Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (25 page)

Zhu liked the rifle, although no recoil did take some getting used to. As the enemy forces approached, Zhu was the first to open fire. His rifle sending hundreds of bullets in a span of couple seconds, punching through the enemy nonexistent armor. Most of the Sowir “agents” had no weapons mounted on their back, only melee weapons on their limbs. And they simply ran at them to get into melee range where they could use their seven powerful limbs to their maximum potential. But a few of them had the small laser turrets mounted on the backs, similar to what they used thirty years ago.

But their lasers were too weak to inflict any kind of serious damage before one of Zhu’s squad mates turned his or her weapons on them. Zhu’s squad was killing them quickly, but still there was so many of them that eventually four managed to get into melee range. Laas’tra and Killgrave were at the front of their formation and immediately dropped their weapons. Then blades extended from their forearms and the two started fighting the four hostiles that managed to reach them.

Laas’tra dropped into a roll as one of the aliens jumped towards her body swiping with a blade like attachment on its limb. As she dropped Zhu had a clear shot and he fired at the alien, killing it before it even touched the ground. Laas’tra got up from her roll in front of an enemy and swiped with her two monomolecular blades cutting it in three pieces.

Killgrave wasn’t as lucky, one of them managed to jump and attach itself to his suit and was hacking at his shoulder with one of its free limbs. Zhu tried to get a shot off, but Killgrave was moving constantly. Then Killgrave managed to free one of his hands and slice one of the limbs holding him. After that he stabbed with his blade into its middle section and swiped out spilling blood and gore over the walls. The thing still held on so he repeated the move until it finally let go and dropped to the floor in a mangled mess.

While Killgrave was dealing with his opponent Laas’tra had killed the last of the hostiles. Then she turned to Killgrave with blood splattered all over her suit, standing in the middle of three dead bodies.

“See, I told you that I got your back!” She said.

Zhu turned to Lazy, “Go check up on Fig and Fury.” As Lazy turned and ran back to help their squad mates, Zhu checked in with his imp and got an update from the command.

“Other squads have arrived on station, and they are reporting being attacked from ambushes.” Zhu said.

“There is about thirty of them here, if they attacked the other squads with the same numbers they still have much more troops. A station of this size usually held a large number of Sowir – their agents.” Dson said.

“Probably.” Zhu responded, as the three from the rear returned. Fig and Furry too were covered in gore.

“All ok?” Zhu asked.

“Yes. About ten of them were on their way to attack us from the back.” Fig responded.

Zhu check the map on his HUD and decided to take the fastest and the most direct route to their target. “Alright squad, the station’s command center is about a kilometer that way. We are going fast and alert, keep watch for more ambushes.” Zhu said pointing at the far left hallway.

In a brisk pace they covered ground quickly. The enemy attempted two more ambushes but both times the Empire soldiers prevailed. Finally they arrived at the door to the command center, in front of it eight of the hostiles stood guard. But these were fully dressed in combat armor with double barreled weapons on their backs.

“Alright this is it, we only need to get through those guards.” Zhu said. His squad was standing behind a corner where the guards couldn’t see them.

“Let me try the freeze grenade.” Killgrave said.

“You do know that that is not its name?” Dson asked sarcastically.

“I’m not calling it that other name, freeze grenade is much cooler.” Killgrave responded smartly.

“Alright Anton.” Zhu said before they could get into a name debate, “The rest of you get ready, once the grenade goes off take them out.”

Killgrave stepped to the corner’s edge and retrieved a device from the back of his suit. It was a bit bulkier than an ordinary grenade, silver in color and barrel shaped. Killgrave pressed two buttons simultaneously and a small red light appeared. Then he pressed a few more buttons, stepped out of the cover and threw the grenade at the enemy position, and quickly moved back behind cover.

The Laser Induced Energy Removing Device or LIERD for short, bounced off the floor and rolled at the feet of the eight guards. Before it even stopped its roll the device started releasing high pressure gas filling the area, engulfing the guards in it. As soon as all of the gas was released the device opened up and a high powered wide band laser flashed out of it. In an instant the laser’s photons knocked the electrons out of the gas’s atoms, which made them lose energy and at the same time heat. The area around the guards froze. Their armored suits got encased in a small layer of ice while their weapons electronics became nonoperational at such extreme cold.

A second later bullets and lasers fired on the helpless guards cutting them down.

“That was so cool!” Kilgrave said, then he turned to his squad mates. “Cool? You get it right? Because it is-”

“We got it, we got it.” Dson interrupted.

Zhu walked up to the dead guards and to the big doors, he gestured for Red Fury to get started working on opening them.

“Alright guys our targets are most likely behind these door. So Killgrave, Laas’tra, and Dson, change your ammo to stun rounds. You will be going in first, if there is more of these “agents” inside move aside and let the rest of us deal with them. In the event we find our targets, first demand surrender by playing the recording prepared in Nel. Clear?”

Affirmatives came from the three and Zhu moved back, letting them stand in front of the door ready to jump in as soon as Fury manages to open it.

***

Anton “Killgrave” checked his rifle one more time. He has been waiting for the door to open for only a minute, but it felt longer to him. He was never very good at being still, especially not when he was amped up on adrenaline and performance drugs. Then just as he was about to ask what was taking so long, he heard Red Fury say that she got it, and the door started to raise upwards quickly. As soon as there was enough room, Anton crouched and entered keeping his weapon ready.

He stopped short a few steps into the room as he came face to face with three beings standing in the middle of the room. These aliens were slightly taller than him in the suit, they had three tentacle like legs, similar to those of the beings they had been fighting till now. But from their waist up they had something resembling a human torso, only much less muscled, and some kind of flap at the center of it.

They had two arms from shoulder like extension at the end of their torso, and one more arm on their back that reached above their head. After a short neck came the head that was elongated and widened towards the end in a bony crest. The thing had no mouth that he could see, and had something that looked like gills on the lower sides of their face. The eyes were small and full black. Their skin was in shades of dark turquoise.

Anton swallowed hard and then turned using his imp to broadcast the surrender demand in Nel over his external speakers. The Sowir had been a part of the Consortium for a long time, they must know the language.

As the speakers played the message the rest of the squad got inside, moving to the sides while they kept their weapons trained on the three individuals. The Sowir didn’t move nor acknowledged the message in any way. A few seconds after the recording finished, Anton tried to play it again when he felt a bit lightheaded. He suddenly got an urge to move his weapon to the side and fire it, and it seemed perfectly reasonable for him to do so. His rifle started to move off his target slowly. Then after it moved a few centimeters, and what seemed like hours later, he remembered his training. The endless drilling into his head about one thing. He wasn’t supposed to move his sights of an enemy.

Anton’s mind cleared and he turned the rifle back and squeezed the trigger. The stun slug hit the Sowir in the chest, sending an electrical charge through its body, and it collapsed on the ground twitching. As if a spell had been broken, Laas’tra and Dson fired their own weapons felling the other two Sowir. For a few seconds no one moved or said anything. Then Anton turned and looked around the room at his squad mates who were all standing there frozen looking at the aliens.

“Guys… I think that these aliens just tried to get inside my head.”

Chapter Twenty Four

Two days after the battle for Nelus

Sestar Nimuse of House Jar Tel sat in yet another council meeting in the last few days, listening to the Sestar Tavaar of House Nor Ral preach about the great victory for their people. It made her sick just listening to him as he took credit for the destruction of the Sowir. It had been a long time since Sestar Jusan of House Dai Ven defected to the human led Empire, and the things had only gotten worse in his absence. House Nor Ral ruled with an iron fist, enforcing curfews, limiting the already limited freedom of the people, all the while taking the power and wealth for himself.

Nimuse now older, and wiser, knew that things couldn’t keep going like this for long. And when she heard the last idiocy that Tavaar ordered she knew that the time was now. Tavaar had ordered the fleet ships in orbit of Nelus to join with their fleet and Nelat and drive the Empire’s ships out of their system. And with that Nimuse could no longer sit quietly. After the meeting ended, Nimuse used her family’s significant wealth and influence to set things in motion. She might not have the power to end the idiocy of the council on her own, but she had enough to light up the spark that would grow into a roaring flame to consume and burn away the filth that had grown at the heart of her world.

***

Four days after the battle for Nelus

Massar Erani sat on the bridge of his battleship, watching on his screens as the Nelus remaining ships sped from his home world towards the force garrisoned in the orbit of Nelat, the fifth planet in the Nelus system. The area in which the greatest Sowir fleet Erani had ever laid eyes upon was just destroyed by a much smaller number of ships.

Eran, like every other person on Nelus had watched the battle, and had seen their force retreat and leave the Empire ships to be slaughtered by the immense Sowir force. He knew why the commander did that. The council had sent an order and ordered them to pull back, and Eran didn’t oppose that order. Over his entire upbringing and adult life he had always obeyed the council, it didn’t even cross his mind to countermand the council orders even though the fleet would have followed his orders over those of the council.

And now he was ordered to meet up with that force and chase the Empire ships out of the system. How idiotic the council truly is if it believed that his ships were capable of doing that. Eran had seen what the Empire’s ships can do, and even outnumbered as they were his ships wouldn’t stand a chance. Not to mention it being wrong. The Empire had warned them about the Sowir, and then even sent ships to help them. And the council wanted to reward that help with insults and threats.

But Nelus and Eran were ruled by the council, it had always been that way. To disobey was unimaginable. And yet Eran could think of nothing else.

“Massar?” Erani’s communications officer said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Yes?”

“You have a priority one message from Nelus.”

Erani checked his screens and saw the forwarded message, he was instructed to listen to the message in private. So he got up from his chair and walked over to his ready room, sat down behind his desk and played the message. He was surprised to see that it was a message from Sestar Nimuse of the council.

“
Massar Erani. I have chosen to send you this message in secret, bypassing the council, because I believe that this last insanity is the last drop. Nelus can take no more. After Sesatar Jusan left, I have come to realize just how much damage the council was doing to our people. And I started building influence and power in order to change things. But house Nor Ral is too powerful and alone I could do nothing. But you Massar Erani now have the power to change things. This message is a plea. Take action, the council must be disbanded. Help the people take their world back. Whether you do what I know you feel is right or report this message to the council and remain their minion, I will already have started a revolution on Nelus. The people cannot stay silent anymore.”

Stunned Erani looked at the blank screen for several minutes. And then he rose up, he knew what he had to do.

***

Invictus

Isani sat in the command center of his ship, the remaining Empire ships remained in the system still, except for the Harbinger that had raced back to Sanctuary in order to provide Adrian with the best medical care. He hoped that Adrian would be alright. He knew that using the Watchtower was dangerous, but they had no choice. Without it Isani doubted that they could have defeated the Sowir force. Perhaps they could have, but he was sure that they would have lost more ships.

Isani was in the system because the Empire wanted an explanation for the betrayal of their fleet. The Nelus Council had, like it always does, threatened and started moving the rest of their fleet from Nelus to join the ships that had been fighting the Sowir.

And the Emperor wasn’t amused. Nelus had the advantage in numbers, but their ships were even worse than those of the Sowir, and Isani was fully prepared to pit the remaining third of the Warpath fleet against them. But when the two Nelus forces joined forces they didn’t try to attack the Empire fleet.

Instead the entire fleet turned and headed back to Nelus. The Lighthouse’s sensor drones had intercepted communications between Nelus and the fleet, or rather communication from Nelus to the fleet. The Nelus ships didn’t respond back. To all appearances the Nelus fleet seemed to have gone rogue. One of the drones followed the fleet giving Isani and his ships live feed of what was happening light hours away.