The Rise of The Dominion: A Dominion War novel

by D. M. Marshall

  In the distance he saw the Edo Temple, its three-spiked structure so different from most other buildings, where vast, interlinked towers were the norm. He thought back to the war with Hastuthu and the Skave, how the Edo had defended world, suffered many losses. It had been terrible. Vast resources and millions of lives had been flung in desperation against the seemingly all-powerful Deep Astral being.

  Soon enough he had landed and the Assembly’s own small spaceport and had been escorted through to the chamber. Half of the stations were already floating, with Representatives and their aides busy zipping through the chamber to meet with other Representatives. Okarachebe knew exactly what they were discussing. As he waited to be given his own repulsor station, Olsen Carver, the Commonwealth’s Premier, came over to see him. Guilt and sorrow washed from him in waves, mirroring his feelings over Nigel Glasson. Again, he knew why he felt so.

  The remaining members of the Edo Conclave had begged him not to leave Sobal Gailian, protesting that it was obvious to all that the hearing would be a sham, a public propaganda spectacle that would show the angry Himdeli that they were doing something about the Edo menace. Sord had agreed with them but insisted on going, regardless. Mushur Nenotuul, the fearsome Entilean, and newest council member (other than Raichel Ison) had grown angry. Danze and Lani Carmenco had shown great respect for Sord by merely nodding and holding in their emotions. Hallowwyrn, the Maladorni healer had nearly broken Sord’s resolve. So sad she had been as she bid Sord goodbye and wished that the Astrals be with Sord. It was as if Hallowwyrn had felt Sord was already lost.

  “Thank you for agreeing to be here,” said Carver, “though I wish that you hadn’t come.”

  Sord chuffed. “I bring back too many bad memories?” Carver blinked, seeming to recall his time under Hastuthu’s control.

  “No, it’s not that at all, Grand Mushur. I have no control over what the Assembly decides today, and I fear the worst.”

  Sord placed one of his huge paw-like hands on his shoulder. “Do not blame yourself, my friend. We both know that the Edo did our best to protect the Commonwealth, and that we would do it all again regardless of how the Commonwealth now feels about the Edo.”

  Carver looked down, embarrassed. “I am so sorry Mushur Okarachebe. They should be building statues of you, not putting you on trial.”

  “Have faith in the Astrals, Olsen.”

  His station arrived and he stepped into it, his great bulk making it dip until it boosted its repulsor coil output. Then, it slowly moved him to the center of the great chamber, and he waited patiently until the Assembly was fully assembled, with most of the one thousand repulsor stations in use. It was quite a spectacle and Sord took solace in knowing that these people were able to gather here in no small part thanks to the Edo sect.

  It was, as the Edo Conclave had predicted, a show. One Representative after another moved centrally, explained to the Commonwealth Assembly what damage the Edo had caused to their sector and then demanded action. Such was the level of animosity within the chamber that Sord had to close off his senses to the Astrals. He stood in her station as regally as he could, never looking sorry for herself or the Edo.

  Finally, Martilda Cutmaster, the bone-thin, scarred Himdel Chief Representative moved to the center.

  “I have no need to explain what affects the Edo have had on Himdel. You all saw the damage with your own eyes on your journey here. These spice smugglers have caused the deaths of millions and costs us incalculably. And they think they are above the law just because they can use the Astrals. We are here today to tell them no.”

  She turned to Sord Okarachebe. “You are mortal, just like the rest of us. Just because you are a member of the Edo sect does not mean you should be able to do as you please, to cause the deaths of innocents and then, when you are finished playing, scuttle off back to your so-called temple.”

  Sord didn’t reply, there was no question to answer. He just raised his head slightly and stared down his snout at the woman.

  “I propose that Mushur Okarachebe be arrested on the grounds of perpetrating and orchestrating the deaths of millions through his illegal band of Edo followers. I also propose that we do not keep the people waiting and begin his trial in a week, and that if found guilty then the sentence must be death.”

  She spun to encompass the entire chamber. “The people demand justice!”

  The Representatives and their aides erupted with cheers, the automatic sound-cancellation systems triggering to avoid a deafening cacophony. Sord looked at the Premier. He stared into the distance, fingers stroking his luxuriant moustache.

  So it begins, thought Sord. Part of him, the part wracked with guilt, welcomed the trial. The part of him that wanted to be punished. So many had died because of his actions. Their deaths did indeed deserve justice. If his death saved the rest of the Edo then he would gladly give her life. The rest of him knew that despite the lives lost, and the damage caused, his actions had saved many, many people. Without the Edo, the Commonwealth would be no more, with Hastuthu and the Skave now ruling. Billions, maybe trillions would already be dead or worse. A trial may finally help to prove the Edo’s beneficial role in the war without the Skave influencing matters. And if not, well, at least he tried.

  The vote for the arrest of the Grand Mushur was passed with a majority vote and when Sord’s repulsor station came down to rest a platoon of heavily armed guards were waiting to take him into custody. They shackled him with heavy cuffs and led him away.

  Chapter Nine

  Edo Mushur Raichel Ison moved with feline grace as she walked behind the spaceport official. An aging man, but still in trim shape, he led her quickly through the myriad sections of the pristine Disthasus space facility. He prattled on, nervousness causing him to talk unendingly.

  The tour had lasted an hour so far. An hour waiting for an attack that was yet to come had started to play on her nerves and she had called upon an Edo calming technique. An hour of expanding her awareness out around her was also starting to tire her. She drew more deeply on the Astrals, feeling it rejuvenate her, knowing that she would pay for its use later.

  She had to be ready, who knew what forces would attack her, if any. Maybe they were just going to blow up the entire spaceport. That thought alarmed her, and she expanded her awareness out even further, covering the twenty square kilometer area of the port. Perhaps her senses were too thinly distributed but she sensed nothing of concern.

  The official, what was his name again, continued his gibbering nonsense, leading her through to a busy passenger baggage sorting facility. She watched as robots and humans worked quickly to load and unload the various boxes and cases onto wide repulsor-powered conveyor belts, rising and lowering to move the items from one belt to another.

  Something felt wrong. She reduced her senses back down to encompass just this area and began probing each individual in the room. Some of the men were wary of her and the official, others so consumed with their work they hadn’t even noticed her, and others were strangely unemotional, like they were robots themselves. And then she probed at a rather tall man, hunched over to reach down to the baggage on a low conveyor belt. She got no reading at all from him. It took her a moment, since it had been a few years since she last experienced this total absence of the Astral plane in a person. She almost gasped, barely keeping herself in check. The man was a robot – a Zhur Thoggu!

  There could be no reason for him to be there other than to attack her. She had to assume his complicity in the attempts to overthrow Brams. The attack had to be imminent. Having already lost three Edo, she hesitated momentarily before sending out an Astral message, its emphasis firmly based on needing help quickly.

  With knowledge that the Fists were Edo now being public, she had no need to hide her Astral weapon so she quickly summoned it. The blue ethereal blade thrummed with energy as she moved into an en-garde stance.

  All the workers, and the stunned official, turned to look at her, stared at her blade.

&nbs
p; “You,” she called, looking at the Zhur Thoggu. “Slowly, raise your hands.”

  It merely smiled, showing a huge set of intimidating metallic teeth. Three of the workers drew projectile pistols and began to fire at her. She blocked their shots easily enough but with so many innocents in the area she had to concentrate hard on ensuring the reflected rounds didn’t hit any them. She saw the Zhur Thoggu reach into its clothing and begin to move around, to try and get behind her.

  She shouted at the cowering official, “Raise the alarm!” She kicked out at him, pushing the man off balance, forcing him to move. He fled and Raichel moved to cover his retreat.

  “No one needs to die today,” said Raichel called. The Zhur Thoggu was still angling around her so she moved backwards and to the side to prevent it. It stopped and snarled at her.

  “No, Edo,” it growled, voice thick with hate. “You need to die.” It had been hiding a nanite blade. In its other hand it held something small, a drone maybe?

  Four on one, and one of them a Zhur Thoggu hunter-killer. She didn’t like those odds one bit. The nanite blade was resistant to her Astral weapon, reforming itself instantly after every block, and was sharper, more lethal than a powered nanowire blade. And people thought Astral weapons were dangerous. It was some relief that the machine was not wearing their Ulorbana nanite steel armor, which provided good protection against Astral weapons. If she could get in close it would be easy to kill. If. The baggage area was littered with containers, conveyor belts and workers trying to hide.

  One of the three shooters shot at a worker, causing a terrible wound to the worker’s shoulder. The man screamed and collapsed. The shooter smiled and raised his eyebrows, taunting Raichel. She responded by directing a reflected bullet at him. He barely ducked out of the way, and scowled back at her. He started to line up another worker. As he fired Raichel focused and Channeled, pushing his weapon, causing him to miss. Unfortunately this meant she had for a moment had to shift concentration away from the Zhur Thoggu who had thrown its drone at Raichel. She dived out of the way but the flying miniature robot, a mash-up of twisting blades, clipped her right upper arm, slashing straight through her thick Fist’s armored uniform and into her arm. It swooped away and began its return flight.

  Raichel, covered temporarily from bullets by a pallet of baggage, waited. The drone dived low and then came at her, angling up, intending to gouge out her throat. At the last moment her Astral blade moved in a Channel-augmented blur and cut the drone cleanly in half. Its momentum meant it continued towards her, gravity pulling it down so that its pieces bounced off her chest, damaging her jacket but thankfully not penetrating. She again Channeled, using a pain-reducing technique to shunt away the pain from the cut and was pleased that her arm still operated, though she would need to staunch the wound soon.

  Raichel stood and the Zhur Thoggu machine immediately noticed her wound. It smiled victoriously as the shooters began to fire at her again.

  Raichel smiled back, feeling the presence of her backup team nearing. She looked forward to wiping that smug look off his face.

  “Last chance, surrender and no one else needs to be injured.” She had to try. The warrior responding by delving into his clothing for something else. No way, thought Raichel, not another drone, not today.

  She pulled Astral energy into her muscles and sprinted across the room towards the tall, shrouded warrior-machine. With great relief she felt more than saw the remaining Edo flooding into the baggage area. Jake Bulver and Kaliko Savina were becoming so close that they almost moved in complete synchronicity. Calista Flores and Gil moved in to flank the shooters from the opposite side of Jake and Kaliko, whilst Wren Furlan and Elenore Frost moved to assist Raichel.

  “I was beginning to think you’d all gone for some coffee,” she called as she reached the Zhur Thoggu. It roared a fierce battle-cry and swung at her, its nanite blade capable of cutting her cleanly in half. She blocked it, sparks flying from her ghostly blade and used the rebound from the impact to help her spin around, aiming a high sweep at the hunter-killer’s head. It ducked and rolled backwards, quickly rising up to its full height.

  “We had,” said Elenore, jokingly. “I was just about to beat Wren at Ponteen. You owe me one hundred credits.”

  The three shooters had backed up to each other for defense and were laying down an impressive amount of fire. But with the Astrals on their side, Jake, Kaliko, Calista Flores and Gil were quickly surrounding them.

  The Zhur Thoggu hunter-killer moved so that its rear was covered by machinery and raised its nanite blade high, warbling another ear-splitting shout, designed to intimidate. Allan and Wren joined Raichel.

  “Remember,” Raichel shouted again, her voice boosted. “We need them alive.”

  Dark emotions streamed out from Calista Flores, her daunting form advancing upon the shooters as her mighty double-handed Astral broadsword blocked shot after shot. “No, we only need one of them to live.”

  She sent a bullet directly back against one of them. It slapped into him, sending him spinning to the floor. She quickly followed that up with an Astral-push to send the second stumbling and then immediately tucked into a forward roll, coming out of it into a low stance. She swept her broadsword in a clean arc, catching the third through his hips.

  Raichel grimaced as she felt the man’s searing pain before he slipped into unconsciousness and death. Flores was already advancing on the man she had sent stumbling.

  “Flores!” she yelled but the Zhur Thoggu warrior used her distraction to its advantage and came in at her, lunging with its nanite blade, aiming to pierce her chest. It was Elenore’s spinning Astral weapon that saved her, slicing cleanly through the warrior’s forearm and separating it and the nanite blade from the machine. Sparks and fluids flew from the stump of its arm.

  It did not stop its attack, however. It sprang into Raichel and they went down in a tangle. Raichel had to let her blade dissipate as she fought to keep the Zhur Thoggu from clawing and biting her face and neck. It was incredibly strong, and despite only having one arm it was winning. It bit into her right cheek as she pushed at him. Its hand somehow managed to grasp her neck and its nails extended, puncturing through skin and muscle. It lifted his head as it smiled down in triumph, its face smeared in Raichel’s blood.

  The warrior’s face turned to surprise, looking down to see just the tip of an Astral weapon protruding out of his chest. The blade moved to the side, cutting swiftly through its torso. The Zhur Thoggu deactivated and collapsed onto Raichel.

  “You did realize,” said Raichel, “that I was right underneath him?”

  “Sure, Mushur,” Elenore laughed, “I was careful.”

  “Hmm.”

  By the time she was able to get the Zhur Thoggu off her, with the help of Wren Furlan and Elenore, the battle was over. Flores was standing over the last remaining marksman, the tip of her sword close to his head, enveloping him in blue. . He stared defiantly back up at her. Though still shining blue, Raichel could see that Calista’s eyes had a tinge of red to them.

  Raichel looked for and found the other shooter. He’d been decapitated. Gil, Jake and Kaliko stood back from Calista, looking like they wished they were anywhere but here.

  “Is Calista okay?” asked Elenore.

  Raichel could feel Calista’s emotions being slowly brought under control, but she didn’t think that Flores was back from the Deep yet.

  “No, but she will be.” She looked around. “We must all help her. We have all lost our way along our paths. Mushur Flores will find her way back.”

  Flores whirled around to look at Raichel. “At the moment I’m not sure I want to. These people must pay, Mushur Ison.”

  Raichel approached Flores and touched her arm. Their blazing eyes met each other’s. “They will. I promise.”

  Edo Mushur Danze Carmenco slowly closed and then reopened his eyelids, digesting the information Olsen Carver had just given him.

  He seems to be taking it better than I thou
ght he would, thought Olsen.

  “We expected this, Premier Carver, though we hoped reason would see the day.”

  “I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”

  “I know, we all thank you for everything that you have done for us and continue to do. What happens now?”

  Carver looked away from Carmenco’s holographic head for a moment. “The trial begins in a week. Tomasa Iwu has offered to defend Mushur Okarachebe, I took the liberty of accepting. I hope that was correct?”

  Danze nodded, “Of course, our thanks. Tomasa is a true friend of the Edo and an accomplished lawyer. He will do what he can.”

  Olsen noted the words the Edo had used. “You don’t sound particularly hopefully.”

  Carmenco chuckled softly. “Are you?”

  Carver tried but couldn’t look the Edo Mushur in the eyes. “No, I’m not. It would take a miracle to save your leader.”

  “Or the Astrals, Premier. Or the Astrals.”

  Deep within the Imperial Headquarters, in one of its detention facilities, Raichel Ison and Riccard Brams watched as one of the Imperial’s finest interrogators worked upon the captured attacker.

  “He resists,” commented Brams, frowning.

  “As we expected,” replied Raichel. “Working for the Skave or the Imperial forces aligned against you must be a good motivator. I can’t imagine things would go well for him if they learned of his betrayal.”

  “Can’t you just mind-delve him? Pull the information we need straight out of his head?”

  Raichel shook her head. “No. That is of the Deep. Doing so would cause irreparable damage to his mind.”

  Brams flared with anger. “We need that information, Raichel. Either you obtain it or I will instruct the interrogator to use more effective measures.”