Brams looked like he was going to argue but then sighed. He took a deep breath and called out to the entire room. “Everybody, your attention, please.” He waited until everyone was looking at him. “Thank you. I want to applaud you all for your professionalism, and your bravery. You have all done a tremendous job today. It is clear why our visitors are here - they intend to topple me. All they care about is me. My presence here, now it is clear that we will be defeated, only endangers you all. I hope you believe me when I say that the only reason why I am agreeing to leave is so that your lives are not further threatened.”
Brams looked around, making eye contact with many of the Imperials. “Believe me also when I say that I will return. I will return and I will make the Dominion a republic. Your friends and families will be free from Imperial tyranny and you all will be a part of that. I promise. Again, thank you all. Be safe.”
With Val Nordin in the lead, the trio of Edo flew with incredible precision and grace. Despite their wild maneuvers, they were practically wingtip to wingtip, close enough to have their shields overlap at all times, massively boosting their defenses.
With bonded coordination the Edo overwhelmed N-sphere defenses with synchronized attacks, causing ship after ship to fall their onslaught. Despite their efforts, however, there were just too many ships to shoot quickly enough, and more vessels escaped down through the shield breach with each passing moment. It became obvious to Val that even with their increased defensive capabilities they were having to evade attacks too frequently to achieve the rate of kills needed.
Frustration overwhelmed Val Nordin. Senoch Gray and Dical Dimerchi knew immediately, knowing his anger through the bond. They urged peace. Nordin rejected their thoughts, killed the bond.
They are weak, he thought, bitterly. They refuse to see the need for greater actions. They hide behind lasers and combat to uphold their moral high ground whilst they risk the lives of millions by risking the failure of the city shield. What was more of the Deep, using Astral energy effectively or holding back, relying on lesser techniques, failing to defend the countless? To Val the answer was as obvious as ever. If he had to sacrifice the Edo Code to do what needed to be done, then so be it. He had killed billions before. He would never allow the same to happen again, not whilst he still breathed, not whilst he was as powerful and capable as he was.
Without the bond their movements became uncoordinated. The other two Edo moved further away and their shields started to suffer almost immediately. Val relaxed, opening a wide, wide Channel that syphoned a river of tumultuous Astral energy and then felt for the beings within the attacking modified Mark 3 and Mark 4 Delta fighters, both versions adapted for fighter interception duties. He felt them, eight were engaging the Edo in total. He imagined gripping their hearts in his hands, and squeezed. He felt their terror, their pain, and their deaths. All eight formidable fighter ships went silent, drifting unpiloted.
“What did you do, Nordin?” said Dimerchi, utterly aghast.
“What needed to be done,” he replied. He angled back in towards the stream of vessels. “Assist me before it is too late.” Nordin felt their hesitation but they followed him down. Neither attempted to reestablish the bond.
Nordin sent his perception out ahead of them, thoughts of nothing but death.
The situation reports were almost too good to be true. Her fleet was succeeding on all sides of the battle, including the shield buster, which was even now nearing the Disthasus city shield. Riccard Brams’ reign was soon to be over. Admiral Petrina Adami stood proudly on the observation deck of her flagship, the Decimator, watching the battle directly through the enormous viewports. Each barrage of lasers and plasma, each explosion took her one step closer to regaining her position within the Dominion. Though she did not like the man, she had placed her trust in the Doyen Amos Weststar and so far that trust, which did not come easily to her, had been well rewarded.
The fleet she had built was the most powerful she had ever led, and also the most successful. All of her capital ships still survived, a much improved situation compared to her actions after finding out that Grand Doyen Vang was dead, leaving the Chasm, and lashing out against the Commonwealth seeking nothing but revenge. Though those failures, and her others since, still gnawed at her psyche, still angered her, she had learned through the years to shunt them away and believe again in her own greatness. Indeed, had she not ruled the Commonwealth? Ruled too with an iron fist, ultimately something the weak-bellied Representatives could not stomach. It was not her fault that they did not have the spine for the tough decisions she had needed to make. It had proved to her that the Dominion was the true heir to the galaxy, that Vang and Gallitene had been right in their vision, that the people of the galaxy needed to strongly governed, if only to save them from their own weaknesses.
With Weststar running the administrative side and her the military, she could easily imagine a time where the Dominion would consume the weakened Commonwealth and once again dominate the galaxy. Perhaps even the Aneev and The Wilds would be absorbed into the Dominion, making the New Dominion encompass a larger area of the galaxy than it had even under Gallitene’s rule. That thought brought a smile to her face.
Vang would be proud of her, finally.
“Admiral Adami,” called a young Lieutenant, manning on of the sensor stations down in the pits below the observation deck. She turned and frowned at him. It was highly irregular for any officer to call out to a superior. If it was for a trivial matter then he would be severely reprimanded. She walked over and stared down at him.
“I’m sorry, Admiral, but I thought you would want to know immediately - we are detecting large hyperspace distortions approaching the system. The ships will be here imminently.”
So, mused Adami. Imperial reinforcements. It will be interesting to see how effective Weststar has been at gathering support from the other Doyens. If he has not been as successful as his boasting would indicate then things were about to get much tougher.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Bromph. Your mindfulness is appreciated.” She turned to Captain Domovero. “Draw the fleet into a more defensive position but still focus on the shield breach. Our efforts there must be successful.”
The young Captain Domovero clicked his heels together. “At once, Admiral.”
She smiled again as the Captain rushed off. Her fleet was of the finest order. Yes, indeed, though her smile faltered slightly as she thought of the Zhur Thoggu technology her ships relied on. A necessary evil, she assured herself. Once Weststar was ruler and she, Fleet Admiral, she would order the ships to be reverted back to original and have their technology destroyed entirely.
Just like the Zhur Thoggu in Weststar’s decrepit ships. According to her latest reports, they should be arriving at the old Nushothi star cluster shortly. It amused her that the fools would be meeting their doom whilst she claimed her future.
Chapter Fifteen
“Far be it for me to berate a pair of legendary Edo Mushur but we have incoming,” said Lee over the comms channel, sounding as calm as ever to Raif. “Lots of incoming. We’ll do the best we can to hold them off.”
“Affirmative, Lee. Don’t get all heroic on me though, we all need to get through this in one piece.”
“Don’t worry,” replied Gaspara. “I’ll sacrifice Shawn long before I ever get into trouble.”
“Charming,” drawled Moller. “Why is it always me that has to hang back and draw fire? Why can’t I take the glory just once?”
“No point,” laughed Dang. “No one would believe it even if it were true.”
Raif smiled, even as he and Nate Shepherd took another strafing run at the boxy ship that had so easily breached the planetary shield. Unlike all the other modified ships in the invading fleet, the ship had zero offensive capabilities. It seemed incapable of projecting its N-spheres at any significant distance and carried no lasers or plasma cannons. Unfortunately for the Edo its defensive abilities were prodigious. The few laser bolts that made it
past its many and powerful N-spheres did nothing but ablate some small part of the Ulorbana nanite steel. Raif had a sinking feeling that it was going to take more than a pair of Nebula fighters to defeat it. Having the Gladiator’s believe that he and Shepherd could do the impossible made him feel desperate. He had to fight back against feelings of frustration.
“Nate, any bright ideas?” asked Raif over their private comms channel.
There was a telling delay before the other aging Edo replied. “Thinking,” was all he said.
“Think fast.” They banked steeply and sent another flurry of randomized laser bolts at the ship, to the same effect as before. The ship began to slow as it approached the shimmering shield that encased the city of Disthasus.
He felt someone brush his mind, with power he rarely felt. There was a tinge, a shadow to the other’s thoughts that told Ko exactly who it was. Val Nordin was here. He scanned his screens and found the trio of green dots mingling with the more numerous red dots that were still streaming down through the holed planetary shield.
He tapped on the screen, isolating the ships. “Chirper,” he said to his X4 robot, “get me a secure channel to those vessels.” Chirper beeped in response and then more positively, indicating a channel was open.
“Open up the channel to the others please, Chirper. Val, that you?”
“None other, Raif. We’re on our way, and taking out as many as we can on the way.”
“Thank you but your timing sucks. I don’t think we’ll be here when you arrive,” said Raif sadly.
“What?” said Nordin, clearly angered. “You have to prevent the shield from being breached Raif, or Disthasus will fall.”
“Mushur Nordin, August Durante. We’re vastly outnumbered, despite your efforts. We must disengage. As an ex-Imperial I can tell you that the Dominion will still be here tomorrow. We will get another chance, I promise you.”
“No,” raged Nordin. “You will fight until I tell you otherwise! Maintain your position.”
There was a pause as the Gladiators and the Edo were shocked into silence. Finally Lee Gaspara answered. “Disengage, disengage. Come to heading 230 point four and engage stealth systems. Sorry, Mushur Nordin.”
“No! I forbid it, I will make - “
“Val, don’t. It’s over, we’ve lost the battle but not the war,” said Shepherd.
“Listen to them, Mushur, we did what we could,” said another voice over the comm. It sounded like Senoch Gray but Raif couldn’t be sure.
Raif held his breath, worried that he would have to try and use his mind-altering expertise on the far stronger Edo if the mad Edo Mushur tried to dominate them.
We are here, sent the Darkening Horizon, as it slipped from hyperspace, its control of its engines so acute that Thea Leilani would never have noticed the reversion had the Darkening Horizon not told her. Leilani had had the destroyer fitted with an advanced robot brain and a neural interface so that it could communicate with her at a neural level.
Crouched low, she had been performing Astral weapon training drills. Sweat glistened on her porcelain skin, her body still as taut and lithe as ever despite all the time she had put into her trading empire. It paid in more ways than one to keep her form just so. Her beauty alone had gained her many recent acquisitions. Men were so easily controlled when lustful. Combined with her Channeling abilities, few could hope to oppose her, and those that did soon fell. She thought briefly of those who had and inevitably that meant she thought of the Edo Askari Jake Bulver, who she had fallen in love with whilst trying to infiltrate the Edo sect.
Looking back, she couldn’t understand why she had allowed herself such a dangerous luxury. Their beliefs opposed hers almost completely. She had become exiled from the Skave partly due to Bulver and still they hunted her. Indeed, she had sought to become wealthy so that she could gather the resources she needed to oppose them. It was ironic that she had ended up on the same side as the Edo, even if they couldn’t appreciate that.
She knew that Jake had been chasing her ever since her betrayal. She had spent occasions leading him around the galaxy, always just out of reach. Logically it paid to have Bulver led on a merry chase so that he would not interfere in her efforts but she did not lie to herself so much that she could not acknowledge another reason - she just liked to know where he was, and that he still searched for her.
Thea regretted few things but she did regret breaking Jake’s heart. She’d known he had fallen for her and she had truly tried to be what he had wanted. It had been a nice dream, but that was all it could ever have been. Now he only cared about seeing her pay for her crimes against him and the Edo. It hurt, since he was the only person in the galaxy she had any feelings for, but there was little she could do about it. She had made her choices and now had to deal with them, which, as far as she was concerned, she had made the best of.
Already, she was perhaps one of the richest individuals in the galaxy. Thea had used a significant portion of her new income to procure a fleet, and it grew larger by the week. Capital class vessels were difficult to come by, but just recently she had acquired three old heavy cruisers. She knew that the Skave would be continuing their efforts to build their own armada and that they didn’t have to rely on the black market for their new acquisitions. She could never hope to defeat them in battle, just do enough to put them off from ever mounting their own assault.
Diverting some of her new ships to this region of space did expose her operation to greater risk should the Skave find her and launch an assault, but she thought the risk in allowing the Zhur Thoggu to establish another foothold in the galaxy was far worse. She hoped that they would not be needed, and since she knew of the strength of the Ballavendi fleet she thought it would be unlikely that they would. Better to be safe than sorry.
The battle begins, thought the Darkening Horizon.
Show me.
The Darkening Horizon linked her to its sensors and the galaxy bloomed around her. She saw the two gathering groups of starships, large and small beginning to merge as their small ships met in vicious combat. The Ballavendi fleet flew in their Termigaunt fighter bombers, Warrior assault fighters and the Rillek advanced fighter covered in Minax composite steel. Against them were hordes of Mark 2 Delta air superiority fighters, along with a few of the advanced Mark 3 and Mark 4 Delta fighters. The capital class ships, ranging from carrier-cruisers to the older class-I hellfire class Battleships attacked with simple range-finding shots whilst the fighters clashed.
Delta fighter after Delta fighter met their doom as Thea watched with satisfaction. As she’d hoped, she didn’t think her ships would be needed.
More vessels approach, thought the Darkening Horizon simply, highlighting to her their hyperspace distortions. They were not hers. Then whose?
The ships entered real space near to the Imperial / Zhur Thoggu fleet and immediately joined in the fight, flanking and disrupting the Ballavenda offense. The ships were a hodgepodge of designs and the fighters they launched were as big a mishmash of shapes. Thea knew they were called junkers and were born from spare parts recycled from old damaged fighters. Still, they seemed effective and quickly the tide began to turn against the Ballavendi.
Leilani fingered her comms device. “Captain T’vani, please assist the Ballavenda fleet.”
“At once, Lady Leilani,” croaked the Captain’s husky voice in response.
She watched as her small fleet joined in the action. The Ballavendi knew of her reinforcements and so were ready for them to assist, moving swiftly so that her ships could bolster their flank. Still, she watched with dismay as one of the three Ballavenda galaxy-class Battleships broke apart in explosively spectacular fashion, taking a slow moving Matador corvette along with it.
She continued to watch as the battle unfolded. Through the Astral plane she felt the agonies of death as thousands of Ballavendi gave their lives in battle. It disturbed her to feel nothing as the Zhur Thoggu died. One of their ships would explode and she only felt the deaths
of the poor unfortunately humans still required to make them run. To be so disconnected from the Astrals was wrong. It reinforced her decision to help eradicate them for good. They did not belong in this galaxy, her galaxy.
It seems that the Zhur Thoggu have been underestimated, said the Darkening Horizon.
Yes, much like we were, she replied, trying to generate some mirth to combat the depression threatening to envelop her as the battle proceeded very much against her desires.
Darkening Horizon, could you influence the outcome of this battle if you were to engage the Zhur Thoggu?
Yes, of course. I am the Darkening Horizon.
Thea smiled, her ship did have a very healthy opinion of itself. And quite rightly. She had spent a small fortune (nothing but a drop in the ocean compared to her vast wealth, but still) upgrading the small but heavily armed cruiser. Heavily automated, it was controlled completely by the robot brain and bristled with laser cannons, plasma torpedo launchers and a ridiculously over-powered shield system. It could withstand direct bombardment from a Hellfire Battleship indefinitely.
I meant would your involvement swing the outcome towards a Ballavenda victory?
Darkening Horizon remained silent. Thought not. Oh well. As they say, discretion is the better part of valor.
“Captain T’vani, please indicate to the Ballavendi that my forces are to retreat. Have our ships disengage and return to location gamma. The Thoggu may have won today but they will hear from us again.”
“My lady,” came the reply.
Acquiring a fleet powerful enough to defeat the Zhur Thoggu would take too long - by the time she came back they would have already used their nano technology to grow a much larger force. She would need help. Unfortunately, Thea wasn’t the most popular person in the galaxy, especially with the factions who had enough ships to be useful. The Skave would rather kill her than help her. The Commonwealth were only slightly more favorably disposed towards her than the Skave. The Dominion had its hands full and the Edo, well, even they might swing at her head on sight. If those factions were to help it would be despite her, not because of her. She would have to feed them the information on the unbottling of the Zhur Thoggu via her commercial agents. If they suspected it came from Thea they would doubt its veracity and that may risk their involvement.
The Rise of The Dominion: A Dominion War novel Page 17