The Premier shook his head sadly. “I suspected that you would ask me that. As you might imagine, I have trouble getting to sleep some nights. Not least of my many concerns that keep me awake is Mushur Okarachebe’s trial. We both know that it is a travesty. I am all too aware of the part the Edo have played in building and defending the Commonwealth, from the very start until now and no doubt in the future too, regardless of the outcome of the trial. I have considered my answer to your question at length, and battled against the answer that I am obliged to give. I would argue so strongly for her innocence, Mister Iwu, but I cannot be seen to side openly with the Edo, not whilst I want to continue to work from within this government and make what difference I can. I am sorry, Tomasa.”
It was as polite and genuine a rejection as Iwu could have hoped to receive. He had suspected that Carver would say no but he had to ask. And he still had to apply what psychological pressure he could.
“I understand,” said Iwu. “You are in a very difficult position. The needs of the many must always come before the needs of the few, or the one. I appreciate what you have done for the Grand Mushur and what you continue to do. I know that even if she is executed, it will not be despite your efforts, not because of them.”
Carver winced in reply, a hand snaking back to his moustache. “I hope it does not come to that, Mister Iwu,” he said.
“Let’s hope. Thank you again for seeing me, Premier. I will not keep you any longer - there is a very disgruntled Pemapaani waiting for you outside.” They turned and began to walk to the door.
“Ah,” said Olsen Carver. “Mister Othwai’thu. Always a pleasure. No doubt he will remind me at length as to the sacrifices the Pemapaani people have made.”
Iwu laughed. “I think they need to increase their success versus sacrifice ratio.”
“Here they come,” cried Elenore Frost excitedly. A group of black Nebula shot past, coherent beams of photons pouring out from their laser cannons set in single-tip firing mode at a trio of encrusted Mark 3 Delta fighters. Kaliko Savina watched as one of the enemy fighters took a flurry of hits to its port wing, spin out of control and crashed into a building.
“Okay, team,” came Raif Ko’s familiar Buderimian accented voice over the comms. “Let’s get the High Doyen to safety. Follow us up and out.”
“Affirmative, Ko,” replied Raichel Ison, “we’re right behind you.”
Kaliko saw Raichel and Flores move out into flanking positions around her yacht, giving her excellent protection all around, with Jake and Gil covering her rear. Kaliko looked over at her capable co-pilot.
“How are the shields doing, Elenore?”
“Forty percent and holding. Told you we’d make it,” grinned Elenore.
Kaliko winked at her. “Never a doubt.”
Kaliko felt a sudden Channeled call to her, just as Jake’s voice called over the comms. “Incoming missiles!” She pulled hard at the yoke as Elenore yelped at being thrown heavily against her seat restraints, despite inertial dampeners being set to ninety five percent. An actinic blue concussion missile flared past their ship, the viewport automatically dimming to protect their vision. Then they were hit. The yacht’s electronics cut out temporarily, along with anti-gravity and for a moment they sat floating in the dark as multiple alarms vied for their attention.
“Spoke too soon?” queried Elenore.
The lights and control panels blinked back into life along with the anti-gravity as auxiliary systems cut in. Kaliko wrenched at the yoke and pulled the yacht back into evasive maneuvers. “Sit rep,” she said.
“Shields down to ten percent, right engine losing efficiency.”
“Keep the engines at equal output, please Elenore,” said Kaliko, “we can’t afford to lose control or we’re dead.” Elenore nodded and focused hard on her controls.
“How are you doing in there,” asked Raichel over the comms.
“We took a hit but we’re ok. Shields have almost had it and we’re a bit slower than before.”
“Is that even possible,” moaned Shawn Moller.
“Shawn,” said Lee Gaspara. “Change of formation. They’re going to be coming at us from all angles.”
Ten fighters formed a loose sphere around them. Whilst that provided some protection it most certainly wasn’t complete. This was going to be touch and go. They continued to rise up through Citadel’s atmosphere, surrounded by enemy fighters.
Another group came soaring in from behind. Gil and Jake closed up with her and overlapped shields and the Delta fighters pummeled them with laser fire. Their shields held, again.
“Incoming,” someone called over the comms. “Break, break!”
Kaliko stamped on her etheric rudder and twisted at the yoke, trying to slew the complaining yacht around. If even one of those torpedoes hit, they’d be done for.
“Gil!” cried Raichel over the comms as Kaliko felt a nearby detonation buffet her ship. Elenore tried to stifle her own cry.
“I’m hit, going down,” said Gil, sounding calm. “I have marginal control but can’t stop the descent. Get Brams out of here - I’ll be fine.”
Elenore and Kaliko looked at each other, clear to each other what they wanted to do but distraught by knowing that they couldn’t.
“Roger, Gil,” said Raichel reluctantly. “I will be back for you, I promise.”
“Be safe, kid,” said Raif Ko.
“You got it, now go!”
The group soared out of the upper atmosphere, with the color fading from the sky above them into blackness. As the air thinned the Battleship group became more clearly focused, the look of their Ulorbana encrusted hulls not improving with the clarity gained. As they approached the assault group the sheer size of the ships began to intimidate them. Two of the giant ships began to fling early range-finding laser bolts and plasma blasts at them. At this distance there was little left in the dissipating shots by the time they crossed the void.
“Whatever that crazy man is going to do, he needs to hurry up,” said Nate Shepherd.
Edo Mushur Val Nordin, sat entombed within the confining, cosseting cockpit of his Nebula fighter. Eyes closed he reached out. He felt the four Battleships, their enormous dimensions and the thousands of crew onboard each ship. He moved his focus towards the lower half of the ships, below the sections populated by the crew. There, in its gigantic magnificence, lay the stardrive that powered Hellfire Battleships through hyperspace. Carefully, he followed channels and power conduits until he found the component he was looking for - the fusion generator that contained the hypercore.
Nordin knew that by destabilizing the fusion generator it would cause the hypercore to malfunction, with dramatic consequences. Unfortunately he didn’t know exactly how to destabilize the generator. So he simply used brute strength. He drew deeply upon the Astrals, and unleashed their energies at the fusion generator, battering at it with incredible kinetic energy. He felt metal twisting and tearing until piece after piece snapped or sprung loose.
He paused to regain his energy. Still the ship hung majestically in space, mocking his efforts. Raichel and the others were fast approaching the ships, he was running out of time. He grew angry and unleashed Astral energy again, furiously this time. His red eyes blazed. He tore and ripped at the fusion generator savagely, unthinkingly, consumed with desire to destroy.
Then, the Battleship, all two thousand meters in length, vanished within a huge, all-consuming explosion. Nordin yelled triumphantly. It was not the first Battleship he had destroyed single-handedly. It would not be his last. He turned his attention to the next giant wedge-shaped brobdingnagian behemoth and this time, more confidently, more disdainfully, he plunged into the ship’s fusion generator.
Admiral Petrina Adami had moved down to one of the scanning stations to watch the end of Brams more closely. The blond-haired NCO working the station sat stiffly as Adami and the Captain watched from over his shoulders.
Somehow the yacht and its escort, now joined by other Nebula fighters,
had survived the onslaught of Adami’s swarm of Delta fighters, standard and modified. They were now leaving the planet’s upper atmosphere. As she watched one of the stolen Deltas was hit with what looked to be a fatal plasma torpedo explosion and began a slow fall back towards Citadel.
“Order the pilots to stay on the yacht,” Adami murmured, almost mesmerized as she watch the dot symbolizing Brams’ ship dodge and slip as it desperately avoided laser blasts. Captain Domovero saluted and moved off to issue her command. Despite all of its frantic movements, the yacht was still heading straight into the outstretched hand of her Battleship group. What were they hoping to achieve? Surely they knew they stood no chance?
“Enemy vessel entering effective firing range,” said a Lieutenant at the next station.
Adami smiled, victoriously. “Destroy them, Lieutenant.”
“Admiral!” cried the NCO in front of her. “Detonation. Imperial Fist just exploded. All hands lost, Admiral.”
Stunned, Adami stared at the crewman’s screen as the dot portraying the vast Battleship winked out. How? Her Captain span towards another station, the battle performance analysis platform.
“Ensign Rotolin, get me the cause of the Imperial Fist’s destruction, now!”
“Sir,” replied the Ensign, bent over his station, hands flying at the controls.
“Admiral, another detonation! The Dawn’s Light is gone! Several support craft were consumed by its annihilation.”
Silence fell across the bridge, save for the rapid tapping of keys, switches and screens. Admiral Adami watched as a second blip vanished from the screen. Not again, she thought. How could this be happening? Was she doomed to lose capital ships in every single major engagement?
“Captain Domovero, order the fighters to return and signal the remaining ships of the group to withdraw away from the yacht, allow them to escape.”
“But Admiral,” replied the Captain, clearly upset.
“You question me?” she said, glaring at him. He paled.
“No, Admiral, apologies.” He turned to a junior officer and repeated her commands. Adami watched as her fighters swung away from the group. Laboriously, the remaining two Battleships began to move out of the planet’s gravity well, following by their support craft.
“Admiral. The Vengeance too,” said the NCO hesitantly, clearly dreading have to tell Adami.
Adami fumed. It was obvious her ships were allowing them to escape. Why had they destroyed a third destroyer?! This was low, even for Riccard Brams. Tyler Blake, as twisted as he was prior to his death, would not have been so callous. She assumed they would also cause her fourth Battleship to explode. They would pay dearly for their actions. They would pay with their lives or Adami would die trying.
She heard Captain Domovero issue orders for an emergency all systems shut-down of the Indefatigable. A good idea. If the ship survived she would promote him to Admiral.
“Thank you, Captain,” she said, nodding.
“Admiral,” he said, his face distressed. He was taking the losses almost as personally as she was.
“Continue to coordinate the assault on Citadel, Captain.” Composing himself, he nodded and marched away purposefully.
Now all Adami could do was wait and watch. And plot yet more revenge.
Elenore Frost whooped in delight as she watched the third gargantuan Hellfire class-IV Battleship died in a fiery tempest. “Mushur Nordin is incredible,” she said breathlessly.
Scowling, hunched forward over her controls, Kaliko Savina whipped her head around to pierce Elenore with a glare. “Don’t, Elenore. Val is travelling down a path you must not follow. Ever.”
Elenore, looked back, confused. “But he’s saved us? We’re almost clear.”
“Those ships were already retreating, Elenore. He had no need to destroy that third ship. He’d already made his point with the second, possibly even the first. Each of those Battleship has a crew of more than five thousand people. He just killed five or ten thousand people just because he wanted to. Tell me that was the right thing to do.”
Elenore sat sullenly, no longer watching the dying Battleship. “But they were going to kill us. And they’re the ones invading. Didn’t they deserve it?”
Kaliko considered her words. In Grazan society and attacks upon their royalty were dealt with swiftly and without mercy. Elenore had obviously been heavily influenced by it.
“Whether they deserved to die or not is irrelevant, Elenore. You are an Edo, are you not? We kill only when it is absolutely necessary, only in defense or to protect. Never for revenge, or because someone may or may not deserve it. We protect and cherish life. What Mushur Nordin has done is inexcusable. At the moment he is not an Edo.”
“But you were…” Elenore trailed off as she saw the look on Kaliko’s face.
‘Yes, Elenore. I fell into the Deep. It is something that I will go to my grave trying to atone for. I was on that path, too. The one he has been on before.”
Kaliko paused as Riccard Brams entered the cockpit.
“My apologies, ladies, and if I don’t get chance again, thank you for your actions today. I saw that we are nearly out of the planet’s gravity well - might I broadcast a message before we jump?”
“Of course, Premier,” said Kaliko, indicating towards where Elenore sat, who quickly hopped from the seat.
“Please, just Riccard. I am no longer the High Doyen. At least for the moment.”
He sat down and taped quickly at the comms station. He cleared his throat. Kaliko thought that he looked dignified, someone she would trust to lead her.
“My fellow Imperials of Citadel. This is your ex- High Doyen Riccard Brams. Please heed this message. I ask that you cease hostilities. Please, let there be no further loss of life, no today. Offer no resistance to our visitors, the price of their invasion is already beyond reason. Thank you to you all for defending your home so proudly and valiantly but the time for heroics is now over. The Dominion will continue. I leave now only so that I can return. I vowed that the Dominion would become a free republic. And it still will.”
He switched off the comms and gave them both a reassuring nod. Kaliko felt slightly in awe of the man. An alert pinged, indicating that they were now able to make the jump to hyperspace.
“Feeding hyperspace calculations through to everyone now,” said Raichel over the comms. “See you all soon.”
“Negative, Mushur Ison,” said Lee Gaspara. “Me and the boys - “
“Correction, old men,” said Shawn.
Lee sighed. “Correction, the rest of us apart from Shawn are going to stay and reconnoiter. Shawn just volunteered to return Himdel to update the powers that be there.”
“Ah, wonderful. There’s nothing quite as romantic as a long lonely hyperspace flight back to the glittering capital.”
Dang grunted something unintelligible.
“If it’s ok with you Lee, I need to head back to Sobal Gailian and update the Conclave,” said Nate Shepherd.
“No problems here. Safe flights to both of you, and you, Raichel.”
“Thanks for your help Lee, guys,” said Raichel.
Brams put his hand on Kaliko’s shoulder for a moment and then left the cockpit. She looked over at Elenore who sat back down. Kaliko gave her a wink and pulled on the hyperdrive lever. Stars elongated into white streaks as they made the leap into hyperspace.
Chapter Nineteen
Edo Mushur Val Nordin could feel the apprehension emanating from his wingmen. It irritated him. He’d told them when they joined the Paladins that they would have to make unpleasant decisions and do things that the lesser Edo could not. Now they were horrified by his actions. He would have to educate them further. Sometimes the ends were really worth the means. He had afforded Raichel, Ko, Shepherd and the others a way to escape. Brams would now be able to stage a comeback and ultimately turn the Dominion into a republic, giving billions upon billions of people a voice. The lives lost of those Battleships had been a necessity. They had brough
t it upon themselves by invading the Zashfallus system and they themselves had killed many of the home fleet’s personnel.
He was annoyed that the assault upon the fourth Battleship had failed. They should have all died too. Raichel had fled to hyperspace before he could try again and so now it was pointless to try and destroy it.
“Mushur Nordin,” commed Dical Dimerchi hesitantly. “It is time to leave.”
“It’s time when I say it’s time, Edo Askari Dimerchi,” said Nordin. The man needed to grow a spine. Trying to handle me with kid gloves would only irritate me further, surely he knew that, though Val. He had a point though. With Brams’ last message being a plea to surrender the battle had faltered to a stop. They were effectively the only remaining opposition to Adami’s entire tainted fleet. No, there was one last thing to do.
“Gray, calculate our exit vector and hyperspace calculations, Dimerchi and I will link to your systems.”
“Yes, Mushur,” came the typically sullen reply.
“X4-V4, find me the lead ships communication channel and patch me through.” His robot tootled a response and then beeped when the channel became active. He thought for a moment and shrugged. “Put it through also on general broadcast please, veefour.” A low whistle signaled it was done.
“Admiral, there’s message coming in from one of the Nebula fighters still in the system.”
Petrina Adami frowned. What could they possibly want? “Play it, Lieutenant.”
“Sir.”
“Admiral Adami. This is Mushur Nordin.”
“Nordin!” Adami shouted. He had been a thorn in her side far more times than she liked to remember. His presence had been pivotal in some very damaging defeats, defeats that could have swung the balance towards the Dominion had they have been victories instead. Nordin had played an important part in her ultimate dismissal from the Dominion. Though she hated the man with every ounce of her body, she recognized that he was a most dangerous foe.
The Rise of The Dominion: A Dominion War novel Page 20