changed you,” Garaam said, and Anessa made a conscious effort not to let any of her internal turmoil show.

“How so?” Anessa asked.

“We are raised to know that we are better than anyone, that other races pose no threat to us, that they are beneath us. Our belief is tempered by our training and ability, but that belief is always there, because our ancestors once ruled the galaxy through strength. Before, you would’ve never counseled caution against an opponent that was beneath us, a race that had allowed itself to be enslaved, who helped the weak,” Garaam said.

“Why did you agree with me, then?” Anessa asked.

“I am not stupid enough to believe that we couldn’t be led into a trap and that we couldn’t lose. I have fought against many races that were more than a match for us. I won because I was a better commander than they were, not because I somehow could not lose. Narrasak has spent his days leading his Legion against opponents far too inferior to truly test himself; his victories have only reinforced his belief of invulnerability. Our technological advantage has made us think we are superior against everyone. However, fighting an opponent that has the ability to harm you is another thing entirely,” Garaam said, and then studied Anessa, looking for something.

Anessa looked at her longtime friend as if she was a stranger. She acknowledged her words and closed the channel. She couldn’t believe what she had heard; Garaam was one of the most respected Dai Sha, but her words were heretical. The Anessa of before would’ve heard those words and looked at her in disgust, perhaps even going as far as to execute her for her blasphemy. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Now she knew that she could be defeated. She had been captured, and that had shaken her. Then, she had spent a long time as prisoner, learning about an alien culture and customs from the source, something she had never done before. Once, she would’ve looked at a race that lived by rules other than strength and thought it weak, but now she wasn’t sure.

Now she couldn’t help but wonder if there were more Shara Daim that felt like Garaam did.

***

Several hours later, the Shara Daim force were still waiting for word from their scouts. They had sent ten of their destroyers and eight of their cruiser-class ships to scout out the trans-point. And they should have been sending back word to the flagship any moment now.

Anessa waited impatiently, until finally the Va Sun at the communications station spoke up.

“We received an update from the Ravager. The scout force has arrived in system and reports that the Empire’s point is filled with debris; they lost one destroyer and have three other damaged. They caught Empire ships as they were pushing the debris inside. They destroyed the Empire’s ships and are proceeding to clear the point. There doesn’t appear to be any enemy warships except for a dozen or so at the fourth planet, so they will be able to clear the point before we arrive. Ravager orders the force to move into the trans-point.”

Anessa ordered her Legion into the point. Putting debris into a point was a very effective strategy, if you knew that the force coming against you was large enough to fill the point, and you had the time to put enough debris into it. The point was a large spherical area in space, and the larger the force coming through it, the closer the ships had to be to one another in order to fit. Their three Legions were not the upper limit, but if there was enough debris, it could’ve been bad. They wouldn’t have lost the larger ships, but the smaller ones would’ve either been destroyed from impacts or severely damaged. It was lucky for the scouting force that standard procedure for going through the trans-point was to spread the forces across it.

They would now be using their energy weapons to clear the debris, and since they had reported that they could clear it before the Legions passed, it meant that there wasn’t a lot of the debris, but even a small amount could’ve been a blow to the Legions.

The Legions took formation inside the trans-point. Narrasak’s Legion took the center, with Anessa’s and Garaam’s taking the sides, waiting only on the order from the Ravager. Then the order came, and the Legions disappeared in a flash of violet light.