Conquest (Rise of the Empire Book 9)

by Ivan Kal

  Some of it was information provided by other races, and some was from their own dealings by the Empire, but altogether it did paint a different picture. It told a tale of a young race that had suddenly grown at an unimaginable rate, swallowing many races around it. A warlike race, proficient in destruction, yet clearly willing to protect others. It was at odds with everything Levisomaerni knew of the People, and she had feared that she had made a mistake–until she had stumbled on the records of a battle fought several centuries ago.

  She saw a World-ship of the People, and she knew that her suspicions had been correct. They were connected to the People, and she needed to know the truth of what happened so long ago.

  And as they learned more on their trip to the Empire’s territory, the mood of the diplomatic team changed, from reluctant to slightly interested. To them, the Empire was an enigma. They wanted to learn how they had advanced so quickly in such a short time.

  Then they had arrived, and were allowed to pass through the Empire’s territory. She had truly been surprised by that, as she did not think that they would let such a large force pass through their systems. Especially not after the Josanti had refused them passage through their territory.

  But an escort fleet arrived, a very large one. And as they were escorted to the heart of the Empire’s territory, things started to become cleared. Better scans of the ships that escorted them showed a much different picture than their previous information. These were not primitive technologies–they were different, but far from what they had expected. They were also very different from what she knew of the People…but there were echoes.

  At first they had been taken through empty systems, or barely colonized ones. And her diplomats had grown annoyed, thinking that they were being led around. But then they started passing through more colonized ones. And then they arrived to a system named Sol, according to the net that her people had been given access to.

  And there, Levisomaerni saw something truly remarkable. It was clearly a system dedicated to construction, with massive yards surrounding a gas giant, one entire planet covered in resin pools–clearly the technology of the People. And in orbit of the fourth world stood a World-ship, surrounded by smaller and clearly far more weaponized variations on the People’s World-ships. There, for the first time, she felt a touch of fear.

  A possibility that another race had discovered the People’s technology and was utilizing it had never occurred to her. After all the Nel, Human, and Shara Daim races looked so much like the People, that she had assumed that those were just new names they had assumed. But seeing them do things that the People never did showed her that they were far from what she remembered.

  Then, as if to offer a counterbalance to her fear, they entered the sun’s corona and passed through an access point. The greatest achievement of the People were the access points, the grid that connected the galaxy. One that had remained usable by all since the People’s mysterious passing, to all except the black ships–which Levisomaerni knew were themselves created by the People, and which most of the Partenai believed to be controlled by an artificial intelligence left behind by the People to keep the true monsters of the galaxy contained.

  The Partenai had some knowledge of the People, and they had been unable to use any of the access points in their territory. None of their brightest scientists and technicians had figured out how to gain access to the points. Yet these people could.

  After that they had exited through the point several hundred light years away, and entered the last stretch of their trip. Now they were about to enter the Empire’s capital, a system called Sanctuary, one that was surrounded by a nebula. A strange place for the center of a star-nation; according the limited information she had on it, it was not a hub system, meaning it had only few trans-space points.

  A chime pulled Levisomaerni’s attention from her reading, and she looked at the short message. They would arrive shortly. She stood up and walked out of her quarters. Soon enough she would have her answers.

  Interlude II

  Union of the Species ~ Fifteen thousand years ago

  Vorash sat in the Loraru command center, watching as Garash led their forces against the black ships. It was not going well. The black ships were relentless, almost like monsters from stories told to children. Nothing that they did was accomplishing anything.

  “The weapon had no effect, Commander,” one of their subordinates said.

  “Order the ship to fire again,” Garash said.

  “Yes, Commander.”

  Both Garash and Vorash watched as the ship fired again, and as their weapon had no effect again.

  “The same result, Commander,” the subordinate said softly.

  “Abandon the mission. Pull our ships back,” Garash ordered.

  Vorash could feel the pain in his brother’s voice. This failure meant that they would lose another world. Most of the population had been evacuated, but not all–they did not have enough ships for that. And that meant that those that were left behind would die.

  And Garash would again blame himself.

  Their retreat took hours, and all the while the black ships kept coming. They did not seem to bother with chasing them, instead moving simply to the planet. As soon as they reached it, all the sensors from the planet cut off, as they always did. And so another world of the Union fell.

  Vorash could weep for the injustice of it all. The black ships did not communicate, they showed no mercy, no reason. They just kept coming.

  “Gar,” Vorash said to his brother once their ships safely entered a trans-lane.

  “We will find a way, Vor,” his brother said resolutely. “I know that we will. I will see to it.”

  “I know that you will. You have always been our people’s greatest protector,” Vorash said. If anyone could save them, it would be him.

  They sat in silence for a while.

  “I really thought that it was going to work,” Garash whispered, almost as if he hadn’t realized that he had spoken out loud.

  Vorash’s heart broke for his brother. The weight of the entire Union, of trillions of lives, and all of them, rested on him.

  Vorash put a hand on Garash’s shoulder, leaning down to look him in the eyes. “We will find a way to protect our people, brother. I know that we will.”

  Chapter Ten

  Alliance staging point – Erasi outer territory

  Adrian and Anessa sat in a meeting room, surrounded by the commanders of the invasion force. Their retreat from the assault was the first major setback they had encountered, and they had gathered to discuss how they should proceed.

  “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Fleet Commander Johanna Stern said, her knuckles tapping the table consistently.

  “Yes, and it has. We still have the advantage and the momentum. They might’ve defended one system, but we’ve taken seven others since then,” Sentinel Riss said.

  “We’ve been fighting their less capable forces. Now, their best will be coming,” Lurker of the Depths sent to everyone at the table.

  “It doesn’t matter–they can’t possibly defend forever. Already the Krashinar have struck against the Erasi fleets sent to their territory,” Anessa said. “Once they secure their territory, their Great Packs will attack the Erasi rimward border again. They won’t be able to fight invasions on both sides of their territory.”

  Adrian shook his head. “There was never the question of if we were going to win, of if our invasion was going to be successful. The only question was how long it was going to take us. And now it looks like we will be fighting this war for hundred years, more even.”

  “The Erasi are a massive empire,” Sentinel Riss said. “Gone are the times when we dealt in star-nations controlling a handful of systems.”

  “I know that,” Adrian replied, “but I do not want us tied up in this war. I never did. We have bigger concerns than this.”

  He saw many around the table agree with his words; all of them were in the know about the
Enlightened. While most people knew something, they did not know everything, and very few knew that the Shara Daim, Humans, and Nel had been created to battle that threat.

  “We could not have allowed the Erasi to be free at our backs. They were only biding their time. Your own information indicated that they were going to attack us. We need to take care of them now,” Anessa told him.

  “Of course. I do not disagree with this war so much as I just wish that there was some way to end it quickly.” Adrian reached up with a hand to scratch at his head. He had many plans in motion, some that could give them an edge. But they were all plans and schemes that had yet to pay off in any big way. He knew that he needed to be patient and vigilant. He would see the chance, and once it came, he needed to be ready to jump on it.

  “In any case,” Adrian continued, “I have sent a request to the Fleet for more Sovereigns. I plan on breaking through the line into their core. And any successful assault on their core needs a safe line for our supplies. Getting a hub system with a direct trans-lane into the core is what we need. And there are other such systems. They can’t reinforce all of them.”

  “And if we don’t get more Sovereigns?” Johanna asked.

  “Then we pull all of our invasion force into one massive force and smash through. I am done taking things slowly.”

  * * *

  Adrian reached out to the side of the room, grabbing hold of a punching bag and ripping it off its chain, pulling it toward him. At the last minute he stepped back just as his opponent threw a punch at his face. Unfortunately for her, just as she extended forward, the bag slammed into her side.

  Anessa lost her balance and fell down to the ground. She threw the punching bag to the side and glared at him from the floor.

  “That was cheating,” she told him. “We agreed. No Sha.”

  “Did we now?” Adrian asked innocently.

  He felt her grab hold of the Sha and push herself of the floor. Almost floating for a moment, she twisted and got to her feet.

  “So that is how you want it?” Anessa smirked.

  “Oh, no!” Adrian exclaimed. “I pissed off the big bad Dai Sha Anessa. Oh, what ever will I do?”

  A quick kinetic punch at his face silenced him as he ducked to avoid it.

  “Smartass,” she told him.

  “Come, let us see how rusty you’ve become. It’s been ages since you’ve been the Dai Sha,” Adrian mocked.

  Anessa’s eyes narrowed, but he could see a slim quirk of her mouth.

  She pushed her hands forward, sending a wave of force at him. Adrian jumped and grabbed hold of the ceiling with the Sha pulling himself above her blast, and sending one of his own at her face. She pirouetted away and tried to catch him with her telekinesis. Adrian felt her grab him, but he simply flashed the Sha around him, breaking her connection.

  As he approached the ceiling, he twisted in the air, letting go of his pull on the ceiling and letting his momentum bring him up. He placed his legs on the ceiling and then bent his knees. A moment later, he pushed himself off and toward Anessa.

  Surprised, she shot another kinetic blast at him. Adrian activated his Sha sight, seeing the Sha transferring the force through the air. He reached out and moved it away, pushing her kinetic attack around himself.

  Then he extended his arms toward her and reached out to the Sha around her. He used her as an anchor to slow himself down, and he heard her grunt as she took the combined force of his fall. He slowed down and then grabbed the ground, twisting himself down as he took hold of her shoulders with his hands. As soon as his feet touched the ground, her pulled her over his back and threw her on the floor, jumping on her and pinning her arms with his knees just as he dropped a layer of Sha over her to prevent her from moving.

  “Well, well, well… Not so scary now, are we?” Adrian teased.

  Anessa narrowed her eyes at him. “You are going to teach me how to do that.”

  Adrian smiled and released her.

  “Of course, love,” he said, before leaning down to kiss her gently on the lips.

  * * *

  Several days later, Adrian and Anessa were sitting in his quarters. Well, Adrian was sitting, and Anessa was pacing.

  “What’s wrong?” Adrian asked after spending several minutes attempting to ignore her and focus on his reports.

  “We did not get any word back from Ryaana.”

  Adrian barely resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at her. Thankfully, he restrained himself. He knew how that would go over, and he did not particularly want to incite Anessa’s wrath. Many thought of Anessa as an emotionless ruler, the same as they thought Adrian. Many were wrong. No matter what disagreements she had with her daughter, she did love her. And she did worry about her.

  “She is in enemy territory, and it’s not like she can risk sending couriers often just to let us know that all is fine,” Adrian told her.

  “We should’ve sent a larger force with her.”

  “The force we agreed upon is sufficient.”

  “We should’ve sent someone else.”

  “She had spent a better part of ten years in Erasi territory, and thus she understands the terrain far better than most. She was the only choice.”

  Anessa grimaced, and then threw herself down into her chair. “I hate it when you are right,” she growled. “It would’ve been better if it wasn’t all the damn time.”

  Adrian shrugged.

  They sat in silence for a while, until sometime latter Anessa spoke again.

  “Any word on your weaves, Heart of the Mountain?” she asked with a touch of sarcasm.

  Adrian gave her a droll look on her use of the name the Erasi Weaver gave him. It was supposed to be a great honor in the Erasi, to be given a name by a mind-bender. And Adrian didn’t really hate the name–he kind of liked it–but it did remind him of the fact that the last time he had fought with the Weaver, she had almost killed him.

  “No,” Adrian started, answering Anessa’s question, “there is nothing that we can use now.”

  “But there is something?”

  “These things take time, Anessa.”

  “You’ve been laying down pieces for hundreds of years!”

  “That plan had always been a long game, a great time investment for a possible great return.”

  “And you think that you can still get what you want?”

  “It is possible. We shall see.”

  “Fine,” Anessa said. “It’s not like I ever believed it would work anyway.”

  Adrian chuckled at her words, but didn’t comment.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sanctuary

  High Matriarch Levisomaerni sat in a grand room with tables and suitable seating for every race that the Josanti had present. She had been actually rather surprised that they had something able to accommodate them all. The first few hours of their meetings had gone as one would have expected a diplomatic mission to go. They had been introduced to the Emperor and a few of his higher-ranking officials, then invited to walk the city and the palace itself. It had all been rather impressive.

  The Empire’s capital was not at all what she had expected. The world itself had been left virtually untouched. Only a single plateau showed any sign of civilization, the city, and even that was small by any Josanti standards. She was made aware that there was a lot of the city underground, but it still impressed her. Few were the races that could show restraint and respect toward nature.

  The space above them was another matter, however. Other planets in the system were heavily colonized, more on the scale she had expected. There were thousands of stations and military platforms. The defenses had frankly scared her; she had never seen a system as fortified as this one. And the amount of military ships present was staggering. She did not know if it was standard practice or if they were simply there because of her, but the commander of her military escort had been completely taken aback and cowed at the sight. Their trip had been fairly illuminating, as their analysis of the ships from
the fleets escorting them showed that this Empire’s warships were very close to matching the Josanti League’s best.

  Her commander did not think that they could fight their way out of this system.

  It was a sobering thought, and one she was not really accustomed to. It had been a long time since the Partenai had felt at a disadvantage.

  After the tour they had retreated to the palace, where diplomats had started the usual talks–a necessity that annoyed Levisomaerni. She was not here for that. Her plan was to gain a private audience with their Emperor, and then attempt to find the truth. She cast her eyes across the room to the man in question. Tomas Klein, the Emperor, was to her eyes, at least, uninteresting, aside from his resemblance to the People. With her mind she could feel his own; most of those in this room had the Sha, as the People had called it. The Josanti League had another name for it, but the Partenai had always used the name that the People used.

  It did not surprise her to find that all those from the Empire’s side had it, and that they were fairly strong. It gave another point to her theory about who these people were.

  Then, finally, the diplomats agreed to a pause. Levisomaerni hoped for a chance to ask for a private meeting, but found that it was not needed. The Emperor approached her and asked if she would like to take a more private walk, his words translated by the device they had given to her and her team. They were simpler than those of the Josanti, but functional. It didn’t really matter, of course, as any important talk would be conducted via telepathy. They walked in silence for a while, accompanied by their guards. When they reached a door, and the Emperor stopped and turned to her.