Onslaught (Rise of the Empire Book 6) (21 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Veritas

Fire from seven different enemy ships struck the Veritas’s shields.

“Shields down to ninety-six percent and dropping.”

Adrian had feared that happening. His ships were formidable, but they were still only three ships against almost seven times that number. The Erasi would overwhelm his ships’ shields, it was only a matter of time. He glanced at the timer—another thirty-six minutes left. He looked at the shields of his battleships and saw them dropping faster than those of Veritas; already the Fortunate’s shields were at sixty-seven percent.

They weren’t going to make it, not all of them. Time slowed down for Adrian as he considered all the possibilities. He went through hundreds in a span of second, until he finally found one that could work. He opened a channel to the commanders of the two battleships.

Their holograms appeared in front of him.

“We are not going to make it, not all of us, and not while we are running away and can’t fire all of our weapons,” Adrian said matter-of-factly.

The two Ship Masters had grim looks, but Adrian saw understanding in their eyes. They were ship commanders for a reason, and they too knew that Adrian’s options were limited.

“What do you want us to do?” the Ship Master of the Fortunate asked, her eyes resolute.

“I need both of you to put all of your non-essential personnel on skim-capable shuttles and skim them away from battle to these coordinates,” Adrian said. It wouldn’t be enough people. He knew only a couple hundred people combined from both ships could fit, even if they were crammed in the shuttles. The battleships had crews of one thousand two hundred each.

“I understand,” the Fortunate’s Ship Master said.

“Veritas will drop back and cover the shuttles’ escape. After that, your two ships will turn around and hold the Erasi long enough for Veritas’s skim drives to recharge, and we will pick up the shuttles afterwards. If you have a chance to use your drives as well, you will follow. If not…” Adrian let his words trail off. He could see that both understood. Protecting Veritas wasn’t only about keeping Adrian and the Shara Daim courier alive. Veritas had the most room and could accommodate people from the other two ships, while it also had a crew of three thousand.

“It has been an honor, Lord Sentinel,” the Ship Master of the Inglorious said, and closed the connection. The Ship Master from the Fortunate followed right behind.

Adrian kept his cold face on. It wasn’t the first time he had sent people to their deaths. He knew that it was necessary, the only way to save as many as possible. He didn’t feel guilt over it; the people on those ships had known what they were signing up for. What he felt was sadness that they would die before their times, and anger at the Erasi for making him give those orders.

“Pull Veritas back and cover the shuttles’ escape.”

***

Sentinel ship Veritas slowed down just enough for his two escorts to move in front of it, and almost immediately it became the target of the Erasi ships. Veritas returned fire with its proton beams and missiles. Their missiles supply had already dropped below half of what they carried.

Adrian watched as another of the enemy’s destroyers exploded as his ships’ proton beams got through the shields and hulls. But all his ships were limited in how many weapons they could actually bring to bear; they were firing behind them, and only a third of Veritas’s and the battleships weapons could be fired on the enemy. And the distance was an issue as well; they couldn’t use their kinetic weapons or their plasma guns. They had ion torpedoes, but without a distraction—and when there wasn’t an overwhelmingly large number of missiles in space—they would stick out, and probably be picked off much sooner. Their ships’ ion turrets were mid-range, but even if they weren’t, none of the ships could fire those behind them.

Adrian started to see the benefits of the Erasi ships’ design; the saucer shape gave them the ability to fire in almost every direction. However, the Empire’s ships couldn’t yet build such powerful gravity drives as to justify getting rid of their conventional drives.

On the holo, Adrian saw the twelve large shuttles exit the two battleships and almost instantly skim away. The battleships immediately started pulling back, following the plan.

“Put more power in the drives, get us ahead,” Adrian said as he glanced at the timer. There were twenty-two minutes left until their skim drives were back online.

***

Erasi battleship Highborn

Hanaru felt the air leave his lungs as he watched the Empire’s small shuttles escape. He hadn’t considered that their smaller craft had the ability, and them escaping spelled the failure of his plan. He couldn’t catch those ships; they would contact the Empire and the Shara Daim and let them know what had happened. He knew that he should retreat, but he couldn’t. His mind supplied small hopes that he could still salvage the situation. He doubted that their shuttles were equipped for long-term travel; they probably didn’t have trans capabilities, perhaps not even hyperspace. Their FTL tech had to occupy significant space, and they weren’t that much larger than Erasi shuttles. Perhaps they had only put the new drives in to allow them greater mobility within a system?

If he destroyed the enemy ships, he had a hope of catching them, perhaps even intact, and getting their technology. Hanaru grabbed on to that hope, just as he saw the two Empire battleships turn around and stop, waiting for his taskforce.

As they had turned, their rate of fire also increased as more of their weapons got into range. Energy beams bombarded his ships, killing another two destroyers and one cruiser.

***

The battleships Inglorious and Fortunate rained fire on the incoming Erasi ships, destroying another destroyer and a cruiser, while they left the two battleships virtually untouched, focusing on destroying the advantage in numbers that the Erasi had.

The Erasi were adjusting their formation, so that they would surround the two battleships from both sides, but it was too late; they had closed the distance enough that the Empire’s ships could use their other weapons.

Suddenly the space between the two fleets was filled with bright yellow plasma balls as the two battleships fired at the remaining Erasi destroyers. The three destroyers that had already suffered damage suddenly had dozens of plasma balls from each ship striking their shields, punching through and then burning through their hull. Within moments of the attack, one of the destroyers blew up.

The Erasi focused their fire on the Fortunate, whose shields were close to failing, pouring all of their missiles, energy beams, and their own versions of the plasma weapons into the assault. The ships’ shields failed and the enemy started scorching the Fortunate’s hull. But the Empire’s ships were made out of heavy ri-steel alloys; they were much denser than the Erasi materials and could take more punishment. Therefore, even though the Fortunate was being hammered, it still kept pouring fire into the six cruisers, while the Inglorious shifted its fire to the two untouched Erasi battleships. Six kinetic ri-steel slabs of metal exploded out of the Fortunate’s turrets, smashing through two of the cruisers’ shields and punching right through the hull with such force that they snapped one ship into pieces. And then the barely alive Fortunate joined the Inglorious in firing on the two Erasi battleships, leaving the last few cruisers and destroyers alone.

***

Hanaru watched another each of his cruisers and destroyers explode. He couldn’t believe it; the Empire’s ships had proven far more formidable than what the Erasi had thought possible. He was left with five destroyers and four cruisers; he had lost almost half of his force against a force much smaller than his. His battleships were being hit with powerful energy, plasma, and even primitive kinetic weapons that were far more powerful than anything he had ever seen. The enemy no longer had missiles, but it didn’t seem to matter. Hanaru ordered his ships to focus fire on the Empire battleship that had lost its shields, while keeping their distance enough that they could evade the enemy’s kinetic weapons.

He knew that he had failed. Even if he got past these two battleships, the other ship was too far away now for him to catch.

He watched the enemy battleship being pummeled into scrap, with areas being opened to space while it still refused to die. Then, finally, several missiles and energy beams punched deep enough that the ship bulged and exploded in a blinding flash of light.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Veritas

Adrian watched as the Fortunate blew up, while the Inglorious still fired at the enemy battleships, with its shields almost failing. He glanced at the timer, seeing six more minutes. If the Inglorious survived for six more minutes and its drives were still operation, it would be able to get away.

Adrian watched on the holo as the minutes ticked away. The Inglorious was fighting, firing all of its weapons and even managing to take down one of the battleships’ shields, scoring a couple of hits on its hull.

The timer entered the last minute, just as Inglorious’s shields failed. The Inglorious’s Ship Master started firing kinetic weapons at the battleships, forcing them to move to evade and buying him time. The timer hit zero, and Adrian held his breath as he watched the holo. Then he saw the Inglorious enter the skim, and he heard a cheer from his crew.

The Inglorious was leaking atmosphere when it entered the skim, and it didn’t have time to orient and point itself towards Adrian; instead, they went in the opposite direction. But that didn’t matter; they would exit the skim beyond the hyper-barrier, and from there could escape the system.

Adrian watched the Erasi forces. They had remained in space, and Adrian knew that the Inglorious entering the skim would have messed with their electronics. That was why Empire’s ships always engaged the skim away from stations and ships that weren’t entering it, as creating a skim field protected the ship inside.

Adrian kept Veritas on the same course for a few minutes, scanning actively for the Inglorious to drop out of the skim. Then, a minute later, they appeared on his holo and he opened a channel. They were outside the jamming field now.

He was greeted with the hologram of the Ship Master with a sad expression on his face.

“You made it,” Adrian said.

“We did.”

“Set a course for Sol through hyperspace. It will take you longer, but it will eliminate a chance that you will be ambushed along the way. Send a report for the Emperor informing him of these events, and give a copy to Master Gotu at Olympus Mons.” There were no relays between the Shara Daim and the Empire’s territory, so it was actually faster for them to go to Sol than to try and send a message from here.

“Yes, Lord Sentinel. We will need to do some emergency repairs, but we will manage it before the Erasi arrive, if they choose to pursue us.”

“Good luck,” Adrian said, and closed the channel. He then ordered the Veritas to the rendezvous point with the shuttles.

***

Several hours later, after they had picked up the shuttles and settled the people on board, Adrian sat with Va Dan Reisi in his office. The Veritas had entered hyperspace, and on Reisi’s advice had taken a slight detour to Shara Radum.

“The Erasi really don’t want us talking,” Adrian commented.

“It seems not,” Reisi said.

“Tell me, how is it that this Kar Daim of yours managed to get your people to reach out to us? I believe that that goes against everything you believe in.”

Reisi looked uncomfortable. “Most of us don’t know what to believe in anymore. The Kar Daim showed proof of our history, of what the Elders were in truth. We…our beliefs are compromised, based on lies. But we still believe in strength. And we follow strength.”

“And the Kar Daim is strong?” Adrian asked. “Was the Kar Daim chosen from among you?”

“No, the Kar Daim killed the Elders and took the rule of Shara Daim by the right of blood and death,” Reisi said, and Adrian detected a touch of fear in his voice, the same fear he had heard in Sol. And he understood, this Kar Daim had somehow taken the rule by force, and was formidable enough to terrify the Shara Daim, who were all warriors. People that looked down on all others with no fear.

And he was going to meet and negotiate with this person.

“This might not end well,”
Adrian said through his implant.

“You are just now figuring this out?”
Iris said.

“I guess that willingness to talk is a big deal, but this Kar Daim might be even worse than their Elders.”

“Well, you can’t change your mind now, so why bother worrying?”
Iris said.

“You’re right,”
Adrian said. He just hoped that he and the Kar Daim could agree to some kind of deal that didn’t involve ‘blood and death.’

Chapter Thirty-Five

One month later — July; Year 57 of the Empire — Shara Radum

The Veritas moved through the Shara Radum system slowly, following the path given to them by the Shara Daim. The system was a large one—fourteen planets and more than two dozen moons, with two distinct asteroid belts. The space was filled with satellites and stations. Ships moved all over in an organized fashion. Every planet and many of the moons had colonies, or at least some kind of facilities built on them. The asteroid belts were filled with movements, and large stations stood close by as ships from the belts moved back and forth.

And large armed stations stood in seemingly random spaces around the system, but Adrian knew that those were trans-entry points into the system. Defensive platforms stood in orbits of nearly all the planets, and some even close to the stations guarding the trans-points. Thousands of warships patrolled the system; all were of an unfamiliar make, but seemed equivalent to the Shara Daim heavy cruisers. Adrian knew that those were the Shara Daim system guard; they served almost the same function that the Clan guards served in the Empire, policing and protecting the system.

But in high orbit of Shara Radum were the real warships, ten Legions that orbited the planet. Twenty thousand warships, almost double than what the Empire had in total, and it was barely one fifth of their true numbers. And yet the Erasi feared an alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire. It was laughable. If the Erasi only knew the true numbers of the Empire, they wouldn’t have been so worried. But then again, the Empire did have a slight technological edge in military technologies. Just giving the skim drives to the Shara Daim could be enough for the Erasi to lose.

Adrian watched as Veritas slowly settled in the orbit of Shara Radum, and then he and a group of five warpath Sentinels he had brought back from Sanctuary all trained in use of the Sha, wearing their Sentinel armors, joined the Va Dan Reisi on his courier ship for it to transport them to the ground. He debated taking Akash and Sora, but he decided against it, he didn’t know anything about what was going to happen, and he didn’t want to antagonize anyone.

Once the ship landed they were guided to a large domed building, once inside they first used something like a cart to move faster through the building, until they reached a set of large ornate doors.

“The Hall of Ages,” Reisi said as they walked up to the doors. “No one outside of the Shara Daim had ever walked through it, and even for Shara Daim it is a great honor, one that few have been given.”

Adrian kept silent. His followers were asked to leave their weapons, and they did, as Adrian had warned them beforehand that that might happen. Then they entered the Hall of Ages. Instantly, Adrian was struck with the sense of history and awe. There were paintings and murals over all the walls. Tall pillars rose to the domed ceiling, each with gem-embroidered cloths that stretched around them. Some of the images showed things that were clearly events in the history of the Shara Daim, but Adrian didn’t have the opportunity to take a closer look.

They finally reached the end of the hall and another large door that somehow seemed even more ornate than the one they had used to enter the hall. Two Shara Daim dressed in some antique-looking clothes, and whose obsidian skin was tattooed with white markings, opened the doors as Reisi and Adrian approached.

They were allowed into a well-lit room already filled with people. Reisi asked Adrian’s escorts to stay at the entrance of the room, and the two of them descended the stairs. It was then that he noticed the large throne-like chair at the end of the room and the person sitting in it.

He almost missed a step when he recognized Anessa. She watched him as he walked down the steps with no expression on her face. She was wearing a Shur At, only this one was white, and somehow molded to fit tightly against her body so as to appear as if it was wrapped around her, showing all her attributes. The clothing widened a bit after her forearms, making something that looked like a loose sleeve. Dark blue strips of cloth seemed to be attached at her hips and fell loosely to about mid-calf length.

As they walked down, Adrian could hear murmurs from the crowd, but it was too low for him to discern what they were talking about.

“I didn’t see this one coming,”
Iris commented.

“Neither did I,”
Adrian responded.

Reisi and Adrian reached the bottom of the steps and walked to the center of the platform where a podium stood. Reisi had received instructions from the Kar Daim—Anessa—on how Adrian was supposed to greet her. So once they reached the center, Reisi dropped to his knees, and Adrian made a half bow while keeping his eyes fixed on Anessa’s.

“I greet you, Kar Daim. I have done as you have asked and brought an envoy from the Empire. Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas,” Reisi said as he gestured in Adrian’s direction from his knees.

“I greet you, Kar Daim,” Adrian said.

A shocked silence followed, then several angry shouts that were silenced by Anessa starting to speak. “Thank you, Va Dan Reisi, you have done well,” she said, and dismissed him with a somehow regal gesture of one hand. She then turned and looked at Adrian. “Welcome to Shara Radum, Lord Sentinel,” she said in her melodic voice.

Adrian was about to respond when a voice rang out. “This is what you summoned us here for?” A large man stepped forward from behind Adrian. He had dark red hair cropped short, as most of the Shara Daim that he had seen, wearing his Shur At molded in the same configuration that Anessa had worn when he had first met her.

“First you try to change our customs, and now you invite an alien to Shara Radum, to the Hall of Ages! You let this filth infect our sacred place and insult you by greeting you as an equal!” the man shouted.

“I do as I please, Dai Sha Farran. I am the Kar Daim. Or do you wish to challenge me?” Anessa said calmly, tilting her head in an inquisitive gesture that Adrian knew she had gotten from him.

The Dai Sha’s expression darkened at that, and he didn’t speak for a few moments. But then he glanced at Adrian and back to Anessa.

“You allow this alien here, and not just any alien. I have heard whispers that this Lord Sentinel is the one that fought against yours, the Fourteenth, and the Third Legions. That he is responsible of the death of Dai Sha Narrasak.”

“Uh-oh, this isn’t good,”
Iris said, but Adrian remained silent, keeping his eyes on Anessa. Her mannerism looked strange to him. He was missing something.

“You are correct. The Lord Sentinel defeated my Legions, and killed Dai Sha Narrasak,” Anessa said.

“And still you invite him in this hall!” Farran shouted. The people around him had various expressions. Half were terrified, and their fearful eyes went from Anessa to Farran as if they were expecting Anessa to rip Farran to pieces. And the other half appeared uncomfortable, and as if they wanted to be anywhere but here.

“The Lord Sentinel is our guest here. I have extended to him all the same rights as any of my citizens. It is my prerogative as the Kar Daim to do so, unless you want to sit here and make decisions yourself. But you know that there is only one way for you to gain this throne.” She quirked an eyebrow in another expression that she had gotten from him.

Things suddenly clicked in place. She was playing, goading the Dai Sha into something. However, by the time Adrian figured out what it was, it was already too late.

“Of course, Kar Daim,” Dai Sha said venomously. “But, if this alien has all the same rights as our people, then I challenge him!” Farran pointed at Adrian. “By my right as Dai Sha, I challenge him to a fight to the death, as trial for the death of Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion!”

The moment Dai Sha Farran finished speaking, Adrian saw Anessa’s lip curl in a victorious smile that disappeared almost instantly. She turned to look at Adrian with an expectant look on her face.

“Do you accept, Lord Sentinel?” Anessa asked.

“Well, fuck,”
Adrian said in his head.

“She set you up,”
Iris said angrily.

Adrian looked at her for a moment. He understood that she had somehow orchestrated this. She wanted him to fight the Dai Sha. He debated his answer for only a moment. He could refuse, and perhaps manage to leave with his life, but that would be cowardly, and the image of the Empire in the eyes of the Shara Daim would be damaged beyond repair. There was really only one choice. He used his imp to tell his people not interfere. Then, he took a deep breath and answered.

“I accept, Kar Daim,” Adrian said.