by Ivan Kal
In the end, there had been twenty-four of them in the room.
“This is too few. I don’t think that this was a real attempt at stopping us,” Erasi Commander Ashah said over the comms.
“I agree–they must be planning something else. They were supposed to slow us down at best,” Ryaana said.
One of the Erasi commandos moved toward a terminal in the center of the room and inserted a small chip. This was supposed to be one of the Pillar’s operational centers, which should allow them some control.
“Anything?” Ashah asked his squad mate.
“They’ve locked down the camera feeds and the elevators. They probably want to force us to use the stairs.”
“Any way around that?” Ryaana asked.
“Yes. I’ll get the elevators back online,” Ashah said before his squad mate could answer.
“Any chance that they’ve rigged them?” Ryaana asked.
“No chance, they’ve been built to be impossible to sabotage, a completely closed and self-sufficient system. It had been a worry, so they made sure that it couldn’t happen.” Ashah said.
Ryaana nodded and walked over to Lurker of the Depths.
“Can you feel anything below us?” Ryaana asked privately.
“Yes,” Lurker of the Depths said. Then, after a beat, “It’s not good.”
“What do you mean?” Ryaana asked, confused.
“If what I am feeling is right, we will not have as much resistance as we are expecting,” Lurker of the Depths said.
Ryaana wanted to ask him to elaborate, but Ashah calling for her took her attention.
“Our ride is here,” he said, and the elevator arrived.
They shuffled inside and started their way down into the heart of the building.
Interlude VII
~Five hundred years ago
Vorash walked slowly out of the O’fa council, his thoughts uncertain. His brother had just gained the council’s approval for the invasion of Shara Daim. Fleets would be recalled from the Krashin front, weakening the border. A decision Vorash did not agree with. Yet, he had still voted for his brother’s plan.
Vorash stood by the council room’s entrance and waited. A few minutes later his brother walked out.
“Gar,” Vorash called as he fell in step besides Garash.
“I know what you want to say to me Vor,” Garash said. “I still believe that this is the right way. The only way.”
“Why not let the Weaver weave her webs? Let her deal with the Shara Daim, there is no need to send such a large force. Krashin–”
“Krashin had been dormant for decades. I doubt that they will continue with their push soon,” Garash said.
“You are weakening the border on purpose, if they realize...”
“They will not realize,” Garash told him. “It is necessary Vorash, the Shara Daim grow more powerful by the day. If we do nothing, they will become a threat, and I cannot allow anything to threaten the Erasi.”
“The Weaver–”
“Valanaru failed, her spies cannot infiltrate the Shara Daim. They are to xenophobic and too loyal to their Elders. That fact alone should scare you Vorash. The Shara Daim regard all other races as beneath them. They will come for us eventually.”
Vorash grimaced, he understood why Garash believed that they had to do horrible things in order to protect the Erasi. He just didn’t agree with him. There had to be a better way. The Erasi were supposed to be more.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Space
Adrian flew the Herald toward the Devastators and Araxi followed. The great beast’s mind had surprised him. He had memories from Old Scar of it communicating with the great beast, but it was not the same. When Araxi had touched his mind on its own, Adrian could feel the vast intellect that it held, even though it felt somehow different, more akin to what he felt when interacting with Sora.
Araxi was clearly intelligent, but its needs and wants were different than anything he could imagine. It loved the hunt, and it was eager to fight by Adrian’s side. It was fairly impressed by the Herald, and he got the sense that Araxi was not impressed easily, especially not by hollow metal beasts.
As soon as the two of them entered the range of the oncoming Devastators, Adrian used the amplifier and sent a telepathic signal to Araxi. Simultaneously, both the Herald and Araxi fired. The Devastator attempted to roll to mitigate the damage to a single section of its shields, but it didn’t matter, as the combined fire of the two massive beasts broke through, and Araxi slammed several fast-moving kinetic objects, all moving at almost three-fifths the speed of light, into the Devastator’s hull before another one moved in front of it to shield it from further attacks.
As it did, Adrian’s gunners fired a volley of s-missiles that detonated across the second Devastator’s shields, threatening to overwhelm them. Araxi took advantage–bursts of energy exploded out of the great beast and splattered over the Devastator’s shields, which collapsed almost immediately, allowing Adrian’s gunners to fire three well-placed shots with their anti-matter beams that blew three massive holes in the ship. It didn’t die, however, but instead it and the other Devastator’s fired all of their considerable weapons at Araxi, who moved back to take cover behind the Herald. This however only made the Devastators switch and focus their fire on it.
The Herald’s shields flashed and several portions collapsed, allowing the Devastators to scar the hull, and then they entered the range of their new weapon and the Herald started taking even more damage. But as they entered that range, the Herald’s weapons pummeled their shields, collapsing the shields of three more Devastators. As they closed even more distance, Araxi sped out from below the Herald, reaching out with its gravity weapons and grabbing hold of the closest Devastator, holding it in place as it fired plasma volleys at its hull at near point-blank range.
The Herald pushed its own gravity weapons to crush one of the Devastators, crumbling its entire forward section. Araxi finished with one of the Devastators and immediately changed focus on the one with the crumbled forward section, firing particle beams into it until it exploded.
Then, as Araxi entered their close range and bathed them all in plasma, the Herald’s weapons hammered in and started cleaving pieces of the Devastators off. Araxi collided with one of them, breaking the metal beast’s spine even as it put more weapons fire in it. In a manner of minutes, what had been five Devastators were now only an expanding field of debris.
* * *
Vorash watched in amazement as the Krashin great beast and one of the Sovereigns destroyed five of Valanaru’s Devastators with an ease that almost made Vorash feel ashamed. Then, as the last Devastator exploded, the two vessels turned on the surrounding fleets, destroying smaller ships almost far too easily.
“How are we looking?” Vorash asked Commander Hammu.
“The Sovereigns, as much as I hate to admit it, are making a difference. We are suffering far fewer losses than we have anticipated and we have already taken care of almost a third of the defenses around the planet,” Hammu said.
Vorash nodded. He was satisfied, of course, but he still couldn’t forget that they were fighting who should’ve been their own people. It was Valanaru that had made it this way, had turned Erasi against Erasi.
He should’ve never trusted her, and shouldn’t have let his brother trust her with the fate of the Erasi. Now, after he had finally seen the evidence on the holo, the battle between Erasi warships, he understood. Valanaru had never been a true part of the Erasi–she had always been seen herself as something more.
And it was Vorash’s fault, the fault of all the other O’fa, that they had allowed her to reign for so long. They had put their trust in her, given her the power that she now had, because she had kept them safe. She had made sure that there had been no threat capable of harming them: by killing, buying, manipulating, and betraying. In a way, it was they who had made her what she was. They had named her the Weaver of the Erasi, and she had only lived up t
o that name.
“What about the assault on the Pillar?” Vorash asked.
“They’ve landed, and we have a connection with the second team. They are putting up turret defenses on the roof, securing that vein of attack. Our people in the city are attacking from the front, but it is not going well. The Pillar is well defended against that avenue of attack. We must hope that the advance attack team succeeds in taking control of the command room.”
“Yes, let me know as soon as you get any word,” Vorash told him, and let him get back to his work.
“Of course, O’fa.” Hammu inclined his head.
Vorash returned to being the observer, to just waiting. His part to play was not in the war, not in the battle. It was what came after where his work would begin. His job was to unite them all, honor his agreement with the Shara Daim and the Empire, and make sure that another Valanaru would never rise again.
* * *
Old Scar guided Araxi to attack a few of the Betrayers’ vessels that had their shields weakened, and changed its targets. The fire from the Herald, Adrian’s vessel, covered it and smote anything that came near Araxi, and it loved that. The massive vessel was powerful enough that it could take fire that Araxi could not, and so it felt far safer having something like that to hide behind.
Old Scar found itself surprised at how much Araxi enjoyed the hunt–it was performing above its normal limits–and Old Scar was enjoying the hunt as well. This was the culmination of the Long Hunt, of the revenge the Krashinar decreed against those who had broken their Oaths and had killed the Seventh.
It did not come in the form that the Six had expected, but once this battle was won, The Punishment of the one responsible for the Betrayal would be complete–and Old Scar would finally have its revenge.
Adrian reached out again, informing them of another good place to hunt, and suggested that they enter skim and go there. Araxi jumped on the idea, and Old Scar agreed, guiding Araxi to the coordinates Adrian had provided.
The Hunt was not yet over.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Planetside
Ryaana’s group waited anxiously for the elevator to arrive at their destination. They were positioned so that they could open fire as soon as the elevator’s doors opened–but all the way down, she couldn’t shake a sensation that something was very wrong. There was nothing to suggest it other than Lurker of the Depths’ comments, yet she couldn’t help but feel a sensation of dread all around her. She could see it affecting the others, too. It was nothing much, just the way they turned their heads, searching for something that wasn’t there.
It made her worry.
The elevator finally reached their destination and the doors opened. Ryaana held her breath in anticipation of weapons fire that never came. There was no one in front of them. Carefully they stepped out into the hall. The lights were still on, yet there was no sign of anyone.
“Which way now?” Ryaana asked over the comms.
“This way,” Ashah said, pointing them toward one of the corridors.
They moved slowly, expecting a trap. There was none. After a few minutes of walking, they found the first body. A Gatrey was lying on the floor, unmoving.
“There is no sign of injury,” Ashah said slowly.
“No, there isn’t,” Ryaana agreed.
As they moved forward, they found more corpses. Eventually, they reached a hallway leading into two directions, and Ashah pointed them toward the command room.
“Wait,” Lurker of the Depths sent, stopping. He turned the other way. “She is there,” he told them.
“According to intel her private quarters are in that direction,” Ashah said over the comms.
“You should go to the command room, secure it and unlock the network,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “I’ll take care of her.”
“That isn’t the plan. We will all go–a well-placed shot to the head will kill her quickly and with less risk,” Ryaana told him. She stepped in his direction, but Lurker of the Depths raised a hand.
“You will only die,” Lurker of the Depths said. “Something is wrong with her, and I don’t think that you understand how strong she is. The closer you are to her, the more power she has over you. She can kill you all in an instant. You will only be a burden on me.”
Ryaana bristled at that. Perhaps she wasn’t the greatest telepath in the Empire, but she was formidable. She doubted that Valanaru could break through her defenses as easily as Lurker of the Depths seemed to think.
“Trust me on this, Ryaana,” Lurker of the Depths sent. “If you face her, you will die. All of you will die. Go to the command room. There, you will face no opposition. She has already killed them all.”
Ryaana opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it, looking down at the corpses of the Gatrey troops.
Her eyes looked up and fell on the Lurker of the Depths. Thinking it through she nodded, agreeing. “All right,” she sent, “but you better not die.”
Lurker of the Depths turned around and started walking in the other direction. “I won’t.”
As soon as he turned the corner, Ryaana gave the order for them to move out. Getting to the command room and unlocking the relay network was a big part of their mission, perhaps even more important than dealing with Valanaru.
* * *
The battle in space had somehow changed flow–even someone like Vorash could see it. His ships were gaining more ground more quickly, and Valanaru’s ships’ movements were less effective. Their formations were hampering one another. His commanders had noticed it as well.
“Any ideas on what is happening, Commander?” Vorash asked.
Hammu looked thought fully at the holo, then after a few beats he turned his large furred head to look at Vorash. “If I didn’t know better, I would say that they have no command oversight.”
“The assault team perhaps?” Vorash asked hopefully.
“It is possible. It is also possible that they had a break in the communications. Our people on the ground have been making as much chaos as they could,” Hammu answered.
Vorash looked at the holo, hoping to divine some kind of an answer. The only thing he could see was his side winning, and that was not bad as far answers went.
* * *
Lurker of the Depths, once a ruler of the Sowir Empire and now leader of the Sowir Clan of the Empire, walked slowly through the unfamiliar corridors within a building on a world farther away from the oceans of his home than he had ever been. There were moments in his life when he looked back on the currents that had brought him here, and he wondered how different his life could’ve been.
Had he not met Adrian, had he not realized what the Sowir had done, he would’ve probably been dead. Killed attempting to fight the humans and the Nel, misguided by the beliefs of the Sowir. Adrian’s mind had showed him that what the Sowir had believed had been wrong, a mistake–that the song of the Universe was nothing more than an echo, a loop of power they themselves had created.
Now, Lurker of the Depths knew that it was Adrian and the People, in fact, who had been wrong. The song of the Universe was real; and yet the things that the Sowir had done because they had misinterpreted it were nonetheless unforgivable. In fact, the Sowir that had survived the great pain their realization gave them, those who could bear the shame without ending their own lives, knew that they would never be forgiven for what they had done. And they had made sure that they themselves would never forgive nor forget what they had done.
Lurker of the Depths, however, had to live with a new knowledge: that a part of what they had believed was correct, even if that belief had led them to do terrible things.
With each step he drew closer to his opponent, and he could feel her in the Sha. He had been feeling her mind for a while now; her mind was open, her emotions blanketing the area around her with such intensity that the very air felt oddly charged. Lurker of the Depths had seen that the others had felt it as well, though they couldn’t feel the full intensity of it. The inhibitors
inside the walls shielded them from most of it, but for Lurker of the Depths, it was as clear as if Valanaru were standing before him.
She knew that he was coming, as he knew she could feel him as much as he could feel her. He felt a sense of anticipation from her, but also a sense of joy–and anger, and rage. Emotions flashed uncontrollably from her, a clear sign that she had no control remaining at all.
Lurker of the Depths stepped into a large room, seeing furniture tossed to the sides, and in the middle stood Valanaru, an open-mouthed grin on her face.
“At last.” Valanaru’s words spilled from her, hammering with intensity that made the air around them shake. “I’ve been dreaming about this for a long, long time, Lurker of the Depths.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Space
The Herald of War and Araxi smashed another defense station to pieces, blowing holes in it and sending it spinning in its orbit, pieces flying in several directions. As soon as they were done, they skimmed away, dropping on top of two Devastators, surprising them and firing on their already weakened shields from their battle with Vorash’s ships.
Adrian fed Old Scar targets, trying to make sure that it knew which of the ships around them were friendly and which were hostile. Araxi had accidentally shot one of her kinetic rounds into one of Vorash’s super-battleships after it had itself accidentally clipped Araxi’s shields. It had been mostly Araxi’s fault as it entered the super-battleships line of fire as it fired on one of Valanaru’s cruisers. Old Scar had asked Adrian to relay its apologies, but during their exchange Adrian had gotten a sense of Araxi’s own feelings, and it had become clear that the supposedly accidental shot had been nothing of the sort–apparently, the great beast held a grudge.
