A Greater Duty (Galaxy Ascendant Book 1)

by Yakov Merkin

  CHAPTER 22

  Darkclaw ordered all ships to fire at will as they dropped out of hyperspace practically already within range of the fleet arrayed to defend Ranivantum, a world not far outside the Alliance’s core systems. Ranivantum was the centerpiece of the Talvostan Union, one of the largest governmental bodies that made up the Galactic Alliance, and possibly the most powerful. The Vakarin system, the Talvostan home system, had never been even partially conquered. That would change today, thanks to Darkclaw having found a route by which to circumvent most of their outer defenses.

  As he gave the order to open fire, Darkclaw could not help but glance across the command deck, where the High Lord’s avatar had stood, almost unmoving, for the entire flight through hyperspace. The avatar looked as though it had once been a Tehlman, and a Scion, though now it was encased in the same black energy that the High Lord was made of. It still had some vestige of independence, in that it referred to itself, but it clearly was going to do nothing unless ordered. Had Darkclaw once looked as it did?

  “I am here to observe on the great High Lord’s behalf. I will also serve as a conduit for His might, so that he may more easily discern who is the traitor,” the thing had said when it arrived. After that it had gone silent. Darkclaw wondered if the connection was weaker when the ship was in hyperspace. Hoped would be the more accurate word.

  He looked behind him, where his bodyguards stood quietly, Lisar eyeing the avatar suspiciously, and Kalviss doing the same, his face unreadable. The thing would allow the High Lord to more easily contact Darkclaw at any time, and could probably read any Tyrannodon’s mind with hardly a thought. Fortunately it would not be as easy for him to access Lisar or Kalviss’s minds, if the High Lord’s measure of success with the Scions was anything to go by. But Darkclaw knew that he would not be able to search any more Reizan'Tvay sites himself. The High Lord, through his avatar, would be far too vigilant. Already four times he had been forced to deactivate the innocence chip as the avatar, and by extension the High Lord, had probed his mind. Darkclaw did not know how much longer he could live with looking over his shoulder, over his mind, sorting his very thoughts so he could avoid detection.

  Time was running out. They had not found a way to stop the High Lord, and the war would not last much longer. Darkclaw would have been thankful for the battle, if only as a distraction, but thinking on the battle reminded him that now both Nayasar and Felivas had vanished. What did they think they were doing? He needed them here! They had to search for an answer. What in the galaxy could they possibly be doing that was more important than stopping a dangerous tyrant and ending a bloody war?

  “Legion ships inbound,” the Hudecar’s sensor operator said, snapping Darkclaw back to the unfolding battle. “Two thousand ships. Estimated arrival time: fifteen minutes.”

  Darkclaw ordered the fleet forward. They had to do as much damage as they could to the already substantial Talvostan fleet before more enemies arrived. He was not worried. The Talvostans and the Legion Navy he could defeat.

  He opened a channel to the Felinar, and Admiral Tirga Chirotrek, the Felinaris officer in charge of the fleet with Nayasar and Felivas absent. She had seemed able enough, if somewhat rigid, but the problem was that she simply wasn’t Nayasar or Felivas. He could not confide in her. And they had gotten off to a bad start when Darkclaw had demanded information on Nayasar and Felivas’s whereabouts. It had taken all of the willpower he possessed to not shout at the poor officer, who was clearly just attempting to make the best of a potentially disastrous situation. But if she had any information, the admiral had not been willing to share.

  “We have two thousand Legion Navy vessels incoming,” he said. “We will need your forces to intercept, along with two of my own fleets.” Between the Legion Navy and the Talvostans there were nearly four thousand enemy warships to Darkclaw’s five, including the Felinaris in reserve. She responded in the affirmative, then ended the communication.

  The Legion had overextended itself, trying to retake and defend too many locations, and unable to bring its full might of nearly eight thousand ships to bear on Darkclaw’s allied fleet, which at maximum barely reached six thousand—though his warships were superior one to one with the Legion Navy’s—much of it new ships direct from Selixan Station, which was still producing war materials at an incredible rate.

  Fortunately, these new arrivals included a new weapon, apparently personally designed by the High Lord, which would further mitigate the enemy’s overall numerical advantage. It was called the mellus; hammer in one of the Reizan’Tvay dialects. The mellus was designed to look like a large, square shaped piece of debris, but could unfold and fire a single shot from a prototype weapon the High Lord called a particle cannon, which would completely ignore shielding and could incapacitate a warship in one hit, at low cost, though the platform would then be dead, and the information that Darkclaw had received reported that around one in ten times the weapon would overload and explode before firing. Despite the drawbacks, these devices would significantly aid the fleet, particularly here, where Darkclaw’s force still had the advantage of numbers.

  Darkclaw ordered the battlegroup that had been assigned to carry the new weapons to break off from the main fleet and drop the mellusi near where the Legion Navy fleet was to drop out of hyperspace.

  As ordered, Darkclaw’s main fleet, the Tyrannodon and Snevan warships, advanced toward the Talvostan fleet, which was clustering together as its numbers dwindled, attempting to hold out at least until the Legion Navy force arrived. There was no doubt that the Talvostan fleet, outnumbered three to one, would ultimately fall; its numbers slowly decreased by the second. However, as per their reputation, the Talvostans fought tenaciously and effectively; they made Darkclaw pay for every step of his gradual advance to Ranivantum. It was saddening, seeing so many dying in such an impersonal fashion. Darkclaw, from what he had learned of the Talvostan people, respected their tenacity, their drive, which in some respects was almost identical to that of the Tyrannodons. These were a people his kind could have been cousins to, in mind, and here they were slaughtering each other by the hundreds, if not thousands. Darkclaw forbade himself from even attempting to calculate exact numbers.

  But whatever else was happening, the Talvostans could not be allowed to delay him until the Legion Navy arrived. Darkclaw ordered his fleets to close with the Talvostan ships, and to launch fighters, which would harass the enemy and make suicide runs as needed to force them to break formation.

  Several long minutes later, the Talvostans finally broke, and began to fall back around the planet, allowing defensive weapons platforms in orbit to provide cover as they retreated and regrouped. As he watched the gray squares—just over half of the number that had originally been visible—on the tactical display move out of range, Darkclaw recalled one of the wiser Talvostan tenets he had encountered: Better to live and fight another day than die a hero. A refreshingly practical line of thought.

  Several minutes later the Legion Navy fleet arrived, but Darkclaw was ready and in position. Almost immediately they were set upon by the mellus platforms, and dozens of Legion ships were destroyed before they could so much as fire a shot. Darkclaw then ordered the Felinaris fleet, which was already in position, to engage the enemy on its flanks while Darkclaw ordered his Tyrannodons to attack directly. As much as he didn’t want to fight them, Darkclaw had to eliminate as much of this force as possible, and quickly. Without the Snevans and some of his Tyrannodon forces, which were repulsing advances by the Alliance in other systems—three had already fallen to them—there was a risk of the Legion Navy fully committing to this battle with their entire force, which would force the High Lord to intervene and end the war here, which would leave Darkclaw with no way to help his Felinaris and Snevan friends.

  As his forces clashed with the Legion Navy, Darkclaw did not lose track of the still substantial Talvostan fleet, which had regrouped, and looked about to rejoin the battle. This had to end, now. Darkclaw ordered the
Felinaris to disengage and protect his flank from the Talvostans should they decide to attack, then, with a simple hand motion and a series of keystrokes, ordered a total of three hundred Tyrannodon fighters to launch suicide strikes on the Legion Navy vessels. If he had not been required to keep track of the battle status, Darkclaw would have shut off the display, if only to not see symbols representing warships with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of crew members vanish along with the fighters.

  He turned away for a moment, but that was a mistake, as his gaze instead was directed at the primary display screen, where he could see the explosions and debris, quiet in the vacuum of space, all apart from the screams Darkclaw imagined.

  Before long, the Alliance fleet broke off and fled, disoriented and devastated by Darkclaw’s maneuver. As they jumped to hyperspace, so did the Talvostan fleet, with victory clearly impossible. He would undoubtedly see that fleet again, at Dorandor, and they would fight even harder.

  After a moment’s thought, Darkclaw did not order a pursuit. He would catch few, and he knew where the enemy forces were headed. Additionally, there were casualties to count and repairs to be made. Not including fighters, some hundreds of Tyrannodon warships had been destroyed. While enemy losses had surely been greater, it changed little. Darkclaw’s total force strength was still slightly smaller, and more of his soldiers, clones though they were, were dead. They would have to linger over the still unoccupied but isolated Ranivantum longer than had been hoped.

  Of course, this would require another explanation to be provided to the High Lord. He would accept that Darkclaw needed to quickly prepare his forces for the final push to Dorandor. The escaped enemies would meet their fate there. Darkclaw shook his head. One way or another, this had to end soon. This near splitting of himself was taking a toll: Darkclaw found he was experiencing difficulty differentiating between fabricated and real memories, some confusion, a lot of doubt, and most dangerously the ever-present temptation to simply rid himself of the chip, return to how things were and leave all of this behind. It would be so easy.

  Fortunately, the fleet command system dinged a moment later, announcing that the few remaining enemy ships were making a move to escape to the planet that they knew would not be conquered quickly. Darkclaw silently thanked whatever it was that governed the universe—the Felinaris Omnipresent, or one of the dozens of other worshipped deities—for the distraction, however fleeting and limited. Darkclaw could not simply ignore the stresses on his mind, and the fact that Nayasar and Felivas were both missing only made things worse. Darkclaw shook his head again and forced himself to stare at the display, and to think of nothing else. There was still a battle to be properly concluded, and preparations to be made.

  * * *

  When the accounting over Ranivantum finally concluded hours later, Darkclaw found no respite. No sooner had he ordered his army to land and eliminate any ground-based weapons that could be used against the fleet, the abomination the High Lord called his avatar approached him. “The great one will speak with you now,” the thing said. Darkclaw madly reorganized the thoughts he’d had over the last few minutes, then nodded.

  “I will speak with him here.”

  Seconds later, he felt the all too familiar presence entering his mind. Darkclaw pressed what he had come to call the panic button, and then all was silent.

  “Darkclaw.”

  “My lord,”

  “The battle appears to be going well,” the High Lord said. “I see my mellus cannons have proven their worth. Again the Reizan’Tvay have given us an incomplete advantage, and I have been able to salvage usefulness from their treachery.”

  “They will fall, in time.” The Reizan’Tvay had created the Tyrannodons to conquer and rule all. Not even the Reizan’Tvay themselves were exempt.

  “Yes, they will.” The High Lord paused. “I am also pleased that my avatar construct is functioning well. I see that there have been no incidents where soldiers have failed to perform as they should.”

  “I would guess that the longer the soldiers were separated from your physical presence, the less control they would have.” It made perfect sense. The High Lord was meant to lead the Tyrannodons. It was proper that they would require his presence.

  “All is as it should be, apart from the matter of the traitor. The avatar has informed me that it believes it has sensed a traitor, but has been unable to determine exactly who that is.”

  “If the traitor is on this ship, I will ensure that he is found and removed,” Darkclaw said. “Any resources not devoted to the war effort will be spent to find him.” Darkclaw still did not understand how there could be a traitor. It was an unfortunate distraction, but it had to be dealt with. Perhaps he could use his unnecessary Felinaris and Snevan protectors to aid in the search. They would seek to end a threat to the High Lord as his allies.

  “I see that you have the situation well in hand, Darkclaw. However, do not waste time occupying the system. Its armies have fled, and there is no time to lose. Leave a small force to blockade the primary world in the system, and prepare the fleet for the final push to Kalisene and then the enemy capital. I will wait no longer. Now, I leave you to your work. I will speak with you again soon.”

  Abruptly, the High Lord’s presence vanished from Darkclaw’s mind. The Tehlman avatar nodded, then walked back to its spot on the command deck.

  Darkclaw then turned to his bodyguards. He would have them monitor the ship’s surveillance systems, report anything that Darkclaw considered out of the ordinary. There would be no ground battle; the High Lord had grander plans. The system was secured as a foothold on the Alliance’s core, but once the fleets departed for the final strikes on the moon that would serve as a staging point for their attack and Dorandor itself, it would no longer be needed. Additionally, the enemy would not be able to expend the forces to retake the Vakarin system, knowing what was coming, but not when or in what form.

  As he began to relay the orders, his female Felinaris bodyguard looked at him for a few seconds, then pressed a button on her multitool.

  As Darkclaw began to wonder what she was doing, everything came back in a rush that nearly staggered him. He was himself again, though he could remember how it had felt a few seconds before. It was almost as though there was another person in his head, fighting him for control. Fortunately, he was not the only one with a hand on the trigger.

  “Are you alright, Executor?” Lisar asked.

  “No, I’m not. Is there anything I missed while I was… occupied?”

  “No new reports from the fleet yet, but I did receive notification that Grand Admiral Khariah has returned to the fleet.”

  Then Felivas would be back as well. Darkclaw needed a word with them. Privately. “Come with me,” he ordered the bodyguards. As he approached the lift, Darkclaw turned to Commander Gadelius. “You have command of the Hudecar until I return. Forward any updates to my quarters. You will receive your orders momentarily” Darkclaw wondered for a moment what the loyal officer would think—and do—if he learned of Darkclaw’s plot.

  “Of course, Executor,” the officer replied calmly, just before the lift’s doors closed.

  A few minutes later, Darkclaw sat at his comm terminal, Lisar and Kalviss standing guard by the door just in case anyone came by. It was highly unlikely, but not worth the risk.

  Once he had sent the orders regarding preparation for the upcoming battle, Darkclaw entered a command on his console and opened a channel to the Felinar. As he had hoped, both Nayasar and Felivas appeared on the screen. “Where have you been?” he demanded. Darkclaw attempted to add menace to his voice, but in his current state, he couldn’t be sure if it was menace he was putting forth or panic. “I need you here, more now than at any other time. We are running out of time, and now both of you go missing?”

  “We can’t tell you where we’ve been, Darkclaw, or where we’ll be going,” Nayasar replied. “We’re both… sympathetic to your concerns, but we have tasks to complete as well.”


  How could they be so blind? “Do you have any idea what is at stake?” he practically shouted. “This is not just about a personal vendetta, or even just about your people or mine. This is about the fate of every intelligent life form in this galaxy and beyond! If we fail, there will be nothing to stop the High Lord. My people will continue to be his servants as I was, and yours will bow before him or die like all the rest.

  “I understand that you have a score to settle with the Alliance,” he continued, “one that you fear you will not be able to resolve if the war ends. But are you willing to risk the lives and freedom of your entire kind for it?”

  Both Felinaris were silent for a long moment. “What will us being here do? We’re not essential for you to wage war. Our tasks are separate from this,” Felivas said.

  “If you weren’t already aware,” Darkclaw said, his patience—apparently he had a patience limit—was growing thin, “the High Lord knows there is a traitor, and is actively seeking him, seeking me. He has sent an extension of himself on to the Hudecar and it watches just about everything I do. There is no way I will be able to even attempt to find any more answers from the Reizan’Tvay. That will all fall on the two of you now. This is why I need contact with you.”

  Nayasar smiled. “Well, you’re in luck. Felivas and I have decided that we can work in searches along with our other… activities. In fact, we’ve already searched a couple more outposts.”

  Darkclaw felt a weight lift off of him. The Felinaris had not completely abandoned him, though their actions were still troubling. “Thank you,” he said stiffly. “And we should have been more open with you,” Felivas said as he rested a hand firmly on Nayasar’s shoulder. Darkclaw knew it implied something, but he was not sure what.