by Ivan Kal
Hammu had the overall command of the battle, and Vorash stayed out of his way. Simply watching from the sides as his commander fought their forces.
Vorash gazed at the holo of the planet. They had confirmation that their assault ships had landed and had started their attack of the Pillar. Vorash hoped that they managed to fulfill their mission. He had tried to appeal to Valanaru’s fleets and their commanders several times, but none had budged. He knew that Valanaru held them all in her grasp and that it was hard to break from something they had known for so long–and Valanaru had ruled them since before there had been Erasi. They feared her.
He hoped that once she was dealt with they would change their minds, or that at least some of them would. He knew that there was going to need to be a reckoning, punishments for going against the O’fa council, but he also knew that they couldn’t fight them all. A reconciliation was what had to happen.
* * *
Adrian watched the battle play out as the Herald’s crew worked on getting the shield emitters that had been damaged in their short fight repaired. He was in the orbit of the first planet, close to the station Vorash was on, and the station was feeding his ship with all of their sensor data as well as that of their ships.
His other Sovereigns were engaged in battle with the elements of Valanaru’s forces all over the battle line, and they were changing positions as soon as opportunity to strike presented itself. They were moving erratically, striking at one side of the battle and then skimming away and coming back somewhere else where Valanaru’s forces were attempting to overwhelm Vorash’s.
It had been going well for them. But Valanaru’s Devastators were still hiding behind the defenses, firing from relative safety. Once they decided to come out, things were going to change. They were powerful ships alone, but along with the help from the defensive stations and other fleet vessels, they could pose a great threat.
Adrian’s crew informed him that the repairs were finished just as a good opportunity presented itself. He pointed the Herald at one of the defensive stations above the planet in high orbit where Vorash’s forces were attempting to clear defensive platforms in order to support another battle line.
In the next moment, the Herald entered the skim and was away.
* * *
Old Scar guided Araxi’s sights to another of the Betrayers’ large vessels, the ones they called super battleships, and with a gentle order had it empty its sacs and fire. Two twin beams of energy left its forward emitters and struck at the distant target with enough force to bring its shields down in a cascade that even did some damage to the vessel itself as its shield emitters blew up.
The vessels around Araxi took advantage of that and fired their weapons, pulverizing the front end of the vessel.
Old Scar felt Araxi grumble at being denied the kill, but it calmed the great beast. There was no need for it; there were enough metal vessels to hunt. The thought about the metal vessels made Old Scar suddenly aware that it did not really have a way of identifying which of the metal beasts were on its side, and which weren’t.
This had never been a problem before, as they would simply attack any and all metal vessels. Even when they fought with their new allies, it hadn’t been a problem, as their beasts could tell the shapes of the vessels reasonably well, and they felt different to them, as the beasts had let their Hunt-masters know. But now they were against the same kind of vessels that they were fighting against. It posed some difficulties.
But not many, Old Scar had to conclude. The battle lines were very clear, and Araxi reckoned that anything that fired on it was fair game to hunt, and Old Scar agreed.
Old Scar gazed through the senses of Araxi, and noticed several of the Betrayers’ great beasts, the large vessels they called Devastators, moving toward the battle line close to Araxi. With a great eagerness, Old Scar pointed this out to Araxi, and they started moving upward through the battle line. A few energy-weapon discharges from their side of the battle came close to Araxi, and one even nicked its shield, which made Araxi immediately willing to turn and swath the vessel. Old Scar had to be a bit more forceful with its insistence to continue toward their target. It was certain that it was accidental.
Having no way of communicating in battle made it much harder to coordinate, which was why Araxi had been keeping itself in the back line from where it could simply hammer at the enemy. But now there was worthy prey, and neither Araxi nor Old Scar could resist.
* * *
The Herald of War dropped out of skim right on top of one of the large defense stations. Before Valanaru’s Erasi could even register his arrival, the Herald fired its ion turrets into the station’s shields, draining them at a much higher rate than ordinary weapons could. Vorash’s forces reacted immediately, switching fire from the platforms surrounding the station to the station itself.
The station’s shields faltered, sections of it failing, and Adrian ordered his gunners to fire into the breaches.
Plasma and xa’nan bolts flew from the Sovereign, striking the surface of the station and eating through it. Plasma burned the hull, and xa’nan energy ate through all the matter it could find until it ran out of charge.
Within several minutes, a station which had been the size of a Sovereign was a hole-ridden wreck–but it was still firing. Its capabilities were diminished, yet a few sections still had shields. Adrian started turning the Herald even as gunners still put fire into the station. As soon as he had turned enough, he skimmed away. Vorash’s ships would be able to handle the rest on their own.
Adrian had seen an interesting development, and he wanted in.
* * *
Araxi smashed through the shields of one of the Betrayers’ Devastators, and then, reaching across the short distance, it attached its gravity emitters and pulled on its hull even as it kept firing its thorns into it. The pointed bolts of sisha were formed inside of its own belly and were ejected forcibly by Araxi’s electromagnetic fields to speeds near those of light. At those speeds, each strike delivered enormous amount of energy.
Three bolts slammed into the Devastator’s unprotected hull, crumbling it inward as they penetrated inside. As soon as a hole was made, Araxi emptied one of its plasma sacs directly inside the ship, burning it from the inside out.
The five other Devastator vessels were putting fire into Araxi to the point that they were ignoring the fire they were receiving from the surrounding ships. Araxi was ignoring their fire, focusing instead on the prey it held in its grasp. However, Old Scar could feel that her shield banks were being depleted, and fast.
Just as Old Scar was about to tell Araxi to ease off, another massive vessel appeared next to it. Recognizing it immediately, Old Scar didn’t hesitate to accept the communication request when it came.
“May we join you in your hunt, Old Scar?” Adrian asked.
“Of course, Adrian,” Old Scar sent, and Araxi, in an unusual action, added its own feeling to the feed: great joy, desire for the hunt, and feelings of camaraderie. Old Scar was astonished at that. Great beasts never did that; they communicated in such a manner with other great beasts, but never with individual people.
“A great honor indeed, Araxi,” Adrian sent the response, along with his own feelings, feelings that Old Scar hadn’t received completely as they had been intercepted by Araxi. It frowned–it looked like Araxi had sent more than Old Scar had felt to Adrian.
Shaking himself off, Old Scar returned to guiding Araxi. That little irregularity could be examined later. It attempted to guide Araxi into position beneath Adrian’s large vessel, but there was no need. Araxi had already fallen in formation with the Sovereign.
A strange occurrence indeed, Old Scar thought to itself, but it allowed Araxi to proceed. One had to know when to order their beast around, and when to let them do as they wished. Often, they knew better.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Planetside
Ryaana’s turrets fired a continuous stream of fire as she jumped over the Gatrey tr
oops, raining fire down on them even as the rest of her team fired from behind her. They had been encountering heavy resistance ever since they entered the top floor–all Gatrey troops.
The Erasi Ssarath leveled their rifles and fired at the Gatrey, who survived. Falling in the middle of a group of them, Ryaana extended her mono-blade and cut to the side, even as one of them attempted to attack her mind. She had been expecting such attacks, and was readily shrugging them off.
Finishing the remaining Gatrey squad, her group started moving deeper inside. A few floors down, they encountered another heavily fortified group, this one with a turret assembled and pointed toward them.
With a few mental commands to her team, Ryaana had a plan ready to execute. She stepped into the turret’s fire, holding up a Sha shield in front of her, aided by Vas and one of her Nel commandos. The turret’s fire slammed into their combined shield and nearly overwhelmed it, but it held. The other two Nel commandos stepped behind her and threw grenades over their shields. Her last commando, a human, threw a Sha field around the grenades, preventing the Gatrey from grabbing them with their own Sha. The grenades fell down next to the turret and exploded, destroying it and killing several of the Gatrey.
Ryaana, the Nel commando, and Vas moved aside and let their shields drop as the Erasi commandos surged forward, assaulting the Gatrey positions. They jumped over the cover and fired their rifles finishing off the rest.
Quickly they continued forward, keeping up the pace.
They reached another encampment, this one with several turrets set up over two levels, and all pointed at their passageway. Ryaana debated using the same tactic, but knew that there was no way they would be able to hold that much firepower at bay.
Ryaana was just about to ask for any ideas, when Lurker of the Depths stepped forward.
“I’ll handle it,” Lurker of the Depths sent.
Ryaana frowned and started to ask him what he meant, when his mind opened and power flew out of him. It was such an amazing feat that, for a moment, Ryaana forgot to breathe. Three quick waves of his power blasted out of him, directed toward the Gatrey positions–and then it was all quiet, his mind closed off again.
Ryaana looked at him in amazement, along with everyone else.
“It is safe now,” Lurker of the Depths sent and stepped out into the hall.
Ryaana followed close behind, only to see every Gatrey in the room on the floor.
“Are they dead?” Ryaana asked.
“Unconscious,” Lurker of the Depths responded.
Ryaana stopped and watched in amazement as Lurker of the Depths moved among the fallen Gatrey.
“Who is that?” Ashah asked on a private channel as he stepped next to her.
“That is the greatest telepath in the Empire.”
* * *
A few minutes later, Ryaana and the rest of the assault squad realized that they had not encountered anyone in a while. They were moving through the empty corridors leading down toward the heart of the building, and presumably their destination. The intel they had on the inside of this place was slim, but it suggested that Valanaru would be in the command room.
The fact that they hadn’t encountered anyone was in Ryaana’s opinion a bad thing–it probably meant that they had placed a trap somewhere in their path. And with every step they took without seeing anyone, Ryaana expected an ambush sooner. It was why she had her armor’s drones out and flying recon ahead of them
The greatest issue they had encountered was that as soon as they had passed the last encampment, the walls had started having telepathy inhibitors that prevented them from scanning ahead for signatures. They could still talk mentally and telepathy worked, but it had a limited range.
They passed through two more empty corridors, and were about to enter a small control room that had several elevators that would lead closer to where they had to go. Ryaana released more drones from her back and flew them behind them to watch. She was certain that here was where the ambush would be.
The doors were closed, so she couldn’t send the drones ahead. Before she could come up with a solution, Lurker of the Depths spoke.
“They are inside, waiting.”
“You can sense them?” Ryaana asked, surprised. She checked her telepathy, but didn’t feel anything.
“Not individually… However, they are leaving an imprint. I know that there are people inside, though I don’t know how many,” Lurker of the Depths sent.
Ryaana turned to the others, who were all looking at her. Lurker of the Depths had included them all in the exchange. The only one who wasn’t looking at her for orders was Vas, who was looking at Lurker of the Depths, but she couldn’t tell what his face looked like because of his helm.
“We are going in hard and fast,” Ryaana said, and then told them her plan.
* * *
Valanaru gazed at the holo with a burning intensity, rage pulsing in her mind, making her almost see red. Her commanders were giving out orders, for all the good that did. They were losing. The battle in space was going badly. The damned Sovereigns were pummeling her defenses and her warships, and there was nothing that she could do about that. Her commanders were grossly incompetent. Vorash was going to win–she saw no way out of this.
For the first time in her life, she felt utterly helpless, with no plan that could help her turn the tide. She turned her sights to the holo on the side, seeing the assault team sent against the Pillar moving through her troops as if they were nothing. Then, as they arrived at one fairly fortified encampment, Valanaru felt it: a touch of a familiar mind. She felt it and the barriers that she had held in place for centuries cracked. Her mouth opened and a laugh came out of her, a laugh that sounded like a cry. Her commanders, startled, turned to look at her in horror.
So, it is you that they sent to kill me, Lurker of the Depths. Somehow that made her fill with joy.
“O’fa?” a voice said, buzzing in her mind, fighting for her attention.
She gave no response. Her eyes were glued to the holo, looking at the Lurker of the Depths, the only person ever to defeat her. Her greatest foe, the bane of her dreams. More voices buzzed in her ears, wanting her attention. But in her mind there was room only for one thought, for one desire.
Someone landed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned back to the annoyances. They had failed–they were nothing, insignificant.
Her mind unfurled itself, and she snuffed these annoyances out.
Quiet was her reward, as all of them fell to the floor silently. Valanaru turned, walking out of the room, filled with anticipation. Soon, Lurker of the Depths. Soon.
* * *
Aranau liked to think that he was a good person, that he lived a good life–maybe not the best, but good. It was why he couldn’t figure out how he had found himself behind cover in a death trap of a building waiting for enemies to come through a door.
He was a Gatrey, and like all Gatreys, he’d had three things instilled in him since birth. First was loyalty to the Erasi–to be willing to do anything to ensure that nothing and no one could threaten them. Second, he had been taught that his mind was his greatest weapon, that it was their telepathy that allowed the Gatrey to be at the top of the Erasi. And third, he had been taught to above all else obey the will of the Weaver, Valanaru of the Erasi.
The third was the one thing that every Gatrey would never dare go against. They knew that to cross the Weaver was to die. There was no escape from her weaves–either she would find you and kill you herself in a manner that would make you wish that you had never even been born, or she would arrange things so that you went quietly in the night. Either way, one did not disobey the ruler of the Gatrey. She alone had stood upon the very top of the Gatrey civilization by the virtue of the power of her mind alone.
It was why when Valanaru had called on the Gatrey to fight against those who they had regarded as kin, they could do nothing but come…because even worse than breaking their oaths was the thought of disobeying the Weaver’s ord
ers.
And so, Aranau found himself pointing a weapon at a closed door, his mind ready to lash out against any who come inside. To execute the will of the Weaver.
He was watching the doors, when he noticed something strange happen to them.
“Hey,” Aranau reached out with his mind to those around him, “are the doors smoking?”
He had only a moment to wonder, however, as the door suddenly froze and then broke apart in a burst of gray mist. Before he could even process what had happened, a bolt of energy pierced his chest and he could do nothing but look at the hole where his heart had once been beating before his eyes closed for the final time.
* * *
Ryaana vaulted over the Gatrey’s cover, her turrets firing all the way on the soldiers behind. Her mind was being hammered with mental attacks, but as she was prepared for them beforehand her defenses were holding.
They had used one of the Empire’s freeze grenades to freeze the doors and then had thrown one of their gas grenades to allow them for some cover and surprise.
The Ssarath from the Erasi commando squad slithered faster than the eye could follow and jumped over the cover as well, the rifle in his hands firing constantly. As more of Ryaana’s squad entered, the assaults on their minds lessened and then finally stopped as Vas fired his rifle into the last Gatrey.
