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Character Sheet is located in the back of the book for reference.
Emerilia
Empire Burning
Chapter 0: Prologue
The emperor’s quarters were silent as the last of the screens turned to black.
Even the emperor was silent, his concubines not daring to move around him as a screen telling of technical errors appeared in front of him.
Moments later, the doors to his quarters opened and several of his aides stood at the door, rolling onto their backs to show their subservience. Their frog-like bodies stilled as the emperor waved his hand, indicating for them to talk.
“Great and mighty emperor, the Emerilians have rebelled. They have a fleet of space-worthy warships that took out the orbitals around Emerilia, as well as attacked the military base. Our fleet and base there are fighting back but they are requesting reinforcements. It doesn’t look like they will be able to hold out,” one of the aides said in a rush. Their fur was dry with fear.
The emperor took this in before he started to laugh. It was low and quiet at first, becoming louder and louder until it made the room shake.
“Good! Good! This will be the best season of Emerilia yet! The end of Emerilia! Organize the fleet. We will send them out to attack the Emerilians, a great display of the Jukal Empire’s might. We will show the empire the strength of our Jukal fleets!” The emperor’s excitement built as he thought of his magnificent Jukal ships clashing with the Emerilian fleet.
“The fleet in the Emerilian system has been defeated and the Emerilians are attacking the base directly. It seems like Emerilia has a massive shield that is protecting it from attacks from the outside,” one of the aides said.
“It does not matter. Do you doubt the strength of our Jukal fleets?” the emperor asked.
Just talking about the Jukal fleet would inspire confidence or fear in the Jukal Empire. The Jukal fleets had never been defeated and they had subdued countless races. They were the reason that the Jukal continued to rule over the other races of the empire.
“The Emerilians defeated our different measures. It seems that Lo’kal is with them,” one of the oldest aides said in an emotionless voice.
“Uncle, what are you thinking?” the emperor asked. He dismissed the other aides, but this old Jukal who stood outside his quarters made him wipe away his look of glee and take him seriously.
“They have many plans going on. They had a fleet that we didn’t know about until they used it and a shield that covers an entire planet. We don’t even have that kind of ability. We must not underestimate them and we must hit them as soon as possible. The more time they are given, the stronger they can become. After all, they’re humans.” The emperor’s uncle’s words struck a chord with the emperor. He not only thought of the Emerilians, he thought of the lessons that his uncle had taught him about the scariest enemy that the empire had faced: humanity.
“Send out the fleets to hunt down the Emerilians. We will destroy them wherever we can find them,” the emperor said. His voice was no longer flippant; instead, it carried a different message from before.
The aides scrambled onto their limbs and rushed away to carry out his orders.
The emperor raised his hand slightly as a slight mist fell over his chest, wetting his fur. “We will use this to show the rest of the empire their positions. The Emerilians held a place to provide entertainment and fight the aggressive species but if they are unable to do that, we will destroy them, root and branch.”
Chapter 1: Changing of the Old to New
Light and her advisers stepped out of the rubble that was her hall. She felt incredible weakness. Her power was lower than it had ever been and what was left of her legions was in chaos, as most of them had been killed.
She looked around the debris that was Markolm and the sea that surged all around them. Markolm was now nothing more than a collection of blocks at awkward angles that jutted up into the sky.
Many had died in the battle, but many more had died from the curse that had been activated within their bodies. Light and those who were with her had just been able to survive it. Some of the stronger angels had been able to survive it as well.
She looked up to the sky, where a massive shield stretched across the horizon, making it a brighter blue. Here and there, it flashed as something hit it.
She had seen the fighting happening above Emerilia through her seer pools; however, now it was silent.
The wind whipped up as a young woman appeared in front of Light and her followers.
A number of her followers and angels rushed forward, yelling out their defiance.
The young woman waved her delicate hands. The wind picked up and created chains that wrapped around those who charged. They were like babies in front of an adult.
They yelled out their anger until the woman waved her hand again and a dome of air cut off their noise.
The young woman took a deep breath as she looked at Light.
“What, come to gloat?” Light sneered. “Didn’t think that was your thing, Air.” Light’s face was still mottled and half destroyed by the magic that her brother, the former Dark Lord, had used upon her. Her former grace and poise was gone. She was now no stronger than a normal person of Emerilia.
“No. I came to end this,” Air said in a soft voice. She waved her hand.
Light only had time to look alarmed as a dart of compressed air shot from Air’s hand, silently hitting Light in the head.
With a look of shock on her face, the Lady of Light fell.
She dropped onto the ground, dust rising around her. Behind Air, holes opened in the Mana shield as meteors seemed to fall toward Emerilia.
Air looked up from Light’s corpse, looking to the sky just as those meteors altered their course that they could be seen with the naked eye.
Air used a spell to zoom in on them.
Several destroyers grew in her vision, their bodies like a sword with inverted wings that allowed them to cut through the planet’s atmosphere.
Sonic booms cracked through the air with the approach of the destroyers. The crews handled their ships nimbly, never once coming out of formation as they approached the ground.
The destroyers pulled up from their dive, their runic lines visible as they approached, looking less like meteors and more like ships.
As they approached Markolm, lines underneath their hulls lit up as angels and those who were still loyal to Light started to attack the sleek and intimidating ships.
Mana barriers flared to life, effortlessly absorbing the hits from the remaining fanatics. The runic lines lit up, firing back beams of light that tore apart those in their path. The runic lines underneath the destroyers flashed with light and the newly minted Emerilian forces dropped to the ground beneath the destroyer. These were people from across Emerilia who had been outfitted with Devastator armor and trained in its use. When combined with Bob’s gift of making all of the people of Emerilia into Champions of Emerilia, Light’s armies were easily subdued. Among their ranks, there were overseers who used spells to bind the men and women who had followed Light.
The angels were still more powerful, but the Devastator army simply called in supporting fire from the destroyers, whose artillery cannons each hit with the strength of a dwarven mountain artillery cannon but at the size of one of their regular pieces.
As Light’s body started to fall away, becoming nothing more than drifting pixelated ash, Air watched as the people of Emerilia reclaimed their home.
The air turned into a vortex around those Air had captured, delivering them to the Devasta
tor forces. Another vortex appeared around Air as she disappeared from Markolm.
***
Even with the distracting side chats going on around their conference room, the different members of the Terra Alliance were all focused on Josh, who was leading the conference with Dave and Bob by his side.
They were no longer in Terra, but rather Ice City, which was seeing a massive boost in population.
“As you all now know the extent of what is going on with the Jukal and the true history of Emerilia, I think it’s time that we focus not on the past, and instead what steps we must take in the future so that we as humans might once again stand on our own feet and create a place for us to call home,” Josh said. “That said, this isn’t my show. I looked after the Terra Alliance on Emerilia, but everything that you have seen in the last few days has been created by the Pandora’s Initiative, who run this facility, and a number of others. As such, they have a much better understanding of what is going on, so I will leave the briefing to them.”
Josh looked to Dave, who nodded and cleared his throat.
“My name is Dave Grahslagg. A number of you might know me. It seems that I will be representing the Pandora’s Initiative. Suzy Markell is really the manager for all of this. However, right now she is busy dealing with other items and is unable to join us for this meeting. The Pandora’s Initiative was made to research and develop magical and technological items that would assist the people of Emerilia in dealing with the Jukal Empire. This technology has been adapted over to other projects that you’ve seen on Emerilia, to help deal with the threats that have come up in the last couple of years. We have built up the infrastructure and different bases that were necessary for us to build the fleet that you saw above Emerilia. We are also undergoing the process to remove all of the people trapped in the simulation of Earth to allow them to gain their freedom. The ones who have already been freed have already contributed to many research topics and are a big part of both production and our military forces. They have become the backbone of the Initiative. Right now, we have roughly five million being uploaded from the Earth simulation into real bodies within Ice City. It’s part of the reason things are so crazy around here. We also have a large influx of people from Emerilia from various locations that were under threat. This base and others connected to it were made not only so that we could defeat the Jukal Empire but if we fail in our pursuit, then the survivors will have a launch pad in order to be ready for the next battle,” Dave said.
“What is the plan to fight the Jukal?” Alkao asked, his voice deeper and more powerful than before. His powerful aura shook the room as he sat next to Denur, his aura much wilder than before but still suppressed by Denur’s dominating aura.
“I think the questions should be: what is the Pandora’s Initiative, who controls it, and is it military or civilian?” one of the Ashal nation’s leaders asked.
“It is a subsidiary of the Grahslagg Corporation. Naming it would be complicated. Overall, I give the orders. These are passed to different heads of departments, who then find a way to carry them out,” Dave said.
“But you aren’t of a military and you’re a member of the Stone Raiders,” someone else said.
Dave looked at the two who were raising these points. They had seen the strength of the Initiative and they were scared. It didn’t matter that the Initiative was fighting against the Jukal Empire; they were worrying about what would happen if it turned on them.
Dave unleashed his aura on the room, making it hard for many to breathe. With his Strength, he was now stronger than Denur.
The people in the room had wide eyes as the oppressive power contained within his body pressed down on them.
“I’m not here to piss about. We’re fighting a goddamn war for survival. Either you’re part of this or you’re not. You make that decision here and now. I am fighting for my family and I will not let anyone step in my way,” Dave said with barely contained rage, stabbing the table in front of him with his finger. Across the room, eyes shifted to take in the cracks that radiated out from where Dave’s finger struck the table.
“Either we stand together, or we die apart; that is what you have to think of, that is what you should be thinking of.”
Alkao nodded, seemingly approving of his actions. The dwarves were in agreement, as were the different player guilds, as well as Fire, Water, Air, Bob, and Malsour.
Jelanos and Alamos looked around the table calmly and without fear—they were all in with Dave—as did the elected governor and governess of Gudalo, Lady Merguine and Lord Sigaird. Lord Sigaird had been King Sigaird of the Gudalo nation, but he had left politics behind and gone adventuring with his wife. However, fate had taken a hand in his future, as Air had once again pulled him into politics, using him to bring Gudalo together and strengthen the people for the ongoing battles that plagued Emerilia.
Denur and Fire shared a look before they smiled to each other, approving of Dave’s actions as they looked to the others around the table. Few weren’t affected by the pressure of Dave’s Strength; others felt cold sweat run down their spines as they pushed down thoughts of wrestling control of the Initiative from Dave Grahslagg. His forces and his allies were deep.
Dave looked to them all. His glare made it clear: this is where they choose which side they stood on.
He cleared his throat and looked to Alkao.
“We are moving to secure the Emerilian system. Once we control everything around Emerilia, then we are going to move units out to the different planets that are part of the Jukal Empire. It will take the Jukal fleet time to get organized and there is no portal in the Emerilian system. The nearest one is three systems away. They thought it too costly to put a portal here when they had all of their safety measures to kill us off if we rebelled. Thankfully, we figured them all out and stopped them from working. It will take them three to five months to reach us. This is time that we can’t waste. Our ships are faster and we already have two fleets out on patrol. We can use them to drop portals and create our own network that the Jukal don’t know about.
“We go to the planets, we destroy the Jukal influences and we drop off the different items that the people of the empire need. Cut off from the Jukal Empire, they will have no option but to use the items we give them. If they use them, they risk offending the empire, which will probably harm them in a big way. But on the other hand, if they don’t use them, their planets will fall into disarray. We’re dropping these things off for two reasons: one, we bring the people over to our side; and two, we get the Jukal to send out more fleets to different systems. The Jukal fleets will portal in to attempt to block our actions and we will lure them into chasing our fleets throughout the connected systems. Once we’ve got the Jukal fleets spread all over the place, we take control of the Jukal portal network and amass our forces using our own portals. The Jukal fleets, cut off from one another, will be swarmed by our fleets and destroyed thanks to our numerical and technological superiority in that battle area. At this point, the empire will only be able to be crossed by ships using jump drives. We will have taken their strength and broken the backbone of the Jukal Empire. We will then show the member planets of the empire that the Jukal aren’t all-powerful. We seed doubt and we let them think of their future. Then we amass our power and strike at the core worlds, barricading the Jukal in their own systems. The empire lives as a whole, but when isolated and broken into its parts, it will die.”
“Why don’t we take over the portals from the beginning?” Jelanos, the archmage of the Mage’s College, asked.
“If we use the portals from the beginning, then we lose the element of surprise. Also, we need the Jukal Empire to push their fleets out as much as possible. Our fleet isn’t massive but if we can dictate the fighting against the Jukal, then we can win. We isolate and destroy,” Dave said.
“Also, we might not be alone,” Bob said. All eyes turned to him.
“There is a group of humans who have been hiding in the stars for some time.
Dave has been in contact with them for a long time and they have helped us and we them. They have a space-based military and are building an outpost within the Nal system we are in. If we work together, then the chances of victory will be higher,” Bob said.
“Right now, our biggest task is building ships. We have a number of people who are trained to fight on the ships we have available so far, but constructing them is our biggest single bottleneck. Other than that, we need to build the hundreds of factories and structures that we can put on the planets of the Jukal Empire to foster rebellion,” Malsour said.
“We have an offer for you,” Fire said.
As one, Water, Fire, and Air all seemed to pull orbs out of their chests. Each shone like a rare gem, colored blue, red, and white. Air pulled out another orb that gave off a golden glow.
“These are the AI that were given to us to make us into members of the Pantheon. We gift them to the Initiative to assist with fighting the Jukal Empire.” Fire waved her hand. Her red orb drifted forth until settling in the center of the room, several feet above the table. The other three orbs drifted away from their owners and joined the red orb, where all of the orbs began to rotate and circle one another in a slow formation.
“Administrator access to AI cores has been recognized. Would you like me to access these?” Jeeves asked from above.
“Please do.” Dave pulled a green orb from his chest and waved it to the middle of the table. Malsour pulled a black orb from his, which also joined its siblings until each of the orbs started to fade as Jeeves accessed them.
As one, all of the orbs disappeared.
“Six new AI cores are now online. Production increases have been registered,” Jeeves said. As he and the AIs interfaced, his information would only become more refined. He would be able to pass off tasks to them that they were better suited to deal with.
“The Pantheon no longer exists. Only the people of Emerilia can determine the fate of our home,” Air said.
Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11) Page 1