Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (27 page)

Sahib climbed back to his feet checking his HUD for any damage to his suit. When he saw none he turned around and looked at the situation. Loca was just now finishing the last of the Sowir agents, she hit it with her shield and then shot it with her low velocity hand gun several times killing it.

“You were supposed to be in front.” Sahib told her.

“They rushed me, and I might be strong but when a dozen of these bastards jump you, you pull back.” She said defensively.

Sahib shook his head and sighed. Fighting had been gruesome. The Sowir agents fought like mindless beasts, which in a way they were. Fighting them wasn’t really hard, once they start a fight they don’t back off. The intel they got from the Third Fleet and Sanctuary indicated that the true Sowir can issue general orders to their agents from afar, but that for more delicate and intelligent control they need to be close. And there had been a few instances where the Sowir followed their agents in battle. And those skirmishes were always much more dangerous than when they just let them loose.

Most of the people that the Empire lost, died when they were fighting Sowir in direct control of their agents. Another additional danger was their mind ability. They couldn’t take control of the human or Nel mind, not like they did with their agents. But they could distract, and in battle even a moment of distraction could prove fatal. And the more they fought the better the Sowir got at it, at least those that survived the engagements with the Empire soldiers.

The only upside was that the Sowir weren’t really fighters, without their agents they were easily subdued. The orders were to take any Sowir they could prisoner, but not at expense of lives. Which was now much harder as the Sowir no longer moved around the station without their agents. And the only way to reduce the effectiveness of the agents was to take out the Sowir controlling them.

Sahib motioned for Loca to follow, and the two of them continued to follow the map on his HUD. His platoon was given the mission to find and recover any remaining data from the Sowir computers in the inner ring of the shipyard. Which was mostly free of the Sowir, save for the few that were left behind as proven by the attack a few minutes ago. The Sowir had destroyed most of the computers and data when they pulled back towards the center of the shipyard. The Empire had control of the outer ring and troops were now pushing inside the center.

But Sahib’s superiors hoped that some were overlooked. The Empire had equipment able to interface with the Sowir computers as the ones they used were still Consortium technology, this entire system was in fact one that belonged to the Nel before the Sowir took it, and the Empire knew everything about it from Nuva.

Sahib had split his people into teams of two, and each team was checking a different area. Sahib and Loca arrived at a doors that were blown inward, probably by the initial assault by the Empire’s troops. They stepped inside, their suits lights illuminating the room. In one of the corners Sahib noticed a small flashing light. He motioned for Loca to keep watch as he went to check it out.

He came close to the terminal and retrieved a device that looked similarly to a datapad from his back. He used the connector on his device to plug it into the Sowir terminal, then waited as the software accessed and translated everything in standard. A few minutes later the device pinged and Sahib looked down.

“Jackpot.” Sahib said.

“You got something?” Loca asked.

“Yeah, it looks like this was the office of a Sowir who was overseeing the construction of specially requested items. Hmm… Alright, if I am getting this right this shipyard wasn’t only building ships, but also any kind of specialized equipment.” He kept scrolling through the lists and reports. “Aha. I found the list of requests by priority. It appears that they were trying to figure out how to build a digging machine? Something for work underground, that could create tunnels big enough for their troops to pass through. But was also silent, and fast…” Sahib said.

“Why would they need that?” Loca asked.

“Don’t know. Let me see if I can – Ah, here it is. The product was supposed to go to a planet designated as Guxaxac…” Sahib said.

“Wait, that planet’s name is familiar. Where did I hear that name?” Loca asked.

“That’s the Guxcacul home world.” Sahib responded.

“Why would they need something like that there?”

Sahib kept quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t know, let me copy the data. We should get this back to the tech guys, maybe they can get something more out of it.”

Chapter Twenty Six

January; Year 32 – Sanctuary

Consciousness returned slowly to Adrian, his eyes opened and immediately closed as the bright light from the window shined right into them. It took him a couple of tries to get them fully opened and to be able to take in the room he was in. It looked similar to the hospital room he was in at Warpath, except that the window meant he was on a planet. Slowly he managed to raise himself to a semi sitting position. His movements alerted the beast lying on the floor on his left side.

Sora raised her head and jumped up immediately once she saw his eyes open. She released a loud roar and pushed her head on his chest. Slowly Adrian reached up to pet her behind the ears.

“Hello to you too.” He managed to say hoarsely.

Then the door opened and a person walked in.

“Adrian!” Laura, his adoptive mother yelled out and quickly walked up to him and gave him the hug.

“Hey…” He said weakly.

“I’m so relieved that you are awake!” Laura said when she finally let him go.

“Yeah, well, so am I.” Adrian added softly, “What happened?”

“I commed the doctor, let’s wait for him.” Laura said evadingly. “How are you feeling?”

“Surprisingly I feel great, my throat hurts a bit, but other than that everything seems good. Better than the last time.” Adrian said. He saw Laura look at him strangely, and he could see the worry in her eyes. “How long was I out? What happened with the fleet? I assume that we won as I am not dead.”

“You were unconscious for twenty days. And yes, the fleet won. Eleven Sowir ships managed to escape but we won.”

“Good.” Adrian said relived. Then the doors opened again and Alexander walked in followed by Akash who immediately did the same thing Sora did. Adrian laughed and petted him behind the ears.

“You are awake.” Alex said, there was a touch of disbelief in his voice.

“Obviously.” Adrian said rolling his eyes. He saw Alex and Laura exchange a look. Then Alex walked over to the monitoring machines beside his bed and took a look. Then he turned back to Adrian.

“How are you feeling? Does everything feel the same?” Alex asked hesitantly.

“Well, yes. What is this about?” Adrian said, but then he noticed that something was missing.

“Iris?”
Adrian asked. There was no response. “Where is Iris?” He asked out loud as he heard no response from her.

The two exchanged looks again, and Adrian snapped. “Stop dancing around and answer me! What is wrong?”

Alex sighed and looked Adrian in the eyes. “Adrian, we thought that you wouldn’t wake up again.”

“Why did you think that?”

“We don’t really know what happened to you. To your brain actually. It changed somehow…”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Adrian asked annoyed.

“We don’t know if this was the result of you using the Watchtower, or if it was something else. But your brain underwent a change, a physical change. Its entire structure shifted and new tissue grew. Your brain is about four percent larger now, and the ridges of your cerebral cortex have softened, some have disappeared entirely. Your brain waves have shifted significantly. The parts of your brain that were there before, have normal readings. But the new parts and the shifts have created something that we can’t understand. Parts that you weren’t using before are now active. Not to mention what happened to your nervous system.”

Adrian looked at his friend open-mouthed, then turned to Laura who looked worried. “And that means what?” Adrian asked Alex.

“We don’t know Adrian. We thought that you wouldn’t wake up, and if you did that you wouldn’t be you anymore.”

“Well, I am me. So where is Iris? Why isn’t she speaking?”

“When this transformation started, the nanites in your body tried to repair what they saw as damage. That is why you felt so much pain while using the Watchtower, it happened the first time also. The nanites probably stopped the transformation the first time. But the second time you were pushing your brain harder and further with the Watchtower, and we believe that that stress is what triggered this. Only this time you didn’t stop. And the nanites kept trying to prevent it, until Iris realized what was happening and instructed the nanites to stop.”

“You still didn’t answer my question.” Adrian said, fear gripping his heart.

“The change severed all connections with your implant Adrian. The entire structure of your brain changed. Iris instructed the nanites to break down the implant, so that it didn’t impede the transformation.” Alex said.

Adrian immediately felt his fear intensify. Iris wasn’t inside the implant, but her core that was separate. “And the core?” He asked quickly.

Alex shifted uncomfortably, “We did manage to retrieve the core. But you and Iris were a unique case, she was intertwined with your brain intimately, we don’t know how much of her is left.”

“Where is she?”

“At the Research and Development center here on Sanctuary. They have been trying to repair the core and reactivate her, but I don’t know much else.” Alexander said.

“I am going there now.” Adrian said and swung his legs off the bed. Alex immediately grabbed and pushed him back to the bed.

“You are not going anywhere, we need to do test and make sure that everything is alright. What happened to Iris won’t change if you go there. I’ll call the people working on her and tell you what is happening, but you need to stay here where we can monitor you.” Alex said looking at Adrian, “Please.” He added.

Finally Adrian relented. “Alright, but do your tests quickly, I am feeling fine and I don’t plan on being in this bed for long.”

***

“Adrian finally woke up.” Laura said.

“He did? I thought that the doctors said it wasn’t likely.” Tomas said.

“They can’t explain it. But then again they can’t explain what happened either.” Laura said.

“And he is himself?” Seo-yun asked.

“Thankfully, yes. I talked with him for hours yesterday, he was completely himself.”

“That’s great. But I am still worried about it, the sphere’s computer knows what happened, but refuses to elaborate, he did say that this wasn’t life threatening. Whatever it is.” Seo-yun said.

Laura nodded. After a month of watching over Adrian not knowing if he would wake up, she felt relieved to have him awake. The doctors were still doing tests and trying to figure out what happened.

“Hopefully everything will be alright.” Tomas added. “But we still have a war to fight even without him. Is there any word from the fleets?”

“The Third Fleet has complete control over the Rasaka system and are in the process of taking the other border systems with Rasaka as their base.” Laura said.

“And the Second Fleet?” Tomas asked.

“There is still fighting going on the shipyards, we have only taken about half of them and two thirds of their stations. All prisoners are sent back to Sanctuary, but there isn’t a lot of them. We have encountered only a small number of Sowir, compared to their agents which are numerous.” Laura answered.

“And have gotten anything from the prisoners from Rasaka?”

Laura glanced at Seo-yun letting her answer.

“Sadly, no. The Sowir have no ability to speak, we believe that they use their mental abilities to communicate. And we aren’t putting any of our people close enough to a conscious Sowir for them to influence them. We have however recovered the devices that the Sowir use to translate their way of communication into a spoken language. The devices are currently on-route to Sanctuary, so we will try to establish communications once they arrive.” Seo-yun said.

“Good. Anything else?” Tomas asked.

“Well. We have analyzed the data that we managed to recover from the Sowir stations and shipyards in Laraska. It appears that they were building a lot of machines with the purpose of fighting underground. And all of these machines were going to Guxaxac.” Laura said.

“Guxaxac? Why would they need them there?” Tomas asked.

“We didn’t understand either. So we sent a probe to the system. We just got the sensor feeds this morning. The Sowir have a fleet of about two hundred ships in orbit of Guxaxac, and about half of them are troop ships. And they don’t have any station in orbit or permanent installations on the ground…” Laura answered.

“You don’t think that… But it has been more than a hundred years!” Tomas exclaimed.

“The Guxcacul are subterranean. And we know that their cities are deep underground close to their planet’s core. And Sowir aren’t really suited for battles in closed quarters where the numbers of their agents mean little.” Laura commented.

“They could still be alive… We need to make sure.” Tomas said.

Laura smiled. “I already have plans to send a team to the planet, but we will need Warpath’s Specter to do it. I’m sure that Adrian would approve, but I will check with Isani just in case.”

“Alright then, let us hope that we finally get some good news.”

Chapter Twenty Seven

February; Year 32 – Guxaxac system

Vanguard warship Specter cruised through the Guxcacul home system, undetected by the Sowir forces in the orbit of the large rocky planet. In its only bay it held the stealth shuttle that was retrieved from Earth and was the basis for the drive technology that Specter made use of. The shuttle had been upgraded with the latest of the Empire tech and weapons that they could put in it. And inside its small hull sat eight human shaped figures dressed in battle suits and one Guxcacul.