Marten considered the statement to be a pointless waste of breath. What was to be gained from stating the obvious?
Falk pulled out a scanning device and quickly glanced at its output. “I’m reading a heavy concentration of electrical energy in the building two over to the East. I think that’s our best bet. Let’s move.”
The first building seemed deserted, containing kitchens, storerooms for food and other utilities. It seemed as though there was plenty of need to cater for considerable numbers of people. A quick use of the Astrals would have shown whether the building was actually deserted or not but since Channeling was impossible whilst hiding from the Astrals they had to move through the building slowly, quietly, delaying them considerably.
Once at the exit to the tunnel that led to the computer building they found that there was a guard positioned at the other end of the tunnel, next to the entrance into the computer building. The tunnel was approximately twenty meters long and the guard seemed capable and attentive. He wore a black and red leathery outfit and wielded a quite deadly looking nanoblade sword. A plasma rifle hung on his back. He was devilishly handsome.
“I got this,” said Nathan Bircheno, stripping quickly out of his Nebula fighter suit before Mushur Falk could argue. Underneath he wore a black and gray ensemble, perhaps something a Skave might wear. Leaving everything, he opened the door and then strode down the tunnel towards the guard.
Marten was very impressed with how much confidence the young man seemed to exude, as though he felt that he owned not just the tunnel or the buildings but the entire planet - possibly even the universe. Regardless, Marten was ready to immediately reunite with the Astrals and deal with the guard should he need to. He felt a responsibility to protect Nathan - not only was he a member of Marten’s flight group but Marten was also the most powerful of the Edo and so had an obligation through capability. What if he did not act yet the others were incapable of defending him?
The guard frowned as Nathan approached. Nathan’s chin rose, seeming to ignore the guard disdainfully. Only once Nathan reached the man did he start to react, but by then it was already too late. Nathan pirouetted gracefully and lashed out with an elbow that connected beautifully with the guards left temple, marred only be a sickening cracking sound. The guard fell, unconscious.
Nathan wasted no time in starting to drag the man and was soon assisted by the powerful Amaeh Duranti and Karlos Tsia’ool, who was positively enraptured with Nathan’s impressive takedown of the guard.
“Where did you learn to do that?” asked Karlos breathlessly.
“From my father,” replied Nathan, with considerable pride. “He was in the military.”
“Do you have a sister?”
“Yes, Sonja.”
“I feel sorry for anyone who dates her.”
Nathan laughed. “I don’t think she has that many suitors to be honest.”
Karlos looked back at him wide-eyed. “No real surprise there.” Nathan laughed again.
Marten mulled over their conversation. While logically he understood that having a potent father like Flanik Bircheno would intimidate any boys interested in Sonja, he was again frustrated by not being able to comprehend the humour. What was funny about something that negatively affected Sonja’s ability to enjoy a relationship with another person? Did people think his own brain injuries funny, too?
Shortly, the incapacitated guard was secreted away and Nathan was back in his flight suit. Falk had searched and found the man’s security pass. With a quick swipe the door to the electronics-laden building unlocked. The Mushur Edo slowly opened the door before peering out for a moment. He gave an all clear sign and moved in.
Marten was last in. Unsurprisingly the room was given over to environmental suits, somewhere to store them and equip them before moving out into the tunnel and then to the exposed surface. A brief whispered discussion regarding them donning the suits to help them blend in resulted in the decision to not wear them. They were bulky and the logic didn’t work - nobody would wear the suits deeper into the building.
Joakim Falk moved towards the door leading out from the suit room and just as he reached for the door it opened, with a middle-aged, purple-skinned man pushing into the room. He collided with Falk and fell to the floor, startled.
“Who the,” he began, but a swift kick to the side of the head from Harper Ko put the man out cold. An alarmed cry from within the next room brought the Edo to abrupt attention. Falk hesitated only for a moment.
“Cover’s blown. Full abilities, people,” he shouted, then sped with blinding speed into the room, with the rest of the Edo at his Astral-boosted heels.
Marten leapt through the doorway, into an enormous room full from floor to ceiling with computer equipment. Some sort of command and control center possibly? Or a research station undertaking some very heavy algorithm computation? Regardless of its function, there we at least a dozen Skave, all seeking cover from the Edo. Several Edo summoned Astral melee weapons, flooding the room with their blue glow.
Marten landed behind a desk and crouched down. He reached out with Astral energy and found that two of the Skave were Astral-sensitive. They were grouped together off to the left and further back into the room. He Channeled an Astral blade into being and rose, striding purposefully across the room towards them. He calmly moved his head to the side as a laser bolt zipped past, easily able to feel the bolt early enough to predict the path of the energy packet.
He sensed Amaeh Towpine, just behind him, return fire. She hit the assailant cleanly, her stun bolt shocking the man into collapse. He heard Kaisa shout a warning, followed by a crackle as her Astral blade sprang to life. Nathan tumbled across an opening, drawing fire whilst Karlos Tsia’ool covered him, taking out another of the Skave computer technicians.
Marten used an Astral-push to shift a tall stack of racked computers out of his way, and revealed the two Skave in the process. The pair wielded double-bladed Astral staffs, with red blades glowing menacingly from each end. They snarled at Marten, and span their staffs end over end, an impressive display that would no doubt have intimidated most people. But not me, thought Marten. Fear is another emotion that I can no longer feel.
He briefly considered the best way to nullify their threat as Towpine started firing at them. They returned her bolts accurately, forcing Rask to block them with his Astral blade.
He decided to use their staffs against themselves. Channeling, he stretched out and cusped the weapon of one of the Skave in the grip of his mind. Still spinning, he Astral-pushed the blade with all of his might. The Astral staff flared as it whirled into the other Skave, whose beautiful face was marred by agony as he fell to the floor, convulsing.
The remaining Skave dropped and tumbled into cover, letting his staff dissolve into nothing. Marten felt the Skave call on the Astrals and felt the turbulence of the air caused by a Jovenar as it moved with astonishing speed towards Amaeh. Marten calmly took hold of the glass dagger in the Astrals and brought its motion to an abrupt stop, just a hand’s width from Duranti’s face. Rask felt the Skave struggle against his grip on the dagger but the Skave was no match for him. He reversed the dagger and flung it back towards the Skave, who, with great skill, smashed the Jovenar with another, thrown at exactly the right moment. Whilst impressive, it made little difference to Marten. He held the shards of both Jovenar in the grip of the Astrals and directed each and every razor sharp piece hurtling into the face of the Skave. The Skave screamed as his eyes popped and his face tore into a shredded mess. Shards penetrated into his brain and lacerated major arteries, spraying blood in volumes as the man fell backwards.
Marten wondered at the incomprehensible feelings emanating from Amaeh. He turned to look at her. From the expression on her face he deduced that yet again an Edo was appalled at his actions. Why? The Skave had nearly killed her and he had merely used the Skave’s own weapon against him. The chances of them defeating the Skave without killing him were slim so what did it matter how he died. M
arten knew that once he would have understood but now it just seemed ridiculous, some type of game that had little real-world purpose.
Marten shook his head sadly and looked and felt around the room. Three Skave remained conscious, gathered together with the Kos and Karlos Tsia’ool covering them closely, Astral blades crackling near their faces. Nathan was checking on unconscious Skave, kicking away weapons. Mushur Falk approached, briefly looking towards the body of the Skave with the lacerated face. Marten felt a quickly smothered feeling wash over the Mushur, but the old Edo managed to keep his face impassive.
“Efficient work, Rask,” said the Edo Mushur after a short amount of consideration.
“Amaeh’s life was threatened twice despite my efforts,” said Marten, quite seriously.
“And yet she remains,” smiled Falk. “Please, can you and Duranti secure the exit back to the tunnel?”
“Of course,” said Marten. They went and stood next to the door, Marten reaching out with the Astrals. He watched as Falk and Nathan began working, tapping furiously at screens, slicing their way in, downloading all the data they could.
Marten was the first to feel them. A small army of Skave, including several blessed by the Astrals were approaching from several directions, presumably from where ever they had been prior to their assault on this room. He let the others know.
“Thirty seconds and then we’re out of here,” said Mushur Falk.
“Shuttle pilot,” said Harper into his communicator, “need urgent EVAC from location alpha. ETA two minutes.”
“Affirmative. On my way,” cam the message in reply.
The seconds ticked down slowly. Nathan and Falk were the last to the door, working furiously at their computer stations until Falk said, “Go.”
Marten used Astral energy to fling the door from its hinges, sending it end over end down the tunnel until it shattered into pieces. He dashed through, leading the rest of the Edo down the tunnel, and repeating his trick, smashed the door to the kitchen and storeroom building. They ran through the kitchens but Marten could sense that a group of Skave had gathered at the exit to the tunnel that lead out to the surface. They couldn’t stop Marten, let alone eight determined Edo. Marten Channeled to send Antreeba a simple message - attack!
Gratifyingly, he sensed the dismay in the Skave as they took to avoiding Antreeba’s skillful shots. With Astrals-boosted speed, he dashed through the Skave, he and his Astral blade a nearly invisible death-dealing blur. Arms, weapons and heads separated from their owners whilst others were flung with incredibly powerful Astral-pushes into walls with bone-snapping results.
Kaisa was not far behind, her lithe, acrobatic body allowing her to dance through the Skave Marten had not had chance to target. She was caught by a blast of Astral-lightning and staggered, falling to her knees. She rolled to avoid a barrage of laser fire and brought up her Astral weapon in an effort to block the torrent of red electricity. It was suddenly cut short as Marten sliced cleanly through the Skave’s extended arms, following it up with a stab though the woman’s neck. She gurgled, stumps of her arms flailing as she fell sideways over the body of another deceased Skave.
And then they were out, through the tunnel and running towards the extraction point. Marten could see the shuttle approaching quickly, which was excellent considering how many Skave there were not far behind them. It would be close run thing but it looked like they would make it.
Laser and plasma bolts came in at them, most wildly fired but a few required Marten’s intervention, either through blocking them in a spinning whirlwind that still allowed him to move towards the extraction point, or through the deployment of momentary Astrals shields.
Then Marten realized something that he knew should have alarmed him. Karlos Tsia’ool, the newly appointed Edo Askari was not with them. He found his presence back within the food stuff building, back where the Skave had mounted their attack. He was unconscious, but still very much alive. Marten came to a sudden stop, using his Astral blade almost subconsciously to fend off any shots that came near.
“Falk,” he called, “Karlos - “
“I know, Marten. I know. It’s too late, there is nothing we can do now. We must get to safety, we can’t risk the data.”
Rask considered the old Edo’s words. It made perfect logical sense. The data they had obtained could potentially end the war with the Skave and save countless lives. When compared to the life of one man, there was no choice at all to make. A nagging thought insisted that the younger version of himself would never have given up on Karlos Tsia’ool but Marten ignored it, considering the action illogical and reckless. He ran after the other Edo, towards the shuttle and didn’t think about Karlos again until long after they were safely back on the Mote’s Eye and away into Hyperspace.
Chapter Twenty Six
They were nearing the end of the fourth day of the trial. The prosecution had called so many witnesses that Sord Okarachebe was struggling to remember any more than a few of them. Most had been victims from the recent Skave invasion of Himdel. Rich or important people whose lives had been devastated in one way or another. Others whose entire families had been killed. Property destroyed, money lost. All blamed the Edo for their losses. All sat and scowled at Sord, their eyes burning with thinly-veiled hatred.
Other witnesses’ stories dated back to the Zhur Thoggu invasion, where many of the atrocities were pinned on the Edo, blaming them for everything from being the very reason they invaded to directly causing the destruction of worlds and the deaths of millions as they and their homes were converted into raw materials.
Tomasa Iwu did his best to counter each claim during cross examination but facts were irrelevant when people had already chosen to ignore them. They needed to blame somebody and the Edo were the perfect fall guys since it was easy to be jealous and resentful of beings supposedly better or more powerful than you. It mattered little that they put their lives on the line for you, sacrificed themselves for a peaceful galaxy, or held themselves to a higher moral code than you did.
Sord could see and feel that the jury were empathetic to the plight of Phan Ursox’s witnesses, and needed little encouragement to hold Sord personally accountable.
“It has been shown over the last four days,” continued Ursox, as energetic as ever despite many hours on his feet, constantly talking, “that the death toll, the suffering and the losses, both financial and emotional directly attributable to the Edo is almost beyond reason. How such destruction has been allowed to be caused by so few this prosecution does not understand but we are not here to ponder that. We only need to determine whether Grand Mushur Sord Okarachebe can be held personally responsible for the actions of the Edo, and if so, what his punishment should be.”
Cries of “Give him the death penalty!” and, “Kill the Edo!” rang out from the audience. Judge Quechina pressed the sonic emitter, causing the crowd to scream out in pain.
The Judge glowered at the crowd. “Any further interruptions from the public viewers will result in a complete ban of public viewing for the remainder of the trial.” People of all species swapped foul looks with one another.
Ursox looked delighted. “On behalf of the people, my apologies, your honor. Emotions are strong when justice is needed so very, very dearly.”
He looked at the Jury. “I believe that I have shown beyond any doubt the damage that has been caused by the illegal actions that the Edo have undertook across this fair republic. The people demand justice. Only you can give that to them.”
He turned and bowed to the Judge. “The prosecution rests, your honor.”
Thea Leilani sat cross-legged upon the floor of her ship, the Darkening Horizon, cloaking system active, watching another annexation take place. Incredibly, the Dominion seemed to be increasing the rate at which they took systems. This system, Accoreb, held two agricultural planets of marginal value but here they were, with a fleet just large enough to necessitate the quick surrender of the defending forces. The skirmish was almost illusion
ary. The Accoreba moved out quickly enough to oppose the Imperials, but fell back towards Accoreb, the larger of the two habitable planets as soon as the first Imperial ranging shots were fired.
Despite all her new-found wealth and power there was little she could do to halt the expansion directly. Being present, however, was for motivational purposes. Her own empire could operate equally well in Imperial or republic territory so from that point of view who controlled these systems and sectors hardly mattered to Thea. But Weststar had obviously done a deal with the Zhur Thoggu and increasingly it seemed that he had also become involved with the Skave.
She grimaced. She was keeping tabs on the Skave as much as it was possible without exposing her or her holdings and she did not like what she was seeing. Their power increased by the day. They were spreading further and further across the galaxy, gaining footholds even in tightly defended areas of the galaxy such as the Aneev Ascendancy. If Thea was ever to be safe she had to nullify their threat. Everything she did was work towards this goal. Unfortunately, frustratingly, even as her own means improved, theirs did too, at a far greater rate. If anything, despite her almost incalculable wealth, she was in more danger now than ever before.
Obviously, then, she couldn’t defeat the Skave alone. She needed help. The only help she would be able to gather would be the paid kind, and there was only so much that mercenaries could do. Thea knew she would have to get others to help without them realizing they were helping her. A small amount of manipulation, a small amount of leading them by the nose and she could get the major powers to do her bidding.
Whatever their involvement with the Skave was, having the Dominion on their side increased the Skave’s power immeasurably. This alone was reason enough to stop their expansion and assist Brams’ return. Their bargain with the Zhur Thoggu was just as big a reason, too. Yes, they had hoped to betray and defeat the Zhur Thoggu out in the Nushothi cluster but that had failed, even with Thea’s aid. They would pay dearly for their mistake. A resurgent Zhur Thoggu would threaten her as much as the Skave.
The Rise of The Dominion: A Dominion War novel Page 26