“Very well. Let’s head for the target. Tell the destroyers to start bringing their Devastator forces onboard and get the ark prepped for transferring its contents over to the destroyer.” Captain Xiao’s voice was steady and controlled as the fleet of five ships silently headed in toward the Jukal system.
They traveled for five days before reaching their target planet. They were traveling at speeds that would cross Emerilia in just seconds, but in the vast distances of space, that kind of speed was barely comparable to walking.
“Sensors, have the Jukal really not picked us up yet?” Xiao asked.
“It doesn’t seem like it, sir,” the sensors officer said.
“Very well. Send one of the destroyers ahead to circle the planet. I want to see how good this stealth coding is. Have them ready to escape if they are brought under fire. Nav, have the fleet hold position. We will follow orders and reveal ourselves well before we reach the planet. Make the Jukal have a false sense of security as they think that they still have time to see us before we hit them,” Xiao said with an indifferent look in his eyes.
Frank watched as the destroyer circled the planet and then returned to the formation nearly a day later.
“Well, I bet that will be useful information for those in HQ to know. Nav, fire up the engines. Sensors, let’s see how they react. Engineering, let’s drop stealth but add in seventy percent to what we think their sensors would be able to see. Fire control, be ready to fire. Activate our Mana barriers.”
Under Xiao’s orders, the ships started to move once again. Their stealth magical coding changed and altered, making it appear to the Jukal as if they had just discovered the Pandora fleet. Mana barriers snapped into existence as missile ports were loaded and artillery cannons were manned and readied. Interceptor modules scanned the space around the ships, looking for targets.
The Pandoran fleet looked like a group of predators shedding their camouflage as they headed toward their prey.
“We have incoming from orbitals. Missile boats, take them out.” Frank was connected to the other fire controllers as he pinged the orbitals hiding around the planet.
“Firing!” One of the missile boat fire controllers rang out true, as missiles entered the plot, saturating the orbital platform’s defenses and taking it out as the ships continued forward.
“Destroyers, prepare to enter the atmosphere. Missile boats, focus on outward defense. BloodHawk, be ready to support ground efforts. Have the ark move between BloodHawk and missile boats for greatest protection.” Captain Xiao’s orders were nothing new as they had done simulations on this battle multiple times within their Mirror of Communication simulations.
The ships moved with ease, looking for targets.
There was no sign of anything different as some of the ark’s portals activated, connecting to the asteroid base. Their teleport pads also activated, connecting them to the teleport pads that were located on the two destroyers that were now entering the atmosphere of the target planet.
The destroyers were shaking and being tossed around as they fought the atmosphere around them. The air burned with their entry. They leveled off, the re-entry burn disappearing as the underside started to glow with runic lines.
The destroyers cut through the skies above the planet. The wind howled around them as for the first time in five hundred years, humans once again entered the atmosphere of a planet controlled by the Jukal Empire.
“Preparing forces for drop! Targets are aligned!” the Devastator operations commander said from her console off to the side.
“Very well,” Xiao said. “Make sure that we are broadcasting on all channels.”
“Yes, sir, we are on all channels. Nothing but Emerilia AM down there,” the communications officer said, the corner of their mouth lifted in confidence.
“Good.” Xiao reviewed the information on his screens.
All across the planet, Air’s voice rang out in the different languages of the planet. Telling them that they came here to fight the Jukal Empire that had been oppressing the people. Telling them that their ships would be dropping off factories and different machines that they could use in order to make up for being cut off from the rest of the empire.
“Devastator forces are dropping on the planetary governor’s residence!” the operations officer said.
The planet below was filled with massive skyscrapers, with very little of the ground even showing. However, the area around the planetary governor’s residence was clearly different.
Frank saw a view of the destroyer coming in close to a massive residence that covered half of a continent.
There were a few buildings. They were massive as they were elegant, a symbol of the Jukal Empire’s power over this planet.
In the lands, multiple people who had been living in homes underneath the perfect forests and gardens started to appear. These were the bodyguard races of the Jukal Empire, as well as their creations made to defend them.
They attacked the destroyers as they rushed in. Unlike the Jukal who didn’t believe in using nanites to enhance themselves, these bodyguards had no such issues. They were closer to the Emerilians than they were to the Jukal.
This allowed them to use Mana, just like the Emerilians.
Plasma cannons tore through the sky, impacting the destroyer’s Mana barriers, while spears of metal shot out from the ground and curses landed on the destroyers.
The runic lining underneath the destroyers lit up, creating magical formations on the ground.
Units wearing Devastator armor landed on the ground. Earth and Dark mages threw out their hands as around them a fort started to rise from the ground. The defenders attacked this growing defensive structure, but although they were able to slow its growth, they weren’t able to stop it.
Overseers from the Mage’s College and Guild took to the air, becoming the focus of the defenders’ attacks. They acted as if they didn’t even see the attacks. Their Mana barriers stopped the incoming attacks as they gave the defenders terms for surrender. Their armor changed their voices, so that the different races would be able to understand them.
As the overseers stood in the air, asking for the defenders to surrender, the destroyers turned their sides, presenting the modified artillery cannons along their sides. The dwarves managing them didn’t waste any time as they put their guns to use.
Grand working shells were unleashed on the pristine grounds of the planetary governor’s residence. Seas of lightning shot out from where the shells landed. Magical formations appeared in the sky, as clouds came together and created a massive thunderstorm, filled with cutting winds, penetrating rain, and lightning that turned the ground to glass where it hit.
All while this was going on, the Devastator forces organized themselves.
“Blood Reevers are taking the charge!” the operations officer said.
From the now several fortresses, holes opened in the walls as gleaming black armor covered in glowing runic lines shot forward. Gnomes and orcs, all of them equipped with Devastator armor, rode armored blood reevers.
The blood reevers shook their heads and let out their howls, racing faster and faster. They came together from the different fortresses, forming into one body, creating a line across their front.
The ground forces that were defending the planetary governor’s home looked at these charging blood reevers. Drums could be heard coming from the fortresses as the gaps in the walls became larger. The sound of boots and drums made the very ground shake as dwarven warclans marched behind the advancing blood reevers. As they cleared the fortresses, the creatures that had been on their shoulders shot into the air, unleashing their attacks upon the defenders.
They formed their warclan units, advancing toward the enemy, their hands on their swords as they held their massive dwarven shields in front of them.
Behind them came mages and archers. As these ranged fighters got free of the fortress, spell formations appeared in the sky and upon the ground.
“We’ve got drones incomin
g from the southeast,” the operations officer said, not looking from their screens.
Fighter crafts appeared in the sky, bearing down on the ground forces. They shot out laser beams that cut through the sky, only to smash into Mana barriers.
Interceptor modules twitched and locked onto the drones. After the second shot, the drones’ lasers stopped working as the interceptor modules used the runic coding Jekoni had created, disrupting the coding of the lasers.
Lightning rained down from the skies, as meteors tore through the perfect drone formations.
Arrows tore at their shields and punched holes through their armor. Drones spiraled down in droves, crashing into the ground below as the charging blood reevers and the gnome and orc riders atop of them smashed into the defenders.
Under the blood reevers, the defenders were crushed. The riders cut out with large blades and small bows that easily pierced the defenders’ armor and killed them.
The blood reevers didn’t slow their advance, leaving behind broken and scattered defenders in their wake.
“Shields!” the dwarven warclan commander called out. Shields came together with the sound of metal hitting metal.
“Artillery cannons, hold fire,” Frank called out, as now the battle was joined, it was more likely that his people would hit their own instead of the enemy.
Ranged artillery came in from the planetary governor’s buildings and more drones came out, but it wasn’t enough to stop the destroyers and their forces on the ground.
The defenders that had been run over by the blood reevers continued to not listen to the overseers in the air as they met the dwarven shield wall.
Nothing passed the shield wall. As the defenders hit a steel wall, swords appeared in the dwarves’ hands as they cut forward, and advanced with the drums.
The defenders were cut down without pause. The ground forces and destroyers advanced forward as more and more people seemed to drop from the destroyers.
It seemed as if there was an unending supply. What the defenders and the Jukal didn’t know was that the destroyers were connected to the ark, where units wearing Devastator armor were marching from the asteroid base through a portal, and then teleport pads before being dropped onto the battlefield.
If someone’s armor was low on power, they were switched out and could activate their teleport back to the anchor within the destroyer, charge up and then drop back down and return to battle.
Seemingly unending waves of Devastator-armored Emerilians joined the fight as the destroyers advanced.
After a few hours, one of the destroyers moved away from the planetary governor’s residence and started to move around the planet. Where it went, it would drop off factories, growing towers, and other items that would be needed by the population as they were cut off from the rest of the Jukal Empire.
The ark descended into the planet’s atmosphere and moved with the roaming destroyer, passing down more items, until the entire planet was seeded with them. They ran out of pre-made factories and other items and instead started to put down soul gem constructs. These had heat and cold exchangers on them that allowed them to charge up and create new factories and buildings.
Frank looked to his different screens. The fighting on the ground was covered in a magical storm of spells going off, but here and there people were surrendering; the overseers dropped down, protecting them and sealing them before removing them from the battlefield.
As the defenders saw this, more and more of them started to surrender. They didn’t want to die for the Jukal who wouldn’t raise a finger to help them.
In the same hour, four more systems discovered that there were Pandora fleets in-system. Three hours later, the first of the joint Pandora and Deq’ual system fleets entered the Jukal-controlled systems.
***
The Jukal fleet’s admirals looked at the different screens around the conference table. They were using the Mirrors of Communication conference room in order to connect across the Jukal Empire.
They held positions of great power, with their families using them to secure their position within the Jukal Empire’s hierarchy. There were few positions that could demand more respect than being a leader of one of the Jukal fleets.
All of them looked to be at a loss as they watched on the screens as nearly forty systems were being invaded by the Emerilian forces.
“It seems that the Emerilians have an ally. Looking at the ships, there is a clear distinction between the Emerilian-made ships and these rounded-looking ships. We have no idea who this other party is. However, it looks like they have similar designs and technology to what we saw in the war against humanity. From this, we can determine that they are probably a human group that has been hiding these last five hundred years and we have not been able to find,” one of the admirals said, their fury clear.
All of the admirals looked at the different types of ships that were entering their systems as if they didn’t care for the Jukal Empire at all.
“What are we going to do? Already we have lost a number of the secure locations we controlled in these star systems. They’re also dropping what looks like to be aid to the people of the empire.” The Jukal admiral started off angry but his words came out with a confused note as he thought of the factories and different facilities that had rained down from the destroyers and arks.
“Send in the fleets. We will destroy their ships and show the glory of the Jukal Empire!” one of the older admirals said with a fanatical gleam in his eyes as he smashed his hand into the table, assured of their victory.
“We don’t know their capabilities,” the first admiral said.
“The Jukal fleets are the most powerful in all existence! Nothing can stand in their way! Wiping away these fleets is as easy as flipping our hands!” the older admiral yelled down the first.
“We have orders to attack Emerilia directly. It will take three months for us to organize our attack.” An admiral scratched his furred chest.
“We have portals in these locations. We can send our own fleets out, overpower them two to one and then destroy them. As their ships burn, we will send people through the portals on the ground and remove any influences that they hold on their planet,” an admiral sitting next to the older one said.
The older admiral nodded in agreement.
“Bring up our reserve fleets, and split the main fleet to deal with these attacking fleets?” the first admiral asked.
The admirals from around the table looked to one another and then looked to him, showing signs of agreement.
“We all know that the emperor wants this dealt with as soon as possible, but we also know that he wants to use this to show the people of the Jukal Empire the power that we, the Jukal, hold. We can use this to our advantage. We have the ships and the power. We send our ships through and we destroy the Emerilians and their allies completely in one go,” the older admiral said.
The first admiral nodded. The plan made a lot of sense and it was well known that the emperor loved to have a show of violence. If they could bring him one, then there was no telling of how he would reward them.
“Very well. We will defeat the fleets within the Jukal Empire completely. At the same time, we will send the main fleet to Emerilia in order to show them how slaves ought to act,” the first admiral scoffed.
Chapter 3: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Deia bounced little Koi on her knee as she looked out over Ice City. In the last couple of days, the apartments and buildings that had been empty were now filled with people. There was a constant stream of people moving between Terra and Ice City. More portals had been laid down to just move items between the different bases.
If the Jukal Empire were to see the way that the Emerilians were using the portals, they would collapse in shock. The Jukal Empire viewed them as symbols of their power; only those who were high up in the hierarchy of the empire and military were allowed to use the portals. However, the Emerilians were using them as nothing more than trade corridors; even
their ships had portals located inside, an extravagance that no Jukal would understand.
The Jukal could build more, but they were only made on the Jukal home planet and their distribution was controlled by the emperor himself. It allowed him to assert complete control over the Empire and his own Jukal subjects who might eye the emperor’s throne. They were made on the orders of the emperor and they took months to complete, with them being made by hand. The master craftsmen all made different parts that came together in a portal. By having each craftsman trained in one part, one would need to go to hundreds of the craftsmen to get the complete designs for the portals. It made it so that none of the information was available on the Jukal net: there was no AI to hack, no firewalls to break to get the information.
It was an archaic way of building the portals but it limited access. It was secure and it worked well. The Jukal Empire were not ones to mess with the system.
The door to Deia’s apartment opened as Dave walked in. He looked tired and worried but seeing Koi and Deia, it seemed to evaporate.
Deia didn’t say anything to Dave, instead choosing to kiss him as he came closer.
All day, there had been people marching through Ice City to the asteroid base; factories had been churned out from the different workshops across the cities, being funneled through portals directly into the ships of the Pandora fleet.
As battles had come to an end, the Devastator forces had been returned to Ice Planet and the asteroid base where they rested, rearmed, recharged and then once again moved through portals and teleport pads onto other planets of the Jukal Empire.
In forty systems across the Jukal Empire, Emerilian ships now moved between planets.
Dave wrapped his arm around Deia as they stood there, looking out over Ice City and glancing to the sleeping Koi in Deia’s arms.
“When do you think they’ll send out their fleets?” Deia asked in a soft voice.
“Might take a week or two—long enough for us to start talking to the different people of the empire.”
Deia nodded and didn’t say anything as she leaned her head into Dave’s shoulder, taking comfort in being so close.
Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11) Page 4