Copyright © 2022 Evan Currie

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Contents

Copyright

Foreword

Prologue

Legion in Exile

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Foreword

Welcome to book 2 in a planned trilogy (though I may go as far as four books) of the Imperium of Earth. I rather enjoyed writing it, and hope you feel the same reading it.

In part this novel was written live on stream while answering reader questions and generally just having a ball with whatever topic of discussions came up. If you'd like to join us, check out my twitch channel at

https://www.twitch.tv/evancurrie

Otherwise I can be found on FB and Twitter

I welcome questions, especially on stream (I can be slow to respond to social media posts) and just generally chatting if I have the time.

Hope everyone enjoys Legion in Exile, so let's get to it.

Prologue

ISV Vanquish, Approaching Low Orbit, Proxima Centauri B, Nuevo Eurys

Fire rained down from the ships as they approached the world hammered down through the atmosphere, tearing into the crust of the planet below and leaving explosions that could be seen from even the lofty heights of the low orbital range the ships were entering.

“Enemy response is sluggish, Sir.”

“I can see that, Captain,” Sylban Gyver said neutrally.

He wasn’t surprised, really. The Proxima system had been an Earth - held territory until a couple of generations earlier when one of the Free State worlds with Imperial ambitions of their own annexed it. Her Majesty was still young then and had too soft a heart… something that had only grown as she aged, counter to most, he supposed.

She’d not been able to respond effectively, in part because the Nobles refused to commit their military forces to the defense of some dirty offworlder colonists.

They were fools, of course, but it took a while before they realized just what they’d lost from their own pockets, let alone for Holy Terra.

Not so much mined materials and the like, those were generally commonly available even in the massively exploited Sol system, but political influence across the wide range of human influenced worlds was not a resource that could be so easily found.

Scarcer than diamonds by far, and more valuable than a starship’s weight in Gold… or in something with real value, for that matter. Influence was a vague sort of thing, a vagary of the political galaxy, impossible to properly measure, ever changing, and only truly valuable to a tiny fraction of humanity.

In other words, priceless to the sort of people who spent lives rather than money.

To those who didn’t, however, the value was minimal at most. That lead to apathy, men growing bored and sloppy because they didn’t have any real value invested in the game.

“Captain, we’re monitoring several military units retreating into the city.”

Captain Simon Kier grumbled, checking the information quickly before making a decision.

“Establish a targeting solution for the units…”

“Captain.”

Kier turned to glance at his… guest, some irritation vaguely showing as he did.

“Yes… Mister Gyver?”

“Do not fire on civilian targets,” Sylban said coldly.

“They’re offworlder collaborators,” Kier snarled, but kept enough of his calm to maintain a lower tone of voice and not expose his thoughts to the crew.

“Captain, right now we are the saviors of Proxima,” Sylban said casually, unconcerned with the situation or the Captain’s ire. “Pushing out the invaders, reclaiming the world for Holy Terra, and all the rest of it. Let the enemy anger the civilians, let them expend their resources against the resistance of ‘harmless’ civilians. We have neither the time, nor the resources for such foolishness.”

“My instructions were to take this world as quickly as possible…”

“Yes, yes, I am very much aware with the love of shock and awe that exists in certain quarters of the Empire,” Sylban said with wry sarcasm. “And if we were not concerned with holding the world in question, I would happily allow you your head in this. However, while your instructions are to take the world, mine are to ensure that it stays taken.”

He looked the Captain dead in the eyes, no expression beyond a slightly bored curl of his lips.

“So,” He went on, enunciating each word with precision. “Do. Not. Fire. On. The. Civilians.”

Then, just as casually, he smiled as his tone relaxed, “Are we clear?”

Kier stared for a moment before swallowing and giving him a crisp not.

“As crystal… Sir.”

“Mr. Gyver is fine, Captain,” Sylban smiled. “After all, I am merely an observer.”

“Of course…”

If the last two words were spoken through gritted teeth, Sylban was more than happy to ignore it.

*****

Nuevo Eurys, Surface

Marine landers dropped from orbit, screaming through the atmosphere fast enough to light the air aflame in their passage, only decelerating at the very last moment to a bone-crushing halt as they dropped below the planetary air defense coverage.

The orbital systems would still be able to target them, of course, but those had been the very first things the Vanquish had eliminated as it entered orbit.

Punishing multi-gee decelerations ended with the bottoms of the carriers opening up and squads of Marines dropping the last few hundred meters with single shot Lenz repulsors, letting them hit the ground without the ground hitting back… too hard.

Terran Marine Master Sgt. Conroy got his squad together from where they’d been spread out over a few square kilometers, cursing every second of it as he tracked down the last private and hauled the hapless idiot back into formation.

“That was a piss poor showing, you sorry lot. I expect better from now on or I’ll have your ass staked out on the cafeteria wall on the way home,” he threatened. “And ain’t none of us wants that to happen, so you better damn well listen.”

“Hoo rah Master Sergeant!”

“Orders are to secure all military assets, either for our own use or just to keep the enemy from using them, so get your ass in gear. There’s a military airfield over the ridge that needs a little TLC. Hump your butts!”

The squad was moving within a few minutes of being gathered back together, with Conroy taking the lead while he kept an eye out for the Lieutenant who’d jumped with them.

Green Nob will be lucky to survive this, Conroy thought, grumbling in his own head as he moved.

By luck or intent, probably luck, the Lieutenant had come down near to their planned route to the airbase, so he wasn’t slowing them up at least. They almost made the ridge before finally catching up to his transponder, and the cursing started up again when Conroy spotted the idiot.

How in the hell did he get tangled up in a fucking tree? This isn’t some damn movie from before the lights went out, Conroy swore mentally. We don’t use bed sheets and rope to slow a fall anymore!

“Private Albin!”

“Yes Master Sgt!”

“Help the Lieutenant down from the… tree, if you would be so kind.”

“Hoo Rah Master Sergeant!”

Conroy sighed as the young Marine ran forward and started climbing the tree. He rubbed his forehead.

“Albin!”

“Master Sergeant?”

“Never mind, as you were.” Conroy shook his head, figuring that if the private didn’t think about just tossing the idiot a knife to cut himself down, well that was what learning experiences were all about.

They got the Lieutenant down and the squad grouped up again, the sounds of fighting echoing in from the distance as the Lieutenant demanded a sitrep.

“Our target is just over the ridge here, Sir,” Conroy nodded in the direction of the airbase, before deciding that it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to sooth the idiots pride a little. “Good initiative on directing your descent, Sir, you landed much closer than we did.”

“Ah, yes, well thank you, Master Sergeant,” The lieutenant said, managing to only look a little embarrassed.

“In the future, however, if you’re planning on anything like that, please inform me, Sir. We can’t back you up if we’re not in the area,” Conroy said, as seriously as he could manage. He knew for damned sure the Nob hadn’t intended anything of the sort, but maybe reminding him that it was a warzone they were landing in would do some good.

He doubted it, but miracles happened every now and again.

“Right… yes, of course,” The young Noble agreed slowly, losing a little color from his face. “I’ll be sure to do that. I suppose we had best be moving on, now then?”

“Yes sir.” Conroy said, looking back at the group of Marines, eyes skimming their faces briefly to ensure that none of them were smirking at him or, much worse, the Nob. They all had their reactions in check, though, so he just nodded before going on. “Alright, Marines, we have an airfield to take! Move out!”

*****

ISV Vanquish

Sylban watched the reports of the ground fighting with an intensity he rarely exhibited for anyone or anything. He had little care for the ship-to-ship fighting; it was clear that the enemy in orbit had been routed. The minor polity from the Free Peoples had not bothered to put much in the way of defenses in space, given that the Antares Cluster was a long way away and they were clearly suffering from the same stupidity that the Empire had at one point.

The ground fighting, though, was important.

It would give him a much better idea of the sort of resistance they would be facing in the near future.

Thus far, Sylban was favorably relieved by the situation.

The Marines were cutting through the opposition on the ground, at least in the few places that they’d managed to mount something roughly approximating a military resistance. Casualties were minimal, and it seemed like the entire fight would likely be over in a few hours, with most of the remaining resistance being mopped up in a few days.

That would be when things got… troublesome, of course.

Beyond the immediate victory, Sylban couldn’t yet predict the true resistance they’d face. Nuevo Eurys had been an Imperial Colony until a little less than a Century earlier, when the Free Peoples moved in and took over with effectively no resistance offered.

That would have an impact on the locals, and some of them would likely welcome the Empire back… but he didn’t know, yet, just how many that would be.

The Marquis and Lord Jaol predicted a majority of the Eurysians would welcome them as liberators. Sylban doubted it, particularly with idiots like Captain Kier in charge. All it would take to destroy any favorable feelings toward the Empire would be a few… accidents in which civilians got caught in the fighting.

If and when that happened, the timer would begin on the Empire’s control of this world. Be it a decade, or a century, local resistance would make holding the planet unfavorably costly.

Assuming Jaol and the Marquis don’t choose to wipe the slate clean and move new colonists in.

They’d do the second anyway, of course - that was the point of the operation. However, if they decided to genocide the planet, well there would be repercussions. No one was certain how the Orions would take something like that, but the Free Peoples would be up in arms. They could sell this as reclaiming stolen territory that one of their own had taken in violation of the Free People’s ethics, but only if the occupation was reasonably bloodless.

At first, Sylban reminded himself with grim amusement.

Once their accepted it and their attention was shifted, well who really cared what one polity did within their own borders?

Human beings were simple little things in some ways, and out of sight equaled out of mind to far too many.

*****

Nuevo Eurys, Surface

“Heavy resistance, Master Sergeant… Lieutenant,” Corporal Reilly reported from where he was listening in to reports from other squads and receiving the overview from above.

“Nothing effective, though,” Conroy grunted as he looked over the fighting from his position, relying more on his own eye and the enhancements of his armor than reports from on high.

“Of course, it’s not effective,” Lieutenant Pierce said haughtily. “These freebooters have no sense of loyalty or real fighting spirit. We’ll easily take them.”

“Of course, Sir,” Conroy agreed automatically.

Honestly, he didn’t even disagree with the sentiment privately, though he did think that the Lieutenant was being overly confident and sweeping with his generalizations there. The Free Peoples were dangerous fighters by all accounts, they just tended to fight amongst themselves more than with anyone else.

Taking Nuevo Eurys was something that most of the Free Peoples had disagreed with vociferously back when it happened. Conroy didn’t give two shits about politics, but he knew enough to know that this world had been little more than a minor feather in the cap of a rather minor Free People’s alliance. They’d never cared enough to put much into defending it, especially after the Empire hadn’t done more than a token effort to reclaim it back in the day.

Everything here was left over from that, a century old and mostly in need of serious maintenance.

They’d find things a fair bit harder to deal with if they tried it on an actual Free People’s world, though Conroy suspected that they’d still be able to take them.

The only real question then would become, could the Empire take them all? Because the  Free Peoples did not take kindly to outsiders butting into their little internal politics and games.

That was way over his pay grade, however.

“Corporal Hardy.”

“Yes, Master Sergeant?”

“I see an interceptor rolling out of a hangar down yonder,” Conroy said with a tip of his head. “Ground that boy, would you?”

“You’ve got it.”

The guided rocket hissed a moment later as the Corporal tagged the target and unsafed the launcher. Rapidly accelerating to hypersonic, the rocket flashed out of the hill and down into the plains beyond where the airfield was, performing a ‘hop up’ maneuver at the last moment before it dived down into the air craft and exploded twenty meters above.

The shrapnel ripped the airframe to shreds just as the craft was starting to take off, and something important must have been hit as it listed to one side almost immediately before crunching back to the ground and exploding.

“Target down, Master Sergeant.”

“Atta boy.” Conroy said, glancing over to Pierce, “Sir? Orders?”

“What? Oh, right. Well, let’s secure that field.”

“Yes. You heard him Marines. Move out!”

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Ground deployments report most objectives have been completed, Captain.”

Kier nodded, “As expected. Have the administrative deployment prepared. As soon as the ground objectives are fully in our grasp, I want our own logistics down and getting to work.”

“Yes sir.”

Sylban listened to the byplay, but had nothing to add or critique, so kept his mouth shut and his face out of it. The fighting on the ground was already winding down, with absurdly low casualties on the Imperial order of battle.

In space, it was much the same.

The Vanquishe’s sister ships had engaged the few military spacecraft that had been maintained in the region, driving out all those they’d been unable to destroy with similar results to the ground fighting.

All in all… a satisfactory campaign.

All he had to do was keep idiots from ruining things.

Sadly, the universe seems intent on building better and better idiots.

*****

Legion in Exile

Evan Currie

Chapter 1

Independent Freighter Rubber Duck

“Shit man,” Jan mumbled to himself. “There’s some hardcore comm traffic out there.”

Eryn swung around a pipe fitting and leaned over the captain’s shoulder. “Anything we need to worry about?”

“Naw. It’s not local, but it has the locals buzzing,” Jan said. “Looks like the events in Sol have kicked off a wasp’s nest… no, wait… shit, the Terrans invaded Nuevo Eurys? Well fuck me, I didn’t think you lot had the cajones.”

Eryn scowled but didn’t comment as he skimmed the transcript of the traffic.

The Empire’s action was indeed being reported already, even this far out, and honestly, he wouldn’t have expected the Empire to be ready to make a move like that either.

Of course, he thought darkly, I didn’t realize that they’d built the Conquest, so I’m obviously out of the loop.

The coups had clearly been something in the works for a long while, decades at least was his guess, quite possibly much longer than that. You didn’t build multiple massive warships like the Conquest, and however many others they’d managed, without a lot of careful planning ahead of time.

He wondered if Her Majesty had known about the secret constructions, but if she had she’d apparently not even bothered to tell her lastborn daughter.

“Not our problem for now, thank God,” Jan said as he flipped off a couple switches and checked the status of the Rubber Duck’s systems now that they’d dropped out of LightDrive.

And it wasn’t the Captain’s problem, but Eryn was quite concerned that it would certainly become his if he wasn’t terribly mistaken.

What are they thinking?

Eryn didn’t know the exact levels of Terran military capability, of course. For all that he was Legion, he was still bound by a great many restrictions on his available information. Need to know was a thing, after all, and he’d mostly… well, not needed to know things like that.

However, while he was well aware that the Terran forces were quite well trained, he couldn’t imagine that they were that much of a match for the forces arrayed against the Empire from the outside. The Orions and the Free Peoples, not to mention the Republic of the Nine Stars, were all fighting forces with far more worlds to draw on for their manpower and other needs.

Eryn felt like he was missing something but didn’t know quite what it was yet.

‘I’m going to have to fix that. Fast.’ he thought grimly as he pushed back from the Captain. “I’m going to check on her… on Jinsha. How long before we land?”

“We’ll be in orbit over Anarcha in an hour,” Jan said. “After that you can go down anytime you like, you have your own ship.”

“They won’t be concerned about an IFV landing on world?” Eryn asked, a little skeptically.

“On Anarcha?” Jan laughed. “They won’t care if you bring down a cruiser, as long as you don’t cause any trouble. If you’re stupid enough to do that, though, leave me the hell out of it. I don’t need every soul for thirty-eight lightyears baying for my blood, thank you very much.”

Right, the Free Peoples, Eryn nodded. He supposed that meant that they were pretty much what they had been reported as, a largely Libertarian society for all their occasional bouts of hypocrisy. Of course, who was he to critique others’ hypocrisies? He’d very nearly decided to try to kill the man he’d sworn loyalty to as a brother. Despite the betrayal of his oath, Sylban…

No, not thinking about that right now, Eryn pushed the thoughts away. His anger over the situation starting to cloud his mind even with only that slight chance to gain ahold of him.

“Fine,” He said aloud, his tone more clipped than was strictly polite. “I’ll check in before we’re in orbit.”

“Your time, buddy.”

*****

Jinsha Conwin was browsing through ancient records when he arrived, old movies and the like from before the lights went out on Terra. Eryn had watched his share as well during the transit, there wasn’t much else to do when you were in FTL, but the Princess seemed to have a bit of a taste for the classics.

“Your Majesty,” Eryn said quietly from the door, gaining her attention.

Jinsha turned in his direction, mildly surprised, but she turned off the screen and smiled wanly in his direction.

“I’m no longer a Princess, Eryn,” she said.

“No, you are an Empress,” He answered.

It was an old exchange between them, despite the relatively short time that had passed since the coup. She kept trying to move him, but on this… Eryn would not be moved.

“As you wish,” She sighed. “What is it?”

“We’re approaching Anarcho,” he told her. “Once we’re in orbit, we’ll have to go down and see if we can find a link to your family.”

Jinsha nodded in understanding.

She wasn’t the only member of the Conwin line left, of course, she was just the last member in the official line of succession. The others had gone off world for varying reasons over the years, denouncing their claims to the throne in the process.

“I have a brother, I believe, in the Free Peoples,” she said. “But I do not know where exactly.”

He nodded, “We should be able to get some sort of directory access on world, we can work from there. I doubt they’ll have public numbers to their direct contact, but at least we might find contact information for their public relations people.”

“I suppose.”

Eryn suppressed a sigh as he considered the Princess and her situation.

It was a minor miracle that the young lady hadn’t broken down after everything that had happened to her. Her mother killed in front of her, trusted guards turning on her, the various threats to her person and… dignity… not to mention being forced to conduct herself in combat, and even kill others who had been attempting to end them.

It was a lot for a person to take, all of a sudden. He’d been trained, ready to join the Terran regular forces until Sylban had noticed something in him and recruited him directly into the Chapterhouse and the Legion beyond that… and even then…

He didn’t like thinking about the lives he’d had to take to escape the coup.

Just twenty-four hours before the fighting had begun, he’d have been pledged to give his life for theirs… and they for his in return. Killing them had… not been something he wanted to ever experience, nor an experience that, once had, he ever wished to repeat.

For someone like Her Majesty, largely sheltered from the world’s ugliness, he was honestly surprised that she was as functional as she had managed to be.

Blood will tell, I suppose.

The Conwins were a long line of people who were known for making hard, and controversial, decisions in times of crisis. Making those decisions and never looking back to wonder if they’d been right, merely pressing on with everything they had, step by inexorable step.

He wasn’t sure that he entirely bought into the Imperial propaganda about the iron will of the Conwin line, but Jinsha was making him bury a few of the doubts he’d harbored, growing up in the slums of East Texas.

“What?”

Eryn looked sharply over at her, “Your Majesty?”

“What were you just thinking?” Jinsha asked, “I can tell it was something about me…”

“Nothing bad, your Majesty,” he said, eyes shifting from the distant stare he’d not even noticed gaining to look more evenly at her. “I was just thinking about how little I thought about the Nobility and even the Conwin line while growing up. Spoiled, soft, given everything and giving nothing back, that’s pretty much what I thought about all of you. I learned better in the Legion, of course, but still harbored some thoughts about it. You do like proving me wrong, though. Thank you for that.”

Jinsha stared uncertainly for a moment before she smiled hesitantly, “You’re… welcome, I suppose? I don’t know that I’m doing much of proving anyone wrong right now, though.”

“Most of the tough guys I grew up with would be curled up in a ball, howling at the injustice of it all, if they went through a tenth of what you just did,” Eryn said firmly. “Loudmouth wimps, almost to a one. A lesson I learned, the hard way, your Majesty… the louder someone yells about something, anything really, the more absolutely worthless they actually are on the subject. Whining fools like to pretend they’re tough, while quiet strength actually proves it. You have quiet strength.”

“I don’t feel strong,” she admitted.

Eryn sighed, slumping onto a small stool he’d folded out of the bulkhead.

“Do you know what Dunning Krueger is?” He asked. “It’s something… he taught me about.”

He didn’t use Sylban’s name but knew that she’d know who he meant.

Jinsha’s expression darkened, but she nodded, “Yes. It’s an old saying.”

“A law, of sorts,” Eryn corrected her mildly. “In effect, it outlines just how people who know a little about something are more confident in their knowledge than those who know a lot about it. As you gain understanding, you begin to realize just how much more there is to understand. Only those who know nearly nothing, and those who know everything, are confident in themselves. It holds true for strength as well… you’ve been tested, you know how weak you can be… and that knowledge, ironically, makes you far stronger than those damn fools who’ve never met their test. If you can’t trust yourself, Majesty, trust me.”

She looked up at him for a long moment before a more genuine smile graced her features.

“I do trust you, Eryn, thank you.”

“It is my honor to serve.”

*****

Jan glanced over his shoulder as the pair of unexpected passengers he’d picked up made their way forward.

“Right on time,” He announced. “We’ve been assigned a parking orbit, and I let them know that you’d be heading down to the surface.”

“Thank you, Jan,” Jinsha said gratefully. “You’ve done more for us than I can ever express.”

Jan just snorted, “I’d probably still be cooling my butt back in Sol if not for your bodyguard there playing with the Empire’s computers, so consider us even, Princess. Besides, it’s not much of a ship to travel on.”

Eryn twisted his features but managed not to say anything in response to that. The weird thing was, he was almost certain that Jan didn’t know who his companions were, other than likely important fugitives. He just liked calling Jinsha ‘princess’ for whatever reason. It was entirely possible he just called every young lady he met the same thing, but it still bugged the hell out of Eryn every time he heard it.

Jinsha, however, just laughed at it.

“You’ve been a lovely host,” she assured the Captain. “Much more than we had any right to expect from you.”

“It has been nice to have company for once,” Jan said, before winking at her. “Especially such pretty company as yourself… your boytoy over there is a bit dour by times, though.”

Jinsha laughed, while Eryn cringed at the comment.

“Please… Jinsha,” He said firmly, “Do not encourage this man… besides, we should get ready if we’re going down to the surface.”

Reluctantly, she nodded, “Of course.”

Jan waved casually over his shoulder, “Make sure you’re armed if you go out. Anarcho is one of the less… civil of the Free People’s worlds. Would probably be a frontier world, if not for the central placement that makes for excellent transhipping of goods here.”

Eryn glanced back, but nodded, “I’m surprise then, that’s it’s not more built up.”

“Bad terraforming,” Jan told him. “You can breathe the air, but it smells like shit. Good for some valuable pharmacrops and the like, but not much else. Wear filtration, unless the smell is one of your kinks.”

Eryn rolled his eyes, hustling Jinsha off the ship’s control deck before the sheltered young woman could ask exactly what the freighter Captain had meant by that comment.

More so because he didn’t know what the Captain had meant, and was quite focused on not finding out. He’d made that mistake a couple times already.

*****

The Imperial IFV was waiting where they’d stashed it on the outbound flight from Sol, one of the mostly empty cargo holds that Jan had been unable to fill due to a lack of exports from the system plus the whole coups issue, of course.

Eryn had made sure that it was maintained sufficiently to fly, and he’d done all his homework on the local worlds they might be likely to fly into.

Luckily, whatever issue Anarcho had with their terraforming situation, the world had a proper magnetosphere, so the Lenz repulsors would be functional here.

Not every world crossed off that particular barrier to orbital flight, and that meant landing on most of them could easily be a one-way trip to the surface in an IFV or similar craft. They just didn’t have the Delta-V to achieve orbit without a magnetosphere to push off against.

Mars, they could land on… if anyone had any reason to do so… and lift off again despite the lack of a magnetosphere, but anything more massive than that would ground the IFV in a heartbeat if they tried.

“Jan, Eryn,” he said in a clipped tone over the channel. “We’re ready back here.”

“Alright, opening the doors for ya. Don’t ding the paint on your way out,” The Captain told him.

Eryn felt the rumble of the big cargo doors opening up, the cargo hold being one of those open to vacuum under normal operations.

“How in the planets could you possibly tell if I did?” Eryn asked sarcastically.

“Be nice, Eryn,” Jinsha chastised him laughingly from the co-pilot’s seat.

“Listen to the princess, Eryn,” Jan told him smugly. “And don’t badmouth the ship that carried you to freedom. It’s bad luck.”

“It’s a flying tetanus trap is what it is,” Eryn said with a roll of his eyes. “The only thing holding half this thing together is that horrendous stuff you call Duck Tape. Seriously, why do you have to name everything after a water foul?”

“You are an uncouth barbarian, boy,” Jan snapped back. “And how in the Galactic spiral did Terra manage to forget Duck Tape? Get off my ship before I come back there and educate you.”

“And on that note, time to leave,” Eryn said firmly, firing the jets to separate from the cargo hold of the long, multi-kilometer freighter, taking the military IFV out into open space once more.

He killed the open comm, shaking his head.

“That man…”

“You really could be nicer,” Jinsha laughed openly at him. “Jan is a perfectly nice man.”

Eryn shot her a flat, disbelieving look. “He’s a rogue, almost certainly a smuggler, and probably a thief.”

“And we are refugees from a coup, with prices on our heads and very bad people looking to collect, no doubt,” she said simply. “I do not believe that we can afford to be… overly judgemental, Eryn.”

Eryn sighed, “You’re probably right. I still think he’s a bad influence on you, but he hasn’t been without his… redeeming qualities, I’ll admit.”

The look she gave him left Eryn in no doubt that the princess was laughing at him behind her smug features. But there wasn’t really anything he could do about that, so he just reached for the controls and called up the approved flight plan they had for approaching the surface.

Not that it was much of a flight plan, honestly.

Mostly it just consisted of a few patches of terrain marked off in red, saying that if they tried to fly over those they’d be shot down, others in blue which demarked locations with facilities for rent, and the rest of the planet in green… which basically listed as land anywhere you like, it’s not the locals’ problem if you can’t get back up again.

Ugh. These people… I swear.

*****

Chapter 2

Surface of Anarcho

“Oh, by the eternal night,” Jinsha swore as she covered her nose while the pair of them stepped out of the ship. “What is that smell?”

“Organosulfer compound,” Eryn answered automatically. “Not Thioacetone, thank the gods, but bad enough.”

She shot him a sharp look, “How do you know that?”

“How do I…?” Eryn looked back at her, confused by the response until a sudden realization hit him, “Did no one ever teach you to use your implant suite?”

“Of course, they did,” Jinsha said, affronted. “What do you take me for?”

“Just drop the scanned sample from your chem-sniffer to your library analysis system,” he said. “Isolate pieces that stand out from standard atmospheres and compare against the database.”

She stared at him for a long moment.

“What?” Eryn asked.

“I didn’t know I had a chem-sniffer,” she admitted, eyes growing distant. “Found it. Wow, there’s a bunch of stuff in here that no one ever taught me about.”

Eryn shook his head, but refrained from commenting, for all the good that did him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she growled. “So cut it out.”

He just sighed, “Come on, we need to get a public terminal so we can jack into the Free Peoples’ online network. In the meantime, let’s go over the basics you were taught and see what advanced courses you need. If you’ve got the tools, you need to be able to use them.”

She sourly followed along with him as he guided her with a hand at the small of her back, irritated by the fact that he was essentially pointing out her ignorance, but far more so by the fact that he was right.

*****

A couple questions got them directed to a local library, a privately owned one apparently which struck both of them as a bit of an oddity but not entirely unheard of. The fee to get in, though, was new. The Empress had mandated that libraries and similar places were operated for the benefit of the people and were thus funded from public monies.

They didn’t have much in the way of money, of course, and none of the local currency at all. What Eryn did have were Non-Fungible Imperial Digital Eagles. NFID Eagles were backed by the Empire at a set exchange, and while it cost him a premium, he managed to get them into the library by cashing out a couple.

He wasn’t worried about being tracked, since the Eagles were part of the dark currency options open to Legionnaires for a reason. By the time they filtered back to the Empire and were reclaimed, there wouldn’t be anything left to track, even assuming the Empire had a record of them in the first place.

The air inside the library was marginally better, thankfully, but the dank and disgusting smell of the organosulfer compound really permeated everything in the place and made him wish he’d opted to wear the full kit he had stashed on the ship, but that was a level of attention neither of them needed.

“Here,” Jinsha said, pointing to a computer terminal in the back corner.

He nodded and they sat down, passing a hand over the system to activate it.

“Seriously?” Jinsha asked dully as the computer demanded money to be turned fully on.

“Welcome to the Free Peoples’ of the Antares Cluster,” Eryn sighed as he passed over a few more tokens. “Nothing’s free, and if it is… watch out.”

“Libraries shouldn’t charge.” Jinsha grumbled.

“Someone has to pay the bills,” Eryn shrugged. “At home, the people do through the people’s budget. Here, it’s whoever owns this place.”

“I doubt the owner here is just paying the bills,” she countered dryly.

He tipped his head, accepting the point. An individual wouldn’t bother running something if there wasn’t a profit in it, at least not for the most part. Exceptions always existed of course. Sometimes that would work out better, though he wasn’t certain if that was the case here or not. It tended to depend on how ‘open’ the market really was, and whether the business was worth competing for.

Generally, he doubted that there was enough money in libraries to make it worth it and, if it were, he would expect that whoever owned the libraries in the area likely had a quiet, under the table, no-compete agreement with any of those in the area likely to be able to push. That was how things tended to work, in his experience, no matter what sort of system you set up.

Humans loved breaking systems.

Almost like we evolved for it, Eryn sighed.

They didn’t have time for worrying about that just then, however, so he put it aside and got to work through the local access point to the social network.

“What family do you know of in the Cluster?” he asked softly.

“My older brother should be out this way, somewhere,” she said after a thought. “Pietro Conwin, but I think he’s using a different family name. Connors, I believe.”

“Alright,” Eryn linked to the system, making sure that it wasn’t a bidirectional interface before he connected to his implants, and got to work.

“Have a few, photos coming…” He said.

“Not him, no, no… hang on,” Jinsha said.“Go back.”

Eryn complied and brought up the photo that had caught her eye.

“That’s him,” She nodded. “He’s changed, is this a recent photo?”

“Looks like a couple weeks ago, he was caught by Paparazzi… whatever the hell that is… coming out of a club,” Eryn shrugged.

“Reporters, sort of,” Jinsha made a face. “I’ve heard of them, but the Empire doesn’t exactly let those sorts run around loose near the Imperial Family. Is he famous?”

“Sort of,” Eryn said absently. “He married a local land baron.”

“Baroness?”

“Nope.”

“Huh. Didn’t expect that,” Jinsha admitted, not that she particularly cared but that would have been a fair bit of a scandal back home. “Might be why he left the Empire. A potential future Emperor must marry, for an heir and all. Mother never mentioned it, though, when she spoke of him.”

“She may not have cared or considered it worth mentioning,” Eryn shrugged.

Mores back on Terra had varied over the centuries regarding such things, but in general the bulk of people didn’t much care in a general sense. It was only among the Nobles and the Imperial line especially where such things mattered.

A blood heir, sanctified via marriage, was the only absolute way to ensure the continuation of the lineage, and that made them touchy about such matters He supposed.

“Does it matter to you?” He asked, glancing aside to Jinsha.

“Not particularly, other than to be annoyed that he left this mess in my lap because he couldn’t have a wife in public and a lover on the side,” She snorted. “But, being honest, I’ve been tempted a few times to leave myself so…”

“Well, he’s on Anchorage, it seems. That’s one of the more… well developed resource worlds, if I’m reading this correctly,” Eryn said. “Mostly pharmacrops, luxury foods, and the like. Work for you?”

She nodded, “but how do we get there?”

“Well, we do know someone with a ship,” he offered, half smiling.

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Captain Hidan Clarke glowered at the flash traffic reports he was skimming through, wondering how things had progressed so quickly considering just how many preconceptions he was having tossed in every imaginable direction.

“The Terrans have secured the Proxima system, captain,” His XO reported. “Meanwhile, they’ve also struck off world colonies in three other systems with near simultaneous strikes. Their new Battleships are not to be taken lightly, it appears.”

Hidan snorted.

“That would be an understatement of the century, Commander,” he said with some heat.

Hidan had never entirely fallen into the trap of believing that the Empire was harmless, per say. No matter what any fool out there might believe, the words Harmless and Human were antithetical concepts. The more harmless appearing human in the galaxy was, to his mind, the more potentially dangerous.

People who understood violence had limits. They knew their limits, or they limited themselves.

Push a harmless man over whatever invisible line he had, and you’d find out very quickly how dangerous a man who didn’t know their limits could be.

Once, of course. They rarely survived long enough to be a threat twice… but once was more than sufficient.

The Empire wasn’t that, however, which was both a good thing and very bad thing.

Their strikes were planned, by someone who knew their job, he could tell that much.

“They’ve wiped the board clear of those opposing them in those systems according to all reports,” Grave said casually. “Not that there was much, if we’re being honest.”

Hidan nodded in agreement, “True, but don’t let that convince you that they’re to be dismissed. Their plans were clean, and precise, and they’ve not made any of the mistakes that amateurs tyrants like to indulge in.”

“Yes, surprising that, considering the coup and relatively new leadership of the Empire,” Grave responded grimly.

“Precisely. Historically, we should be seeing them lashing out with more uncontained violence. Whoever is in charge is intentionally keeping them strictly to military targets, and they’ve picked those well,” Hidan said, tapping a sheaf of acti-pages at his side. “Our analysts are already predicting better than eighty percent chances of a relatively peaceful shift of control, with almost no insurgent activity.”

“That’s impossible,” Grave objected. “Some of these worlds were under the Cluster’s leadership for over a century! That had to leave a mark.”

“No doubt it did, but not all of it was positive,” Hidan reminded his XO. “And the Empire has tailored their attack to maximize locals' acceptance, while minimizing the fallout. A lot of old reports are starting to make sense.”

Grave frowned, “Such as?”

Hidan sighed but pushed the sheafs away and opened up his terminal. He had to go deep into the archives, but in short order he found what he was looking for and flipped the induction terminal around and slid it over to Grave.

Grave read it through, frowning, “This is a list of deaths…?”

“Curious ones,” Hidan nodded. “Mostly presumed to be accidents, illnesses, a murder or two over women or money, that sort of thing. Now, I’m thinking that they’re more along the lines of planned assassinations. Every name on that list was someone with both the inclinations and the capability of building and running an insurgency.”

Grave stared, “These go back decades, sir.”

“Precisely.”

*****

Surface of Anarcho

“New arrivals on planet, sir.”

Wesley Elwes turned, “Oh?”

Whoever it was had to be interesting for his assistant to bring it to him in person.

“Pair landed a couple hours ago in an Imperial infantry fighter,” Sharon Carres went on. “It was… curious enough to gather some attention.”

“Why?” he asked. “Enough of those kicking around.”

“Current gen, Sir. New construction.”

Wesley let out a low whistle, “Well now that is a different bucket of starfire emeralds, isn’t it?”

“I thought you might think so, yes sir.”

“You monitored them, of course?”

She gave him a dry look that brought a laugh from him.

“Stupid question, never mind. What did you find?”

“They went to the library, paid in Imperial secure currency to access the network.”

“We have the log?”

“Yes sir. Simple search, looking for Pietro Connors.”

“Connors… Connors… I know that name,” Wesley said, “Don’t I?”

“Yes sir. Micheal Connors married the man some time ago.”

“Oh. Oh my, that is interesting,” Wesley said. “Where are they now?”

“They left the library, heading back toward the ship field they landed at. I have some men tailing them, in case you wanted something done.”

“How well you know me,” He smiled. “Are these men connected to me in anyway?”

“No sir, deniable assets. They don’t even know who’s paying them.”

“Perfect. Their ship alone is worth a mint, but if they’re connected to Connors… we might have a nice little treasure here. Have the men take them, but carefully. Let’s not get too much attention, shall we?”

“I understand perfectly, Sir. It will be done.”

*****

Jinsha looked around as they walked. It was all so different from the Capitol Tower in which she’d spent most of her life.

“How do people live here?” she asked, nose crinkled up.

Eryn glanced in her direction, “It’s not bad. It was worse where I grew up, Your Majesty. The smell is unpleasant, but non-toxic. Lead, Cadmium, other heavy metals have leached so deep into some water sources back home that not even all the efforts of your mother, and her father, and his father, have managed to clear it out.”

“I… I didn’t realize that." She admitted, sounding shocked.

Eryn sighed, “Earth is… better than it was, but it is not yet what it has been in the past and will be yet again. A lot of people die very young because of where they were born. Weather control has helped, but a lot of the damage has been done. If we weren’t actively reflecting back about twenty percent of sunlight in orbit before even reaching the surface, we’d have spiraled into a runaway greenhouse effect a long time ago. We breath more carbon than we’re built to handle and consume heavy metals and other poisons with our food… when we can get food. Out here it smells funny, but it’s not going to kill us.”

“No one ever told me.”

“Why would they? You can’t do anything about it.” He said honestly. “Your mother spent her life working on it, hoping that you wouldn’t need to worry about it.”

Jinsha had nothing to say to that, there just didn’t seem to be any words that could do it justice. She’d known, of course, that her mother wasn’t telling her everything about the state of the Empire. That much had been patently obvious, but she’d assumed it was state secrets that were being held back, not just how badly the people were suffering.

“How bad wa…” she started, only to have Eryn’s expression cause her to fall silent. “What is…”

“We’re being followed, and I think they ran some people up ahead to intercept us,” he said evenly without looking around.

“Are you…”

“Don’t look around,” he hissed, a hand reaching up to wrap around the back of her neck and steer her head back to the front. “I’d rather they not know they’ve been spotted.”

Hesitantly, she swallowed and nodded.

“Probably saw the ship and figured we needed watching,” he said. “I’d keep an eye on anyone flying an armed military craft into my jurisdiction if I were a local constable, but there’s more people involved than I’d expect if they were just keeping an eye out. Be ready, just in case.”

In case of what? Jinsha thought grimly, though she knew the answer was both likely something she’d prefer not to know, and that it involved violence.

A lot of things had involved violence since she’d met Eryn, it seemed, not that it was fair to blame it on him in the slightest. Her world had been more sheltered than she’d realized, leaving her with an education that she was learning was… patchy at best. Some things she surprised her companion with in a good way, like being able to fly the military craft they were travelling in, but more often she surprised him with her ignorance… and that was something Jinsha did not enjoy in the slightest.

She was going to have to make it a point to fix that, point by point, as any ignorance was unveiled.

First, however, there was the current problem to deal with.

*****

“We’ll take them as they get to the edge of town, before they get out into the open. Mack’s old Pub is still boarded up, right?” Paul Kinsey, the leader of the local group of toughs asked, glancing over at one of his fellows.

Harold Raims nodded, “Yeah. No money to reopen, I guess.”

“Good. We’ll bust in, use it to hold them for a bit until we get orders.”

The group nodded in agreement.

“Ok, you guys, run up ahead and get ready. Drop the boom on them as they pass Mack’s, and then we’ll close the back door. Good? Good. Everyone move.”

*****

Chapter 3

Proxima System, Nuevo Eurys

With no immediate response from the Free Peoples expected due simply to the time it would likely take for them to formulate a response and get enough support to follow through, Sylban turned his focus to the ongoing execution of the war and had hitched a ride with a lander heading down with the next wave of Marines from the Vanquish.

They put down at one of the primary military space ports, avoiding the hassle of dealing with the Civilian infrastructure… and, potentially risking said infrastructure at the same time. The enemy wasn’t finished fighting back, and he had little doubt that the fighting would continue for some weeks, but he was already taking steps to ensure that it wouldn’t be noticed by most of the local population.

“Mr. Gyver, Sir.”

Sylban glanced at the Marine who’d come out to meet him, noting the man’s NCO tags as they were highlighted in his implant’s vision, along with man’s name.

“Master Sergeant,” He nodded. “Where is Colonel Greives?”

“The Colonel is in a planning session and sent me to secure you and your belongings until such time as he can be made available.”

Sylban smiled thinly, recognizing the intent behind the action. Grieves believed he was giving insult, guised well enough that it wouldn’t blow back on him if Sylban were to be intelligent enough to spot it and forward enough to make an issue of it.

Unfortunately for the Colonel, Sylban honestly didn’t see it as an insult in the least. A good Master Sergeant beat any dozen Colonels he’d ever had to deal with in his experience, with a small handful of exceptions that inevitably came to mind.

“That’s fine, Master Sergeant. It just means I can get to work all the quicker,” he said with a thin smile that carried no humor in it. “I’ll need to see the plans for pacifying the city and force disposition for every fighter in the zone.”

“Sir, I’ll need to confirm with…”

“Master Sergeant, I know what you’re thinking. Who is this man who thinks he can give orders, when he’s not even in the chain of command, yes?” Sylban asked lightly as they walked.

The Sergeant looked uncomfortable, but nodded in agreement, “Yes sir.”

“This should clear that up,” Sylban said, shooting over his command authorization to the Marine’s implant suite.

The senior NCO took a moment to scan, then confirm, what his implants were telling him before abruptly going stiff as a board and saluting in a parade perfect stance.

“Sir! I understand, Sir. Tactical operations planning is right this way…” The Master Sergeant said instantly, shifting direction away from where he’d been trying to subtly push the man in the black uniform. “I apologize for my conduct.”

“As you were, Marine. My rank isn’t to get you to do your job. You know how to do your job without me stepping all over your back,” Sylban said. “My rank is to get the Colonel and other brass to do their jobs.”

“As you say, Sir.” The Marine said, relaxing just marginally. “We’re in that hangar over there.”

Sylban nodded absently, his gaze wandering slightly until something caught his eye.

“What’s that?”

“Sir?” The Sergeant asked before he followed Sylban’s gaze, “Oh. Prisoner holding and interrogation.”

Sylban’s eyes narrowed, “All prisoners of rank are supposed to be held over until the next shuttle up to the Vanquish.”

“Colonel’s orders, sir, those are for local civilians of influence.”

Sylban swore, abruptly turning mid stride and heading straight for the building he’d been watching.

*****

Corporal Jaz Mir felt a chill run down his back as his gaze settled in on the two men stalking right for his position with intent like he’d rarely seen. He didn’t know who the thin man in black was, but the Master Sergeant struggling to keep up beside him was enough to put a steel shank right down his spine as he shot a warning hiss over to his fellow on the other side of the Hangar door.

“Yule, heads up. Incoming brass, if I’ve ever seen it.” he hissed, causing the woman there to straighten as well.

He didn’t know the man, and didn’t recognize the uniform, but the Master Sergeant was chasing along like a lost puppy who didn’t want to be going where he was going but was too scared to contradict his owner. Jaz knew the Master Sergeant, and he did not want to be on the bad side of anyone that could inspire that response from him.

That said, he still had a job to do, and so when the pair got close enough, he stepped out with his weapon at a low ready.

“Sir, Master Sergeant. This is a secure…” Jaz blinked when the authorization hit his implants, his jaw slowly dropping as he lowered his weapon even farther.

I did not know that ranks went that high.

He stepped aside, saluting crisply as the man stormed past.

After the pair had gone in, he felt his hand shake just slightly as he exchanged looks with his partner.

“Who the fuck was that?” She asked blankly.

“You saw his rank rating?” Jaz asked.

She nodded.

“Then you don’t want to know, not if you’ve got half the brains I think you do.”

*****

Lt Colonel Galloway sneered as he looked over the current detainee.

The man was the local mayor, or some such. Honestly, he didn’t really care. What did matter was that the man clearly had a deep understanding of the local situation and where the remaining resistance was likely to be hiding. That was all that mattered, finding the last of the off-worlder scum who had the temerity to continue their pointless resistance.

He heard a brief commotion outside of the ad hoc interrogation room but ignored it as it settled quickly. Some prisoners were always getting a little above their position and had to be roughed up to varying degrees before they learned their place.

“Now, really Mr. Birk,” he said, smiling as he picked up a tool from the bench. “This could be so much more civil if you simply cooperated.”

The tool in his hand was an electrical induction system, designed to directly trigger nerve endings, making the body feel much like it was on fire, only without the issues of destroying the nerves and eventually stopping the pain that way.

A little less personal than he preferred, but he could get more hands on once he had the information he required.

“I already told you everything I know!”

“Oh, I sincerely hope that isn’t true, Mr. Birk… for your sake…” Galloway said as he advanced.

The man flinched back from him, trying to escape the device he’d already felt the effects of more than once in recent memory, but his bindings prevented any chance of that of course. Galloway smiled as he brought it down… only to be stopped by the doors behind him being kicked wide open.

“What is the meaning of this,” he snarled, turning to see a Marine master sergeant, looking miserable as any he’d ever seen, and a man in a uniform he didn’t immediately recognize. When it did come to him, he just shifted to a sneer, “Mr. Gyver, I believe? You’re not where you should be.”

“I gave specific orders,” Gyver said grimly as he looked over the scene, including the mayor and two bodies from earlier interrogations that had been left there to show the current interviewee the consequences of trying to hold out on him. “This was not in the order of battle I handed down.”

“Orders directly from the Brigadier,” Galloway sneered. “Nothing a civilian such as you-”

The single shot that rang out startled everyone, Galloway most of all. He stared at the small weapon that had appeared in the civilian’s hand even as he felt a pressure building in his chest and looked down to see a red stain marring his perfect uniform.

Unacceptable, Galloway thought, his head going a little foggy. I managed to even keep the prisoners’ blood off mysel…

He was unable to complete the thought as the world went black, the last thing he felt was a sensation of falling that seemed to last forever.

*****

“Clean up that mess,” Sylban snapped, eyes roving the room.

“Yes Sir!”

“Afterwards, secure the prisoners and see to their medical needs,” He ordered. “I will be back, and I will be checking. Not so much as a fresh scratch, am I understood?”

“Sir… if they resist…”

“Then deal with it,” he said in a tone so cold it should have fogged the air. “You are marines. If unarmed civilians are beyond your capability, I will find men who can handle the situation. Am I clear?”

The Master Sergeant nodded, “Sir, yes sir!”

Sylban nodded curtly, eyes falling on the prisoner as he considered the situation, his finger sliding gently over the trigger of his weapon. The inner debate didn’t take long, however, before he removed his finger from the trigger and lay it easily across the guard instead.

“Clean him up, get him medical attention,” Sylban said, irritated. “I have a discussion I need to attend with the Brigadier in charge of this debacle.”

*****

Libation, Free Peoples’ of the Antares Cluster world

“This is an outrage!”

Cheers of agreement followed that statement, though not from as many throats as the speaker had hoped to hear. Many around the room were quiet instead, and some had barely masked dour looks as they waited for his time to speak to be ended.

“The Empire,” Simu Jayalan went on, sneering out the name both because the Terran Empire was hardly worthy of the appellation, but also to trigger the instinctive dislike for such political entities that existed among the Free Peoples’… in public at least…, “has blatantly assaulted the Free Peoples’-”

“Took back what you stole, I believe you mean!”

Simu shot an annoyed look in the speaker’s direction, recognizing her as an ongoing thorn in his side.

“Assaulted the Free Peoples,” he said again. “This cannot be born! Citizens of our alliance have been killed! Wounded! Imprisoned and held against their rights!”

“How many Imperial citizens died when you took their colony in the first place?”

Simu gritted his teeth. He did not want to get drawn into that debate again, particularly not during his time to speak before the assembly and so he ignored the words.

“My fellows,” He said instead. “We must not allow this to stand! What next? A strike here? Within the Cluster itself?”

That, at least, got something closer to the response he was aiming for. Roars from the assembled people echoed off the curving roof of the Assembly Hall, anger at the suggestion alone nearly sufficient to rouse the normally apathetic membership.

It was still a far cry from a unanimous consensus, but he would take what he could get. The Empire was an old, faded, and antiquated regime that had finally crossed one line too many and needed to be dealt with…

Permanently.

Not even the Orions will complain too loudly now if we were to put an end to that farcical regime once and for all.

The homeworld itself would be a fine jewel in the crown of the Free Peoples’.

*****

Neuvo Eurys

“What is the meaning of this outrage!”

“Sit down, General,” Sylban told the Brigadier, his tone bored as he came to a stop in the middle of the planning session. “Before I shoot you, as I did your lacky down in that imbecilic interrogation pit of yours.”

The General, Brigadier Benjamin Jakowski, stared at him blankly for a moment.

Idly, Sylban wondered if it were shock or outrage in his face, but the two emotions were often rather difficult to tell apart on certain people. He shrugged off the mild curiosity as meaningless, since he had far more important details to deal with at the moment.

“General, I know that you’re aware of my current authority and that you know I have full powers to give orders within the chain of command as I see fit,” he drawled slowly as he spoke, drawing out the words more to irritate the man than make any other point. “So I find myself… curious… as to why you defied my command concerning the treatment of civilians?”

“I do not have to listen to the mindless drivel of fools like you, Mr. Gyver!” The General bellowed. “The Marquis himself put me in charge of this-”

“Arrest him,” Sylban sighed, waving idly.

Unnoticed to the officers present, or the guards, several of his Marines who’d joined him from the Vanquish swarmed through the doors and quickly took control of those within, making certain to… encourage the other officers and Marines present to keep their weapons down as four grabbed the General and slammed him roughly into the desk before putting restraints on him.

“You can not do this!” he roared, struggling.

“General, I can shoot you where you lay, if I so choose,” Sylban said casually. “And I likely should. The headache this will cause me later is certain to be troublesome… but honestly, you’ll be more valuable here. Marines, remand him into custody and hold him until we have a provisional local government established.”

The General, and most of the others stared at him in clear confusion.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m going to give you to the locals to try for war crimes, of course,” Sylban told him. “That should make the Empire’s position quite clear and reduce the number of recruits into any local resistance groups by a considerable margin.”

“You cannot DO that!” Jakowski snarled, now struggling again.

“Remove that idiot.”

As the General was being dragged from the room, Sylban looked around at the rest.

“Allow me to make my position clear,” he said coldly. “Your duty here is take this world, mine is to ensure it remains taken. There will be no multi-decade resistance here to drain resources from Imperial coffers, no murdering of locals to pad your wallets or your beds. I will have every single living thing on this planet eradicated to prevent that, if that is what it requires, but if I can do the job with a modicum of restraint instead? Then that is precisely what will be done. Am I very clear?”

There was no response from them, which suited him just fine. If they didn’t get it now, they would get it soon enough.

One way or the other.

*****

Chapter 4

Surface of Anarcho, Free Peoples’ of the Antares Cluster

Eryn was keeping track of the men moving around as best he could, using his implants to shore up what his basic senses couldn’t find.

They weren’t well trained, but that didn’t preclude being law enforcement in a place like this, if his own training was correct. The local constable, or whatever he was called, likely got to hire his own people when he took the job. That could easily devolve into nepotism and other forms of favoritism overruling any sense of standards.

He wasn’t sure that was what he was seeing, however.

Too many of them, moving around too sloppy.

They were armed too, though he couldn’t tell exactly how many weapons or what kind for the most part. Beam Locks and firearms didn’t really have much of a signature, since their power was stored in chemicals rather than batteries and capacitors. He did have a scan on a couple rifles, though, of the sort that were popular on Earthquite some time ago.

Antiques? Or replicas?

Probably the latter, which likely meant they would hit marginally harder than they appeared to. There were physical limits to ballistic munitions that could be handled by a single man, or practical limits actually, but a few improvements had been made since the models he’d spotted had been originally issued.

Best to assume that they’re at least on par with modern civilian issue, Eryn decided. That was actually misleading, since most people tended to assume that civilian issue was somehow inferior to military issue, when the opposite was generally true.

A civilian, in most circumstances he or she were likely to need a weapon, was highly likely to require a single shot take down. If they were hunting, or shooting in self defense, the same end result was almost always true… if you needed more than two or three rounds, at most, to take down your target, then your window of opportunity was almost certainly going to close.

A prey animal would run, an attacker would kill you. Either way, you had to get the job done as fast as possible.

Military doctrine tended to make certain assumptions that were simply not true for civilians. They assumed that logistics would be available. Reloads, backup, transport, and so forth. They assumed that mobility while under fire was something you’d trained with… and they assumed that you would likely have a team with you, providing suppressive fire as needed. That meant smaller and lighter rounds, and a lot more of them… at a sacrifice of stopping power, generally speaking.

If you had a choice, survival was far more likely if you were shot by a military weapon than a similar example from the civilian side. Not that it was a choice Eryn would ever want forced upon him. Bad was bad, and a lesser bad still could kill your ass dead.

But, for all that, he had to assume that the weapons he was facing were harder hitting than those the Marines had tried to take him down with back home.

It was still unlikely, if not impossible, for them to perforate the Legion armor he wore, but he hadn’t been able to secure a suit sized to Her Majesty and his head was exposed on top of that, which made the threat very real.

“If they make a move on us,” he said softly, relying on Jinsha’s implants to pickup the low tone, “I want you to hit the ground instantly. Leave them to me.”

She looked at him, shocked, hissing back, “There’s too many…”

“Just do as I say, I need to be able to move, Your Majesty.”

Jinsha screwed up her face angrily, but then just as he expected her to object and turn the situation into a fiasco, she suddenly deflated.

“Fine.”

“Thank you.” he said as they continued to move. “We’re about to the edge of town. They’ll move soon, if they’re going to move at all. Be ready.”

*****

“Here they come, be ready.”

The gang all replied in the affirmative as they prepared to get the drop on the approaching couple, most of them eagerly grinning in anticipation of the moment to come.

“Now.”

The order was misleadingly soft, but it was enough. They stepped out from behind the cover of the old pub, blocking the way out of town as the pair came to a stop in front of them.

“Well now, what do we have here?” Raims chuckled, a club slapping easily in his hand as he looked them over. “Pretty little one, I have to say.”

“The girl’s not bad either, Har,” One of the smart asses beside him spoke up, earning a scowl from him in turn.

He didn’t comment on it, though, staying focused on mostly keeping the pair's attention.

“Newcomers here have to pay a toll,” he said, grinning again. “I understand you’re using Imperial digital scrip… that’ll do fine.”

The pair had stopped about ten meters from he and his men, the man… really little more than a boy in his opinion, had shifted his hand to rest on the girl’s shoulder. They might have said something softly between them, but Harold couldn’t hear to be sure.

It didn’t matter, though, since his job was just to keep them in place for a little while longer.

“Sure,” the boy said easily. “Sounds fair.”

Harold almost snorted. This was going to be easier than he thought, if the kid was going to just give it up that easily. Some people were fighters, but most weren’t so he wasn’t surprised exactly, but it was always a pleasant feeling to know that a job would be simpler than he’d planned for.

“Come on, boys,” he said smiling. “Let’s get paid.”

Brat won’t know what hit him.

He and the others started ambling casually toward the pair as Paul and his group closed the exit path from behind.

*****

“Let them get closer,” Eryn spoke softly, his lips barely moving as he felt Jinsha shivering slightly beside him.

He didn’t want to kill anyone if he could help it, and at ten meters or so his non-lethal options were effectively nil. Still, most of them were waving clubs around, and if they’d wanted to kill Jinsha or himself, they’d likely have just shot them already.

That didn’t mean they wouldn’t change their priorities once the fighting started, of course, but he’d worry about that when the time came. The group in front was taking the lead, their leader grinning wide like he knew a secret no one else did as he approached.

Too many of them for a shakedown, Eryn analyzed. More likely an abduction. Do they know who Jin is?

That was unlikely, but not as unlikely as he’d prefer. They’d arrived on world in an Imperial infantry hauler, one of the new ones. If that had been recognized, and someone had decent access to Imperial networks, it wasn’t impossible they’d worked things out… but, no, he didn’t think so. Unfortunately, the infantry hauler and money he’d been flashing still marked them as people to watch, so Eryn figured someone was gambling that they’d be worth something to someone.

How right you are, whoever you are, he thought ironically as he watched the range drop. But how wrong at the same time.

Whoever was behind this would have certainly thought twice if they knew the sheer level of trouble they would be bringing down on their heads with a move like this. Best case, maybe the Empire pays up, but Eryn figured it was just as likely that they’d drop a low yield atomic on the heads of the perps afterwards just to cover it up.

The people in charge now were not what he would qualify as… nice.

Eryn noted that the leader of the group ahead of them was almost within arm’s reach, and all thoughts beyond the moment faded from his mind. He made a show of moving slow, reaching up to open his jacket.

“Let me just get my wallet,” he said easily, reaching into his jacket. “How much is the fee?”

“Are you stupid boy?” The man sneered at him as he stepped into reach. “We’ll take it all.”

“Ah, of course… Jin,” Eryn said as he tensed without visibly shifting, “Now!”

She just dropped, as they’d agreed, while Eryn exploded forward.

*****

Paul Kinsey was expecting a bit of a fight, of course. When you’re planning an abduction, you’d best plan on a fight. Better to be surprised by them giving up easy than the opposite and all that.

He hadn’t expected to see Harold get taken down in a fraction of a second as the boy went from casual and calm to fists of fury in no time flat. The kid had just stepped forward and snapped his hand out, catching Harold in the throat with the web of his hand between thumb and forefinger.

As Harold dropped, clutching his throat and gasping, the kid kept moving without even looking back to see if he’d dropped his target, like he knew without question the results.

Oh shit. This ain’t some rich kid, and it sure as hell ain’t some rando military sort either.

He’d seen enough fighting in his day to recognize special forces when it dropped a friend of his in his tracks. The rest of his crew, though, hadn’t.

“Shit! Back! Back!” he ordered, trying to stop them from racing in to help, but he couldn’t be heard over the explosion of shouting, screaming, and sounds of fighting in general.

Fuck. What the fuck did that crazy bitch get me into?

He really needed to stop taking orders from Carres. She was going to get him killed one of these days.

Assuming she didn’t this time.

He wasn’t running into that, however, so he drew his weapon and waited. Hopefully they’d be able to subdue the man, since their orders were to bring them in alive. If not… well, if someone had to die here, it wasn’t going to be him if he had any say in the matter.

*****

Eryn left the closest guy dropping, gasping for air and clutching at his throat, and didn’t look back because he knew that he’d struck true and hit as intended. The next was still staring in shock when he delivered a sharp blow straight to the solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs and leaving him falling even as the first just managed to hit the ground.

The rest had gotten enough of their senses back in tune with reality to converge on him automatically, but none of them had much of a plan. Eryn closed the distance to the next one, a man whipping a club up to strike him, and jabbed in fast under his upraised arm hard enough that he felt ribs crack under his knuckles.

A little harder, he’d have punctured a lung from the side, but as it was the man just went down clutching his side and screaming from the sudden pain.

When the next tried to blindside him, a move that was patently impossible given his implant suite even if you ignored his training, Eryn casually stomped his shin down to the bridge of his foot, then delivered a back hand that connected with the side of the man’s protruding nose with a crackle of cartilage.

Four down. Two more close in, five rushing us. One hanging back.

His machine pistol would end this in seconds, but a little scuffle in the boonies was one thing. Leaving a half dozen plus corpses in their wake, however, would raise questions he’d prefer not to deal with, at least until the princess was somewhere safe.

A screaming… well, Eryn would be generous, and term it a ‘battle cry’… sounded from his left and he twisted automatically to meet the attack straight on. A snap kick to the shin cracked bone and put the attacker off balance, so Eryn helped him along by reaching up and grabbing his head and driving him down into a swiftly raising knee with a bloody crunch.

The last had had enough. He dropped his weapons and backed off, stunned from the look of it. If he’d had time, Eryn would have put him down as well, but the backup was almost on him and Jinsha’s position, so he left the man standing as he turned to meet the next source of threats.

The whole first encounter hadn’t taken thirty seconds.

Standing amid the groaning bodies on the ground, Eryn swept his gaze across the rest of them, who’d slowed as soon as he turned on face on them, coming in more carefully now.

“We don’t need to do this,” he offered. “Pick up your buddies and get them some medical help. Me and mine, we go on our own way.”

Uncertainty in their eyes told him that they wanted to accept, but when they glanced back to the man holding off from the fight, Eryn knew that it wouldn’t fly.

Abduction then. Thieves wouldn’t go to this much trouble for the little cash they’d get from some poor bastard in the streets.

Well, that meant that he’d be able to stop holding back without feeling any real pity.

Where he’d grown up, sometimes you stole to eat. It was just the circumstances of life there, before he’d been recruited by the Imperial Military. He felt for people who found themselves in that situation, enough that he’d have paid a fair fee to this bunch, even a bit of an unfair one. He wasn’t going to give up all the money he needed to keep Her Majesty safe, however, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let any two-bit hoodlums grab her while she was under his protection.

“Well buckle up then, my friends,” he said loudly when they started forward again, shifting from his earlier blitz strategy to one more of intimidation. “Because this is going to hurt.”

*****

Paul watched as his guys moved in against the lone fighter, moving cautiously. He couldn’t blame them; the preceding beat down was still vividly painted in his mind as well and he honestly wished he could take the man up on his offer to back off and take the injured with him.

He knew who Carres worked for, however, and that probably wouldn’t end any better for them than the worst-case outcome here.

The man, more of a kid really from the look of him, hadn’t gone for a weapon yet. Paul took that as a good sign, since it either meant he didn’t have one… unlikely in these parts, unless you were an idiot, which he doubted was the case, or he wasn’t interested in leaving bodies littered in his path.

Lots of reasons someone might not want the second, so Paul was going to assume that was the case, at least for the moment. He checked the time through his implanted computer and network link, noting how fast everything had gone.

On the bright side, no chance in Hell the constables even get wind of this before it’s over, let alone get here, I guess.

Though he was thinking a few of his boys might actually be grateful to see the local PD ride up for maybe the first time in their lives ever. Even if the constables rolled in on the side of the victims here, given that the opposite was far from unlikely, at least they’d be getting medical attention before the door of the lockup slammed shut on them.

He was actually wishing now that he’d asked whether it was possible to have a couple friendly constables nearby. At least a few of them were certainly on Carres’ payroll, and more were certainly on her boss’, but even crooked cops didn’t like to be involved in abductions if they could avoid it.

He sent out a call over the network, though, to let Carres know that things had gotten sticky.

“Boss, you might want to check this. Vid attached. Don’t know if we’re going to be able to complete.”

*****

“Sir, bit of a complication.”

Wesley didn’t like to hear those words, but it seemed to happen all too often.

“Oh?” he asked mildly, looking over to where Sharon was approaching. “How so?”

“Vid to your account,” she said simply. “Watch it.”

That brought a raised eyebrow as he turned immediately to his personal system, rather than accessing through his implants. He was a man who preferred to see things in the real world, even if he wasn’t foolish enough to forgo the advantages of the digital.

The file was waiting, flagged as urgent of course, and he ran it without checking. He knew Sharon wouldn’t burn him with some half assed logic bomb.

Thirty seconds later he was wondering where the rest of it was.

“That’s it?”

“Intermission just ended; second half is probably playing out as we speak.”

Wesley whistled, “Well now, that’s a might bit more trouble than I expected.”

She snorted, “Than any of us expected. Usually, Paul’s crew is more than enough to handle even a parity of force in these parts.”

Wesley grunted but nodded in agreement. Of all the deniable assets he had in play, Carres’ crews were among the more reliable. No one was perfect, of course, but they generally did their jobs and knew to keep their mouths shut before and after. Hard to ask for more, really.

“Special Service?” he said aloud, speculating.

“None I’m familiar with, never seen the fighting style before,” Carres admitted. “But we don’t get a lot of Imperial Military in these parts normally.”

“If this is an example, I’m just as happy about that,” he responded dryly.

He thought for a moment, scowling at the wall.

“The Empire is waking up,” he said finally. “You seen the news out of Libation?”

“Those assholes? No, why?”

“Empire rolled over their out-cluster claims in Proxima. Made them look like the bunch of amateur toughs they are too, even by their accounts,” Wesley snorted.

Carres whistled, “Which means there wasn’t any resistance to speak of. Of course, we’ve known for a while that Libation’s leadership had imperial ambitions of their own.”

Wesley nodded.

The Free Peoples’ had all kinds in the cluster, the majority just wanted to live and let live, but it was inevitable that the ambitious would wind up in positions of influence. That was the source of all the in-fighting, of course, and Libation was one of the more… active groups.

In recent years, though, they’d stopped targeting their fellow Free peoples’ and started looking outward. It had paid off for them in a big way, allowing them to scoop up independent worlds and some nominally under the control of the Empire, and even a couple backwater burgs belonging in roundabout ways to the Orions and the Republic. The Empire hadn’t had the political will to fight beyond Sol, and barely enough of it to fight within Sol. The others had their own problems and mostly didn’t care because they weren’t official colonies and weren’t worth the hassle to them.

Now it looked like Libation’s crows had come back to roost, and maybe just brought a whole murder home with them.

That was all fine and good. He didn’t much give a damn what happened to those idiots anyway, though if they had done enough to bring serious heat down on the Cluster as a whole there were going to be a lot of pissed off people in the near future, that was for sure.

His current problem, however, was what to do about this particular situation.

Holding them for ransom, hopefully from Connors' holdings, had been a nice plan but there was no way he was going to try that with this man. Someone with this kind of training you either killed dead or got the hell out of the way of. Nothing else was worth the trouble.

“Orders?” Sharon asked.

Wesley nodded, getting up.

“Get my skimmer warmed up.”

“Of course, sir. And Paul’s crew?”

*****

Paul winced as he watched an arm twist in ways it was not designed to turn, the loud crack audible even across the distance between them, through all the other yelling. He was debating just shooting the bastard and being done with it, consequences be damned, but since he honestly wasn’t willing to bet that he’d be able to get him clean, and he was betting that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t like the outcome, he held back.

A priority message over the network caught his attention as the man with the broken arm dropped, and he stared at it for a second longer than he needed to after reading it.

Could have sent this a minute earlier, crazy bitch.

“Alright,” He called out, lifting his hand up, gun pointed to the sky. “Everyone cool off! We’re done here.”

His men, the ones still standing… barely in a couple cases… backed off, looking at him with mixtures of curiosity and relief. The man they’d attempted to waylay, just stared him down, not moving from the stance he’d had when he broke the other man’s arm.

Damn that’s just cold. Dude is howling on the ground at his feet, and I don’t know if he even notices.

“You going to do something with that gun?”

Paul shook his head, dropping his hand and holstering the weapon, noting the man twitch as he did.

“Nope. I said we’re done, and we’re done.” he said. “Less you want to finish up?”

The man shook his head slowly. “No. I’m good. Jin?”

The girl, Jin, Paul assumed got partially up before he extended a hand to help her the rest of the way. Then the pair just started moving backwards through the bodies on the ground. Paul just watched them go, not moving until they were well out of town. Only then did he start forward to help his guys pick themselves up.

Christ, what a mess.

*****

“Are you alright?” Jinsha asked as they moved, not running but quicker just the same, heading for the ship.

“Few bruises, nothing serious,” Eryn confirmed.

“You just took on ten guys, and that’s all?” she asked, shocked.

“Thugs, no training, and no serious enhancements,” he answered with a shrug. “Give me a couple months to train you, and you’d be able to do the same with your implant suite… if you have the drive. That’s always the hard part, really. Learning to fight is easy… being willing to fight? That’s… not.”

Jinsha just nodded, not really understanding, but she didn’t know what to say to that either. So, they moved the rest of the way to the ship in relative silence. As they approached, however, Eryn slowed up and brought her back as well.

“What is it?”

“Company,” he said grimly.

She looked and there was a high-end civilian skimmer there, sitting beside the IFV.

“I only see two people,” she said after a moment.

“Yeah, me too. That worries me.”

*****

Chapter 5

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Flash traffic, FTL Com skipper!”

Hidan grunted but accepted the chip with his bio signature lock on it. He decrypted it quickly, then skimmed the overview to see if it was anything he needed to act on in a hurry.

“Anything hot, boss?” Grave asked, curiosity mixed with tension in his voice and posture.

“Looks like the Free Peoples’ connected to Libation are going to war,” Hidan said, moving to the rest of the file and beginning to read it through more carefully. “Most of the Cluster are staying out of it, though. For now.”

Grave raised an eyebrow, “That’s… almost surprising.”

“Not really,” Hidan said. “If the Empire had gone after Libation directly, they’d be embroiled in a full war with the Cluster already, but they just took back what was theirs. The Cluster, by and large, respects that. If the Empire had put up a fight in the first place, the Cluster probably would have forced Libation to back off a century ago. They’re big on not sticking their noses into other people’s affairs, mostly.”

Grave snorted.

That ‘mostly’ left some fair bit of room to maneuver, in his experience. The Cluster might like to pretend they lived up to libertarian ideals, hell they might even manage to actually do so for the most part… but there were more than enough empire builders in their midst, and new ones coming along all the damn time.

Mostly that just resulted in lots of internal fighting, thankfully, but occasionally they got pushy beyond their borders.

“Congress is debating it now but looks like the Senate tribunal has decided that this is a chance to get some of our own back too,” Hidan said, mildly surprised. “Libation took a couple private colonies from our citizens a while back.”

“We reclaiming them?” Grave asked, surprised. As far as he knew, there weren’t anyone left in the Orion Alliance with a claim on those worlds.

“Seems like. Tribunal confirmation to move forces into position, awaiting congressional go ahead to strike.” Hidan said as he closed down the files in his implants and looked over, “Helm!”

“Sir!”

“New course, already on your console. Engage when confirmed.”

“Aye skipper. New course entered, awaiting confirmation from astrogation.”

Hidan knew that would take a little while. Jump courses had to be carefully vetted, just to avoid known hazards. Unknown ones were always an issue but given the size of space it was rarely a big problem.

“We’re a few days out from the target, but if Congress gives the go ahead, we’ll be at war with Libation shortly as well,” he told Grave. “See to getting everyone ready for the fight.”

“Yes sir…” Grave said, starting to turn before he paused and looked back, hesitantly. “Won’t the Republic take advantage of our distraction?”

“Intel seems to think that they’re moving to reclaim some of theirs as well,” Hidan chuckled. “Whatever else the Empire has kicked off since the coup, they’ve made it a bad time to be in the leadership of Libation. My money says someone suicides over this, probably more than one.”

“Voluntarily or otherwise?” Grave asked dryly.

“Your guess is as good as mine on that,” Hidan sighed, thinking about what was coming. “Rough times ahead, most likely. Damn. Who would have thought that Earth of all places would kick off something like this?”

“Not me,” Grave admitted. “I honestly figured them for little more than a historical footnote at this point.”

“They might be, at that, when this is over.” Hidan said. “I can’t imagine they have the resources to prosecute something like this for any real length of time. If they overreach…”

“Someone will clap them down,” Grave nodded. “For good this time.”

*****

Free Peoples’ World, Libation

“How many ships can we put into the void?” President Kroger demanded, his anger practically radiating off him.

Simu checked a file to be certain, then handed it over as he spoke, “Three hundred small combat craft, twenty-eight destroyers, and eight cruisers, Mr. President. More than that will require additionally funding to open more slips for new constructions, or straight up purchases from the other worlds in the Cluster.”

Kroger grimaced but accepted the report.

None of the other worlds had backed Libation’s position, but they hadn’t put any sort of embargoes on them of course. That would have required a massive outcry and even then, it was unlikely that anything official would have happened, though the various military contractors might have opted not to do any direct business with them in that case, just to protect their image.

Absent that outcry, they could be certain that the others would cheerfully take their money in exchange for whatever they might want to buy… though they were unlikely to be offered any of the latest generation tech, no matter the situation.

“Open the discretionary budget,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Every slip is to start on warships. Let the Admirals figure out the order of battle they need. I want contract tenders from any Cluster companies with hulls for sale on my desk… yesterday.”

“As you will, sir. I’ll see to it.”

Kroger grumbled, considering the information before him.

“Who would have expected the Empire, of all groups, to actually grow a spine after all this time?”

“The Empress was clearly holding their leash with a far tighter grip than we believed,” Simu said wearily. “Her death has opened the door to them to begin moving, in an unexpectedly big way.”

“That would be the understatement of the century, Simu,” Kroger growled. “Did we have any indication that they had those warships?”

“None. They must have been built in secrecy, obviously, but clearly, we’ve been taking the Empire far too much for granted if we missed any hints of it,” Simu admitted. “Beyond that, we don’t appear to be the only ones. Our contacts across the Cluster, and even in the Alliance and the Republic all appear to be openly stunned by the shift.”

“I suppose I should be relieved that it wasn’t just us,” Kroger scowled. “But I’m angrier that it included us in the first place. Please confer my… disappointment to the intelligence division, yes?”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Now, as to a matter of policy,” Kroger said seriously. “I want our forces arrayed to provide defense primarily of our worlds within the Cluster. We’ll launch a counterattack once we have more forces to throw at this problem, but for the moment I would prefer to bleed the Empire out as much as possible. I want ideas, Simu, see if we can find a way to bait them into attacking us within the Cluster. That will end this ambivalence of the other worlds and bring them in fully on our side of the conflict.”

Simu nodded, “I will see what can be arranged, Sir.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

*****

Surface of Nuevo Eurys

Sylban was mostly satisfied with the state of the operation, after some unfortunate but predictable early bumps. Getting the remaining brass into line after having the Brigadier arrested in front of them had the precise effect he needed, which was why he’d allowed the Marquis to assign the idiot to the position in the first place.

How long it would hold, that was another problem entirely. But for the moment, he would settle for setting things properly on the track to an acceptable victory condition for the Empire.

Local resistance was fierce, of course, and with his banning the use of air superiority to root out fighting in civilian areas, the Marines had their work cut out for them, but it was now clear that his previous projections were also true.

The Terran Marines vastly outclassed the sorts of soldiers they were facing.

The colonies have had it too easy these past couple centuries. They chose worlds that were comfortable, that weren’t actively trying to kill them, and it shows. Our people are hungry, willing to do whatever it takes to get out of their situation, and have been toughened by the experiences they’ve endured.

The Terran forces were only missing one thing now, and they’d be damn near unstoppable.

That thing, however, would have to wait. Sylban didn’t expect them to get it anytime too soon, sadly. Perhaps in time, if all went to plan.

In the meantime, however, he had work to do.

“Intelligence shows that the Libation forces are drawing back to the Cluster, sir.” An aide said, handing him a report copy.

Sylban snorted, “No doubt looking to draw us into the Cluster. What does intelligence say about the general reaction within the Free Peoples?”

“The governments tend to reflect the average citizen’s thoughts that these worlds are not their concern, sir.”

“Good. As predicted.” Sylban nodded. “I’ll finish up here and then return to the Vanquish. Since they’ve been so kind as to leave their other non-Cluster holdings uncovered, it would be rude of us not to help ourselves.”

“Yes sir… the Orions and the Republic have begun making rumblings toward reclaiming the holdings that once flew their flag.”

Sylban hummed slightly. “That’s not surprising. Do we have estimates on how long it will take before they can move?”

“The Orions are awaiting a green light from their Congress, but it seems that the Republic is already in motion.”

“That’s fast,” Sylban admitted, surprised. The Republic was generally slower to respond. Their internal politics were a nasty mess at the best of times, with groups in conflict generally cutting one another’s throats at every turn.

“Yes sir. It seems that their current Prime Minister had more political capital to call in than we calculated.”

“That, or their military suppliers smell blood in the stars and want in,” Sylban corrected him. “One thing that will bring both sides of that particular cess pool together is the chance to stick their public with massive military purchases while skimming a bit off for themselves.”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, in any event, those worlds were a low priority anyway, and of little value in the short term, so we can let the Republic and the Alliance have them if needs be,” Sylban said as he stood up. “Send to the Vanquish that I expect to be back on board within a day and will expect the vessel to be ready to move.”

“I will see it done, Sir.”

*****

Imperial Tower, Holy Terra

“Reports from the void, sir.”

“Excellent, I’ve been awaiting these,” Jaol said as he accepted the data sheets.

He was perusing them in depth when the Marquis barged in, guards and attendants both following along helplessly. Jaol didn’t bother to look up from his reading.

“Have you seen this… this… outrage!?” The Marquis demanded, slamming a copy of the sheets down on the table in front of him.

Jaol looked at them mildly, “I believe I’m reading them now… which makes me very curious as to how you managed to get them far enough ahead of me to be outraged by something you found in them and here in my face about it?”

“Your… Pet… had my cousin arrested!”

Jaol tilted his head, “I hadn’t gotten to that part yet, glad to know that the plan is proceeding as outlined.”

The Marquis’ jaw dropped as he stared in shock.

“What.”

Jaol took a moment to enjoy the sheer shock on the other man’s face.

“Sylban is the one who personally approved your appointment of the Brigadier, Marquis,” Jaol said with a hint of a sneer that he could deny if called out on. “He informed me of that part of the operation before we launched the Vanquish. When your cousin went off the plan and began torturing civilians, Sylban proposed offering him up as a symbol of the Empire’s desire for the very best to all our subjects.”

The Marquis stared in shock for a moment before he managed to get his voice back. “You set him up.”

“Not at all,” Jaol replied, expressing honest innocence though it was tempered by equally sincere amusement. “I actually told Sylban that the man was an accomplished soldier and would follow his orders. Sylban assured me that he would not. It seems that I was in error…”

Jaol frowned at that. “My mistake I suppose, but no matter.”

“Your damned Legion pet is going to give him to the locals!”

“I am aware of the plan, yes, thank you.”

“He’ll be executed! I demand you retrieve him now!”

Jaol looked up at the Marquis for a moment before rising to his feet and staring him down from his superior height.

“You demand?” He whispered dangerously.

The Marquis felt a chill as a slight shift in the sounds around him changed, and he found himself looking quickly about and was reminded that he was surrounded by armed guards loyal to the Lord he was screaming at and not himself. He swallowed carefully, stepping back from the table and straightening up.

“I request then,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Denied. The operation required a symbol to assure the locals and minimize resistance in the long term,” Jaol said simply. “Your cousin was gracious enough to volunteer. I salute his sacrifice.”

“But…”

“Goodbye, Marquis…”

“Now see here-”

“Guards.”

The Marquis fell silent as the guards closed in on all sides, before he finally gathered himself up and began to back away.

“Fine, but you will regret this, Lord Jaol.”

Jaol let him reach the door before he spoke again.

“Oh, and Marquis?”

He waited for the man to turn back before smiling easily, “Don’t ever barge into my presence again. The guards will be instructed to shoot you next time. Have a fine day.”

The Marquis practically fled after that, allowing Jaol to turn and walk over to the window that overlooked Almansc below. The view from the tower was, as always, breath taking, unlike the view from many other parts of the planet.

The Nobility had no comprehensions of just how bad things were in some parts of the planet, but he’d earned his Lordship in those trenches that existed out beyond the horizon he could see from where he now stood.

The people had suffered for so long, ever since the lights went out oh so long ago. It had made them tough and angry, and those that had the grit to survive it and come out the other side of that forge were not to be underestimated.

The Marquis had a bad habit of doing just that.

He took a deep breath, smiling genuinely now.

“God, I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

*****

Chapter 6

Anarcho, Landing Field

“Stay back,” Eryn said as he started forward, eyes darting around as he looked for any hidden ambush.

As best he could determine, there was none, and that worried him far more than if he’d spotted a regiment. The pair that were waiting for him, at the rear of his own ship no less, were watching carefully as he approached, but neither made a move for any weapons.

They might have men in the skimmer, but no more than small squad at best. Probably not that. No skimmers in the air within sight, so backup is at least several minutes out. Sniper… likely.

That was his biggest concern, a sniper with a good NonLOS rifle could put a round in his head from over the horizon if he wasn’t careful, but he wasn’t noticing any target designation signals either. Either they had better tech than he could detect, which he doubted, or perhaps the sniper was merely a good shot and only a few kilometers away.

That was actually worse, though the skill to make a shot like that was quite rare. Not impossible to find, however, and a LOS rifle didn’t announce its presence with target designation either, which made avoiding the shot effectively impossible unless he got rather lucky.

“I believe you’re standing in front of my ship,” he said as he got close enough, coming to a stop with one hand resting easily on the concealed carry machine pistol he kept close.

The man looked up at the ship and nodded, “Yes, I suppose I am. Very nice model, latest generation Terran Imperium model, unless I’m mistaken? It’s a long way from home.”

“Point?”

“No point, just commenting.” The man said, stepping off from the ship, “I had to rush out here to meet you, given how roughly you handled my little welcoming party.”

Eryn snorted softly as he maintained his sweep for any threats. “Abductions aren’t really my style… giving or receiving.”

The man laughed lightly, “So I gathered. That was nice work, I’ll admit. Left everyone alive, even. Doubt I have anyone in my employ that well trained, you wouldn’t be looking for a job, would you?”

“Have one I’m afraid.”

“Yes, I gathered as much, so let’s talk about your job.” The man said, now leaning in with intent in his voice. “Oh, and you can skip looking for my backup. I didn’t bring any.”

Eryn laughed outright at that, “If you don’t have at least a good marksman somewhere out… oh… three klicks North Northwest? Well, I’d be surprised.”

That gave the man a start, and he shot a glance at his companion, who nodded slightly. When he looked back his expression was even more impressed.

“How did you figure that?”

“Only cover with solid line of sight is the rock formation out that way,” Eryn said, not caring about revealing his logic. “If you had a shooter farther out, you’d have to have me tagged and you don’t.”

“Impressive, and that job offer is good anytime you want to collect,” The man told him. “But for now, we need to have a more serious chat.”

Eryn was distinctly unhappy to be standing there, in the open, with proverbial and literal crosshairs on his, and his charge’s, head but arguing with a ballistic inbound fired by a skilled shooter was something you really only got to do once… and he had to assume that the shooter was skilled.

“About?” He asked through a clenched jaw.

“What’s your interest in Michael Connors?”

Eryn stared for a moment, mind racing. Clearly, they’d been monitored at the library, which he supposed he should have expected, though he really couldn’t imagine what about that search could possibly have resulted in a response like that.

Ultimately, he decided to go with… mostly… the truth.

“None.” He said with a shrug. “Don’t know the man, never heard of him before today.”

“Don’t lie to me, have your search results.”

“We didn’t search for Michael Connors.”

The man frowned, “Pietro is no one. Why would you care about him?”

“That’s not your concern.”

“Pietro Connors was assassinated a week ago,” The man snapped back. “Try again.”

A cold chill ran down Eryn’s back and he shook his head.

“There was no mention of that…”

“Someone murdered the husband of a major landowner and political influencer with the ear of every politician, magnate, and underworld boss in the Cluster,” the man snapped sarcastically. “Not like anyone would want to keep that quiet, right?”

Eryn glanced back to Jinsha, who was close enough to have heard. She was white, blood drained from her face. She clearly understood the gravity of that statement.

The Nobles are cleaning up. He realized with that annoying flash of clarity that also came with a slap across the head at the fact he’d been stupid enough not to have predicted it. It doesn’t matter if Pietro had given up his claim to the throne; they can’t have Conwin blood floating around the Galaxy uncontrolled.

“We didn’t know,” he said after a moment. “We hoped he’d be able to help us.”

The man snorted, “Why would a house husband like that have any interest in helping you?”

“He’s… He was my brother,” Jinsha said softly, though her voice did carry.

“Jin,” Eryn said sharply. “We do not know these people, and they have already assaulted us. Please don’t share anything else.”

The man didn’t seem to take any offense at that, if anything he just looked surprised.

“I didn’t know he had a sister, Sharon?”

“It is not on any of his files, even the government ones,” Carres admitted.

“He has others, brothers too. Our family is… larger than most would think,” Jinsha said.

“Jin!”

Eryn wanted to grind his teeth to dust as she ignored him, looking past.

“How did he die?”

The woman glanced at the man, who nodded after a moment.

“Skimmer sabotage. The flight computer shorted, sending a surge through the capacitors, and from there into the batteries.” she said. “The entire system turned into an inferno at eighteen thousand meters. Little of it survived to hit the ground. It was almost declared at accident, but a signal was detected and recorded by a new flight recorder system, showing the activation command.”

Jinsha nodded slowly.

Eryn, for his part, recognized the methodology. It was something he’d been taught in Legion training, supposedly as part of a counter measures course. But of course, knowing how to stop it also implied knowing how to accomplish it. The flight recorder catching it was new, though, and he made a note to find out how the system had managed it in order to build a countermeasure.

“I’m sorry, Jin,” he said aloud.

“I know.”

This news, once they confirmed it of course, made their next moves all the more difficult. They didn’t have any real leads on her remaining family, and it was an absolute certainty that the Empire’s forces did. Assuming any of them were still living, Eryn wasn't certain he could reasonably bring Jin to any of them now.

Might as well just put a tag designator on her myself, He through grimly. But what other choice do we have? I don't see any...

“Disappointing,” the man said. “I’d expected much more to the story than a botched family reunion…”

He laughed, looking at the pair of them. “And, of course, I have no doubt that there is much more to the story. I hope to learn it someday, but I doubt that day will be today… no?”

Eryn just met his gaze silently.

“Thought not,” he said. “You could be lying to me, and you’re definitely hiding things, but I think I believe you despite that. What a waste of my time and some of my assets. Ah well, with the war heating up, I’m sure that more interesting assets will shortly come available. Carres, come along. I doubt we’d get anything more from them at the moment and given that no one even knew Pietro had a brother, I’d be surprised if we could even get much of a ransom if we wanted to.”

“Yes sir.”

Eryn watched them move to the skimmer as he shifted his position, putting himself between the cover he expected the sniper threat to be in and Jinsha.

If he’s going to give the order to fire, it’ll be now…

“Start walking to the ship,” he said softly.

She nodded, and the pair of them moved as quickly as they could with Eryn providing cover with his body, each expecting an attack to come any second… but nothing happened as they reached the IFV. Eryn shifted to keep Jinsha covered as he unsealed the craft and got her onboard first, his eyes shifting over to the skimmer where the pair were watching with amused looks.

“Do remember my offer,” the man said. “The name is Wesley Elwes, and I’m sure I can find a place for someone of your skills in my organization.”

Eryn nodded curtly, stepping back and sealing the access again even as he quickly linked into the IFV’s systems and started scanning for foreign devices. He might miss a tracker, but he was more concerned with explosives at the moment.

Everything scanned clear, though, as he dropped into the pilot’s seat.

“What was that about?” Jinsha asked, confused.

“I honestly have no damn clue,” he admitted as he fired up the drive and hit the Lenz repulsor, slamming them both into the seat as the IFV hopped for the sky. “Local crime lord, maybe? But he seems more connected than that, and the news about your brother is… not good.”

She nodded wanly, “They’re hunting us all, aren’t they?”

“Probably,” Eryn said. There was no point in sugar coating it. “Your blood is a threat to their positions now. If they can’t control you, they have to wipe your family out.”

Jinsha blanched again at that, “I should have let them take me.”

“That’s not a guarantee, Jinsha,” he said, working the controls as he checked the scans for any sign of the Rubber Duck. I hope he’s still in orbit. “There’s a fair chance this was planned anyway, just to be safe.”

*****

“That was riskier than I expect from you, Sir,” Carres admitted once they were back in the air.

“Curiosity got the best of me,” Wesley admitted. “Whoever they are, he’s exceedingly well trained. Normally, someone that well trained would have left a trail of corpses if a large group tried to abduct his protectee… and she was that, did you see how he moved there?”

“Covered her from the sniper threat, yes.” Carres nodded. “Using his own body. Doubt it would have worked, not with the rounds our man uses, but impressive loyalty all the same.”

“Indeed. Special service training, powerful loyalty, and an interest in a house husband of no import beyond that the man’s far more influential husband…” Wesley smiled lightly. “Call me intrigued.”

Carres tipped her head, “I can understand that sir. The situation is certainly… intriguing.”

Wesley nodded in agreement, “I wonder… where was Pietro from?”

“Immigrant from Sol, sir,” she answered immediately, the man’s file still loaded in her implants.

“Sol. Well,” Wesley said, leaning back. “Isn’t that a coincidence? A coup in Sol, some say failed, some say succeeded… but in either case, it happened. Now the Empire is moving to war, while a Solan Immigrant is murdered just before his younger sister can contact him. This is getting better and better.”

“You have a very concerning definition of better, sir,” Carres said with a hint of distaste. “High level politics of that nature are not kind to bystanders as a rule.”

“That is certainly the truth,” he admitted. “Are we tracking them?”

“Visually, yes sir.”

“Good. Don’t be spotted,” he said. Keeping a visual track in space was easy enough, assuming you got them in your sights to start with. Space was huge, and movement in normal space was slow no matter how fast you were going. Being spotted, however, was also quite easy.

“We won’t, at least within this system. If they jump, well it’ll get trickier,” Carres admitted.

“They won’t. Not in that thing anyway,” Wesley said. “No jump drives. I checked, both the official specs and the external drive manifolds. No, they’ll need a carrier. Do we know who they came in with?”

“It’s in the records,” she said, checking them. “A freighter called the Rubber Duck.”

“Seriously?”

“Apparently so,” she admitted, looking perturbed by that admission.

“From Sol, I presume?”

“Flagged out of Nova Cali,” She answered. “But returning from a long haul to Sol.”

“Tag him too.”

“Yes sir.”

*****

Independent Freighter Rubber Duck

Jan Casul swore lightly under his breath when the signal came in from the Imperial IFV. He really didn’t want to deal with those two any more than he had to, but the kid had done him a singular service by getting him cleared out of the Sol system, and while he considered that debt cleared it still felt wrong to just burn them and leave them entirely to their own devices.

“Yeah, what is it?” he asked as he opened the channel.

“Requesting permission to come on board,” the kid’s voice answered back crisply.

Dumb kid needs to stop talking like an officer, Jan thought with a roll of his eyes. That shit will raise some eyebrows in these parts… not that his ship won’t, of course.

“Yeah, sure. You know the hold.” he said, hitting the pumps to clear the air so he could open the doors.

“Roger. Thanks.”

Jan just closed the channel and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling.

“Well looks like we’re going to have guests for dinner,” he said to no one. “Guess I better bring out the fine china.”

With that comment he kicked off the chair, landing on his feet, and walked over to the controls for the hold doors. He checked the air status first, then hit the switch to pop them open. The Imperial infantry hauler showed up on the cameras a moment later as the kid deftly brought it in and settled into an easy landing that Jan doubted he could have improved on… much.

He closed the doors and set the pumps to restore the atmosphere before he headed off the command floor and began working his way back.

This better be good.

*****

Chapter 7

Independent Freighter Rubber Duck

“You serious?” Jan asked the pair as they relaxed a bit in the lounge of the big ship.

It wasn’t much of one, he knew, but he occasionally flew passengers too, so the basics were there.

“Unfortunately,” Eryn confirmed. “We have to confirm, of course, but it makes sense.”

“Like fuck it does,” Jan objected. “In no conceivable universe does it make sense for some assholes to go around popping off people they think might one day, maybe, be a threat. That’s the opposite of sense.”

Eryn shrugged, “The people we’re dealing with don’t like leaving much to chance.”

“I never want to have anything to do with that level of society, in that case.” Jan sneered at the word society, putting every bit of sarcasm he could muster into it. “I’ve been in my share of brawls, and had to do some things I wasn’t always proud of, but killing some poor bastard on the off chance he might cause a problem is just bullshit.”

“Can’t say I disagree,” Eryn said. “But that’s the galaxy we live in.”

“No, it’s the Galaxy you live in,” Jan snorted. “The one I live in is a lot cruder, a fair bit less cultured, and one hell of a lot more honest. If we don’t like someone, we say it, and if someone is minding their own business, we leave them to it.”

Eryn rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to point out all the flaws in that statement. People liked to believe things sometimes, and they looked for evidence to support it while ignoring all the exceptions. There wasn’t anything to be gained arguing with the man, so he didn’t.

“It leaves us with an issue,” he did go on to say, however, “And while I don’t want to impose, would you mind if we rode with you a little farther?”

“I’m not heading out to Tex, if that’s what you want…” Jan said. “Don’t have anything for them.”

“No, but somewhere a bit bigger than here,” Eryn asked. “Somewhere Jin and I can vanish for a little while.”

“Well, I’m heading for Nova Cali next, final drop off for what’s left of my cargo,” Jan said. “It’s one of the developed worlds, should suit your needs I guess.”

“That’s perfect,” Eryn said gratefully, shooting a glance over to where Jin was still sitting in silence, clearly lost in thought.

“Well, I’ve got three more holds to tranship here,” Jan told him. “Take the better part of the day, then we’ll be heading up-well again. That work?”

“It works, thanks. We owe you one for this,” Eryn said firmly.

“Just don’t get my ass assassinated and we’ll call this even,” Jan rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable.”

Eryn nodded, but didn’t say anything. He doubted that the Empire would bother with Jan unless they caught him with the pair of them on board, but until he and Jin were well away from the Rubber Duck, the man was certainly in danger.

He didn’t want to put him at risk, but he’d do a lot more than just that to get Her Majesty somewhere safe.

*****

The Rubber Duck continued on schedule, transhipping the remaining cargo in orbit of Anarcho along with the dozens of other freighters doing precisely the same thing. Jan carefully oversaw every stage of the moves as he always did, but this time he couldn’t help but watch the other ships around with an increased tension about him.

Being at the center of some high-level conspiracy, however small a part of it he was embroiled in, felt like something out of the old vids he liked to watch from the pre-diaspora Earth than the sorts of things he had come to expect from his life.

The Cluster was filled with its own conspiracies, of course. Robber barons, criminals so high placed as to be essentially legitimate, and a whole host of lesser troublemakers who liked to stir the pot whenever they could.

Blowing up someone’s skimmer with a transmission?

That was some shit he really wished he’d never heard of.

It was really messing with his head, too, because he was starting to wonder about a couple of the ships that were hanging around without seeming to have any business to do. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t that odd, lots of people had to wait for cargo to transship. He’d be doing it himself if this was a planned stopover, but the events back in Sol had left him on a back foot and unable to find much to fill his holds.

Still, he kept an eye on them as he finished up, and was glad to put the tail of the long ship to the star and kick the drive over finally.

The rumble was comforting to him as the drives lit off and they started the long climb out of the system. It must have woken up his passengers, too though, since he heard a knock behind him and glanced back to see the kid standing respectfully off the command floor.

“Come on up,” Jan said. “No need to stand on formalities. This ain’t one of your fancy cruisers.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Eryn admitted. “I was scheduled for a tour with the Navy before this all happened, but…”

“Yeah… but,” Jan said. “Look, I know you’re not going to tell me just who the lady is and all, but at this point I know she’s not some rando Noble. Hiding her, even on a planet as big as Cali, is going to be a struggle. Biometrics alone…”

“Won’t be a problem. She’s not listed.”

Jan half turned, eyes wide, “Everyone is listed somewhere.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure hers are on file back in Sol, but they won’t send them out. Not to foreign governments, not to anyone.” Eryn said grimly. “There’s more chance of Sol going Nova in the next couple days than that.”

“Jesus. I don’t want to know,” Jan said, shaking his head.

“You just working that out?” Eryn asked with a crooked grin.

“No, but I am working out how much I don’t want to know.” Jan snapped before taking a breath, “Look, I was watching a couple ships that seemed to be hanging around… probably just waiting on a transhipment but…”

“You know their IDs?”

Jan nodded, tossing a pad over, “Jotted them down.”

Eryn caught it deftly, glancing over the numbers before he walked over to the big ship’s central console. “May I?”

“Go for it.”

Eryn nodded his thanks and quickly accessed the old computer that was handling the ship’s scanners. The Rubber Duck, a name he still thought ludicrous, had probably been built shortly post-diaspora from the looks of things. The computer had seen some upgrades, however, as had the scanners. Hulls tended to last essentially forever until you got unlucky, moving parts… even if it were electrons moving in them… didn’t.

So, thankfully, he wasn’t trying to use a two-century old computer system or anything like that, not that scanners had changed all that much in the intervening time… not for civilians anyway.

“One of them is still where you spotted it,” he said after a moment’s work. “I’m guessing they’re just waiting for cargo, like you said… but the other started burning up-well shortly after we did. Damn it.”

Jan swore softly under his breath as well, “You think it’s Imperial?”

“No, I think it’s local. You know a man named Wesley Elwes?”

“Elwes?” Jan swore again, louder this time. “What the hell do you have to do with him?”

“Nothing, but he tried to have us abducted. He was the one who informed us of the assassination, once the abduction part didn’t work out for him.”

“For voids’ sake,” Jan muttered. “Elwes isn’t usually the sort who’d let himself be connected that close to an abduction. He’s legit, on the surface, but none of the Barons got where they are by playing nice and following the rules.”

“He’s a Baron?” Eryn asked sharply.

“Not like that, not like the Imperial system,” Jan sighed. “Robber Baron is an old term, from Earth… long time pre-diaspora. Business Magnate, basically, but one who violates pretty much every unspoken, spoken, and most of the written, accords of the free market system. Monopolistic, exploitative, basically every negative attribute associated with capitalism rolled into one pejorative term. None of them are above breaking the law, as long as they make more money doing it that way than legally.”

“Lovely,” Eryn rolled his eyes. “Sounds like the Nobs.”

“Why do you think they’re called Barons?” Jan snorted in amusement. “They’re wannabe nobles, kings of their domain. In the Cluster, Baron is the nastier pejorative, not Robber. Robbers mostly just come from hard luck situations. These guys? They do it because it’s convenient, easier than honest labor.”

“The more things change,” Eryn sighed. “Well, he’s my guess for the follower, assuming he has the resources?”

“Oh, you better bet he does,” Jan grumbled. “And now my ship is on his RADAR too. Great.”

“If I get the chance, I’ll make it clear that we were just passengers,” Eryn promised. “Hopefully that’ll keep him off your back.”

“Would be nice, but I doubt it’ll work. I think I’ll hang around Cali for a while,” Jan said. “That’s not within Elwes’ Fiefdom.”

“Who’s is it?”

“Cali’s a major hub,” Jan said, shaking his head. “These assholes only thrive out where’s there’s little to no rules and less enforcement. We get mega-corps instead, the sort of companies powerful enough to re-write the rules to suit themselves.”

“You let companies write laws?” Eryn stared, honestly a little befuddled by that.

“Trust me, the Empire probably does it too, just through more cut-outs,” Jan said cynically. “There, a company would have to appeal to a Noble in power, buy them off with something, the Noble takes it up the chain, calling in favors, and so forth. Places like Cali just cut out the middlemen and let the companies buy the lawmakers directly. Sorry, lobby the lawmakers directly.”

“Oh of course, lobby.” Eryn actually knew a fair bit about political theory, but he’d honestly never had the chance to gather much experience in it. Neophyte Legionnaires weren’t expected, or allowed, to go muddling around in that particular arena. Sylban would have started training him in the appropriate skills…

Probably in a few months, if this…

He shook off the wave of near nausea that struck him; thinking about his mentor again seemed to do that.

That said, Jan’s cynical assessment of how the Empire makes laws struck him as likely true enough. He supposed that it wasn’t a problem with any of the systems, but rather a problem with the people after all.

There was something both heartening and depressing about that, really.

“Well, looks like he developed more interest in me and Jin than I thought, or hoped,” Eryn said tiredly. “We don’t need this.”

“No one needs the Barons,” Jan waved a negligent hand. “They show up anyway. I wouldn’t be too concerned with it; you probably will be able to cut a deal with him in the worse case. It’s not like you have to live in his territory or anything.”

“True,” Eryn said, glancing at the navigation screens. “How long to jump?”

“Another four hours or so to get out of the gravity well,” Jan said. “If we try before that, the relativistic effects will scatter the Duck across the Cluster.”

“Right.”

That was a bit of basic stellar mechanics that he understood, thanks to his training. Accelerating to lightspeed and beyond was best done in absolute zero-gravity, which realistically didn’t exist inside the influence of the Galaxy of course, but getting far enough away from any large local mass sources was close enough for practical applications.

Any relativistic difference in the passage of time from one end of your ship, or body, to the other would cause quantum stress across the entire frame when you pushed an acceleration so hard. Out in interstellar space, the stress was manageable. Try the same thing inside the relativistic influence of a star, well managing wasn’t exactly an option when the bow of your ship tried to leave the system a full nanosecond or so ahead of the stern.

“Four hours then,” Eryn said. “Thanks.”

“No worries, kid,” Jan said easily. “This job isn’t for everyone, not like the old movies, right?”

“You know I didn’t watch any of those.”

“A tragedy worthy of the bard, no doubt. You might not be such a stick in the mud if you had,” Jan laughed at him.

Eryn just sighed wearily at that; he didn’t really know what other reaction to have. The older man, not that he was older enough to be calling Eryn ‘kid’, just liked to tweak him so much that he’d even gotten Jinsha in on it from time to time.

The truth was, he’d not had access to any older media and wouldn’t have had to time to watch it if he had. Pre-diaspora media had been wiped out when the lights went out, the EMPs just devastating digital archives and the wars that followed turning much of the physical copies to ash. Imports from the colonies of Earth’s own culture were prohibitively expensive for the majority of the population.

Locally produced media was cheap, but imported files were all secured against copying and worth a mint and a half.

Even ignoring the cost, of course, he’d spent his early life grubbing for food and everything after that training desperately hard in order to avoid disappointing…

Sylban.

“Let me know before we jump, alright?” he said, turning and walking off the command floor, trying to ignore the stabbing feeling that just thinking that name left him with.

“Yeah, sure kid,” Jan called after him. “Whatever you say.”

*****

Chapter 8

ISV Vanquish

Sylban walked with intent as he stepped onto the bridge of the big warship, eyes seeking out the Captain as he moved.

“Mr. Gyver,” Kier said, distaste clear in his voice, though it was now overshadowed by a hint of fear. “Welcome back.”

Sylban ignored the emotions, both of them. He didn’t care what Kier thought of him, nor anyone else at the moment. So long as they did their jobs for the Empire, he had no issues with them.

“ETA to jump?”

Kier spared him a minor glare, again ignored, before relaxing marginally and glancing at the instrumentation relays.

“Two hours at maximum cruise, less if we break out full military power.”

“Two hours will do.”

Kier looked like he wanted to say something else, but finally just settled for a curt nod as Sylban walked across the expansive deck and accessed a secure terminal.

Taking Nuevo Eurys had been easier than he’d expected, the normal number of hiccups that might have popped up to slow down their progress had been largely missing. That was both a source of satisfaction and concern to Sylban, if only because he knew all too well that if a job was easier or harder than he predicted, it could only be because he hadn’t accounted for all the necessary variables.

The Libation soldiers were rolled over far easier than expected, despite the relative gap in weapons and training, but everything we found indicates that my calculations on them were accurate. That only leaves our own forces as the source of the discrepancy. Irritating.

One might rationally expect that he would know the capabilities of his own soldiers better than those of the enemy, but it seemed that wasn’t entirely true.

Still, it was better to have underestimated his own forces than to have overestimated them… to a point at least. He would need to carefully analyze their capabilities, however, to determine if the Imperial forces were going to be a long-term boon… or a threat.

*****

The big ship rumbled just slightly as the engines kicked off, the feeling coming through the deck plates like a distant explosion that never really stopped. Thunder under foot, even.

“Guess we’re moving.”

“What was your first clue, Pac?”

“Ah shut it, Kimmy.”

“Don’t call me Kimmy, Jack ass.”

“Both of you sorry excuses for Marines, shut your yaps!”

“Yes Master Sgt!” both speakers snapped as one.

Master Sergeant Jessie Burrows shook her head, frustrated by the nonsense but having expected it all the same. Marines needed time to blow off steam, as much or more so than most she supposed, and there wouldn’t be much time for that on this tour.

Her crew had a cakewalk down on Eurys, something that left them high as kites on adrenaline and victory. That was bad news in some very specific ways that she was going to have to deal with in the near future, she knew too well.

Quite possibly the most lethal thing to a soldier wasn’t the enemy, but rather an easy victory… especially at the start of a fight. Her crew was good, the best she’d ever worked with, and she wanted to keep working with them for a long damn time… so she figured she would have to knock the victory disease out of them herself.

“We’ve got a week to the next target,” she called, looking them over. “You get tonight to yourselves for a job well done…”

She let them cheer before dropping the boom.

“Tomorrow, however, is mine. I’ve got every single action you made queued up, and I am going to tear down every single fucking mistake I find,” she glowered around at them. “We will not count on the enemy being pushovers for our victories. Not this mission, not any mission. Am I clear!?”

“Clear, Master Sergeant!”

“Hoo rah, Marines. Get some rest, or some drink. Your call,” she said, a smile playing at her lips. She knew which they’d choose.

“Hoo rah!”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Forces in position, Captain.”

Hidan nodded, eyes skimming the disposition of the ships under ship commander with a practiced sweep. “Very good, Commander. Any sign that the target has spotted us?”

“We’re a few light days out from the target, Sir, so it’s difficult to say with certainty, but no indications of a response yet.”

“Excellent.”

He knew that there was a hard limit on detection, and if the Libation scanners had found their force in the last couple days there would be any sign as of yet, not until the reflected EM scattering made its way back to them at least.

It was the best they could do, and he’d make do.

“No sign yet of Flash Traffic from Congress or the Tribunal,” Commander Grave said softly, coming into position.

“I know, but it’s not our call,” Hidan said in a gravelly voice. “If they give the go ahead, we’ll take the system. If they don’t, we got some practice in. Either way, net gain.”

Grave looked at him with a sidelong glance before he chuckled, “That is one way to look at it. Intelligence shows that the Empire is still in motion. They’ve secured three more off world colonies around Sol, moving quicker than anyone projected. More of those warships have made their showings too… how do you think they’ll stand up to the Delaware?”

“That… I do not know,” Hidan admitted. “We’ve not seen them in action yet, so far they’ve just been deployed as orbital fire platforms and troop carriers. Until they’re engaged in a proper fight…”

Grave nodded in agreement, “Yeah. That was pretty much my thoughts on the subject. They look… big, though. Powerful.”

“That they do.”

That was likely what was holding Congress back at the moment, Hidan suspected. They were likely unwilling to do anything that would open the Alliance up to an engagement with unknown warships of completely unknown capabilities.

Considering that the colonies they could reasonably lay claim to were hardly of any real value to the Alliance, beyond the obvious political leverage that came with greater numbers in general, he wasn’t even in disagreement.

“Hopefully the Libation forces will finish picking their balls up off the ground and do their jobs,” he said dryly. “And even more hopefully, some of our scouts will be in position to get good scans of the fight when they do.”

He didn’t like the idea of making plans to fight something he had no intelligence on. That was how you did things like lose a Command Carrier, and that wasn’t how he wanted his career to end.

“Sir! Flash Traffic! Congressional Seal, Command Eyes Only!”

Grave and Hidan exchanged a glance.

It looked like it was time to go to work.

*****

Libation, Antares Cluster

President Kroger wanted nothing more than to rest his head on the table and groan.

“Is this confirmed?” he asked darkly.

“Yes, Sir. The Republic moved on two of our Out-Cluster holdings yesterday and Intelligence from the Alliance indicates that their Congress either has, or are about to, give the green light to their own forces.”

Damn them all. The Empire walks over some of our systems and now everyone wants in on the fun? Bastards.

Every instinct he had wanted him to put his forces into the fight and push back, but it was rapidly turning into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Most of the Free Peoples seemed of the opinion that Libation was reaping what it had sown, and that attitude would prevail until the enemy moved on the Cluster itself, as he well knew.

“What does Intel have to say about our… rivals in the Cluster?” He asked delicately, almost not wanting to know.

The unspoken rule of the Free Peoples’ was pretty simple, really. If you started trouble, don’t expect anyone else to jump to your defense when things went wrong, especially outside the Cluster. Most of The Peoples honestly just wanted to live and be left to their own.

Inside the Cluster, well, fighting happened. Everyone sort of viewed it as siblings working things out, though, as long as no one went overboard, and generally tried to stay out of the internal conflicts that didn’t have anything to do with them.

The exception was when an Out-Cluster group tried starting trouble in the Cluster.

That would end the little infighting in a hurry, bringing everyone together for a brief time to rain all kinds of hell down on the poor bastard in question.

The rules were simple… The Cluster worlds might fight, but they were siblings… and No One messed with their siblings besides them.

Right now, though, he was worried that some of his ‘siblings’ might be looking to take advantage of his problems outside the Cluster.

“We’re seeing a general uptick in weapons procurement, Cluster-wide,” his intelligence officer replied. “Not surprising, given the sudden shift in Galactic politics.”

Kroger nodded, “True. And good for us, I’ve got people out looking to buy anything they can get their hands on.”

The intel man just nodded, “No current signs of additional issues with our rivals, as you say. They seem to be trying to work out whether or not this is an opportunity or a threat.”

That made sense, Kroger knew. The Empire had acted so fast, and moved so quickly, that it caught everyone flatfooted. He didn’t have anything resembling proper defenses in the worlds they targeted because, frankly, who would want them? Mounting an interstellar conflict was absurdly expensive, as he well knew, and the systems in question didn’t have any priceless resources to make the moves worth it.

The Empire, however, seemed more concerned with face than resources, which surprised him. The Empress had been weak, uninterested in projecting power beyond her little world for the most part. She’d spent most of her reign entirely focused on cleaning up the scars left on the home world by generations past.

The new authorities seemed more… proactive.

“We’ll continue to shore up defenses here in the Cluster,” he said, jotting down notes. “If the Empire stops with the Out-Cluster systems then I’ll review the options, but if we’re lucky they’ll do something stupid to bring the rest around to our side of things.”

“Of course, Mr. President…” The Intelligence man said, letting his words trail off thoughtfully.

“What is it?” Kroger asked. “I can see you want to say something.”

“What if we… didn’t wait, Sir?”

“We don’t have the forces to mount an effective counter assault without opening up our defenses in the Cluster.”

“Yes, but suppose we wanted to open up a hole in our defense?”

Kroger stared, “Explain yourself.”

“We have some Cluster worlds that are of relatively little value,” The man said. “If we were to visibly strip forces from one or more of them to mount a counterattack… it might draw the Empire in, give them a target they can’t resist.”

Kroger considered it briefly, but shook his head. “If they’re that foolish, they’ll do it on their own time and into the teeth of our defenses. I don’t see much of a gain in giving them an easy win within the Cluster.”

“Perhaps,” his advisor conceded. “But what if we didn’t wait for them to act?”

*****

Jump Space, ISV Vanquish

Sylban allowed himself to relax, reflecting on recent events. Intelligence had finally caught up with him from Earth, and he found himself… amused, perhaps? Likely amused he decided, to find that his protégé had managed to escape the Conquest, stealing away the Princess right from under the nose of the Marquis’ hand-picked command.

It wasn’t something he’d planned, but he was already preparing to take advantage of the scandal to advance his own goals. Lord Jaol would certainly be furious at the event, and if he were reading between the lines correctly, the Marquis had already begun to reap the costs of placing incompetents in command.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to be certain just how much one way or another things were truly leaning. Much of the intricacies would never be put into any official communication, for reasons that were patently obvious.

The Nobles had no idea just what they’d managed to kick over when they backed the coup, that much Sylban was well aware of. He, unlike them, knew his history well enough to know how things would go, with almost inevitable reliability.

A Coup of this nature was not nearly so problematic as a true revolution, but the Nobles hadn’t been remotely intelligent enough to properly pad their plans. Overconfident in their power, they’d leaned on the military faction, via Lord Jaol.

That, he thought darkly, they will shortly come to regret, unless I am very much mistaken.

*****

Chapter 9

Antares Cluster, Nova Cali

The Rubber Duck slipped into the controlled space around the Cali system, almost entirely unnoticed among the hundreds of similar ships moving in and out of the local gravity well. Nova Cali was the fourth planet in a twelve-planet system, and one of two within the standard goldilocks zone of the local Primary.

Eryn, watching from the command floor of the big freighter, could see the difference between Cali and Anarcho instantly, with barely a glance.

Orbital infrastructure is impressive, and there are defensive positions dotted all through the system. Heavy forts, from the looks of it. Nasty.

He wouldn’t want to assault the system, that much was certain. The forts he was seeing were all mobile structures, as they’d have to be to properly cover all approaches to Cali. Slow, but mobile, and likely armed to the teeth and then some.

“I just requested our approach clearance and instructions,” Jan said from behind him. “Figure a few hours to get queued up, but we should be at the tranship point by this time tomorrow.”

Eryn nodded, “Understood.”

One thing he knew was that you did not approach a heavily populated world without clearance. Trying it was tantamount to announcing an attack run, and you were asking for whatever those forts might have to give you. It would make for a very pretty, but very short, light show.

Worlds with large populations to protect looked very poorly on fast approaching ships that massed in the gigaton range, all things considered.

“One more thing, though,” Jan said, getting his attention.

“Yes?”

“Our friend from Anarcho? He’s already here.”

Eryn grimaced, “Really?”

“Yeah. Faster ship, I suppose, and I filed a flight plan of course.”

“Of course.”

Eryn sighed, wishing he could be more surprised, but nothing since the coups had seemed to really fall his way, despite the various victories he’d managed.

“Thanks for the heads up,” he said wearily.

“No problem,” Jan said, his tone clearly communicating a ‘better you than me’ emotion as he grinned at his passenger.

*****

Jinsha was reading up on Nova Cali when Eryn hit the tone outside her door.

“Come in,” she called, not looking up from the screen. She knew who it was, of course.

“We’ll land on Cali tomorrow,” Eryn said, stepping into the somewhat cramped room. “But it looks like the ship that paced us out of Anarcho beat us here.”

That caught her attention, “Mr. Elwes, then?”

“Likely. Hopefully,” Eryn said, sighing. “Better him than many of the options.”

Jinsha nodded, gesturing to the system in front of her. “We’ve started picking up network broadcasts since we arrived…”

Eryn nodded, “That’s not a surprise. Anything interesting?”

“Everyone is abuzz about the Empire,” she said unhappily. “Looks like the news has fully broke now. Apparently, warships from Earth have taken control of at least four off world colonies, dotted around Sol up to ten light years out.”

“Long way from here,” Eryn said, and he meant it.

The Antares Cluster, oddly not even close to Antares actually, was a globular cluster of stars sixty-five hundred lightyears out from Earth. Distances didn’t mean as much as one might think once you started factoring jump space and all, but if the Empire was focusing on traditional Terran holdings, they’d not be causing problems this far out for a while.

“I know, but there are bad signs here too,” she said. “The Republic has openly taken two colonies they had some minor traditional ties to, and news is reporting that the Alliance Congressional Committee has issued a state of war statement as well.”

“Damn it,” Eryn swore, taking a seat along the wall from her. “This is getting out of hand.”

“I can’t believe the Empire set this off,” Jinsha said sadly.

“I can,” Eryn admitted. “Your mother was a saint, Jinsha, but she wasn’t always fully in touch with the people.”

Jinsha snapped up, glaring at him.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true. A lot of people back home have been angry for a very long time,” Eryn went on. “Your mother… might not have had the right idea about returning power to them… not yet.”

“It’s not the people doing this, Eryn.”

“No, but they’re following these orders, and I’ll bet they’re mostly happy with them too,” he countered. “I grew up in Texas. Water was hard to find, anything not polluted at least. Dallas had been one of the cities struck by the MIRVs when the lights went out, and those weren’t clean warheads. They were older, nasty stuff. Oil fields, pipelines, you name it… the aquifer there is still hot, the oil that seeped into the ground after the bombs irradiated it kept the radiation from being washed away.”

“I know what many places on Earth are like, Eryn…”

“Yes, you do, but you don’t know what growing up there is like,” Eryn said firmly. “I grew up angry… not at anyone or anything, I honestly didn’t know what I was angry at… but I was angry. A lot. Syl…”

He closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath.

“Sylban spent years beating that anger out of me, the way you’d beat impurities out of steel to make a blade,” he said, “but most of our people didn’t have someone like that.”

“That’s not a bad thing.” dhe said, her tone biting.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Eryn admitted. “I hate what he has become… but I wouldn’t be who I am without him either. I’d be angry, probably a marine, and spoiling for a fight. We have a lot of people like that, your Majesty. Billions of them.”

He leaned back; eyes closed as he realized something. The missing piece he'd not seen until just then.

Billions of angry people.

“Tyrants don’t kill people, Jin,” Eryn told her quietly. “People do. Tyrants just unleash what’s already there, bubbling under the surface. Earth is a tyrant’s fantasy come true and now it’s under the control of one.”

*****

Clearance to approach Cali came through and the Rubber Duck got into the queue, beginning their descent to the heavily populated planet that resided within the star’s habitable zone. Dropping into a gravity well, being far easier than climbing out of it, only took a couple hours before they were directed to a tranship point a little less than one AU from Cali itself.

No large movement of cargo was permitted within the planetary orbit for obvious reasons. Even a small accident in the orbit of a populated world could easily lead to a major loss of life. What might happen if someone accidentally, or ‘accidentally’, dumped their entire cargo? Well, those sorts of things were best left to works of speculative fiction.

Once down in the system, Eryn applied for, and received, clearance to land at one of the major space ports though his registration seemed to have raised a few eyebrows along the way given the rather pointed questions they had concerning the capabilities of the IFV he and Jinsha had… borrowed from the Empire.

They didn’t balk, though, which he was reasonably certain wouldn’t have been the case if someone had attempted a similar thing in Imperial space, though they did give some pointed orders about keeping his targeting systems off, which was more than fair as far as he was concerned, particularly given the current political situation beyond the Cluster.

He rather wished that he could leave Jinsha somewhere safe and get the lay of the land in advance, as his training dictated he do, but the closest he could manage to that would be begging Jan for another favor and leaving her on the Duck.

Unfortunately, given that the Duck was being surveilled and was completely unarmed, really didn’t work for him. So, he resigned himself to another foray into an unfamiliar world with the Princess in tow.

It’s like a storybook, only it sucks.

Still, with no other options showing themselves, he and Jinsha bade another farewell to their erstwhile friend and headed for the surface of Nova Cali.

*****

Independent Freighter Morrowind’s Pale

“That looks like our boy,” the Captain said as he checked his scanners and compared them to the broadcast from the system navigation controllers. “Transponder is squawking the same, at least, and the profile matches pretty close.”

“Once they’re confirmed down, I’ll send the update to Mr. Elwes,” his passenger said firmly. “Thank you for your hospitality, Captain, but it seems we’ll be parting ways shortly.”

“Well can’t say that I’m terribly sorry to hear that,” The Captain said. “Always willing to do Mr. Elwes a favor, of course, but I have bills to pay and getting involved with anyone flying a modern Terran Imperium infantry hauler feels like a bad idea these days.”

His passenger chuckled, “Quite possibly, so no offense taken, but we don’t believe that they’re linked to the Imperium at this point. Refugees, most likely, highly placed though.”

“I don’t disbelieve it, I can’t imagine any randos could grab that ship and escape easily,” the Captain said with a shake. “But that just means someone is looking for them.”

“And that is precisely what has attracted Mr. Elwes attention.”

The Captain nodded, understanding that of course. One didn’t get to where Elwes was by missing the obvious, to be sure, and taking risks was something the man was well familiar with as well. So, he said nothing for a moment, instead leaning in to check the scans.

“Well, that’s it, they’re entering the atmosphere… I think they’re vectoring for Diego Macca.”

“Excellent. I’ll dispatch the information immediately. Thank you for your help, Captain.”

“As I said, anytime.”

*****

Diego Macca, Nova Cali

The city of Diego Macca was perhaps the most modern looking one that Eryn had ever laid eyes on. Even Almansc didn’t come close, though of course that city was composed of ancient history the likes of which nothing out here could come close to touching.

He could see the high-speed rail systems as they approached, and the skimmer lanes that kept fliers from causing one another too much hassle. The spires of the city were shorter, perhaps, than the Imperial Tower, but they were more numerous by far and simply exuded a future aesthetic that practically had to be designed to be impressive from the air.

“We’re cleared through to the landing field outside the city,” Jinsha told him softly from the co-pilot’s seat. “Along with the general admonitions against even thinking about powering on our target acquisition scanners of course.”

He chuckled softly, “No doubt. Can’t say that I blame them.”

The Empire wouldn’t allow an armed and unaffiliated ship this close to any of their cities at all, but out here it seemed that they would wait to shoot you down if you turned on your targeting systems. In a vague sort of way, it made sense, since none of the weapons he had were particularly useful without a designated target, all things considered.

He could cold fire the cannons or lasers, possibly, but accuracy wouldn’t anything to brag about even with his implants helping guide his hand. That would strictly limit the damage he could do in any targeted manner. It wouldn’t do much if he were a terrorist, however, intent on just hitting whatever he could.

He had no doubt that they’d get him in that event, dodging air defenses out to kill him was well outside his capabilities on that level, but the deaths and destruction he could cause before it was done…

It did not bear thinking on.

He had no interest in that sort of outcome, however, so Eryn merely directed his ship to the appropriate flight corridor and eased it down onto the pad as directed.

“Well away from everyone else,” Jinsha noted, a little humor and a little trepidation in her voice.

The position didn’t surprise him; he’d keep an unknown out on the outskirts as well. A lot farther out than this, honestly, but he supposed that traffic was a little more common here than back on Earth, so maybe they weren’t as strange as all that to the locals.

“Don’t worry about it,” He said to the Princess, “it’s probably just precautionary, or maybe they’re sticking the nobodies with the longest walk. Either way, we’re down.”

Eryn powered the vessel down, letting it settle fully from the Lenz Repulsor onto the landing struts before he unstrapped from the seat and pulled himself up and around to make his way into the back of the infantry hauler.

“What are we doing here?” Jinsha asked, uncertain.

“Honestly? Playing it by ear mostly,” he admitted as he checked his Legion armor and weapons. “If we’re lucky, we might find someone interested to give us a good deal on the ship…”

“What?”

“It’s a flying billboard, inviting attention,” Eryn said. “We’ve not had much choice but to use it, but it’s better to dump it as soon as we can.”

“Who would we sell it to?” she asked, genuinely confused.

“We just landed a fully armed, latest generation, Imperial military combat hauler in the middle of a major metropolis,” Eryn said wryly. “If we don’t get someone curious about it within the hour, I’ll be genuinely surprised. With luck, we might be able to offload it to the government. They’ll pay well, and probably have another ship we can take in trade too.”

Well, when he put it that way, Jinsha honestly didn’t seem to have much of a response.

Normally, he’d shoot someone for thinking along those lines. Espionage and all that, but he didn’t have any real loyalty to the current Imperial government at the moment, and the one he did have loyalty to was standing beside him in desperate need of a more covert transport.

Besides, there wasn’t that much on one of these that was too far beyond the last couple generations that the locals almost certainly had examples of already.

Securing his Legion armor and making sure it was covered by the dress uniform, minus his insignia and any identifying marks, Eryn tossed a slim vest to Jinsha.

“Put it on. You know the drill,” he said as she accepted it sourly.

He didn’t blame her, standard issue kit didn’t breathe well and wound up chafing like you wouldn’t believe. He needed to get her better gear if they were going to be running around like this for much longer, but he didn’t have access to any of the Legion caches that might, or might not, exist this far out from Earth.

He only knew of half a handful not in the Sol system, in fact, and none of them were in areas he’d consider safe enough to try to get to with Her Majesty in tow.

She got into kit, though, now well enough practiced to not need any help with it, and they were shortly ready to face yet another new world.

“I’m ready,” she told him firmly.

“Alright, let’s go.”

*****

Chapter 10

ISV Vanquish, on approach to Atlantia B

“System defenses are… lacking,” Captain Kier said dryly as the Vanquish, leading from the Vanguard of the small fleet, took note of the various ships and defensive positions in the system.

Sylban had to agree with the man’s conclusion, frankly.

“More so than expected,” he said quietly. “That is either a rather good thing, or a very bad thing.”

Kier grumbled unhappily, but certainly didn’t argue the point.

“I don’t suppose we have any idea which it might be?” he asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Sylban admitted. “Some of my contacts might be able to tell us, one way or the other, but we’ve been moving too quickly for their intelligence reports to catch up in a timely fashion.”

He sighed, shrugging, “The price of a successful campaign, I am very much afraid.”

Kier nodded curtly but didn’t comment; not that he’d expected him to really. The movements of the Vanquish were considered highly classified for obvious reasons, but that was making it difficult for him to keep up with his network.

The Vanquish continued to move deeper into the system, directing their force and scanners toward the second planet in the system, a rather large water planet with the unimaginative name of Atlantia.

In some respects, he was unsurprised by the lack of resistance they were seeing - the world itself was a relatively poor one with few available resources sue to the depths of the seas. It had food, however, and was perhaps the single largest exporter of such for several thousand lightyears, which was certainly of value to Earth at the moment.

“Unless you have any reason to think otherwise,” Kier said quietly as he approached. “I intend to clear the assault.”

“None at all, Captain,” Sylban responded. “Merely a slight disquiet, but I believe that is one we share.”

Kier grunted unhappily, but didn’t deny that as he turned away and went back to the command station.

Sylban heard him issue the order to continue their descent into the system, but largely ignored it. The Captain would handle his job, Sylban would see to his own.

*****

Flanked by destroyers, the big warship of the Terran Imperium led the convoy deeper into the star system. No observers within several light minutes could have missed their approach, and it quickly became clear that the local defense forces hadn’t either.

Atlantia system defenses whirred into action, visible even from the distances involved, targeting beams sweeping through the system space and locking on, but even as the ships grew closer no order to fire seemed to emerge.

The Vanquish issued a stand down order from the Captain to the system, demanding surrender as the big ships lumbered in closer, again without response from the local system.

That left the ball in the Imperium’s court, as it were.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“No response on any channels, Captain.”

Kier nodded curtly, looking over the data one last time before he would issue his next order. The local defenses were a joke, as best he could tell, even worse than those on Proxima. They couldn’t really expect to hold anything off with them, but it seemed that they were in no mood to make it easy on anyone, themselves included.

“Lock in targeting solutions,” he ordered. “Fire as the optimum vectors pass.”

“Aye Captain. Solutions locked into automated firing sequence. Final confirmation?”

“Confirmed.”

“Automated firing confirmed, programs running.”

Kier didn’t say anything, merely opting to take a seat at his station and wait. The computers would decide when the optimum time to fire was, and they’d be better at it by far than any human could hope to be. From this point on in the fall, the crew was essentially ballast.

They’d fallen into the system for another several minutes before the first rumble of weapons fire could be felt through the deck, the system firing on the first of several mobile platforms moving through the outer system.

Shortly after, however, the first alarm sounded.

“Contact! Hiding behind the planet, Captain. They must have been powered down.”

“How many,” Kier demanded, coming to his feet.

“Still counting. Eight cruisers, numerous small craft. Running analysis now to identify them.”

“Wideband scan, look for others,” Kier ordered. “I doubt they took time to lay a trap like this and didn’t plan on closing it properly.”

“Aye sir.”

Kier walked back around the command console, stepping close to where Sylban was observing.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” he said softly.

“Likely, yes,” Sylban agreed. “But don’t get ahead of yourself. Last intelligence reports had what we’re seeing making up about a third of their available forces. They had to have left Cluster worlds uncovered in order to pull these out here, but we don’t know which ones yet.”

“We can guess,” Kier said with a grim sort of satisfaction, but he nodded in agreement. “Odds that they’ve managed to get some of the other cluster worlds on their side?”

“Unless something has changed recently, fairly low,” Sylban said comfortably. “But they’ll be looking to change that soon, you can wager.”

“If they aren’t, then they’re insane as well as foolish.”

“Contacts in the outer system, sir. Closing fast!”

Sylban nodded. “This is it.”

“Finally.” Kier snorted as he walked back to the center of the deck. “All hands, combat stations. Signal the fleet to go to same. Firing control, take out the stations now, don’t worry about optimum vectors.”

“Aye sir. Firing controls to manual. Targeting mobile defense stations now… Fire out.”

The deck vibrated as the shots went out in rapid succession, putting more power into them than the optimum vectors would have needed, but quickly putting enough firepower into ballistic trajectories such that the ship could focus on more pressing affairs.

“Mr. Gyver,” Kier said aloud. “As is my duty, I am informing you of my intent to go active on all shipboard batteries, including those that have been classified by Imperial Intelligence.”

“Captain Kier, I concur with your decision to go to all active batteries,” Sylban said formally and for the record. “The enemy stands before us. Make them fall.”

“With pleasure.”

*****

Libation Battle Cruiser Liberty or Death

“Targeting solutions acquired, Captain.”

Captain Susan Jacobson nodded her acknowledgement of the message, checking range to target.

“Secure weapons, standby the fire as we enter optimum range.”

“Aye Ma’am.”

They had the Imperial bastards locked in; a pincer ready to slash into them from two sides just as planned. She would have preferred a third, at least, but Susan was willing to settle for what she had.

The Imperials had been riding easy since they started this little war of theirs, the sheer shock everyone had that they had even managed to find the courage to stick their weaselly heads up and out of Sol alone had caused more than a few people to freeze in surprise.

That ends here.

*****

ISV Vanquish

Sylban watched as the two enemy task groups converged on them from above and below, signals from the ship’s scanners alerting them to active scans from both groups.

“They have targeted us, sir.”

“Understood, Lieutenant,” Kier said calmly. “Point defenses online, evasive action by the numbers.”

“Aye sir. Point defenses heating up. Helm?”

“Engaging evasive maneuvers.”

At the current ranges evasive maneuvers were really little more than random shifts in their vector, designed to clear a few kilometers in a random direction just in case the enemy decided to get a little over eager from range.

Heavy accelerator cannons didn’t really care if you were a kilometer away or a lightyear, if they struck, they’d ruin your day.

Kier doubted the enemy would be that overconfident, or willing to gamble, but one never knew for sure. He would likely take a shot or two at extreme range every now and then, just so that his enemies didn’t get the idea he was predictable… eventually. For now, though, he was more than happy to cultivate the image.

“Enemy pincer closing, less than one AU and closing.”

Kier nodded appreciatively, “They’re well coordinated, we can give them that.”

“The Cluster worlds have been fighting in space for a long time, they have more experience at it than our forces,” Sylban said softly from behind him. “However, they’re used to each others’ tactics and capabilities.”

“Agreed,” Kier said as the deck rumbled again.

“Last shot out,” the gunner announced. “All mobile platforms have been fired upon. ETA to first contact… three minutes. Last contact will be in eleven.”

“Check fire, all batteries,” Kier ordered.

“All batteries, check fire. Check fire.” the gunner announced. “Say again, all batteries, Check fire.”

With no more rumbling from the deck, the crew felt the tension start to build as the numbers between them and the enemy fleets continued to drop rapidly.

*****

Libation Battle Cruiser Liberty or Death

“Mobile defense platform just went up, Ma’am… damn, they just got another one.”

“I expect they’ve targeted all of them by this point,” Susan said dryly. “Those things are sitting ducks out here.”

Though powerful, the mobile system defense platforms relied too much on their admittedly impressive armor that came in the form of whatever asteroid or such they’d been dug into. That was more than enough to provide sufficient cover from anything your average Destroyers, or even what cruisers or battle cruisers could reasonably manage in a slugfest.

It wasn’t going to hold up against whatever those big bastards were bringing to the field, however.

The Empire has clearly put all their chips on bigger is better, she decided grimly as they examined the profile of the warships that had taken the Vanguard of the Empire’s line.

Battleships is the only way to describe them, she decided. Kilometers long, armored the whole length. Hell, she’d seen freighters that massed less fully loaded, and that was saying something.

“Active scans, Ma’am. We’ve been targeted.”

“Understood. Begin evasives.”

“Aye Ma’am, evasive maneuvers initiated.”

So far, all by the numbers, she supposed that was a good thing, all things considered.

At interplanetary distances, though, there weren’t really many other options. Beams and blasts travelled well through space, of course, reaching out practically for as far as you cared to aim them, but beyond a few light seconds at most, aiming became the bottleneck. It was almost as effective to just guess at where to shoot as it was to actually try and track and fire with your instruments.

That fundamental limitation ensured that space-based combat tended to come down to a slugging match at ranges of a few tens of thousands of kilometers, on average, once ships were involved on both sides. Wars of maneuver was the name of the game until that, but it would turn very quickly into an old-fashioned melee once they got close enough.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Triumph reports that they’ve acquired the enemy, targeting solutions entered.”

“Excellent.”

The Triumph was the second of the Vanquish class warships, and the other one that been assigned to the Vanquish task group for the duration of combat operations. Others in the class had been sent to different targets, working in pairs to clear out the enemies of the Empire.

“Targets have closed to one half AU, Captain.”

Kier gestured his acknowledgement but didn’t issue an order as he considered the range. Technically, he could engage at this range he knew, but it would be better to wait…

A hand on his shoulder caused him to look back and see Sylban standing there.

“This is a statement, Captain,” was all the man in black said before letting his hand drop and stepping back.

Kier nodded. Gyver was right.

“Send to Triumph,” He ordered firmly. “Weapons free. Engage at will.”

“Roger. Sent to Triumph… They confirm, Sir. Weapons Free.”

“Gunners… do your duty.”

“Aye Captain! Weapons free! Targeting solutions entered! Main batteries charged! Fire at will!”

*****

An oddity in the Imperial formation hadn’t been noticed by the enemy they faced, specifically how wide a space the escorts offered to their bigger brethren as they made their approach to the planet. Instead of dozens of kilometers or so, the Imperial formation was considerably looser, offering up clear lines of fire hundreds of kilometers across instead.

The reason for that was revealed when the massive forward guns on each ship were exposed by armor plating retracting as they lifted clear and rotated into position, crackling every time and causing particles of dust floating around them to fluoresce and bolts of electrical energy to snap around from dust mote to dust mote.

Targets locked in, the crackling increased, eerily silent in the vacuum until the energy reached a crescendo and erupted forth in a blinding display as they lanced out into the black of space beyond.

Ultimately still limited by the speed of light, each of the bursts were not focused and collimated like standard blasts but rather rapidly expanded as they carved away from the ships that fired them.

Across light minutes of distance that spread increased to a cone measure in thousands of kilometers across when they intersected their targets.

*****

Libation Battle Cruiser Liberty or Death

“Radiation spike Captain!”

“Source?”

Her officer was staring at his screens, expression utterly lost.

“Source!” she snapped again.

“Us, Ma’am. Radiation is coming from us…” he said just as the lights and computers began flickering.

“What the hell is that?” she snapped, looking around.

Her ship had multiple redundant power sources, and it should be completely impossible for the systems to crap out like that.

“Damage alert! Hull breach!”

“What?” She sat bolt upright. “What the hell is going on?”

“Unknown… damage control teams are responding; breach is in the forward decks Ma’am… Wait… what the hell…”

“What is it?”

“Lost contact with the damage control team… they’re off the network. We’re dispatching backup…”

“Captain!”

Susan twisted, “We’re a little busy here, this better be…”

“On screen, Ma’am.”

She looked up instinctive, eyes focusing the image that flickered there. It was a long focus shot of her task group, from one of the observation scanners on the Liberty’s mast. Her expression dissolved into shock as it zoomed in on the closest ship, which… appeared to be on fire.

“What the hell am I looking at?” she demanded.

“Unknown, but it’s tearing the hell out of our forward armor, Ma’am. We’re tracking more breaches, and it’s progressing thought the ship. Ma’am, we’ve lost a quarter of the forward decks already!”

“The task group is reporting similar damage, Ma’am! Smaller ships are already crippled, drifting and burning up!”

Captain Susan Jacobson was a veteran of multiple wars, mostly intramural conflicts within the Cluster, but she’d seen the reaper more than once. This, however, was nothing she recognized, and nothing she had any idea how to fight.

“Evase maneuvers! All ships, break formation, spread out!” she ordered, hesitating briefly before she continued. “Withdraw. Withdraw. Withdraw.”

“Task group confirming Withdraw, Ma’am. Breaking formation.”

Susan just gripped her seat in frustration and hope that the Liberty’s armor would be enough to deal with whatever the hell had just hit them.

The Empire brought more than those battleships… but what?

*****

ISV Vanquish

Kier allowed himself a small smile as the task group above them broke formation, obviously fleeing.

The one below them was trying to, but while he couldn’t close and finish the first, he could eliminate the second.

“Secure anti-particle beams,” he ordered. “Accelerators and missiles are now weapons free. Target Task Group One, no quarter.”

The crew acknowledged the order quickly as the Vanquish turned to support their sister ship, Triumph, and end the fight for Atlantia the only way it could.

“Very nice work, Captain.”

Kier let out a breath he hadn’t even been aware he was holding.

“Thank you, Mr. Gyver.”

*****

Orson’s Reef, Antares Star Cluster

The world of Orson’s Reef was little known, even within the cluster. A small world, few interests in the greater Cluster, let alone the Galaxy beyond that, but well populated despite that with almost a billion people living and working on the relatively poor but reasonably fertile world.

It had the distinction of being positioned close to the edge of the cluster, actually within the Galactic plane unlike most of the hundred thousand stars that made up the globular cluster. Initial settlement of the colony had actually been quite late in the development of the Cluster’s political structure since the world had required a significant terraforming effort to get the initial influx of people interested.

After that, however, it had grown quickly and was a popular location for those who largely wanted to live their own lives without too much interference from others. Large land lots were still available across the world as new sections opened up due to ongoing terraforming efforts, but without the presence of significant resources on the planet, or even in the solar system beyond, no pressed had been brought to the inhabitants.

Despite that, like all the Free Peoples’ world, Orson’s Reef was certainly no slouch when it came to their own defense. Few, if any, of the inhabitants were unarmed and a significant number had their own armed vessels built and modified off of retired military and freight hulls.

Taking the world would be a challenge for even a significant invasion force.

They did not, however, see the rocks coming fast enough to avoid an entirely different fate.

E=MC2

It was a shockingly simple equation, really. Nothing complex about it at all, for something that took humanity almost all of its history to come up with. For all that simplicity, however, the depth of the equation was one that few ever truly grasped.

It impacted every branch of life, from the simplest waking moment to the most complex endeavors ever attempted by humanity.

It was also the equation that calculated the sheer devastation caused by a kinetic impactor launched against a world.

Though, ultimately, no one really cared for the exact numbers.

Real world devastation wasn’t counted in joules… it was counted in lives.

*****

Chapter 11

Diego Macca, Nova Cali

As he’d expected, they were met by local officials before they could get any real distance from the IFV. Eryn nodded politely to the uniformed and suited types as they approached.

“Good day,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

One of them glanced at the IFV for a moment before stepping forward. “Good day, Sir. I am Customs Agent Stephen Murray; your ship raised a few flags coming in that we’d like to get settled as smoothly as possible.”

“Well, that’s fine by me,” Eryn said. “Ask away.”

“First, your name, and that of your companion?” Murray asked, looking over to where Jinsha was standing.

“Eryn Aubrey, this is my sister Jin,” Eryn lied easily.

“Might I ask where you acquired that vessel?”

“Sol system.”

He was almost amused by the vague look of frustration the man exhibited at that, but Eryn was treading a fine line and he knew it.

“Very good sir,” Murray said finally, checking something off on his computer. “We scanned several… weapons signatures as you came in.”

“Not surprised, she’s fully armed,” Eryn said, not seeing any point to trying to lie. Even if he wanted to, it wasn’t like they couldn’t prove him a liar in short order anyway. “Well, mostly armed. We’re shy the standard compliment of ship-to-ship missiles, I have to say. We… left them back in Sol.”

That got him a sharp look, which he’d have found funny as hell in other cases.

“I see,” Murray said in a tone that clearly stated he didn’t. “And the rest?”

“All intact, aside from a single ground pounder,” Eryn answered, again not seeing any point in hiding it.

That made them shift a little, which he didn’t blame them for. It wasn’t every day civilians had to deal with a ship that was literally carrying enough armed ordnance to take out a city.

“That single bomb, you leave that in Sol as well?” Murray asked, his tone gaining a bit of arid sarcasm.

“That we did.”

“Very well,” Murray seemed to collect himself, his expression a little odd as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to ask. “Do you have anything to declare?”

“No cargo, Mr. Murray. Just myself, my sister, and our personal effects… and little enough of those,” Eryn said.

The man nodded, shooting sneaky looks at the ship like he wanted nothing more than to do something about it, but didn’t know what.

“Would you be willing to allow an inspection team on board?” He finally asked, not looking hopeful. “I am required by law to inform you that you do not have to give permission, and any contraband can be held against you so long as it remains on the ship.”

“That’s fine with me,” Eryn said, waving them back toward the ship. “Nothing there to hide.”

Murray looked surprised, but waved his team forward. They moved around Eryn and Jinsha, quickly boarding the craft through the still unsecured hatch. Eryn just settled in to wait, since he knew well enough that it wouldn’t take them long to confirm everything he’d said.

If he wanted to smuggle anything, he wouldn’t pick an infantry hauler to do it. Too much attention, not nearly enough places to stash cargo. So, sure enough, they were back in just a few minutes.

“It’s as he said, sir. Armed, yes. Looks like a squad’s worth of infantry gear, armor, weapons, munitions… standard stock,” the lead man announced. “Ground contact weapons look to be full up in the racks, but I couldn’t see the ready launch rack. I assume it’s empty?”

Eryn just nodded.

“No reason to doubt him, Sir.”

Murray nodded, shaking his head as he filled out more paperwork. “This is a new one on me, and I thought I’d seen damn near everything out here now. Alright, looks like you’re cleared. I’d appreciate it if you properly secured that thing, by the way.”

Eryn nodded and triggered the lock down with his implants, letting the doors swing shut and lock up tight.

“Thank you,” Murray told him, a hint of real gratitude in his voice. “We have security on sight, but if you’re going to be here for any time, you may want to see about hiring a special crew. This isn’t a high crime area, but that’s a lot of temptation for certain parties, you understand.”

“Understood, I’ll look into it,” Eryn promised, though he had no intention whatsoever of doing so.

If he were lucky, he’d have it sold before that became an issue. In the meantime, he scrambled the codes with Legion security cyphers and disabled all the arming software in every piece of smart munition on board. It would take a hell of a lot more than the weapons were worth to crack that anytime in the next century.

“Please, thumb print here,” Murray said, handing him the computer with the file.

Eryn read it through before pushing his thumb down to lock the information and encrypt it to his and Mr. Murray’s biosignature, such that it would require both of them… or, at least, him and another authorized customs official, to make any changes.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Murray said, taking it back. “Please enjoy the city and have a nice day.”

Eryn watched as the group left quietly, some sneaking looks back as they did.

“That went better than expected,” Jinsha whispered.

“It’s the Cluster,” Eryn said.“There’s no limitation on weapons you carry out here, though they’ll put down dead in a heartbeat on very slight provocation for that very reason too. We’re legal, as far as they can tell, so there wasn’t anything they could do. Legally.”

“You think they’ll come back later?”

Eryn smiled, “I think that customs report is going to vanish from the records, but it won’t be the last time we see it. Come on, let’s head into the city.”

Jinsha looked confused but nodded, following him as Eryn started heading toward the main terminal building, continuing her ongoing lessons in the use of her implant suite as they went.

*****

Diego Macca was somehow more impressive from the street level, they discovered after they’d gotten through the terminal and flagged down a transport to take them around. There were few vehicles on the roads, mostly people walking from what they could tell the short time they were above ground.

The transport dropped into a tunnel shortly after leaving the terminal, though, and joined up with a convoy of others heading in toward the city center.

As they got in close to their destination it broke off from the swarm, cutting up an exit ramp, and emerged again into the streets where they slowed as they moved through throngs of people in an open-air marketplace on their way to their destination.

He’d opted to get a pair of rooms at a local establishment this time, since moving back and forth between the city and the ship wouldn’t be practical with security and the distances involved, but he hoped it wouldn’t be for very long as their finances weren’t as ample as he’d prefer.

“We need to search for more of your family,” he said as they drove. “But we’ll do it more carefully this time.”

Jinsha nodded, “Do you think any of them are alive?”

“Probably,” he said, frowning. “But it depends on how far ahead the move was planned. If they were plotting this for as long as they seemed to be, and taking your family was included in the early stages of planning… well, that’s not good.”

She nodded quietly.

“Still, it’s hard to pull off a coordinated group of assassinations across thousands of lightyears,” Eryn went on. “And if they missed anywhere… well, your family, above all… know how to take care of themselves.”

They rode on in silence until the transport came to a stop outside the establishment he’d contacted.

Climbing out, Eryn laid a hand on Jinsha’s shoulder.

“If any of them are alive, we’ll find them.”

“Thank you.”

*****

Government Office

“What the Abyss is this thing?”

“New visitor came in with a bulk freighter that’s locally flagged. Last stop on record was Anarcho, but before that they came out of Sol.”

A low whistle filled the room.

“Is this what it looks like?”

“If it looks like a new gen Terran Imperium troop hauler, yup.”

“Damn, I wonder how in the hell they got that out of there…”

“Based on the Customs report? I’d say they shot their way out.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. All the ship-to-ship ordnance racks are empty, plus one of the air - to -ground munitions. She’s got some carbon scoring and a few impact marks on the hull too.”

“Well, there’s a hell of a story there, I’ll bet. Think we can get it out of them?”

“Legally? Doubt it. Honestly, I’m more interested in the hauler, it might have some things we could adopt.”

“Could be. The Imperium has certainly been surprising people lately. I’ll shoot it up the chain, see if anyone is interested enough to make an offer. Might get beat to the punch by a corp, though, if they wait too long.”

“Not our problem. Ok, what’s up next?”

“We’ve got a suspected smuggler using an old…”

*****

Eryn wasn’t taking any chances this time, though he had to admit that he was uncertain how well his countermeasures were really going to hold up on an unfamiliar network. His intrusion suite had been designed to handle pretty much every known network in the galaxy, but he’d only been trained and primed for Imperium systems.

That meant he was operating without the specialized ICE software he’d normally have, and instead would have to rely on the more generalized adaptive systems to do the job.

This is not my specialty, he sighed as he started looking for a network access point he could use.

There were tons of them around, of course; any modern civilian area was positively peppered with the damn things. Most were locked, of course, but civilian security was a joke for the software he was running.

“I’m going to go for a walk,” he told Jinsha. “Stay inside, if you can, contact me if anything happens.”

“Where are you going?” she asked, confused.

“I need to find a network portal I can break into,” he said honestly. “I don’t want to make the same mistake again, attracting attention at a public access point. I’ll run the searches and get back here as quickly as I can.”

“We have access here,” she said, looking around.

He nodded; it was true. The room had come with network access, but he wasn’t going to leave that kind of trail again.

“I know, don’t use it… well, except for entertainment and the like,” he said firmly. “Watching vids if you want, read, whatever… but don’t search for anything related to our goals. I don’t want another Elwes looking into us.”

“Oh, ok.” she said, understanding.

Eryn closed the door behind him as he let himself out. It was a nice location, as such things went. Not to Jinsha’s normal standards, of course, but even the nicest of places in the city would probably fall short of what she’d been afforded growing up.

He had the money to keep them moving for a while longer, but it wouldn’t be long before they’d need support from some corner to continue on.

We could just fade and vanish into history, I suppose. My training would allow us to pull that off… but I can’t see Jinsha going for that in the long term.

She had been battered by one blow after another over the last few weeks, but he’d seen enough below the surface to know that sooner or later the Conwin blood would tell through. She just needed the time to get her feet back under herself, which he firmly intended to give her, but once that happened… well, if her reactions during their escape from Sol were anything to go by, she’d come out swinging.

He just needed to make sure that she had more to swing that just her fists when that time came.

He set up his software in a queue as he walked, putting some distance between himself and the place they were staying before he even considered looking for an intrusion point. An open public point would probably be enough, but he’d prefer a soft target private hub if he could find one.

On Anarcho his big mistake had been forgetting that it was a small town, that meant that anyone monitoring was easily able to work out who was using the systems. It had been something he knew, but hadn’t considered important since they weren’t looking for anything that he’d believed to be confidential or interesting enough to raise any eyebrows.

Rookie mistake, he thought wryly, almost hearing the words spoken by Sylban in that way he had to convey his amusement with the foolishness of his acolyte.

He found one a couple kilometers from the room they’d rented, a nice little private system secured by a simple pass code. Bypassing it took all of three seconds. The router holding the security had an exploit he’d learned about in training over five years earlier which allowed him to force a connection as though it had been cleared through from the physical side of the transceiver.

Once he was in, he just let his searches run automatically, his implants downloading the results, while he walked. Eryn made a point of walking around the block to keep the system in range as it worked, his mind focusing on what they were going to do next.

If we can’t find any of her family, Jinsha is at far too much risk without resources. The ship might be enough to get us started… but started as what? Smugglers?

He doubted that would be a particularly profitable avenue right away. Smuggling was likely to become more prevalent in the near future, weapons running in particular, in and out of more… restrictive… entities than the Free Peoples certainly. It would be dangerous, however, and Eryn couldn’t see a clear way to advance Her Majesty’s likely goals reliably that way.

What are her goals?

That was a point he needed to discuss with her, certainly. Should have a while ago, really, but Eryn doubted very strongly that she knew, consciously, yet. She was still reeling from the shocks, and he’d not wanted to push her… but they were as safe now as they were likely to get, barring finding somewhere and someone to help with that.

It was time for that talk.

The downloads finished as he finished his second turn, leaving him facing back toward the room, so he casually walked without changing his speed.

The entire process had taken less time than it had taken him to literally walk around a block, and Eryn was heading back to the room without leaving a trace.

*****

He got back to the room to find Jinsha watching the local netcasts, staring in shock at the screen.

“What is it?” he asked as he closed and secured the door.

“How could they?” Jinsha asked softly.

“Your Majesty,” Eryn said firmly, getting her attention. “I need to know what you’re talking about?”

Wordlessly she gestured, reversing the flow of the video she was watching and restarting it with another gesture.

“Watch.”

A cold chill forming in his gut, Eryn settled in as a talking head popped up, composited in front of an image of utter devastation.

“This is the scene yesterday at Orson’s Reef, where an assault by the Terran Imperium has left hundreds of millions dead in an atrocity unparalleled in history.”

What.

He slumped, unable to believe what he was seeing.

This is a nightmare. This can’t be real. This is monstrous… Sylban, even you wouldn’t…

He closed his eyes.

Would you?

*****

Chapter 12

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“This reeks,” Grave grumbled, the Flash Traffic report he was holding hitting the desk in front of him with a soft clatter.

“Agreed. Whatever happened at the Reef is not in keeping with Imperial tactics and strategy thus far,” Hidan said. “Either they’ve changed rather abruptly or something else is in play.”

“Libation?”

“Perhaps. Better to murder hundreds of millions than suicide oneself?” Hidan speculated. “Not that it matters. What matters is how the Peoples will take it.”

Grave snorted, “Is there really any question? They’re going to do what they always do.”

Hidan nodded grimly, that did seem likely. An outsider murdering that many people in the Cluster? It almost didn’t matter if it were true or not. Any person who wasn’t braindead could see it for what it almost certainly was, but a lot of people wouldn’t want to believe that their leaders were capable of this level of perfidy.

The outcry would go up and most, if not all, of the Cluster worlds would jump on the bandwagon. The Empire had been having an easy time of things thus far, but they were about to be forced to deal with a far greater threat than they’d been carefully cultivating to this point.

“Whoever is behind it, I expect they got exactly what they wanted,” Hidan said. “This wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t something done in the heat of the moment. Whether it was Libation, the Empire, or someone else… it was a calculated action.”

Hidan grimaced, eyes drifting to the reports already filing in from the assault forces he’d dispatched some hours earlier.

If he’d gotten this news just a short while before, he’d have called off the operation and let Congress re-evaluate the situation in appreciation of the new information.

Now, however, we’re committed. Damn it all.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Who authorized that?” Kier asked, actually feeling a touch of horror as he looked over the death toll. He’d been willing to do quite a lot, he knew, much of it on the dark side of ethics. He had never quite imagined deaths on this level, however, and was struck by how affected he was by the deaths of people he’d never even heard of.

“I couldn’t confirm… yet,” Sylban said casually from behind him. “However, I will need to redirect the group for a brief rendezvous with some of my contacts in the near future. It will delay certain operations, I am afraid.”

Kier scowled. He didn’t like delays, but this was certain to be a major road bump in any of their moves anyway.

“The Cluster will be out for blood after this,” he said grimly. “Ours.”

“Certainly,” Sylban said calmly, “we couldn’t have played it better ourselves, really.”

“Played it better?” Kier twisted, staring at the man. “Every ship from a hundred worlds will be down our throats.”

“That was always the endgame, Captain Kier,” Sylban chided him. “The only issue I have right now is the timing.”

“Timing?”

“Mmm,” Sylban hummed. “Yes, if we’d had forewarning, I would have had you hold off on debuting the particle cannons at our last encounter. What’s coming would have been a much more impressive showing. Send a single to Command, request that the Conqueror Fleet be reformed.”

Kier nodded numbly, “I’ll do that…”

“And make our course for the coordinates on this card,” Sylban said, passing the item over. “We’ll need to make a brief stop there.”

Kier glanced at the item, casually activating it with a bioscan. His eyebrows went up as he read it, “These aren’t even in the Galaxy.”

“I know. Be about your business, Captain. I have work to do.”

*****

Across the Galactic Arm that humanity had made its home, the news of the atrocity raced at speeds that defined universal laws. People stared at the screens in shock, unable to believe that anyone would be so monstrous to do such a thing, but the evidence was there from every source, screaming in their faces.

Shock gave way soon, to outrage and raw pained fury, men and women rising up to demand that something be done to curb the beasts who’d done such a thing to innocents.

Ultimately, though, many in positions of power were aware of far too many questions surrounding the event to be comfortable with the media perception that was fueling that rage… it didn’t matter.

Rational response had no part in government action on this level.

The will of the people reigned… especially if the people were wrong.

Governments were afraid of only one thing, really… Not wars, not other governments… they feared only their own people.

It was a fear so deeply ingrained in the very concept of government, that most tried desperately to hide it in anyway they could.

Some with force, stamping the object of the terror into the ground, trying to utterly destroy the capacity of the people to threaten them. Others did their best to ignore the fear, but generally failed. The rest? They learned to distract, the deflect… to keep the threat of the people aimed in other directions.

And they had just been handed the greatest distraction of any of their careers.

The rage of the people was focused elsewhere, and whether it was deserved or not… they wanted it kept there.

*****

Imperial Tower, Almansc, Earth

Lord Jaol calmly watched the screens, a dozen of them, with reports on the Imperial Atrocities on a planet he’d never even heard of before. Idly he wondered how it would affect their timeline, but ultimately that was what he had Sylban out in the field for… adapting to the situation as it played out was not something that could be done from a Central Command when the distances involved were measured in hundreds of lightyears.

“The Marquis is here to see you, My Lord.”

Jaol smiled thinly, almost surprised that the man had learned his lesson so well. Honestly it probably would have been simpler if he’d just blustered in and been shot, but there was still utility in the man to be squeezed out yet.

“Send him in.”

His aide bowed slightly, backing out as the door opened and the Marquis was allowed through.

The little man was red faced and shaking, whether from fury or fear, Jaol really couldn’t tell.

“L… Lord Jaol, what have you done?” the Marquis hissed.

Fear.

“Nothing,” Jaol said honestly. “I assume you’re referring to the incident at… uh… Orson’s Reef?”

“Of COURSE, I’m referring to that! We’re about to become a galactic pariah! This is a disaster! What were you thinking!?”

“Marquis,” Jaol said calmly. “I suggest you listen more closely. I did nothing. This wasn’t our doing. Frankly, until this morning I’ve never even heard of this Orson’s Reef. It wasn’t even a tertiary target of our plans, likely for the same reason they chose it.”

“They?” The Marquis stammered out. “They who?”

“Speculative at this junction,” Jaol said with a shrug. “However, I presume it was the Libation leadership, or some rogue group within their Intelligence or Military chain. A false flag operation, not entirely unlike our own actions during the coup, though on a larger scale I’ll freely admit.”

The Marquis nearly collapsed, barely taking the moment to check that the chair was beneath him as he did.

“We’re ruined,” he moaned. “Ruined.”

“Oh, don’t be such a fool,” Jaol said casually as he got up and walked around the desk. “Something like this was always inevitable. Our plans were never going to stop with the lost Colonies, Marquis.”

The man looked up at him, eyes wide and a bit wild. “What? That’s insanity, Jaol! We don’t have the resources…”

Jaol smiled thinly, “Marquis… you and your kind have never realized just how many resources we have. Her Majesty did, and she spent so many years keeping you from working it out because she feared what you would do with them in your idiocy if you truly understood.”

“What? I… no, I don’t…”

“Don’t tax yourself,” Jaol shook his head. “Suffice to say, this was always going to happen, the moment you chose to overthrow Her Majesty you made this inevitable.”

He turned away, looking out the window over the great city below.

“Welcome to the future, Marquis,” he said grandly. “Bright, isn’t it?”

*****

Government Offices, Nova Cali, Antares Cluster

“I trust everyone here can see the way the wind is blowing?”

No one in the anonymous room said anything; there really wasn’t any question about that in any of their minds. Cali was going to war. It might not happen instantly, almost certainly wouldn’t in fact, but the end result was still inevitable.

“If anyone here missed the latest bombshell the media just dropped on us all, well you’re fired first of all…”

Weak chuckles rolled around the room.

“More of an issue, of course, is that the media scooped us, and I’m not pleased about that.” The man at the front of the room scowled. “It’s our job to know about major military movements, whether we’re at war or not. Somehow, we completely missed this, and you’d better believe that we’re going to be looking to how and why…”

Those in the room shifted nervously; that kind of intensity from their boss wasn’t something that boded well for any of them, but none of them could exactly complain about it either.

“However, for the moment, that’s not the problem.”

That statement caused them to freeze in their squirming, eyes centering on the man with new intensity. If he was saying that the biggest war atrocity in history wasn’t the problem, they knew that they’d better listen close.

“This wasn’t reported in the media,” he said, starting a recording playing for them all.

Instantly, the men and women in the room recognized that they were looking at a military tactical compilation, a standard tactical review recording that was widely used by all the militaries within the Cluster.

Whispers started as they realized they were looking at a pincer trap being dropped on the Imperium fleet. Excited emotions began filling the room as they counted up the numbers and saw that the Terrans had been caught out in the open, massively outnumbered, and with nowhere to run.

After the morning’s news, there was more than a little vindictive enjoyment in that realization.

The man at the front of the room, however, didn’t say anything as the tactical display rolled forward in highly compressed time.

A few frowned as they noticed the compression slow long before the ships would have been in tactical range. Before they could say anything, however, the man at the front just shook his head.

“Watch.”

That was all he said.

They watched.

Ship icons began to blink out, or change from green to yellow or red, long before they were in range of the Imperium’s fleet. In seconds of compressed time, one of the Pincers broke formation and ran. It only took a couple minutes more before the other, the one that had been caught deeper in the gravity well, was turned on and eliminated entirely.

The tactical display froze then.

Silence filled the room for a long moment, and then as one the men and women gathered began babbling, asking questions, demanding answers.

“Quiet!” The man at the front thundered. “Every question you have, I’ve asked already. We don’t know. All we know for certain is that the Imperium just wiped out a Libation fleet that outnumbered and out massed them dozens to one… and it happened well beyond the range of any normal conflict. This is the enemy we’re about to be at war with, ladies and gentlemen.”

That was the equivalent of a conversational hand grenade being dropped into the room.

“I believe you understand the import of this information,” he said firmly. “It is highly classified, of course. No one is to even whisper about this outside of this room, for reasons I trust I don’t need to explain.”

No one seemed intent on questioning that, so he nodded curtly and went on.

“So, we’re now deeply behind the intelligence game on at least two points. We missed a military action large enough to commit the single largest atrocity in history, AND we have no idea what weapon our new enemy is using… or whatever else they might have tucked away under their vests. I’m open to ideas on how to fix that lack, ladies and gentlemen.”

He looked around the suddenly quiet room, suddenly no one wanted to speak up it seemed.

“I might have something for that…”

Almost no one.

“What is it… Mira, is it?” The man at the front asked, eyes fixed on her.

“Yes sir, Mira Reming, sir. Something crossed my desk yesterday… minor thing at the time, but still interesting. In the face of this information, however, it may be of somewhat more import.”

“Spill it, Reming.”

“Yes sir. We have a new arrival on Cali yesterday. They came in on a Cali flagged freighter called the Rubber Deck… Sorry, Duck apparently. Odd…” she said, shaking her head as she pulled up the reports. “They were flying a current generation Imperial IFV, and it looked like they’d had to shoot their way out of Sol system.”

Murmurs started up again, but the man at the front ignored them.

“I presume we know where they are,” he said.

It wasn’t a question.

“Yes sir. No active surveillance, but we did keep tabs on them.”

“Put active surveillance on them, now,” he ordered. “I want to know who they are, yesterday.”

“Yes sir.”

“And get a guard detail out to keep that IFV on the ground,” he snapped. “I’ll have a security team out there to break in by morning.”

“Yes sir.”

“Everyone else… get to work. Dismissed.”

*****

Chapter 13

Nova Cali, Antares Cluster

Eryn hadn’t slept much the night before, his mind utterly rebelling at what he’d seen.

What could they possibly be thinking? That wasn’t a strategic action, it was lunacy!

It didn’t make sense. He was trying so very hard to hate Sylban, his former mentor, for the things the man had done. He’d murdered his liege, he had shot Eryn himself, and what he’d been willing to condemn Jinsha to… it wasn’t right, it was monstrous…

But, for all that, none of what he was seeing made any sense.

Sylban was a cold, calculating, man.

Eryn had known that even before the coup. He’d just accepted that his mentor was a very driven person, the sort for whom the goal mattered more than the ends it took to meet that goal. It was not entirely a way of thinking that Eryn agreed with, but he understood it.

That had been a big part of his training, in fact… learning to understand. To put himself in the mind of the enemy. Eryn had been trying to do that with Sylban all night.

He couldn’t do it.

Not and make any of this make sense.

Unwilling, almost, he looked over to see Jinsha. He’d stayed in the room with her for the night, though his own was next door. He’d barely slept, while she’d finally collapsed from the shock of it. The Conwin blood was visible in her now, more than before, he decided.

She considered it her responsibility.

That was practically the defining trait of her family line, as best he’d been able to tell. Her mother, her grandfather, her great grandfather… they all took the weight of the world on their souls. It crushed them, each, if you looked to the history, but they still did it.

He wished he could take it from her, but it wasn’t the sort of weight you shared. No matter how many people tried to carry it, it would not lessen for any of them.

He was still mired deeply in his failed attempt to analyse what had happened when a soft knock on the door startled him to his feet, a hand closing around the machine pistol he carried. Jinsha hadn’t moved, so he quietly made his way to the door and checked the screen beside it.

The pair standing outside were as government issue as he’d ever seen.

Somehow that look hadn’t changed in a long time as best he could tell. Black suits, visors with HUDs to cover their eyes, and the bulge of antiquated badges in one pocket, and a pistol hanging under the other. Essentially identical to what he’d expect on Earth, almost like they all ordered from the same supplier.

Hell, maybe they do for all I know.

He took a breath, watching them through the screen as he considered his options.

Realistically, he didn’t have many, he supposed. He quietly opened the door and stepped out, looking the pair over as they took two steps back automatically, clearing room in case they had to go for their weapons.

It wouldn’t do them any good, really. He could easily close the range if he needed to, or just kill them from where he stood… but if it came to that, then he’d likely already lost this fight.

Eryn glanced out past them, scanning the street and the buildings beyond.

Sniper… third story window, he noted. Another one on the roof. One squad… no, two, just around the corner and out of sight.

He smiled, “What can I do for you gentlemen?”

They both went for their badges, and he didn’t flinch as they drew them, showing ID and very impressive metal forged stars that he presumed meant something locally.

“Nova Cali Intelligence. I’m Agent Brenner, this is Agent Kimble,” one of them said. “We’d like a word.”

“Of course,” Eryn said pleasantly as he began formulating one plan after another to kill both of them and get his protectee out of the region as quickly as possible.

He doubted any of the plans would be enacted, but he would still be certain he had them.

*****

“He’s too calm.”

Mira Reming nodded in agreement with her boss as they watched the scene from multiple angles, including one from each of the Agents’ visor cams.

“I thought he was staring right at us there for a moment,” she sighed, shivering slightly.

“He was,” Gordon McIntyre, the most powerful man no one knew of on Cali said grimly. “He spotted both snipers, our position, and somehow I think he knows about the backup teams.”

“He couldn’t,” she protested. “We scanned for surveillance before we moved them in. They’re not in his range. His implants aren’t scanning active-”

“He didn’t use implants,” Gordon said. “He just knew. He’s trained, well trained.”

She just shook her head, not quite willing to tell her boss he was wrong but thinking that he was… well, wrong. Overthinking it at least.

“Doesn’t matter,” Gordon said, hitting a key in front of him. “Continue.”

The Agents on the screen didn’t acknowledge the order, but on cue they continued with the impromptu interview, professionally probing into the target of interest’s business as they’d been trained to. Gordon watched for a moment, but had seen what he needed for the moment and quickly turned to another set of screens.

“Where are we on the ship?” He asked another group.

“Trying to crack the encryption, Sir… it’s… it’s not looking good,” the man said, sounding like he was having teeth pulled to say that much.

“How is that possible? You have access to all our resources to crack the codes.”

“They’re encrypted, and it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. Sir, are you sure this is from Sol? I didn’t think the Imperium had anything even close to this?”

Gordon didn’t respond, he just closed the connection and turned back to the man being interviewed on the screen.

“I don’t like this,” he said darkly.

Mira wasn’t sure what there was to like, in all honesty. They were looking for information about a polity that had committed an atrocity that was being reviled across an entire Galactic Arm. Nothing about this was something to be liked.

“We’ve missed too damn much, ignored too damned much,” he grumbled, almost under his breath. “The Empire, hell whatever the fuck happened at Orson’s Reef…”

“What do you mean, whatever happened?” she blurted. “We know what happened…”

She trailed off as he delivered a flat expression that made her feel like an idiot without even knowing why she felt like one.

“… don’t we?” she finished.

“The use of mass drivers is completely out of character for how the Imperium has persecuted their war thus far,” Gordon said simply. “If they were ready to go that far, then they’d have followed it up already with something bigger. They’re working to a PLAN, Mira, and Orson’s Reef? Doesn’t fit the pattern. No, we have no idea what happened there.”

“But… shouldn’t we tell people?”

“The people don’t care, they want someone to blame, and they want it now,” Gordon sighed. “The smart move, the intelligent play, would be to step back and investigate. Politically, however? That’s impossible. If the Minister even suggested it, he’d be crucified by the people in every net post, vid post, media opinion… his career would be done, and the next guy in charge would have his marching orders directly from the people. So, he’s going to go with the flow, because it’s the only thing he can do. In a few months, we’ll know what happened… in a decade or two, it’ll leak to the people, and they’ll know… and they’ll happily blame the minister for doing whatever it is he’s going to do, despite the fact that their eyes are so blood masked right now that they’d hang him in effigy if he tried to do the right thing.”

Her mouth was dry as she considered that, “But… that’s…”

“That’s politics. There’s a reason only bastards make it in the political space, Mira,” Gordon said wryly. “The people won’t allow themselves to be represented by someone with the stones to tell them they’re wrong. They want yes men, not leaders. The most popular leader is the one who tells their supporters that, of course they were right all along.”

He looked at the young Analyst, almost feeling bad for dropping that on her, but they didn’t have time right now for her to have her ideals burned out the normal way.

“Our job is just to make the best of the whole messed up situation, try to position our own place in the affair as well as possible such that we come out on top,” he said. “Ethics, morals? Forget them, at least when we’re dealing with things on this level. This? This is survival. Whether the Empire had anything to do with the Reef or not doesn’t matter any more, we’re about to be dragged into a war with them regardless. We don’t get to choose to lose a war on moral grounds, Mira. This is a fight, and we’re going to win it. Worry about the ethics of it over a beer after hours.”

“Beer? Like fuck. This is going to take hard liquor at least, and probably a fuck ton of pot,” she swore out.

He laughed, “That’s the spirit.”

She rolled her eyes, looking back to the interview in progress. “So what’s the plan here?”

“Honestly? Still in flux,” Gordon admitted. “I don’t believe we’re looking at an Imperium infiltrator, but until I can solidly put that off the table, I intend to assume we are.”

“So… arrest them?”

“Of course not, if they are infiltrators, it’s better to know where they are than lock them up and risk missing their replacements,” he told her.

“Should we have done this, then?” Mira asked, gesturing at the computers lined around them. “Isn’t this tipping them off?”

“An interview, under the current circumstances, is the least they’d expect if they’re trained. If we let them ghost for too long, they’d know we were suspicious,” he corrected. “And I can already tell you, this one is trained.”

“So, they’re infiltrators.”

“Not necessarily. Given the rumors out of Sol, I actually expect more than a few well trained people caught on the wrong side of their little coup have been filtering out of the Imperium for the last few weeks… maybe longer… and will continue to do so. That sort of situation will create a brain drain,” Gordon told her. “Most likely that’s what we’re looking at here. A real infiltrator would not usually show up in a military IFV, showing off high end encryptions beyond what we can easily break.”

He could tell that Mira was floundering, out of her depth, but she was a good analyst, so he was happy enough to bring her along as needed.

“Of course, it’s also possible that they decided to go with an infiltration method that seems too absurd to be something a professional would come up with,” He chuckled. “Top tier talents occasionally opt to get… creative like that.”

She screwed up her face, clearly unhappy with the uncertain nature of what he was laying down for her. Mira was an analyst, who dealt mostly with electronic intelligence, the sort that tended to be definite and absolute.

Welcome to the real world, darling, he thought with some wry amusement. People don’t fit into nice binary solutions. Ones and zeroes are for computers, not people. People… are full spectrum analog.

It was one of the harder lessons people in his position had to learn, for some damn reason. Personally, cynical as he was, he blamed peer groups for it. Everyone seemed to have those subjects where they would say some damned stupid thing like ‘there are two types of people in the world…’ and then go on to spout the next bit of idiocy like it was some arcane wisdom of the ages.

Anyone who said that, who believed it… were not functional adults in his opinion. They were children, spouting philosophy that they believed sounded grown up. Being an adult was more than just being grown up, or responsible. He knew children who were more responsible than most grown ups… that didn’t make either of them adults.

Adulthood began that moment in life when you finally passed the first Dunning Kruger peak, and realized just how little you truly understood about the world and the people around you. If you were lucky, you might live long enough to reach the second peak, where you actually had some clue.

Most people never got over the first, sadly.

In a galaxy where humanity could live for centuries, Gordon had so very often bemoaned the fact that he was surrounded almost entirely by children.

“Regardless, our job is to figure out which we have, then leverage them to the best advantage we can for Nova Cali,” he said simply. “Right, wrong, and all other ethical considerations, well… save those for your whisky and pot party.”

He snorted when she flushed a little, obviously no embarrassed by what she’d said earlier. Gordon could probably care less, but he wasn’t sure how. As long as she wasn’t drunk or high on the job it was none of his business… and if she were it was only his concern if it negatively affected her performance.

“For now, I think I want to test something…” he said, leaning forward to tap a control and open up a link to the interviewing Agents.

*****

Eryn had been getting tired of the questions, not so much because they went on and on… he expected that, and he’d dealt with far worse in training and after the field missions he’d been part of under Sylban, but because they were so generic.

Just endless reams of one completely uninspired, boring, and horrifyingly pedantic question after another. The pair were obviously working from a checklist, likely fed into their visors, and had done this very thing more than a few times in the past. Enough times that they had it down to an automatic procedure, horror of horrors.

He never wanted to be doing something so repetitive that he just tuned out completely and went on automatic through the job.

Oh, certainly, he’d spent a goodly amount of time training to ensure that some of his reflexes and skills were essentially automatic. Muscle memory, it used to be called, as he remembered. Sylban had referred to it as subconscious institutional memory, though he wasn’t entirely certain that was official or just a snide joke at his expense.

However, just turn off all brain functions and run on automatic through life?

Fuck no.

Of course, that run on automatic reflex did have an advantage for him in that it was patently obvious when something, or more likely someone, intervened and put the show back under manual control.

He spotted the twitch in the Agent’s features easily, his body language shifting as he came out of automatic and refocused on the present.

“On the subject of the ship you arrived in…”

Here it comes, Eryn thought. He’d been waiting to hear from them on the matter of the ship since he’d intercepted the signal from the IFV informing him that someone was trying to crack in.

“There are local elements that would be interested in the specs…” The Agent trailed off.

“Private or public?” Eryn asked automatically, though honestly, he didn’t particularly care much beyond the fact that, in his experience, with a few very rare exceptions he expected he could get a better deal from government or government backed groups than he could from private ones.

“Public in this case.”

Eryn nodded, “Specifications could be made available, though I would prefer if perhaps we might arrange something more along the lines of a trade.”

That caused a moment of disconnect in the Agents, one that Eryn easily read as them getting new orders from on high. He glanced up toward where the Sniper was, then let his eyes drift along the other windows, wondering if their boss was nearby or not.

Strictly speaking, there was no real reason for him or her to be. The visors certainly had imagers, and any decent network would allow them to keep properly in touch. In his experience, though, a good team would have their controller close by. It helped in the event of surprises like a network connection loss, among other things.

“What sort of trade are you thinking…”

“My partner and I need a ship,” he said, “Something jump capable. We’d prefer to be mobile for a while, with things being the way they are.”

“I believe that could be arranged, particularly if you’d be willing to provide what information you have on the ship and, possibly, the Imperium as well…”

The statement was a leading one, but Eryn wasn’t surprised by it. The locals had to be hot under their collars about the Empire at the moment, and he doubted he’d have a better time to make such a deal. The issue he had was that… well, he still considered himself loyal to the throne, and through the throne to Holy Terra and her government… her true government.

*****

“He’s thinking about it, but he’s either a damn good actor… or he’s torn on the issue.” Gordon said quietly.

“What’s to be torn on?” Mira asked. “If he’s running from them, they’re his enemy too.”

“A change of government doesn’t kill your loyalties, Mira,” Gordon said softly. “If anything, it can reinforce them. You carry the loyalty you always did, but now it’s to a perfect illusion of what used to be. It’s hard to kill a ghost.”

She shook her head, but he just let her puzzle it out for herself. It wasn’t something you could understand in a moment. He’d seen others dealing with it, but had never been forced to himself… thankfully… so Gordon figured he had an idea, but not a true understanding himself.

He was starting to reasonably certain that this man wasn’t an infiltrator, but rather a refugee. That made his story all the more interesting, but sadly he doubted that they’d get it fully anytime soon.

“He’ll trade,” Gordon decided, eyes on the young man.

“How can you tell?”

“He’s got something more important than his loyalties… his partner maybe?” Gordon said, shaking his head. “I don’t know for sure, but whatever it is will override his old loyalties.”

Now it was just a matter of the details.

*****

Chapter 14

ISV Vanquish, Extra-Galactic Space, Point Nine Four LY Above the Galactic Plain

The warship hung alone in the true emptiness of extra-galactic space, where not even the slightest measure of spatial warping from the Galactic expanse could be determined by even the best instrumentation onboard making space as flat as it could be.

“Inbound signal, Captain. Hyperlight contact approaching.”

“Muster stations,” Kier ordered wearily. “Someone wake Mr. Gyver up in the meantime.”

They’d been waiting for some days, wasting time in his opinion, but Mr. Gyver had been quite specific and sternly determined that they wait. Now they had a contact zeroing in on them directly, which almost certainly meant that it was whoever, or whatever, Gyver was waiting for.

That didn’t mean he was going to leave anything to chance, however, so he got his crew moving just in case it was trouble finding them.

“No need,” Sylban said, stepping onto the Command Deck. “I’m up.”

Kier kept his face impassive, but wondered to himself if the man ever did sleep. He always seemed to be on hand whenever anything was happening, ready to stick his nose into things. He stomped down hard on that line of thought, however, because as much as he resented the man, Kier knew that he feared him in at least equal measure.

Gyver was a sociopath, and had no compunctions about shooting officers if given the excuse.

Kier had worked with others of his ilk before, though normally they didn’t have the pull to get away with quite the level of brutality as Gyver managed. Still, there was a balance to dealing with them, and it usually involved offering up better targets than yourself until you could find a reason to shoot them instead.

He didn’t see that happening anytime too soon with this one, however, so he was going to do his best to avoid becoming Gyver’s next target… especially since the bastard seemed to get more of a kick out of shooting Nobles than anyone else.

“Contact approaching,” he said aloud. “I presume it’s who you’ve been waiting for?”

“Likely, but send a challenge just to be sure,” Gyver said easily.

Kier nodded to his communications officer, and the man turned instantly to his task.

“Challenge issued, Sir.”

Then they had to wait for the signal to traverse the distance between them, albeit a rapidly closing distance, then return.

“Challenge response… clears?”

“Is that a statement or a question, Crewman?” Kier snapped, irritated by the tone.

“It clears, Captain, but it’s… odd. I’ve never seen it before.”

“It’s fine,” Sylban said. “I’ll need a shuttle and a few hours.”

Kier looked at him askance, “Take a security team.”

“I don’t need one, and you don’t have any cleared for this,” Sylban said curtly as he spun on his heel and strode off the deck. “Just hold position. I’ll be back shortly.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Well, that confirms it. We’re being pulled back and redeployed along the border systems with the Cluster,” Hidan said as he read the Flash Traffic orders from the Alliance Congressional House. “Reading between the lines, I don’t think they’re happy we took the Libation controlled worlds before the news broke.”

“I can’t say that I’m surprised, this situation is a nightmare,” Grave agreed as he checked the rest of the intelligence that had arrived over the Flash Traffic system. “It appears that the Cluster is mustering to war, as expected. They’re out for blood, no question.”

“Yes,” Hidan frowned. “What worries me is the Imperium’s response.”

“What of it? They’ve been rather quiet from what I can tell…”

“Precisely. Whoever was running their operations was a meticulous planner,” Hidan said. “There was a brief period after the events at the Reef where the Imperial machine was still in operation, but very quickly they drew back. We have reports of their warships vanishing from systems they were still securing… they left enough to finish the job, but the new ships, those just vanished. Intelligence haven’t got a clue where they are.”

Grave frowned, “That is worrying.”

Hidan snorted, “Worrying? God, man, those things are monsters. They’re worrying when we know where they are. When we don’t? They’re not worrying, they’re fucking terrifying.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any report in there that has any idea about that new weapon of theirs?” Grave asked, though his voice didn’t show much hope.

“I wish. Best speculation is some sort of particle weapon, but at those ranges?” Hidan shook his head. “We’ve got nothing that would do more than warm the armor on a ship at that kind of range, let alone chew up a fleet. Not if we wanted to hit anything, at least.”

Grave nodded absently, “I would never have believed that the Empire was capable of any of this just a couple months ago.”

“Her Majesty kept their focus on internal problems,” Hidan said wearily. “They have a lot of those but… historically it’s easier to distract people from internal issues than it is to solve them. The Conwin line didn’t shy away from something just because it was hard, however. It appears that the new administration doesn’t share that strength.”

Grave winced, catching the underlying criticism. What he’d personally viewed as weakness in the Empire had, in fact, been strength. Just because it wasn’t a martial strength, he’d disregarded it, but that had been his failure and not that of the Empire.

“It makes me wonder,” he said pensively as his words trailed off.

“Wonder what?”

“Whether or not we shouldn’t have saved the boy and his charge,” Grave admitted.

Hidden glowered, but it wasn’t aimed at Grave so much as at the universe.

“I’ve wondered the same thing more than once since the Empire started moving,” he admitted. “At the time… the books said I shouldn’t get involved, so I didn’t.”

“It was for the best, I suppose,” Grave offered up weakly.

Hidan nodded, but privately he wasn’t sure. He knew that the boy was a brother, one from a different Chapterhouse, but a brother all the same. He hadn’t fired on the boy himself, but he’d allowed his people to. Was that against his oath? He honestly couldn’t say, and had not gone to anyone else for an answer.

He wasn’t sure he wanted one.

There were times when brothers warred on brothers, of course, but normally it wasn’t done with foreknowledge like that. You usually found out much later that someone died of your orders, and it was a sad moment but one that most shrugged off.

But this time, he’d known,

Worse, he knew who the boy claimed to have with him.

The Princess. The one voice that might have been able to reclaim the Empire’s sanity before all this kicked off.

Hidan shook his head again, there was no use in second thinking himself… or, in this case, twenty-second thinking or more. What was done was done, and the galaxy would have to deal with the consequences.

He did wonder what had happened to them afterwards, though.

*****

Libation, Antares Cluster

Kroger smiled with satisfaction as he looked over the reports that had been flooding in.

One by one the other main polities of the Cluster were publicly pledging themselves to the war on Libation’s side of the conflict, as they should have from the start. It had slowed their own military procurement, unfortunately, but that was far and away offset by the increase in ships and fleets being seconded to the war effort under the command of the Cluster’s rapidly forming Allied Forces Command.

Shame about Orson’s Reef, but sacrifices were necessary to put the Empire back in their place.

There was, however, still a rather nasty little fly in the ointment, as it were.

“How can we know nothing about this Imperium super weapon,” he demanded, looking around his advisory council. “What have we turned up from examining the surviving ships from our ambush fleet?”

“Very little, unfortunately,” Doctor Benjamin Jules, a physicist, said in a deep and gravely voice. “The damage is consistent with high energy particle weapons, to a degree, but without the radiation we’ve come to expect… and, of course, far too powerful for the ranges involved. If it were not for the fact that it was our own ambush, I would have believed that the Empire had somehow baited our ships into a trap. Explosive pumped mines, perhaps?”

“Unlikely,” Admiral Kell said, shaking his head. “We had the full initiative, and chose our approaches during the planning session with care, and we specifically didn’t use the most advantageous approaches for that very reason.”

“It’s new, and it’s dangerous, which is bad enough,” Kroger grumbled. “But worse, we’ve not been able to keep it under our caps, so everyone knows how much we lost. The other Cluster worlds won’t be so eager to throw themselves into this fight, public pledges or not. We need a victory, and we need it shortly. Suggestions?”

“Retake Proxima,” The Admiral shrugged. “We know that they didn’t leave nearly sufficient force to hold it.”

“That world was barely worth taking the first time,” Simu spoke up, rolling his eyes. “Do we really want to invite retaliation and a bloody back and forth over a worthless rock?”

“It’s not about the value of the target, it’s about the value of the media blitz we can unleash with a victory in our pocket,” Kroger answered sharply, but falling quiet for a moment. “What about Sol itself?”

The Admiral grimaced, “I would have to advise against it, at least until we know what we’re dealing with considering their new super weapon, Sir. Best case scenario, we take Sol… after that, keeping it becomes a major problem. Terrans… hell, Solans in general, are all pretty bloody minded and they don’t like anyone from outside the system. The war would never end while we had control of that system, they’d throw their dead and dying at us as they charged with knives in their teeth.”

Kroger rolled his eyes. “Don’t be absurd, the people there have been trod under heel for generations. Give them a taste of real freedom and they’ll come around, and if they don’t… what of it? They’re submissive, otherwise they’d have put that Empress bitch down ages ago.”

Kell shook his head. “Strongly advise, in the most strenuous of terms, you look for another target, Mr. President. Something softer with symbolic value. We can sell that to the people easily enough, but Sol? It’s an eternal war waiting to happen.”

Kroger scoffed at that, but gestured placatingly anyway. “Fine, fine. It was just a suggestion. Proxima, then. We can make that work.”

*****

Imperial Tower, Almansc, Holy Terra

“Sir, reports from the field. The Conquerors Fleet has been fully assembled as ordered, save for the Vanquish.”

Jaol looked up, frowning, “Where is the Vanquish?”

“Unknown. They logged with their escorts that Mr. Gyver had ordered them to confidential coordinates and would rendezvous as soon as possible upon returning, but nothing has been noted since.”

Jaol nodded slowly.

Sylban is contacting his network, he decided. That wasn’t surprising, mind, but the timing was curious since the request to assemble the full power of the fleet had come from Sylban himself.

Still, the former Legionnaire had proven himself thus far and given Jaol no reason to doubt his acumen in the field.

“Understood,” he said aloud. “How has the Cluster reacted?”

“Largely as predicted, Sir,” his aid confirmed nervously. “More and more planets have thrown in their support with the Libation forces.”

Jaol permitted himself a small smile, “Excellent. What of the other Polities?”

“They appear to be redeploying to their border worlds near the Cluster.”

“Excellent, just as predicted then,” Jaol said. “Thank you, Ensign.”

“Yes sir,” The woman responded, already backing out as she recognized the dismissal for what it was.

Jaol knew that things were proceeding apace, faster than predicted actually, but that had always been a risk. The particle cannons would be enough to shift the balance of power in the Galaxy back to where it belonged, but it was not where Terra’s true strength lay.

Soon.

He knew that soon the Galaxy would see true strength, and he would ensure that they never forgot it.

*****

Nova Cali, Antares Cluster

“Pay him what he wants. I want that IFV under our control and being torn apart by our best people by week’s end.”

“Yes sir, I understand… what about the pair in question?”

Silence followed that question for a time.

“Do they seem to be Imperial infiltrators?”

“No. Refugees.”

“Then see what else they can offer. Any debrief on Imperial tactics will be useful if the young man is as skilled as you believe, but other than that… leave them be, but…”

“But?”

“Keep tags on them, Mr. McIntyre.”

“I understand. They’ll want a hyper capable ship, something solid… and armed, of course.”

“Not an issue, we’re currently refitting hundreds. Letting one go won’t affect our order of battle.”

“Very good, Sir.”

*****

ISV Vanquish, Extra-Galactic Space, Point Nine Four LY Above the Galactic Plain

Kier watched the screens as the unidentified ship turned and immediately went directly to jump space, leaving the Vanquish’ shuttle along as it slowly crossed the void back to the bay it had left from.

“As soon as they’re back on board, make for the Fleet assembly coordinates, maximum Jump.” he ordered.

“Aye Captain. Coordinates already in the computers.”

It didn’t take long before the shuttle was back on board and everything was sealed up tight, at which point Kier gave the final clearance and the Vanquish followed the mystery vessel into the void, heading back to the Galaxy.

He was waiting as patiently as he could, until Sylban reappeared on the Command Deck.

“Well?” He demanded.

“Well what?” Sylban shrugged.

“What did you learn?” Kier groused internally; he did not need this at the moment.

“Oh, many things,” Sylban said casually. “Many interesting things even.”

“Such as?”

Dying Gods, this man is the most irritating fool I’ve ever had to deal with, Kier thought as he ground his teeth.

“Nothing that need concern you just now, Captain,” Sylban smiled at him, though for once the smile seemed less certain that it always had been before.

Kier wondered if that was something that should worry him.

Probably, but it’s good to see any chink in that bastard’s smug armor.

Sylban didn’t seem to notice his ire, however, and merely nodded.

“I believe I’ll be retiring for the moment. Let me know when we’re ready to rejoin the fleet, would you?”

Kier had to physically stop himself from grinding his teeth as the infuriating man turned and strode off the deck again.

*****

Sylban walked quietly through the decks of the ship, not looking at or greeting anyone along the way, until he reached his own quarters.

Once inside, with the door locked and the room scanned… twice… for bugs, he let out a weary breath and slumped at the spartan desk that sat against one bulkhead.

The lamp over the desk cast a harsh light as he took a small memory storage crystal from his pocket and set it there in front of him.

It’s exactly what I needed, he thought as he stared at the rubberized coating that protected the crystal from damage. But when to use it?

He knew too well what was coming, and how deeply important timing would be for best effect.

Sylban smiled slowly through his weariness, however.

Despite the unexpected nature of certain events, everything is falling into place.

*****

Chapter 15

Nova Cali, Antares Cluster

Eryn was surprised by the speed at which the local government was able to move, though he supposed that with the war effort ramping up it was somewhat to be expected.

“Are we certain this is the right move?” Jinsha asked softly after he’d handed over the security codes to the IFV.

“A little late to ask now,” he said with a smile. “But yes, I believe so. We made out better on the deal than the Cali taxpayers, I promise you.”

“That’s not what I meant… I…” Jinsha looked confused and torn, leaving him to guess quickly at her concern.

“It feels wrong, selling technology to an enemy of the Empire, yes I know,” he admitted. “Technically, we’re traitors now.”

She winced, looking away.

“It’s a line, and we crossed it,” he said simply, not trying to shelter her from the decision though he supposed that he could, if he pushed. Jinsha was unlikely to accept that, however, so he didn’t bother. “It doesn’t matter, under the law, that they tried to kill me and do worse to you… but law has never meant all that much to me.”

She looked at him, surprised, “But… you’re a Legionnaire.”

She said that like it meant something, and, to his surprise, it somehow still did despite everything.

“Yes, I was Legion,” he admitted. “I still am, deep down even. But justice always mattered more than the law, and what the Empire tried to do to you? That destroyed their moral right to lead.”

She frowned, “Overthrowing…”

“No.” he said quickly. “Not that. A coup is sometimes needed and, even being on the wrong side, I wouldn’t turn on the Empire for that. What Sylban said, when he recaptured you and… we fought…”

She sucked in a breath, wincing at the memory.

“Lord Jaol had… has… plans,” she said quietly.

“That. That is not the action of a leader. Imprison you, perhaps. Remove your family from power? Fine.” Eryn said before going on with a shake of his head. “But forcing you to have his heir? I’ll burn the Imperial Tower down around his ears before I allow it. Selling off an IFV to the enemy? That is nothing compared to the horrors I’d wreak on the Empire with my own two hands. I am a traitor to the Empire, Jinsha… but the Empire that exists now is not the one I pledged my loyalty to… and it is not the one your mother was going to leave to you either.”

Jinsha didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and he didn’t really blame her for it. It was a lot to unpack and, if he were being honest, he wasn’t sure he fully understood it himself. He just knew that he felt it.

Eryn returned his attention to the deal he’d just brokered with the locals, getting mentally prepared to start work on the new ship they had as well as determining to finally get to working on the data from the automatic search he’d completed the night before. Everything was just dropping onto him, it seemed, one right after the other, and Eryn could tell that he was becoming overloaded… burning out… but he didn’t know what else he could do but push through.

So focused was he on his own thoughts, Eryn almost entirely missed it when Jinsha spoke, and he had to turn back sharply.

“What?” he asked.

“I said it could be… again.” she told him, her voice a little firmer now, and clearer.

Eryn fell silent again, thinking about that.

“Is that what you want?” he asked seriously.

It was an important question, and an important moment, he recognized. Jinsha had been beaten and battered, thrown down from on high as it were, but had fought back, nonetheless. Since escaping Sol, however, she’d curled into herself… the lack of a direct threat had given her time to recognize just how bad her situation, their situation, was.

He didn’t begrudge her that, though it was his strength she’d been leaning on. Trauma was a strange thing, and sometimes all you could do was ride it out until you managed to get your feet braced again.

However, Eryn knew that wouldn’t… couldn’t… last forever.

She needed to stand, or she might never again.

To her credit, he saw that she was considering his question seriously, which surprised him. He knew that the obvious, and easy, answer to the question was yes. Of course, she would want the Empire to be something she could be proud of again… but that wasn’t the question, not really.

Despite the wording, he wasn’t asking what she wanted… and she knew it.

He was asking… was she willing to fight for it.

Again, on the surface… an easy answer for many, but only those who didn’t really mean what they were saying. Saying you’d fight for something was easy. Fighting for it, that was hard.

He was glad to see that she wasn’t one of the people who threw out their pledge, their oath, as easily as rain drops falling from the sky… and as enduring.

When you pledged something like that, it should be backed with steel… not the empty air blown from a fool’s useless lungs.

“Yes,” she said finally, looking at him firmly. “Yes, it is.”

Eryn nodded, “It won’t be easy… it may not be possible. We’re two people right now, with a ship and little else to our names.”

Jinsha nodded, “I understand… but the option is what? Watch the Empire commit atrocity after atrocity? Watch a war tear the Galaxy apart while we do nothing? Could I do that? Could you?”

Eryn couldn’t speak for her, of course, but he knew that he was torn on the subject personally. The drums of war were beating, and he’d spent most of his life preparing for this moment in time… but, in his head, he’d always been in the Imperium’s ranks. Going against them, against his fellows from Earth… it left a hole in his chest, one he could feel the ache from.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, looking away. “What I do know, is that you are my Liege. I will protect you as I swore to do, and my strength is your strength. Command it, and I will lay siege to the Imperial Tower alone.”

Jinsha couldn’t help but smile a little at that, the absurdity of it almost entirely overshadowed by the fact that he clearly meant every word.

“I would not command you to throw away your life, Eryn,” she said softly. “But to save the Empire, even if it is from itself? That I command.”

He nodded, “Then we have a great deal of work to do.”

Jinsha got to her feet, nodding, “I’m ready.”

“No, you’re not…” Eryn told her honestly. “But you will be.”

*****

The Nova Cali government had offered them their pick of some older ships that had been pushed through the refitting process in a rush over the last few days. Like most governments, Cali kept several ship hulls secured in mothballs out in some ship graveyard likely near a Lagrange point somewhere in the system.

Governments tended to build, and keep building, things like ship hulls even when they didn’t strictly need them for a number of reasons. Maintaining jobs in certain regions was worth a lot to voters, and tended to be remembered during elections, of course, but there were good reasons too.

Welding the armored steel used to put together a good starship, for example, was not a simple skill to pickup and no government worthy of the name was going to let its home-grown talent base just vanish, and thus force them to rely on some other government’s resources in case of need.

So warships got built, finished up inside, then were immediately sealed tight, usually with a pure nitrogen atmosphere to slow any sort of degradation, and were parked in the vast void. Out of sight, out of mind to the people who’d paid for ships that weren’t being used, but easy enough to reclaim as needed.

Cali had offered them one of those, a small, long range combat capable scout. It could be flown by one person in a pinch, but normally served a crew of five. Not exactly a heavy hitter, but more than attractive for the purposes Eryn had in mind.

Of course, they’d stripped most of the munitions from it first, though he’d gotten them to leave the weapons and launchers themselves intact. Two forward mounted autocannons, a gimble mounted Dorsal turret, and internal storage for interceptor missiles.

No ground pounder munitions, though in theory if he could find them, the missile racks could launch them.

The design was old, about as old as jump ships, or near enough, but the construction was relatively new since it was one of the first ones off the refit line and Cali was using a FILO (First In Last Out) queue in order to get the best ships into service as fast as possible.

Combined with a decent cash payday, they were as set as they could reasonably expect to be as soon as he finished installing an interface system for their implants into the damn thing.

Other than his Legion kit, the only other thing he took out of the IFV was a full copy of the troop hauler’s software package… incidentally wiping all the Legion resources within, aside from the backdoors, just in case.

So now, with Jinsha’s help, Eryn was crawling all over the ship and making sure that the sensor pods were wired correctly and had their firmware rewritten to respond to his implants while simultaneously ensuring that the vessel was ready to fly.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Cali government, exactly, but the ship had been built, mothballed, stored, and then refitted by, in theory, the lowest bidder.

Which, if it were true, he didn’t expect any real issues… what worried Eryn was the possibility that, rather than the lowest bidder, one or more stages might have been done by a company with ‘friends’ in the administration on a no-bid contract.

The lowest bigger might cut corners, but they still needed to deliver if they wanted to keep the contract. A no-bidder, on the other hand, probably didn’t have to worry about that aspect of things.

So, he was checking everything.

Most of it was brainless work, just installing software over and over again, then making sure it all communicated properly with the various systems involved. Nothing he needed to focus much active thinking on, which gave him time to review the data he’d grabbed from that random network access point… only a couple nights earlier.

God, it feels like it’s been so much longer than that.

It was as much public data as he’d been able to pull down concerning possible links to Jinsha’s family beyond SOL.

Unfortunately, most of the names she’d been able to give him had been confirmed by the simple means of finding death notices. Mostly accidents, at least according to public sources. Eryn expected that official and confidential investigations might be reporting something else, though.

However, it wasn’t entirely pointless.

“Jinsha,” he called.

“Yes?” The Empress of Earth asked instantly as she poked her head up out of a maintenance compartment, grease smeared across her face as she looked around for him. “What is it?”

He managed to keep a straight face at the sight, “Carmine, your brother, right?”

“Eldest, yes,” she nodded, eyes wide. “You… found him?”

“Maybe. I know where he was, and there’s no sign of any death report for him,” Eryn said. “Which doesn’t mean much given what happened with Michael, I’ll admit, but it’s a shot.”

“Mother didn’t speak of him in more than passing,” she admitted. “But she seemed… emotional when he was mentioned. I think something happened, but I never found out what.”

“Well, he was last reported on a border world near the Cluster’s edge along the Orion Arm,” Eryn said. “We can head there as soon as we’re finished here.”

“Alright, that sounds like something to do…”

Eryn didn’t push any more, knowing that she had been part of a large family and most of them were certainly gone now. Whether she was alone or not, he wasn’t certain they’d ever fully find out. Many of her family, both close and more distant, had certainly gone to ground by now and would never be found even if they were alive.

He had hopes for Carmine Conwin, however, because it was a name he had heard before… just not related to the Empress. If anyone could have survived the recent tumultuousness, it seemed to Eryn that it would be him.

“Ok,” he said. “Let’s get this finished so we can get started on the real work.”

That got him a smile, tempered thought it was by her emotion, and Jinsha ducked back into the maintenance section without a word.

Two of us, against the Galaxy.

It was absurd, depressing, and somehow it made him smile.

The Galaxy better watch out.

*****

“What are they doing?” Gordon asked casually, glancing at the screens they had monitoring the two they bought the IFV from.

“Maintenance,” the technical analyst said simply. “We had to bring in engineers from Bough Corporation, Lock and Heed, and a handful of others just to tell us that they’re going over the ship with a fine-tooth comb. I don’t think they trust us, Sir.”

Gordon snorted, “I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t trust us either. But seriously, that’s it?”

“They did replace all the software on board,” the technician admitted. “Which seems a little extreme, all things considered. If we wanted to spy on them that bad, you’d think he’d realize that we’d use a hardware solution.”

The tech paused, looking back, “We did use a hardware solution, right?”

“We did,” Gordon said, sighing. “He found and ripped it out first thing… including the two redundant ones.”

“Well, shit.”

Gordon just shrugged it off; that was part and parcel of dealing with people who knew the playbook really. Sometimes you could slip something past them, but most of the time they knew too well what you were planning even before you did because they had the advantage of knowing what they were up to and what sort of attention it might gather.

“Just log everything, don’t sweat it unless he does something hostile,” Gordon ordered. “We’ve got a lot out of the software on the IFV already, and the hardware is looking interesting to the engineering teams, but we might need to ask him some more questions at some point.”

“Hopefully before he flies that thing out of here, Sir?”

“Hopefully that, yes.”

*****

Eryn finished wiping grease and dust off his hands, tossing the rag and cleaner to Jinsha as he looked over their work.

“That’s a good day’s progress,” he told her with a grin that he found returned.

“It was actually fun, well some of it,” she said with a mock scowl as she checked her hair with some distaste.

He snorted softly. The slightly ragged edges of her hair told the story of being a little too close to an automatically closing ventilation grate and getting a bit of a bad surprise. Nothing too serious, thankfully, so he felt confident enough chuckling at the chagrined look on her face as she too seemed to see the humor in it all.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jinsha sighed. “Real funny, I know.”

She paused, looking over the ship from the outside again.

It wasn’t really a lot to look at, but it wasn’t a hunk of junk either. Everything on her was fresh, no paint or the like. He didn’t know if there had been, but a few years out in space would scour anything like that from the metal and leave a gleaming burnish even if there was.

“It’ll do,” he said firmly as she nodded happily.

And it would, he knew. Oh, it wasn’t going to change the balance of power in the Galaxy, or any insanity like that, but the ship was a capable little system jumper with enough cargo hold to keep a five-man crew and a scout squad fed and equipped for extended periods. With only the two of them on board for the foreseeable future, he didn’t see any lack of space being an issue they’d have to deal with.

In a pinch he figured they could smuggle smaller, high value, cargo if they needed to, and certainly they could base out of the ship while moving around and looking for assets and resources to push Jinsha’s goals forward.

His primary concern now was that this entire section of the Galactic Arm was about to become one massive battlefield if his read on things was right.

The Free Peoples’ were up in arms and looking for blood;the Imperium was spoiling for a fight and he didn’t see them backing down at this point even with a massive numbers disadvantage.

That just leaves the Republic and the Alliance as the two remaining big-name players in this situation, and lord alone knows what either of those groups will do once this properly kicks off.

“We’ll finish it tomorrow,” he said firmly. “Then we’ll get moving. Carmine.”

Jinsha looked over in his direction, her face a mix of emotions from fear and worry to hope and determination.

“Carmine,” she said in agreement.

*****

Chapter 16

ISV Vanquish, Proxima B

Kier heard someone whistle as the Vanquish dropped from Jump Space, their scanners suddenly being pinged hard from all directions.

“Well, it seems we have company,” he said casually as the alarms began to wail.

“Active scans, sources unknown. Calculating now.”

“Take your time, they’re nowhere nearby,” he said, looking over the data that was repeating across his screens.

It appeared that the Free Peoples had gotten together quite the little fleet by all evidence he could see. That they’d shown up back on Proxima made their intent clear.

Pity for them, it seems they didn’t learn their lesson the last time.

Possibly the Libation government hadn’t released the details of their last encounter. But whatever the case, he was glad that they’d gotten there in time to join the party.

“Contacts located, Sir. Approaching the planet from a zero elevation pass along the system plane. Sir… they’re not decelerating.”

Kier raised an eyebrow, “Confirm that.”

“Checking… confirmed. Ships are powered and accelerating.”

Kier glanced over his shoulder to where Gyver was standing. “That doesn’t bode well for the inhabitants. You suppose they’re looking for ‘revenge’?”

“It’s possible,” Sylban said. “If so, make certain that the fleet records everything.”

“Understood. In that case, might I suggest that we play the heroes?” Kier asked.

Sylban smiled thinly as he nodded, “I like it, Captain.”

“Very good,” Kier leaned in. “Signal to the fleet, interpose our ships between them and the planet, match their angle. Full military power is authorized.”

“Roger, Sir. Calculating intercept now, full military power.”

Kier wasn’t generally much for heroics. In his opinion, heroes were fools at worst, poor bastards at best. By definition, they only showed up when someone else had completely fucked everything up, after all, and then they proceeded to throw themselves into the grinder to rectify that other person’s mistake.

In any sane and just universe, that job would belong exclusively to the idiot who created the situation in the first place.

Here and now, however, if he understood Sylban’s goal, they were going to be looking to set up a little counter propaganda to combat the anti-Empire sentiment that the Cluster had going. Catching the enemy committing atrocities would go a long way to doing that, but some nice vids of them being prevented from committing same would be even more effective.

“Fleet acknowledges, Sir. Course sent to helm.”

“Take us in, then.”

“Aye Captain!”

*****

Libation Battlecruiser Fort Bragg

Admiral Jason Ewes looked over the scans as the alarms were shut down, swearing softly under his breath.

They’d not wanted a straight up fight with the Imperium fleet yet, but it seemed like there was little they could do to avoid it without simply turning tail and he didn’t expect that would go over well… to say nothing of the fact that he honestly didn’t want too either.

“Secure all hulls,” he ordered. “General quarters.”

“Aye sir. Fleet wide, General quarters.”

“Captain.” He looked over to his XO, and the CO of the Bragg. “I want this to be a passing engagement, watch their course and make certain that they can’t keep us in range.”

“Roger that, Admiral. What of the planet?”

“Ignore it for now,” Ewes ordered. “The fleet is our priority.”

“Aye, aye.”

Orders issued, he turned to the scans and started making plans.

The enemy fleet was significantly outnumbered, but they had eight of those damned Battleships plus their attendant support vessels. His own fleet consisted of almost a hundred ships from Battlecruisers to Destroyers from various principalities of the Cluster, most of them spoiling for a fight that he’d really rather not give them just then.

Whatever that new weapon is, we haven’t had time to work out a defense. Now is not the time I wanted for this fight to go down.

“We know their range is extended,” he said. “Let’s get the softer targets covered behind our armor, and make certain that we keep the armor between us and the enemy.”

“Understood, sir. Calculating course adjustments now.”

If we can get close enough, we’ll take a beating but there’s no way those Solan pricks can take the kind of firepower we can dish out. I just wish we knew what the hell was up with that weapon of theirs, though.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Interesting formation,” Sylban said as he watched the maneuvering.

“They’re counting on the heavier armor of those battlecruisers to protect the rest from the particles canons at range,” Kier said. “It’s not a bad plan.”

He paused, shrugging, “Or it wouldn’t be if our weapons weren’t firing antimatter particles.”

Sylban nodded. The main guns of the Vanquish class vessels were really just the outlet valve for the massive particle accelerators the ships were manufactured around. At full power, charged from fusion reactors big enough to meet the energy needs of most small to medium sized planetary colonies, they could produce a steady stream of anti-hydrogen and accelerate them to what was essentially lightspeed, less the speed difference that would have resulted in diminishing returns.

There wasn’t any armor imaginable that would hold up to a sustained blast from those weapons, and even in a very dilute spread as happened at extreme ranges, the particles corroded armor like it was Styrofoam in a solvent spray.

“Educate them then, Captain.”

“It will be a pleasure,” Kier said with a very real eagerness. “Prepare firing solutions!”

“Calculating firing solutions, Captain. Acquired.”

“Fire.”

*****

Fort Bragg

“Exaggerate the defensive maneuvers,” Admiral Ewes ordered. “Whatever they used last time had to have a wide cone of effect.”

“Aye Admiral,” The Captain nodded, turning to the helm. “Increase evasive maneuver envelope… make it… ten thousand klicks.”

“Ten thousand klicks, Aye.”

Ewes didn’t know for certain what the enemy weapon was, of course, but there were physical constraints to anything resembling the particle beam that analysts indicated it likely had to be. One of those was a variation of the inverse square law which, in its pure form, stated that the power delivered over any given space dropped by the square of the distance traveled.

That didn’t quite apply to beams and such as perfectly as that, of course, but the basics were still applicable.

If the enemy was firing a beam at them, over the ranges indicated by the damaged vessels from the last encounter, then that told them a few things about the weapon.

First, he did not want to be hit by it up close. That was a given, since the reverse of the inverse square law still applied, in some form. At full power and concentration, well he had nightmares about that sort of thing… but at least they tended to be short.

“Ready the missiles.”

“Missiles, loaded Aye.”

Missiles were one of the few long reach weapons they had that could hit targets effectively out past any significant distance past a few light seconds. They had guidance systems and could adjust on their own after firing, making them only limited by their on-board fuel.

“Enemy vessel profiles uploaded; chips inserted… Missiles live.”

“Fire.”

*****

Thousands of missiles erupted from the hundreds of ships of the Free Peoples’ fleets, lancing out into the depths of space as they quickly accelerated up to point 2c before their main engines cut out and they continued on their way under a ballistic trajectory.

Across the depths, coming the other direction from the Imperium fleet, at nearly lightspeed, particles of antimatter tore though the void in an ever-expanding cone beginning from the battleship’s main guns.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Missiles tracking, Captain! Ballistic inbound threats!”

“Point defense up,” Kier ordered without hesitation. “Secure all decks! Impact warning!”

Alarms began to wail, though the missiles still had a few moments before they would be even in range to strike.

“That,” Sylban said quietly. “Is a lot of missiles.”

Kier nodded grimly, unhappy with the change of events but not really surprised by it.

“They learned from our last encounter,” he said. “Trying to get in close to engage with beams would be suicidal, so they’re going to try and keep their distance.”

Sylban nodded silently in agreement.

“Point defense systems up, Captain. Reporting firing solutions ready.”

“Engage missiles as they bear,” Kier ordered sharply.

“Aye, engaging as they bear.”

The relatively small armaments that made up the ship’s point defense systems transferred no real sound or motion to the inhabitants of the ship as they fired, but the computers registered each burst as they opened up on the approaching targets with an augmented view of the battlefield.

Bursts of light filled the screens as the computers tracked the outgoing fire against the trajectories of the inbound missiles as they closed. Slower than the particle cannons, the missiles nevertheless would deliver far greater payloads to relatively smaller points of impact, making them a significant threat in the battlespace no matter how the numbers fell.

*****

Fort Bragg

Ewes flinched as the reports began to throw alerts across the command deck, armor, and deck breeches across the entire fleet…

No, almost the entire fleet, he noted with interest.

“Calculate the cone of the enemy weapon, some of our vessels are outside it’s reach,” he ordered.

“Aye,” the Captain responded. “Calculate range, which ships are in the fire zone?”

Commander Jessup leaned over his board, quickly pulling information from the fleet’s info-network.

“Cone on screen, sirs,” he said a moment later.

Ewes turned to check the numbers and he barely restrained himself from whistling in surprise. The cone was large, much more so than logic and instinct would suggest, but it was not impossible to evade.

“Adjust previous orders,” he said. “Evasion maneuvers are to be increased by an additionally twenty thousand klicks.”

“Aye Admiral. Evade plus twenty K,” The Captain responded. “Orders dispatched.”

“How many missiles have we expended?” Admiral Ewes asked, looking over the data.

“Twenty percent, sir, give or take. Almost loaded for a second salvo.”

“Fire when ready.”

“Aye, aye.”

*****

Point defense fire from the Terran fleet was vicious and filled space with a thick barrage of iron slugs, beams, and particle weaponry. Missiles flared and erupted into explosions as far out as three to five light seconds from the fleet, some causing sympathetic detonations amongst their own in the process.

Despite all that, however, the point defense systems were not perfect, and a few missiles slipped inevitably through the curtain of defensive fire to get in close to the Terran ships before they detonated.

Nuclear fire, in space, carried very little heat and no real concussion to speak of. Without the atmosphere of a planet to convert the energy into those things, the blasts were pure radiative horrors well past the multi-gigaton scale.

Designed intently not to be clean, where they exploded… entire spheres of space thousands of kilometers in diameter instantly turned more lethal than the center of a star.

*****

ISV Vanquish

“Radiation alerts! All decks, follow radiation procedures!”

Kier ignored the automatic calls that were going about as he focused instead on the fight. The enemy’s weapons were nasty, no question, but the Vanquish and her sister hulls were expressly designed for space only combat, and lots of it. Their armor was more than enough to handle radiation, even from sources that dirty and that close.

Long term it would be a problem, as they’d likely have to scrub the contamination off the armor… even to the point of possibly cutting chunks out of the ship’s armor and replacing it if the contamination was too bad, but they could weather that as long as…

The Vanquish suddenly rocked heavily as a missile detonated close enough that the force of the explosion had a physical impact on the big vessel.

“Hull breech, Decks thirteen, fifteen, sixteen…”

“Damage control teams moving to stations!”

Kier ignored the chatter, letting his crew do their jobs as he focused on the fight.

The results of the first strike they’d launched were only now getting back to their scanners, the time to reach the ships and return a signal with enough detail to provide the needed information was such that even the relatively slow missiles were ultimately able to close and engage while they were working.

However, their own attacks had already done the damage quite some time earlier.

Explosive venting of atmosphere could be seen on their scanners as he looked over the enemy fleet disposition, but the enemy ships had moved more than expected and widened their formation significantly from previous patterns.

They’re learning, he noted dryly, unsurprised but irritated all the same.

It would be far too much to ask to have an enemy that never learned and, he supposed, it would likely wind up being one of those be careful what you wished for situations. That said, he’d have been happy if they were just slightly dumber than they’d turned out to be.

It would not change the outcome, but the costs of the war going forward had just gone up.

“Acquiring solution for the heavy cruisers.”

“Aye sir. Targeting solution acquired… calculating firing solution. Weapons have been re-tasked.”

“Fire.”

*****

Once more a roiling, chaotic, energy burst forth from the big cannons of the Terran warships, the particles anathema to everything that made up the universe humans dwelt within escaping their magnetic confinement as they were blasted away from the ship and began expanding out into an ever-widening cone as their electrical charge caused them to push away from one another.

Light enough, though not massless, to reach extremely high rates of lightspeed, the blasts crossed space as fast as anything not actively mocking the universal constant could ever hope to match.

The last few missiles from the first wave were still in transit, and several of those were annihilated away by stray particles of the antimatter beam, white flashes of energy pulsing through the system as the fighting ranged in all quarters.

Nuclear fire burned vacuum as tera-ton explosives detonated amidst the Terran ships, while flashes of pure annihilated matter lit up the Free Peoples’ ships in turn.

On both fleets, people died by the hundreds in just the opening few moments of the battle.

*****

Fort Bragg

“Damage reports coming in, Admiral! Heavy damage across the cruisers, they can’t take much more of this.”

“Do we have the scans?” Ewes demanded, rising to his feet with blazing eyes as he looked over the data that was streaming into his repeater systems.

“Yes sir,” the Captain of the Bragg confirmed. “We don’t know what the hell to make of it, but we have it.”

“Begin breaking contact,” Ewes ordered. “Prepare all missiles remaining, first, however. I don’t want a single bird left in the racks when we leave!”

“Aye sir! All ships confirm, missiles loaded. Solutions being calculated now.”

Ewes sat down heavily, unhappy with the events that were forcing him to withdraw but satisfied that the battle had accomplished its primary goal. Now he just had to ensure that the data got out, first and foremost, and then that his ships did as well.

The enemy superweapon, whatever it was, left a distinctive radiation signature. The Bragg’s damage control teams had been forced to wear protective equipment to even get close to the damaged sections of the ship. The entire outer hull in those areas were now hot and had forced an evacuation from the corridors, labs, and other facilities that had been placed out near the outer sections of the vessel.

Luckily those are not vital operations centers, Ewes thought grimly as he watched the Captain and bridge crew begin the process of breaking contact with the enemy.

*****

ISV Vanquish

Sylban eyed the screens, recognizing the enemy’s intent from the shift in their deployment.

“They’re breaking contact,” he said quietly from behind the Captain.

Kier nodded grimly, “I see it. “Standby point defenses!”

“Point defenses standing by!”

“They’ll fire a salvo to cover their escape,” Kier said, standing. “Signal to the fleet, standby to evade.”

“Fleet confirms standing by,” The comm officer responded quickly. “Scanners don’t show a missile salvo. Captains are requesting leave to pursue the fleeing vessels.”

“Denied,” Kier snapped. “All ships are to follow evasion protocols!”

There was a brief delay as the order filtered out, but the acknowledgements started filtering back, albeit in grudging fashion.

Kier didn’t care, he was focused on what he knew was coming.

“Missile tracks, Sir.”

“Shoot them down.”

Sylban watched as the point defense systems opened up on the missiles as far out as they possibly could. He knew that some would get through, that was inevitable, but barring some extreme example of bad luck, none of the Vanquish Class vessels would be lost, and the rest were largely insignificant in strategic terms.

On the screens, the signals of the enemy ships fleeing the system arrived ahead of the missiles they launched.

How unsatisfying.

*****

Chapter 17

Independent Vessel, Genesis Seat, Edge of the Cluster

Eryn checked the instrumentation as the Seat emerged from jump space, decelerating in a flash of Cherenkov blue as they reinserted into sidereal space and the mass of the ship bled off speed until it balanced with the background space-time.

They were dropping into the gravity well of a small inhabited system that bordered along the very edge of the Free Peoples’ space where the Cluster actually inter-positioned with the Orion Arm proper of the Galaxy.

Antarian Twelve was one of those early cluster stars that had been discovered and colonized relatively quickly in the Free Peoples’ history, but also one of the relatively poorest of the stars in the region and so had remained a smaller colony with less of a penchant for the modern excesses.

“Is this the place?” Jinsha asked as she made her way into the smaller command deck… really little more than a cockpit, comparable to that of a passenger craft rather than a military vessel.

Eryn glanced back, nodding, “It’s the last reported place he was, at least. He may have moved on…”

He left off the other, very real possibility, that some of the assassins sent out by the Imperium might well have gotten to the man before they could even come close to finding him. She knew that was a possibility, even a likelihood, and he didn’t feel the need to bring it up.

She’s lost enough family already.

The world they were headed for wasn’t even visible to the naked eye as of yet, but he had it up on the long-range scopes as they began their approach. Like many worlds in the Cluster, Antarian wasn’t much for the complications of bureaucracy and the like, which largely meant that they were free to approach as they liked, and no one seemed to care.

That was, frankly, something of an idiot attitude as far as Eryn was concerned, particularly in a time of war, but he supposed that they couldn’t really mount much of a defense anyway, so there wasn’t deemed to be much point in bothering.

He checked in with the local control network just the same, requesting clearance as he’d been trained. It took several minutes for someone to figure out how to grant it, which spoke volumes for how often others had done the same, but in the end he and the ship were cleared into a landing near the major population center on Antarian Twelve, a planet that apparently warranted so little attention that no one had bothered to name it properly in the official records.

“Systems check,” he called over his shoulder. “We’re coming in for an orbital insertion, is everything green?”

He didn’t expect any problems - the work done on Nova Cali had been impeccable, and the Seat had performed flawlessly thus far, but you didn’t take chances with an orbital burn. Hitting atmo at mach forty and change was not the time to discover you have a failure on a heat shield.

Jinsha slid into the seat behind and to his right, checking the telltales quickly before calling up the more in-depth status reports.

“Everything appears correct by the computers,” she said a moment later.

Eryn nodded, knowing that would be the best they would be getting for the moment. He’d prefer a closer examination, by hand and eye, but with only two people on board, that wasn’t feasible for the moment. He’d do the checks himself after they landed and before they took off again.

“Alright, get secured in,” he said. “Antarian doesn’t have a magnetic field, so the Lenz repulsors aren’t going to be much good. The ride will be a little rough.”

She nodded, grabbing for the belts as she got them secured around her.

Antarian Twelve was something of an oddity in the galaxy, so far as human occupied worlds went at least. Almost all worlds amicable to human life had an internal magnetic field that provided protection from radiation, atmospheric loss, and a variety of other cosmic threats.

Antarian had formed a relatively short time ago, a few billion years younger than Earth, and while it appeared that it had once had a magnetic field, the lack of a stable large satellite such as Earth’s Luna had resulted in the core losing temperature and cooling, locking it in place and preventing field generation.

In the millions of years since that process had begun, the planetary field had waned until it was barely detectable any longer and the local solar winds had been in the process of stripping the world of its primordial atmosphere. This hadn’t been detected until a hundred years or so after a small colony had been put in place and, being one of the Free Peoples’, the locals were stubborn as all hell and refused to abandon the planet they now called home.

A magnetic generator had instead been put up in the Lagrange One point, between the planet and the star, to provide shelter for both the atmosphere and the people within it.

Eryn wasn’t certain how well it was working, and frankly didn’t care since he wasn’t planning on staying for any length of time. What he did care about was the fact that he was going to have to perform an atmospheric entry and landing purely on reaction systems and the questionable aerodynamics of the space craft they’d traded with Cali for.

Should be fun. Glad this heap was designed for atmospheric flight, at least technically.

Not every ship was, which was likely one reason that the Colony here at Antarian had remained so small despite the recovery of the climate after the magnetic shield had been put in place. The world itself was pleasant by all reports, with vast seas returning to an ancient glory, temperate climate, and plenty of high value property for anyone who cared to invest the time to develop them.

What it didn’t have was significant transport or inexpensive access to off world goods. Landing materials on the planet was hard enough, but just getting your ship back into orbit was a significant expense that few had any interest in taking on.

Perfect place for someone who doesn’t want to be bothered by, well, anyone.

The ship began to shudder a little as they hit the upper atmosphere, and he checked a couple readings before hitting the controls for the heat shields, locking the composite panels into place over sensitive sections of the hull as well as the cockpit… partially blinding them as the sensors were blocked in the process.

“Just turbulence,” Eryn said as he made adjustments, noting that Jin seemed ill at ease.

She nodded, surprising him slightly. “I’ve been on ballistic aero entry paths before. Usually emergency response certification, but still…”

“Same drill then, we’re doing fine,” he said even as the ship shook more violently. “This heap was built for a lot worse than this.”

It had been, in fact, he knew well. The design of the Seat was based on a much older craft, one of the third-generation puddle jumpers, built before Lenz repulsors were a thing. They weren’t precisely economical on fuel, but they could land on a patch of land not much larger than their footprint and take off from same.

It didn’t surprise him that Cali had continued building the design despite it being relatively obsolete. Few designs in the history of space travel had been quite as versatile as the old Puddle Jumpers, and they’d been overbuilt to the point that they could lose massive chunks of their hulls and keep on flying.

Good for flying around in sections of space without nearby repair facilities, but also a damn fine thing to have on your side in a fight.

“Exterior temperatures dropping,” Jinsha told him a moment later as the violent shaking settled out, their airspeed dropping thanks to the aero-braking Eryn was doing.

“We’re at Angels 90 and dropping,” he said. “I’ll crack the shields at Angels 70.”

If they were doing a hot drop, particularly into a combat zone, he’d risk the shields much earlier. Probably even have them open already, but there wasn’t any point at this time, and he wanted to keep the ship as fit and flight ready as he could. Being the one handling primary maintenance, Eryn didn’t intend to give himself more work than necessary if he could avoid it.

At Seventy thousand feet, with atmospheric density being more akin to a hundred thousand feet on Earth, Eryn hit the retraction controls and they got their first view of the planet below from within the atmosphere.

Antarian was a water planet, more so even than Earth, with well over ninety percent of the surface covered by at least shallow seas. The land that was there tended toward archipelago island chains that were really the tops of vast undersea mountain ranges. The island chains could go for thousands of kilometers from tip to tip, and included tens of thousands of small islands, complete with reefs, lagoons, beaches, and everything one might expect from that sort of geography.

“I think I have the beacon,” Jinsha said, sounding confused.

“Something wrong?”

“No, it’s just… not reliable,” she said with a twist of her lips. “I suspect that their antennae are misaligned.”

Why does that not surprise me? Eryn thought with a disgruntled sigh. “Understood. I’ll dead eye us in.”

“Very well. Bearing to beacon is… was… no, is again,” Jinsha rolled her eyes. “Two one three, mark five nine eight.”

“Two One Three Mark Five Nine Eight, Roger.” Eryn said, making the adjustments with the stick, forgoing his implants because he didn’t fully trust the hydraulics to handle the ship in the baffling turbulence he was experiencing and wanted to be hands on until he got a better feel for the system. “I think we’re in the cone.”

“So do I, but it would be nice if the beacon would confirm,” Jinsha sounded downright irate, not that he blamed her.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, nodding out ahead through the panoramic view the cockpit provided them. “There’s the island chain there. Pretty sure we can find our way from here if we need to.”

*****

Nova Caledonia, Antarian Twelve

The ship that flew by overhead attracted a lot of attention from those on the ground. Few offworlders bothered with the little community that claimed Antarian as their home since the world was not particularly wealthy and didn’t exactly make landing or taking off again easy just by its nature. That made visitors big news, even those that were scheduled like the bi-monthly traders that landed to load up on local pharmaceuticals and exotic foodstuffs.

Most just did an orbital drop of whatever they were delivering, the capsules being picked up by locals at sea and the pay being transmitted digitally.

An unexpected visit, though, that tended to attract attention.

Children pointed as it went by overhead, adults took notice of the approach angle and figured where it was heading. Most just went back about their day at that point, but a few took a greater interest.

*****

“Who are they?”

“Unknown, but the ship is registered out of New Cali, Sir.”

“New Cali… Doesn’t mean much. They’re one of the top ship brokers in the Cluster. Who do we have at the Field?”

“Paulson right now, I told him to get what he could. He’ll grab photos when they land and disembark.”

“Good. Things are touchy enough out there right now. Between the Imperium and the Orions, we’ll see trouble here soon enough. Stay on top of things.”

“You’ve got it, Boss.”

*****

Eryn felt a little shaky as he stepped down the ramp onto the dirt. He’d not had a lot of experience with hovering a ship purely on vectored exhaust and he could feel the shakes threatening to make themselves shown through his exterior façade.

Might want to get in some more practice with that, he thought as he let out a shaky breath, careful to keep Jinsha from seeing the effect of his nerves as the adrenaline burned itself out through his system.

“What do we do now?” she asked from behind him, stepping out into the clear sea air that was a great change from the fog of the ship’s recyclers.

“Town is down that way,” he nodded to a winding road that vanished into the local jungle, heading down toward the sealine. “We should be able to find a link to the local network there, and a place to stay for a while.”

She nodded quietly, not voicing her next question, though he could almost hear it floating there in the air between them.

What if Carmine is already dead?

The truth was, he didn’t know what to do in that case, not beyond looking for someone else from the family at least. The truth was, though, that those who’d overthrown the Empress had clearly been making plans for a long time. The longer it took to find Jinsha’s remaining family, the less likely any of them would still be alive.

“I should have gotten a ground vehicle out of the authorities at Cali,” Eryn said by way of distracting both of them from that truth. “It looks like it’ll be a bit of a stroll.”

She nodded, “We’ll survive.”

Eryn nodded, sending the signal to lock up the Seat as they started walking. No one approached as they left, and there was no sign of any sort of security at all. The Cluster had a lot of loose and fast rules, it seemed, when it came to dealing with ships and personal property. He figured it meant that he was responsible for the security of his own gear, and so locked it down appropriately in turn.

“Let’s get moving then.”

*****

“Paulson sent up some photos, boss.”

The man looked up and nodded curtly, accepting the proffered tablet without a word. He flicked open the screen and looked at the first picture.

“Puddle jumper, one of the variants anyway,” he said appraisingly. “Looks new.”

“Cali is bringing their stockpiles out from the yards according to reports, full refurbs and new crews being activated.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t flying an official Cali flag, right?”

“That right. It’s flagged as an independent out of Cali.”

The man scowled, shaking his head.

“That don’t make much sense. If they’re pressed enough for ships that they’re refurbing stock from the yards, why would they sign a new refurb over to some indy?” He mumbled in annoyance before flipping the pic to check the next one.

“No idea, boss. I could put in a query over the inter-network. See if Cali has anything official to… Boss? Boss, are you ok?”

The man behind the desk was pale, eyes boring into the picture on the tablet. It showed the ship on the ground, ramp down, with two people walking down it.

“They’re not from Cali,” he said, his voice croaking. “They’re from Earth.”

“What? Are you sure, boss?”

“Yeah. I know that uniform. Imperial Legion.”

Silence filled the room for a moment.

“I’ll call up the boys. We can take a couple Imperial goons.”

“He’s Legion. Don’t even be thinking about it.” The man behind the desk growled as he shook his head, “Besides, I doubt he’s with the Imperium.”

“Boss? You just said…”

“News out of Sol was muddled last going off, but multiple sources confirmed that the Legion was taken out in the conspirators first strike… No surprise there. If they’d left them alive after assassinating the Conwin, there isn’t any power in the Galaxy that could have saved the murderous bastards from retribution… Any survivors are almost certainly on the run from the Empire now.”

“What do you want to do then?”

“Watch them, see what they do, but don’t approach.”

“I’ll spread the word.”

*****

Chapter 18

After the brief clash at Neuvo Eurys, the Imperial drive into other territories redoubled with invasion forces landed on multiple small worlds and systems that lay along the Orion arm between Earth and the Cluster. Older colonies for the most part, but none fully aligned with any of the major polities along the arm.

The single star system worlds fell quickly to the advance, most not even able to stand up to the Imperium’s second and third lines of battle, let alone the Conquest Fleet now that it had been assembled and deployed in full force.

While the Imperium continued its inexorable march across the stars, though, the Cluster was working feverishly to shore up their lines of battle and setting defenses along the rim worlds of the Cluster itself.

The Orions had drawn back from their initial conquests, their congress now uncertain as to whether they should continue as they began, withdraw from the field entirely, or offer help to the Cluster. Their line of battle was a formidable array of Battle Carriers and support ships that was being reinforced almost by the hour as the fighting along the Cluster’s rim worlds continued to heat up due to the Republic having apparently made their decision and continued to raid any worlds they had even the slightest tenuous claim to.

In short, everyone was looking suspiciously at everyone else and, in most cases, taking any shots they thought they could get away with even as the Imperium marched across the stars.

*****

Libation

Kroger glowered at the reports strewn about him, about half of them actually printed out on paper because they’d actually run out of tablets, and he wanted to see everything in front of him at once.

“If I’m reading this right, the researchers think that they’re using anti-matter?” he asked, incredulously.

“Yes, Mr. President. The radiation decay doesn’t match anything else in the records.”

“How?” Kroger threw up his hands. “Anti-matter costs more to produce than Neutronium! No one has ever made the stuff in anything resembling practical amounts, let alone what would be required for a military output.”

“Unknown. Their ships must be producing it on demand, however, because storing it would be impossibly complex and fraught with risks that I don’t believe that even the Solans would accept,” Doctor Curtz told him with a tired shake of his head. “That implies power generation capability beyond anything we know of. Fusion, even at idealized efficiencies, won’t touch the power requirements.”

Kroger shook his head, planting his hands wide on the desk in front of him as he glared down at the reports.

“The Empire has hidden far too much from us, but this is becoming ludicrous. How could they possibly have developed something like that?” he demanded.

His Intelligence Director sighed, “Frankly, sir, we’ve not paid any real attention to them since Diaspora. The Imperium has long been considered little more than a pilgrimage location. Early on, in fact, we supplied them with weapons and equipment to defend themselves from potential aggression in the face of threats from the Republic and the Orions. That ended when we took Nuevo Eurys, of course, but their lack of retaliation caused us to ignore them even more. Yes, we’ve had token agents assigned to the system, but not enough to properly canvas it by any means.”

“So, you’re telling me that they’ve been developing this for…”

“Centuries, likely, sir.”

Kroger just groaned, his head slumping.

“I don’t believe it,” he ground out.“The Empress and her family had no interest in conquest. They could have stopped us at Eurys easily! They were better entrenched, and had a shorter supply line. Why just give it up?”

“I doubt they developed them for military purposes, Mr. President.”

The room went quiet, everyone turning to one of the junior researchers who’d been permitted to sit in on the meeting more as an aide than anything else. Several military men scoffed and openly mocked the statement, but Kroger waved them silent.

“Explain yourself, Mr.…?”

“Apologies, Mr. President,” the young man said. “John Walters. I know I’m speaking out of turn, but are you familiar with Earth’s history immediately pre- and post diaspora?”

Kroger nodded, “Of course. The planet was rapidly dropping into the funnel of a runaway greenhouse effect. Worst case projections left it as hot as Venus in a few centuries.”

“Precisely,” Walters said. “We don’t know exactly how they pulled out of that spiral, but somehow, they managed and that gives us a key data point. As bad as things had become, there was no chance that passive methods would fix the problem. Simply stopping their destructive ways were no longer enough, not by a long shot. They needed to enact active means of reducing the effects in addition.”

“You think they developed anti-matter weapons to reduce climate change, Boy?” a General scoffed loudly.

“No, I think they developed antimatter reactors to eliminate the emissions problem, as well as to power the entire world. Ground based solar was out of the question due to the increase in storms, nuclear too costly at the necessary scales, and other renewables simply wouldn’t meet their needs,” Walters countered. “Once they had their reactors, however? Well, antimatter will fire like any charged particle through a magnetic accelerator.”

Silence greeted his statement as even Kroger was taken back by the suggestion. The Empire was the joke of the Galaxy, only even remotely respectable because it had been the cradle of humanity. It conflicted deeply with his ingrained thoughts of that world to think that they’d created something as powerful as that.

“Nonsense. Why not use it then?” The same General challenged. “They’ve sat there, acting like the backwoods of the Galactic arm. Why?”

“Because the Conwin family had their hand on the wheel, General, and they didn’t care about the rest of us.” Walters said quietly. “They spent every waking moment for the last three centuries, fixing what they could at home. Call it a… familial blind spot, but I don’t think they even considered conquest… the entire family has been focused on trying to save Earth.”

Arguments broke out, causing Kroger to cup his head as he felt another migraine coming on. Finally, he put a stop to it all, angrily slamming his hand down on the desk and gaining blessed silence for a moment.

“Their motives are irrelevant,” he ground out. “If they developed efficient anti-matter reactors, for whatever reason, they clearly kept them as a state secret… unsurprisingly. Now, they’ve been weaponized, and they’ve become our problem. Save the rest for the academics, we have real galactic issues to deal with, am I clear?”

He glared at all of them until he got their agreement, and only then let out the aggravated breath he’d been holding.

“At the current rate, when will the Imperium run up against our defenses?”

*****

ISV Vanquish, Intersteller Space

“Our focus will remain with the Libation controlled forces,” Sylban outlined as he gestured to a holographic starmap that filled the room he stood in.

The Captains of the Conquest Fleet were all assembled, in person on the Vanquish since the fleet was spread out far enough to make lightspeed limited communications irritating, in the briefing room. Sylban could read them all easily and could have even if he hadn’t had full access to their jackets.

Like almost all officers in the RegForces, they were all of Noble birth. That didn’t always mean incompetence, thankfully. Otherwise, he doubted the plan would have had any chance at all, and this bunch tended to be the ones who proved the rule through their exceptionalism. Jaol and himself had allowed for the realities of influence within the ranks, but when it came to the Captains of the fleet, that allowance had limits.

Sylban had personally assassinated Eight officers proposed by the Nobles, men and women who’d been deemed… less than acceptable in terms of intelligence, competence, and loyalty. That had been before the Coup, when he had to move in shadows. Now, if any of them proved that his allowances had been too lenient, he’d just kill them out of hand.

“The closest world they control is this rim world here,” he gestured as a star in the globular cluster changed color to a bright red. “However, it is of little value and so we doubt they’ll waste any time fortifying it. Our target, instead, is four lightyears deeper into the cluster.”

The map shifted, highlighting a different star as it closed in.

“Gentlemen, meet New Liberia,” he said. “One of the few stars in the Cluster with a metallicity roughly on par with Sol, making it a rather valuable stellar resource for Libation.”

The assembled Captains nodded in understanding. Globular clusters like the Antares, or M4 Cluster, tended to be old… very old, composed primarily of extremely long-lived stellar objects. For academics, this meant that the stars were such that they’d existed nearly as long as the universe itself… billions of years older than Sol, and often were studied as a view into the ancient universe that was.

For the more practically minded, however, this meant that the stars were old in a very different way. Metals were the products of younger stars, ones that burned out and went nova after only a few billion years. They exploded and sent their metals, formed deep in the stellar forge, screaming across the stars.

Within the Cluster, this hadn’t happened. So while the worlds were easy to terraform due to the stable nature of the region, the availability of metals was relatively low. Even as badly mined as Sol was, it was richer by a goodly portion than nearly all of the stars in the Cluster.

Under most conditions this didn’t make for much of a difference, of course. Even at a rough fifteen percent the metallicity, there were more than sufficient materials available for construction and expansion. No space faring species would ever lack for resources, not even in relatively poor systems.

However, ease of access was valuable in its own right, and New Liberia provided that in spades.

“Resistance here will be fierce,” he went on. “They have had a century to properly fortify this system, so do not expect the minimal and token force that we’ve thus far encountered. This is the Cluster proper; we’re going to be stepping into a fire ants nest the moment we engage them there.”

Low murmurs, ranging from mildly scoffing to deeply concerned greeted that statement, neither of which he was inclined to censure. Concern was just intelligent, given the strategic stance the Imperium was about to officially adopt, but he understood the scoffing as well.

Indeed, he even agreed with it… to a point.

The point, of course, was when scoffing turned to underestimating. If Sylban saw that happening, well one of the fleets would shortly be seeking a new Captain.

“This is the plan, pending review and new Intelligence,” he waved, changing the map to a view of the system. “Our current intel has their primary defensive line beginning at point Alpha. We’ll enter the system along the known trade routes, emerging from Jump Space well outside the Heliopause. Gentlemen, they will see us coming. That’s the point. We’re sending a message and laying a little groundwork for the future.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Hidan gritted his teeth as he watched the fighting come to an end, just out at the very limit of the Delaware’s scanners.

They’d expected some issues in the chaos as large chunks of the Cluster rigged for war, redirecting military forces away from previously contested areas, but they’d underestimated the effect it had on Pirate suppression efforts.

Damned filth is getting a little big for their vacsuits, he thought to himself as the last of the pirate vessels retreated into Jump Space, leaving the Delaware to recall their fighters.

They’d won, of course, but with pirates the only real victory was where you annihilated or captured the entire force, and these were a wily bunch. They knew they couldn’t mix it up with a Command Carrier, so they kept their distance as soon as the Delaware had shown up. Stamping them out wouldn’t be easy, especially if they managed to get themselves properly equipped.

And there will be a lot of ships available for doing that once the fighting starts to wind down.

Hidan didn’t think that anyone out there in power really understood just what was about to happen to their little arm of the Galaxy. The Imperium was showing that they weren’t going to fall easily, and that was bad news for everyone.

The fighting would generate chaos well beyond the regions embroiled in the war. Ships would inevitably be ‘lost’, only to turn up elsewhere in pirate fleets. Space was too large for anyone to properly police it and keep that from happening, and that meant bad things for everyone because it was impossible to cover every ship, every world, every approach to some point of value.

Piracy was an ongoing problem, of course, especially around the rim of the Cluster because the Free people’s were notoriously free about letting people acquire armed vessels with essentially no examination of their background.

Oh, certainly, they didn’t sell to known pirates or the like. Freedom was a fine thing and all, but that would just be stupidity. They did sell to brokers who often ‘lost’ ships, or civilians who, despite the best of intentions, never bothered with the proper discipline needed to run a ship, or any of a number of other groups who, either by being careless or complicit, wound up turning around and handing them right over to pirates and their ilk.

The Orions and the Republic were death on pirates caught operating outside the Cluster, of course, but it was like trying to kill every mosquito in a dark room.

You always seemed to miss one last bastard.

Bad times coming.

“That’s the last of them gone, Captain.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

Graves nodded curtly, refocusing his attention on the scanners while Clarke looked over the latest flashtraffic reports over the FTL comm.

FTL was notoriously low bandwidth, for all its incredible speed, so all he was really getting was the equivalent of headlines of course. But they were curated and edited by intelligence specialists to convey actual information rather than the civilian crap that was designed primarily to keep eyes on the page for a few seconds longer.

The Empire is definitely on the march, and they’re not fooling around…

After a successful defense of Eurys, they’d began a methodical sweep along the curve of the Orion Arm of the Galaxy, methodically making their way toward the Cluster.

It was more evidence to him that whatever the fuck happened at the Reef, the Empire almost certainly had nothing to with it. None of the significant forces had been caught out of formation with their strategic march, and he doubted strongly that there were any Imperial Forces of note in the Cluster now, or anytime in recent history.

Spies, of course, is likely another thing entirely.

That was an issue he was having when it came to planning. It was clear to Hidan that the Empire was operating from current, and accurate, intelligence. That meant they had agents in the Cluster… not as… hard to pull off as it might be in Orion controlled space, or within the Republic of course, but still an impressive feat.

It made him worry about what they had inside the Orion worlds, however.

*****

Chapter 19

Nova Caledonia

Jin relaxed as she took in the sweet and salty air that was so different from the recycled sludge she’d gotten used to onboard ship.

Eryn had found them a place for rent, nothing to the standards of the Imperial Family of course, but a surprisingly nice little place built into a high hill overlooking the high, endless seas of Antarian Twelve. Combined with the peaceful reception they’d received, something of a novelty when travelling with Eryn she was coming to think, she was finally starting to feel like death wasn’t stalking them from around the next bend.

Everything that was going on out in the galaxy was a nightmare, of course, and her guts roiled every time she thought about what her world… her empire… was doing to people, but Jin couldn’t help but enjoy the downtime all the same. It had been too long, and the stress had become so much part of her life since her mother’s birthday that she’d come to be so used to it that she only noticed it by its absence.

They’d been at Nova Cal, or just The Cale by the locals, for a couple days while Eryn searched for any sign of her eldest brother. Carmine was not being particularly easy to track down, however, which both worried her and in an odd way provided comfort.

If Eryn was having issues finding any trace of the man, then hopefully Imperial assassins would have had the same. She could hardly muster any real hope, though, such emotions had become painful for her when they were inevitably destroyed by the events rolling on and over her… but still, she couldn’t help but feel it bloom just a little, despite the oppressive despondency that had become part of her life.

So, she kept herself busy while Eryn searched, focusing on learning what she could about the assets she had to her name… which, certainly weren’t much, all things considered. Her implant suite, some tactical armor, and a partial claim on a ship that really only barely qualified by many standards.

Still, it was more than she knew how to properly work, so there was learning to be done.

*****

Eryn was becoming a bit of a staple feature around the small community that made up the bulk of The Cale proper. A population of barely a hundred thousand souls made for a nice little city, but only just that. The rest of the population of the Archipelago was spread out quite a bit, making Caledonia about eighty percent of the planet’s population.

The rest was scattered here and there across the other island ranges that existed, mostly by people who didn’t want contact with others for one reason or another. Eryn expected that there were more than a few shady types in that twenty percent, but likely not as much as there would otherwise be due to the difficulty of landing and then getting back into orbit.

Smugglers, pirates, and the like didn’t much appreciate adding significant costs and risks to their ventures… even if they got some extra privacy in exchange.

The locals here in The Cale weren’t of that sort, though, instead just being the honest types who didn’t want much of anything to do with the rest of the galaxy. Eryn understood them well enough. He rather thought that he’d have been the same if he’d grown up somewhere like this, or even with any reasonable way to get somewhere like this.

Nice climate, local fauna and flora is edible for the most part, no one to bother you and just enough of a local population to be almost anonymous if you really wanted to be. Damn near heaven.

He hadn’t, however, and the way he had grown up precluded the option of quietly retiring to a place like this… yet anyway.

Someday… maybe, it was a nice thought, assuming he lived.

So instead, he was combing the local network for any sign of their target, but Carmine Conwin was something of a ghost. The Cluster records showed him here, but as Eryn had already determined, the locals didn’t much keep a lot in the way of records and those they did tended to be of the loosely enforced variety.

He could have come here, started using a different name long enough to build up a back trail, then headed off to anywhere.

It was an effective way to muddy your trail, though it wouldn’t work well if he went back into the Cluster proper where records were a bit more detailed, and the more densely packed worlds shared data like biometric information. Carmine would have shown up on their records again, no matter what name he used, unless he did some rather significant gene therapy… and even then, he’d have to be very careful about his interactions lest a routine deep scan biometric pass show up the work.

Unfortunately, though, that still left a mind bogglingly large number of places he could easily have fled too.

It all just meant that he had a lot more work ahead of him.

*****

“Still at it?”

“Yes boss, he’s a determined sort.”

The man snorted, unsurprised by that ‘revelation’.

“He’s also managed to successfully hide most of his efforts from us,” the investigator grimaced in professional offense at that fact. “We’re reasonably certain that we’ve only caught a tiny portion of his actual searches, just the ones he opts to do personally.”

“Crawler bots?” the Boss asked with professional interest of his own.

“It seems like it, yes, seeded into other people’s network access nodes no less.”

That brought an amused laugh. “That sounds about right. Though I can imagine it’s irritating as hell. Do we have any idea what he’s looking for?”

“Nothing I would be confident in pronouncing,” the investigator shook his head. “Most of his searches thus far seem to be focused on land parcels and the like, what you’d expect from someone looking to move in around here, likely because they were hiding out.”

The boss hummed as he considered that for a long moment before shaking his head.

“Maybe, but something tells me it’s not that,” he decided finally. “But I can’t rule it out… we have a nice small archipelago not too far from here, yes?”

“The Cedan Islands, yes sir.”

“Put them up for sale, where he can find them. See what he does.”

“Yes sir… but that brings us to another point of interest.”

“Another?” the boss asked, eyebrow raised.

That was unusual. New Caledonia didn’t usually have a single point of interest, two at once was downright bizarre.

“A ship has arrived; it belongs to a Mr. Elwes, and they’ve been asking questions that seem rather pointed and directed at our first point of interest.”

The boss frowned, “Elwes? Do I know him?”

“No, but you may have heard the name. He’s a Baron out on Anarcho.”

“Anarcho…”

The name was familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“A small world, not much larger in population than here,” his investigator supplied the details. “It is an important transhipment system, however, which gives those who control it some power and leverage beyond their place. Wesley Elwes is one of the three who essentially own the system and anything that moves through it.”

“Ah, one of those.” He really should have cued into that when his assistant called the man a Baron in that tone.

“Yes sir.”

“Have they learned anything?”

“No.”

“Good. Stonewall them. No one gives them anything,” the boss ordered. “As far as The Cale is concerned, no one saw this pair and we’ve not seen anyone new for ages.”

“Understood.”

*****

Independent Freighter Carine Benoit

The Benoit was a small MPV (Multi-Purpose Vessel) in the employ of Wesley Elwes, which generally meant that they worked the route between Anarcho and Cali, hauling whatever Mr. Elwes might want personally and then whatever else they could stock in to up their profit margins.

On occasion, however, Edward Makon found himself commanding his little ship to more unusual destinations because the man who paid the bills said so. This was one of those times, and he couldn’t help but glare at the water world floating below them almost as though it were mocking him.

The Benoit wasn’t the kind of ship that could pull off an atmospheric descent, not without her Lez Repulsors at least, so all he could do was sit in orbit and wait for orders… which were going to take a while since he had to use the commercial flashtraffic system, and that meant waiting in a queue until they had enough messages to go out to warrant running the system in the first place.

All in all, it was a major pain in the neck, but he wasn’t paying the bills so he did what he could… which was sit and wait.

Funny how often that seemed to happen, even given the fact that movement was the lifeblood of any cargo carrier’s job.

*****

Nova Caledonia

Eryn was being followed.

He’d made them pretty early on, but they were keeping their distance and not making any moves he considered overtly threatening so he mostly just went about his business but made sure to keep his public searches and the like to things that fit the cover he’d picked for them.

By this point, he expected that anyone remotely plugged into the Cluster’s intelligence community would have he and Jin pegged as high-level refugees from Sol… that much was almost impossible to mask, given the way they’d arrived. He supposed that they could have jettisoned the troop transport into the void for a little more anonymity, but they needed a ship and money to hold things over, and he expected that they were hardly the only ones who had, or would, escape Sol after the coup.

At some point it might even be a good idea to fully reveal themselves, leveraging Jin’s blood as a tool to get someone on board with mounting a countercoup.

Not the Cluster, though, at least not openly. The people here would be strongly against that on principle, I believe. The Orions are a possibility there, however.

The issue there would, of course, be the distinct problem of owing whoever helped set such a thing up for the favor. He might be untrained in the intricacies of political maneuvering, but even Eryn wasn’t so blind as to see the issues inherent in owing favors of that magnitude to any foreign power.

He was just supremely concerned that there may not be any choice, not if things continued as they were.

Jinsha might have been willing to simply vanish into the ether, leaving it all behind for a quiet life on her own terms… but any chance of that went out the window with whatever the hell happened at Orson’s Reef.

For all his betrayal, however, Eryn couldn’t see that atrocity as having been ordered by Sylban. It didn’t fit with the Imperium’s strategy thus far, and Sylban wasn’t the sort to get sidetracked with whims of fancy or petty vindictiveness. If Sylban had been involved in that, Eryn had no doubt that it was a specifically planned operation done with intent.

Intent to what, was the question that had him doubting things.

Aside from polarizing the entire Galactic Arm against the Imperium, Eryn didn’t see what could have been gained by the action, and while he didn’t put it past Sylban to be more than willing to engage the ire of the better part of a hundred billion people… Eryn didn’t see what was to be gained by it either.

Ultimately, however, it was clear that the events of the Reef had changed the situation wildly. For the Galaxy, for the Imperium, and… for Jinsha.

Which meant that everything had changed for him as well. Long term, at least.

In the short term, the plan remains as it did. Find safe haven, then we can worry about what comes next.

Which brought him right back to his followers, of course.

*****

“Shit, I lost him.”

“He can’t have gotten far, we’ll find him. Don’t get clumsy now.”

“I know, I know. Boss sure is uptight about this guy, though. Any idea why?”

“Rumor is he’s some kind of Imperial special forces, I guess.”

“No shit? Here? You think we need to worry about… you know, what happened to the Reef?”

“Doubt it, but I suppose those poor bastards didn’t think they had to worry either, so who knows?”

“Shit, yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it, nothing we can do anyway, and this guy isn’t going to call down a rock on his own head, yeah?”

“Yeah… damn it, where is he?”

*****

Eryn shook his head as the pair walked by right underneath where he was perched, his leg braced up against a heat exchanger unit while his back was pushed into the corner.

No one ever seemed to look up.

He was a little concerned with what he’d learned, though. They knew he was from the Empire, which was a little more worrisome than it might normally be. If he’d been wearing an Imperial Forces uniform, even special operations, it would be understandable. Those were known, official issue, uniforms.

His Legion armor, however it might also have functioned as a uniform of sorts, wasn’t something generally made known to the public. Anyone who recognized it had a decent source of intelligence on the Empire, far beyond the sorts of things one might find in common circulation.

Going to need to find out more about this… boss.

Anyone who recognized his armor was something of a concern. the Legion wasn’t well known beyond the Sol system for obvious reasons. And generally, Legionnaires had never been fielded in any sort of open combat even on Earth, by Her Majesty’s order. So, while the existence of his fellows was known, most of the time it was Imperium Special Operations that tended to be image that people had when the Legion was brought up.

ISO were not to be messed around with.Eryn knew that with confidence since he’d had to survive their training before he was even considered for an apprenticeship with Sylban, but they were not as flexible or as dangerous as the Legion. Most operations conducted by the Legion were generally attributed to ISO, on the books, and even the tinfoil hat brigade consistently misattributed ISO operations as Legion.

So, for almost everyone who wasn’t solidly in the know, the Legion was just a small division of ISO.

But here, we have someone who knows Legion armor on sight… concerning.

Silently, he dropped the ground and started in the direction of the men he’d listened in on, flipping the script on them as he began following the followers.

*****

“The men we had following the Terran just reported in, Sir.”

“And?”

“They lost him.”

The boss sighed, though he wasn’t truly surprised. He started to say something, but then paused and shook his head slowly.

“Alright. Leave me.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me.”

The other man nodded slowly before leaving, and the boss sighed again as he turned and set his drink down on the desk.

“I knew I should have told them not to come anywhere near this place,” he said to the air. “When did you spot them?”

A moment of silence hung in the air before it was broken by the hum of a Legion saber, and the young man he’d seen in the photo stepped out from behind one of the drapes that hung on the side of the balcony that overlooked the island.

“This morning as soon as I went out,” the young man said. “If you mean today at least. Last guy who had me followed arranged for a kidnapping in the guise of a mugging, so you’ll pardon my concerns.”

“Of course. This last guy would be?”

“Went by the name, Elwes.”

The boss snorted, “You took down one of his crews and he’s still following you around?”

“I didn’t say I took down his crew.”

“You’re Legion. If you didn’t, it’s only because you had a reason to leave them walking and breathing.”

“Who are you?” the young man asked, eyes narrowing at the casual drop of his organizations name. “Most people think the Imperial Legion is just a branch of ISO.”

“I know, I helped perpetuate that myth.”

The two men stared for a moment before the young man spoke again.

“Carmine.”

*****

Chapter 20

Nova Caledonia

Carmine Conwin, though he generally went by Carmine Conners since leaving Sol, looked over the young man across from him, reading his stance carefully. The boy had been well trained, but he was clearly inexperienced. There were little flaws in the stance, or rather… there weren’t any little flaws in the stance. The boy was textbook perfect, which you never saw in an experienced agent.

The human body was not a fixed, consistent, thing. Every person was just a little different from even their closest match. That meant that textbook perfect was always just a little imperfect for any given individual. As they became experienced, they made the style their own, added little touches, tweaks, and flourishes that suited their body and mind.

None of those were present in the boy he was looking at. If he was legion, and given his knowledge, skills, and equipment, Carmine wasn’t about to doubt that he was… then he was a still pampered babe, smelling of talcum powder and his trainer’s sweat.

“You know my name,” Carmine said. “So I assume you’re here for me.”

The young man stared for a moment, then the hum of the saber died as he flipped it over his shoulder where the blade was immediately grasped and locked into place by the scabbard that rested there.

“Not an assassination, then,” Carmine said, not that he’d really considered that likely, despite current events. If the Legion wanted him dead, he’d not have seen it coming.

“No, though you may want to increase security, your brother was killed along with his husband, and I wouldn’t be surprised if others of your blood have met similar fates.”

Carmine nodded, “I’m aware. Not sure who hit Michael, but they weren’t Legion. Too sloppy.”

“The Legion is gone,” The young man sighed. “Most of our numbers were at the celebration, in uniform. Snipers.”

Carmine grimaced, “I hadn’t heard. You were there?”

“I was.”

“And now you’re here. Why.”

“Her Majesty’s birthday celebrations brought us all in,” the boy started, but Carmine stopped him with a hand. “What?”

“What’s your name?” Carmine asked, smirking. “Can’t keep calling you ‘boy’ in my head, now can I?”

He’d expected some sort of reaction from that, some of the indignant reactions that the young have to being reminded that they’re young, but surprisingly he didn’t get any.

Interesting.

“Eryn Aubrey,” Eryn said quietly, looking him over slowly.

“Alright, Mr. Aubrey,” Carmine said, gesturing to a seat. “Would you like to take a seat? Talk this through like civil souls?”

Eryn hesitated, glancing at the seat briefly, before returning his attention to Carmine.

“I need to know that you are who you say you are,” he said finally.

Carmine chuckled at that, “Try saying that tens times faster.”

The little joke got him no reaction worthy of the name, just a flat look.

“You have no sense of humor,” Carmine sighed. “I swear, it’s like dealing with Sylban all over again.”

That got a fair bit more of a reaction than he’d been expecting.

“Don’t compare me to that traitor,” Eryn snarled out through clenched teeth.

“Sylban was always a bastard, but traitor?” Carmine tilted, “That’s a stretch.”

“He murdered your mother,” Eryn said, surprising him. “While trying to shoot your sister.”

Sister… the girl.

Carmine stumbled as the pieces connected in his head, “I haven’t seen Jinny since she was a child. She’s with you?”

“Prove your identity,” Eryn said in clipped tones, his hand dropping to the small of his back where Carmine expected that he was carrying a Beamlock.

“Knowing Sylban isn’t enough?” Carmine asked mildly, keeping his hands visible as he opened up a port on his implant suite network and shot off a handshake protocol.

“Not for this,” Eryn said, even as he accepted the open port and biometric data was shared, along with security keys.

Eryn’s hand dropped from the small of his hand as he relaxed visibly, “Apologies, Your Majesty.”

“None of that bullshit. I renounced any claim to the throne a long time ago,” Carmine said, “Jinny is with you?”

“I had to get her out,” Eryn nodded. “There were… plans to use her.”

Carmine tensed. He could just imagine what those plans would have entailed, and was none too happy at just the thoughts.

“Understood,” he said grimly. “Who’s plans?”

“Lord Jaol,” Eryn responded, then shrugged. “Though from what I saw it could have been the Marquis as well, maybe others. Sylban implied that Jaol was the one of the centers of it though.”

“Sylban Gyver, working for the Nobility?” Carmine shook his head. “I can’t even begin to imagine that.”

“I’ve seen it, doesn’t take much imagining.”

“Then you don’t know Sylban very well.”

Eryn’s knuckles crackled audible as he tensed. “The man trained me.”

Oho, they gave Sylban a trainee? Damned interesting.

“Fair to say I’m surprised to hear that too,” Carmine said. “Never expected that they’d clear Sylban to train someone.”

“What?”

“You wouldn’t know, but Sylban was a real firebrand coming up through the ranks,” Carmine chuckled. “Made a lot of enemies, particularly in the Courts.”

Eryn looked quizzically at him, “Sylban?”

“Oh yes, I remember that boy when he came onboard,” Carmine reminisced. “Angry, justifiably so I would say, but still… angry, and with a chip on his shoulder we had to knock off.”

The look on the boy’s face was amusing as all hell to Carmine, and for a moment he had a pang of regret that he’d not been able to tell the boy this while in front of Sylban. That ruined the mood in a hurry, as he recalled exactly why he wouldn’t be able to do that, so he just stopped and sighed.

“You say you saw him betray the crown?” Carmine asked heavily.

Eryn nodded stiffly.

“Send,” Carmine ordered with a gesture that caused the boy to stiffen up even more when he recognized the Legion shorthand gesture.

The connection flared to life between their implant suites, but the expected data didn’t appear which caused Carmine to look at the boy expectantly.

“I don’t know you.” Eryn said slowly as the connection died.

“Boy, I just gave you an order.”

“I was Legion, Carmine,” Eryn snapped. “But I don’t take orders from you.”

Was?

“You’re Legion until you die, and even then, they don’t remove your name from the rolls, you just go inactive.”

“That was true when there was a Legion, but it’s gone. I answer to one person now, and it’s not you.”

Carmine grumbled, though inwardly he was actually a little pleased. The one person didn’t take a genius to identify, after all. So, he smirked at the boy.

“Has little sister picked herself up a Knight Errant then? Adorable.”

The boy flushed at that statement, further amusing Carmine, who just shook his head.

“Alright, since you don’t want to provide evidence… yet…” he said pointedly with a glare at the boy. “Let’s talk about why you’re here. You’ve clearly managed to maintain some assets, given that you picked up a newly refurbished combat scout transport from Cali, which couldn’t have been cheap.”

Eryn shrugged, his gaze shifting away from Carmine slightly. “We traded an Imperial IFV for it and some cash.”

Carmine glared openly at that, “I trust you stripped Legion software from it?”

“And yanked the hardware systems that integrated it, yes.”

“Good,” Carmine relaxed. “In that case I expect that you got the better part of the deal.”

“Given that we made the trade just after the events at Orson’s Reef, I think they were a little blinded by things and offered far above the value, yes,” Eryn said bitterly.

“Ah yes, the Reef, bad bit of business that.” Carmine said pensively. “Though that’s not likely what caused them to be incautious with their money.”

“Oh?” Eryn looked up, curious.

“The Imperium revealed a secret weapon just prior to that,” Carmine told him. “I’m not certain what it was; that’s not available to any of my asset network I’m afraid, but whatever it was it has the Cluster governments a little freaked.”

Eryn scowled, trying to think of what that might be, but finally gave it up with a shake of his head.

“No idea what that might have been,” he admitted.

“Not surprising, you’re barely out of your apprenticeship, aren’t you?” Carmine asked knowingly.

“Protecting the Princess at the ceremony was my first assignment.”

Carmine had the decency to wince openly at that.

“Tough introduction, kid,” he sympathized. “Still, if you got her out of the system, I’d say you acquitted yourself better than most. Doubt Sylban could have pulled it off as a rookie, though mostly because he’d probably have started a one-man war against the traitors.”

“And likely won,” Eryn said sourly.

Carmine just laughed, “Kid, no one is that good. Sylban would probably have tied down a couple divisions for a lot longer than anyone should have been capable of, but ultimately, he’d have fallen without support, just like anyone else. Don’t let your experience with him elevate him beyond mortal limits in your eyes, he’s a man like anyone else. Just a very well trained one who understands his limits implicitly.”

“I’ve never seen him have limits,” Eryn ground out, his mixed emotions concerning the man tearing through him.

“The two most dangerous types of people to deal with are fools who don’t think they have limits, and intelligent men who know their limits. The first will just go and do something so incredibly stupid that you never saw it coming, and the second will never let you see his limits in the first place. Sylban is the second, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have limits, it just means he knows where they are and never lets himself be pushed across them.”

Carmine sighed again. Something he was doing quite of lot of recently he noted idly and gestured casually. “But this is getting us nowhere. Come, boy.”

“Where?” Eryn asked, shifted slightly.

“I need intelligence, you have it but won’t share,” Carmine said. “So, the way I see it, there’s only one person who can bridge the gap.”

He smiled.

“Let’s go see my little sister, shall we?”

Carmine would have been lying if he’d tried to claim that he made that statement entirely casually;he was too careful by far to have done so. As he spoke, he watched the boy come to the realization of what he was saying.

Letting someone into range of his primary was always going to chafe, Carmine knew that well enough, but there wasn’t any choice this time, so he was pushing.

Luckily the boy seemed to come to the same conclusion and, after briefly tensing and half reaching for his weapon, he forcibly relaxed and nodded.

“Fine.”

He’s totally going to have his beamlock charged the entire time we’re anywhere near Jinny. Good boy.

Rookies were adorable.

*****

Jinsha was working through the training that Eryn had left her with, trying to engrain the effort into her muscles, when the proximity alarm the young Legionnaire had put into place sounded softly to get her attention.

She stopped her actions and quickly crossed the room to retrieve the small machine pistol she had available for personal defense. It wouldn’t do much against military armor, unfortunately, but she had a blade for that if worst came to worst.

The chime changed softly as she was checking her weapon, causing her to relax marginally.

Eryn coming back… but someone is with him?

They had prearranged signals, of course, and this one didn’t indicate duress or the like, but it still put her slightly on alert so she finished checking the weapon, then ensured that a round was chambered before she slipped it under her jacket and moved to the corner where she could watch the windows and the door without moving much.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The door was tapped on lightly, just enough to alert her again, and she casually put a hand on the weapon under her jacket before calling out.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Eryn stepped in first, eyes sweeping the room and then her. He paused on where her hand was covered and nodded, “We have a guest.”

Jinsha’s eyes shifted from the young Legionnaire to the second person as they entered the room, and she found herself staring as she tried to place the familiarity she was feeling.

“Hello Jinny,” he grinned at her. “It’s been some years, hasn’t it?”

“Carmine?” she blurted, shock overwhelming her briefly before she processed everything he’d said, and her eyes flared. “Don’t call me Jinny! I told you that the last time!”

“Big brother’s prerogative,” he shrugged easily as he stepped in and Eryn closed the door behind him, his expression growing more solemn. “I’m sorry to hear about mother.”

Jin looked away briefly, “She was trying to give power back to the people where it belonged… I…”

Carmine frowned at that, “Yes, the entire Galaxy has heard that speech by now. What was mother thinking?”

Jinsha shot him an irate glare, but he just waved it off.

“Oh, don’t give me that look, princess,” he smirked at her. “Mother was no fool, something I know too well, which makes her actions all the more bizarre. Of course, the nobility were going to retaliate, and the people… they’re not ready. Earth has been angry for too long, and it’s been convenient to distract them by blaming the colonies… especially since there’s a lot of truth there. Mother knew that the planet was a fuel dump sitting on an ammo stash, and she was smart enough to know she was holding a lit match with that speech. I don’t understand any of this.”

“It was the right thing to do,” Jinsha said petulantly, not happy to hear her mother criticized, even if it was coming from her brother.

“The right thing to do, at the wrong time, is often worse than just doing the wrong thing in the first place,” Carmine said flat out. “Mother taught me that.”

He sighed, holding up his hands. “But there’s nothing to be accomplished debating her decision now…”

He looked at his sister for a moment, then nodded over to Eryn, “Would you mind terribly if the young man here shares his intelligence on the events he witnessed? He’s being a little recalcitrant about things, I’m afraid.”

Jinsha glanced over to where Eryn was standing stiffly, not at attention exactly but close enough. She blew out an exasperated sigh of her own, “Eryn, relax, and yes please share what you can with my annoying elderly brother.”

“Oi, you little whelp,” Carmine objected. “I’m not even to my first centennial.”

He did notice that the connection request popped up almost instantly, though, and sent the handshake protocol to accept the connection immediately. The data transfer was fast, Legion protocols keeping the signal essentially line of sight and tight beamed, so in just a second, he’d grabbed the data and run it through the checks needed before he’d willingly allow it out of the sandboxed receiving zone.

“Thank you, a moment please?” He said to both of them, taking a seat as he began reviewing the data.

It didn’t take long. He’d do a more thorough review later but for now he ran through it at high speed, only slowing the playback for key moments and even then, only lingering as his mother was shot.

When he was done, Carmine sat silently for a long moment.

He still didn’t understand what the hell mother was thinking, but the events themselves were straightforward enough. The sort of thing you saw many times through history. A traitor, a conspiracy, a monarch overreaching… it all added up to a familiar outcome.

“Well,” Carmine said finally. “Isn’t that something?”

The looks the pair shot him were amusing, but he waved them off casually.

“I’ve mourned my mother already, and honestly… we’d grown apart long before this,” he said seriously. “Sylban firing that shot that killed her? That’s a bit more upsetting. I taught that boy better.”

Eryn stared, “You…?”

“Yes, I trained Sylban, he was my cute little apprentice once upon a time,” Carmine said with a mixed set of emotions that even he would have a hard time unraveling. “If I get my hands on him now… he’s earned himself a hell of a spanking.”

Eryn choked, “What?”

“Shooting mother like that? By Accident?” Carmine scoffed. “I taught that boy better. He should have been able to check his fire when she jumped in front of the weapon…”

Carmine frowned, shaking his head before he finally pushed the thought away.

“Never mind, it happened, it’s done,” he said firmly as he got back to his feet, turning his focus to the pair. “The question now is… what do we do with the pair of you?”

*****

Chapter 21

ISV Vanquish, On Approach to Free Port Antares

Kier settled back in his command center seat with satisfaction. The plan had come together neatly and, despite the enemy getting more backup than expected at this junction of the offensive, he foresaw no obvious issues coming his way.

That didn’t mean that there would be none, of course, but in his experience, there was no point worrying about the things you couldn’t see coming. Just deal with what you could, and that would free up your time when you needed to handle the unexpected.

The fleet had hammered the attempt at a defensive line, pushing most of them to withdraw before any real damage had been done. He knew that wouldn’t hold for too long, given that the enemy would be working hard to neutralize their new weapons and, sooner or later, one of them would figure out something.

He didn’t know what that would be, of course, but it would happen.

For the moment, though, they’d clearly moved to a different strategy.

“Scans show considerable forces in position on the ground, Sir.”

That strategy.

Kier nodded, “Understood. Mark anything obvious, send anything questionable to Intelligence for analysis.”

“Yes sir.”

“The dangerous things won’t be visible.”

Kier glanced over his shoulder to where Sylban was standing.

“I’ve been through the Academy, Gyver,” fe said casually. “I’m aware of the tactics involved.”

Sylban merely nodded, not saying anything more.

They were about to hot drop Marines onto a planet that was intent on holding them off. Kier knew that this wasn’t going to be a walkover, not like their previous dealings had been, but that was fine. It would be nice to have a soft and incompetent enemy all the way through the campaign, but that wasn’t how the universe worked.

“Fleet reports in position, sir.”

“Begin the operation.”

“Aye, Sir.”

*****

Free Port Antares

The defenders had bunkered down, sheltering deep where conventional weapons wouldn’t have a chance of reaching them. That was of little comfort to most, the images of Orson’s Reef still bright in their minds, but with the only other option being to abandon the planet and the millions living there… well, even if they could get a lift off, most of them wouldn’t have taken it.

Most were assuming, and hoping, that the Imperium would want their world under its control, leaving the use of such things as mass drivers to flatten the surface off the table.

That was what a sane enemy would do, but no one had yet worked out why they had opted to hammer the surface of the Reef, so the sanity of this enemy was somewhat up in the air.

So it was, when the skies opened up with the beginning of the bombardment from orbit, that everyone actually relaxed marginally for a moment. Military targets on the surface were slammed immediately, but while some splashover damage was inevitable, most of the infrastructure was clearly being spared from the carnage.

The relief faded quickly, of course, as the men and women involved got ready for a fight.

Troop IFVs showed up on the orbital scans just behind the assault, at least in the areas still covered by the satellites that have survived the opening moments of the attack. Orbital recon birds were not exactly easy to spot, but EMP strikes didn’t even have to be all that close to at least damage them.

*****

“Alright you bastards,” the Sergeant was in about as good a mood as he ever seemed to be, most of the troops noted, which is to say… not a particularly good one at all. “They’ve walked over every world they landed on thus far, but that don’t mean shit, cause none of those worlds were Free Port! We’ve been under our own governance our entire history, and that shit ain’t changing now!”

The assembled forces cheered a little, but it was a ragged sound. Most of them were just happy that they weren’t about to be at ground zero for an asteroid the size of a small island, after all.

“You all know what these pricks pulled at the Reef! We ain’t letting them get away with that shit here, and it’s time to get some payback out of their hides for the lives lost there!”

That got a bit more of a reaction, the bloodthirsty nature of the cheers pumping up just as he’d known, and hoped, it would.

Morale among the grunts had been back and forth concerning this war, and everyone involved knew it but didn’t yet know what to do about it. The fact that the fleet ships had been forced to pull back was a hard blow right from the start, no one seemed to know what new weapons the Imperial bastards were fielding but whatever it was it was about as effective as it was bad for the Cluster’s vessels.

A boom in the distance caused him to stop, turning to look up into the sky.

There wasn’t much to be seen as yet, the strikes in the distance were taking out the military defense infrastructure pretty much as predicted, but he knew that sound was something else.

“Landers have entered Atmo.”

The announcement got everyone moving, and the sergeant was no exception.

“Secure your assigned positions! Make them pay for any ground they want, and then take it back!” he yelled over the noise that had erupted, already taking the lead as he grabbed his kit and slung it over one shoulder before finding the Captain assigned to his division.

“Sir, the men are ready to fight,” he reported crisply as the officer looked over at him.

“I have no doubts they are, Sergeant,” Captain Harrison Kindel said with a curt nod. “We have tracks on dozens of Imperium IFV landers inbound, and we can assume that there are a lot more we can’t see given the holes in our network after the orbital strikes. Looks like they’re aiming to move in to stay.”

“Like hell that’s going to happen,” Sergeant Murray Fields responded firmly. “We can beat the bootlickers back.”

Harrison smiled, “Right you are, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have them tracked on course for several key points. The closest to us at the moment is the Fusion plant, of course.”

Fields nodded; it was an obvious target. Controlling the source of power for the area would put them in a good position to control a great deal of the population, both through necessary power needs but also through luxuries in the long term.

“Give these orders to your lieutenant and have your men deploy along these points,” Harrison ordered, handing over a digital orders slip that glowed with the marked locations on the map. “To get any serious firepower in at you, they’ll have to come through bottlenecks. You know what to do when that happens.”

“I do indeed, sir.”

“Then be about your business, Sergeant.”

“Yes Sir!”

Fields saluted quickly at the dismissal, then turned on his heel and jogged off to catch up with his group.

The Lieutenant was already there when he arrived, and Fields handed off the orders to him after a quick exchange of salutes.

“Holding the plant then?” Lieutenant Danny Kinds hummed to himself. “These look like excellent kill boxes, at least.”

“I believe they were designed to be when the plant was built, Sir.”

“Yes, probably right there,” Kinds admitted. “Alright, let’s get into place. I wouldn’t want the enemy to get there before us, seems like it would be rude not to have a greeting ready.”

“Right you are, Lieutenant, right you are.”

*****

Imperium IFV, On Descent

The atmospheric turbulence was shaking them around a little as they dropped, the Lenz repulsor all but turned off to allow as fast fall into the combat zone amid the fury of exchanged fire between the air defense systems and the fleet overhead.

Captain Mako Boreanz carefully checked the flight telemetry as he felt the sensation of freefall start to barely fade away, not wanting to wind up actually between the two sources of heavy fire. It was bad enough just trying to fly through a normal atmospheric entry at these speeds, getting anywhere near the sort of power that those weapons were putting out was not on his bucket list.

“Lieutenant,” he said. “Watch for any sign of close in air defense fire. So far, we’re only seeing their big guns, but those aren’t meant for us. I’m more worried about the small to medium stuff we haven’t seen yet.”

“I’m looking, Sir, but nothing yet,” Lieutenant Samantha Carey answered. “If I were in their position, I’d hold it back until the last second and hammer the hell out of us on approach.”

“Yeah, me too,” Mako answered sourly.

That was going to suck, there was no question about that. There were limits to what the ships in orbit could provide in terms of support in this sort of situation, and one of those was that shipboard weapons were not designed to take out smaller mobile anti-aircraft weapons.

If they had good targeting solutions for them, sure it would be no problem, but that was the whole point of running a mobile system, after all.

He leaned back and twisted, looking over his shoulder. “Marines! We’re about to go terminal, so lock up and get ready for the drop!”

He heard them yell back, the sound barely comprehensible over the shaking of the craft and the sheer volume of alerts he was being inundated with, but it was good enough, so Mako hit the button to seal up the Marine’s section and put their drop systems on automatic.

“There’s the fusion plant, Sir,” Samantha told him, nodding up ahead.

“I see it,” He responded.

The flashing lights in the distance normally warned aircraft away from the exclusion zone around the fusion plant, but right now they were a beacon inviting the IFV right in. At some point, someone would think to turn them off and future flights would have to run on instruments, but that point wasn’t now, it seemed.

“Settling into our final approach… whoa!”

A spread of chaff filled explosions littered along the front and side of the IFV as they dropped below twenty thousand feet, a light patter of shrapnel raining along their armored sides as they continued through it.

“Command, IFV Nine Alpha Bravo Two. We are encountering air defense fire,” he said over the radio.

“Roger Nine Alpha Bravo Two, continue with mission. Pulling target solutions from your system, will respond when possible.”

“Roger that. IFV continuing on mission.”

Easy enough to say and do, since he’d not flinched from the mission in the first place, but procedure was procedure after all.

“It’s going to get rougher from here,” Mako said grimly, hitting the alert so that the Marines knew that they’d just been dropped in it proper.

*****

In the back of the IFV, the Marines grumbled mostly quietly.

This was the worst part of things, and they all knew it. In a few more moments, they’d be on the ground and their fates would be in their own hands. That was something they understood and were more than willing to take on. Right now, however? Their fate was very much out of their hands, and to a man they hated every second of it.

“Buck up, Marines,” The Nob Colonel yelled over the sound. “We’ll be on the ground shortly, and show these uppity colonists just what Earth can really do!”

That actually made most of them grin a little. Few had any love lost for the Nobility, but they hated the Colonists even more. There wasn’t a single soul among them who hadn’t grown up hearing about what happened, leading up to when the lights went out, and how the colony ships had robbed the planet blind before venturing off into the depths of space like thieves in the night.

Generations of people had dreamed about recouping a little vengeance on the colonies, and now… it was finally happening.

They went from grumbling to talking themselves into a bit of a bloody frenzy at that, right up until the IFV suddenly jerked hard to one side and then began to shake uncontrollably.

*****

Mako swore as the flak hammered their airspace, not close enough to hit the IFV but more than enough for the concussion to throw them around while they were running a low-profile descent.

“Hang on, it’s going to get rough,” he called out, still dropping fast amid the fire.

Around them the fire was intensifying as the group of Terran IFVs dropped like rocks through the thickening atmosphere. Blue icons were blinking off his HUD as he looked around, but not as many as they’d projected in the worst case… if that was much of a comfort.

“We’re on the bounce in five,” the Lieutenant said beside him, flipping a couple switches over to redirect power to the Lenz system.

“Roger that, full power to repulsors on my mark,” Mako said, hand gripping the manual control stick as he started the countdown, “Two… One… Mark!”

The Lieutenant threw full power into the repulsors and everyone was slammed into the deck of the IFV hard as the ship began pushing against the magnetic field of the planet, slowing fast as it’s drop profile turned into a sharp arc that swept them forward to the target.

“Defensive fire is getting thicker,” Sam told him, not that he couldn’t see that for himself. “Countermeasures reaching saturation.”

“Almost there…” Mako intoned more than spoke, reaching out to arm the drop system, “Stand by for drop.”

A squeal split the air, swallowing his cursing as Samantha started working feverishly.

“Active lock! It’s through our spoofers, launching decoys!”

“Too late,” Mako got out. “Viper is inside the envelop! Marines, Good luck!”

He blew the charges holding the Marines drop crate to the IFV just seconds before the missile slammed home into them and the world vanished from his view.

*****

Corporal Genoa swore and clutched at the straps holding him place as the world spun around him and his guts tried to leap up and out his throat. He could see the Colonel, the man was blanched white with eyes wide in panic, looking like a three-day old corpse with rigor mortis fully set in.

The company Sergeant, however, was swearing up a storm in a shockingly calm tone.

“Goddamn it,” The Sarge snapped, looking up as best he could. “We just lost our ride, boys! Get ready to hump it as soon as we kiss dirt!”

Genoa was glad someone seemed to think that they’d have the option of walking once this was all over, but he was barely able to keep from panicking himself… and only because it really wouldn’t do much anyway.

It felt like hours passed as they fell, but really it could only have been seconds at most and likely not even that. Just enough time for him to try to swallow his own stomach back down his throat, then the failsafe rockets roared, shaking the hell out of him and everything around him as Genoa was slammed into his seat with enough force to drive his guts out of his throat and threaten to push them right out his ass.

He figured the only reason he didn’t crap his intestines out there was because his ass was pushed into the seat so hard the pucker was airtight.

And then, just as quickly as that, it was over.

They were still shaking plenty, but the acceleration was back to Earth normal or near enough that he couldn’t tell the difference.

“Pucker up!” The sarge yelled over the sound.

What? Why? It’s over…

He didn’t quiet get to finish his thought before the IFV cargo crate slammed into the ground, hard enough rattle his teeth and make his spine beg for mercy.

The Sarge wasn’t having any of that, though, even before they’d stopped moving, he had his restraints off, rifle in hand, and was kicking the Marines into motion toward the door that was even the deploying open.

“Move your asses, Marines! Standing still is for targets, and targets get serviced. If you lot want servicing, save it for the whore house after the fighting is done! Move! Move! Move!”

Genoa stumbled out, barely ahead of the Sarge’s boot as the man stormed along behind them actually physically dragging the Nob Colonel along with him as he did.

The first thing Genoa noticed was that the smell of the burning rockets aside, the air was so clean. It crisp and fresh and somehow felt like it was flaying his nasal cavity with it’s almost painfully clean sensation.

Maybe all the shit in the air back home lubricates your sinuses, he thought ironically, but really didn’t get much time to think about it beyond that.

He shivered a bit, not sure if it was from the air, the cold, or the aftereffects of the adrenaline hit that was still coursing through his veins. Probably all three.

The Sarge got a headcount, made sure everyone was alive and mobile, then took a moment to get the Colonel on his feet and looking more or less like a living man again, and then turned back to them.

“We’re a klick out of the intended LZ, and that fusion plant ain’t gonna surrender itself. Let’s move out, Marines.”

*****

Chapter 22

Nova Caledonia

“Don’t go thinking you can tell either of us what to do, brother,” Jinsha scowled. “I may be younger, but I am an adult, and you left the family.”

Carmine held up his hands laughingly, “I know my limits, sister dearest, and trying to give orders to our family is well past them. No, I meant merely that you both need a plan… or at least a goal. Have you given much consideration to either?”

Eryn sighed. “Thus far, we’ve been more concerned with finding a place secure and safe enough to do that sort of thinking.”

“Understandable,” Carmine assured them both. “You had a hell of a thing dropped on you. Not having a plan for this, for you at least, is forgivable. If Eryn here were a couple decades more experienced, I might be more judging about things, but as it stands, I’m impressed you made it this far.”

Neither of the pair seemed to quite know how to take that, but that was fine and again something Carmine had come to expect from younger people. No matter how well trained, or how expert, there were some things that just came with experience. Oddly, taking a compliment was often one of those.

“I was considering a pair of options to present to Her Majesty,” Eryn spoke up after a moment.

From the look Jin sent him, Carmine presumed that the boy hadn’t been talking about them.

“Oh? What options would those be?” he asked curiously.

“They depended heavily on Her Majesty’s desires,” Jinn said uncomfortably. “But if she wanted to be done with it all, I’ve been examining exploratory charts, looking for an interesting sector we could spend some time in, looking for anything of interest. A decade or two, they’d lose interest in her bloodline and give up the search. She could return and quietly retire somewhere pleasant.”

Carmine tilted his head, considering that. “An option, to be sure, assuming the pampered princess there didn’t mind roughing it for a while.”

That last he shot off in his sister’s direction, a smirk on his lips to soften the blow the words might otherwise have had and ensure that she got angry with him rather than herself. Her visible fury was heartwarming, so he grinned wider.

Eryn, for his part, seemed happy not getting in the middle of that.

Smart kid.

“You picked a ship that could do the job,” he went on, nodding. “Long range, consumables for a dozen would keep the pair of you going for years if you needed it. I can see that as an option. What was your alternate?”

Eryn grimaced, but mustered forward, “On the assumption that her family blood runs true, and her sense of responsibility had been triggered…”

Carmine snorted at the nearly betrayed look Jin shot the boy, shaking his head in amusement.

“I was considering looking for support in running a countercoup, to place Her Majesty back on the throne.”

Silence dropped across the room, Jin’s look of betrayal shifting to one of shock. Carmine, however, merely nodded.

“Yes, an attractive solution if it could be established,” he conceded. “However, it is one fraught with significant issues.”

Eryn nodded, “I know. I was scheduled for political training in the next few years, but I’ve studied ahead enough to recognize the largest of those, especially since they tie into our asymmetrical warfare studies.”

“They do indeed.”

Carmine took a breath, “I’ll be honest, there would be significant support for such a venture at this juncture… the problem, though…”

“What price.”

“Exactly,” Carmine agreed with the young Legionnaire. “The only groups that could back you, would do it solely to get hooks into the Empire’s throne. At a minimum, I would expect an arranged marriage would be the price, and the price would go up from there.”

Eryn’s face had turned to stone at that, while Jin’s expression had blanched white. Carmine didn’t blame them; they were kids and still held a lot of their ideals. The Galaxy wasn’t a nice place, even before people got involved. Adding humans to the mix just seemed to turn an impersonal hostility into a very malicious one at the sort of levels they were discussing.

Mother would have accepted the marriage, played it out for a few decades until she was resituated, and then arranged for a falling out. Whether her husband survived said falling out would depend entirely on how he’d treated her previously. I can’t see Jin being cold enough to do that… yet, anyway.

Outwardly, he sighed. “And there’s another problem.”

That got their attention, at least, and distracted from the previous issue.

“What is it?” Jin asked, sounding uncertain.

“After the initial Imperial advance, both the Orions and the Republic took advantage and moved on colonies they had claim to that had fallen under the control of Libation. They’ve pulled back slightly, since the Reef, but with the possibility of a three-way external threat looming… nobody is going to be eager to put resources into a longshot. They’d welcome the princess with open arms, of course, but would almost certainly use her as propaganda rather than mount any sort of counter coup… at least for the time being.” Carmine explained. “The Republic would happily offer their help but…”

“Not on my life,” Jinsha snapped. “I’ve seen the reports on how they manage things within their borders.”

Carmine nodded soberly, “Aye. The Orions would be the best of a bad bunch, I’ll admit, but they won’t settle for less than controlling Terra via a shadow government. They’d tied you down so tight, you’d only be able to rubber stamp their decisions.”

He went quiet for a bit, but then just shrugged. “If the Reef hadn’t been hit as it was, I could probably pull together enough resources to make a decent shot at it… but the Cluster has circled the starships now. You were lucky to get the ship you did.”

Eryn nodded, “I expected that. Which means it’s option one, or find something else.”

“I might be able to offer a possibility,” Carmine said casually.

He grinned inwardly at the way Jin’s eyes narrowed at him, pleased that she remembered him well enough to suspect the trap.

“What sort of possibility?” she asked, tone clearly suspicious.

“Nothing too onerous, at least not for your young man here,” he said assuredly, holding his amusement in when she went red faced at the implications, just barely managing not to sputter any denials, which showed that she’d received at least some training from their mother at least. “Locally, we’re having a problem… with the Orions.”

He looked between the pair, not really expecting them to understand that and he was not surprised when they didn’t.

“The Cale is close to Orion space. We’re one of the outer most parts of the Cluster… right on the edge where it intersects the Orion Arm. The only reason we’re not contested space is because, frankly, no one really cares about us here. The lack of an integral magnetic field makes repulsor drives useless, and rockets are an expensive way to reach orbit,” he explained. “So we’ve been lucky; part of the cluster but trade freely with the Orions as well since no one cares enough to put a proper trade center on-world here. That’s changing, however, and the Orions are making noises about ‘securing’ this region against further hostilities. For our own good, of course.”

The sarcasm dripping from his tone there couldn’t have been missed if the pair were deaf.

“What do you need?”

He looked to the young Legionnaire. “Cale doesn’t have much in the way of defensive capabilities, and that includes ships.”

Eryn frowned, “Ours isn’t exactly a combat model, not really.”

“No, but it’s armed,” Carmine said before asking. “Even with launchers removed…”

“They didn’t remove anything,” Eryn interrupted him.

“You still have launchers on that crate?” Carmine asked intently.

“No munitions, but yeah. Standard launchers,” Eryn said. “They wiped the software, but I overwrote it with Legion code, would have anyway.”

“Standard…” Carmine stared in shock. “Civilian standard?”

“I don’t know,” Eryn shrugged. “They’re clones of the launchers I trained on. Are those civilian?”

“No, no those are not. Civilian kit has hardware management that prevents them from launching ‘special’ munitions, which is most types of available munitions,” Carmine said. “Military kit is still available, but with the current situation every piece of civilian kit has been bought up by peopled worried about how bad things could get. What you can find is priced… well, you can guess. If you can launch military hardware, I can get your magazines filled.”

“If we fly for you.”

Carmine shrugged, “Pay is good, and we can arrange a secure location here on the Cale for Jinny…”

“No way,” Jin snapped. “I’m not staying where it’s ‘safe’ while Eryn and you go out risking your lives. If you die, where am I then anyway?”

Eryn sighed, “While I hate risking Her Majesty…”

“And that’s another thing,” she snapped. “Stop calling me that. I’m not a princess anymore, and don’t give me that empress nonsense either. My Jinsha, you may use Jin if you like… but not Jinny.”

Carmine snorted, holding up his hands, “Not my fight, Jinny…”

He ignored the audible snarl that came from deeper in her throat than he honestly expected from his little sister, but did find it reasonably impressive. He still ignored it, big brother’s prerogative.

“It’s her call, far as I’m concerned,” he said instead. “In these stars, we let be and be let, as long as people take care of their affairs. Right now, much as I hate to say it, she doesn’t really have any affairs to take care of, so I guess I don’t have much room to bitch.”

Eryn sighed, giving the princess a sidelong look, “Your training is about to triple.”

Jinsha snapped to look at him, but Carmine’s chuckle interrupted any response she might have made.

“Don’t complain about that, Jinny. If you can’t be bothered to put in the time, who can trust you at their back in a pinch?”

Jinsha sighed, “Fine.”

“So, you two are willing to help?”

The pair nodded, albeit reluctantly on Eryn’s part.

“I wish we had a more direct path clear to us,” he said. “But I agree, we need a place to lie low… not that I would normally consider joining a citizen militia as ‘lying low’, but…”

“I would call it that, but I suppose the difference is insignificant. Mostly, you should be there just to bulk out the forces,” Carmine said. “We hope that the Orion’s will back off, especially considering the situation at the Reef. No one saw that coming, and it’s thrown off a lot of plans.”

Jinsha and Eryn both had dark looks at that, but Carmine was more thoughtful.

“I’d pay good money to know what the hell actually happened there,” he said finally.

“You don’t think it was the Empire?” Eryn asked, eliciting surprise from Jin.

“Not hardly. If it had been, they’d have made a move by now to capitalize on it,” Carmine said. “Agree with their actions or not, no one can deny that every move they’ve made thus far was to a plan. The Reef is the one thing that stands out, doesn’t fit the pattern. Something went wrong there, but what? All anyone can do is guess, and guess quietly at that. Too many people are all fired up against the Empire, not seeing clearly. They’re attacking anyone who questions the official line. Most of them probably wouldn’t care even if they knew the truth, they’re too invested in their hate now.”

“I don’t understand,” Jinsha shook her head.

“You’re young, you haven’t seen some of the shit people say and do,” Carmine shrugged. “Humans are masters of cognitive dissonance; our brains still haven’t evolved much past our primitive roots. Your subconscious can’t really tell the difference between being proven wrong and being physically assaulted, we psychologically react the same way to both… we shore up our defenses and get ready for a fight. It’s just how people are.”

Eryn nodded. “It was covered in training. If you want to change someone’s mind, you have to play the game. If you don’t have time, it’s better to just bulldoze right over them and force people to surrender… but it’ll cost you in the long run.”

“Right you are. Group psychology is a strange thing,” Carmine said before getting up. “But I have work to see to, so I’ll have to cut this short. I’ll send along details later, and we will see about properly equipping your ship.”

The pair nodded, standing as well, and they exchanged pleasantries before Carmine left, leaving them to consider the change of affairs.

“What do you think of his offer?” Jin asked seriously.

Eryn shrugged, “It’s not surprising that they need forces. For the same reasons that Carmine came out here, I suspect, and for what makes it attractive as a place for us to lie low, I doubt this region has much in the way of defenses. It’s a low metallicity system, probably another ten percent under the cluster’s average, which is already fifteen percent under Sol’s state even now. Combine that with Caledonia not having an integral magnetic field? I doubt anyone really cares about it all that much.”

“So, the Orions primarily are interested for the political advantage more worlds convey?” She asked.

“Primarily, I would think,” Eryn agreed. “Though there are likely to be military reasons as well.”

She considered for a moment before nodding, “Of course. A buffer zone between them and the Cluster would be valuable, especially if the Empire manages to make serious inroads.”

She paused, frowning, “Is that likely?”

“I don’t know,” Eryn admitted.

He paced slightly, “I’ve seen some of the estimates…”

She shot him a sharp look, but he just waved off the statement casually.

“Running those sorts of sims are what militaries do,” he said. “Trust me. The thing is, most of the estimates of Colonial forces were a lot lower than I expected. I never found why, not really, though I have suspicions. If the sims were right, though, and with someone like Sylban in charge… yeah, it’s possible.”

Left unsaid was the fact that New Caledonia, being right on the border between the Cluster and the Orion Arm of the Galaxy and near to the Orion worlds, was an ideal buffer zone for those purposes. Staging military forces out of the system would allow them to be more responsive in the region, moving quickly to shut down anything less than a flat-out invasion.

That, in the long term, made the world a lot more questionable as a place to hide out for the Princess.

For the moment, however, they needed the resupply and logistical support, so Eryn didn’t see many options. He was determined, however, to stock aside as much as he could just in case they had to make a run for it.

*****

Chapter 23

Free Port Antares, Fusion Plant

Murray Fields could feel the tension slowly ratcheting up as he bunkered down, rifle cradled in his arms, the only sounds seemingly the breathing of his fellows.

The Captain was moving quietly from place to place, checking the status of their kill box. Fields didn’t think it was necessary, not really;he’d made sure that anything that came into their zone was going to die, but the Captain wasn’t one to leave anything to chance.

“We’ve got reports of enemy spotted, approaching from the South. Imp IFVs are all down, one way or the other, but their air assets are still fighting with our defenses for the skies,” Corporal Jackson told him, lowering his comm. “It’s not looking great, but we cost them plenty in the opening engagement.”

Fields nodded. “Understood. I’ll relay to the Captain, keep atop of things…”

The Corporal nodded, looking a little stricken by the situation. Fields slapped him on the shoulder.

“Buck up, kid, at least they’re not dropping big honking rocks on us.”

While not exactly making the younger man any happier, it was enough to take some of the lost look out of his eyes. Fighting enemy soldiers might be scary, but fighting giant rocks at terminal velocity was always going to be worse.

Fields made his way over to where he’d spotted the Captain. “Sir, enemy on approach. South.”

Harrison nodded, eyes flicking over in that direction, “We’re as ready as we’re going to be. Get everyone leaning in the right direction.”

“Sir.”

*****

Imperial Marines

Genoa ducked as the slugs whined overhead despite the fact that he knew if he could hear it, it wasn’t aimed at him. It hardly mattered much anyway, since he’d already been shot at least a dozen times. At anything less than point blank range, there wasn’t much that was man-portable that could perforate combat armor, though some of the high velocity rounds still could manage cracking bones through the high-tech polymers.

That was a fact that unfortunately went both ways.

The high-powered rifles he and his Marines had weren’t likely to do much more than force the enemy to take cover, mostly instinctively, since the Colonials had pretty decent armor as well. Broken bones, deep bruising, and occasional internal bleeding were the most likely outcome of combat engagements with conventional small arms. Only beam-locks could consistently burn through armor, but those were expensive and impractical in combat as they generally burnt out their entire chemical charge in a single burst.

It made the job of cleaning out fortified places, locations where ship mounted weapons were either unable to reach or contra-indicted due to the desire to capture the facility, a real pain in the ass, but that was the job ahead.

He just hoped that the Colonel had a plan, because the fusion plant ahead looked like it had some decent defenses in place and, unless he was greatly mistaken, every entry point he could see appeared to be a stone-cold kill box.

The Sarge and the Colonel were in some kind of discussion as they looked over the Fusion Plant, but Genoa wasn’t privy to it, and he really didn’t want to be for all that either. The less he had to deal with the Nobs, the better off he’d feel, though he supposed that was somewhat non-negotiable what with the war and all, considering they were the ones in charge.

The pair seemed to come to a conclusion, as Genoa spotted the Sarge straiten up and start moving back to the bulk of the squad. He didn’t look happy, but he never looked happy so that was par for the course, Genoa supposed.

“Got our marching orders from on high, Marines,” the Sarge intoned as he got into earshot.

“How much shit are they dropping on us, Sarge?” One of the grunts asked, his tone almost petulant though far enough removed from the emotion that the Sarge appeared willing to overlook it.

Mind you, the fact that we’re about to storm a fucking fortress might have something to do with that.

“Colonel needs those defenders cleared out, and we don’t have any air assets that can do the job without tearing up the plant,” the Sarge said, his expression chiseled in stone. “That makes it our job, Marines.”

“Oh Christ,” another man moaned. “They’ll be hell to dig out of there, you know they will Sarge!”

“I also know that it’s our job to handle, and we’re going to damn well handle it. Got me, Marines?”

Not one of them was going to contradict him, least of all Genoa, so he roared along with the rest, automatically accepting the order.

“Fantastic. Let’s move.”

*****

Fusion Reactor

“Here they come, sir.”

“Good, let them in closer,” the Captain ordered as he looked up to the skies where the Imperial air superiority fighters were providing cover for their bombers.

The density of anti-air fire was already dropping off as the bombers did their jobs, and he didn’t expect that the sky would be friendly, or neutral, in a short time. The enemy wasn’t, however, hitting them at the plant… for obvious reasons. He took some solace in that, since it made it clear that the Imperium wasn’t seeking annihilation here at least.

The defenders were armed, armored, and dug in. Harrison was determined that they’d make the enemy pay for the ground here, no matter what else happened. He looked down at the remote terminal he was carrying, taking a deep breath.

Come on in, get real close.

*****

Imperial Marines

The Colonel’s orders were clear, and the Marines didn’t flinch from the fight as they drove into the defenses of the Fusion Plant. Small arms fire tore into their ranks first, but those were of little effect. Modern armors vastly undercut the effectiveness of any firearms that might be considered man portable, though some of the higher-powered anti-material weapons certainly managed to hurt for all that they did little else.

As they moved closer, however, the emplaced weapons opened up and things got a lot worse for the Marines.

The heavy machine guns were expected, and like their lighter counterparts they mostly couldn’t deliver enough force to perforate the Marines’ armor, but they did pack more than enough kinetic energy to put the men down, hard, with serious bruising, internal bleeding, or even a lethal cracked skull if they got luck.

It was the laser weapons that really changed the game, however.

Beam-locks, man portable lasers, were limited by the energy contained in their chemical reservoirs… the heavy emplaced laser cannons that opened up on the Marine squadron, however, had a direct tap to a nuclear fusion plant, and that was one hell of a way to have your day ruined no matter who you were, or what you were wearing.

The first sign of the cannons was a flash of light and a sweeping burst of flame that tore up the ground, the Marines, and anything else it crossed the path of. Men went down in flames, nearly cut in half in some cases, and the screaming started as the fight got very serious very, very, quickly.

*****

“Cover! Cover! Cover!”

Genoa hit the dirt before the Sarge’s first word was finished, and he could hear the others around him doing the same.

Would be great if we had any cover out here!

The terrain leading into the Fusion Plant was mostly pretty flat, and almost entirely bereft of any real cover… especially against beamers plugged directly into a fusion plant’s output!

They barely had any concealment, let along cover, given the way the area leading up to the plant had been landscaped, and that meant that the sweep of the beam just flat out sliced through the Marines’ line despite their best efforts of hugging the closest thing to cover they had, the ground.

“Close on the enemy position!”

Genoa could have started cursing at the Colonel as he shouted that, except for the fact that they didn’t exactly have many options. Close, or retreat, and both options left them open to beam fire cutting into the ranks. Only one of which gave them a chance at ending said beam fire, so he didn’t bitch about it even to himself, Genoa just started crawling forward.

The landscaping around the Fusion plant was clear and flat for a long ways around. Whether intentional or not, it made any approach a sheer hell for anyone assaulting the plant. No mounds for cover, not even cement walls to barricade people away from it as most such places on Earth had. He didn’t know if that meant they didn’t have issues with people breaking in here, or if they just didn’t care.

Genoa wasn’t sure why he was even thinking about such things, though, as carbon ash blew over him from the windward side, and he tried very hard not to think about what, or who, that ash had been just moments earlier. Instead, he kept his head down, checked the seals on his environmental gear to make sure he wasn’t breathing any of that shit, and kept scrambling forward.

Beam fire was… eerie.

It didn’t boom in the distance; it didn’t throw up shrapnel and debris. Just silence, then maybe a hiss as flames erupted from something it intersected. Most of the time you didn’t even get much more than a brief flare of light before something was cut in half by the sweeping beam.

Men and women died in a silent dance with light itself, without even the barest hints of what they’d been traditionally taught to expect from a battle.

Eerie.

*****

Fusion Reactor

“They’re still coming, Captain!”

Harrison nodded, “I can see them, Lieutenant. How are we holding on the flanks?”

“Still strong, but the enemy is pushing hard on all sides,” Kinds informed him.

Harrison was unsurprised, given what he was seeing from the forward approach. The Terran Marines were taking fire that he was certain would break any unit he’d ever served in, and they were still inching forward. If they didn’t slow, he was honestly concerned that they might get in under the sweep of the beams, and at that point it would be a blood bath to be sure.

Of course, they didn’t have much choice but to keep moving, he supposed. Their idiots in charge had ordered them on a charge with no clear way out when things went bad.

Men with no avenue of retreat make for a deadly enemy under any circumstances.

He had never intentionally tried to put any of his targets in such a position in the past for just that reason. Better to give the enemy room to retreat, as it would allow you to pick them off piecemeal rather than enduring the bloody costs of an entail handling.

It seemed, though, that he wasn’t to be given much of a choice this time.

“Death ground it is,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “Signal the troops… no quarter, Lieutenant. If they break and run, let them go, but beyond that? We don’t have the men, or the resources, for prisoners.”

Lieutenant Kinds looked at him for a moment before nodding with a stricken look on his face. Harrison didn’t blame the young officer, it wasn’t an order to be given lightly, but the Terran Imperium wasn’t treading lightly in their actions either.

“Yes Sir…”

Honestly, however, he didn’t think it was going to matter either way.

*****

Imperial Marines

The Sergeant swore as he watched chunks of his unit getting literally sliced in half by the enemy beam emplacement. Those things were normally only mounted on starships for a reason, but if anywhere would have the raw excess power to keep one warmed up, he supposed it would be a fusion plant.

The Colonel was, unsurprisingly, keeping as far to the back as he could while still staying with the unit. That was to be expected from the Nob, he supposed, and at least the bastard was staying with the unit as they moved. That was better than some he’d known.

“We need to get in under their firing arc,” he called out, risking a moment to pop his head up and review the situation before he ducked it back down to kiss the ground as he started crawling again.

If anyone had asked him the least likely item in training to ever come in handy on a real battlefield, he’d have been hard pressed to choose… but crawling under barbed wire at high speed would certainly have been in the top four, and here he was breaking his O-Course record along with the rest of the survivors of the squad as they slid along the ground like greased lightning, charging at an emplaced beam gun.

Insanity.

He could see reports from other squads lighting up along the network, though, so they weren’t the only ones closing in on the Fusion plant. From what he could see, the plant had been fortified effectively, and losses were certainly high.

That meant bad things were going to be coming.

Really bad things.

“Sergeant,” The Colonel called out. “Lay down suppressive fire.”

The Sergeant grimaced, but nodded as he flagged the units under him and sent out the order.

“Keep pushing, Marines, don’t let up!” He followed it with, before shoving his own weapon out ahead of him, flipping the select fire dial up to medium bursts, and opened fire.

*****

Fusion Plant

“They’re almost under the firing arc, Sir!”

Captain Harrison didn’t bother saying anything as the lieutenant called that warning out; he could see the situation for himself. He ducked back as a fiery bluster of bullets tore into the position around him, the density of enemy fire having tripled in the last few minutes despite the fact that the number of enemy to fire in the first place was down by almost half.

The Terrans are insane, he thought. They had to have taken more than thirty percent casualties just assaulting this one point, and for what? Now they’re going to get chewed up by the inner defensive line.

Doubt was ticking away at the back of his thoughts, though, as he was honestly shocked that they’d only lost thirty percent of their numbers during the initial push.

The beams should have cut them all down, easily. Even a moment of hesitation and they’d have burned…

They hadn’t hesitated, however, the Terrans had instantly thrown themselves down and then just kept coming along the ground without pause.

The bodies strewn in their wake told the tale of what they’d forced their way through, but ultimately, he knew it would be for nothing.

“Inner defensive line, fire as you will,” he ordered simply, adding to the buzzsaw sounds that filled the air as his men responded.

Harrison quietly opened up his portable system and made certain that it was logged into the plant’s control system.

One way or the other, the Terrans’ weren’t getting this plant.

*****

Imperial Marines

Finally, below the firing line of the emplaced laser cannons, the Sarge took a moment to survey the situation before acting.

The locals had set up a defensive line in closer, but it was mostly heavy infantry gear and while getting a few rounds from those guns in the wrong places would hurt like a bitch, and maybe even kill eventually if they caused enough internal bleeding, they wouldn’t stop his Marines.

“Push forward, Marines!” he ordered, rising from his crawl, and waving his men forward.

The heavy chugging sound of the big guns filled the air as he rushed forward, taking the front of the formation as the others pushed to their feet and charged along behind him. He could feel bullets hammering his armor, kinetic energy transmitting through to the flesh underneath even as the rounds were flattened out and stopped.

Blood was in his mouth as he ran, but he would worry about that later. His Battle-Carbine roaring in response as he leaned into the oncoming fire so if a round took him down, he’d fall forward and gain that much more ground before he was forced to a halt.

The defenders’ line was solid, of course. They’d not taken any casualties thus far, but for all that he could see fear in their eyes as the wall of Marines rose up and began rushing into the fire.

Genoa saw the Sarge get clipped in the leg as he ran, the force taking his feet out from under him and setting him sliding to the ground as the Marines ran right over him without pause.

*****

Fusion Plant

“Line breached!” Kinds roared over the noise. “Imperium forces are inside the plant! Say again, Imperium Forces are inside the plant!”

Harrison grimaced as he plugged in the login codes, unable to quite believe what was being reported but having his orders to follow just the same. The odds had been long that he’d be able to hold the reactor, of course, once the Imperium controlled the outer system, the planet’s fate had essentially been sealed.

No, he wasn’t surprised that he was being forced to blow the reactor. What surprised him was how soon he was being forced to do so. His men held every card in the deck. They had high ground, cover, a pre-constructed kill box, and heavy weapons powered by a dedicated fusion plant.

They could have stood off any army in the Cluster with those advantages.

The Terran overran us in just under ten minutes.

His fingers were numb as he set the plant reactor to overload. Once he triggered it, a new sun would be born for a brief time, with more than enough energy to burn down everyone for several miles around. Harrison just wished that he’d been able to draw in more of the enemy before he’d been forced to do it.

Above him, unnoticed however, silent movement separated from the background as a dozen men in armor jumped off the cooling tower and began to fall toward the ground. With meters left to the ground, they slowed rapidly and silently on small Lenz repulsors, each man drawing a short, single edge, machete from sheathes at the smalls of the back.

The squad hit the defenders’ line from the back, blades slicing through the non-Newtonian armor that had turned away so many bullets with ease, a few seconds of violence ending with a sudden silence as the battle came to an abrupt end.

*****

“Ma’am, I have the control pad,” the Imperial Special Operations man said as he walked back to his superior.

“Good work. How close were we?”

“Logged in, orders set, sir. Another few minutes, at most, and we’d be dust.”

Captain Borgess shook her head, “Cutting it close. Report that the plant has been secured, call for medivac for the Marines.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Susan Borgess walked up to where the beam cannon was resting, big honking cables running right back to the mainline of the fusion plant’s output, looking out over the landscaped battlefield beyond.

Marines were already policing their dead, and she saw one of them with a Sergeant’s chevrons on his HUDCODE being dragged back to the triage point, bellowing orders the whole way. The Marine Colonel looked unscathed, she noted, as he stood around being visible now that the fighting was done.

Bloody work, but this part of it is done at least.

*****

Chapter 24

Nova Caledonia

Eryn grunted as he heaved one of the munition cannisters home, locking it into the magazine with a surge of effort. He leaned against the rig for a moment, wiping sweat from his forehead as the weight was shifted off his frame and into the magazine.

“Damn these things are heavy,” he swore, pushing back as he started over to the next one.

He wished they had proper loading equipment, but Eryn figured that he might as well wish for a Carrier, fully stocked and crewed, while he as at it. He was lucky that the old puddle jumper design of the ship allowed for bush reloading, which really did show the sort of fights that the Cluster expected to be dealing with.

None of the Terran designs were built like that, never had been really. The Imperium tended to assume that if you were fighting, ship to ship, you had a base or a collier to fall back to for reloads. The old puddle jumper he and Jin had traded their IFV for had drop down magazines, with their own autoloaders, so all he had to do was manhandle to munitions from the hand truck to the rack and then the ship would do the rest.

Not as efficient as just lumbering up a proper loader to the ship and dropping an entire magazine worth of missiles directly into place, but it had its advantages.

In between munitions, Eryn took a moment to rest and toss a glance over to where Jin was working. The former Princess, now Empress to his way of thinking, had taken her commitment to train seriously and had progressed through a few of the early tactical courses that Terran Marines had to pass before they were allowed their globe and rifle.

Learning to handle weapons and tactics was a start, and she was quite decent at that from what he could see. That didn’t surprise him much, having grown up with ISO guards on her twenty-four seven. It had been made clear some time earlier that she’d picked up more than a few skills from her protectors over the years.

Physical conditioning, however, was a problem.

She wasn’t unfit, not by any means, but there was a difference between what a civilian considered fit, and the levels needed to survive, let alone thrive, in an active military environment.

Civilian fit focused primarily on health and looks, generally aiming for a balance between the two that mostly favored looks.

Eryn had learned the hard way very early on that military fit was a more practical measurement. If you could do the job, you were fit, if you couldn’t… well, you’d be transferred somewhere you could.

The Princess was a long way from being able to hang with Marines, to say nothing of ISO or the Legion, but she didn’t need to either.

Satisfied that she was doing well, he moved on to the next munition cannister. Carmine had come through on a full loadout for the ship, which Eryn supposed would need to be christened with a new name in short order. The munitions he’d brought over to the field were military grade, as promised, which really just meant they had a bit more in the way of exotic effects as well as some better range than the standard civilian issue anti-piracy kit.

Strictly speaking, there was no law preventing civilians in the Cluster from buying similar load outs for their launchers, of course. The Military just didn’t like cross compatibility because it made it near on impossible to keep track and control of their own munitions. Apparently, things liked to walk out of stockpiles all the time.

That thought both made Eryn chuckle and cringe at nearly the same time. Anyone who tried to walk inventory out of an Imperial warehouse had to be desperate. The consequences tended to be both extreme and quick, the Imperial Code of Military Justice didn’t look gently on thieves to start with… weapons thieves were effectively considered the same thing as pirates.

Imperial Marines had a history of being death’s own personal hand when it came to pirates, a history that predating the Empire by a good long stretch of tradition.

He finished loading up the magazines on the puddle jumper and, grabbing a couple drinks, walked out from under the ship and over to where Jin was still working through her exercises.

“Take five,” he said, underhanding the drink in her direction when he caught her eye.

She caught it easily and nodded tiredly as she broke the seal on the drink and felt the chill of the drink inside as the oxygen from the atmosphere got into the container and kicked off the endo-thermic reaction that chilled it down in an instant.

“You’re doing well,” Eryn praised her as she caught her breath enough to take a drink. “Keep it up.”

Jin nodded as she drank, waving at the ship. “You sure you don’t need help?”

“No offense, but you’re not going to be able to lug those around on your own,” he told her with a half smile.

“No, but I could help take some of the weight off you.”

“Faster to do it alone,” Eryn said with a wave. “And if you’re coming along, you need to be ready for it.”

“Right, right. What do you and Carmine think is going to happen anyway?”

“Think? Hopefully nothing much,” Eryn said, taking a seat on a low cement retaining wall. “We should just be talking, trying to get the Orion forces to back off. With the Imperium pressing as hard as they are, it’s the smart move for everyone.”

“Except the Imperium,” Jin responded with some snark.

Eryn shrugged, “Believe it or not, it’s better for them too.”

“What? How?”

“If the place gets torn up from infighting, the damage will spillover,” he explained. “The Imperium seems to be aiming at taking infrastructure as much as possible, so anything that saves that, is good for them too. In theory.”

“How does Orson’s Reef fit into that theory?” Jin asked darkly.

“It doesn’t.”

Eryn shook his head before he repeated himself, “It really doesn’t. I don’t know what the hell happened at the Reef, Jin. If it was the Empire, as Libation claims, then we have a real big problem… because that didn’t achieve any tactical or strategic benefit for the Empire that I can see. It was the action of a lunatic, someone who can’t be predicted because they’re insane… if it was the Empire.”

“If?” Jin asked, some hope entering her voice.

“Don’t…” Eryn took a deep breath. “Don’t get your hopes up. There are elements in the Empire that might have ordered that action, always have been. Your mother kept them ground down, but they were there. It’s possible that those groups have gained some influence and they’re behind the Reef.”

“And if not?”

Eryn considered the question for a long moment, in between sips of his drink.

“Honestly, if it wasn’t the Empire, then it pretty had to be elements in the Libation government.”

Jin started, eyes wide, “But… their own people?”

“If you want to win a war, a real one, you need the people on your side,” Jin told her. “And not just your people, but as many people as you can get. If you can pull it off, you need the people in your enemy’s camp to come down on your side. A good way to do that is to convince people that the enemy is a monster, who has to be dealt with. Hell, often it’s even true.”

“It’s monstrous.”

“So is war.”

The pair of them turned to see Carmine approaching, a roller mule following him with more supplies.

“You’re both young,” he continued as he came to a stop but directed the mule on to the ship. “You’ve been sheltered all your life, Jinny, and your friend here probably has more of a romantic view of things than is especially wise… even considering who his mentor was. Youth is like that.”

“Like what? Jin asked, making Eryn wince slightly.

He knew better than to feed someone a straight line like that when they were in ‘education mode’.

“Stupid,” Carmine responded, grinning widely as he did.

Jinsha huffed while Eryn merely sighed. He’d known that was coming.

“Don’t worry about it,  Jin,” Carmine told her, eliciting another squawk of outrage from the young woman. “You’re supposed to be stupid, and it’s even a good thing, believe it or not. Being stupid means you’ll try things that us smart old fucks would never even think of. Progress is stupid, but it’s also vital.”

He sighed, gaining a wistful look for a moment, but said nothing more on the subject as he looked to the ship instead.

“Is she ready to fly?”

Eryn nodded, “We’ll need a refuel once we’re out of atmo, but other than that…”

Carmine nodded. “There’s a dedicated refueling platform in upper orbit. You’re good to get that high?”

“No issues, even have enough to get back down in a pinch,” Eryn replied. “Though it might be a slightly rough, and wet, landing.”

“Those have been known to happen in these parts,” Carmine agreed. “But let’s avoid it this time around.”

“You have a mission?” Eryn asked, his posture shifting slightly, becoming more intent.

“We do. You’ll be running escort,” Carmine said. “Shouldn’t need you, the Orions are a lot of things, but they’re generally not assholes looking to stab you in the back. If they go to war, they’ll do it by the books. We might not see them coming, but that will be because they spoofed our scanners, not because they sucker punched us. Pirates are a problem between here and there, however, so don’t get too relaxed.”

“Pirates?” Jinsha blinked. “Seriously?”

“Not a big issue normally,” Carmine agreed with her. “However, with the current situation, a lot of home defenses have been stripped of their patrol ships. Destroyers and light cruisers have been reassigned to the border worlds, shoring up defenses against the Imperium for what that’s worth. There’s a lot of money left floating around unguarded now, and that makes people… stupid.”

“I believe you just said that stupid was good,” Jin snorted at her brother.

“There’s youth stupid, and then there’s just brain-dead stupid,” Carmine winked at her, eliciting a glare of annoyance from his younger sister. “Trust me, there’s a difference… even if it can be really hard to spot sometimes.”

“If the pair of you are done flirting,” Eryn interjected dryly, earning himself a squawk from the princess, and an amused glower from Carmine. “We have work to do, and I’m guessing not much time to do it in.”

Carmine stared for a moment before responding, “So, Sylban didn’t manage to wring all the humor out of his cute little apprentice. Good to know… but you’re right, we’ll talk while we work. There are things you should know before we get going.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier, Delaware

“New FLASHTraffic, skipper.”

Hidan nodded, accepting the message as it was handed off from the comms officer. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

He watched the young officer leave briefly before thumbing the ident card and opening the message.

“Anything interesting?” Commander Grave asked idly.

“Just last-minute updates for the Diplomatic outreach,” Hidan said. “Eight Cluster worlds are sending representatives now.”

“That’s two more added since the last update, what, twelve hours ago?” Grave asked.

“About that,” Hidan nodded.

While a full-on shooting war had thus far been avoided since the Orions had taken advantage of the Imperium’s moves to retake a couple smaller colonies that had been ‘stolen’ by Libation over the decades, there had been more than a few shooting instances along the border. Most of that had likely been pirates flying false flags, but Hidan was aware of several that had been confirmed as legitimate shooting incidents with the local authorities.

At the moment, Congress was wavering on whether pushing the advantage was the right play or not. The Imperium was unlikely to turn their attention away from the Cluster anytime soon, there were too many things to demand their attention. That left many members of the congressional sitting thinking that now was the time to press on several disputed systems, but just as many were of the opinion that now was not the time to be splitting the Cluster’s attention.

Hidan was like as not inclined to sit this one out, if he could. Moving quickly to retake the small colonies they had, well it made sense at the time. No one had predicted Orson’s Reef, so he couldn’t really fault the decision. With the atrocity at the Reef, however, the equations had changed.

If the Empire was willing to stoop to that level, there was no predicting them, and that made them far more dangerous than they had initially appeared to be. If someone else had done it, which he considered likely, that was going to be a mess if and when it came out and he didn’t want to wind up on the same side as monsters like that just by some kind of default thinking.

“We’ll be taking on Diplomats before proceeding to the Embassy location,” Hidan noted, unsurprised. “I wonder who Congress have elected to send; it doesn’t say here.”

“Security, I presume,” Grave shrugged. “Our encryption and FlashTraffic protocols are good, but nothing is impregnable.”

“True enough,” Hidan said, setting the computer down. “Not much else to be done then, as soon as the diplomatic team is on board, we’ll be moving.”

“I’ll pass the word.”

*****

Nova Caledonia

“That’s it, other than fuel, we’re loaded.” Eryn said as he slumped into a seat that was inset in the back of the ship.

“You sure you don’t need a top off?” Carmine asked curiously.

“No, we have enough to get up there plus a reasonable safety margin. Anything you put in now will just be more weight to push,” Eryn replied. “As long as we can tank in orbit, we’re good.”

“Already cleared. The Embassy meet will be in a couple days time,” Carmine said. “Should have more than enough time to get there, but we do need to be moving.”

“Are you travelling with us?” Jinsha asked of her brother.

“No, I’ll be in one of the Diplomatic cruisers,” Carmine chuckled as he said that. “In other words, a former heavy cruiser that’s mostly been refit for local mukity mucks to fly around in.”

“More comfortable than this heap,” Eryn laughed.

“True, but trust me when I say that the company isn’t going to be nearly as pleasant,” Carmine sighed. “Getting that many diplomats together in one place is never a good time, and it’s worse when it’s mostly Cluster diplomats. Oh God the arguments…”

Eryn just laughed, but Jinsha actually shuddered.

“I’ve sat in with mother on meetings like that, they’re horrible. I don’t see how they get anything done.”

“They don’t,” Carmine said flatly. “These meetings are for the cameras. The real dealing will be done off to the side, before, during, and after the embassy meeting itself. What you see in those types of meetings is always staged. A show for their voters, or whoever their bosses are.”

Jin grimaced, “Is it always so… illicit and inefficient?”

Carmine considered it for a moment, then shrugged, “Pretty much, yeah.”

“So much waste,” she sighed.

“Don’t look at it like that. T that’s not the bug, it’s the feature,” Carmine assured her.

“How?”

“Power will always tend to wind up in the hands of people who want power, right? Since you’re far less likely to seek it out if you don’t want it and all,” Carmine said, “With me?”

Jin nodded, almost reluctantly.

“And the people who want power are going to tend to be the sorts that you probably don’t really want to have power,” he said firmly. “Another sad truth, but if you want power, it’s because you want to use it. No one collects power and then doesn’t use it… and, frankly, most uses of power are not very nice for at least someone. So, given those two things are true, anything that trips up the people who want power? That’s a feature, Jin, trust me.”

Eryn almost chuckled at the screwed-up face she made there, like she’d just bitten into something particularly unpleasant.

“It just seems so… wrong.”

Carmine shrugged, “Efficient governments can be done, but historically… they don’t end well for anyone involved.”

Jin didn’t have anything to say to that and, after a minute more where he finished off his drink, Carmine got to his feet.

“I need to be going, but I’ll have my itinerary sent to you, and the flight plans will be filed within the hour. Good?”

Eryn nodded, climbing back to his feet, “We’ll be ready.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you on the other side, then.”

*****

Chapter 25

Independent Vessel Genesis Seat

The Seat rumbled a little as it broke free into space, the thrusters adjusting their exhaust geometry to a tighter focus now that the pressure of the planet’s atmosphere wasn’t helping form the plume. Eryn checked the fuel, satisfied that they were where he expected the levels to be.

“Do we have the telemetry for the refueling point?” he asked.

“It’s on the screen,” Jin told him, gesturing. “Looks a little…”

“It’s an old transponder, probably not been maintained for the last decade, that’s why it’s fuzzy,” Eryn assured her. “The measurements should still be accurate, otherwise they’d have done maintenance on it. Check them against our systems anyway.”

“Of course,” Jin replied dryly.

She didn’t need a ton of experience or training to know that trying to dock with an orbital satellite with the wrong numbers in your Nav system was just asking for trouble.

Eryn just grinned, mirroring the Nav data to his pilot’s display. He knew it irritated her to be treated like a neophyte, but he wasn’t willing to risk anything else in some circumstances. Whatever she had been taught, or just learned, from those around her, he was certain that there would be many things she hadn’t picked up. The galaxy was like that.

They lined up on the fueling depot without issue, however, and Jin’s comparison of the numbers they were receiving matched up properly.

Eryn had never imagined one resting this close to a planet, frankly. Normally you only saw them outside a star system, or near an outer system gas giant at most, since the majority of ships that bothered to enter a planetary atmosphere only did so on repulsors which used no reaction mass. They burned their Delta-V on the outward-bound journey, not just getting a few kilometers off the surface of a planet.

Planets without magnetic fields were unusual spots to setup a colony, at least since the Lenz technology had become widespread.

Eryn eased the ship in and got locked up, though, just as he would at any outer system fueler and in a few moments they were pumping in pure local Deuterium for the onboard reactor. He checked their tritium stock quickly as well, but that was far from depleted so once the tanks were filled up of the fuel and reaction mass, they disconnected quickly, and Eryn pointed their nose up-well and fired the main engines.

The old school puddle jumper had a pair of updated mil-spec fusion reactors, either one of which could power the whole ship with some room to spare on the redline. They were far from the best quality reactors available, of course, but they were among the most reliable and easiest to repair. Systems that required electrical power barely drew on the reactor’s strength, however, and if they were sitting in place the ship could happily power itself for decades without refueling.

Flying around the galaxy, however, required more than just power generation. Reaction mass was the only effective way to get a ship moving, despite not being a particularly efficient drive. FTL was far easier on the fuel, but using those drives anywhere too close to a significant gravity source was a good way to tear your ship apart right from under your ass due to relativistic effects of time within a gravity field.

So, Eryn was already plotting a refuel at the edge of the system’s gravity field, just in case they needed some fighting room on the flip side.

*****

Diplomatic Cruiser Bene Deal

Carmine looked out of the large cruiser’s observation windows, a set of horrendously expensive slabs of crystalized aluminum plate that had been added to the ship after it’s re-commissioning in a non-combat role.

It was supposed to be impressive and overawe diplomats and other VIP visitors, he supposed, but the original intent was undermined by the little-known fact that 99.999% of space was boring blackness. Hell, most systems didn’t even have a particularly nice vista by most standards, and the vast majority of talks the ship was sent to were inevitably conducted over the disputed planet or region, which were almost exclusively mining or farming locations.

He was sure that it would be very awe inspiring, if it ever got the chance.

“The Orions have confirmed that they’ll be attending, but we’re still waiting on the same from the Republic.”

Carmine nodded. “Not surprising. The Nine Stars have always been less… willing to talk.”

“There is truth in that, Sir,” the Ship’s Captain and lead diplomat agreed.

The Cale wasn’t exactly a big center of diplomacy, and Carmine was lucky that he’d been able to keep what influence the colony had over the past couple decades that he’d been living there. Not that he’d planned on becoming a mover and shaker in the Cluster when he left Earth or anything, it just seemed like that was the way things turned out.

“What about the reports of pirate activity?” he asked.

“Nothing solid there, but we are seeing upticks across the board,” Captain Callum Brooke told him with a scowl. “The only places not seeing upticks are where they’ve been reinforcing the line against the Imperium… and maybe in Imperial captured systems, though reporting is iff out of those.”

“Not surprising, on any point,” Carmine sighed. “I expect we’ll see things get worse long before they get better.”

“Not taking any bets on that,” Carmine snorted. “If the Cluster hasn’t already lost ships to either mutiny or just opting to run, I’ll eat my pistol… and sooner or later, we’ll see those ships show up in someone’s private army.”

Callum nodded.

There was no question about either of those points, sadly. The golden age of piracy had been killed deader than a colony on a hot world, but the conditions were right for a comeback. Plenty of space to run, a few high profit systems with minimal defenses, and now a major event drawing what remained of those defenses all out of position.

Oh, yes, the stage was set for a new era of piracy that could rewrite the very meaning of the word. Before that, however, they had other business to deal with, starting with the Orions and Republic of the Nine Stars.

“Our defenses should be sufficient to handle pirates,” Callum said.

“They should, but there should have been no chance of an attack at Orson’s Reef either,” Carmine said grimly. “There are those out there who are not interested in being bound by what should be.”

“Point made, Sir,” Callum frowned. “I’ll keep everyone on their toes.”

“You do that.”

*****

Genesis Seat

Hours later, a second refuel at Caledonia’s outbound station, and several checks of every system on board later, Eryn was readying the Seat for a foray into Jump space.

“Navigation coordinates from the Deal, Eryn,” Jinsha informed him, sending the numbers over. “I found nothing that stands out.”

“I’d be surprised if there was,” Eryn admitted as he ran the numbers as well. It was, strictly speaking, a bit of overkill but he didn’t see any harm in being thorough. Jin’s work was fine, however, and the numbers from Carmine checked out, so he punched them into the system.

“We’re ready to jump.”

Jinsha just nodded, so he brought the program up and ran everything through the checklist.

They were far enough out from the star that there was effectively no relativistic pull on the ship that could be measured, fuel levels were topped off, weapons all ready as full and primed… albeit with safeties fully engaged.

The last green light lit off, and the ship’s automatic systems kicked in to throw the Seat into jumpspace.

There was a flicker in the space they left behind, reality shimmering slightly like a mirage, and the Genesis Seat was simply… gone.

*****

Libation

“Say that again.”

Kroger was not having a good time of things. He hadn’t slept in… well, he’d forgotten when, if he were honest with himself. The war the Empire was waging should have been nothing more than a minor bit of amusement for his forces, they’d never presented as much of a fighting force in any of their previous engagements.

Now, it seemed that he was learning that was entirely because the former Empress was too soft hearted to unleash their potential.

He never would have seen that coming, not in a million years.

What sort of ruler lets other push her around so much? he was exasperated, the Imperial forces were just tearing through everything the Cluster threw up in front of them, and they didn’t even have the decency to seem put out that the entire Cluster had mobilized against them.

If not for the sacrifice made at Orson’s Reef, we would already be overrun.

“Sir, the Orions and the Republic seem… unwilling to bend on their demands,” His diplomatic secretary told him firmly. “They seem willing to persecute the war unless we give up those systems and all future claims.”

Kroger snapped, hand slamming down onto his desk. “Do those fools not understand that this is an existential threat? The Empire isn’t going to stop with the Cluster if we let them roll over us like that!”

“Yes, sir, of course.”

Kroger was loathe to give up the claim to the systems involved. Several of them were cash crop worlds with either excellent literal crops, or high access to relatively rare yet high demand minerals.

“And if we do give up our claim?”

“The best offer is one of neutrality,” the Secretary answered with a grimace. “Favored trading status from the Orions is also on the table, but nothing more.”

Kroger snorted his amusement, “Of course. They’ll not risk their own lives, but they’ll happily sell us weapons from now to the heat death of the universe if we have the money to pay for it.”

“Yes sir.”

“Fine, I’ll let you know my decision,” Kroger snapped. “Get out.”

The other man blinked, “Sir…”

“I said out. And tell my staff to find Admiral Fenn. I want words.”

“Very well, Mr. President.”

Goddamn those outcluster bastards, cowards, and sheep the whole lot of them.

*****

Genesis Seat

Travel in jump space was… rarely eventful, or at least that was the politest way of putting things. Most tended to call it boring to the point of insanity and tears. How fast a ship could make, using in-universe terms, was largely a factor of how deep they could manage to sink into the dimensional axis that Jump space existed along.

Jump Space was simply another word for that dimensional axis, actually, a particular direction in space-time that didn’t correspond to any direction humans could sense but existed all the same. In essence, it was like traveling in time, yet also not at all like that in the least.

Yes, that was the simplest way to describing Jump Space. It was like time travel, but really not.

After that, the descriptions started getting… complicated.

The farther along that dimensional axis you moved, the younger the universe around your ship became. By transitioning far enough back into a younger, smaller, universe you could traverse great swathes of distance at point C fractional speeds and yet, when you returned to the dimension of entry like a submerged ping pong ball bursting back to the surface of a body of water, you would be in a location much farther in the sidereal universe than seemed possible.

This was due to the expansion of the universe over billions of years. Ducking into a dimension where that expansion was only just begun, and you could cross lightyears in seconds… or hours… or years, or more, all depending on how deep you went, and how far back in time the transit universe currently existed in.

It was all an impossibly complex fount of mathematical impossibilities, theories, and pseudo-laws that only a handful of people in the entire Galaxy pretended to understand… and most of them were either lying or self deluded.

*****

On board the Seat, Eryn and Jin spent the time mostly preparing for whatever they could think of. Jin continued her training, while Eryn read as much as he could find about the diplomatic situation they were about to bumble into.

He wished that he had access to Legion intelligence sources, or even just the Legion reports on each of the worlds involved in the Embassy meeting, but would have to do without any of that. At least he understood the Orions reasonably well. He had been briefed on them multiple times in the past and had a decent idea of how they had set their stance with foreign powers. They tended to be belligerent and demanding, but not to the point of being unreasonable.

The Republic of the Nine Stars, however, were a very different group.

Founded by a couple dozen colonial efforts from before the lights went out, the Republic had a very strong collectivist lean, something that neatly countered the Individualism of the Cluster he supposed, but it made them more difficult to deal with in several ways. Not the least of which was that reliable intelligence had been rare while he’d been in training, and Sylban had made it clear that there was no chance in hell he’d allow his apprentice to be sent to the Nine Stars until Eryn’s training levels had met his standards.

Not an event that had happened, unfortunately.

The Nine guarded their territory jealously, more so than any other of the known polities that had been born from the Diaspora exodus from Earth. Eryn supposed it was possible that there were other hostile xenophobe cultures out there, enough colony ships from those days had just vanished into the black to be sure, but the Nine were the one everyone knew about.

Their closed border collectivist community was far enough away from the bulk of other human colonies that they generally just got forgotten by most people until they actually came into contact over some inevitable conflict.

Like now.

Libation had clearly counted on their xenophobic tendencies overruling their militaristic ones, capitalizing on the fact that the Nine Stars didn’t really extend any true protection to colonies setup outside their sphere, even if it were by their own people. You were welcome to leave the Nine Stars anytime you liked, but if you did you effectively had to give up any benefits that came from membership.

The benefits had to be decent enough, as far as Eryn could tell, if only because few groups had opted to leave over the last few centuries, and those that did didn’t seem to be particularly angry with their previous home, nor did they show any signs of the sort of oppression that history might indicate would be likely.

A near infinite room to expand into new frontiers did a lot to alleviate the perceived need for such brutalities, all things considered.

Mostly.

Eryn did his best to muddle through the public information, trying to convert it into something approaching a decent briefing report on the situation despite himself.

*****

Jinsha was running simulations through her implant suite, mostly ship operations programs, as they continued on their way through jump space.

She’d managed to brush up neatly on her flying skills, though she wasn’t even approaching Eryn’s talent there no matter how hard she tried. Given what she knew about his training, however, she was willing to take the self recriminations for failing at it a little easier on herself than she might normally have.

Running the support systems was both easier and harder, she found. Harder because it was something her guards and tutors had never bothered showing her. Teaching a kid to fly was fun, a break from the mundane, and always a crowd pleaser… so to speak. Teaching that same kid to run Transmission Intercepts, Distance and Ranging, and other side-seat tasks was just boring drudge work for both teacher and student, and was thus avoided since no one actually cared if she learned any of that stuff.

It was easier, however, because she quickly found that her own talent with her Implant Suite was such that navigating the options presented by the ship’s computing system was almost literal child’s play.

Once she knew what had to be done, it was simplicity itself. Figuring out what needed being done, however… that was proving to be more problematic, Jinsha was learning.

The issue was that she rarely knew what she was looking for in the first place, which made reporting what she was seeing somewhat… hit or miss.

Unfortunately, there were no shortcuts to that side of things. Talent didn’t help here, the only way through it was to just do it until you could do the job with your eyes closed. She just had to work on memorizing item after item, situation after situation.

It wasn’t hard, it was just incredibly boring.

*****

Chapter 26

ISV Conquest

“Primary targets on-world have been secured, Captain.”

Kier nodded, “Thank you, Lieutenant. I’ll take those.”

The young officer quickly handed off the report to the Captain and left at the obvious dismissal. Kier examined the brief for a moment, then casually handed it off to where Sylban was waiting.

The former Legionnaire took the reports and glanced at them, but casually set them aside within seconds.

“The men performed well,” Kier said simply.

Sylban nodded, “Within their limits, yes.”

“I expected better from the Cluster, if I’m being honest,” Kier admitted. “This feels… too easy.”

Sylban smiled thinly. “They performed precisely as I expected. The Colonies, in general, are… less than impressive, militarily.”

Kier frowned, “I don’t understand how, it is hardly like they have particularly peaceful in the last centuries. They’ve certainly had enough practice at fighting.”

“Not in the way we know,” Sylban said simply. “Most of their fighting has been off loaded to automated systems. We’d have a much harder time, except for the fact that jamming long range communications is something we’re rather good at and their AI is fundamentally predictable.”

“I suppose,” Kier conceded.

There was a lot of truth to it, he knew, he just didn’t quite feel that it felt real. Jamming was a standard protocol for any top tier military, or it should be at least, which made him wonder a great deal about the nature of the Colonial forces. They’d been squabbling with one another for centuries. Surely, they were better at it than this?

Sylban, however, just smiled at his expression, like he could read Kier’s mind.

“They really aren’t. Too long fighting petty little wars for petty little men,” Sylban said simply. “They haven’t had to fight to real cause, ever. They don’t know what it’s like to fight for survival, Captain. They wage wars over resources, not because they need them but because it’s slightly more convenient to get them here, instead of there. Our Marines had to survive an environment that would horrify these fools just to live long enough to enlist.”

“Why did…” Kier hesitated, eyes snaking sidelong to look at the former Legionnaire. “Why did her…”

“Why did Her Majesty allow them such leeway?” Sylban filled it in for him, getting a nod in return. “Truly? Because she considered the costs of slapping them down to be far too high when we had so many things to fix at home as it were. Taking on new colonies gains us little in terms of resources or value, none of these worlds makes much that we truly need. Some food stuffs will be nice, a few less to go hungry probably, but food isn’t our problem now, is it?”

Kier grimaced, but shook his head.

Sylban was right, of course. Food… Earth still produced far more food than it needed, yet people somehow went hungry every year. It wasn’t about production, or supply, but rather an aspect of distribution. Easily half the food produced in Sol went to waste, no one eating it before it rotted.

“Her Majesty considered Earth to be her responsibility. If the Colonials,” Sylban sneered slightly, as though unable to completely stop himself, “Wanted to waste their lives pissing about with their petty little squabbles, well at least they were doing it away from Earth where they’d already done enough damage.”

Kier didn’t really know what to do with that information, if he were being entirely honest with himself. He’d sided with the Nobles once he saw that Her Majesty’s path was set on that reckless foolishness of returning power to the people.

The People.

It was laughable, considering how few of them were capable to meet even the most basic requirements of modern life. Ignorant savages, most of them, barely scraping by day to day in their filth. That said filth was hardly their fault made little difference to Kier. It was not a child’s fault that he or she lacked experience and education, but he’d not turn the Empire over a child either.

It did make him wonder at what they were doing, and why, however. Sylban had a point in that there wasn’t much out here worth fighting over.

One star was similar enough to another when it came to resources. Even in the Cluster, which was a group of very old stars, predominantly red dwarfs and similar, the metallicity was only about fifteen percent lower than Sol, which honestly had more resources than any people could need for any reasonable stretch of history.

His thoughts must have been written across his expression, Kier supposed, since Sylban was again one step ahead of him.

“Now you want to know why we’re doing this at all,” The Legionnaire chuckled. “Lord Jaol has… disagreements with Her Majesty on the subject, of course.”

Kier snorted, that much was clear.

Sylban, for his part, smiled thinly at that. “Jaol feels that humanity is one people, and should not be fractured. He sees a greater Empire, a Holy Empire to spread humanity across the Galaxy. Humanity is the resource he covets, not the material goods we produce.”

“I… see.”

Kier didn’t, really, but he supposed it wasn’t his position to judge such things. His duty was to the Imperium, so as the Empire went… so went he.

“I begin to see why your plans appeared so… optimistic,” Kier said slowly.

“Why they appeared to be the work of an incompetent fool, you mean?”

“Sir, I would never…”

Sylban waved off the worry from the other man, “Relax Captain. I have no issues with being considered incompetent, so long as you do your duty. Fail in that, and you’ll find my patience wears very thin, very, very quickly, but I will not fault you for merely not knowing the things I know. Earth spent easily a century after Diaspora just… recovering. By the time we managed to re-emerge into space, the Colonies appeared vastly more advanced than we felt, but most of that was mere illusion. That same century we spent rebuilding, they spent building. Very little of the Colonial budgets went to doing anything they weren’t already quite familiar with, and of that which did, the vast majority was spent improving technologies needed for survival on distant worlds.”

Sylban shook his head, “While not to be underestimated, the Colonies are not the distant empires of light and power that most view them as. They had very different pressures than we did, and it caused them to move in other directions. Directions that did not prepare them for what we bring to their doorsteps.”

Kier considered that, “I see. Well, no I don’t. Military analysis…”

“Is flawed, based on technical capability and not their war fighters,” Sylban cut him off. “They invested their fighting strength in drones and other automated tools, because those are cheaper and more effective… so long as you are fighting a weak enemy. A force that can deploy jammers and other means of spoofing sensors, and then secure the fighting area is not something they are ready to deal with.”

“That feels… wrong,” Kier admitted.

“It is the risk of trusting machines over men,” Sylban said with a shrug. “Machines are reliable, constant… predictable. Men are none of those things, and in a fight? Skill and power will lose every time to determination and creativity.”

“I find that statement slightly… odd, coming from someone who was a member of an organization that was almost legendary within the Empire for its skill and power,” Kier snorted softly.

“The Legion…” Sylban’s expression softened as he looked away and almost through the hull, as if into the space beyond. “The Legion was all of those things, but while we acknowledged the value of technology, we learned first to fight with fists, feet, teeth, and brains. Our strength was in the men, not the toys.”

Kier didn’t really have much he could respond to that with, he only truly knew of the Legion through legends. The sorts of stories that were bandied about after a few drinks had loosed the tongues in the room and people were willing to speak of what they’d seen… or to make up something they hadn’t.

For most of the Empire, the Legion were just another elite force, one that had been attached to the Empress. To the serving military of the Imperium, anyone who’d seen action, they were ghosts in the shadows. They existed, everyone agreed on that much, and they were damn good at what they did… but beyond that? No one seemed able to agree.

He’d heard stories from different people who’d been eyewitnesses to the same event, and they conflicted in ways that made no sense.

He wondered sometimes, if the Empire would even really come to the realization that the Legion was gone… or would the ghost stories persist?

Kier didn’t know.

*****

Imperial Tower, Alamansc Earth

“Reports from the front to your system, my Lord.”

Jaol nodded, turning to check the latest alerts that had come through.

The fighting continues to go well, he thought with gratification.

There had been worry in the beginning that the analysis of the Colonies had been in error, which could have led them to a bad end, but thankfully that didn’t seem to be the case. It was apparent that the Colonies were woefully unable to properly respond to the sudden aggression from the home world, just as had been predicted by the report he’d found so long ago.

Jaol hadn’t believed it, not fully, when he first read that analysis. The Colonies had seemed, and acted, as though they were above anything from the ‘old world’. The general confidence had been so strong that even he had fallen for it, ultimately, despite priding himself on independent thought and action.

Sylban was right. I suppose I should be used to thinking that, but it’s so damned irritating. Almost as irritating as the man himself.

It was strange how deeply it was possible to fall into one’s own delusions. Jaol had learned that the hard way… many times over in his life. When he first saw Sylban’s report after returning from an infiltration mission to the Colonies, he’d honestly thought the young warrior had completely lost his mind.

Yet, somehow, he’d been right from the beginning.

The Colonies were… not weak, not precisely, no. However, they were fragile in a way that no one had seen. Their resolute dependency on new technology as the cure to all ills had left them unable to adapt as quickly as humans were generally capable.

Technology and tools were amazing force multipliers, but ultimately that was all they were… and it didn’t matter how good a multiplier was if you were multiplying by zero.

“Thank you, dismissed,” he said with a curt nod to the assistant who’d been waiting for a response.

The young man left as Jaol got to his feet and walked back to the enclosed balcony beyond his office. While it technically overlooked the city below, the tower was high enough that he could barely make out any details worth seeing through the cloud screen well below his position. Only the fact that it was enclosed allowed him to breath easily, though it wasn’t so high as to be devoid of air.

The Conwin family had done a great deal for the Earth, even Jaol would cheerfully confirm that to anyone who asked… officially, or even otherwise. The family had been one of the mainstays that kept the planet from tumbling into the abyss.

It was possible, even probable, that someone else would have stepped in had they not been there… but they had been there, and they had done more for the Earth than any other he knew of.

The Empress’ determination to return power to the people had been the last straw for himself, as it had for many of the Nobility, though for different reasons. Jaol knew well that the Nobles cared only for their own power and privilege. Many of their families had been there at the start, with the Conwin’s, and most of those had paid in blood for their position. Jaol had no criticism of them, aside from how they’d raised their children afterwards.

Spineless cowards, damn near the lot of them.

Jaol didn’t care for his power and position, though he’d accumulated a decent amount of it over the years. Honestly, the Empress’ move likely wouldn’t have cost him much, if anything at all. Whether the people were in charge, or the Nobility, or the Conwin family themselves, the need for men like him would not go away.

The cost to the Empire, however, would have been incalculable.

And to do it now, when there was so much opportunity to be grasped…

Jaol did not understand his former Liege in the least. How could someone who so clearly and dearly loved the Earth as she did… how could she just want to throw everything she’d built to the masses, who were clearly incapable of taking care of their own affairs, let alone the Imperium?

The Conwin had been a brilliant woman, but she had a blindspot the size of a planet when it came to her subjects.

She’d actually believed them to be mature enough to handle their own affairs.

Even now, with the threat in the past, Jaol could only snort derisively at the thought of those fools left to handle the affairs of state. They couldn’t even stop arguing with one another long enough to recognize that most of the time they weren’t even disagreeing with one another half the time.

The other half the time they spent arguing over things that no one could affect, so who damned well cared?

No, Jaol was certain of this much…

The People were too… stupid to rule themselves.

Put them in charge and they’d elect someone who wanted to use them, and cheer him as he did just that.

Which, frankly, Jaol wouldn’t care about in the slightest if that was all they did.

But no, in the process of doing that, he knew with certainty that they’d just keep doing it, over and over again… electing a worse example of humanity every damn time, and dragging the Empire down by inches with every fool who managed to con his way into the role.

Maybe someday that was what would happen. Jaol couldn’t predict the future, and had no real care for trying if he were honest about it. Someday, maybe even he would hand the reigns over to the people… though he’d only do so if he had his bolt hole ready to go, and was bored enough to want to watch the world burn.

Until then, he would do what he’d sworn to do all those years ago when he joined the military.

He would preserve and increase the glory of the Empire.

And there wasn’t a soul in the galaxy that would stop him from it.

*****

Chapter 27

Genesis Seat

A warning tone sounded, letting Eryn and Jinsha know that they were almost to their destination, sparking some activity as they moved quickly to their positions.

The forward shielding that protected the cockpit, as well as the most sensitive scanner rigs, retracted as the ship dropped through the dimensional spectrum and back into sidereal space, leaving them abruptly feeling like they’d come to a standstill despite no sensation of acceleration reaching either of them.

“Scan for the transponder,” Eryn said as he started pulling the live feed from the ship’s sensors.

“Right.”

Dropping into a new system, out of hyperspace, was always at least a bit tense. Space was large and empty, so the odds of a collision were almost nil… but almost wasn’t nothing, and there were some rather well-known horror stories that preyed on even the most rational of minds. Eryn used the live feed to quickly clear the area around them, each second passing giving him one light second of sweep in all directions…

He started relaxing as ten seconds passed without any sign of problems. If they’d come out right on top of something, well there wasn’t much he could have done, each second passing gave him that much coverage and a few seconds to minutes of time with which to evaluate anything that was on an interception vector with the seat.

Luckily, this time, there wasn’t much out there to worry about it seemed.

“Got it,” Jinsha said after almost half a minute. “Transponder is starting it’s relay cycle over now.”

“Good, location relative to us?”

“Four AU, downwell,” she said. “Lagrange Four of the third planet.”

“Roger that, navigating…”

Working the least time course to the transponder was easy enough. It really just was a matter of calculating how fast they could get down-well, and then figure out where the planet would be by the time they got there. Plot the two motions on a basic graph, calculate the intercept point, and boom… you had your course.

Assuming you didn’t care about things like fuel consumption and the like.

Eryn had used known charts of the system to calculate his general entry point such that he didn’t have to do anything nuts, like a half orbit of the star or something, in order to rendezvous with the embassy location but even with that there were some improvements he could make over the least time course.

Grabbing a bit of a gravity brake from the fifth planet would drop their closing velocity to something reasonable, and allow them to come in from the ‘front’ of the third planet’s orbit, which would allow him to use the planet’s mass as further braking, resulting in a savings of about a third of his remaining fuel while adding several hours to the approach.

“Course laid in,” he said, confirming the more economical approach. “Let’s stay on watch, though, just to be safe.”

Jin nodded, “If you’re tired, rest, I’ll watch for now.”

“I’m good for now, but I’ll check with you in a bit,” he said. “If you’re feeling tired, let me know. This should be secured space, but let’s not trust anything just yet.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Jump Space signature detected. Unknown starship, no transponder yet.”

Hidan glanced at the officer as the report was made, but said nothing. There was little for him to say just then - the new contact was just one of many, and if it had only just arrived from jump space then it would be some minutes, at least, before the transponder signal arrived anyway.

The Embassy was turning into a complex mess, in his professional opinion, but that wasn’t his job to worry about. He just had to keep it from turning into a disaster.

The representatives from the Cluster were showing up haphazardly, which is something he’d come to expect from them if he were being pressed. The Colonies had long ago learned that if you wanted anything done on a schedule, you didn’t go to the Cluster.

Alright, that wasn’t exactly fair. It wasn’t that none of them were willing to work to a schedule, it was just that it was damned near impossible to figure out which ones would until it was too late.

‘Cluster Time’ was a running joke among the Colonies, and for good reason.

“Fifteen starships, four hundred odd representatives, and no idea what anyone wants out of this mess other than the Imperium going back to their old useless selves,” Hidan grumbled under his breath. “No way this ends badly.”

At least he wasn’t responsible for the actual diplomacy side of things, that was a nightmare he didn’t want under any circumstances. More unfortunately, however, was who they had sent to handle that side of things.

Benjamin Lavere was one of the Orions’ higher profile diplomats, and a skilled negotiator to be certain, but he was generally someone who got sent in after the fighting was over… not before the first real shots had been fired. His hardline approach was not going to be well received by the Cluster’s dignitaries, that much Hidan could have let Congress in on for free if anyone had bothered to ask.

No one had, of course, which left Hidan honestly wondering if someone was trying to beam down this whole embassy meeting before it even had a chance.

There’s a fair chance someone is, Hidan knew that well enough.

The people within the Orion Congressional Systems were largely uninterested in Galactic affairs, mostly preferring to leave such things to others so long as the trouble didn’t come home, isolationist so to speak. Hidan, for the most part, counted himself as one of those in fact.

The problem was that the majority of the majority didn’t want to be bothered with anything that wasn’t directly impacting them. That included largely leaving the leadership roles up to those who ‘volunteered’ to take up the responsibilities.

And the bastards who volunteer are anything but isolationists.

Power and money were found in the starlanes, in far greater volumes than back at home. Given the choice between being big fish in a small ocean, or a shark swimming an endless starry sea, Congress was filled with aspiring sharks.

He wouldn’t have put it past them to send the likes of Lavere to ensure the Orion Systems kept their hands deeply entwined with Galactic interests.

*****

Genesis Seat

“Three hours left,” Jin said as Eryn slid back onto the small command deck of the Seat.

He nodded, “Good. Anything interesting?”

“Lot of transponders, coming and going,” she told him. “Mostly coming.”

“For the Embassy,” Eryn sighed. “I don’t like this.”

“Why not?”

“If I were Sylban,” Eryn said with a grimace. “This would be a tempting target.”

Jin paled a little at that, but shook her head, “He’d be insane to. With all the defenses here? I’ve counted a hundred and fifty transponders, most of which are military.”

“We know that the Conquest class was completed secretly,” Eryn said, shaking his head. “And they clearly had some things installed that weren’t in the briefing files. I… after the Reef, I don’t know what Sylban is planning… and not knowing his end goal, I can’t even begin to predict what he’ll do.”

Silence floated between them for a while after he said that, until Jin spoke again.

“You still respect him greatly, don’t you?”

“I… don’t know how to answer that,” Eryn stared straight ahead as he answered honestly. “A few months ago, I’d have considered it an honor to die to complete his mission directives. Now? I want to hate him, but even though I’ll do everything I can to stop him… I can’t hate him. I don’t know why, but I just can’t.”

Jinsha nodded slowly, the silence again growing between them.

“I wish I could say I understood,” she said finally. “But I’ve never had anyone I trusted that much, I don’t think. Maybe mother? I don’t know. You’re lucky to have known anyone that well, even if it didn’t turn out well.”

*****

Command Carrier Delaware

“That’s the last of them,” Grave said, walking over. “Even the uncertain ones have shown, looks like.”

Hidan rose to his feet, a satisfied expression showing. “Good. Then we’ll have put our best foot forward, no matter how it turns out.”

“Yes sir.”

Hidan looked out over the viewing platform, to the station that would be the primary locale for the talks.

One of the major trade stations between the Orion Systems and the Cluster, the trade station was one of the largest Hidan knew of, particularly for not being in a heavily populated system. The withdrawal of many traders and other travellers had left the Trade Station well under its normal population limits, and the location made it a perfect embassy location.

He was seeing a lot of Cluster military ships, which was to be expected, but what was odd… perhaps? It was all smaller vessels, nothing that could face off with an enemy Capital ship and slug it out.

Likely they’ve assigned their Wall Ships to the front-line systems under threat from the Imperium, He supposed. Still, would have expected a little more of a showing here.

A lot of independents from what he could tell. Armed ships, certainly, but irregular forces that were… unlikely to be much of a serious threat to any modern force.

Irregulars could certainly be better than the sort of training you go from a professional Navy, but those were the exception. The rule of Irregulars was that they were more of a threat by the distraction they present than by their own strength.

Which would be comforting, if not for the fact that he was staring at a whole hell of a lot of damned distractions right at that moment.

“Make sure we have a CSP covering the station, out to ten light seconds,” he ordered. “The Cluster vessels are all here under flag of truce, but it’s the Cluster… don’t assume that they know what that means.”

“Yes sir,” Grave answered, “Shall I maintain alert status on board the Delaware?”

Hidan nodded slowly, “Yes. Keep two squads on the ready response deck at all times. That’ll give us enough to maintain full coverage, with backup, around the clock.”

“It’ll be rough on the crew, Sir,” Grave said, a hint of warning in his tone.

“I know, but they can take it. If we’re here longer than a week, I’ll revisit the situation. Until then, orders stand.”

“Aye sir.”

Hidan knew that he’d be on the Station most of the time in the coming days, since he’d be part of the Embassy as the highest-ranking officer representing the Orion Systems. That would place Grave in charge of most defensive operations, which was fine as far as it went but he’d rather not leave too much of his own responsibilities in the hands of anyone else.

“Maintain Void Eyes out to eight Astronomical Units,” he ordered. “I don’t expect trouble, but let’s not assume.”

“Agreed, Sir. Perhaps deploy drones?”

Hidan considered that, lips thinning as he did.

Drones were expendable assets, not… expensive in military terms, really, but not cheap either. Putting enough of them into the system to properly secure it would take a bite out of the Delaware’s operating budget. Strictly speaking, it was his call whether it was a necessary expense, and Congress would pony up for the costs… but if it turned out to be unnecessary, it would likely be a black mark on his record that he’d be hearing about up to, and past, his retirement.

“Do it,” he ordered, viciously clamping down on the twinge of regret that instantly filled him.

“Yes sir.”

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn leaned over slightly as a light warning tone alerted him to a change, checking the readings briefly, then he relaxed back into his spot.

“What was that?” Jinsha asked, her tone a little bleary.

“Just the Orions putting drones out,” He said, “Go back to sleep. We’ve got another couple hours.”

“Drones?”

“Toys. Cameras with an AI attached,” Eryn shook his head. “Useful in limited niche applications, but I hope they’re not depending on those to secure this system.”

“Why’s that?” Jin asked, levering herself back upright from where she’d laid her seat back.

“In an open system like this, it’ll be a miracle if they catch anyone who’s trying to hide,” Eryn said. “It’s wasteful, but the Orions have money to spend, I guess. Might even get lucky with them, but I doubt it.”

“Is that all the defense the system has?”

Eryn laughed, “Not even close. The Orions have several flying scanner systems, I think they call them Void Eyes. Small starships, about destroyer sized, mounted with reactors that would make Heavy Cruisers jealous, all tuned to power their detection systems. That’s the first line, combined with the drones I suppose. Second line is the Orions fighters, and they’ve got a lot buzzing around. After that, there are several squads of ships ranging from tin cans to heavy cruisers, plus the Delaware and her escorts. I haven’t found all the fixed emplacements, but there’s sure to be a ton of them… and then there’s the last line of defense…”

“Which is?”

“Us,” Eryn chuckled. “Well, us and everyone else… as long as we can keep from shooting at each other, at least.”

“Well, you’re cheery.”

“Realistic,” Eryn shrugged before frowning and leaning in closer.

“What is it?”

“Your brother’s arrived; he’s signalling for us to join up with his escorts,” Eryn said, taking the controls.

“Finally.”

*****

Chapter 28

Trade Station

Eryn stepped off the ramp of the Seat, carefully checking the location of everyone in the berthing deck as he came to a stop and waiting for her Majesty. His Legion armor and uniform had been pressed carefully to within micrometers of its proper shape, and it clung to him as it had been designed to.

Behind him, Jinsha stepped calmly down, putting on a face he’d not had the opportunity to see her wear, at least not since that day in the Capital.

Her dress flowed, but had been designed to allow her to move thanks to some effort from Carmine and a few of the other man’s retainers. Eryn carefully did not look at her too much, but he found it difficult to manage in ways that surprised him.

She looks stunning.

“Eryn,” Jinsha greeted him as she too stepped onto the deck of the station.

“Your Majesty.”

“Jin, please.” She said firmly, glaring at him.

Eryn grimaced, but nodded, “Fine, unless we’re in the presence of those who don’t deserve your name.”

Jinsha rolled her eyes, but sighed as she gave in, “Fine. Shall we locate my brother?”

Eryn nodded crisply, eyes flicking to the side as he spotted the shuttle that had been dispatched from the Cruiser that Carmine had come in on. “That should be his ship over there.”

“Excellent, shall we?”

“By your leave, My Lady.”

“Don’t make me hit you, Eryn.”

The former Legionnaire sighed, gesturing, “Apologies, Jin. I believe your brother is this way.”

She didn’t look particularly satisfied, but Jinsha nodded and began to stride toward the shuttle, making him double step a couple times to catch up before he could settle into a matching stride. As they moved, they could both see men and women streaming off the shuttle, including several faces they recognized from Carmine’s help.

The man himself spotted them on approach before they picked him out of the crowd, however, and waved them over.

“Welcome,” He greeted them cheerfully. “Did you two have nice voyage?”

Eryn cocked his head, confused by the question. “It was uneventful, so I suppose?”

“Uneventful, hmmm?” Carmine winked, “That’s shame.”

“Is it?” Eryn didn’t follow.

“Nevermind.”

Jinsha’s cold tone sent shivers down Eryn’s spine, and he unconsciously shied away from her as far as he could get without actually moving his feet.

“My L… Jin? Are you… alright?”

“I’m fine,” She said, showing her teeth without looking away from her brother. “I just have to have words of a familial sort with brother dearest here.”

“Terribly sorry,” Carmine grinned, “no time for family matters right now, Sissy. Diplomacy to conduct, don’t you know. We’ll catch up later.”

“We’ll catch up when I say we catch up, Carmine,” Jinsha hissed as the bigger man just grinned unrepentantly at her, using the crowd to keep some distance between them before he waved and broke off, heading for a security desk across the way. “Get back her, coward!”

“So sorry, we’ll talk later, promise!”

Jinsha shook her head as her older brother ran off, leaving her rather irritated and Eryn more than a little confused by the looks of it.

“Never mind the idiot,” She sighed. “We should get checked in as well.”

“O… of course.”

*****

Hidan looked over the large banquet hall they’d appropriated for the initial meeting of the envoys. Most of those present would technically be representing the Cluster, of course, but from experience he knew that they’d be at odds with one another as much as anyone else. His concern was more with the Orion representatives and those that had been dispatched from the Republic of the Nine Stars.

If the Cluster was able to get all on the same page regarding the war, he’d be impressed and more than a little pleased. More likely, he knew, was that several of the Cluster systems were likely still inclined to try and sit out the fighting, at least unless something significant hadn’t changed. That would make their negotiations weaker than it should be, but that was all to the benefit of the Systems.

Dealing with the Republic, though, that would require some careful strategy from the Diplomacy teams if they wanted anything more than a mutual level of ignoring one another. That, though, was likely all he could hope for if he was being realistic.

Hopefully Levere doesn’t anger the Nine Stars into something that would be ill advised for all of us.

People were beginning to filter into the room, arriving for the pre-embassy ceremonies and soft-chitchat. No official deals would be made for some time, of course, but a lot could be accomplished right now if the people involved were willing.

Hidan kept on an eye on Lavere and his team, the man was schmoozing the arrivals as was expected. One thing that Hidan knew for a fact was that Lavere was damned good at his job and, so long as he was doing the job you expected him to be doing, the task would be in good hands.

I just hope to the void that his marching orders match what I think we’re trying to accomplish here… otherwise, this will be one useless waste of… hold on, what’s this?

His eyes flicked to the new arrivals, coming in just over Lavere’s shoulder where one of the paths into the room lay.

The woman caught his gaze first, though he didn’t know her. He recognized the way she walked, however, and the confident way she held herself and looked around her. Like she owned the station, and everyone and everything on it. It wasn’t the sort of body language you got from a mere diplomat.

The young man, however, he knew.

It had been some time, and it seemed that the young man had managed to grow a bit in the intervening period, but he was impossible to miss just the same. Hidan flashed back to the introduction, not of the young man he was looking at now, but of his mentor… on that day, back in the Almansc Chapter House.

Hidan might have overlooked the boy if that was the only time they’d encountered one another, but the second time… well, that had locked the boy’s name and visage in Hidan’s mind forever. He didn’t forget people who made a run on his ship, and he sure as hell didn’t forget anyone who did that and lived to tell the tale.

Eryn Aubrey. That would make her… No, he wouldn’t have brought the Princess here would he? Hidan boggled at the thought, though given the young man’s age and relatively low rank, he supposed it was just as likely that the Princess was calling the shots and he was under duress.

Still, it was hard to imagine what in the hells they were doing here?

“Pardon me,” Hidan excused himself from the little group of Orion Navy officers and Diplomats, “I see someone I should have a word with.”

None of them were much interested in his departure, which was for the best Hidan supposed as he snagged a drink from a passing server and made to show the best ‘party goer’ visage as he made his way toward the young Legionnaire.

The young man saw him coming, of course, and as their eyes locked Hidan paused in his approach, cocking his head slightly to one side lifting his chin slightly in a questioning manner. Eryn seemed to consider for a moment before his own chin dipped in response, inviting Hidan in.

“Mr Aubrey, a greater pleasure I have never experienced upon meeting someone for the second time,” Hidan said through a genial smile. “It is good to see that you made it out of Sol.”

“Captain… Clarke, I believe?” Eryn questioned.

“Hidan Clarke, indeed, I’m pleased you remember me given we were only introduced the once in passing.” Hidan said honestly enough. He was pleased, in fact, though not surprised in the least. Anyone trained well enough to wear the uniform the young man had on wouldn’t forget the name of a Carrier Commander, no matter how obliquely the introductions had been.

“Some people make an excellent first impression,” Eryn smiled, just a tinge of brittle emotion there behind the expression. “Others make up for any lack with their second.”

Hidan masked a grimace, but shrugged apologetically, “I wish I had been able to be more… welcoming.”

Eryn sighed slowly, “No, I had no expectations of anything else. You performed precisely as expected, Captain.”

Ouch. Hidan felt himself wince at that, despite having done his duty, no more and no less.

“Who is your friend, Eryn?”

The pair of them flinched at that, having all but forgotten the young lady at their side.

Hidan recovered first, “I am terribly sorry, my lady, I am Captain Hidan Clarke of the Orion Command Carrier Delaware.”

“Oh yes, I recall a tour of your most impressive vessel,” She said airily.

A tour? Hidan shook his head slowly, “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Ma’am. I don’t recall conducting any such tour, and I know for a certain fact that I would not have forgotten you.”

“It was a… brief tour, Captain,” She said with a sweet smile that set off alarms in his head, “Mostly of the outside.”

Hidan closed his eyes, sucking in a breath as he understood the reference in a flash.

Definitely her, then, assuming Eryn wasn’t lying from the start… Hidan decided, just as he also quickly decided that the young Legionnaire had almost certainly not been lying.

“A shocking lack of decorum on my part, I assure you and beg forgiveness,” Hidan said. “Duty is a merciless mistress.”

“Indeed,” the young lady who had to be her Majesty Jinsha Conwin of Earth, let the word drawl out slowly. “And your duty brings you here today, I suppose?”

“Indeed it does.”

“Be careful of that Mistress, Captain,” She said in a slightly hushed tone that caused him to lean in to catch every word, “else you may find yourself in… compromising positions, no?”

He smiled thinly, “I have little doubt, Your M…”

“Jin,” She interrupted him, still with that sweet smile.

“Of course, Lady Jin,” He countered firmly, noting a slight eye roll from Eryn. Something of a touchy point, perhaps?

“Jin, perhaps you might check in with Carmine,” Eryn suggested, tipping his head in the direction of a small group of Cluster diplomats.

She leveled a gaze at him for a moment before giving Eryn a clipped nod and excusing herself. Hidan watched her leave for a moment before turning back to the young man.

“You are playing a dangerous game, Mr Aubrey,” He said finally.

“You speak as though we have a choice in the playing, Captain,” Eryn said, a little bitterly. “We didn’t pick the game, it was picked for us.”

There’s truth there, Hidan thought as he took a breath.

“I could convince Congress to extend an invitation and protection,” He said aloud. “Perhaps even support, if she were to express interest in… shall we say resetting things?”

Eryn didn’t twitch, his expression barely changing at all as he looked back over to the woman who was now mixing with the diplomats.

“I will convey your… offer,” He said neutrally.

Hidan nodded, knowing that was about as good as he was going to get for the moment. He took a breath and laughed softly as he shook his head, “I think I lost a few years growth when I recognized you and figured out who she had to be. What in the Galaxy brings you here, of all places?”

“Our ride out of Sol was heading for the Cluster, nothing really mysterious about it,” Eryn said, telling the truth as far as Hidan could tell, though he’d be surprised if it was the whole truth.

“And you somehow wind up at a high level diplomatic embassy between the Cluster, the Systems, and the Nine Stars?” Hidan asked, just barely keeping from laughing at the insanity of it. “Does anyone know who she is?”

“Not very many,” Eryn said, his voice chilling. “And I would prefer it that way.”

Hidan held up a hand, “Not going to be making any announcements… and, really, I only have strong suspicions anyway. I’ll have to report it up the chain, but as long as she’s not involved in the negotiations…”

“She shouldn’t be.”

“Then I have no cause to inform the lead diplomat,” Hidan shrugged.

Eryn nodded, “thank you.”

“No need for that, I’ll do my duty but there’s no reason for me to make your life any harder than it has to be,” Hidan snorted, “and I expect it already has to be plenty hard as it is.”

“It’s more than I trained for,” Eryn admitted with a sigh. “But we’ve been lucky, mostly.”

“You know that the Empire has you listed as a Conspirator in the Assassination of Her Majesty, of course?” Hidan asked.

Eryn nodded, “That was made clear back in Sol. S… Sylban tried to arrest me, before he was recalled. I believe he’s the one planning the Imperial offensive now.”

Hidan grimaced, a low hiss of air escaping his teeth.

He remembered Sylban, of course, the man had been introduced to him by a good friend who was now dead. A brother, to both of them in fact. He still remembered the smile that had survived the sniper round that killed his friend, permanently etched by death. Hidan couldn’t remember why Baran had been smiling, he just… remembered the smile.

“Oathbreaker,” He gritted out.

“So it seems,” Eryn said, a hand coming up to rub his chest at a point between his heart and his right lung. “but don’t underestimate Sylban, Captain. Whatever his faults, he is Legion to the core.”

Hidan snorted, remembering that conversation.

“He’s an arrogant ass.”

“That too.”

*****

Carmine was mildly surprised when his sister joined him, not seeing any sign of her guard until he looked around and spotted the young man speaking with an Orion Captain.

I’d bet that there’s a story there, He supposed as he greeted Jinsha and introduced her to the diplomatic team that had been dispatched from the Cale.

The introductions were going about as well as might be expected, the Orions themselves were mixing well. They were generally a genial sort of people, if more than a little arrogant and occasionally difficult to deal with due to their irritating sense of self importance.

The Systems were arguably the premier power in the known Galaxy, and the people there knew it. Worse, they believed it, right to their core and with the fervor of any fanatic group from history. It made them annoying to deal with despite their relatively good nature, since many of them didn’t even seem to fully realize that other polities even existed, and those that did… honestly didn’t really care.

The Nine Stars, by contrast, were powerful to be sure but the people had a much less arrogant stance on the whole… at least in public. Cultural issues with them, however, were manifold. The Systems at least shared a general concept of culture with the Cluster, some adherence to the importance of the individual, and other similar touchstones.

The culture of the Nine Stars was a far more collective one, and that made them difficult to deal with. They came off as inscrutable to the perception of many in the Cluster, feeling almost alien in some ways, as they tended to make decisions based on very different criteria than anyone in the Cluster would really consider.

It made dealing with them difficult. The average representative of the Nine Stars came off as a lacky to authority in the eyes of the Cluster, and Cluster representatives were generally considered to be little more than selfish brats in desperate need of a public spanking and time in the corner with a dunce cap on to members of the Nine Stars.

Deals were still possible, of course, and Carmine was well aware that people were people… minor shifts of philosophy didn’t have that much of an impact, no matter what each group believed. What made it difficult wasn’t the actual differences, no it was the perceived differences.

Thankfully, for the moment he didn’t have to worry about any of that. The current situation should allow him to avoid most of the common pitfalls while making his deals, a common enemy did wonders for clearing out the bullshit, after all.

Now if we can just get the deals done before something else comes along to fuck it all up.

*****

Chapter 29

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Admiral Marcus Fenn quietly examined the projected map of the system from within the center of the holographic room. The Diplomatic Embassy had begun, and his orders were to wait for direction from the negotiations team before taking any actions, frustrating as that may be.

“Admiral, all assets report in position.”

“Very good, Captain,” Fenn said, looking over to where the Captain was standing off to one side. “Something else?”

“No sir, just… confused by the assignment, if I’m being honest,” Captain Gillian Burke responded. “The Imperium is moving within the Cluster now…”

“Yes, Captain, I am aware,” Fenn said dryly, sighing. “Ours is not to reason why, Captain.”

“Yes Sir, I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it, I had questions of my own, but these are our orders.”

Burke nodded curtly before retreating from the room.

Fenn was well aware that the task group under his command represented a significant portion of Libation’s military force, and them not being at the front was going to costs lives and systems. Unfortunately, from the reports he’d been seeing, he wasn’t sure that they’d have all that much of an effect even if they were there.

Which was what made the current assignment so important.

Hurry up and wait.

*****

Trade Station

Jinsha quietly listened to the discussions around her, getting a feel for the situation as it was perceived by those invited to the Embassy negotiations.

She was only mildly surprised by the fact that most of them were focused on things other than the Imperium’s actions. That sort of scatter brained reaction to current events was something she’d come to expect from the political animals that tended to reach positions of representation in government.

Even with the fires of war actively burning, most of them saw that as a distant threat if they saw it as a threat at all. Those from Libation seemed to be the most focused, unsurprisingly, with the Cluster representatives showing a range of reactions branching out from that.

The Orion Systems representatives were clearly more focused on what concessions and arms deals they could get from the Cluster, while the Republic people were honestly baffling to her as she listened to them talk about issues that honestly didn’t seem to have anything at all to do with the current situation.

That made sense, of course. The Republic was perhaps the most distant from Earth, the Nine Stars that made up the initial colonial push having been colonized by people who were fleeing what they considered persecution on Earth. Whether that perception was true or not had likely been lost to history when the Lights went out on Earth, but she tended to believe that it had at least some validity just because it generally seemed to. Regardless, that perception had sent them running farther than many of their contemporaries of Diaspora, and left them far more disconnected from the Galactic society as it stood.

The Cluster representatives were visibly frustrated by it all, which she silently shook her head at. Being frustrated was normal, she’d experienced it more times than she could recall, but her mother had taught from as far back as she could remember that showing it was the height of irresponsible unprofessionalism.

When you were negotiating with political animals, you gave them nothing you didn’t have to, because while there might be honor among thieves but there sure as hell wasn’t any among politicians. They could, and would, use anything you gave them against you. It wasn’t personal, it was just how the game was played. Representatives were not, in fact, allowed to be honorable. They were required to do exactly one thing, ideally, and that get the best deal for those they represented.

In pursuit of that goal… essentially nothing was taboo. Lying, cheating, and stealing were only considered bad because they were likely to facilitate short term gains at the cost of long-term losses, which wasn’t a good deal.

Jinsha was seeing a lot of bad deals happening in front her right at that moment.

Eryn had rejoined her and Carmine’s group, whatever his discussion was with the Orion Captain seemed to have been concluded. Jinsha could see the Captain had gone back to over to the Orion diplomatic cadre, but she did note that he seemed to be apart from them to a degree.

Excluding the military man? Or something more innocuous?

Either was possible, many politicians looked down on the military no matter what they might claim in public, she knew. Gone were the days when a politician actually earned their way through life in a hands on sense, it being all but impossible to master the skills of a politician from most professions. The old ideal of the ‘Gentleman farmer’ turned representative of the people had barely been real when it was real.

Since people who earned their keep in more ‘civilized’ and well compensated ways tended to look down on those who didn’t, Jinsha knew that military representatives were often pushed aside when diplomacy started.

Still, though, that wasn’t quite the feeling she got when watching the Orion group. There was something else at play there, but she wasn’t entire sure what. Jin made a personal note to keep an eye on them to see if she could work it out.

Closer to home, as it were, she couldn’t quite help her growing frustration as she listened to the negotiations and the unsuited arguments from the Cluster representatives from Nova Caledonia.

*****

Carmine glanced at Eryn as he rejoined the group, and edged closer to the young man without drawing attention.

“Do I want to know what that was about?” He asked softly, eyes staying on the discussion the Cale’s representatives were engaged in.

“Doubt it will matter in the short term,” Eryn responded. “Hidan Clarke is a member of the Order, he was visiting the Chapterhouse in Almansc on her Majesty’s birthday.”

“Ah,” Carmine nodded slowly, understanding. “He recognized you?”

Eryn nodded, his lips tense, “More problematic, he was able to infer Jinsha’s identity.”

That caused Carmine to look over sharply, “What?”

“Clarke commands the Delaware,” Eryn grimaced slightly, “During our escape, I used his ship as cover from our pursuers… but before they jammed my transmissions, I tried to convince the pilots chasing us that they were on the wrong side.”

Carmine winced.

Damn.

He couldn’t exactly blame the young man for that, he likely would have tried it himself… certainly when he was younger and dumber he would have, at least. That said, it provided a bit of a problem in the moment.

“Will he say anything?”

Eryn shrugged, “He says that unless he has direct cause he isn’t required by duty to inform the local team, but he will relay the information up the chain to the Orion Systems Congressional houses.”

Carmine nodded slowly. That was about as good as he could hope for, honestly, and far better than he had expected.

“Ok, that’s not as bad as it could be, but I’ll bring up some more security to cover you and her in case you need to run.”

Eryn nodded, but his eyes sharpened, which caused Carmine to shift to see what he was looking at.

“Oh hell, what is she doing?”

*****

Jinsha had had just about enough of this, listening to the Caledonia representative backpeddling once more on a request and seemingly about to give in on a concession to the Orion team that she doubted they really cared about.

“Pardon,” She smiled sweetly as she stepped in beside the negotiator from the Cale, nodding apologetically to the Orion representative, “I’m terrible sorry to interrupt, but might I have a word with my friend?”

“Of course, miss,” The Orion said automatically, though he looked a little irritated as she pulled the negotiator away.

To the man’s credit, he didn’t make a scene or undercut her in anyway that the others could see, but the diplomat glared at her through narrowed eyes as they moved apart from the discussion.

“Just because Carmine vouched for you,” He began, only for her to cut him off.

“He doesn’t care about the trade concessions,” She said curtly. “He’s just trying to bleed you so he can offer some of it back later.”

“What?”

“The Orions are holding back something,” She said, smiling over the man’s shoulder. “They don’t care about anything they’ve brought up so far.”

“How would you…”

“Jin.”

The pair turned to see Carmine and Eryn approaching, looks of concern showing in their expressions. Jinsha focused on Carmine, “The Orions are focused on something specific, but they’ve not brought it up yet. They’re just laying foundation for whatever that is.”

Carmine stared blankly for a moment, sneaking a glance over to the Orion representatives.

“Are you certain?”

“Quite.”

“Curious…” Carmine took a breath.

“Sir, I don’t know who she is or what she thinks she knows, but…”

Carmine held up a hand, but otherwise ignored the negotiator.

“Mother taught you?” He asked softly, getting a nod in return. He smiled ruefully, “I went the military route. This was never my scene.”

“What do you think they’re after?” Eryn wondered, speaking up.

“I don’t know, but let me talk with them,” Jinsha suggested.

“Bad idea,” Carmine shook his head. “If you get into the negotiations, your Captain friend over there won’t have any choice but to inform the envoys of your identity.”

Jin stared blankly for a moment, then shot a glance over in to where the main Orion group was. Most were preoccupied with other things, but Captain Clarke was clearly sneaking looks over in their direction.

“Damn,” She swore, thinking furiously. “It might be worth it…”

“Absolutely not,” Eryn stepped in. “We’re running too many risks as is.”

“I agree,” Carmine said, “but this is too important to ignore just the same.”

He turned to the negotiator, “Start probing. See what they’re serious about, but don’t agree to anything. Not yet.”

The man looked alternately confused, frustrated, and straight up irritated as he looked between Jinsha and Carmine, but he finally gave in.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

*****

Benjamin Lavere nodded in satisfaction as he looked over the real time reports he was getting back from his team. So far the Embassy negotiations were running more or less as expected. The Cluster representatives were, as normal, all over the man and clearly weren’t talking to one another.

No shock there, the Cluster was nothing if not consistent in their much vaunted ‘independence’.

The Republic, well they were more problematic. The Nine Stars operated as one, as they had for a long time, and they knew exactly what they were looking for and clearly had a plan to get it. Lavere wasn’t quite certain what that goal was, yet, but he could see them working toward it, whatever it was. In a short time, he expected that he should be able to work out their goals easily enough. The trick would be figuring a way to leverage that goal for the Systems.

He looked over where the Captain of the Delaware was standing, the high ranking officer present entirely to show off the Systems’ flag. Normally, Lavere would prefer not to have such a presence but in this case it made a statement that was useful. The Delaware was the Orion’s flag in the region, as the primary force projection force the Systems had assigned here.

He was curious about the man’s little chat with the pair that appeared to be with the Cluster representatives, but figured it probably didn’t matter much at first.

Something I may have been making a mistake about… He thought as he saw the reports slip back through the stream he was getting from his negotiators.

“Captain Clarke,” He said softly, just loud enough to be heard.

“Yes Ambassador,” Clarke said as he stepped over. “How might I help?”

“Those two Cluster representatives you spoke with, anything I need to know?” Lavere asked crisply.

Clarke frowned, eyes darting over in the direction of the small group the pair had rejoined, “Possibly, though I’ll need to know why you’re asking.”

That caused red flags to fly like one wouldn’t believe, and immediately put Lavere on his guard. The Flag Captain of a Carrier didn’t make a statement like that lightly, and it took everything Lavere had for him not to turn and stare at the pair from across the room.

“Captain…” He hissed warningly.

“Already prepping a report for the higher ups,” Clarke expanded on his statement, “I all but guarantee that it’ll be slapped with a need to know flag.”

Well… shit.

Lavere might not have any love for the military arm, aside from the usefulness when negotiations collapsed, but he had enough respect to know that Clarke wouldn’t make a statement like that without cause.

“Fine,” He said, still irritated of course. “The group they’re part of seems to have shifted tactics. They’re not negotiating anymore.”

Clarke looked confused, “Stonewalling you? I can’t imagine why that pair would do anything like that.”

“No, not stonewalling, they’re poking for information,” Lavere explained. “The woman you talked to interrupted negotiations, pulling their lead away. When he came back, he wasn’t trying to make a deal anymore, he’s trying to figure out our strategy now, unless I miss my guess.”

Hidan Clarke pursed his lips, eyes again darting over briefly before he answered.

“You might have need to know,” He said reluctantly, “but let’s try and keep it compartmentalized for now. I’ll say this much, she’s not from the Cluster, she’s from Sol.”

Lavere’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing, “A spy?”

“No. Refugee.”

“That doesn’t explain her influence.”

“High level refugee, likely trained in statecraft from an early age,” Hidan expanded.

Lavere started to ask a sharply pointed question, but shut himself up before the first would could get past his lips. That description was not one given to someone lightly, and he could almost feel the paperwork stacking up in his cloud folder already.

“Understood,” He said, knowing full well that he only understood the very basics. “If she gets more involved…?”

“Then you certainly would have need to know, Ambassador.”

“Very well, thank you Captain.”

Hidan nodded slightly, stepping back and away and leaving Lavere with his thoughts.

There had been a lot Solan refugees since the Coups, of course, but not many high level ones got out publicly. Of course, officially, it had been a ‘Coups attempt’ so most of the existing high level personnel probably didn’t see the need to cut and run… or hadn’t seen the need in time.

The Orion Systems knew, thanks to Hidan in fact, that the Coups had quite likely succeeded to some degree at least. The Assassination of the Empress had been blamed on a young member of her Majesty’s Legion, as Lavere recalled, but the report Hidan had filed indicted that it was likely that the boy was a scapegoat for the actual conspirators.

That left a number of people the pair could be, but little true clues he could use to discern closer.

Well, as long as it doesn’t impede my efforts by too much, I don’t want to get into that kind of bureaucratic nightmare. Let the Captain have his need to know.

*****

Chapter 30

Trade Station

Jinsha was carefully listening to the negotiation, trying not to look like she was too involved in the process, and simultaneously skimming the reports from the other negotiations that Carmine had been able to get information from.

“The Orions are definitely after something specific,” She said softly, “but whatever it is… I don’t think it’s anything to do with the current situation. They seem… oddly uninterested in the Imperium’s operations. The Republic is straightforward, as far as they can get anyway, but also more concerned with expanding their influence than concerned with the Empire.”

“The Republic think they’re far enough away from Sol to mitigate the Imperium’s reach,” Carmine said, “they might even be right, I couldn’t say for certain.”

Jinsha nodded, “Whatever the Orions’ want, I think is a secondary concern, however.”

“What?” Carmine asked, head turning sharply, “How so?”

“Libation is up to something.”

Carmine twisted, eyes sweeping the room until he found the Libation representatives where they were currently in negotiations with the Republic it seemed.

“How so?”

“They started negotiations predictably, but almost as soon as the Orions and Republic started their fishing game, the Libation strategy shifted,” Jinsha explained. “They’re stalling now, making it seem like they’re considering concessions, but ultimately stonewalling both the Republic and the Systems.”

Carmine frowned, “That doesn’t make sense. Libation needs any help they can get, they’re the current primary targets of the Imperium’s advance.”

“If they’re stalling,” Eryn cut in quietly, “then they have another operation in motion. Likely they’re waiting for the results of that so they can decide on a way forward.”

Carmine nodded slowly, admitting to himself that idea made some sense. He just couldn’t imagine what kind of operations they could possibly be running that would cause them to stonewall in these negotiations.

“They’re the ones who pushed for this Embassy gathering,” He growled, “I don’t like this.”

“Whatever their ultimate strategy,” Jinsha said, “we won’t figure it out while they’re stonewalling.”

“So we need to try and get a reaction out of them, make them show some cards,” Carmine concluded, “but how?”

Jinsha smiled slightly, “I have an idea.”

*****

Benjamin Lavere was beginning to get a headache, most of the negotiations were proceeding more or less as expected. That was both a good thing and bad thing, since the majority of those present were either living up, or down, to Congress’ expectations.

Two groups, however, were decidedly not.

Irritated, he signaled for Captain Clarke again.

“Is she getting involved?” Hidan asked softly as he approached.

“I don’t know, but something very strange is going on,” Lavere admitted. “the group with your refugee just conceded to several of our demands without negotiations, like they suddenly didn’t matter anymore.”

Hidan drew back slightly, surprised, “What? That makes little sense, especially if that lady is pulling strings. She’s almost certainly been well trained in these matters, and would know just how far to push for any concessions.”

“That’s not the only thing, though I can’t see how this might be connected…” Lavere frowned, “the concessions in question are all linked to our negotiations with the Libation representatives, and that is the second problem I’m having. Libation is not acting as predicted, not even close. They’re stonewalling us across the board for some reason.”

Hidan raised an eyebrow, “That makes even less sense. They’re the ones most in need of support now.”

“I know, but they’re negotiating like they have the upper hand, have been from the start.” Lavere said, frustrated enough to be sharing more than he normally would with a military officer who should just be there for show. “I may need to know why your refugee is messing with my negotiations now.”

Hidan nodded slowly, eyes straying to look across the room to the small group that represented Nova Caledonia and some of the surrounding systems. He started to answer, then his jaw clicked shut as he realized that the people he was watching weren’t looking back, but they were sneaking looks in the direction of the Libation group.

“Oh…” He breathed out, realization flooding him, “She’s not messing with your negotiations, Ambassador. She’s messing with Libation’s.”

“What?” Lavere asked sharply, before quickly reviewing the information and realizing the truth. He’s right, I think. Those concessions will directly impact Libation’s negotiations, undercutting their stance. Who the hell is that woman?

“If you’re right,” He said slowly, “We’re about to find out. I just sent the updated report to the Libation team.”

Hidan nodded, eyes sweeping across the room to where the team negotiating with Libation were in the midst of conducting their affairs.

*****

Ambassador Brennick of the Libation negotiating team, while not happy with the direction things were going, was at least content that he was doing his job as promised. The Orion and Republic representatives were, predictably, shortsided and self serving but they’d come prepared for that.

He didn’t like the situation that necessitated what was to come, but such was life he supposed.

“Sir, we have a… problem…?”

His aide didn’t sound so confident in that statement, but it got Brennick’s attention to be sure.

“What is it, Rael?” He asked, shifting his focus.

“The Cale group just gave in a several issues we’ve been keeping the Orion’s tied up with, they’ve tabled those with us now and are pushing the points you wanted to hold back.”

“What?” Breenick hissed, moving in, “Show me.”

Wordlessly, Rael handed over the document the Orion team had submitted to the team, waiting while Brennick reviewed it quickly.

“What are those idiots doing?” Brennick hissed softly.

Certainly, it was true that getting any groups in the Cluster to cooperate was like herding cats, but that didn’t make them unpredictable. There was no way that the Cale would ever have just conceded on those points so easily, they gave up two key systems and several other concessions to the Orions.

I can’t let this get signed, those idiots are going to give the Orion Systems a bulwark within the Cluster!

“Get me the secure comm,” He ordered through clenched teeth.

“Yes Sir.”

*****

“He looks… irritated,” Carmine said, dryly amused by the reaction they were seeing from across the room.

“Most amusing, Sir, I’m sure… but we just handed an awful lot of concessions to the Orions… are you certain that was wise?” The Ambassador asked nervously, glancing sidelong at Jinsha.

“You may relax,” Jinsha answered for Carmine, a smile playing at her lips. “Libation won’t allow that deal to be ratified. He’s up to something, what is that?”

“A secure comm,” Carmine and Eryn both answered as one.

“I don’t have the codes,” Eryn said, looking to Carmine, “Can you run intercept?”

“On it.” The older man answered. “It’s encrypted, high level code. Shit. I can’t break it, not quickly.”

“Jin, link up,” Eryn ordered, sending a handshake protocol out to both with his own implants while simultaneously linking back to the ship. “I’m running decryption protocols.”

Both Carmine and Jin linked their systems to him, providing his software with more power to crunch the numbers.

“Nice,” Carmine said, “Eighth gen decryption tools? Mine are only fifth.”

“Should be later gen, but I didn’t get my official rank approved before… well, you know,” Eryn sighed.

“Huh, right, I see that…” Carmine responded, “Hold on a second… yeah, that will do it.”

Eryn blinked as his entire suite unlocked fully, “What did you do? No, I know what you did, how the hell did you do it?”

“Mother didn’t have my rank rescinded when I left,” Carmine shrugged. “Technically not supposed to happen, but family and all.”

Eryn stared in open mouthed shock, absolutely stunned that the Empress had permitted such a breach of security protocol to happen. He couldn’t exactly complain about the outcome, of course, but… well… yeah, still stunned.

“Tenth gen software, and twelfth gen hardware,” Carmine whistled. “Nice. Mind if I copy your software?”

Eryn had to consider that, in all honesty. His loyalty to the Empire said hell no, but the Empire wasn’t exactly loyal to him at the moment. On its own, that wouldn’t be enough to sway him, his oath meant something to him even if it meant nothing to the people running the Imperium at the moment. However, Carmine was her Majesty’s son, possibly the last one alive… though they didn’t have confirmation on Desmond Conwin.

He hesitated, but  ultimately sent the handshake to Carmine with read access to the core image files for his suite.

“Many thanks, Legionnaire,” Carmine said as he accepted the transfer.

Eryn just nodded his response, his throat tightening slightly as the older man… and sorta-superior officer called him by his, well, calling. The calling he’d walked away from, or been driven from. It… hit deep.

Thankfully, he had something else to focus on.

“The encryption is good,” He said, “Going to take a while to break it, but we may not have to…”

“What do you mean?” Jinsha asked intently.

“It’s a relay broadcast, short burst, probably to their shuttle,” Eryn said. “I’ve got another burst that went out just after it, a little longer, still powerfully encrypted… but medium range I’d guess. They sent something to a ship in-system. Not more than… five AU out.”

Carmine grunted, “Then we have maybe forty minutes before the signal gets out there… another forty before a return gets back.”

“I’d bet on less than that,” Eryn said.

“True, those are the outer ranges.”

“Who are they signalling, and why?”

Carmine smiled grimly, “Question of the hour, Sissy. Question of the hour.”

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Admiral Fenn looked up as the signal came through.

So it seems the predictions were correct. Negotiations were pointless.

The Orion Systems and the Republic were fools, not that that was anything new of course. Both groups were so full of shit that it was a minor shock that any of their populace could even waddle without spewing filth in all directions.

“Captain.”

“Sir.”

Captain William Harm was at his side almost instantly.

“The operation is a go,” Fenn ordered. “Make it look good.”

“Aye sir.”

Harm turned and quickly made his way to the Command Station, addressing the deck crew, “Signal all ships, we’re moving out.”

“Roger that, Skipper!”

“Prepare the contingency packages,” Harm ordered. “Play this one by the numbers. I want the Orion and Republic contacts prioritized on my screens, rank Cluster contacts after that…”

“Captain,” Fenn spoke up, interrupting.

Harm hesitated, glancing back, “Sir?”

Fenn held up a finger as he read the decoded signal, “Mark the Cale contacts next in priority after the System and Stars, if you would.”

“Of course sir,” Harm affirmed, turning back. “You heard the Admiral. Cluster contacts next, Cale at the top.”

“Yes sir!”

*****

Far upwell of the Trade Station, a small but significant fleet of ships lit off their drives and broke their orbit, entering into a powered fall toward the system primary, the planet, and the station so far below them.

Silent transponders crackled to life as the ships began to move, broadcasting not the Libation codes that they were normally coded with, but recordings captured from Terran Imperium warships instead.

Operation Bedevil had begun.

*****

Trade Station

“Oh, I’m not liking this,” Carmine said a short while later as he watched the Libation team.

“They’re pulling back from the negotiations,” Jinsha said, frowning. “Why?”

The libation team was, in fact, clearly shifting away from their previous strategy, seemingly abandoning their goals from what they could see. They weren’t yet turning the representatives away, but Carmine could see that the frustration was growing among the two diplomatic negotiators.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” He reiterated before turning to Eryn. “I think you’d best get your ship flight checked.”

Eryn nodded slowly, “Agreed. Jin…?”

“I’ll send her along,” Carmine said, “but I want her eyes here.”

Eryn hesitated, not certain he was willing to leave her in the midst of this group, brother or not. In many ways he felt like she was still his charge, though he knew that wasn’t really the truth any longer.

“Go,” Jinsha told him firmly, “I’ll be with Carmine. Annoying though he may be, he is my brother.”

Sylban was mine… Eryn thought, but he fought down the gut clenching anxiety that came along with that train of thinking. Instead of trying to insist, however, he just nodded, “Very well. I’ll have the ship ready.”

Carmine clapped him on the shoulder, a knowing smile gracing his expression, “She’ll be fine, Mr Aubrey. On my honor, and my blood.”

Eryn just nodded again and retreated from the room without another word, leaving the siblings in the Cale’s negotiating group, listening to everyone attempting to work out why the entire Embassy meeting seemed to have been derailed in the last few minutes.

Carmine grabbed one of his aids, “Get back to the ship, tell the pilot to preflight it, and to have the cruiser standing ready for anything.”

The young woman nodded, running off quickly as Carmine turned back to his sister.

“What do you think is happening?” She asked, “and don’t say you don’t know. I know that, I want to know what you think.”

He smiled slightly, a chuff of laughter escaping his lips, “I honestly don’t know what I think…”

Her irate glare nearly made him laugh out loud, but he just held up a hand to stave off the tirade he no doubt had coming.

“Best case, they’re running some kind of maneuver to put the Orion Systems and the Republic off their game,” He said, “but worst case is… I don’t know. It depends on how desperate, and brazen, the Libation leadership have become. They’ve losing a lot to the Imperium’s advance, and the tensions have to be high at home.”

Jinsha looked down briefly, remembering her lessons, “desperate people do foolish things.”

“That they do,” Carmine said. “So we’ll not take any chances.”

“I understand.”

*****

Chapter 31

Trade Station

Benjamin Lavere was a man who knew how to read a room, but there were times when he found that he just didn’t know the language he was reading.

Something had just changed, and he could tell that whatever it was it had rippled beyond the original source. He wasn’t sure where that source was, but it did seem to be centered on the Libation negotiation team so he was betting on them…

Unless it was triggered by Captain Clarke’s mystery lady, He thought with some annoyance.

Someone was playing games, that much was certain, and he didn’t much like being the subject of other people’s gaming. That was supposed to be his job.

“Captain.”

“Yes, Ambassador,” Hidan said, stepping closer from where he’d been waiting.

Lavere hesitated, it was uncharacteristic of him he knew, but all he knew for certain in that moment was that he was missing something. Something big, he was sure, but he didn’t know what it was.

“Have the Delaware stand to alert, if you please.”

Hidan looked at him sharply, but didn’t question the order. He sent the commands out before turning back to Lavere, “Why did I just send a Command Carrier to General Quarters?”

“Because something is happening, and I don’t like it when things happen that I don’t understand in the middle of wartime.”

Hidan looked out over the room, eyes on the people still talking and negotiating. Certainly, this room was a battlefield he was familiar with, but for all that he couldn’t see anything that seemed largely out of place.

“Are you certain?” He asked, puzzled.

“Oh yes,” Lavere said firmly. “I’m not certain if it started with Libation, or the Cale, but something has happened. Libation seems to be marking time at this point, like they’ve actively given up.”

“And Cale?”

“They’re still probing, but it’s half hearted now, like they have been distracted as well,” Lavere said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what’s happening… I just know I don’t like it.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Grave Washington strode across the command deck, eyes on the men as the beat to quarters.

“System scans up, long range systems online!”

“Weapons checked and secured, make them live?”

Washington shook his head, “Negative. Safeties on until ordered otherwise or we’re under attack. We have a team on the station, let’s not put any of them at risk unless we have to.”

“Flight deck reports ready to launch, sir. Do you want a Combat System Patrol?”

That was a harder call, but he reluctantly shook his head again, “Negative. Same logic. Keep them on standby.”

“How many squadrons?”

“All of them.”

*****

Trade Station, Landing Deck

Eryn dropped into the pilot’s seat of the Seat, hands automatically flicking the switches to put power to all the systems as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The sort of high level negotiations going on back in that room were beyond the scope of his training, which chafed on him deeply. He was Legion, he was supposed to be as comfortable there as he would be on a battlefield. He wasn’t supposed to be forced to leave such things up to others.

Instead, he was stuck in the ship, hoping that his actual skillset wasn’t about to be needed… even when every instinct he had was screaming it would.

Weapons, check. Safeties… off. Scanners aren’t worth much until we’re out in the black, but let’s get them booting up. Comms up.

He spotted dozens of encrypted signals across the spectrum almost immediately, with the Delaware clearly being fired up over something. There wasn’t much… no, Eryn realized, there weren’t any comm bursts from the Libation ships.

Not even routine stuff in the open. Damn it.

“Princess,” He called over an encrypted signal of his own. “get ready to pull back. Tell Carmine we’re looking at trouble.”

“What’s going on?” Jinsha asked immediately.

“I don’t know yet, but I know it’s not good. The Libation ships are radio silent, no chatter at all, while the Orion carrier is worked up over something. Get whatever it is you’re doing, done, and get back here.”

“As soon as I can,” She promised.

*****

Embassy Gathering

Carmine frowned as Jinsha relayed that information, “He’s right. Something is happening. You’d better go.”

“There is more to be done here,” She said, sounding frustrated.

“I understand that, sissy, but you’re a priority…” A chime interrupted Carmine as his comm went off and he looked frustrated at the interruption. “Carmine here.”

Jinsha noticed him stiffen, quickly muting his comm.

“Get moving,” He ordered firmly. “We have contacts inbound, broadcasting Imperium transponders.”

Jinsha didn’t move immediately, instead she turned slowly and let her eyes sweep the room. The Orion Captain was obviously taking a similar call to Carmine, and she could see him grab the Ambassador and physically push the man off to a pair of uniformed sailors who immediately set to hustling him out of the room.

The Republic was doing much the same, and while most of the Cluster groups seemed to be a little slower, they were similarly getting on the move.

“Jinny, you need to move,” Carmine grabbed her shoulder.

“Look at the Libation group.” She said softly.

Carmine glanced over, and saw that the Libation representatives were packing up and clearly getting ready to leave. “What? They’re getting ready to move.”

“Everyone else is evacuating their ambassadorial staff, in a hurry,” She said.

Carmine frowned, suddenly seeing what she was talking about. The Ambassador was moving swiftly, but without any sign of rushing, and everyone else was carefully putting away all their files and kit. They were moving fast, yes, but without any sign of panic.

“Shit. Never mind them,” Carmine growled, “Get to your ship, or to my shuttle if you have to. You can’t be here if the Imperium is coming. Go!”

Jinsha nodded reluctantly, grabbing the few things she’d brought with her before turning and starting out. She paused only to look back, “You need to go too!”

“I’m right behind you! Go now!”

Jinsha went.

*****

Genesis Seat

“Shit, shit, shit,” Eryn swore as he pivoted in the seat and began rushing through the pre-flight checks a lot faster than he’d have preferred. “Comm to Jin!”

The computer picked up the command and linked him to Jinsha’s communications bud instantly.

“I’m already on my way, Eryn,” her voice echoed as he brought everything online.

“Good, we’ll be ready to get out of here as soon as you arrive.”

“I understand.”

The last thing he wanted was to be caught on a station like this with the Imperium seizing the system. On a planet they had the option of hiding until an opening could be found, but on a station? No, the Empire would just lock the entire thing down and the only way out would be through the Empire’s security and they needed to avoid that at damn near any cost.

While systems were coming fully online, he looked out through the armored cockpit to the buzz of activity going on out on the flight deck. Men and women were running for their ships at dead sprints, security surrounding what he presumed were high value personnel.

Shit. He swore again, though this time quietly as he reached for the comm. “Genesis Seat to Trade Station Control.”

It took a while before anyone answered, but he’d expected that.

“Control here, what do you want? We’re a little busy.”

“Understood, just need to be slotted in for launch queue.”

“You and everyone else. Alright, hang on… I’ve got you in the queue, be advised priority is being given to ambassador’s vessels. We have you in after them, ETA to launch… forty minutes.”

Shitshit.

“Hold one, please.” Eryn said, muting the outraged squawk from the control officer as he opened another channel. “Carmine.”

“What is it kid?”

“We need to get off this station, and right now the queue is forty minutes long.”

“Goddamn it. Ok, give me a second… but, kid… it’ll cost something.”

“We’re sitting ducks here, Jinsha is a sitting duck here. I’ll pay it.”

“It won’t be money. I’ll get back to you.”

Eryn was just short of shaking, his nerves running him right up to the edge of adrenal overload as he found himself tuned up for action but with nothing to expend all that wired energy on. Behind him he heard a clatter as Jinsha ran up the ramp, hitting the big red button to seal the ship up on her way by.

“Ok, I’m here. Let’s go,” She said, sounding winded.

“We’re in the queue. Forty minute wait.”

Jinsha looked at him sharply, eyes wide, “What?”

“Carmine is working on it, nothing we can do. Not like we can shoot our way out,” He sighed. “Not without killing a lot of people and probably damaging the Seat.”

“But… forty minutes?” She swallowed.

“I know.”

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Fenn nodded in satisfaction as he looked over the situation map.

The Ships at the Trade Station were clearly alerted to the presence of his task group, which was as planned and while they couldn’t yet see the chaos that was causing, he had no doubt it was there.

“Captain, you may proceed as planned.”

“Yes, Admiral,” The Captain replied before turning back to his command crew. “Arm relativistic systems.”

“Aye Captain. Systems arming.”

The relativistic weapons systems were generally not intended for tactical use, the high speed and power of the systems made them significantly overpowered for most uses however, as strategic weapons they had their value.

“Capacitors charging.”

It didn’t take long for the distinct whine to be felt more than heard as it passed through the decks of the ship, right up through their feet, almost vibrating their bones.

“Weapons charged. Fire controls active.”

The Captain nodded, “Clear the safeties.”

“Safe systems clear. Weapons are live.”

Fenn noted the Captain glance back at him, a gesture not strictly required but he understood the urge and simple nodded once to confirm. The Captain returned the gesture and again turned to the front.

“Fire.”

*****

The relativistic weapons of the Forward Unto Death were a time differential accelerator, a very localized manipulation of time to cause a rod of an osmium composite to suddenly accelerate at rates so high that the recoil of the shot shook the massive vessel from bow to stern, enough that everyone on board had to grab to something or be thrown from their feet.

Once clear of the ship, the Osmium slug went full ballistic as it arced in toward its target at nearly .75c and ready to deliver over a gigaton of energy equivalent when it struck in just under a half hour.

Behind the slug, the big ship shuddered again.

*****

Genesis Seat

“Kid.”

“We’re here, Carmine.”

“I’ve got you ahead in the queue,” Carmine said, “priority move. You should see the crews coming now.”

Eryn leaned forward in his seat and spotted the brightly colored vacuum suits approaching. “Got them, yeah.”

“You’re listed as security for the delegation, which gets you out there kid, but they’re going to expect you to provide cover and defense. Sorry, it’s the best I can do,” Carmine said, sounding apologetic as he did. “Everyone else is stuck at the back of the queue.”

“Got it, and can do. It’s better out there than stuck in here, thanks.”

“See you in the black, kid.”

The comm went dead as the ship shuddered into motion under the direction of the flight deck crew, rolling forward to the massive airlock that would cycle them out and into space.

“Get the combat systems fired up,” He told Jinsha, “You’re running Signals Intercept and second seat. Good?”

“I… yes, I can make this work.” She said firmly, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

Eryn left her to it, not that he was happy about the situation but it was what it was. Ideally, they’d get outside and just run for it, but the deal Carmine had cut made that complicated. It would destroy their reputation, and likely harm Carmine’s as well if they did. That might be worth the price to keep the Princess safe, and if things looked really bad Eryn would do just that, but it would make keeping her safe in the future that much harder too.

So he would do what he’d agreed to, Eryn decided, and run cover for the delegations.

“Weapons online. Safety systems disengaged. Warhead arming… set to one thousand kilometers,” He said aloud as he worked. “I’m linking into the ship’s systems now.”

“I understand. Do you want me to join?” Jin asked.

“Not yet,” Eryn said, “We won’t need to processing power right away, and it’s better if someone is still in the real world until we’re clear of the station.”

“Alright.”

He linked into the computer, bringing all the sensors of the ship into his own mind with a thought. Almost instantly he felt the warmth of the station on his skin, the sound of the clamoring chaos filled his ears along with the distant hissing of the airlock cycling ahead of them.

Eryn shuddered as he sank deeper into the senses so much more potent than his own.

It was an addictive sensation.

*****

Chapter 32

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Captain Clarke reports that his team is boarding the shuttle, Commander.”

Grave nodded, “Good, inform me the moment they’re on board.”

“Yes sir.”

The Commander of the Orion vessel returned his focus to the threat board, which was showing multiple Terran Imperium transponders approaching from much higher up the star’s gravity well. They were still far enough away that, visually, all they had were some fairly indistinct images, but they’d classified the task group as being composed primarily of heavy cruisers or larger vessels.

It was possible one or more of the Terran’s new class of warship were in that mess somewhere, but they hadn’t picked them out yet. Unfortunately, there were very few good quality records of the ships in action thus far, so no level of certainty could be applied to that finding.

“Squadron three has launched, Sir. Four is moving onto the ready platform now.”

“Good, Get everything we have into space,” He affirmed. “Where are the Eyes?”

“Patrol Eyes One and Two are moving upwell now, looking to get a better scan of the enemy, sir. Three and four are maintaining a point two AU patrol sweep, looking for anything trying to get in close. Five and Six will be in space with Squadron four.”

Grave nodded, “Good work. Keep at it, everyone. We can’t screw this up.”

“Aye sir.”

*****

Genesis Seat

The airlock was cycling through, and as the doors finally cracked open Eryn was flooded with a wash of signals that had been blocked by the heavy airtight walls.

“Lot of chatter out there,” He said as he fired up the drives, detaching the magnetic grapplers that kept them on the sled that had been used to move them into the lock.

The Seat floated free for a moment before he got the green light and pushed the throttle forward, taking the puddle jumper out dead slow. They cleared the station’s lock at barely a meter per second, emerging into the space beyond.

“Encrypted signals from all quarters,” Jinsha said, “Should I try to crack them?”

“Negative. We need the processing power, or we will. Log them, if we need to crack them we’ll do it later.”

“Understood.”

Eryn noted that the Delaware had put its fighters into space, unsurprisingly, as had the Republic ships. The Cluster were a little more… chaotic, he decided that was the best word for it, but their ships were clearly arming their weapons according to his flight board.

“Bene Deal, Genesis Seat,” He transmitted.

“Go for Deal, Seat.”

“We’re assigned as your escort,” Eryn said. “Where do you want us?”

“Take up position ten thousand klicks or so upwell of our location, five degrees offset to the enemy to clear our scanners. Your call which direction.”

“Roger.”

Eryn did his best not to shake his head at the relaxed issuance of orders, but at least they put him in a reasonable position to actually do something all things considered.

The drives on the Seat fired up, pushing them out as he headed upwell from the system primary.

*****

“Linking in,” Jin said just before her presence on the network clarified, shifting from the nearly phantom like image she presented while mostly in the real world into the sharply defined presence of someone running on full augments.

“Welcome,” Eryn said distractedly.

“Is something the matter?” She asked, noting his focus… or lack thereof from her point of view.

Eryn didn’t answer immediately, but finally he gestured negatively in the virtual space, “I’m not sure, but it’s likely nothing much worse than what we’re already dealing with. Just something off.”

“Off with…?” She asked leadingly, mentally rolling her eyes at having to drag the details out of the man.

“The Imperium transponders,” He said, “There’s something… I don’t know.”

“Allow me,” She snaked a copy of the files from him, checking them for herself. “They appear fine to me… Mostly older classes, however.”

“Older classes… huh, you’re right. The Brigman, the Vessy, wait… Jinsha, check this.”

A specific file appeared in front of her, expanding to cover a significant portion of her attention as she looked in closer.

“The Conwin? What’s the issue?” She asked.

“Didn’t they pull the Conwin for refits just before the coup?” Eryn asked.

“I do not recall,” Jinsha said thoughtfully. “Perhaps it was rushed back into service due to the war?”

“Maybe… No sign of the Conquest or any other of that class,” Eryn said after a moment, relaxing. “We might be in luck.”

“That would be nice for a chance,” she said with feeling, getting a snort of amusement from Eryn in turn.

“Too damn true.”

*****

Trade Station

“We’re cycling the lock now, sir.”

Carmine nodded, trying to settle in as he patted the straps holding him into the bolstered seats of the shuttle. “Thank you. How long before we’re clear?”

“Ten minutes more.”

“Understood.”

He didn’t like any of this, but of course what was there to like.

Why attack here and now? Hoping to disrupt the talks? Maybe, but it’s a strange departure from their plans thus far. What are you up to, Sylban?

As much as he’d trained that boy, Carmine felt like he should know him better but Sylban had always been a closed up type of personality. Even when he was recruited, the boy had seen too damned much at a very young age. It made him cold, at least until you got inside the armor. Few people had ever managed that.

Funny thing, though, before the coup… Carmine would have sworn that Lian Conwin was one of those who’d managed. Her death made him question a lot of what he’d thought he knew about the boy he’d trained.

He passed all the psych requirements, obviously, but he must have fooled them somehow. Colder than I thought possible, I suppose.

There was irony, Carmine supposed, that Sylban had trained the boy who had then gone on to apparently disrupt his plans almost as badly as Sylban himself had destroyed the plans of Carmine’s family despite his having trained Sylban. It was all a mess, snarled up and rolling back for decades or more, but that was why he’d ultimately left Earth in the first place.

Much as he’d been born to it, Carmine couldn’t stand the constant jockeying for power and position that was part of life in the Imperial Court.

Ironic, again perhaps, that he would up in a leadership role in the Cale despite all that, but things were different in the Cluster… well, different at Caledonia at least. The Cale was small enough that things were more laid back. So long as you were trying to do the best you could by the people overall, most folk were happy enough to leave you be. If someone else wanted the job, well as far as he was concerned, they were welcome to it as long as they could handle the tasks.

It was life the way it should be, far as he was concerned.

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Boots snapped on the deck as Hidan double timed his walk through the corridors, heading for the bridge of the big ship. His shuttle had made quick time getting across to the Carrier after they got through the lock cycle, landing on the empty flight deck with none of the delays that were often caused by activity and flight prep.

It was eerie, actually, disembarking onto an essentially empty flight deck. The place normally had a background hum of activity and noise, but this time he could hear his footsteps echo off the walls as the shuttle’s drives whined down.

Very Strange.

He didn’t have time to think on that strangeness, though, and so he wiped it from his mind as he stepped onto the bridge.

“Sitrep,” He called, looking to get the latest update.

“No significant changes since last transmission, Captain,” Grave informed him, rising from the Command position and stepping aside for Hidan. “Enemy vessels are still a significant distance out, approaching on an oblique course.”

Hidan grunted, “That doesn’t sound like Imperium tactics.”

“We haven’t been able to find any of their large class of warships, it’s possible that they weren’t able to break off enough of a force for their normal approach to be effective.” Grave answered.

Hidan considered that then acknowledged it with a tip of his head.

If so, at least it shows that they’re at a strategic limit, He thought, it would be the first time in this campaign that they overextended themselves. Good news for us if so.

“Give me a fighter screen out to Two AU, and how long before we gets Eyes on?”

“Five minutes to Eyes on, Captain, at the current closing rate. Screen is already forming out to two AU,” Grave informed him.

“Excellent. Good work, Commander… everyone. Let’s continue that.”

“Yes sir.”

*****

Trade Station, Cale Shuttle

Carmine sighed as he settled back in the bolstered seat, ignoring the panicking that was going on around him as he used his access to punch through a contact with the Bene.

He checked the ship’s feeds, noting what was moving through the command network, but didn’t bother inserting anything there. He had other things to take care of that held some import.

It was an odd thing, finding his sister again. He’d never really expected to, though at some point he supposed it was inevitable. As long lived as most people were, he likely would have made the trip home for her coronation if nothing else.

Strange how things work out sometimes.

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn eased the Seat into position upwell of the Bene as requested, checking the feed as he did.

“Enemy continues to approach, but they’re not on a head on intercept vector. It’s going to be a passing engagement,” He said, frowning.

“Is that unusual?” Jinsha asked.

“Not for what I’m seeing, no…”

Jinsha looked over to him, “You do not sound confident in that statement.”

“Because I’m not… I don’t know,” He admitted. “I’m probably second guessing too much. The tactics make sense, I just don’t know why Sylban or the Imperium would assign a force like this to an engagement with both the Orion’s and the Republic. It’s reckless. Do we have any sign of active engagement?”

Jinsha shifted focus back to the scanners before shaking her head, “No active tracking systems detected. Is that unusual?”

“Yeah, yeah that is.” Eryn scowled. “At this range, they’d need active systems to have any chance of hitting any of the ships here, and with that engagement profile, they’re not… wait… oh… oh no.”

“What?”

Eryn didn’t answer as he flipped the comms to an open channel.

“All Cluster vessels, Genesis Seat. Go active! Scan for ballistic inbounds!”

There was a brief pause as Eryn threw every system in the old Puddle Jumper wide open.

“Seat, Bene Deal. That’s insane, they’ll never hit any of us with ballistics.”

“They’ll hit the station!” He snapped back, eyes sweeping the band as he started getting returns on his active scan.

Jinsha looked over, shocked, “But… the station is almost entirely civilian! They wouldn’t…”

“They would if it’s the same group that hit the Reef.”

He tuned out her shocked gasp, scrolling through the wide band returns, eyes looking for a pattern even as the computer tried to beat him to it.

Humans, however, were evolved for many things with pattern recognition being one of the foremost. If there was a pattern out there and you set a human to find it, odds on they’d succeed. Of course, if there wasn’t a pattern, they’d probably find one anyway. Evolution had erred on the side of false positives, since spotting a tiger that wasn’t there was a lot better than missing one that was.

In this case, however, the tiger was there.

“Got it!” He snapped, opening the comms again. “Inbound ballistic located, course and speed attached! ETA to impact… three minutes!”

It took a moment before a response came, but he could detect the other ships already winding up their active targeting systems across the board of Cluster ships, with the Orions and Republic right behind.

Space lit up in the enhanced senses of the ship being fed into Eryn’s brain, search beams sweeping the void like spotlights lighting up a city. Active tracking erupted from every combat capable ship, and several not listed as such, in the system.

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Goddamn it. He’s right. Sharp kid,” Grave ground out.

“Mount an intercept,” Hidan ordered. “This is what the fighter screen is for.”

“Already moving.”

“Good, good.” Hidan sighed, turning to his XO, “and yeah, he’s a sharp kid. Survived a run on us in orbit of Sol, if you remember?”

Grave snapped over, shock on his face, “He made it out? He’s here?”

“Yes, and yes. Spoke to him in the meeting, and boy do I have a report to make to the Congressional Oversight Committee. Kid’s flying around Cluster space with the Terran princess in tow. Worse, she seems to be as sharp as her mother in negotiations… albeit with less experience, thank God for small mercies.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Hidan just shook his head, “Afraid not. It’s a strange Galaxy, my friend.”

“Not that strange, not until recently at least. Christ.”

*****

Arrow Squadron

Major Brickman looked over the scan feed sourly, unhappy that the target had gotten as close as it did before anyone noticed it.

“Alright arrows, we have our orders. Lock that ballistic and light it up.”

The team responded quickly, calling their affirmatives over the line as the squadron wheeled through space onto the new target. The track was clean, so they easily lined up their lasers and quickly had a solid tone lock.

“Arrow Lead, Foxtrot Lima.”

Lasers burned clean out, and he had a few seconds to wait for the return to confirm the hit. A bright flash of light did just that in about twenty odd seconds, though, giving him leave to breath out.

“Target hit. Eyes On, confirm the kill?”

The SEWAC spacecraft took a few seconds before they responded.

“Hold one, Arrow Lead. Something… Negative on the kill. Analysis of laser return shows target as a ballistic Osmium slug, unknown configuration, unknown mass.”

“Shit. Arrows, switch to interceptor missiles.”

Their lasers were nowhere near what was needed to slag an osmium slug, not in the time they had to intercept it.

I don’t even know if our missiles will stop that thing.

*****

Genesis Seat

“I’m putting us into range to mount intercept on those ballistics,” Eryn said, “The station is evacuating, but they don’t have the time to get everyone off.”

“I understand,” Jinsha confirmed. “I have the weapon tracking up for you.”

“Thank you,” Eryn said curtly. “Locked in. Range dropping fast, this is going to be tight timing.”

He had to fire the interceptors before the target was in range, because if he waited for the target to come into range then it would be gone before his missiles could catch it the damn thing was moving so fast.

“Bene, Genesis,” He transmitted.

“Go for Bene, Genesis.”

“Mounting intercept against enemy Bravos. Missiles hot, firing in…” Eryn checked the screens, “Ten seconds.”

“Roger Genesis. Good luck.”

He killed the Comm, eyes not straying from the clock as he prepared to fire.

“Genesis, Arrow Lead.”

Eryn blinked, eyes darting over as he automatically reached for the Comm controls.

“Go for Genesis.”

“Laser analysis of the slug shows high density Osmium, standard interceptors won’t do shit.”

“Fuck.”

Eryn saw his firing window open, but if the report was true then there was little enough point to wasting the missiles. He gestured quickly to bring up the weapons inventory in his HUD, cycling through the available.

“What does that mean?” Jinsha asked, looking over worriedly.

“Interceptor missiles primarily achieve a kill by getting close to the target and detonating a focused directional charge,” He explained while he made a selection and they both heard the whir and chunk sounds of the ship’s autoloader pulling the interceptors from the firing tube. “Against an Osmium slug moving that fast, we’d have about as much luck by blowing on it really hard.”

He heard the new missile lock, eyes immediately checking to see if the Window for firing was still up.

Thank God.

“Genesis Seat, Kilo Mikes out.” He called as the weapons fired, putting four hypervelocity missiles into space, tracking clean and clear away from the ship as they started sending back telemetry.

“Kinetic Missiles might be able to push it off target, if they hit.” He said grimly, not pointing out the odds of getting a hit at those ranges and closing velocities… well, they weren’t good.

*****

Chapter 33

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Enemy squadron is holding back, firing from range, Sir.”

Hidan nodded, he could see that but what he didn’t understand was… why?

They had shown a clear superiority in the void thus far, and while he wasn’t convinced that they could stand up to the Delaware nearly so effectively as they had against other ships… he was surprised that they were showing that lack of confidence after their showing thus far in the war.

Possibly they don’t want to engage us or the Republic directly right now, hoping we’ll stay neutral.

That made some sense, and from what he expected of the Empire it would fit. The issue he was having was that the Empire hadn’t been working to his expectations, not since the day of the Coup itself. The new leadership were clearly cut from a different cloth that the Conwin family, so he wasn’t going to take anything at face value.

Grave shook his head, “Arrow squadron and the Genesis Seat have moved to intercept. Genesis has launched kinetic kill missiles.”

“Understood,” Hidan said, tapping in a few commands at his station. “ETA to impact?”

“We’ve confirmed target designation is the station, ETA… less than a minute now.”

Hidan’s face darkened, “I want Squadron Five moving to intercept the Imperial bastards. Dispatch Three and Six to cover them in.”

Grave nodded, sending the orders out over his systems. The Fifth fighter bomber squadron attached to the Delaware was the heavy weapons group, and would have the best shot at taking down some the enemy ships.

“Our representatives are clear of the station, Sir,” He said a moment later. “Congressional review might determine that our involvement is… unwarranted at this point.”

“They can hang my ass off the yardarm we don’t have if they want,” Hidan growled, “but they’ll have to do it later. We’re here now, and those fuckers fired on us.”

“Yes sir, they did.” Grave responded, amused. “Though they might build that yardarm just for you if this drags us into the war with the Empire.”

Hidan growled darkly, but he knew his XO was just speaking the truth there. The United Congresses of the Orion Republic were not always the most sensible sorts, with as many of them violently in favor of isolationist policies as those who believed in being interventionist.

“They’ll know where to find me.”

*****

Pylum Sqadron

“Orders just came through boys, hunting licenses have been approved,” Colonel Jackson McNally said as he armed his heavy weapons. “Full thrust on my signal.”

The team acknowledged him professionally, or mostly so. He ignored the woops of enthusiasm that one or two of them didn’t manage to cut out of their transmissions. He didn’t blame them, this was the sort of order that pilots of their particular trim dreamed of.

Full thrust from the ORFB Ballista craft was enough to smash the pilots into a paste at the back of the cockpit if not for the careful manipulation of relativistic forces each did as the drives flared. In their Augmented HUDs, the highlighted particles of dust and debris that filled the space around them turned to streaks as the accelerated past at ever increasing forces, making the black of space looks like a psychedelic lightshow.

“Spy Eye Three is repositioning to provide scanner support,” Jackson said, “Feed on channel three.”

He switched over to channel three, pulling in the feed from the SEWAC craft that was moving to cover them from a few thousand klicks to the rear. The feed immediately brightened up their screens as the enemy ships became instantly clear.

“Target assignments coming through,” He said as he split the feed up and gave each fighter a primary and secondary target, with as much overlap as he could manage to keep redundancies covered. “Acknowledge receipt.”

One by one the squadron called in their acknowledgement as he watched the targets go from a dull red to a bright crimson that showed they’d been designated as active targets.

“Pylum Squadron,” the voice of the dispatch back on the Delaware came over the channel, “Please be aware, the Cluster has dispatched interception vessels as well.”

“Great. I do not need to deal with those amateurs right now,” Jackson growled under his breath before he keyed open the comm. “Pylum Lead acknowledges.”

Then he switched over to the squadron frequency before addressing the rest of his team.

“Orders have cleared, guys,” He said firmly, “We’re the sharp end, as usual. Torch the back end, light the front. We’re going in.”

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn could feel the stress bearing down on him, there were too many lives at risk to properly count, but all he could do was wait for the interception to happen before he’d know whether or not they’d done anything at all to stop the worst from happening.

“Interception in… eight… seven…” He called out the numbers as they fell, watching as the signal from the rockets closed on the plotted interception point.

He was trying to bullseye a target not much larger than a meter or so long, he expected, and maybe a fifth that in diameter. It didn’t take much Osmium to make up a thousand kilos, and if you could get it up to relativistic speeds… well, it made an impact, one might say.

The countdown ended with… absolutely nothing happening.

“Did… did we miss?”

“Wait for it, we’re several light seconds from the interception point,” He said, eyes still on the screens.

His interceptors were also Osmium, at least at the ‘warhead’, with the rest being constructed of Meteoric Iron and Steel. Cheap, easy to acquire, and nearly as functional all things considered. He didn’t need to destroy the target, just bump it a tad.

A flash on his screen caught his attention.

“Hit!”

*****

Arrow Lead

“Goddamn, the Cluster boy managed a hit,” Brickman blurted in surprise.

“Was it enough?”

“It’s never enough until the slug misses the target,” Brickman responded to his wingman. “Hit it again.”

“Yes sir.”

Brickman watched as the team moved in, firing their own kinetic kill weapons as fast as they could.

The odds on for hitting a target moving that fast in the depths of space weren’t great, but the fact that it was space and thus there were far fewer variables affecting the necessary calculations at least made it reasonably possible.

He left his team to it while he monitored the rest of the battlefield, keeping his own perspective focused on the big picture as much as he could, but a section of his mind was trying to puzzle something else out.

Where have I heard that kid’s voice before?

He knew that he’d heard the young man’s voice before, which was odd because normally he didn’t recognize voices all that well since he was so used to working with people over digitally compressed transmissions. In person, most of the people he dealt with were his team and the flight support crew.

I wonder if he was an Orion pilot who moved to the Cluster?

It wasn’t a far fetched idea, a lot of former military retired out to the Cluster. The rules there were a lot more loose, and the people tended to mind their own affairs. Both of those things were attractive to a military man looking for a place to settle down and spend his so called golden years.

For whatever reason, though, he didn’t think that was where he’d heard the voice before.

Weird.

*****

Genesis Seat

“Did we do it?”

“Calculating the new trajectory now,” Eryn said, grimacing. “I wish we had access to the SEWACS feed.”

“The what?” Jinsha asked, looking at him in confusion.

“The Orions have long range craft,” Eryn said, “Space and Environmental Warning and Control hulls, flying reactors with more power than a city needs and only one thing to pump it through, their scanners. They’ve been pouring more radiation into this system since this started than the local primary.”

He laughed slightly, “Ok, not quite that much, but closer than you’d ever believe. If we had a tap into that feed, we’d already be firing another salvo.”

“I do not suppose we could ask for it?” She suggested, a little wryly.

“We could, but even if they said yes… which they wouldn’t,” Eryn shook his head, “we don’t have their codes on board to decrypt and make use of the signal.”

“Pity.”

“We definitely nudged that little bastard though,” He said as the computer began constructing the new trajectory, “And the Arrows are taking the ball and running with it. They’ve put twenty or more Kinetic Kill interceptors into space.”

“Then the station is safe?”

“No one is safe until we’re done,” Eryn said firmly, “And maybe not for a while afterwards. I don’t envy whoever has to track done those slugs when this is done. You can’t have relativistic slugs of Osmium orbiting an inhabited system. What goes around comes around when we’re talking about orbital mechanics.”

“Ah, yes… that would not be a pleasant job.”

“No kidding. I bet whoever picks up that job loses at least a month or two just due to the relativistic speeds needed to mount an intercept.”

“Would they not use drones?”

Eryn shrugged, grimacing a little, “Drones at relativistic speeds don’t respond well to control, which means they’d have to be fully automated. That’s some heavy computational power, I don’t know if the locals can afford it.”

Another flash on the screen caused him to whoop, fist pumping.

“What happened?”

“The Arrows got a hit, I think that slug has been shifted enough. Running the numbers now but…”

“All ships, Arrow Lead,” The Orion’s voice came over the comm channel. “Kinetic warhead has been redirected. Projected orbit is being transmitted to all local vessels and authorities. Please avoid the marked areas until further notice.”

Eryn checked the data, nodding, “Excellent. It’ll miss the station by a few dozen klicks… they might take from shot from debris blasted off by our interceptors, but there’s nothing we can do about that.”

“What now?” She asked, eyes sweeping the screens.

“I’m working on that… we need to…”

Eryn was interrupted by a brilliant white flash that blanked out their screens, leaving them fully in the dark for a moment before the automated protection systems that shut down their scanners rebooted them.

“What happened!?”

Eryn didn’t respond at first, quickly parsing the data and the sheer volume of confused communications. His mouth went dry as he understood what had just occurred.

“The station,” He said dully. “It’s gone.”

“What? No… no,” Jinsha said, stricken. “How?”

“They must have fired another slug, we didn’t see it coming.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Hidan slammed a hand into the console in front of him, “Goddamn it! How did we miss that!?”

“They fired the second one in the shadow of the first, sir,” Grave informed him, his anger only barely controlled. “We’re checking the scans, but I can tell you now… from the looks of it, we saw it, but we thought it was a scanner artifact.”

Hidan bowed his head, eyes closed.

“Never again.” He said softly.

“Sir?”

“We will never make that mistake again,” He declared, lifting his head and looking around. “Tens of thousands of people just paid for our error. You tell the scanning crew, I don’t care what it takes. We never miss something like this again.”

“I’ll be certain they know to do their best to ensure that, Sir.”

Hidan held up two fingers pressed together, his face etched like stone.

“Never. Again.”

“Yes sir.”

*****

Chapter 34

Genesis Seat

The shock of the destruction sat between the pair as they stared at the scanner results for far longer than they should have, trying to will them to be a mistake.

Unfortunately, the data stubbornly refused to submit to their will, leaving the two young people feeling numb. Eryn recovered first, his training forcing him to move even as his mind and emotions shut down. He checked the feeds, locating the enemy ships in relation to the Cluster vessels.

“The Bene is withdrawing from the fight,” He said after a moment. “They’re not equipped for this, so I can’t blame them. Several other Cluster ships are also pulling back… a few of them are equipped for this, but nothing we can do about that. The Orions are stepping up, they’ve put interceptors and bombers into space… the Republic…”

He trailed off, shaking his head.

“The Republic ships are withdrawing,” Eryn spat out, “That’s a good third or more of the firepower on this side of the fight. Damn it.”

Jinsha stared blankly, “How could they?”

“The Republic?” He shrugged, “I assume they don’t consider it their fight.”

“No… the Imperium.” She said dully, “How could they fire on civilians?”

Eryn hesitated. This was a discussion he’d had with Sylban in the past. Sylban was not a man for emotion, and Eryn actually suspected that if he saw the need… Sylban would give the order, and likely not feel particularly bad about it afterwards… but… he despised waste like few other things, and this? This was waste incarnate.

Lives, equipment… propaganda. It played into the Cluster’s worries on every level, and Eryn had no doubt that the Cluster would shortly be using this strike as a key piece of war propaganda. He certainly would, in their place.

“I don’t know,” He said honestly as he shook his head, “I just… I don’t know.”

“We cannot allow this,” Jinsha ground out. “I will not allow this to stand.”

Eryn looked at her, askance, “Princess… There’s not much we can…”

“We will do what we can,” She turned her gaze on him, and in that moment Eryn saw her mother standing behind her and a chill ran down his spine. “Agreed?”

Eryn nodded shakily, “Alright.”

The shift in his head was palpable, as Eryn went from not being sure of what to do next to having a mission to execute. He looked over the tactical situation, noting that the Terran ships were on an outward bound trajectory. It seemed like they’d accomplished their task to the satisfaction of their orders, and had no inclination to attempt to secure the system.

Strike force, rapid mobility,… hit hard, fade fast.

That sort of strategy wasn’t exactly one that the Empire tended to employ, but mostly because until very recently, Imperial forces had been deployed in defensive operations primarily. Most of his training, in this particular area of expertise, had in fact been done from the point of view of a defender wanting to disrupt such tactics.

“We’ll have to micro-jump, and it won’t be safe,” He said after a few seconds deliberation. “We’re deep enough in the system that we stand a real chance of tearing this ship apart.”

“Do what must be, Eryn. They cannot be allowed to continue as they have.”

He sighed, but nodded, “As you will it, Princess.”

He started the calculations immediately, knowing that there was little enough time to get them done.

A microjump was an easy enough maneuver, it really just amounted to exactly what it sounded like. Pulse firing the FTL drive would cause them to leap over a few light seconds or more in an instant, being able to cross the system in a flash of blue Cherenkov radiation.

The issue arose from the Relativistic effects of the local gravity well. The local star wasn’t a particularly large one, but it was a star after all, and within its field of effect, time was dilated by its very presence.

Anything lower in the gravity well travelled through time at a slower rate than anything higher, as a matter of basic Astro-physics. Most of the time this was a minor note of very little interest to the majority of people, but when you were trying to accomplish an FTL hop it became a matter of huge import.

It meant that the sections of the ship that were facing the star experienced time every so slightly slower than the hull and superstructure that was facing away from it. Most of the time this was, at best, a curiosity of sorts due to the difference in passage of time being so minutely small.

When part of the ship wanted to suddenly take off faster that light, however, even a few picoseconds difference could result in extreme sheering forces tearing the ship apart.

With a larger ship, Eryn wouldn’t have even dared consider it, but even the Seat wouldn’t be immune to the effect if he were careless with it. Eryn checked the instrumentation, looking for the closest Lagrange point. Finding it, he hit the main thrusters and sank into the Augmented Control system his implant suite allowed him to utilize.

“Defending vessels, Genesis Seat,” He intoned as the ship flipped in space and arced into a tight curve, heading for the Lagrangian point. “Be advised, we are preparing to execute a micro-jump.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Hidan spun around as the broadcast played over the ship’s comm.

“He’s what?” Grave blurted, shocked. “Is he insane?”

“He might be,” Hidan confirmed, hurrying over top the scanner section. “Show me the specs on that ship.”

“Aye sir.”

A tertiary display shifted, putting up the specifications of the little ship on the screen, Hidan immediately looking closer.

“This kid is out of his mind, Sir,” Grave whispered as he leaned in.

“Maybe,” Hidan said again, “That’s an old style hull. Flatter than we build now.”

“So?”

“Oh, very smart… yes, yes, I see what you’re doing,” Hidan nodded, “He’s heading for the trailing Lagrange point.”

“I’m sure that’s very nice and all, but sir…”

“The Lagrange point has multiple gravity waves canceling each other out,” Hidan said, “That will reduce relativistic drag, He might be able to pull it off.”

“Bully for him, but it won’t do much. Where is he going?”

“I don’t know, maybe he’s trying to get the Princess out of here,” Hidan said, shrugging. “I would.”

Grave shook his head, “We’d best put our squadrons on alert, because if he flubs this he’s going to put a shotgun spread of debris moving at one c from here to the edge of the system.”

Hidan nodded, “Put out the alert.”

*****

Arrow Lead

“They’re going to do what!?”

Brick was nearly certain that he’d heard that incorrectly. The only reason he wasn’t completely sure was that his onboard computer was telling him that he hadn’t, but no one was stupid enough to try what they said the Seat was about to try, so he had to assume that his computer had just suffered a catastrophic failure.

Which is odd, because none of the checks are showing even in the yellow.

It took two separate confirmations before he was willing to believe that it as not, in fact, a comms error and a computer glitch the size of the Delaware.

“Ok, you heard them boys,” He said, “I want everyone clear of any vector that ship might even look like it’s taking. Clear?”

“Clear sir.”

Brickman shook his head.

What kind of crazy person tries something like… oh… wait a… He frowned, thinking about the voice he felt like he should know, and when he’d heard that voice before.

Brickman’s eyes widened as the pieces clicked together.

“That crazy kid… holy shit!”

The flash of Cherenkov blue could be seen for several lightseconds around as the realization flooded his mind just as the Genesis Seat made their jump.

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Alarms erupted all along the decks of the warship, blue lights flashing from near every corner of the bridge.

“Lightspeed transition detected!”

Admiral Fenn leaned in, they weren’t expecting any reinforcements, and neither should anyone be arriving to backup the diplomatic groups.

“Isolate and locate the source!”

“Working, Captain. The source is… it’s hard to pinpoint, I’ve never seen this interference pattern before!”

The Captain swore as Fenn just quietly mirrored the data to his screens so he could have a look without disrupting the officers on the deck as they worked. He instantly saw what was giving the technician so much trouble, the pattern was like nothing he’d ever seen in practice. I fact, it only resembled something he’d seen in simulations he thought. He just couldn’t quite place it.

“Captain,” He said, getting the attention of the crew, “Cross reference the pattern against simulations, I believe. I think I’ve seen something like this before.”

The Captain glanced in his direction for a moment before nodding curtly and then turning back to the tech and doing the same.

Relived to be out from under the ire of the Captain, if only for a moment, the technician ran the search comparison.

“Uh… it’s… this can’t be right, that’s not even possible,” The Tech muttered.

“What does it say?” The Captain growled over his objection.

“It matches an in-system jump, Captain. Did… someone just commit suicide?”

Admiral Fenn rose from where he’d been sitting, walking across the command deck with a nod to the Captain. “Apologies for stepping in, Captain.”

“Not at all, Sir. Are you familiar with this?”

Fenn looked over the technician’s shoulder, quickly skimming the results of the search.

“I’ve heard of it, but never knew of anyone who actually tried it,” He admitted, “it’s likely that someone grew rather panicked, given the… Imperium’s actions at the Reef.”

“Ah, of… of course, sir.”

Fenn and the Captain shared a brief glance, both were well aware of the actual events at Orson’s Reef, but not everyone on the command deck was.

“Sir, we have an Orion heavy bomber squadron on approach.”

“Damnation,” Fenn swore, wiping the thought of the suicidal fools from his mind as he and the rest turned to deal with the real threats.

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn and Jinsha were slammed forward into their harnesses as the Seat was ejected from the micro-jump, the inertial modifier barely keeping up with the sudden shift from acceleration to deceleration, the ship rocking wildly as Eryn got the systems back under the control.

“Location?” He asked quickly, focused on getting the controls behaving properly as the ship’s controls reacted to the sudden shift in microgravity around them.

“Within the target zone,” Jinsha said, sounding surprised. “We have hull stress detected across the whole fuselage. Imperium vessel locations to your screens.”

“Got them,” Eryn said as his HUD lit up with the blood red icons of the enemy ships. He got a passive lock on the Conwin as he brought the ship around and increased their sublight thrust.

The ships rumbled under them, plunging through the void toward the enemy, and Eryn looked over to his co-pilot, nerves running high, “Are you sure about this? We can still turn away.”

“They killed civilians, Eryn,” Jinsha said darkly. “They killed civilians in front of me, using a ship named after my family.”

She looked over at him and he knew there was no talking her out of this.

“Alright,” Eryn looked forward again, “Then get ready, because this is going to be a rough flight.”

*****

Pylum Squadron

“Say that again, Delaware,” Jackson blurted over the comm, shocked.

“Cluster vessel genesis seat performed an in-system microjump, they are likely to be in or entering your AO. Be advised, they are not considered hostile…”

The comm message droned on, computer automatically repeating because he asked, but he was barely listening to it. He’d heard it the first time, he just hadn’t believed it.

An in-system jump? That takes some balls, Jackson knew that without a doubt. Technically he knew of a few Orion ships that could do it, his own fighters weren’t on the list unfortunately. Command Carriers were supposed to handle all the heavy lifting when it came to travel, while the fighters served as Planetary scale force projection.

Situations like the one they were in, with an enemy firing on them from several AU out, were a statistical anomaly in how most combat was managed. Weapons of Mass Destruction, such as the kinetic warheads being launched by the Imperium, were generally considered anathema because using them had a tendency to bring every unaligned force into the fight against you.

The Imperium had to have lost their goddamn minds, Jackson supposed, since they were clearly trying to start a war with damn near every polity in existence.

Stupid dirt farmers should have stayed home and just faded from history like the fucking relics they are, He thought darkly as he thumbed the comm switch.

“Roger that, Delaware. Did they survive it?” He asked curiously, settling in to wait for the signal to get back to them and a response to be made.

The wait was now several seconds each way.

“Unknown, we’re still waiting for lightspeed scans from the region.” The Delaware finally responded.

“Well just peachy…” He mumbled to himself, reaching for the squadron comm channel, “Boys and girls, you are not going to believe this…”

*****

Genesis Seat

“Missiles armed,” Eryn said as the Seat closed on the enemy squadron from the rear, their approach masked by the drive radiation of the enemy cruisers and destroyers, “We’re not going to get a second chance at this.”

“Target the Conwin.”

“Conwin soft locked,” Eryn said firmly. “To get a hard lock, we’ll need to go active.”

“I understand,” Jinsha said, her voice calmer than Eryn expected… or wanted to hear, if he were being honest with himself. “How close should we get?”

Eryn checked the radiation readings, which were several hundred times higher than local space should be, grimacing slightly.

“We’ll be visiting a doc for Rad poisoning anyway,” He said, “so we may as well go for broke. Best go grab some rad-pills from the emergency supplies, though. We’re going to need them.”

“Right…” Jin said, hesitating before she cleared her restraints and ducked back to rummage through the emergency kit. “Have them.”

“Take two, pass me the bottle.”

Jinsha did as she was bade, swallowing a pair of pills before handing the bottle up. A moment later Eryn passed it back and she secured it in place and dropped back into her seat.

“The pills will keep buildup from contaminating key organs,” Eryn said, “but we’re going to need detox to flush the meds from our system when we get back to the Cale, and probably some gene therapy, but we’re good to get close now.”

Jinsha nodded.

“You ready?”

“I am.”

“Good. Link up.”

Jinsha linked her implant suite into the ship, going deeper than mere control interfaces. In a moment she was nearly lost in a swirl of data coming from the ship’s sensors, her own and Eryn’s implants… and even stray thoughts the system plucked from Eryn’s mind as he plunged so deep he practically became one with the ship… and her.

“Hang on, princess,” Eryn said grimly. “We’re going in.”

*****

Chapter 35

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

“Pylum squadron is on target, Sir. They’ll be within engagement rage in less than a minute.”

Hidan nodded, “Excellent. Ensure that they’re weapons free. Don’t let the enemy get away free and clear, for what they did today we’ll extract something before the cowards flee.”

Grave nodded, “Aye skipper.”

Congress won’t like any of this, Hidan knew all too well, but their hand might be forced. The Imperium not only assaulted a diplomatic conference with the Orion Congressional Republic in representation, but they slaughtered civilians right under our nose.

Normally, the Congress’ were unlikely to involve the OCR in the affairs of others like this, but the insult combined with the atrocity would be a heavy lever pushing them to act. Hidan wasn’t certain it would be enough, but he was quite certain that it would kick up the mother of all stinks once it was reported back.

He didn’t want anyone to be able to say that the Delaware sat by and watched such an atrocity, however. Blood screamed for blood, and thus far the red was all on the wrong side of the ledger.

Their retribution rode with Pylum Sqiadron now, though, since the enemy were far beyond the engagement range of the Delaware herself.

*****

Pylum Lead

“Weapons armed,” Jackson ordered, “Interceptor squadrons, watch our back. Pylum, ready your attack runs.”

The enemy ships had plotted a reciprocal high speed orbit, and they’d made it clear that they had no intention of reversing thrust for another pass. A single run through the outer system, firing WMDs at extreme range.

Fucking dirt farmers, Jackson thought darkly. Just goes to show that the Cluster are all talk, otherwise they’d have already showed these bastards right back to their rotting world and put them back in the mud they crawled out of.

The entire action was the sort that only a coward would contemplate, as far as he was concerned they all would make the galaxy that much better when they were little more than irradiated debris in the space lanes.

He assigned targets across the squadron, part of his mind watching the scanners for any sign of a counter assault from the enemy ships but he was mostly leaving that job to the interceptor pilots running block for the Pylum bombers.

The enemy force was mostly destroyers running escort for the cruisers that he assumed had been the source of the WMD fire on the station. Destroyers didn’t have the power in their reactors to push slugs of Osmium out to that kind of velocity unless the Imperium had really shaken things up, which he rather doubted.

“Cruisers are priority targets,” He ordered, doubling up the density of fire they’d be unleashing on those. “Watching for point defense fire, nobody group up too close.”

His squad normally ran a fairly tight formation, staying within a few kilometers of one another, both for simplicity of navigation as well as the benefits of lag-free communication, but now they were spreading out across several hundred thousand klicks just to ensure that the entire squadron didn’t go up in a ball of nuclear fire if the enemy decided to violate another unspoken rule of modern warfare.

“Alright Pylums… Pylum Lead, beginning my attack run.”

Pushing the thruster controls all the way forward, Jackson twisted his neck slightly to stretch out a kink as he was pushed back into the flight seat with the full authority of the powerful drives of the fighter/bomber.

The enemy weren’t yet in visual range, but he’d see them soon enough… what was left of them at least.

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Fenn glowered at the screens as the Orion fighter/bomber squadron and escorts lit up light searchlights in the night sky, their active scanners painting targets all across his ships.

“Orions,” He muttered in annoyance, “Not even at attempt at subtlety.”

Granted, he supposed that they had little use for it normally. The Orion Congressional Republic was arguably the premier power in the Galaxy at the moment, but that didn’t make them invincible by any means. They had lost their share of battles, and more wars than they’d won by any measure, always due to their own arrogance more than a lack of power.

That arrogance was clearly in evidence right then and there.

“Target their scanners,” He ordered, “No active systems, if you please.”

“With pleasure, Admiral,” The Captain grinned slightly as he nodded and tapped the weapons’ officer on the shoulder.

The young officer quickly turned to the task and the fighter/bombers were swiftly locked into the targeting systems as the point defensive weapons were brought up to full measure.

Fenn would actually have preferred not to engage the Orion or the Nine Stars representatives, if only due to the increased nature of the risk such an engagement involved, but he’d known full well that such a conflict might be inevitable.

“Engage on your discretion, Captain,” He ordered.

“Yes sir.” The Captain said, focusing fully on the approaching bombers, “Check fire until my order, Lieutenant.”

“Aye skipper.”

The Captain eyed the scans, “We’ll let them get a little closer before we light them up. Point Defense, stand ready to engage missiles.”

“Aye aye, sir!”

The Captain turned halfway back to the Admiral, “After they fire they’ll briefly be blinded by their own missile exhaust. We’ll engage then.”

Fenn nodded, “Make it so, Captain.”

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn was sweating as they closed on the Conwin, most of it was psychosomatic of course but he felt like he could feel the heat of the ship’s drive plumes on his own skin the way he could through the scanners built into the hull of the Seat.

They were flying entirely on passive systems, no active scans running at all, and it felt like flying half blind… mostly because it was just that.

Between the lack of active emissions and the blindspot in the hot section of space directly behind the enemy convoy, he was reasonably confident that they’d not be seen on approach right up until they broke clear of the radiated exhaust and began their attack run on the destroyer.

That, Eryn thought grimly, will be when things get interesting.

He honestly didn’t truly understand why he was doing this, doubts kept trying to encroach on his thoughts, but being committed to the operation he just slammed them away. The Princess… Jinsha… had a mission, and he didn’t even disagree with it. He just wished that she weren’t sitting in the hot seat right beside him while he was making it happen.

Sylban would strip the flesh from his bones with words alone if he ever learned of this, Eryn knew without a question. Risking her Majesty like this was tantamount to treason… or, well it would be under any sane circumstance. Instead, sanity had apparently abandoned them all, and he supposed that if he had to be insane… then he would fully embrace it.

“Eryn… Why are you grinning?”

The words shook him slightly, and he broke from the deep dive into the computer momentarily to look to one side where Jinsha was looking at him with concern and… incredulity in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, Princess,” He said as he let himself sink back into the dive again, “Just enjoy the ride.”

*****

Pylum Lead

“Ship Breakers hot,” Jackson confirmed for the record being inscribed into the fighter/bomber’s black box. “Pylum Lead… Foxtrot Sigma Bravo.”

The heavy fighter platform shuddered from burners to nosecone as the big missiles were ejected into space, floating briefly alongside before the reactor spun up and a flash of brilliant light made Jackson turn his head to one side. Flashing out into space, in a moment the missile became a shining star rapidly receding into the black ahead of him.

Similar flashes from around him light up space as Pylum squadron followed his lead, an even dozen missiles leaping to the attack in as many seconds.

Jackson didn’t watch them go, however, he was already priming his next shot.

“Pylum Lead… Foxtrot Sigma Bravo.”

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

“Target the fighter’s scanner beams,” The Captain ordered again, “Fire for effect. Point defense, take out those missiles!”

He ignored the acknowledgement, eyes on the board as the tracks were being plotted by the ship’s systems. The incoming missiles were almost certainly heavy ship killers, but that would make them slower and easier to hit just as much as it made them a threat. With the squadron working in conjunction with one another, he didn’t foresee any issue with getting clear of the fight with minimal damage now that the mission had been accomplished.

The ship shuddered a little under his feet, every point defense gun in the correct arc had just opened up in full rapid fire even as the long range medium missiles began to flush from their banks.

“Admiral,” He said, “We have engaged the enemy.”

“Very good, Captain,” Fenn said seriously. “Continue at your discretion.”

“Aye sir.”

*****

Genesis Seat

“Radiation levels peaking at critical levels,” Jinsha reported, her voice rasping slightly as she smacked her mouth slightly, trying to relieve the dryness she was dealing with.

Neither of those things surprised Eryn in the slightest, given that they were almost on top of the Conwin’s thrust plume, the radiation heating up the skin of the ship so much that he felt like his own flesh was about to sear off.

“Understood. Executing ‘popup’ maneuver… now.”

He hit the thrusters, sending the Seat vertical relative to the Conwin, twisting the controls at the same time to flip her over as he pushed forward.

Interference from the radiation cleared in an instant, leaving him looking out at the hull of the destroyer ahead of them as he inverted over the ship and skimmed close to the armored surface. A glance to either side showed the shadowed grey hulls of other ships in the distance, even as his own scanners started screaming.

“What is that?” Jinsha blurted instinctively before she found the reports, “Oh. Missiles active, Eryn!”

“I see them,” He said without shifting his focus. “They’re not aimed at us. I think we got luckier than we deserve, the Orions attack must have begun.”

“This is… good?”

“Good and bad,” He said, tagging targets on the Conwin as he armed the heavy missiles in the Seat’s magazines. “Good because the Imperium ships will be focused on them… bad, because we’re in the strike zone, and they’re probably using very… big warheads.”

“Then we should finish and be gone, yes?”

“Yes,” He answered definitively. “Weapons armed. Princess… on your command.”

Jinsha took a breath, “Do it.”

“Weapon release cleared. Bombs away.”

The Seat popped the covers of the vertical tubes open as he hit the ejector and put six heavy missiles into space at once, barely twenty meters from their target. Eryn then flipped the Seat over as he fired thrusters and rolled down the port side of the Destroyer to put the enemy’s armor between him and the weapons he’d just fired.

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

“Huh. That’s odd.”

Fenn barely heard the statement, but it sent down his spine even as he turned to the speaker along with the Captain.

“What is odd.” The Captain demanded more than questioned.

Fenn didn’t blame him. There were a few things you didn’t want to hear in combat, and that was right up there on the list along with words like ‘oops’ and ‘oh shit’.

“The Pegasus in Flight just reported sensor ghosts and occlusions,” The communications officer said, “no one else is reporting issues. Probably a computer error.”

“Now is not the time for computer issues,” Fenn growled, “Tell them to get it diagnosed, now.”

“Uh yes sir, I…”

The officer was cut off by a shock of alarms screaming around them.

“What the…”

“Pegasus was just struck! She’s bleeding air, Admiral!”

“By what? The Orions’ weapons are still seconds out!” Fenn demanded, furious, “How did anything get that close!?”

“I… I don’t know! Scanners don’t show any… wait… I have something,” The scanner technician said. “Fast moving small vessel, Sir! It’s inside our exclusion zone!”

Fenn had only rarely felt fury quite as incandescent as he felt just then.

“Isolate, target, and destroy the intruder,” The Captain snapped.

“Aye sir!”

“Wait!” Admiral Fenn snapped, “Do not split the focus of the targeting systems! The Orion weapons are priority! Anything left, that can focus on the intruder!”

“Yes, Admiral,” The Captain said, quickly amending his orders as he checked the available resources. “That will limit us to offside point defense, Admiral. Our missile banks are fully committed.”

“So be it. But find out who the fuck just hit us.”

“Working on it.”

*****

Genesis Seat

Eryn winced as he felt weapons fire slam into the Seat’s armor, shaking the ship but doing little else.

“What is that?”

“Point defense guns,” He said without looking over. “Nothing that can get through our armor, even at this range.”

Jinsha swallowed, but nodded.

“Weapons tubes reloaded,” He went on as he wove the ship between the enemy destroyers, heading for one of the larger cruisers. “Target selected, the Sol Forever… huh.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve been aboard the Forever,” He said, frowning at his screens. “That’s not her.”

“Are you sure?” Jinsha asked skeptically.

“Oh yeah, the Forever is an older cruiser,” Eryn said as he moved them closer. “She’s been in service for a century and a half now, this one hasn’t been in space a quarter of that time.”

“What does it mean? Did they rename another cruiser?”

“Maybe…” He said doubtfully, toggling a control. “I’m recording everything, dumping it to protected archives. Something is wrong here.”

“Worry about it later,” She said firmly. “We have more pressing concerns now.”

“Right you are, target marked. Weapons hot… bombs away.” He said as he flipped the Seat over to put the vertical tubes in line as he again ejected the six missiles before flipping back and running for the closest enemy ship he could reach to hide behind.

*****

Chapter 36

Pylum Lead

Jackson swore as he saw the massed fire from the enemy squadron begin to thin out the missile barrage. He was sure that they’d get some hits, without question, but if the rate of attrition continued he wasn’t sure that they’d get a solid kill.

“Fire the racks empty, boys and girls,” He ordered.

He’d be damned if they landed back on the Delaware with a single missile left in the racks, not after what the Imperial bastards had done to the civilian station.

“Pylum Lead, watch for inbound missiles.”

“What?” Jackson snapped his head down, checking the scans.

His own instruments showed nothing, but there it was on the SEWACS feed… missile tracks plunging in toward his team.

“Bolt Squadron responding,” Bolt Lead called out as the interceptors lanced out ahead of Pylum and began to engage the inbound missiles.

“Pylums, deploy countermeasures. Evade if needed.” Jackson ordered.

They had to have waited for us to fire before they targeted us, probably using our own beams to do the job. Craftier than expected.

“All units… weapons strike on the enemy ships.”

Jackson felt like he was on a rollercoaster, only with confusion instead of excitement… which felt very strange in the middle of a fight.

“Say again,” He demanded, knowing that the missiles his team had fired were still seconds out from impact, and more before the strike would be visible.

“One ship is slowing, falling out of formation… weapon strike recorded on the lead cruiser now.”

“What the f…”

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

“Where are they?” The Captain snarled as he gripped the side of his seat, having just been shaken nearly out of it.

“What are they?” Fenn added, glaring at the screens surrounding him.

“Target is a small vessel, no transponder broadcasting…”

No shit. Fenn thought, sneering. If it had been broadcasting a transponder they’d have never gotten close without being spotted, let alone inside the exclusion zone of an entire squadron.

“We have a clear image, on screen.”

Everyone looked up to where the squat, ugly looking ship was frozen in time for their inspection.

“It’s an old multi-service ship,” The Captain said, sounding a little numb.

“Old design, yes, but that’s a Cali hull. They’ve been reactivating them like mad since the Imperium began moving,” Fenn muttered ion disgust.

“Why are we being attacked by a Cali ship?”

“Because they think we’re an Imperium battlegroup, idiot,” Fenn snapped without looking up to see who had spoken. “And we can’t tell them different, so destroy them before they cause more trouble for us.”

“Aye sir!”

Unbelievable.

*****

Genesis Seat

“Whoa!”

Eryn flinched as he felt the enemy tracking systems light the Seat up with more power than he ever wanted pointed in his direction.

“We just wore out our welcome, princess,” He announced, flipping the ship back over and ducking between two destroyers evading most of the direct flak from their point defense weapons.

The weapons fire crossfire spattered off both destroyers in the process, but their armor was thicker than the Seat’s own, so he doubted anyone on board either ship even noticed the steel rain hammering them.

“Signal from the Bene, Eryn,” Jinsha informed him. “They’re clear and going to jump.”

“Understood. Time to dump the rest of our munitions and get the hell out of dodge ourselves.” Eryn said, arming the last of their heavy missiles as he picked his evasion course.

The Genesis Seat was a high maneuverability craft that had been built essentially as a jack of all trades hull, and while that meant it wasn’t great at any one job in many way it was more than capable of most. At the moment he was making the most of the maneuvering capabilities as the enemy ships tried to lock on at close range.

That was both an advantage and a disadvantage for both sides.

At close range there was essentially no lag in the targeting systems tracking him, giving the enemy ships an edge he just couldn’t beat. They had him locked up and no matter what he did to shake it, he couldn’t get loose of the warning tone for more than a second or two.

However, locked up or not, their weapons had to track him and at close range that became an issue as their lateral closing rates could easily exceed the mechanical capabilities of the system.

Basically, the computers could see them easily enough, but the guns just couldn’t turn fast enough to keep him targeted.

Of course, more problematic for the bigger ships was that he and the Seat were inside their exclusion zone and few ship’s commanders were eager to remove the distance arming safeties from missiles in order to shoot at anything quite that close.

Getting fragged by your own missiles was a thing that stuck with an officer’s career even if they managed to survive the incident.

“Target selected,” He said as he again painted the big cruiser. “Going to try and soften them up a little for the Orions. Bombs away! Hold tight, this is going to be rough.”

The Seat shuddered again as the missiles were ejected clean, then Eryn rolled away at high speed before flipping the Seat end for end and hitting the thrust as hard as he could.

He and Jinsha were slammed into their bolstered seats hard enough that Eryn was seeing black encroaching on his vision as he panted and clenched every muscle in his body, trying to keep the blood in his head as he pushed the ship well past the point where the inertial compensation was capable of helping.

Reaching out painfully he entered the coordinates for the jump as he checked the microgravity readings.

They were far enough out that the Seat would be able to jump without issue, just as soon as he cleared the potential collision risks of the other ships.

“Just a bit more…”

*****

Libation Warship Forward Unto Death

Fenn swore as the next barrage of missiles hammered through the point defenses, slamming into the side of the Cruiser with enough force to shatter armor and rock the deck uncontrollably.

“Damage report!”

The Captain was yelling over the sound of alarms as fire suppression teams responded to a blown breaker that must have fused from the short that blew through it, filling the deck with acrid smoke that the environmental controls were fighting to sweep from the air.

The squadron were already reporting impacts from the Orion missiles as well, thought most of those had been thinned out by point defense and long range fire. They’d nailed a few of the Orion fighters in the process, but at the moment that wasn’t something he was cheering over.

Would have been better not to kill any of those fools if possible. Damn it.

Angering the Orions was a double edged sword, if they figured out the ruse it would not end well for anyone involved.

“Get us out of this system, Captain,” He ordered.

“Working on it, Admiral!”

“Jump calculations are complete, but we need to get a few more lightseconds out-system before we can safely jump.” The Captain said, looking over the data. He froze, swallowing hard. “Sir?”

“What is it?”

“The Pegasus, sir… she won’t be able to jump.”

Fenn grimaced, looking down.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes sir.”

Fenn nodded as he made the decision and put his authorization into the system.

Damn it all.

“Get us out here, Captain.”

“Yes sir.”

*****

Pylum Lead

“They’re running,” The SEWACS pilot confirmed what the forward operating pilots could already see.

Jackson gritted his teeth angrily, pissed that they’d run out munitions but at least they’d fired everything they had and could report that back to the Captain if nothing else.

“Understood. Let them go,” He ordered.

It wasn’t like he could do much else anyway.

A flash of light startled him, though, a moment later when a second sun erupted in the outer system.

“What the hell was that!?”

“Enemy destroy just detonated.”

“Did we do that?”

“Negative, perhaps the mystery attacker but we don’t see any sign of an ongoing engagement.”

Jackson grimaced again, though he was happy that someone paid a price for the attack. He had wanted to be the one extracting the payment, but the battlefield was a harsh mistress at the best of times.

“Jump signatures… they’re gone.”

“Understood. Pylum squad, RTC.” He said as he twisted the controls and brought the nose around, pointed back to the carrier, and hit the burners.

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Hidan looked on in silence as the records of the fighting came to an end.

“That kid is dangerous,” Grave said at his side.

That was not a point Hidan was going to argue, not after watching what he had. He’d only heard of the Legion in rumors in the past, and expected that the legend was overblown, but is this kid represented the training that a new member had…

Well, perhaps it was best that they were now extinct.

“I want a full survey team out there,” He said. “Pull everything that can be found.”

“Aye,” Grave said. “Any idea what they’re looking for?”

“Not a clue,” Hidan admitted with a shake of his head. “but I want a full forensic examination of the wreckage.”

Grave looked at him oddly, “Why? They were just some older Imperium ships.”

“Where they?” Hidan asked, shrugging. “I don’t know. If they were, bring back their protected recorders and prove it. I want something to drop in Congress’ laps, make them pay attention.”

Grave nodded slowly. “I’ll see it done.”

*****

Genesis Seat, Nova Caledonia

The jump back deeper into the Cluster had gone by without incident, leaving Eryn time to get everything done that he could do without going outside to inspect damages. Jinsha had been quiet through the trip, but he understood that. He’d been quiet for a long time after the first fight he’d been in with Sylban, it wasn’t an experience that could be explained and it just took time to process everything.

“The Bene is in orbit,” Jinsha said, her first words in some time.

“Yeah, they beat us here but I’m not surprised.”

The Seat had jumped out at the wrong vector for a least time jump to the Cale. He’d had to drop out of jump space and re-orient while in interstellar space, which would have given the Bene plenty of time to beat them there.

“I’m going to call Carmine,” She said.

Eryn just nodded, there wasn’t really anything more to say, as she reached for the comm. He busied himself, trying not to eavesdrop as he did busy work while they continued in to the Cale.

With the communications delay between the ships, Eryn almost didn’t notice the silence seem to stretch out again and it wasn’t until he looked over to check on her that he realized something was wrong.

“Jin?”

Jinsha was white faced, looking unsteady in her seat as he rushed over.

“Jin! What’s wrong?”

“Carmione…” She looked at him, “He was on the station.”

*****

Orion Command Carrier Delaware

Hidan looked down at the heavily damaged recorder, expression dark.

“Are you certain?” He quietly demanded of the technician.

The young woman nodded, nervously looking at her Captain as he seemed ready to kill someone.

“Yes sir.”

Hidan looked over to Grave, “Send a Flash Traffic message to the Congressional Representatives, I want to speak with them. In person.”

“Yes sir.”

ALSO BY EVAN CURRIE

Atlantis Rising Series

Knighthood

The Demon City

Odyssey One Series

Into the Black

The Heart of Matter

Homeworld

Out of the Black

Odysseus One : Warrior King

Odysseus Awakening

Odysseus Ascendant

Archangel Series (Odyssey Universe)

Archangel One

Archangel Rising

Odyssey One: Star Rogue Series

King of Thieves

Heirs of Empire

Heirs of Empire

An Empire Asunder

Warrior’s Wings Series

On Silver Wings

Valkyrie Rising

Valkyrie Burning

The Valhalla Call

By Other Means

De Oppresso Liber

Open Arms

Border Wars

Other Works

SEAL Team 13

Steam Legion

Thermals

The Infinity Affliction