The other guard, Fugada, chipped in. “When will we be there?”
“Soon, don't worry your little minds.” Xaos smiled. “When we get in orbit, we'll go down in a Titan and meet the Primary in his temple on the Mata continent.” He beckoned to the guards to keep up. “Let's get to the ship ready.”
As he made his way to the ship, he took a quick detour to his personal vault in the centre of The Dominion. “Wait here.” The guards did as he commanded while he entered his pin-code and stepped into the vault.
The vault was large, larger than any of the chambers on the flagship, and housed an automated manufacturing plant. Conveyor-belts turned and whirred as robotic arms hissed and fizzed as they crafted what Xaos liked to call “Inducers”; small devices to keep those they were attached to under control. Even now, almost all of his troops had one embedded in their ear. Walking over to the belts, he found a complete Inducer; a small silver disc. He placed a handful of them in his pocket, before turning and leaving the vault. He beckoned his two guards towards him and stalked off in the direction of the hangar bay, knowing exactly how to recruit the Pyrkagia.
Moving the Inducers around in his pocket, he smiled confidently; he was in control.
Or at least, that was what the silver in his ear whispered to him.
Chapter 33
Ilisa 2
Ilisa was used to crossing from Raan to New Orbus in just a couple of hours, but the ancient ship was much slower; she wasn't sure why she hadn't realised that even before she fired the ancient ship up. The fact that it was ancient wasn't her only clue that it wouldn't be quite up to scratch as modern ships; it creaked when it started up, and it had been creaking a lot since then.
But none of that mattered now; she could see New Orbus now, the grey orb of salvation. She set the controls to autopilot and sat with the comatose Strom. Putting his head in her arms, she cradled it against her chest, one hand running through his black hair, and began to speak.
“Strom?” Her voice was more high-pitched than usual, but she tried to stay calm. “I know you can hear me. You're gonna be just fine; doctors on New Orbus gonna wake you up.” She smiled, relaxed. There was silence for a moment as she held his hair in her hand. It was damp with sweat, but still strangely soft. “Do you remember how we met? Those twats giving me a hard time because I'm a woman? Didn't trouble me ever again.” She gave a short laugh. “They're probably dead now though...” She felt no real sadness at that prospect; all they were to her were just nameless tormentors. “You were my hero. And now I'm yours.” She smiled briefly. “How times change.” She kissed Strom's forehead, before heading back over to the controls.
A display was flashing green, which she presumed wasn't normal. On inspection of the display, she noted that, just behind her own craft, several others had materialised from L-Drive travel. She inspected the ships closer, activating the ship's rear camera and zooming in.
To see the unmistakable wedge of The Dominion.
Around the Xaosian flagship, smaller ships were locked into a defensive spread, surrounding The Dominion in a spherical formation. Ilisa bit her lip, not quite knowing what to do; her first thought was that they had followed her, but she realised that The Dominion had already left the system before her, and that she was nowhere near important enough to follow. Instead, she assumed that Xaos meant to attack New Orbus. She rubbed her hand over her face and sighed heavily, before leaping on the controls. She veered towards New Orbus, putting on a burst of speed; she had to get Strom there before the fighting.
New Orbus's Orbital Defence System seemed to be fully up and running, and Ilisa was thankful for that as she passed it; the Xaosians could be slowed down at least. A satellite near to her exploded, and she shrieked as the shrapnel crashed against her ship. A red light flashed on one of the displays; a wing was damaged. More of the satellites were blasted into oblivion, shrapnel drifting past and into the ship. The ship rocked and swerved off course. Ilisa fell from her seat. Strom's prone body slid across the floor. Ilisa gasped in pain as her head smashed against the controls. She felt the back of her head and found a sticky patch in her dark hair; bleeding. She cursed, before getting back into her seat. The ship was hit by something from behind as she entered New Orbus's atmosphere. Shrapnel burnt up behind her, but still fell, acting as miniature fireballs cracking the hull. Ilisa tried to keep the ship on course. The city was in her sights, but too far away. She tried to steer over, and the city got ever closer.
A piece of burning shrapnel finally breached the hull, distracting Ilisa just enough for her to lose control of the burning ship. When she turned back to the screen, she knew there was no chance of reaching the city now. She turned off the displays and sat next to Strom.
“I've failed you.” A tear punctuated the short sentence, splashing on her lover's forehead.
She held him close and tightly closed her eyes as the ship hit the ground.
A wave of pain then darkness.
*
Her eyes opened to darkness. Panicked, she picked herself up from a rocky floor and looked around, breathing heavily. She reached into her pocket, took out a small flash-light and shone it round. She was in a cave, Ilisa realised. The walls were brown and rough, the same as the floor and ceiling. The ship was nowhere to be found. She checked the ground, and she soon found what she was looking for; Strom was lying on the floor, looking broken in every way. A bead of sweat went down Ilisa's face; while she was glad to be alive, she was terrified. She swallowed her fear. “Who's there?” she called.
The voice that answered sounded less like a voice, and more like an echo inside her own head.. “You woke us. We helped you. We can help your friend.”
Ilisa's brow furrowed. “You can help Strom? How?”
“The same way we survived.” Ilisa could hear the voice drawing closer now. She swung the torch around and recoiled in shock at what she saw. It was humanoid, but its limbs were too long and its body too small. Its head was even more bizarre, with a round, entirely-circular mouth and only one large eye in the centre of their forehead, with flaps of skin covering where their eyes should be. Their skin was jet black, but not naturally so; the skin itself looked deformed and pockmarked. “The back-up project was to be our legacy, and it will help your friend. Give him a new body, with his old mind. A clone, if you will.”
“But he'll still be...him?” Ilisa asked.
“Exactly the same.”
“What are you?”
“My name is Ha'kuun. And for centuries we have been forgotten. But never gone. I am one of the last Orbans, and the Adjeti's back-up project saved our race.”
Chapter 34
Orbus
Alarms screamed as red warning lights flashed throughout the Spire. Saiun separated himself from the fleeing crowd, running despite the numerous safety warnings, and closed the door to Cinradahs's office, silencing the sound of pounding footfalls entirely.
“What's happening sir?” Saiun sat on the desk next to his focused boss.
“The Xaosians are here.” Cinradahs's voice was barely above a whisper. “The Orbital Defence System is engaging them for now, and the fighters should be ready for launch any minute now.” He looked at Saiun with wide eyes. “I've got to guide them. I can't fight myself, look at me! So I have to guide them, command them.”
Sensing his boss's fear, Saiun placed a hand on his shoulder. “It'll be alright; I'm here to help.”
Cinradahs gave a weak smile, and placed his hand on the Quaren's. “Thank you.”
He turned to a pair of screens; one showed the view from atop the Spire, and one showed the formation of Xaos's ships. After turning the combat-com on, he gave a single command.
“Launch.”
Below the city of New Orbus, metal panels the size of houses slid open, and from them spewed a stream of small Peacekeeper-Class fighter ships, followed by the relatively massive Guardians and the troop-carrying Liberators. Personally, Cinradahs hated these names for machines of war, but he was
always in awe when he watched them spill out of the city. Around the city, people stood still and watched, some in a stunned silence, and some whooping, not having realised what was going on.
Then the battle began. Peacemakers met the Reapers head on as the latter entered the atmosphere. Some Reapers took down Peacemakers. Some Peacemakers took down Reapers. Cinradahs yelled to the pilots, Saiun's hand on his shoulder, and the pilots yelled back. Some cheered as a Reaper went down, praying that the wreckage missed the city. Usually it did not, with black meteors tearing through homes. Missiles that were never fired exploded on the impact with the ground, buildings shattering, fires consuming, and the ground itself erupting in a flurry of green, brown and grey. People ran for their lives, but there was nowhere to go.
One man ran for his house, only to find it gone, only a burnt ruin remaining. He ran into the ruins, moving fragments of his home out of his way, until he found his children. Collapsing to his knees, he held their scorched corpses to his chest.
One woman dragged her friend, who seemed transfixed by the destruction, along by the arm, moving him out of harm's way as things fell from the sky above, denting the city itself. The force of the impact knocked them both down, trapping them under a shell of a Reaper. A group of fleeing people stopped and ran over, heaving and straining until the trapped couple were able to wriggle free.
In his office, Cinradahs shook his head, before signing off on the combat-com. “I can't do it anymore.” He brushed Saiun's hand away and went over to another screen. “I'm not a tactician, I'm a diplomat.” He picked up another com and opened a channel to The Dominion. “Xaos, stop this lunacy.”
The warlord's gaze met his own through the screen. “This is not lunacy, minister. This is for the good of the Empire.”
“How is taking over the Empire any good for the damn Empire?” Cinradahs roared at the screen.
Xaos smiled as if amused. “My vision for the Empire is good for it. A unified Empire.”
“It was unified, until you attacked Raan!”
Xaos waved his hand at the screen. “Unnecessary; Raan's destruction or defeat had to happen for my vision to succeed. Now, I have new allies. The death of Tahkshi gave me Irin and Rat'hak. Buun joined me over a mutual agreement. Narcsia is gone. Raan is all but destroyed by quakes, which should unleash the Corlens.”
“Hang on... quakes?” He had accepted that some planets would surrender, and he had calculated on Irin and Rat'hak, but Buun surprised him. Raan, however, surprised him more. “And what the hell are Corlens?”
“Now is not the time, nor the place. The Earth-Scorcher did its job, and that's all that needs to be said. While Raan had to be decimated, New Orbus does not have to suffer the same fate. Surrender, minister, and no further death shall come. Failure to do so will result in your extermination.”
Cinradahs sighed and shook his head. “Tell me Xaos; what is your vision for the Empire? If I am to surrender, I want to know what you intend to do.”
Xaos looked annoyed, but he indulged Cinradahs's curiosity. “This Empire is dying. We need to unite, and expand. Only by uniting our forces can we expand into possibly-hostile territory beyond the stars. We will take what we want in a glorious show of both scientific and military might. It will take an age, but it will be the age of enlightenment. All I want is for the best of the Empire.”
Saiun glanced at Cinradahs, who was struggling with Xaos's vision; while expansion was an idea that the Empire had been toying over for some time now, it was always going to be a peaceful engagement. “I'm sorry Xaos, but while you may think that the endpoint of your vision justifies the means, I disagree. The endpoint of expansion would be amazing, but it could have been reached peacefully.”
“No.” Xaos's voice seemed to change, becoming more mechanical. “Your kind can never have peace. Even you are a hypocrite; suing for peace, then opting for war.” Xaos shook his head. “If it's war you want, then I will call in my allies. The Pyrkagia Hive-Ships and the Irinian fleet will be here shortly. Remember; this is all on you. When the smoke clears, and I have won, the deaths will all be on you.”
The screen turned black.
Cinradahs stumbled away from the screen as if dazed. Saiun rushed over to steady him, but Cinradahs pushed him away. “It's all on me,” he muttered to himself, “All on me.” He stood still, mouth slightly open, before he lifted his hand to it and listened to the destruction outside.
“It's not on you.” Saiun stepped further towards him. “It's only on you if you lose. That's what the history books will say. If we win, it will be on Xaos. And we can win.”
“Maybe.” Cinradahs said quietly. “Maybe we can win.” He shook his head. “But I doubt it. We need to win before the Irinians and Pyrkagia arrive.”
Saiun pointed at the combat-com. “Then tell them.”
Cinradahs nodded and walked over to the com, picking it up. He switched it on with a swipe of his thumb and took a deep breath. “Pilots of the Empire Fleet. We need to end this fight. The Xaosians have allies which are on their way; if we can defeat Xaos before then, we might have a chance of winning. You can do it.”
*
Xaos observed his fleet in action. The Reapers, expendable machines, fought the similarly expendable Peacemakers in a battle that closely resembled moths dancing around a flame, rather than an actual space battle. With his Titans, however, the battle was much slower. The troop-carrying warships vastly outnumbered the amount of Liberator troop-carriers that the New Orbus fleet launched, but he had no equal to the massive Guardians, golden ships with thicker hulls and stronger cannons. However, his two smaller flagships accompanied him this time; The Dominion was almost breached on Raan, and it had spooked him. The repairs to the forcefield were finished now, and Xaos was satisfied with watching the battle from his floating fortress. Within his flagship sat enough firepower to single-handedly decimate at least half of New Orbus's fleet, but he knew that the ship wouldn't last long enough to be able to do so.
The voice in his ear whispered again, and Xaos repeated it as his com turned itself on. “Reapers, leave the Peacemakers and concentrate fire on the Guardians. Titans, split into two groups; one take out the Peacemakers, the other will drop off troops on New Orbus. Get down there and capture the city. Try not to kill too many; they could be,” he thought of the Inducers, “very useful.”
Receiving affirmatives in response, Xaos sunk back into his throne and watched the ships change course. Reapers veered towards the Guardians, using their slow speed against them. The Peacemakers followed the Reapers at first, before turning on the Titans. From behind, The Dominion began to fire on the Liberators, effectively throwing New Orbus's fleet into disarray. The voice in his ear, while droning and emotionless in sound, seemed pleased.
*
“How are the com teams doing?” Cinradahs strode over to another screen as Saiun checked the team's progress.
“They've broken through the Xaosian encryptions, but the encryptions keep changing and recoding themselves; they say they've never seen anything like it.” Saiun glanced at Cinradahs to check his expression: it was the same blank face it had been since his talks with Xaos. “They're getting snippets, but that's about it.”
“They've completely changed their formation,” Cinradahs informed him, “messed us up for a bit, but the squad captains sorted it out. They should be fine up there; it's down here I'm worried about. Look.” He pointed to a point on the largest screen, looking over his shoulder to make sure that Saiun was looking. “There are Titan troop-carriers headed for the city. One of the captains has rerouted his Peacemakers to intercept, but I'm not sure how much good it will do.; we still need to defeat Xaos before his backup arrives.”
Saiun squinted at a smaller screen which made a quiet beeping sound. “Too late.”
Cinradahs rushed over to the screen and his heart sunk as knees weakened; Pyrkagia Hive-Ships had entered the battlefield. He picked up the combat-com. “Everyone! Xaos's backup has arrived; the Hive-Ships ar
e not your friend! Peacemakers, form a defensive wall between the planet and invaders. Everything else, destroy the Xaosian flagships. Blow them up, board them, I don't care. Just destroy them.” He cut the com off, but placed it in his pocket.
“Rad, if the troops are coming,” Saiun observed, “This building is the most likely target; shall we evacuate?”
Cinradahs nodded vigorously. “Yes, send the order, and then we'll get out of here.”
Saiun punched buttons on a keypad, before confirming his intentions with voice commands. “It's done, let's go.”
The stairs downwards were narrow and spiralled, and Cinradahs's large feet gave him hassle at the best of times. Now, running as fast as he could when having to take smaller steps, it was a deadly hazard. Almost tripping twice, Cinradahs decided to keep a hand hovering over the handrail for safety's sake. Saiun, having the naturally smaller, webbed feet of the Quarens, was untroubled by the stairs, but was worried about his superior. As they got lower, they began to hear the standard sounds of panic; rushed footsteps and screams, the former providing a percussion background to the shrill latter.
The room they were in was roughly about halfway up the Spire, and subsequently, it was a long way to the ground floor. But they ran together in near silence, pushing through the other people who emerged down on the lower floors, much to their dismay and anger. Curses and mutters followed them all the way to the ground floor, whereupon Cinradahs rushed to the open doors and took in the disaster first-hand.
Flames licked at even the tallest buildings around the spire, and several homes were only blackened skeletons, crumbling relics of what they once were. In the skies, Titans loomed, growing ever-larger in their descent. On the ground, flocks of people looked up at the enemy ships, and then looked at the growing crowd outside the Shard. From the Titans, black cylinders were fired out towards the surface; Combat-Pods. Smashing into the ground or buildings, the Xaosians would be kept safe thanks to the impact-softening gel surrounding them. Cinradahs registered the crowd's fear, and recognised it as his own amplified a thousand-times. Knowing he had to do something, he picked up a twisted metal beam and yelled to the crowd; “Don't just gawp at them! What are you waiting for?