Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2)

by Ivan Kal

  Seeing that they had no need for aid he looked around. The base was on fire, and in the distance he could hear more fighting. “We need to move,” Kane said over the comms. “There’s fighting in the direction of command building.”

  “Their defenses here were hastily placed. They hadn’t been here for long,” Remi added.

  “Right, but they had to have been fighting out in the streets before they got word that we were on our way. Let’s hurry—we can catch them off guard.”

  The mech-frames rose above the ground and headed down the street. Kane was tempted to fly over immediately, but he didn’t want to leave the Dragons without backup; not that they needed it, but one never knew what the Val’ayash had in store for them.

  The Dragons followed behind, and quickly they passed the streets with ruined buildings and dead bodies—Val’ayash, human, and Wanderer. The Val’ayash had pushed through the base, but had paid a price for every street that they had taken.

  Finally they reached the large square in front of the four-story reinforced concrete building, and there they saw a war. The building was surrounded by barricades and humans firing weapons over it. On the other side of the square, the Val’ayash had a row of their walkers firing beams into the human’s kotarium-plated barricades as Val’ayash soldiers hid behind their portable barriers and shot over them.

  But there was one thing in particular which caught Kane’s attention—he felt something powerful stirring in magic. Then someone jumped over the barricade in front of the human command building. A man with long, pointed ears and blond hair stood before the barricades at the center of fire, wearing an elaborate robe and wielding a strange-looking staff in his hand.

  The Val’ayash fired at him, but every shot stopped several meters before the man as it was caught on a magic shield. The man gestured with his hand and red lightning shot from his fingers, striking one Val’ayash in the shoulder and boring through his shield, then cooking its armor and melting it and the body inside to a bloody mess of metal and flesh.

  He turned around as if sensing something and looked at Kane and his group, before his eyes flickered back to the Val’ayash. Kane could feel a storm of power emanating from him—his magic resonating almost like a song. The man’s hand moved and the paved concrete beneath the Val’ayash vehicles buckled, opening up and swallowing three of them up before it closed and crushed them beneath it.

  Kane shook himself out of his awe and moved, opening fire on the Val’ayash positions. The Dragons flew away, then blinked into their ranks before firing magic bolts and using their red blades to cut them down. For a moment the man—the Elvarr mage—paused and watched the Dragons fight, but then continued dealing death to the Val’ayash.

  Kane flew Leviathan up high and fired from above, killing and destroying the Val’ayash and their barriers, allowing clearer shots for the friendly soldiers around the command building.

  A group of seven Val’ayash attempted to run away, but the Elvarr mage teleported next to them. Making a beckoning gesture with his hand, the closest three Val’ayash had their armor melt away from their bodies and flow through the air like a stream of water to the mage’s side. Then it reshaped into three blades and shot out to impale the lizard-men-like Val’ayash through their chests, soaking their short fur with blue blood.

  The others turned around, pointing their weapons at the Elvarr, but he swiped with his hand and a force of air slammed the four Val’ayash to the side of the street and into the wall. He let out several magic bolts in quick succession at them, breaking through their armor and killing two. Then he walked calmly toward them and, touching one of them, then turned the Val’ayash to dust before the wind scattered his ashes across the street. The last one looked at the Elvarr and then raised his weapon and fired. The beam of purple light hit a magic shield and stopped, but the Val’ayash kept trying, until the mage reached him and made a grabbing gesture with his hand. The Val’ayash was picked up from the ground and was floating in the air as its armor flew from its body, leaving a red-furred Val’ayash naked in the air. A moment later, glowing silver chains appeared and bound the Val’ayash tightly.

  Then the mage turned around and walked back toward the command building, the Val’ayash prisoner floating behind him.

  ***

  A few hours later, when they had secured the base, Kane climbed out of Leviathan next to the command building and started his way down. As soon as he hit the ground, however, he realized that someone was there waiting for him. He turned around only to see the Elvarr mage there watching him with silver eyes.

  “That is a battle golem,” the mage said in highly accented English. “Yes?”

  Kane was struck speechless for a moment, before he nodded hastily. “Uh, yes, it is. But we call them mech-frames.”

  The Elvarr looked over the Leviathan with a curious glint in his eyes. “I have heard that you have been using spellscripts taught to you by the Wanderers, and integrating them with your strange technology,” the man said slowly. “We did not believe that you could have made them so…powerful.”

  “Thank you,” Kane said, as he had no idea what else to say.

  The mage tilted his head. “You are a magic user, yes?”

  “I am,” Kane said, suddenly feeling embarrassed. He knew that—before the Dragons, at least—he had been Earth’s most powerful mage, but compared to the mages of Ethorria, he was not even average.

  “Curious. You have spellscripts implanted in your body,” the man said as he looked at his suit, as if he could see right through it. “But I guess that with your technology you have no need to rely only on magic…”

  “Uh, I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch your name,” Kane said as a way to change the subject.

  “Ah!” the mage exclaimed, surprised. “That was rude of me. I am used to everyone knowing who I am, but you are not from this world. I apologize for any disrespect. I am Vilariarin Varseer, Master of War Magic from the Deravi Academy. I am here as an envoy of the Grandmaster.” He inclined his head.

  “I am Captain Kane Reinhart.”

  “A pleasure,” the mage said, then looked across the street to where the Dragons were standing, separated from the others. “And they are magic users as well. I can feel spellscripts in them and around them—more than you have or even your golem has. Very curious, and interesting.”

  Kane didn’t comment. He felt a bit off balance around the man, probably because he was far older than him. Elvarr generally lived far longer than humans, and one did not become a powerful mage quickly.

  “I see that I will have quite a few things to discuss with your leaders,” Vilariarin said, then gave Kane a smile. “Thank you for the conversation. May magic burn bright inside you.”

  Kane didn’t even have a chance to respond to his strange words before the Elvarr turned around and left. Kane stood there for a moment, wondering what the mage meant.

  INTERLUDE III

  Antaris Truthspeaker, Battle Commander of the Third Verse in service to the Val’ayash, stood in his battle sanctum. Above his planning table he saw a multitude of reports, but two stood out to him. Two failures. Darko Kovac, former member of the human forces, now part of Antaris’s Verse, had failed in the mission he had given him. It was not the young man’s fault, however.

  Antaris had chosen what appeared to be an easy mission, a retrieval of technology. His informants had sent information about the location and the time when a raid would prove profitable. The Val’ayash had recovered much of what they had lost, but still they were not back to their former strength. Gathering new and old technology was one of their main goals.

  Antaris could not have foreseen the humans being there as well, nor that they would fight his people so effectively. He did not fault his new soldier for the failure—it reflected on Antaris, not his follower. Antaris had wondered for a long time why he had decided to convert the human, to take him in and ask his Creator to grant him the gift. It had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, but now, after a long
time of thinking on it, he believed that he knew the reason.

  Antaris had seen the human, a lone being among strangers, abandoned and lost, and he had seen in him some of his old self. He knew that the bio-implant prevented the human from acting against Val’ayash desires, but it did not hinder his mind. Antaris truly believed that, in time, the human would see that the Val’ayash way was the right way. Already, the human had shown great interest in knowing more about the Creator. In time, Kovac would convert—of that Antaris had no doubt. For now, though, Antaris would watch and guide him. They had learned much from him, more than enough to warrant his life.

  The second report was of another failure. A light cruiser had just returned from the human home system, reporting their loss. An entire battle group destroyed, by the ignorant children and the humans. Antaris was still going over the battles, but he had seen enough to know that humans and their magi-tech were a great threat, one far greater than he had been led to believe. The children of the Zhal’Qash had some surprises as well, but ultimately they were inconsequential. Once the Val’ayash returned in force, they would stand no chance. This new magi-tech, however, was another thing entirely. It was an unknown.

  Even with everything that Kovac had told them, they still didn’t know much. They’d been experimenting, but they were fumbling in the dark. The spellscripts seemed to be very logical in nature; they could figure out others based on what they already had, but they needed to test them without knowing what, precisely, they did. There had been many accidents. It had been why they had sent a mission to the human homeworld—to occupy it and capture those who did know how this magic worked.

  And they had failed there, as well. They had underestimated the amount of force they needed to send. In their defense, they only had Kovac’s information to work on, a man who had left his homeworld years ago. None of Antaris’s other informants had any usable information about humans; what they knew had in fact been mostly fabrication. The races surrounding the Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar were under the impression that the humans were a great power from somewhere far away.

  This failure did not, however, truly matter much in the greater scheme of things.

  Antaris glanced to the other reports, all of successful missions. One caught his eye, and he brought it forward. Five of their battle groups had successfully reached their destination on the far side of Qash’vo’tar space, and had made contact with the Hazari.

  Interacting with other races was not the Val’ayash way; or, rather, it hadn’t been before. But Val’ayash had learned much from the Great War and their near defeat. This time, they would do things differently. The Hazari had been at war with the Qash’vo’tar for almost a hundred years, and now with Val’ayash aid they would finally be able to break the equilibrium.

  The Val’ayash would not begin a war against a calm galaxy, against nations at their full power, waiting for their return. No, they would sow discord, entice wars, and pit them against one another. The Zhal Confederation and the Qash’vo’tar were worried, waiting for the return of the Val’ayash. What they didn’t know was they already had.

  Now was the time of the return, and the Val’ayash had already spread their fingers out into the galaxy.

  The other races were to be pitied, for they knew not that their lives were merely shadows on a canvas, reflected from a fire burning brightly in front of it. The Val’ayash had been tasked by the glorious Creator to aid them, to usher their souls to the true life and save them from the nothingness which came after their deaths. Only those touched by the Creator could act as guides, could give their souls the glory of eternal life by the Creator’s side.

  And Antaris would make sure to save as many souls as he could, no matter how they tried to fight against it. To stand aside would be paramount to dooming them himself, and Antaris was not such an evil man. He knew that, to do ultimate good, one had to steel their heart, and suffer through their hate. Antaris didn’t hold it against them; they didn’t know any better.

  And with every death by his hand, another soul was granted deliverance from this fabricated existence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  It had been almost a month after the reinforcements from Senka liberated Sol from Val’ayash, and Emissary Anthony Smith found himself in a meeting with the representatives of the Qash’vo’tar and the Zhal Confederation. The Qash’vo’tar emissary Jahija sat across from Anthony to his right, while the Zhal emissary Gork sat across and to his left. Both of them had been evacuated along with the entire Trinity station when the Val’ayash had arrived in system, so they and their staff had spent their time during the siege on Earth in the bunkers deep beneath the ground.

  Now they were all on the tether station—which, unlike the Trinity station, had managed to survive the Val’ayash attack. The topic of their conversation had been the same: the Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar were mad that Earth had concealed an unauthorized colony and had built unauthorized ships. The greatest sticking point was the super carrier, which they had already been demanding access to.

  “You broke our agreement, colonized a planet in secret, built ships behind our backs! How are we to look at that other than with suspicion? Especially since you refuse to disclose its location! We need to do a thorough inspection of the system to make sure that it is free of any old tech,” the Zhal emissary said. The Qash’vo’tar had been remarkably quiet, for her part.

  “As I’ve said before, we established this colony before our agreement with the Qash’vo’tar and the Zhal, and nowhere in our agreement are we required to disclose already established colonies, nor submit them for inspection,” Anthony said calmly.

  “That was because it was assumed that you had only your home system colonized,” Gork said tightly.

  “That was your assumption,” Anthony said—then as he saw the emissary begin to speak again, he raised a hand, forestalling him. “Please, emissaries, I did not came here to speak of these things. I have just been informed of the decisions made by United Terran Systems council, and I am here to relay to you their offer so that you may pass it on to your respective governments.”

  The two emissaries exchanged looks but kept quiet and waited for him to speak.

  “The council has agreed in sharing our technology with you,” Anthony said and could immediately see the surprise on their alien faces. “Assuming, of course, that you agree to our terms.”

  “Terms?” the Qash’vo’tar emissary asked. “You dare to dictate terms to us?”

  Anthony’s eyes hardened as he stared at the alien. “Do not speak to me in such tones, emissary. My world has just been attacked and invaded for the second time. My people are not in the best of moods when it comes to dealing with aliens. The Val’ayash, your ancient enemy, have returned. You know what their actions here mean—they are ready to act. Soon, you will have your hands full with dealing with them. Tread carefully, lest you lose humanity as an ally. And we both know that you need us and our technology.”

  Both emissaries looked at Anthony as if they had just met him for the first time.

  “What are the terms?” the Zhal emissary asked.

  “First, you will allow humanity special permission to colonize any world within one hundred light years of Earth. You will remove your inspections and oversight. We will still welcome your help, but it will be solely in an advisory capacity. As your Compact dictates, any old tech we find will be shared with the two of you, but we will be allowed to study it as well.”

  “That—that is preposterous!” Jahija, the Qash’vo’tar emissary, said as she stood up. “There is a reason why we don’t allow other races to take that technology—you are not ready for it!”

  “We don’t need your ancient technology,” Anthony told her calmly. “Ours is in many ways superior, as you know—you have been trying to get it for years.” Jahija’s eyes went wide. “And I was not finished. Please contain yourself until I finish speaking.”

  Anthony looked away from Jahija in favor of Gork. “As I was saying,
any old tech will be shared between us. In return, we will share with you the secret of our technology, and we will show you how to use it and integrate it into your own technology. Trust me when I say that you have no idea what our technology truly is. There is a reason why no one has ever encountered anything like it. With it, you will be on at least equal footing with the Val’ayash. If you agree to this, we will be equal partners: you will trade with us openly both in goods and technology. We might not be as large as the two of you, but we have something that you don’t, and that makes us equals.” No matter what Earth shared with the two, it would always have access to Ethorria and its resources, both in magical knowledge and in kotarium ore, and that was one advantage that the two would never be able to remove. Not unless they wanted a war.

  “And what,” Zhal emissary started slowly, “if we decided to simply take it from you?”

  Anthony smiled. They had known that they would try to intimidate them. “You can try, but even if you find out what the secret behind our technology is, you will have no idea what to do with it. It will turn to ash in your hands. Only we can teach you how to use it properly, and without us cooperating willingly, you will not figure it out in time to help you against the Val’ayash.”

  Zhal emissary thought about it for a moment. “We will need to speak about this, come to a decision.”

  “Of course,” Anthony stood, preparing to leave the room.

  Before he had the chance, however, the Zhal emissary spoke again. “Do you have any idea why the Val’ayash invaded your planet?”

  Anthony turned around. “We’ve had dealings with them before, as you know. I assume that they wanted payback.”

  The Qash’vo’tar looked Anthony in the eyes. “The Val’ayash do not occupy worlds, they burn them clean of life from orbit. Why were you the exception?”