“Lupus, as great as it is to see and hear from you again, I know you more than you realise. You did not call just for a catch-up” Novus said, a friendly curve to her lips to make him believe she was grateful nonetheless for his care. “Tell me, what do you need?”
“Honestly, to see that those I care about are well does wonders for my mind, Novus. The war has taken us all so far away from each other; it’s hard to keep track of us all now. I won’t let that get in the way of the truth that we are one family, however. By answering my call you have done all I need from you” he told her.
There was silence in the room for a long moment. She trusted him, but she could tell that even if it wasn’t from her, there was something he did need from one of the others. “Then it’s Oz, isn’t it?” she figured.
Lupus sighed, reluctant to let that matter dissolve the nature of their own discussion. “Yes, it is, but that can wait…” he insisted.
“Lupus, no matter how we fight it or how hard we try to keep ourselves together, this is a war and things must be done. If you need something from him urgently, why didn’t you say?”
He raised an eyebrow in surprise of her aggravated voice. “Who said it was even urgent?”
“Oh, come on. You can fool the others, maybe even Calla, but you can’t fool me. You always put others first before your own desires, even if those are far more important and bigger than you” Novus breathed, biting back her frustration at his inability to realise his flaws.
He said nothing, but just let his hologram exist in its admonished state. “Look, I’m sorry but you have to accept it…” she began, regretful of her tone. “Nothing’s simple anymore. You have to be selfish in times like this, especially with what we’re up against. If you don’t force the conversations that need to be had, in the order of priority they deserve, who else will? I know you want to make sure we’re all alright first, but when it comes to our own hearts and minds, they can wait…The Empire and the war comes first now, they always have” she finished.
“Novus, I-” Lupus started to say, but without warning his hologram completely cut out mid-sentence. A second later, a different form appeared. It was of another Apostle, but one that Novus did not expect to see again unless it was in person.
“Valkyrie?” she said, but her sister didn’t seem to notice Novus had spoken to her. Instead, the only reply was a recorded message, one that was powerful enough to be sent across whole sectors and override any communications that were already in play.
Hear me, brothers and sisters! Apollia is in peril. I know not which form that takes, or when, but it will burn but for our intervention. We must abandon our campaigns and regroup at Hydron; if we fail, if we delay…we will lose everything dear to the legions. I have seen Apollia’s death. I know that fate awaits it if we do not act now. Meet me at Hydron and spare no legions behind.
The message ended abruptly and the light from the hologram device vanished. Novus was once again in complete darkness without even the light of her Apostolic body to combat it. She tried to activate the communications plate to link back to the Lion, but it refused to grant her a channel.
When she stood back up, a dread came over her that she didn’t know how to prevent. Now, more than ever, she wanted to be with the rest of the Chosen. Yet fate, it would seem, had every intention of making that happen.
Chapter 19
A LOUD VOICE drowned the Great Auditorium in its authority and presence. “Please be seated!”
Jun turned from his conversation with Alex to see a figure standing on the stage at the centre of the room. It was the Lord Governor’s apprentice, Advisor Krayle. The man had been a Senior Senator, much like Alex, but had ascended through the ranks to be one of the Lord Governor’s closest associates and confidantes of the Inner Circle. The Advisors only appeared in public to the rest of the Senate on very rare occasions, usually during a time of great change like an election or a change in state of affairs. Jun suspected the present was very much a case of the latter.
Following the crowd, Jun took his place. Given his position as a Junior, he had to sit at the rear of the room whilst the Seniors would sit closer to the stage. It was symbolic of the Senate’s hierarchy, with the Seniors more readily able to challenge or confer with the Lord Governor than the Juniors were. It was all about experience and the right to a voice, though Jun wondered where the democracy was in all of that.
Once he sat down, there was a short applause as the Lord Governor himself took to his podium. He immediately caught the attention of Jun, but for many different reasons than the other Senators, it appeared. The Governor’s eyes bore heavy bags, his brow was in a constant furrow and his frame seemed frail yet he had a confidence in his posture that revealed a dearth of inner strength. He looked like a man that was weary of fighting a battle that only he knew about.
The Governor adjusted the microphone and began to speak. “Senators, I greet you all and welcome you to this session” he announced, holding the stand firmly. “We have many matters to discuss this day, least of all the movement of our fleets once more to the Frontier!”
Jun could see a wave of nodding heads before him and if there was any dissent, it was kept hidden and private like his own. Something in his periphery caught his eye and he saw a slight distortion to the form of the closest Senator two seats away on his right. He realised, just as quickly, that a Dawntreader legionnaire had taken a clandestine seat next to him. He looked around the room and saw the tell-tale signs of it happening elsewhere, his training with the 906th teaching him how to spot their movements as they filled the empty seats.
The Dawntreader next to him said nothing, not even acknowledging that he was there even though Jun had noticed him. The Governor, on the other hand, continued his rhetoric. “But first, something terrible has come to my attention, something I cannot keep from any of you”.
Suddenly, Jun was very interested in what the Governor had to say and he was just as captivated as the fools that genuinely believed he was their saviour. “There have always been dissenters in every government; I am not fool enough to believe otherwise. It is the right of democracy to have different views. In fact, it is after all subjective opinion that drives great change. Yet…that is not what I am here to challenge, I can assure you all.”
The Governor stepped away from the pedestal now, looking remarkably less tired and exhausted than before. His body seemed more stable and healthy now, as though the lack in mass and physical weakness Jun noticed before was merely an illusion. He threw his arms open and declared, “Indeed, no! It is the presence of traitors that I contest, for they are sitting here in this room with us right now!”
Jun felt a chill run down his spine and saw a thousand eyes wash over him as the Senate reacted by their instincts; search for the accused. He recoiled in surprise as a hand touched his arm and nearly had a heart attack, but when he heard the friendly voice of the legionnaire next to him telling him not to move, he tried to relax despite the hostile atmosphere that now bathed the Great Auditorium.
Catching his breath, Jun realised that the Senate had no idea who the Governor was accusing of as the men around him looked at each other as well. After a moment in which he seemed to relish their fear and hate, the Governor continued. “I acknowledge you openly, yet do not name you. I know who you are and I give you this one choice; reveal yourselves to me, privately or here I care not which, and I shall forgive your sin and the treacherous desires you harbour.”
Jun was entirely lost. Terror was close to consuming him, yet he couldn’t bring himself to take any kind of action. “What do I do?” he asked the unseen legionnaire, but there was no answer. When he moved his hand to the seat next to him to check the Guardian was still there, he groaned as he encountered nothing but thin air. The Senator in the next seat along gave him a funny look, but Jun didn’t think he was giving himself away as a traitor, just a little unstable in the mind.
“How does that help anyone?” he whispered angrily at the legionnaire who
wasn’t there anymore to hear it.
Then, from behind him, the Guardian came back and answered “This changes things. We can’t move with this many eyes on us now. Wait for us to make contact with you again, Jun of the Senate. We will end his reign soon enough”.
Jun turned round to reply, but he realised it was too late again. Looking back at the stage, he saw the Governor smile at what he had done. In one announcement he had prevented the actions of his would-be assassins, but he had also ensured that no Senator would ever again challenge him for fear of being seen as the traitors he warned the Senate about. Now he stood in complete, unrivalled control and more powerful than he was before.
He may have promised forgiveness, but each and every man in that room knew beyond doubt that to be a known traitor entailed only one end; death. Whatever the Governor decreed for the Gothican military now would be scripture, no matter how insane or costly it would be. He could send the entire Gothican fleet to a pointless and outmatched mission to the Frontier and no-one would say a word against it.
“Damn it all…I’ll kill him myself” Jun muttered, hardly believing his own words but knowing what he had to do.
Chapter 20
AT THE SHIELD, the interference over the communications had affected the human systems in the same way as it had for the Apostles across the galaxy. Lupus recoiled at first, but when he saw the figure of Raina replace that of Novus, he felt an unexpected sense of relief. The message played out plain and clear and despite its vagary, he trusted in the gravity of her voice. There was a danger that she had seen, one whose reality he instantly believed in because despite her lack of esteem in him, he had an unshakeable faith in her abilities.
“What in the hells was that?” Sabre asked, rushing into the room that Lupus had requisitioned for his private calls to the other Chosen.
There was a surprising rush of anger in Lupus’ heart at the Commander’s disturbance, but then he realised that Sabre was only acting out of diligence and alarm and the interruption was not purposeless. He consciously calmed down his aggravation, which he had managed to conceal on the inside anyway. To Sabre, he merely looked distressed about what had happened.
“It was a warning” Lupus answered, turning to the Commander with an unknowable look in his eyes.
Sabre had been standing next to Whitewolf when she received the same message as a hologram on her wrist guard, so he knew there had been some kind of communication sent in urgency. However, even though he had seen the holographic image of Valkyrie, he had heard nothing from it. From his understanding of the Third Apostle, he reasoned she must have transmitted the message psychically.
From the look on Whitewolf’s face as Valkyrie spoke, Sabre could tell something was utterly wrong. He could have asked the former what had happened, but as soon as the communication was over, she was too intent on trying to re-establish contact with her sister to make time for him.
Now he found himself with his own Apostle and things didn’t seem much better. “A warning of what, my Lord?” he asked.
Lupus had no desire to soften what he was about to say. He would never expect anyone to do the same for him. Only moments before did Novus remind him that they were all fighting a war, one that would determine the fate of an entire race; the one that birthed them. There was no time to be unrealistic, no purpose in pretence.
“Apollia is threatened, Sabre. Valkyrie has seen its doom” he said.
The Commander’s first reaction was puzzlement. “I don’t understand…Hydron is in the south-west of the Empire. Its eastern flank is so heavily guarded that only the north has seen the Phantoms and the west...The Ghoul Hosts own the west themselves, my Lord. From where could the enemy attack?”
Even as Sabre’s words made logical conclusions, Lupus could sense the error in his assumptions. How could they be certain about the enemy’s movements? How could they predict their course of attack at all? They never could. It was always a case of waiting for the enemy to strike and reacting, or anticipating which areas they would assault the Empire’s worlds from; but nothing had ever been predictable. Hydron had always been a bastion of such supremacy that it would be foolish to attack, even with the numbers that the Great Enemy possessed, but perhaps there was arrogance and hubris in that notion.
There had to be a reason for the enemy’s decision. As illogical and unpredictable the Phantoms seemed to be, it was always clear that the commanding force behind them, the dark god Himself, was anything but that. He had always fought with a plan. How it worked, however, was a mystery to all of the Apostles.
“There has to be clues to this…something that would make sense of Valkyrie’s vision” Lupus muttered.
“My Lord, what advantage could the Phantoms have gained to even tempt them to risk attacking Apollia? Surely they know what it will cost them…” Sabre asked.
Then it hit Lupus, like a fact that had been obvious from the moment Sabre wondered openly about the enemy’s new choice of target. “Whoever said they gained it? That would suggest chance has a role to play in their tactics. No, Sabre, I think this was their plan all along. We just have to work out how that plan is supposed to work” he told the Commander.
LUPUS REJOINED CALLA and the others back on the secondary deck of the command centre. His first port of call was to establish contact with the other Apostles to try and determine if there was any information he could piece together that would fit the puzzle of the enemy’s apparent plan.
He walked to Calla’s side, feeling only a sense of concern that replaced the warmth which was normally there. He didn’t notice the change at first, but his survival instincts were taking over and they seemed to be pushing him towards the conservative side of his emotions. Love, part of him argued, had no place in this new state of confusion and upheaval.
“Did you get through to Raina?” he asked Calla, already knowing that would have been her own first priority.
She shook her head regretfully. “I’ve tried more times than I can count, but it’s like no-one’s home”.
“She could be in transit” Olympus suggested opposite them. He’d been observing everyone reacting to what had happened in silence, waiting for the moment where he could be useful. He saw little point in adding anything unless there was a point. Now, it seemed there was.
He saw the expectant looks on the Apostles’ faces and knew it was best to elaborate without waiting for them to ask. “If she’s on a ship that’s made a jump, nothing in this realm will help us reach her until it’s come out of slipspace” he explained.
Calla looked at Lupus. “If Olympus is right, then we already know where she’s heading so quickly. If she believes in what she’s seen so strongly, so should we”.
Lupus nodded in agreement. He had never doubted her power and now something in his gut wrenched with the knowing that her vision was true.
“Before we do the same, I have only one condition” he said.
“Which is?” Calla asked, anxious to pursue her sister but ever-aware that Lupus had every right to dictate what their next actions would be.
“I have to talk to the others. Something must have happened to presage this attack and we should have noticed it sooner. If we can understand why the enemy thinks they can take Apollia away from us, perhaps we can challenge whatever advantage they think we’ve given them” Lupus replied.
Sabre saw the flaw in that and he wasn’t afraid to voice it. “My Lord, that could take some time. What if the other Apostles have also made transit to Hydron immediately after your sister’s message?”
Lupus turned to him and laughed in frustration. He realised how often he was challenged by his legionnaires and felt a sudden resentment at the fact. “Well we don’t have a moment to lose then, do we?” he said swiftly. “We make the jump too!”
LUPUS CLICKED THE button that would end the communication to Cerberus and Nightingale. Both of them seemed no less impressive in their holographic forms than they did in real life, but it wasn’t their presence and faces tha
t he was interested in. After a short greeting, he cut to the point and asked them to update him on what they had found.
Interestingly, they had just been about to contact him when Valkyrie had broadcast her warning about Apollia. It was a strike of coincidence, he told himself at first, but when they told him about what they had found in the Tempest Sector he knew there was a design behind everything that was now culminating to a violent climax. When they explained their theory about the discovered Energy Sphere, it was as unclear to him as it was to them what the Phantoms would plan to do with it if they had captured it, but their attempt to do so and the timing of Valkyrie’s warning told him the two were linked somehow.
However, the news wasn’t all bad. They revealed that a contingent of legions, who passed the identification protocols, had found them shortly before and that they now had more strength than ever. The two Apostles insisted that they should heed Valkyrie’s call to arms and abandon the Tempest Sector without delay. Reluctantly, Lupus agreed. Ninety-five per cent of the star system had been vacated of human residence, but it seemed there was simply no time left for them to complete the operation. He assured them the remaining humans would hardly matter to the Phantoms anyway; their target was Apollia and every campaign against them until now had been about distraction and disarray.
“The Great Enemy always had this in His plan. He spread us out across the stars and now He’s found a way to strike at the place we hold as most precious. If we don’t regroup immediately, we could be too late” he told his brother and sister.
They were as curious as Sabre about how it was possible that the enemy could be such a sudden and perilous threat to Apollia, but he could offer little in the way of explanation. Neither of them, however, questioned the validity of Valkyrie’s foresight. Somehow they all knew and trusted that her vision was true, no matter how unlikely it seemed. When he directed them to head to Hydron and join up with the rest of the legions, they made a point of describing the Energy Sphere and its potential threat in greater detail.
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