Onslaught (Rise of the Empire Book 6) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

One month later — February — Sanctuary

Adrian watched from the corner as Clara and Meifeng instructed a group of twenty Warpath adepts. They were teaching them control by making them levitate a single round object around them. About half of them managed to do it with at least some fluidity, although the orbits were erratic; the other half barely managed to keep them in the air, and theirs were moving in short, choppy bursts.

But this was a beginners’ class, and with only a month of training, the students had accomplished much. Adrian took a step forward, taking hold of the Sha as he walked. Both Clara and Mei knew that he was there; they had sensed his telepathic signature before he’d even walked inside the building since he wasn’t hiding it. But the students were too focused on their tasks to notice someone walking up to them from behind.

He reached out and grabbed all twenty balls, freezing them in place. Frowns and questions started coming from the students as they tried to move the balls. Adrian had only added his Sha on top of theirs, he didn’t try to interfere with theirs, so they still felt the connection with the balls, they just couldn’t move them. And they didn’t yet know how to feel the Sha outside of themselves. After a few seconds of them trying to move them, Adrian yanked them back towards himself. The balls flew past the students, making a few of them duck to avoid being hit; they couldn’t know that there wasn’t any chance of that happening.

The balls flew at Adrian and seamlessly settled into various orbits around him. By then, some of the students had noticed him and whispers started. He could hear some of it, “Lord Sentinel” being the most common words whispered. Adrian was still walking forward, the balls now spinning faster and faster around him, until he raised one hand and all of them shot a few meters in the air and froze there. Then slowly they lowered and started orbits around the students.

“Alright, that’s enough showing off,” Clara Bengtsdotter said.

Adrian grinned and pulled back, and the balls dropped to the floor.

“That’s it for today. We are meeting here tomorrow at first light,” Meifeng Zhao said, and the students started leaving the room. As they passed, they gave him shallow bows, and a few murmured, “Lord Sentinel.” He simply inclined his head in acknowledgment.

“Finally got the time to visit?” Clara asked as she stepped close enough to throw a punch at his shoulder.

“Well, I was a bit busy, you know, fighting off an invasion and all that stuff.”

Mei walked up to him and gave him a quick hug. “So what do you think about our students?”

“They are good for beginners. How are your advanced classes going?” Adrian asked.

“They can use most of the Sha abilities that we can; they still don’t have the reserves to match us, but it will come in time,” Meifeng said.

“That’s good. We are going to start triggering the change in children soon. And the Hand will be going through the treatment soon.”

“Finally,” Clara said.

“That means you will have little children capable of using the Sha soon. You sure you are happy about that?” Adrian asked.

“Ugh…Didn’t think about that,” Clara said with a grimace. “What is the plan, how young will they start training?”

“According to sphere, the Sha manifests sometime between six and eight years of age. We will be admitting children to schools as soon as they gain the ability. You need to start deciding which of your more advanced students will be capable of teaching.”

“How many do you think we will need?” Mei asked.

“As many as you think can do it. Don’t sacrifice on the quality of teachers for numbers, though, we will make it work. Just choose good teachers. I’m also going to have some Sowir come in and teach advanced telepathy, first to your students, and later perhaps even to children. I’m going to send you everything that you need to know; you’ll be in charge, so decide what you will need and send it to Tomas’s office. He’ll make sure you get everything you need,” Adrian said.

“New facilities?” Clara asked coyly.

Mei hit Clara’s shoulder with the back of her hand, evoking a yelp from the much taller woman. “What was that for?” Clara asked, but Mei just glared at her.

“You need new facilities?” Adrian asked, looking around at the room they were in. It seemed sufficient; it had everything that his own training rooms had.

“Well, we had some ideas…” Clara said slowly, looking at Mei askance.

“As I said, you are in charge. Just prepare a presentation for Tomas, explain what you need and why, and if he agrees, you’ll get it,” Adrian said.

“Great, we will do that,” Clara said, satisfied.

“Anyway. We heard that Seo-yun has some new treatments. Any chance that we get them soon?” Mei asked.

“Actually that is one of the reasons why I came,” Adrian said. “I’ll be getting those upgrades soon. I wanted to let you know so that you can plan ahead. Once I finish and test them out, you’ll be able to do them too, but only if you have replacement teachers.”

“We’ll find people. What are the upgrades?” Mei asked.

“They learned how to trigger the latent genetic triggers that they couldn’t do in adults up until now. I’ll be getting some things that my abrupt change couldn’t handle, mostly growth of tissue and organ enhancements. A small gas chamber attached to the lungs that will store gas for use by a few Sha abilities—the plasma shot, for one, meaning I won’t need to use my own blood anymore. Then there are some of our scientists’ upgrades for my muscles, giving them even more density and strength.”

“Hm…That will be useful. But for strength…why don’t you grow your body? They can do that, give you a bigger body, I mean. You’ll be stronger. Not that you are short now or anything,” she added quickly.

Adrian smiled. He was right about average for a human at 186 cm. But he understood what she meant. “Well, for one, doing that would probably cripple me a lot. I have complete control over my body, my mind is familiar with it perfectly. Growing it out would mess with my brain’s control over the body. I grew with this body; getting a new one now that my mind is developed fully would be very hard to adapt to. I might never gain the same ability I have with this body. And second, with these upgrades, now I won’t need it. I’ll be much stronger, but remain the same familiar size.”

“Makes sense, but you know that some of the others are planning to do that too?” Clara asked.

“They don’t have my mind. They might be able to train and adapt eventually, but I can’t risk it with mine. We don’t yet know what exactly happened to me; without knowing and understanding it, the benefits of staying like this far outweigh the disadvantages,” Adrian answered.

“So how long will the treatment take this time?” Mei asked.

“Three months, plus a few more for recovery.” Adrian sighed. “I decided that now is the best time to do it. I doubt that the Shara Daim will be back soon; Sol is protected, and there is nothing really for me to do other than wait. Best I get it out of the way now.”

“Well, I don’t envy you. It sucks not being able to move,” Clara said compassionately.

“Yeah it does,” Adrian said as he remembered the last time he’d undergone these kinds of treatments.

***

Adrian dropped down to the floor as an orange ball of plasma shot towards his head. Anessa was running towards him, ready to attack. Or rather, his mind’s version of Anessa. Adrian’s body was undergoing upgrades, but he had retreated himself into his mind-space for the duration. Inside, time ran differently, and he could think and train. The fact that he had complete control of his body meant that he didn’t need muscle memory; any move he devised in his mind-space, he would be able to replicate perfectly in real-space.

Now he was fighting his imagination’s version of Anessa. His mind had analyzed her movements and attacks, and could recreate a passable image. Adrian needed to train against opponents stronger than himself—and Anessa was the strongest he had ever encountered.

Thankfully, he would have a long time in mind-space to develop techniques and tactics to fight opponents with the Sha that were much stronger than he was.

Chapter Twenty-Four

One month later — March; Year 56 of the Empire — Erasi battleship Highborn

Hanaru Weaver of the Erasi stood in the sanctum on board his ship in orbit of Tarabat. Around him floated holograms displaying various data that he was studying. The war against the Shara Daim was proceeding according to plans, at least for now. The invasion force had caught their leadership off guard and their Legions out of position, and yet their response was nowhere near what the Weavers had expected.

The projections had predicted an immediate and powerful response, which was the reason why they had chosen to attack while the Legions were out of position. Waiting for an all-out war with the Empire would’ve been preferable, but they couldn’t risk them somehow coming to an agreement. Therefore, the Erasi forces had struck earlier, blowing through the Shara Daim system guards. The expectation had been that the Elders of the Shara Daim would recall their Legions to defend their territory, leaving a smaller force to deal with the Empire. Instead, the opposite had happened; they’d recalled only a small force to deal with the invading force.

Hanaru wasn’t sure if the Shara Daim believed the Empire a greater threat than the Erasi, but it was a stroke of luck for them. Then the Shara Daim attack on the Empire had happened, and the Erasi ambassador had witnessed it. The Empire had been hiding a lot of their power; they had completely dominated against the Shara Daim, destroying one entire Legion and allowing the two surviving to leave. That bothered Hanaru and his superiors; the Empire clearly had the means to defend itself, yet they constantly pushed for peace.

However, the battle in their Sol system wasn’t what had Hanaru worried. It was what had happened just a few weeks ago, and of what he’d learned just now. The Empire knew about the Erasi stealth ships in their territory, and they had chosen to make sure that he and his people knew it too. Three weeks ago, at the exact same time across multiple systems, every single stealth ship had been pinged with a powerful tachyon-based scan. The scans weren’t omnidirectional; they had been targeted directly at the ships. They had known exactly where they were. Hanaru had suspected treachery, an information leak; it was unlikely that they could’ve found every single ship, but he was convinced once he read the next report. Each time a stealth ship entered an Empire system, it was immediately pinged.

They knew where the ships were, had a way of detecting them that the Erasi didn’t know about. That, coupled with the way they had manipulated both the Erasi and the Shara Daim, told him that they were far more dangerous than he and his superiors had initially believed. Now they had an excuse to pressure his people at a time when they couldn’t afford to split their attention. Even with the numerical advantage over the Shara Daim, the Erasi couldn’t afford to split their resources to deal with the Empire, not yet anyway. Which was why the ambassador in Sol had been instructed to mend the fences and stop any attempt at information gathering, at least more invasive ones, and the stealth ships had been pulled back.

They couldn’t afford to antagonize them, not now when the Shara Daim had apparently changed their minds. After their defeat in Sol, most of the Legions had turned around and set a course for the invaded sectors. Hanaru still couldn’t account for why the Elders had suddenly changed their minds. Before Sol, they had weighed the attack on the Empire of greater importance than the invasion of their own systems. Something had changed, and Hanaru would find out what in the end—he always did.

He read the other reports; the First Legion was heading in the direction of Shara Radum, while the Fourteenth and the Seventh headed towards the Har Aras sector. He didn’t know why Dai Sha Anessa was going there, but something about that made him suspicious. He had wanted to get teams in place to monitor the First Legion’s Dai Sha closely after her return from the imprisonment by the Empire, but his superiors had denied it, and they had allocated those resources elsewhere.

Dai Sha Anessa’s interaction with the Empire was important, he knew it; he just didn’t know in what way. There was something about the Shara Daim and this Empire that he was missing, but there was no way for him to find out, not now. The invasion was under way, and his superiors wanted him focused on tracking the movements of the Legions. And Hanaru was always an obedient subordinate.

Chapter Twenty-Five

One month later — Jun; Year 56 of the Empire — Warpath

Adrian pushed with his legs and jumped forward through the air. He was stronger now after the upgrades; his legs pushed him two meters off the ground in an arc. He dropped on the ground several meters in front of his starting point, both of his hands coming up with extended palms outwards. A moment later, orange balls of plasma launched from both of his palms, four from each palm in quick succession, as he moved his arms in between each plasma shot to hit a different target.

After he was finished, he heard someone whistle in appreciation from behind him. He turned to see Master Hayashi walking towards him. Adrian smiled at his first true teacher and walked over to him.

“That’s something else,” Master Hayashi said, indicating behind Adrian.

Adrian turned and glanced at the eight targets that had meter-deep craters burned in them and were still smoking.

“Yeah, but that is about as much as I can manage. I don’t have enough for even one more plasma ball now; eight seems to be my limit at the moment,” Adrian said.

Hayashi smiled. “Always wanting more, eh, Adrian? Are you going to teach me how to do that?”

“You need the new upgrades for it,” Adrian said.

“A shame,” Hayashi said as he grabbed one of the balls on the floor telekinetically and whipped it at a target. He too had gone through the first original treatments, one of the few people that hadn’t been part of the groups that were getting them, but once he’d learned the basics from Clara and Meifeng, he had decided to leave the school and improve on his own.

“So what do you need?” Adrian asked.

Hayashi stepped back, faking a hurt expression. “What? I can’t visit my best student?”

Adrian rolled his eyes. “You never come to just visit.”

Hayashi grinned like a five-year-old. “I guess that I don’t.” He composed himself and took a deep breath. “I was thinking about becoming a Sentinel.”

Adrian looked at his old master in surprise. “Really? Why now?” Adrian had offered him a place among the Sentinels a long time ago, and he had refused.

“I’m bored,” he said.

“Bored? Aren’t you teaching martial arts? That’s what you’ve always wanted to do.”

“Yeah, but that will change soon enough. Once the Sha becomes widespread, we will have new martial arts that incorporate those abilities. And I might have the Sha now, but I don’t know nearly enough to teach it. Perhaps later, once things settle and find new balance. For now, I think that I should go out there, see what I find,” Hayashi said.

Adrian nodded. He understood his teacher’s point of view. “Well, of course. You know that you’ll need to study; Sentinels need to be versed in diplomacy and xenology.”

“Of course,” Hayashi said. “I’ve already started classes on diplomacy.”

“Well, then, as soon as you finish, you can go to Clara or Meifeng for them to test you,” Adrian said. “You didn’t really need to ask me, you know. Anyone from Warpath can take the tests.”

“I know, I just felt like I should,” Hayashi said.

Adrian nodded. Hayashi had been Adrian’s teacher since he was kid back on Earth. Now things would be different; Hayashi would answer to Adrian. “I understand.”

“Good,” Hayashi said, relaxing. “So how about a little sparring match?” he said mischievously.

***

Two days later, Adrian looked through the giant window looking over the Forge. He saw hundreds of shuttles moving from one dock to the other and to the outside of the massive asteroid. Dozens of yards were filled with hulls in various stages of construction, but his eyes were drawn to one that was closer to him. In that particular yard lay Veritas, undergoing some small upgrades to its systems, and an overall maintenance check.

Adrian felt the presence of someone approaching him. His eyes glossed over as he drew the Sha, accessing an ability he had discovered after his latest upgrade. An image of his surroundings formed in his mind, and he could see everything from the floor and glass to people walking around. Only he couldn’t really see features, it was more like shadowy impressions. One of those shadows reached him, and Adrian turned to look at him.

“Isani,” Adrian said, looking at the Clan Leader of Warpath. In his eyes, his image was overlapped by shadows, and then as Adrian let go of the Sha, Isani cleared.

“Adrian, what do you think?” Isani asked as he turned to look at the Forge.

“It’s impressive, but there is still a lot more room to grow,” Adrian answered, indicating the empty rock walls.

“Yes. Hopefully one day it will become something truly unique. I read your report on the resin assembling pools; they are fast,” he commented.

“They are, but we still can’t manage to build anything more complicated than a shuttle,” Adrian said.

“A few of my people looked it over; they think that you might have success if you utilize them to build parts that you assemble later,” Isani said.

“We thought about it. It’s pointless; this is supposed to increase our construction times tenfold and replace the fabricators. If we do it in parts, it is just as efficient as our current-gen fabricators. No point in doing it that way when we gain almost nothing.”

“At least you can build shuttles really fast,” he said.

Adrian turned to glare at his expressionless Nel face. He knew Nel well enough to know that that was a jab.

“Funny. If we could make it work, we could build an entirely finished battleship in days compared to months,” Adrian said.

“We’ll figure it out, we always do,” Isani said. “I saw that Veritas is scheduled to depart as soon as the work on it is done. You going back to Sol?”

“Yes, Gotu might have everything under control, but I think that it is time that I start expanding the Sentinel facilities beyond Mars.”

“There has been an increase in people testing to become Sentinels.”

“Yes, the only way to get the Sha early is if you are a part of the army, Fleet, the Hand, or a Sentinel. Well, for most people.”

“We aren’t going to be able to build ships for all of them,” Isani said.

“I know. Jupiter shipyards are building them as fast as they can, but without the Forge, we won’t meet the demand. But thankfully I have a system to build up. I’ll keep them occupied.”

They lapsed into silence, watching the movements from beyond the window for a few minutes before Isani spoke.

“Tomas wants a vote to bring the Sowir fully into the Empire,” he said.

“I know, I recommended it,” Adrian said.

“Gotu has urged me to vote yes. Apparently the Nel and Sowir in Sol have found common ground.”

“They’ve been forced to work together; their crimes aren’t forgotten or forgiven, but Gotu understands their right for a chance to make amends,” Adrian said. He then turned to face Isani. “You understand why he wants a vote, don’t you? He doesn’t need to have a vote; it is his decision.”

“I do. He wants us all to agree, to test if his Empire is as united as we like to believe…I will think on it. Until we see each other again, Lord Sentinel,” Isani said, and gave Adrian a very human-like smile as he walked away.