The Rise of The Dominion: A Dominion War novel

by D. M. Marshall

  After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, the ship was finally ushered through the shield and followed its specified path down to the landing pad at the top of the Imperial Stronghold. As they filed their way out of the ship Raichel was shocked to see how much security had been increased since she’d last been here. Imperial guards, shock troopers and security guards were everywhere. They were stationed at almost every intersection and every door. Whole squads marched constantly throughout the building. Even an army of Edo would be hard-pressed to reach Weststar now. Which, presumably, was exactly the intention.

  All the extra troopers had the one benefit of making it very simple for Raichel and Calista to separate themselves from the shuttle’s security detail. As they marched down a corridor they just had to wait until a squad of shock troopers passed them the opposite way. As they did they simply turned and marched at the rear of the squad before then taking the next corridor off to the side. Nobody noticed a thing. Then, it was simple for them to make their way to a lift, down the lift to the ground floor and then out via the main entrance, marching quickly as if they had urgent orders to complete, deterring anyone from wanting to interfere with them.

  Once in the plaza they found a public refresher and removed the massive shock trooper armor, much to Calista’s relief. They stowed way the armor and weapons in several cubicles and then used Astral energy to lock the doors. They hoped it would not be until the evening before the equipment would be discovered. They waited until they felt no one was near who had seen them enter as storm troopers and then left, dressed in standard Imperial administrative workers uniforms - typically gray and drab.

  They strolled around the plaza, pretending to be on a break, whilst looking and sensing via Channeling to try and find their contact. Annoyingly, he didn’t seem to be present and so they kept up their charade whilst they waited impatiently.

  Raichel noticed them just before Flores - two people who had suddenly become excited at having seen them. Or at least, one of them was excited, the female. Her companion, a strangely bulky man seemed entirely oblivious to where he was, let alone their presence. The two Edo gave each other a glance. The pair were not your standard spies or agents. The woman began to drag the man towards them.

  Calista Flores took a few steps away from Raichel so that they could fight more freely should they need to.

  “Raichel?” said the woman, who now she was near, looked strangely familiar. Flores glanced between the two, bemused.

  Raichel sensed nothing hostile from the woman, and her danger sense remained calm. “Walk with us, please.”

  “Of course. Block, keep up, will you,” she said to the man, obviously close to exasperation.

  “Who sent you,” asked Raichel, daring to hope.

  “Gil. He and I worked together on occasion when he was a Royal Defender. He came to me to seek somewhere to recover from his injuries. A task force came to arrest me. He saved me but was then captured by Skave.”

  The woman stopped and took Raichel’s arm. “He let himself be captured so that we could escape,” she said, a look of earnest amazement in her eyes.

  Raichel smiled. “That’s Gil for you. Ever the gallant hero.”

  “He said you would come for him. He gave me this to give to you.” Raichel took the pistol from her.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Forma.”

  “Block,” said the man, gazing happily at Calista Flores’ bosom. Flores frowned.

  “Thank you, Forma. And err, you, Block. We’re going to rescue Gil, this will help greatly.”

  “We can help you - Block here knows people. We can get you transport, get you information.”

  “Does he?” Raichel couldn’t help but ask incredulously.

  Forma laughed. “Yes. Don’t ask me how. People just seem to take to him. Ask him something.”

  “Okay. Block, do you know where Doyen Niettha is?”

  Block looked confused.

  “No, Raichel. It has to be something like do you know where Niettha likes to hide away.”

  “Oh, Block knows!”

  “Raichel, are you sure about this,” warned Flores, clearly concerned.

  “I don’t see what we have to lose, Calista. Lead on, dear Block. Lead on.”

  The countdown timer ticked off the seconds. Three, two, one. Automatically the shuttle’s hyperdrive systems ramped down, bringing them smoothly out of hyperspace and back into the real universe. Stars appeared to temporarily streak into infinity before resuming their normal pinpoint luminosity.

  Ahead of them lay the Artificial Intelligence-controlled world. Expen Prosger.

  “We’re here,” Jake said breathlessly, awed at the site of the beautiful orb that hung before them. One half of the planet was lush green, more vibrant than any he’d seen, surrounding a white polar ice cap. Around Expen’s equator were vast lakes and tributary systems, covered here and there by clouds that escaped from the cloud covered southern hemisphere. The place where the Zhur Thoggu were supposed to now call home.

  “Snap out of it, Jake,” hissed Kaliko Savina, roughly pushing him from the pilot’s chair.

  “Hey!” he exclaimed. “What’s the problem?”

  Kaliko grimaced as she applied maximum power to the shuttle’s weak thrusters, and began to put the shuttle through a series of evasive maneuvers. Jake checked the scanners. A pair of junker fighters were hot on their heels. One was a Drago bomber fuselage bonded to a pair of Delta fighter wings, the other a Delta bomber cockpit bonded to Drago bomber engines. Jake briefly wondered why they didn’t just reverse the pairing and have two decent fighters. Ranging shots from the pair scorched past, too close for comfort.

  “Employing countermeasures,” he cried, flailing at the switches.

  “Jake, signal the Expen Prosger fleet, tell them we need help,” she urged.

  Jake reached out and flipped a switch, priming the comms system to send an all-directions, all-frequency emergency signal - SOS. Save our souls.

  “I’m not sure whether they’ll come.”

  The shuttle was hit with a concussion pulse from the Delta Bomber ugly, sending sparks jumping from the console and causing alarms to begin to shriek.

  “Shields are down, one more hit and we’re gone,” said Kaliko. “Hold on tight, Jake!” She threw the shuttle into a series of barrel rolls, snapping out of them and reversing direction completely at random. Jake had to use the Astrals to stick himself to the deck.

  “Dial up the inertial dampeners,” he cried, going white.

  Kaliko laughed. “Oh, come on Jake, enjoy the ride.”

  He saw some objects arcing around Expen Prosger in a low orbit, glistening and sparkling as the light from K’sidariv’s star reflected from them. “There!” he said. “Help is coming.”

  “Let’s hope it’s not too late,” said Kaliko, still struggling with the controls. “See if you can restart the shields.”

  Jake got to work but there was a terrible explosion at the rear of the shuttle and then they were spinning and tumbling uncontrolled, lights and sounds extinguished.

  Kaliko turned and clung to Jake. He hugged her back, hard.

  “Hey,” he said. “I thought you said one more shot?” Kaliko looked back at him as if crazy but then laughed. She kissed him passionately.

  “Ok, two. Shoot me!” She held Jake tight. “There’s no-one I would rather die with, Jake. I mean it.”

  “That’s sweet,” he said, looking out of the viewport, “but don’t ahead of yourself Kaliko - help is here.” She looked round just as a trio of the blockade fighters surged past, laser cannon’s spitting huge gobs of coherent light. Just one sweep was all that was needed to destroy the two junkers. The blockade ships then swung around and moved into formation with the shuttle, taking it in their grasp with tractor beams. The shuttle began to lose its spin.

  “They have us,” said Kaliko, relieved. They grinned at each other and hugged.

  Sord Okarachebe, acting Grand Mushur of th
e Edo sect, sat in his preferred clothing, a loosely fitting white robe tied at the waist with a silver belt as the jury shuffled back into the grand court. Next to him sat his council, Tomasa Iwu, who looked patently nervous about the verdict. Sord had never been in doubt at what that verdict would be and so he was as calm as ever, his only movement being his ears as they moved to and fro, adjusting to pick up sounds from all directions, an utterly subconscious act that Sord had no intention of suppressing.

  The Judge entered once the jury were all seated. Everyone, including the jury, the prosecution, the defense, the audience and the vidcam reporters stood, only sitting again once the Judge had taken her seat at the head of the court.

  “Court is in session,” she said, curtly. Sord sensed that the Judge seemed happy and excited and was trying very hard not to show her feelings. Did she already know the verdict? If so didn’t that mean that the jury had revealed their verdict to her, a gross violation of the law? Sord growled quietly. As if anyone would care. Only two people in the entire court were not after his blood. Himself, and Tomasa Iwu. He shuddered to think how many people throughout the entire Commonwealth wished him dead. His head sank a little bit at the thought.

  “Has the jury reached a decision?”

  The spokesperson, a small Phalee stood. “Yes, your honor.”

  “Thank you. Please, continue.”

  Iwu looked round at Sord, who chuffed back. “Do not worry so, Mister Iwu. This is the will of the Astrals. Have faith in them.” Tomasa shook his head sadly, and looked away.

  “It is this jury’s finding that Edo Mushur Sord Okarachebe should be held responsible for the actions of the entire Edo sect whilst under his command. We find him guilty of all charges.”

  A huge cheer erupted from the audience, and pandemonium ensued. It took a full ten minutes to bring the court back to order, leaving Judge Quechina red-faced.

  Iwu began to apologize to Sord but he put one of his huge hands on his shoulder. “Please, do not apologize, my friend. You did everything possible. I am in your debt.”

  “Sentencing will take place tomorrow,” said the Judge, still scowling at the crowd. “Court is adjourned.”

  Elenore Frost was beyond excited. She had been trusted alone with an entire spaceship, which had never happened before. Even when piloting a fighter she’d always been closely chaperoned. Then she had navigated the Transitory Mists all by herself, the massive region of ionized space that had hidden and protected the Grazan Combine since their days as mere miners. For all she knew she was the youngest person to ever do so. What a thought! And then finally she was getting to arrive at Graz unescorted, just like a normal person. Best day, ever!

  It’d taken most of two days to navigate to Graz from Brams’ new secret base on Swalt, most of that time being due to the many jumps and transits to jump points that it required to pass through the Mists. She was itching for company, even the fatuous, groveling company that most Grazans provided. Her mother, however, was someone whose company was never less than enthralling. She was sure that mothers and daughters were supposed to have tempestuous relationships but Elenore’s relationship with her mother seemed to only improve as Elenore aged. Each period where they couldn’t be together only caused their bond to become even stronger and more durable. Elenore was still young enough to get away with jumping into her mother’s arms and fully intended to do so at her earliest opportunity. Again, exciting!

  As the countdown to reversion to normal space neared its conclusion the hairs on Elenore’s neck prickled. The Astrals was warning her. This day just kept on getting better and better. Five seconds to go. If she aborted the reversion then she could quite easily plunge head on into either of the two planets, KaIwu or Graz, or their star itself, or skim close enough to a point mass that her shuttle would be pulled out of hyperspace with potentially catastrophic damage to her shuttle. She had no choice to continue the countdown, despite her warbling danger sense. She’d just have to be ready for whatever it was that was waiting for her.

  She reached out towards the fast approaching system, desperate for answers. The ship began to revert, with stars elongating into the far distance and she sensed them, a group of Deep users, no doubt Skave, waiting hungrily for her to fall into their trap.

  As the stars contracted into their dimensionless points of light, their size caused by the unfathomably vast distances between them and her, she threw maximum power to the shuttle’s engines. Simultaneously she drew on Astral energy and called out across space to her mother, Syrene Frost Orso. She tried her to best to show that she was under attack by Skave, and that she was alone. She felt her mother’s touch, a warm and reassuring pressure. It seemed to convey that help would be on its way. Or so she hoped.

  She checked her scanners just as the first laser shots flashed past, just a few scant meters from her stern. An old Buderimian corvette bore down on her, already catching her up despite her efforts. How had they known to wait for her here? Perhaps it was just coincidence, and that they were simply pirating the area? No. The route she had taken was known only to the Grazan royalty. Someone within the royal multitude must have made a deal with the Skave. It made sense in a sad sort of way. Who better to assassinate rulers favored by the Astrals than those of the Deep? The Skave seemed to be making themselves more and more friends lately. Elenore wasn’t sure she’d ever really understand adults.

  Another blast was closer still and Elenore knew that she could not keep running if she wanted to see her mother again. She fell into the Astrals, trusting in it to guide her hands as she pulled the ship in a tight arc and raced back towards the corvette. Through the Astrals she was able to predict the path of each of the corvette’s laser bolts, coaxing just enough out of the shuttle’s systems to skim above, below or around the bolts as they flashed towards her. And then she was upon the much larger vessel, skimming over its hull like a Carronat attracted to its power nodes.

  As she came to the end of the corvette she cut enough speed to enable the shuttle to arc around close to the ship. The corvette’s guns were not designed to track small vessels at such short range and so she was able to easily avoid any further blasts.

  Her danger sense flared up again and then that she felt a tugging, a resistance to the movement of the shuttle. A tractor beam! If they caught her in it they’d be able to move her shuttle into the firing corridor of one of their laser batteries. She applied maximum thrust and threw the ship into a slewing turn whilst simultaneously using an Astral-push as hard against the corvette as she could. For a split second it seemed like she would be caught but with a violent jerk Elenore broke free from the beam and she soared away, quickly guiding the shuttle around streams of fire from several lasers. She breathed a massive sigh of relief, only to realize that an old Mark 1 Nebula fighter was emerging from the forward hold of the corvette.

  Though Mark 1’s were old predecessors to the much more capable modern Nebula fighter craft, it was still way more than a match for her workhorse imperial shuttle with its single paltry laser cannon. The pilot was far in the Deep, too. Doubly brilliant. She imagined a brief battle before her shuttle exploded from a direct hit from one of the Mark 1’s concussion missiles. It didn’t seem like the way she would like her day would go. Think, Elenore, think! What would Kaliko do? She laughed, Kaliko would probably ram the fighter whilst unleashing a stream of obscenities at it. Actually, whilst the shuttle was very much an Imperial troop transport workhorse, it was sturdily built, especially when compared to a venerable Mark 1 Nebula. Do it! But without the swearing… maybe.

  She hit the thrusters again, drawing yet again on the Astrals to help propel the shuttle towards the still realigning fighter. If she could just hit it on one of its two slim wings she might, just might, be able to put it out of action before it could even fire a shot. As she closed towards the fighter she saw the pilot within its large bubble-like cockpit turn their head to stare at her. She waved back. The pilot turned away and she saw the Nebula’s engine come up to full thrott
le, any thoughts of turning now gone from the pilot’s mind. Elenore Channeled, as widely as she ever had, and gripped the Headhunter with the Astrals and tried to do what the corvette had nearly done to her - she pulled, helping to bring the two ships ever closer together. Just before impact Elenore saw the pilot reach out, hands pressed against their cockpit canopy in horror.

  The two ships collided, and with the awful sound of ripping, twisting metal, the shuttle was thrown off course. Elenore fought to control the ship, mindful of the Buderimian corvette’s firepower. As soon as she could, she sent the shuttle spearing around, angling back towards the much larger ship. She saw the old fighter spinning away, powerless and out of control. One of its wings was completely missing. Perfect! Her mother would be so proud.

  An alarm sounded - hull integrity was failing, air pressure was dropping rapidly. Elenore quickly threw up an Astral force field, enclosing as much of the air within the cabin as she could. She gulped. Now she’d have to combat the corvette whilst diverting effort into maintaining the bubble. Still, it was undeniably better than the alternative - being target practice for a Skave fighter pilot.

  Her shuttle began to respond more sluggishly, and a laser bolt came much closer to hitting the ship than she had been hoping for. For the first time she began to worry. Her ship was failing and her air supply was limited. She couldn’t afford to let this battle go on much longer, or she’d pass out from lack of oxygen. An idea popped into her mind. It was worth a go. She moved the shuttle to a point over the corvette’s hull where none of its weapons could reach her and there she took a deep breath and concentrated. Mindful that she was already diverting some of her ability towards maintaining the field she decided to only affect one mind at a time. It would take longer but have a higher chance of success.