Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11)

by Michael Chatfield

  Rage built up within Deia. She stepped out into the air as blue flames emanated from her body. The sky seemed to dim under her power. Arrows shot out as blue streaks of light, hitting the plasma rounds and the spell formations that the slaves were forming, breaking spells and destroying the plasma rounds as they were released.

  Fire leapt off Induca as her spell formations appeared. They seemed to be a portal into a fiery hell as Affinity spirits rushed forth. Fire waved her finger imperiously and the Fire Affinity spirits rushed to obey, eating the plasma rounds and absorbing heat from the surrounding area; as they passed, the ground was covered in frost as they sucked it dry of heat energy to grow more powerful.

  They burned their way through walls and let out screams as they shot into the Jukal defenders, looking to take them over.

  Lu Lu had been off on her own, supporting the other side of the fighting formation with a Light-attribute phoenix she had taken a liking to. She let out a screech as her body expanded to two hundred meters long. Lightning from the clouds descended upon her; lightning cracked over her silver body as she unleashed an attack that killed the Jukal defenders and threw back their nanite-enhanced slaves, burn marks covering their bodies.

  Induca seemed to land in the sky. Flames created a platform under her feet as she created a massive Mana barrier around them all.

  Suzy threw out her Fire Affinity creations. “Fire, have your spirits take over my creations. I’ll break my connection but with the creations’ bodies, they’ll be stronger and last longer!” Suzy called out.

  Anna continued to move her hands, creating incantations as the spell formations around her continued to writhe and change, as they seemed to be fighting her very actions. “You WILL submit!” Anna’s words filled the sky as her eyes lit with a white light. White vapor seemed to flow out from them on either side. Her whole body emitted a white glow as the Mana in the air was stirred up.

  The Air and Water mages started to move their hands in new patterns, creating new spell formations.

  The sky and the tornadoes seemed to shudder for a second, as if resisting the mages.

  “Paladins, RISE!” Anna’s commands seemed to alter the very sky. The clouds from above descended, separating and joining with the tornadoes.

  Drones fired on the compressing clouds; missiles exploded in their midst, making parts of the clouds dissipate. Some of the mages who were part of the massive spell spat out blood from the backfire of Mana. However, they continued to press forward, a gleam of madness in their alien eyes.

  A flight of drones circled around and came in close to hit one of the tornadoes. As they lined up, a spear shot out from the tornado that was retracting. The spear was formed of hail, glass, and lightning barely contained in a tempest of air.

  It hit the lead drone, destroying it and exploding into shrapnel and lightning that arced to the other drones, cutting at them with incredible power.

  Drones fell from the sky, nothing more than burning wrecks. However, the people on the battlefield were all focused on the tornado that had compressed down to reveal a massive twenty-meter-tall armored paladin, holding a shield in one hand as a spear formed in the other.

  Its features were faint as wind whipped around it, creating a body of Air blades and tornadoes.

  The fifty or so tornadoes that had descended shrank down, pulling in the green thunder-filled clouds and forming one or two Air paladins that appeared from within the tornadoes.

  “Suzy! Air creation cores! Summoners, be ready to take control!” Anna’s words passed over the battlefield.

  Suzy didn’t even pause as she threw out Air and Water creation cores. Light creations picked them up, shooting forward at incredible speeds and burning out their power as they deposited them within the paladins.

  The Jukal forces that had paused upon seeing the drones being torn apart by the Water and Air paladins seemed to come out from their reverie as they attacked Anna once again. Their eyes filled with killing intent as they poured out attacks.

  Fire, Deia, and Induca could only defend against all of the incoming attacks.

  Air and Water appeared away from them and over the attacking forces.

  “Interesting.” Water’s words boomed through the heavens as he stretched out his hands.

  Air did the same, channeling their power into the paladins that became more substantial. Their power surged to the heavens and the cores, stabilizing the paladins.

  “Lu Lu,” Suzy yelled, pointing to the paladins.

  Lu Lu turned and unleashed lightning attacks on the paladins. Instead of weakening them, they grew stronger.

  “Have you got summoners who can control them?” Anna asked, gritting her teeth. The power fluctuations in front of her created violent ripples in the air.

  “I do!” Suzy said. Interface screens flashed around her as she quickly messaged people.

  “Releasing control!” Anna said.

  The spell formations in front of the Air and Water mages as well as Air and Water dissipated as Lu Lu struck the last of the paladins with all of her strength, looking drained.

  “Lu Lu, return.” Suzy looked at a paladin, Mana swirling around her and rotating up her staff that Dave had created for her. A stream of runes shot out from her staff, entering the paladin and merging with the two cores inside.

  Across the fighting forces, the strongest summoners shot spells of their own. These were command spells that would allow them to take over the cores and command the Air and Water paladins.

  Lu Lu, in her weakened state, shrunk till she was the size of a cat, curling around Suzy’s shoulders.

  Suzy stood there like a war general, looking at the Air paladin that was struck by Jukal fire. The violent green clouds, turning into blades, shredded the attacks before they landed on the Air creation. The Air paladin finished turning and peered down at Suzy.

  “Destroy them.” Suzy waved her staff at oncoming drones.

  The paladin looked to them. Its arm flashed as a spear tore through the sky.

  The other paladins came under the control of the summoners and burst into action. The seventy or so paladins shook the air and ground with every movement, and every attack threw the world into chaos.

  Momentum returned to the Emerilians as the Water and Air paladins threw the Jukal into a panic.

  Anna let out a sigh and released her hands. The spell formation fell away as all of the energy within her seemed to seep out, leaving nothing behind as she started to drop from the sky, barely able to keep her eyes open.

  “Fall back!” Deia said. They were still under heavy fire from the Jukal. Flames moved around her as she rocketed down, grabbing Anna. Induca grabbed Suzy, pulling her back, Lu Lu still on her shoulders while Fire covered their retreat. Finally she, too, turned and left.

  “I need to get my sword back. So much easier to manipulate the wind with it,” Anna murmured, her words only barely audible to Deia, whose eyes flashed at Anna’s words.

  Seems like she really might be able to get back some of her memories. Should see if getting her back her sword helps with anything.

  Deia glanced behind her. The Water and Air paladins were now causing chaos wherever they went. The defenses were falling; the Devastator soldiers were climbing the walls, flying up or using spells to get on top of the defenses.

  Behind the defenses, there were still more slaves and defenders waiting in the open area.

  After them, there was nothing but craters and destruction. The area where the Jukal planetary governor had resided was nothing but a desolate crater.

  Still the Jukal forces and their slaves fought back with all they had. Mage overseers entered the battlefield, calling out terms for surrender.

  The slaves didn’t even pay attention to the overseers. A number of them attacked them, only to be wiped away by the overseers’ powerful counterattack.

  “We’ve got this. Look after Anna,” Lox said.

  Deia didn’t need to say anything as she continued carrying Anna away from
battle.

  Chapter 11: Grinding Them Down

  Dave and Malsour were walking through the portal bastion as it continued to alter and change as the final touches were being added. These final touches would complete all of the soul gem constructs that were running through the sphere-looking creation.

  There were hundreds of people moving through the various corridors, double-checking every system and readying the portal bastion; it was so close to completion that Dave almost wanted to send it out ahead of time.

  As Dave and Malsour walked, they heard the never-ending chatter of those within the sphere.

  “This soul gem rune is weak, going to have to recode.”

  “Need more power over here!”

  Dark mages reformed the walls and the passages, while engineers and magical coding techs worked on the glowing veins that ran throughout the sphere.

  “Compression cut off the portal here, interrupting the connection to the Mirror of Communication,” a tech said, looking to the other techs with him.

  Dave turned to Malsour. “How are we looking for the ranges?”

  “Look for yourself.” Malsour opened up an image on his interface and shared it with Dave.

  An asteroid appeared. Inside, there was a central corridor where carts carrying munitions and people moved back and forth. Off this central corridor, cut roughly from the rock, there were tunnels. At the area closest to the corridor, there were a mass of thousands upon thousands of weapons, all of them set up Gatling style and all pointed at the inactive portals at the other end of the tunnel.

  If the portal bastion was the vehicle to get close to the Jukal, Gunboat Isle—as the creators had named it—was where they brought the firepower.

  Hardy-looking weapons techs moved through the facility. Guns had been pulled from where they rested; they checked them over, running maintenance before slamming them back into position.

  Runic lines that covered the wall that faced the portals were checked and adjusted. Nalheim rested in rooms within the Gunboat Isle, ready to run to their stations that would project them through the portals and create the giants that had been seen in the last fight with the Jukal.

  Dave looked at it all. More and more tunnels were being carved out by automated asteroid miners. Behind them, the weapons techs were checking their weapon systems, assembling them and readying them.

  Portal techs moved in with a portal seed, connecting it into the massive power grid for the Gunboat Isle. The portals surged upward to connect together.

  Row upon row of weapons systems and tunnels with portals could be seen.

  “How many are we up to?”

  “Eight hundred right now, with another three hundred being built,” Malsour said.

  “Good. We’re going to need them.” Dave dismissed the sight as he looked over the ship.

  “I heard that you’re going to be manning the portal ship,” Malsour said.

  “Yes, I know her the best. I want to be here if they need me. After the first fight, the crew will know how to use her—most of it’s going to be run by the AI anyway. They just need time to gather data before they can do a much better job than I can.”

  “Mind if I join?” Malsour asked.

  Dave looked to Malsour, a smile on his face as he clapped him on the shoulder.

  They entered the center of the bastion. Here it looked like a world of gems. Tens of portals were arrayed into a sphere. They linked with one another, starting with just six portals to create a circle at the top. A space broke it up from the next ring of twelve portals; another space between it and the next ring of portals, now twenty-four large. And so it went, more and more portals ringed together until they started decreasing in number and becoming smaller.

  Soul gem umbilicals wrapped around strong structural members that were connected to the open areas between the rings came together into the center of the sphere. Here there were four portals, each with a large umbilical cord of soul gem coming from it. This was the command center of the portal bastion. It was also the point through which power was poured into the portal bastion.

  As they flew up, Dave looked to the portals. Each of them glowed with power. The walls were covered in soul gem construct that intersected with the portals and the teleport pads that faced them. Behind the teleport pads, there was nothing but compressed metals and stone. Like veins, soul gem constructs spread out in runic lines, reaching out to the surface of the portal bastion, creating onos that covered the sphere’s surface and making it look like a massive reflective golf ball.

  “Oh, I’m going to need a bigger set of golf clubs.” Steve tapped his battle axe.

  “You are not hitting the giant portal bastion like it’s a golf ball,” Dave said in a suffering voice.

  “Oh, come on! I could probably get the materials. Going to be huuuge!” Steve said.

  “Didn’t I hear that you were playing golf with your axe through an active portal?” Malsour asked.

  “Can I hear universe’s longest golf shot?” Steve said proudly.

  Dave and Malsour looked to each other before they shook their heads.

  “All right, well, I’m off to see the inside of this big ole golf ball. See you in a bit!” Steve headed off by himself.

  Malsour and Dave reached the command center, and the soul gem walls opened into a doorway for them. They entered and looked out over the different consoles within. People looked over their systems, running checks with people throughout the bastion. Others were lying back in their chairs, running through simulation after simulation with the bastion.

  “Dave.” Captain Eswald stood and looked to Dave.

  “Captain.” Dave nodded his head to her before he turned to Malsour.

  “Malsour, it’s good to see you.” Eswald extended her hand.

  “You too.” Malsour clasped hands with her for a moment.

  “How are we looking?” Dave asked.

  “We’ll be ready.” Eswald’s face was like granite, her words an unquestionable promise.

  “Good. If you want him, Malsour has offered to assist,” Dave said.

  “Wouldn’t hurt having the guy who built Gunboat Isle onboard.” Eswald let out just a hint of a smile. Eswald opened her interface. “If you’ll excuse me, got a training session right now.”

  “Don’t let us keep you.” Dave quickly moved to exit the command center. “Looks like you have a front row seat now.” Dave’s armor appeared around him. His cloak fluttered as he stepped out into the air to look at the bastion.

  Malsour appeared at his side. “What will the end of this be?”

  “For that, not even I know,” Dave said, his voice deeper and powerful as he looked to Malsour, his face hidden in his hood.

  ***

  Frank looked to the rest of the Pandora fleet. Once they were repaired enough to move, the nine Pandora fleets had used portals to exit ahead of the Jukal fleet. They had entered a system filled with only asteroids and a red dwarf star at its center.

  The Pandora fleet had entered the system, immediately moving into stealth, and proceeded to advance toward the Jukal, who were moving as fast as possible across the system, headed for Emerilia.

  They were now just hours from the Jukal. Already missiles had been released in the Pandora fleet’s wake. The AIs dropped them down and then moved the whole missile-swarm ahead of the combined fleet, moving closer to the Jukal, ready to erupt with their arcane drives at a moment’s notice.

  Frank looked to the rear of the BloodHawk. Behind it there was a massive ring, a ship-sized portal. It was covered in runes that were supposed to help keep it undetectable as they advanced on the enemy.

  “Twenty minutes,” Sensors said.

  Now that they had gone through a few battles, they had not become numb to it but rather come to understand what was going to happen; they understood the madness that would descend in the fighting and they had worked ways to try to stave it off. All of them wanted to keep fighting, to keep moving and shooting until they won the battle.
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  Once again, they confronted the devil in their hearts and the devil in front of them.

  Time seemed to pass so slowly, everyone on their stations and ready to act in but a moment.

  “Moving into engagement range,” Sensors said. The command center was quiet as people loosened their necks and flexed their hands. Mana surged through their bodies.

  “All ships, fire! BloodHawk, bring in the bastion!” Admiral Forsyth yelled.

  “Fire!” Frank bellowed. His words passed to the ship. Portals surged from hangars and the one on the nose of the battleship BloodHawk activated.

  The dark missile tubes now lit with light, hurling the missiles out instead of letting them fall away gently.

  “Establishing connection!” Communication called out as pandemonium erupted.

  The Jukal ships started to turn as the missiles that had been fired in the Pandora fleet’s advance now lit up their drives, crossing the remaining distance in seconds. More and more of them waited behind, never-ending waves to keep the Jukal off-balance.

  They had needed to get more missiles through their portals in order to keep up the barrage.

  The Jukal shields flared to life, their reaction speed incomparable to what it was before.

  Even though the Jukal had been thrown off-balance, focusing on watching for the Pandora fleet coming from behind them, their reaction time was faster than it had been the first time the Pandora fleet hit them.

  Missiles broke shields and tore through hull panels, striking into the heart of the Jukal ships; there was just too much fire coming in on them to stop it.

  “Five minutes till we intersect the Jukal!” Sensors called out. “They’re flushing drones!”

  “Connection established!” Communications called out.

  The portal behind the BloodHawk surged with energy, a beacon in the middle of battle. Two fleets surrounded the BloodHawk in close, focusing on defending the battleship and the massive portal behind it.

  A new space could be seen through the portal, showing new stars as a rounded surface came through the portal. The rounded surface became bigger and bigger, turning into a sphere that was only slightly smaller than the portal it was coming through.