WHEN CALLA WOKE up, Lupus had already left her side. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up. She felt warm, despite her only cover being the thin blanket that he had brought to the observation deck. After their communion, they had fallen asleep to the sight of the galaxy of suns. Now, she awoke to find Lupus standing with one hand against the glass wall, the other hanging down at his side as he gazed silently at the miracle outside. The light from the stars caught his brown hair and it shone, drawing Calla’s attention. The muscles of his human body were strong and well-formed, but he wasn’t as impressive as some of his brothers. Nonetheless, he was handsome and commanded an aura of strength and wisdom.
Like her, he was naked. In a strange way, it seemed to make him look more vulnerable than she could ever have imagined. For a moment she sat there and observed him, trying to figure out the secrets that she knew he wrapped himself in. Though he had shared so many of them with her, he remained a mystery that she was more than willing to be patient to unravel.
Eventually she stood up, let the blanket fall off her body and hugged him from behind. He didn’t shiver when she pressed her naked skin up against his, but after last night their intimacy was nothing new. He saw her reflection in the glass and noticed the light have the same effect on her blonde hair. It was thick and flowed over her shoulders like a bright waterfall, curving in waves. She tucked it behind her ears so she would be able to hear him better when he spoke. As always, however, it was her kind eyes that did most of her talking.
“Did you have another nightmare?” she asked softly, aware that he was lost in a world of thought that she was invading just by touching him.
Lupus used the hand that was hanging by his side to hold hers that rested on his chest. They stayed like that for a few, silent minutes until he answered “No, nothing that bad. I just…”
When he stopped, Calla kissed the back of his shoulder and told him “It’s okay, you can tell me anything; you know that”.
Lupus sighed and before she understood the gravity of his mood, she saw in his reflection on the glass that a tear had escaped his eye and was running lazily down his cheek. He tried to sniff it back, but it was too late. He had let her see him cry, even if it wasn’t directly.
“It was a sweet dream, at first” he began. “But you know how my dreams can be”. He’d had a lot of nightmares and chaotic dreams in recent months, so there was very little that could surprise or unsettle her about his unconscious mind anymore.
Calla closed her eyes, sensing that he was about to tell her something that would make her just as sad. “Tell me” she asked.
“…You and I had a daughter” he said. She saw the curve of his delighted smile in the mirror wall. A second later it was lost as he continued, “But although I knew she was ours, she didn’t know I was her father. You and your mother were there with us. You seemed so far away, as though I really wasn’t the father of our child, or at least I had no right to be and your mother…well, she could have killed me with just her eyes.”
Calla hugged him tighter to her, feeling the pain in his heart. Whenever Lupus dreamed something this vivid, the emotions he felt during the dream would stay with him even after he awoke. The sadness he felt now was the very same that he was afflicted with when he was asleep. Even if she wasn’t affected by her own dreams in the same way, she could still empathise with him.
“She asked me Calla…she asked me why I couldn’t be her dad…but I was…” Lupus whispered. His tears had stopped after the first, but she could still hear the aching in his voice. The dream wasn’t real and they both knew that, but it didn’t need to be. It was an experience and it had been real enough at the time to affect him like this.
For what felt like forever, she didn’t know what to say. Eventually she summoned the courage to say the only thing that she thought could help, even though it wasn’t the wise advice she wanted to give him. Instead, it was a surprise that she wanted to come to terms with herself before he knew. The dream had robbed her of that time though and Lupus needed to know now.
“Turn around Lupus, let me see you”.
Slowly he did as she asked and he looked at her with a mix of emotions. He desperately wanted her to be able to fix him, but he knew how much of his fragility was down to himself and the broken parts of his mind. However, like always, he completely underestimated her ability to save him.
Lifting his chin up, she asked “Did you feel me leave your side early this morning? I think you were deep asleep, imagining something that justice would never allow, but I did…”
He looked at her curiously. He was confused and he didn’t know where she was going with this, but part of him was tingling instinctually at what she was about to reveal.
“I dressed myself and left for a restroom. I was sick, Lupus, but not from any illness that I could regret” she continued. He still didn’t seem to understand, but when she pulled his hand and laid it over her stomach, realisation dawned on him like being thunderstruck.
At first, he laughed in disbelief of how immeasurably happy she had just made him in a single moment. He smiled with such energy that she thought she’d never see one like it again. It was one of a kind, the type that could only be worn be a man that was just told he was going to be a father.
“Lupus?” she smiled at him. When he tore his gaze away from her stomach to her eyes, she said to him with every fibre of her being “That dream of yours was a nightmare…and I’m never going to let it happen”.
FINDING OUT THAT he was going to have a family with Calla was the best thing that had ever happened to Lupus. He would never forget the moment she uttered those words and it couldn’t have been more perfect. They had conceived a child with only the galaxy of suns as a witness. It was like the sweetest of poetry made reality.
Immediately he had insisted that they should spend the entire day together as a human couple, away from the war and everything it meant to be an Apostle. “You know we can’t” Calla told him, taking the palm of his hand and kissing it gently to smooth the let-down. “This war will keep going careless of our absence”.
“But Calla, we should celebrate while we can. Our chance for happiness will be stolen from under our feet if we don’t use what time we have now” he protested.
She hugged Lupus tightly, both to comfort him and to cushion her refusal. “A little sacrifice now will give us the greatest reward later. We have to fight now so that we can spend our future together, with our child safe in our hands.”
Lupus held her in his arms for a long while, letting his frustrations play out in his mind before his reason could cut through them and accept her words as wisdom. “It’s a good thing you’re stronger than I am, Calla. If you weren’t, I think I could persuade you to let us abandon the war altogether.”
Now she stood back to look at him, no longer afraid of his reaction and mood. “You think I’m stronger?” she mused.
He laughed. “Well, in some ways, perhaps not all”.
She chuckled softly and pulled him closer with her hand on his neck. She kissed him for a few long moments before resting her forehead against his own. Holding his hands, she closed her eyes and let the connection between their bodies fill the quiet and make all the conversation they needed.
Eventually, Lupus broke the silence by saying “Come then, let us go to The Shield where the beauty of man is swallowed by the shadow of its might, but neither quality could ever match the level of ours”.
Calla felt her heart swell with warmth and answered, “You don’t need to convince me about that”.
A little while later they were dressed, ready for reality once again, and joined the bridge of the Luminon. With no questions asked from the legionnaires about their time away, they ordered the fleet to make its final jump. An hour later, they arrived at their new destination.
THE SHIELD WAS a galactic monument to the Gothican Empire’s military power. It was the last testament to humanity’s strength and imperialism, a chain of three miniature star sect
ors that formed a defensive line to the east of the Meridian Sector. It provided an absolute wall against the Vorlan Conglomerate’s invasion into the galaxy, the final bastion that protected mankind’s birthplace.
The Luminon jumped to The Shield and made an elegant arrival, which by no accident caught the attention of every super-cannon, space station and Gothican vessel that was nested along the line like a bee-hive that stretched over uncounted miles.
Before telling Orion to reveal their identity to the humans and make them aware they were allies, he asked rather more trivially “Where have we arrived exactly, Captain?”
“My Lord, we have made a successful jump to the Euryale Sector, the middle of the Three Sisters” Orion answered. “…And we have a lot of guns aimed at us” he added.
Lupus nodded, satisfied with how well the Captain had done to get them into the centre of The Shield. Wherever they chose to jump, it would have alerted everything the humans had at their disposal. By choosing the very middle of the extensive network, it caused enough shock and surprise not to elicit immediate punishment.
“We are receiving a hail from the Empire. It seems they don’t always shoot first after all” Valerian announced. As usual, he was standing near the holo-podium minding his own duties as the rest of the crew took care of theirs.
“Patch them through” Lupus told him and waited for the view screens to fill with the transmission feed.
A moment later, the view changed from that of The Shield to a human face. An Admiral, by Lupus’ reckoning given the trio of silver star studs on the man’s collar. His voice was gruff and challenging as he said, “State your business here, Apostle”.
Lupus was a little taken aback that the humans had recognised both his loyalty and identity so quickly. The Recon Master had been right; the humans were getting better at thinking things through before acting on their guts and nerves. “I’m impressed that you recognise me, for few beyond Gothica have seen my face at all” Lupus told the Admiral.
The Admiral made a noise that sounded like a grunt. “Hmph. Things have changed a lot since you’ve been this close to Gothica. The public is more aware of things than you ever deemed to think necessary. Many of us are grateful for that”.
“I see” Lupus replied, unwilling to say anything constructive because he wanted to see where the Admiral took the conversation.
“We won’t fire on you, have no fear of that” the Admiral relented. “There are still some of us that appreciate what you’re doing for us, but you still haven’t answered my question”. Over the years since the Apostles and Guardians revealed themselves to the Empire he had seen and heard many things about them. Despite the disappointment of Pheia, he still wanted to believe in their power. He wasn’t sure why that was, given the disgruntled reaction of the rest of the Senate, but he didn’t like to ask himself about it. He realised his initial conflict towards Lupus was probably an unconscious mistrust and he decided he would hear him out properly.
Lupus knew the Admiral was right about his lack of response, but he had never really expected the balanced reaction to their arrival here. “I was hoping that I could witness, first-hand, the greatest achievement of the race that birthed me”.
It made the man’s eyebrows rise in suspicion, but then Lupus added sincerely, albeit purposefully, “And to understand what mankind is doing for itself would be an inspiration to us”.
With that payment to humanity’s greatest weakness, vanity, Lupus had the Admiral in the palm of his hand. What he had said was true, but that was only part of it. He wanted to know if the Empire could withstand the Vorlan offensive and push them back because if they couldn’t, the legions would have another war to fight that they couldn’t hope to endure or even stretch themselves to wage.
The Admiral caved in as Lupus hoped. He knew the Senate would disapprove, but he didn’t care about that. He was a man that knew the importance of the legions well enough to understand that they were the only thing that could stand between the Phantoms and their dominance of humanity.
He did not believe the propaganda. He did not trust the men who claimed to serve the Empire billions of miles away from the frontlines. Whether he believed the Apostle’s intentions or not, he wanted to know what the Black Guardians thought about The Shield and if it was ready to fulfil its purpose.
“Very well,” he said. “You should approach Defence Platform 038. My officers are sending you the co-ordinates now. Dock your vessel at the Halcyon Shipyards as per protocols or the automatic sentries will fire upon you. A drop ship will be suitable from there onwards.”
Lupus was genuinely grateful. “You have our thanks, Admiral. We will be there promptly”.
After that, the transmission was cut. Lupus ordered Orion to follow the instructions they were given and during that time, he called together the command echelons of the 617th and briefed them on who would be going to meet the Admiral with him. It would be a momentous occasion, a record in the history of the legions even though it wasn’t an event about them.
Sabre, Olympus, Orion, Valerian and Calla would accompany him. When he explained that he wanted at least one legionnaire to join, there were protests but they faded upon his insistence. When he asked for their suggestions, it almost started a new series of arguments.
“I would think Arcadius stands in the greatest worth, my Lord” Sabre said. The prominence of the name stood out amongst the long list of others that the command squad issued and Lupus caught onto it with immediate agreement.
“Yes, I rather think he does” Lupus said, recalling the bravery and determinedness of the legionnaire as he fought alongside him on Pheia. “Make it happen”.
THE STORMFALCON SET down on the landing deck of the gargantuan Defence Platform 038. It looked like a clone of all the others to such an extent that Lupus could only assume the Admiral chose to base himself here due to its anonymity. It didn’t stand out as a hub for command, so it granted an element of safety that an obvious headquarters, no matter how well it was defended, could never offer.
The drop ship’s engines wound down and Lupus took a look through the cockpit outside. There was no obvious atmospheric protection between them and the nearest entrance to the interior of the platform, but they had come prepared for that. For practically the first time since he had been fighting the war, he pulled his helmet over his head. It clicked into place with the collar on his armour and he felt the strange sensation of being completely sealed in. His helm resembled Sabre’s own in almost every way, but on his left cheek plate was etched the figure of a lion’s head and on the right, the head of a wolf.
Though the significance of that would likely be lost on the humans, its meaning had a depth that reached every legionnaire that laid eyes on it. Similarly, Calla was putting on her own helm in the rear of the Stormfalcon. It was fashioned from the same pure-white metal as her body armour, segmented into sections so that her cheeks appeared as raised slopes and her eye visors were deep recesses. There was an arrowhead plate that came across her forehead and formed the protection for her nose section, while two triangular earpieces on the side of her head gave off a wolfish appearance that inspired both fear and inspiration.
When Lupus came back to the troop compartment of the drop ship, and saw the mother of his future child dressed in armour more elegant than it had a right to be, he couldn’t help but smile. To everyone else, his helmet gave nothing away and it looked like he was staring at her solely in admiration. Truthfully, he did admire her, but he felt more delight than awe when he saw Calla looking so impressive and intimidating.
By now, the legionnaires had completed their own preparations and everyone was ready to disembark. The pilots would also be joining them, primarily because Lupus would feel too guilty to keep them locked up in the drop ship and leave them crushingly close to exploring this edifice of the Empire’s strength.
As the rear ramp lowered, the legionnaires filed out first. There was no welcome party to greet them, but then that made sense given the h
umans’ craving for wariness and suspicion. In the distance, across the gunmetal deck, stood a vast door decorated in the black and yellow of hazard warning stripes.
“Looks like we get to open the front door ourselves” Olympus muttered, the microphone in his helmet distorting his voice slightly.
Sabre was the first to touch his armoured feet on the platform itself and he could immediately feel the effects of space on his armour. “Everyone activate your mag-locks - we don’t want to find ourselves floating towards that door with only our hopes to guide us there”.
Lupus had already done that, but he was glad that the Commander was ever-conscious for the safety of everyone else. There was nothing hostile out here apart from the cold of space, but that didn’t help improve the mood of this intensely militaristic place.
“If you have any prayers to make, best say them now” Tiars said. He was the main pilot, the same that had flown the drop ship for the Apostles on Noiran when they first fought together. Though Olympus had admonished the pilot deeply for what happened that day, despite the lack of control he had over the Apostles’ actions, Lupus welcomed the pilot back into his position without a second thought. Now, with his levity, Lupus was glad he had done it. It seemed to improve the disposition of everyone bar Olympus, who seemed to hold a personal grudge against him.
“Pfft,” Olympus answered. “Like there’s a point to prayers anymore…”
Lupus knew Olympus didn’t mean what he said with any real depth, but he could still detect the mournful tone of the Vice-Commander. He chastised himself for all-too often forgetting that the legionnaires had lost the Auranair too, not just the Apostles.
“Cut the chatter” Lupus decided to say, intent on driving the topic of Vermillion and the other gods away from their minds. It was time for them to focus on the present.
The Deian War: Conquest Page 16
