by Voxley, Vi
Sota was a traitor, but Ryden had promised execution, not torture. If he went back on his word, it would have meant he wanted to do it, and took pleasure in hurting someone. There was a big distinction between killing and taking revenge, and Aria was holding her breath to see which he would choose.
"Don't talk to me about death," the general said seriously, pointing to the skies above them. "Death is up there, coming for us. And here on Ilotra, hiding in shadows. All of that thanks to him. He brought this all upon us. Don't expect any mercy from the Clayors."
"I'm not asking them," Aria said, her heart beating in her chest, unsure of how she dared to speak to the general like that.
Ryden snarled at her, but said nothing. He turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Aria to look to where he'd pointed, where the enemy was coming for them, relentless and bloody and unstoppable like death itself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ryden
She was infuriating to him.
Ryden marched on, gritting his teeth. After all those days, he thought he'd finally figured out what terrified the little Terran so much about him. Her plea, lacking any sense to him, was fueled by mercy, by a sense of forgiveness. She couldn't have broadcast being Terran more loudly if she'd tried.
It wasn't like all of them were like that. Not at all. Ryden was on his way to execute a human that put the entirety of Ilotra in danger for whatever his selfish purposes were. But humans... they possessed many conflicting emotions and Aria was clearly on the other end of the spectrum.
Brions didn't think like that. Victory was everything to them. The right kind of winning was something they only bothered with when absolute necessity demanded it, like when great issues were at stake, such as the recent civil war. Generals Diego Grothan and Faren had done plenty to assure everyone they were on the right side, even if it meant seemingly backing down.
Ryden knew his own situation demanded that he take their example seriously. The entire Brion species was on the brink of being thrown out of the Union, he knew that. It all rode on his actions and what would still remain standing after the dust settled on Ilotra.
And Aria wanted him to be merciful.
It shouldn't have mattered. He kept telling himself that it didn't either, but it was hard for him to convince himself of a lie.
When he arrived in the Terran quarters, his mood was sour.
His warriors had already apprehended the ambassador. The short, dark-haired man was looking at him with unconcealed fear. He was practically shaking in his boots, trying to struggle and flee, but his body language told Ryden the man didn't believe much in his chances of survival.
"General," the traitor said as soon as he saw him, stumbling over his words. "Please, let me explain."
"I am not interested in excuses," Ryden growled. "All I want from you is an explanation. If your answers are of use to me... I might give you a quick death."
That seemed fair. It was all he could give Aria, not more. The need to rip the coward to pieces with his bare hands was nearly overwhelming. He despised men who plotted and schemed behind the backs of their betters, conspiring to get others killed without even giving them a chance to fight back.
"It was not me," the man said quickly.
"You have been identified," Ryden replied coldly. "Don't bother to deny it and don't waste my time."
The traitor seemed to fall into despair. He was truly a pitiful creature to Ryden's eyes, a weak man, both physically and mentally. How did Terra choose such a man to represent them? Then again, Ryden didn't exactly value his own ambassadors either.
Ambassador Sota took a visible, deep breath, clearly trying to calm himself. All eyes were on him; the hate the warriors felt toward him was nearly palpable.
"I do not deny it was me that dropped the generator's shield," Sota began.
"Then we have nothing else to discuss. Reveal your accomplices and we are done here."
The ambassador shook his head, his eyes pleading.
"General, please," he said, begging. "It was me, but I did not choose to do it. I don't know what came over me. I did other things as unexplainable as this, but I didn't want to, I swear. I don't even know how to disable the damn thing! I think I asked Aria about it once, but—"
Ryden raised his hand. The room had suddenly gone from quiet to deafeningly silent. It wasn't the lack of any voices, it was the purposeful absence of it. The dirty looks his warriors had given Sota before were now directed at him, questioning, worried.
"Repeat that," the general ordered. "What you said about the shield."
"I said I don't even know how to drop it," Sota said, his voice carrying the same desperate, pleading edge. "I am not a technician nor a scientist. Aria is the engineer, but I have no idea how to do that. I swear to you, before I went over to it, I didn't even know where it was."
"Mind control," one of Ryden's warriors said carefully. "General, if this man is telling the truth..."
Ryden didn't answer. A horrible thought had occurred to him, an idea that he had misunderstood the Host's intentions.
"Aria," he said, more to himself than to the others, but Sota heard him anyway.
"Yes, yes," the man hastened to say. "Aria would know. She explained it to me once. I don't remember most of it, but—"
"That is why she was able to trick the Clayors," Ryden growled. "The hive mind already knew she was able to do it. Through you. It has been setting this up for a long time. It has been here much longer than we'd thought."
It all started to make sense. There were no traitors on Ilotra, there was just the Host. It was known the hive mind had some mind control powers, but Brions had mostly seen them use it in short-term solutions. Taking control of a weak-minded enemy, throwing off someone's aim. The hive mind didn't use it much, because it was mostly too obvious. But on Ilotra... where everything was confused as it was, it could be both devastating and hidden at the same time.
It had fed them the lie from the very beginning. Making him chase the traitors, discredit himself in the eyes of the council even further. Making them suspect each other as well.
If they lived through the war, Ryden would have a lot to relay to the Brion Elders. The Clayor hive mind was clearly the most dangerous enemy they'd ever encountered.
But he had it now. No more tricks, no more schemes. He would drag the Host out from wherever it was hiding and kill it. Not all wars ended with taking down the enemy leader, but this one would. Ryden had the chance to end the war with one blow.
"What should we do with him, General?" one of his warriors asked. "Do you believe him?"
Ryden gave Ambassador Sota another hard, calculating look. There was something in the trembling form that reminded him of the champion he'd killed in the very same quarters. A detached look, twitches that didn't seem his own, the look of someone who had woken up from a long dream.
"Yes," he said.
Sota seemed to nearly collapse under the weight of his relief. He slumped, mumbling his gratitude, but he was of no more use to Ryden. The hive mind was too clever and Sota too weak to gain any more information.
"Take him away," he ordered. "Guard him. After this is over, the council will determine his fate."
"No," Sota said. "They will have me killed! They will execute me for treason."
"I will speak in your defense," Ryden told the cowering man, far removed from the arrogant ambassador he'd seen in the Galaya Hall. "The Clayor hive mind is infinitely more powerful than you are. It chose you on purpose. Your only crime is a weak will."
He saw the flash of anger in Sota's eyes, but the man was wise enough not to protest against the insult. Instead, he nodded, happy to accept that judgment instead of death.
"Thank you," he murmured, letting himself be pulled to his feet. "Thank you for your mercy."
Mercy, Ryden thought.
"This is not mercy," he said, turning away. "This is justice."
***
After they had taken the traitor away, Ryden felt a pecul
iar calm. A part of him ached for the kill, longing for true confrontation. He chose to cool that fury, knowing the time to face the enemy was near. At least now, finally, he was beginning to see the whole picture. Things that had not made sense to him before all started to come together.
And they put Aria right in the middle of it all. He had to wonder if it was a coincidence, either by the will of the fates or by the hive mind, for him to feel such a longing for a woman who the hive mind had chosen to aid it. The Clayors had used Sota to scout for them and they'd found Aria. All that time, they'd been building up to using her like they used the other Terran. Making her work bad jobs, giving her no credit, slowly turning her against the Union. That had been the plan, at least. He smiled, thinking that the hive mind had made a bad judgment call there. Aria had fought the Clayors tooth and nail all the way, even if she was no match for any of the enemies physically.
Everything was falling into place. Now all he had to do was keep Aria safe and let her bring Ilotra's defenses online. He would fight off this attack and maybe, if he was blessed, the fates would show him what it was all about in the end.
Above his head, the skies went bright as the day. One of the huge Fremma warships burst to a thousand pieces, raining metal and crew down on the moon. Through the wreckage, Ryden saw the first Clayor warships appear, long and spiky and clunky.
They may have been crude, but judging by the disaster around them, everything worked. Then those weapons took aim at the moon. The war had reached Ilotra.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Aria
Aria watched Ryden fighting through the Clayor troops on the monitors, on his way to her.
The sight took her breath away. Awe, dread, admiration, and horror were all mixed into one as she watched the general in his element. The great Brion battle spear flashed in his hands, bringing death to their enemies. Aria felt no sympathy for them, but the efficiency with which Ryden ended lives did instill a sense of caution in her. After all that had happened, she couldn't bring herself to fully trust that the general would be able to stop if need called for it. She chose to believe him instead.
And while her fear was undeniable, so was her being drawn to him. All the stories she'd heard, all the times Aria had seen the general right, they were incomparable to seeing him slip the leash off his self-control, even if for a moment.
With no one to protect and slow him down, she thought.
The Clayors were bombarding Ilotra with everything they had, but the moon wasn't built to break at any barrage delivered to it. The outer walls were several feet wide of practically unbreachable steel. The explosion that had blown a hole in the generator's hangar had been a specially crafted concoction, capable of doing the task.
Aria felt proud, despite herself, as if she had built the fortress. Ilotra was holding its own against the enemy and so were its protectors.
The ships weren't the only threat. Scores upon scores of Clayors had descended along with the bombs and were now roaming across the moon. Most of them were easy meat to the might of the Brions, but there were thousands of them and that counted for something.
Ryden was always where the fighting was the thickest, taking down champions and unit leaders. He was cutting through them as if they weren't even there.
For Aria, seeing him in battle was a strange mix of fear and certainty. She knew the general was better than all of the enemies combined, but that didn't rule out a stray blow or a sneak attack. Not even the best fighter in the galaxy—and Ryden would have been a contender—could ever boast being invulnerable.
All of the Brion generals bore battle scars to show they were forever testing their limits, pushing forward even in the face of danger. That was how they led their warriors. That was why Aria was left watching, nearly jumping out of her skin, at how Ryden dodged between the hordes of enemies. The Clayor knives were long and sharp and there seemed to be a wall of them around the general.
She kept waiting to see his blood spilled, but other than a few minor cuts he was unharmed.
Aria was observing his progress so single-mindedly that she actually missed the moment the general slipped from the monitors into the control center.
She only realized he was there when she was turned around by a pair of strong hands. Her breath caught when she found herself in his arms, the general's gaze burning with the fire of battle. The crystals implanted into his neck were pulsing wildly, sending out light and sound, but... before they'd blinked red and the noise around Ryden had been similar to growling. It had annoyed the Clayors, but Aria couldn't say why. Perhaps it was a frequency that hurt their ears. It was entirely possible.
Now, standing before her, Ryden's valor squares didn't transmit that irritating sound, nor were they red. They beamed bright, pure white light that should have hurt her eyes, but instead it soothed them. The valor squares were no longer screeching weird noises. Rather, the sound they made was a calming, soft humming.
The general's powerful body was heaving against her. All she felt was the cold, unyielding armor against her chest. All Aria wanted to feel was his warm, flawless tanned skin against her very naked body. She remembered it vividly and that made the longing only that much worse.
She shouldn't have done that, Aria was sure. No matter what became of them—and judging by his words, it would be nothing more than a fling—he shouldn't have given in to him. It hurt so much more to know what she was missing.
And she wasn't pulling away. Seconds ticked by and Ryden seemed as reluctant to let go of her as she was to slip free from his embrace. The crew and the warriors around them were suddenly very busy looking at everywhere but at them.
A blast right on top of them finally ripped Aria from her daze.
She could hear the roof shake, but it didn't give in. Ilotra wasn't as easy to break as the Clayors would have liked.
That reminded Aria.
"Sota..." she said and the general released her, a hint of regret in his eyes. "Is he dead?"
"No," Ryden said to her surprise. "I found that he was manipulated by the hive mind. He bears no blame, but a man like that isn't fit to sit in the council."
Aria was staring now, her mouth hanging open in mute shock. For Ryden to change his mind about killing someone—that was unheard of.
"I... why?" she asked. "How?"
"To get to you," the general said.
All right. The world is officially going crazy around me.
Aria would have been certain Ryden was joking with her if she didn't firmly believe that the Brions had their sense of humor surgically removed before joining the military ranks. Those guys didn't find anything funny and they weren't known for dry jests like that.
"Me," she repeated.
"Yes," the general said. "Sota has been under the control of the Host for a while now. I don't know for how long. I don't know if there are others. It doesn't really matter at this point. Once I kill the Host, they're all free from the influence it has over them."
"But why him?" Aria pressed, not understanding.
Ryden hesitated, confusing her even more.
"All I know for sure is that the hive mind doesn't do anything like that at random," he offered at last. "Sota was a convenient accomplice. He had access and power, but a weak constitution that couldn't resist the hive mind. He has been working to bring down Ilotra for a while now. Holding you back from the council and pressing you about information on the generator were all parts of it."
"There had to be other reasons too. I'm not the most qualified person on Ilotra to help it," Aria protested.
"Perhaps," Ryden allowed. "But as I said, convenient. Others get transferred, replaced. But not an ambassador. You both were firmly in place and that suited the hive mind nicely. It plays the long game. It always has."
"I just can't believe it chose us. It thought I would help it," Aria said.
The general was looking at her oddly as another blast rippled through the control center. Soon, Aria knew, she'd be evacuated away from th
e top levels. Away from Ryden.
"You didn't," the general said seriously. "You fought it. Sota was used, but it wasn't able to do the same to you."
"How do you know that?"
"If it was possible, it would have done it."
Well, if Ryden wasn't lying, that was certainly something. Aria shuddered, thinking of the hive mind controlling her. To be used like that, like Sota was... whatever she'd done without knowing it to avoid that fate, she was glad for it.
The look in Ryden's eyes was still odd.
"The actions of the hive mind make sense," he said. "Sota was a suitable victim and you have proven yourself as useful to me as it wanted you to be to the enemy. What I can't be sure of is whether it suspected that—"
The general trailed off. Another blast nearby sent the room around them rocking. Distantly, Aria noticed the crew starting to move out, to leave for lower levels and secondary centers. The Brions needed people to man the defense arrays and guns, but they also needed them to be alive. So deeper down into the moon they went. Aria was to follow them too.
"You can't be sure of what, General?" she asked, surprised to hear her voice shake a bit.
They were standing very close again now that they were no longer at the center of attention. Ryden's green eyes were deep and passionate, holding her gaze.
"There is much we don't know about the hive mind," the general said, his hands coming to rest on Aria's hips, pulling her gently but surely against him. "I can't know if it chose you because it already guessed how important you would become to me."
Aria felt like air was knocked out of her. The rational part of her wanted to struggle and get away, but from somewhere deep inside her, a stronger call came. A call to never leave the general's side.
It was too much. Denying him was hurting her more than it was worth, when every inch of Aria wanted to be near him, as near as it was possible to be. So fate wasn't on their side? That was fine. It seemed like they were lacking allies everywhere.
