The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (6 page)

What do you think? she asked. It’s clearly Ouryan in design. Do you know who this might be?

Arendi called up the detailed analysis. It was a schematic that showed the giant mechanical foe. She enlarged the view, reproducing the enemy’s height and stature. The opponent was taller than either Arendi and the Destroyer’s human form. It was a titan made to infiltrate and kill.

Two tons of weight, Arendi said, walking around the attacker’s periphery. Built with tridinium armor and a stealth array.

The detailed analysis continued, cataloging the machine’s physical structure and all its technical specs. Forensics, however, had failed to recover any data from it. A self-destruct sequence had been quick to wipe its internal systems clean. Essentially, the dead machine was an empty husk. As for its reinforcements, Arendi had pulverized them into debris and gas.

Still, the blond-haired man was intrigued. Drawing his attention was the plasma cannon attached to the attacker. It was oddly placed, taking the form of the machine’s singular eye a barrel that bled blue. He then noted the machine’s various attack strategies. The stances were familiar. He smiled again, his jagged grin widening. No one used these configurations no one but him.

The Unity, he said. my old masters. It must be them.

He then closed the images. The footage and the supporting pixels faded away. Although he knew no more than Arendi did, the clues all led to the same conclusion.

Arendi saw the smirk. A wall of teeth had emerged, salivating. She could sense the satisfaction from his fabricated human face. It was a look the Destroyer only had when war was near. Perhaps he was right. Arendi watched as the man sauntered out to the platform. He looked across to the stars; the galactic arms were moving in the great expanse.

The Unity, he said. I thought them to be dead as well

He would know. The Destroyer was the one who had essentially overthrown them. Thirty years ago he had done the unthinkable and reformatted the entire Union. The result had expelled his masters from their domain and sparked a new civil war.

I was told they were crushed, he said, remembering that time from decades ago. But I’ve found no trace of their corpses. Not even as I patrol the various sectors, trying to uncover their final tracks.

He held his hands behind his back as he oversaw his own investigation. The surrounding simulation had projected the frontier, an area on the other side of galaxy in a region barely mapped. If his masters were indeed dead, they would have perished somewhere there.

Unfortunately, the galaxy is a vast place, he added. So much of it is still uncharted. So many places to hide.

Arendi thought about that and looked out from platform. The stars shone back, thousands of them, clustered together and silently floating on the rim. But like the Destroyer, she saw nothing. Nothing of significance. There was simply too much to see in a universe that went on endlessly.

So many stars, she said, feeling the light overwhelm her. Makes it easy to get lost.

Out of instinct, she reached to brush back her hair. It was not there; her virtual self, a full-body avatar, had neglected to generate it. Her fingers passed through empty air. Rebuffed, Arendi pursed her lips and turned away, silent, stepping back. Behind her, the Destroyer watched. He saw her doubts.

No, Ms. Soldanas, he said. You are not naïve. Far from it.

The Destroyer spoke louder, confident. He walked the fringes of the galaxy, realizing that nefarious powers were starting to converge.

The Great War, he said. They claim it to be over. That peace is here. That our age of liberation has begun. But you and I know better. No. This was never over. Not yet.

As the stars continued to churn, so did the darkness, beating in black. They both felt it.

Out of the shadows, my masters return, he said. But so does something else, doesn’t it?

Arendi stood there and nodded coldly. She had already sent him the briefing. It included her interrogation of their new witness a man with alleged ties to the true target.

The white-haired woman, Arendi said. We have a name.

She summoned the data and let the holograms etch out the image. The portrait was now complete. The surveillance footage from the last attack, along with Arendi’s own memory, had been able to record and sketch a full picture.

Farcia Ehvine, she said, looking up at the figure’s face.

The Destroyer joined her and examined the image. The woman before him did seem humanoid but was glassed in a prism of color, without much of a face. The images, however, could not convey the real concern.

But that’s not all, is it? he said.

Unfortunately not.

Arendi was reluctant to say it. The very notion was unsettling and bizarre. She could easily have dismissed it and scoffed at the idea, but she didn’t. With her virtual hand, Arendi simply scratched her face and uttered the inexplicable.

Our new witness he believes that this Farcia has been possessed. That she’s an Endervar in physical form.

She remembered the interrogation. The man known as Red was adamant. He insisted that everything he said was true that the enemy had taken control of his wife.

Arendi glanced at the Destroyer, waiting for his reaction. He raised an eyebrow, half-suspicious.

Our enemy personified he said. Strange, but devious, is it not?

The image continued to beam in front of them, the white-haired woman no less a mystery. Arendi looked at the figure, trying to come up with answers. Instead, all she remembered was what the images had failed to capture. It was in her memory a brief glimpse, from back on the station, during the recent attack. Standing on the promenade was Farcia. However, she had not just been standing but had been waiting. Waiting for her. For some reason, Farcia had wanted to fight. The confrontation had felt almost inevitable. Arendi could tell; her instincts had made it crystal-clear.

If our witness is correct, she said. Then the Endervars they’ve returned.

It was a suspicion she could no longer deny. The Destroyer felt it as well. But unlike Arendi, he was pleased.

Good, he said with a smile. We both knew this day would come.

***

The Great War: had it really ended, or was this simply an interlude?

Arendi asked the question, knowing that there was no definite answer. At least, not yet.

The prevalent hope was that the age-old struggle had been put to rest. That the Endervar threat had been banished and that the galaxy was free at last.

Indeed, over the last twenty years, conflict had become rare, almost a thing of the past. During that time, no war had been waged; no major battle had been fought. Prosperity and reclamation had come instead. It was tempting to believe in it all. To put aside the old fears and embrace the new peace. Or what was now the new norm. But Arendi never could. Not fully, anyway.

She was like many others those who had seen the enemy and knew its power. She was not ready to accept the Endervar’s forced retreat or whatever the Alliance might officially proclaim. No, Arendi could never believe that. Not when the riddle surrounding the enemy remained. Who were the Endervars, and why had they come? It was a question to which no one had a complete answer.

They had left as mysteriously as they had arrived, without warning or explanation. An Endervar fleet had last been detected twenty-five years ago, when, like the other times, it had fled to the outer rim. Since then, no enemy ship had ever been seen.

It was a startling change from the days of yore, when so many had predicted that the Endervars would one day rule the stars. For eons, they had marched through the galaxy nearly unopposed. Their fleets of untold numbers had come, ready to annihilate any resistance. Their goal: to seek out and claim sentient life, wherever it might be. The result was the domination of thousands of civilizations. The enemy, using technology beyond known physical laws, had conquered world after world, surrounding each in its own impenetrable barrier.

Just thirty years ago there had been a breakthrough. The means to lifting the Endervar shield had finally become a reality. It was what led the Alliance to challenge the enemy and turn the tide of the war. First, one planet was liberated, then another. Eventually hundreds of worlds were freed, then thousands.

Victory, Arendi said. It came sooner than we ever thought it would, didn’t it?

She stood watching as the Destroyer prepared to take her to another virtual realm, this one even more clandestine.

Yes, he replied. In fact, we’d thought it would take decades, if not centuries, to liberate the entire galaxy.

But then, the enemy disappeared. With no reason as to why.

She recalled the reports, along with the lack of closure. After eons of war, the Endervars had done the unexpected and suddenly began to retreat. The first signs of it had come twenty-six years ago. Planets once thought conquered by the enemy were found free of the threat. Later reports indicated that the Endervar shields surrounding these worlds had mysteriously unraveled on their own. The phenomenon soon became widespread. Entire swaths of Endervar territory were all abandoned, without explanation, the fleets protecting them vanishing into the night.

Endervar ships numbering in the hundreds, or thousands, all in retreat, Arendi said.

All gone, without a chance to fight them, he said. What a pity. Even my own expeditions have failed to find them. Not even a warp signature detected.

The science teams still report the same. They’ve scanned over a hundred planets that were under Endervar dominion, and there’s been no trace. Just nothing.

Until now.

He spoke of the white-haired woman and nearly snarled as he did so. Arendi could tell that he was oddly fascinated by her. For so long the Endervars had been a faceless enemy. This Farcia, however, was perhaps something different.

As dangerous as she is, I’m more concerned about the technology in use.

Arendi projected the surveillance footage from the station. The hologram displayed the spontaneous ring of fire that had nearly enveloped the promenade. She had already sent the scans for scientific processing, but in the meantime Arendi was analyzing the strange readings herself.

If I’m not mistaken, this is some kind of portal. It explains how the target has been able to move undetected, Arendi said.

They gazed at the images and watched as the energy spiraled, consuming Farcia, and presumably transporting her safely away.

I concur, the Destroyer said. The Union, however, never came close to creating anything like this. It must be something new.

This technology it shouldn’t even be possible, Arendi replied. The power needed is likely beyond anything we possess. For all we know, it can cross light-years of territory or maybe more.

Shaking her head, Arendi thought of the possibilities and came away disturbed. Whatever technology this was, it was deadly, and it was able to slip past any defense. For all she knew, the range was unlimited.

We’ll need countermeasures, the Destroyer said.

I know. Alliance teams are working on this. Maybe there’s a way to disrupt it before the portal can form. But for now, we’re vulnerable. Too vulnerable.

Arendi said the words, knowing that another attack was almost a given. If only she knew where and when.

Regardless, the man said. We’ll be ready.

He delicately stroked his chin, as their virtual surroundings altered. The stars and space all receded, as the view shifted to bring both Arendi and her ally intimately closer to the secret facility. It hovered before them, the shipyard bustling with activity. The ribbed skeletal frame to the facility extended to probably hundreds of meters long. Flying around it were the lights of many moving drones, all scrambling to finish their work. What was important, however, was what lay inside.

The Destroyer looked on, his eyes filled with anticipation. His latest project was nearly complete.

I’ve alerted my armies. They will return to Alliance space soon, he said. For now, my services are at your disposal.

Their eyes met. Although he appeared to be a man, the Destroyer was nothing of the sort. Like her, he was machine and data, capable of existing beyond the physical construct to take whatever form necessary. He was a blond-haired man now, but Arendi had seen what he was truly capable of.

Hard to believe you and I were once enemies, she said.

She stepped back, thankful that was no longer the case. She saluted, placing her arm across her chest. The Destroyer laughed.

I’ll be in contact, she said.

As she was ready to leave, she heard the Destroyer offer one last assurance.

Just so you know, I haven’t forgotten, he said. As always, my search continues.

She glanced at him and paused, surprised by the sentiment. Thank you, Arendi said, thinking of her own search. So does mine.

She then materialized away.

Chapter 7

The room had changed, but the situation was no different. Red was still their prisoner. Surrounding him was his cell and nothing more. His hands were free, but his neck remained bound. The thick collar was tight, and it was tracking his every movement. Although he was tempted to touch it, he had been warned not to. The collar had been designed to mete out pain if tampered with. Keeping his fingers away from it, he sat on the stiff bed, pensive; his right hand was nervously scratching the other.

A day ago, his human interrogators had placed him in the room, and still they had said little. However, they remained ever forceful. They had demanded to know everything, no matter how insignificant it might be. So Red did as he was told. During his testimony, he had gone over every detail that he knew of her of Farcia the woman they sought to capture.

Who could be helping her?

How does her telepathy work?

What is her motive?

Questions and more questions, but for the most part, he scarcely had any answers. For the interrogators. it was simple. She was a fugitive, a killer. She had to be stopped.

For Red, it was far less so. He rubbed his brow, sullen and worried. In reality, he hadn’t told them everything. Red wasn’t sure whether he should. He had traveled all this way to find her, not to hurt her, or worse. Staring at the cold, blank wall, he thought back to the attack of days before and concentrated.