Jun was an exception like the other Senators that had joined the meeting, Lucius explained, because he was pure. Not pure in the sense that he was free from hate and anger, the things that the Corruption would play on and evolve into something much darker, but because he was part of the Senate for the sake of the Empire’s survival. He had joined not to command, but to protect and secure the fate of mankind. For that special reason, something that was found only in several men out of a thousand it seemed, the Corruption couldn’t touch him.
He could make sense of why he was one of the few to see the truth. He could see why the Lord Governor remained concealed despite the despair and loss he had caused. What Jun couldn’t understand was why the legionnaires needed his help and why they couldn’t act on their own.
“You ask for our help, but there is nobody more capable of doing what must be done than you. It will not be easy to get to him; he has a constant guard detail and he hasn’t left the Senate House for months. There are even rumours that he has doubles. How can we, who cannot hide and are always watched as well, even attempt to kill him?” Jun had asked. “You cloak yourselves and can be kept from sight; why can’t you do this?”
Lucius had given him a long, pensive look, but from the tone of his voice it was clear he was prepared for that question. “It cannot be us. If a legionnaire is seen to kill the head of your Empire, how will that improve anything? It would exacerbate the tensions between the Senate, their military pawns and us. It has to be a human; the act would be seen simply as murder and things can take their natural course, but if we were to do it…it would be the end of both the Empire and of the legions. Nobody wins from that”.
It was then that Karhl spoke up. “You have to admit Jun, he has a point. We have to do it openly, too. If he’s killed in secret then the legions will be blamed anyway and it’ll all be for nothing.”
Jun looked at him, suddenly uncertain about the man he thought he’d come close to knowing properly. How long had Karhl been involved in this murderous plot? “And who among us will do it, Karhl? Have you ever held a gun, let alone fired one?”
Even in the darkness of the room deep below the curtain wall, Karhl’s face visibly blushed. “Well, no…but I am prepared to do what has to be done”.
Jun laughed, frustrated by the madness of his claim. “We’ll need to get past his guard before we even try to kill him. How do you propose we do that?”
“That’s where we can help you” the legionnaire named Tariele announced. Jun realised his face must have expressed his confusion because then she added, “We’ll train you to do it”.
Jun was stupefied. “The Senate Guard have decades of experience. The urgency of our predicament allows what, a few weeks to get us ready?” he replied.
“True, but we have centuries more on them; we’ll teach you what you need to know and in plenty of time too” Lucius said, surprising him. He knew the Guardians were older, but he didn’t know by that much. He wasn’t sure how old the statement actually implied they were and it made him realise that people knew very little at all about the legionnaires that fought to save them. Was he supposed to feel guilty about that? Jun wasn’t sure, but he did anyway.
It was proving to be one hell of a day. From thinking he was going to be arrested or worse, killed, he had been told he was being called upon to kill. Nobody said it was him alone, but even though Karhl and the other Senators were there, it didn’t yet feel like it was a reality he could see himself in.
The legionnaires were going to train him into an assassin, to kill another man. A man that he should have trusted in and wanted to keep alive. Instead, he was going to have to eliminate the central figure to the Gothican Empire and hope his race would survive regardless of the wars threatening to tear them apart.
The thought of that made something else occur to Jun. “Who will replace him?”
Lucius looked to his comrades, but they all shared the same indifferent expression. He turned back to Jun, shrugged as though the matter was a trivial thing that he had no interest in, and said “Well, that bridge will just have to be crossed when it’s come to, won’t it?”
A WEEK LATER, Jun was walking into the Senate House for a formal meeting. Its purpose was a little vague to him at best, the memo he received having the simplistic title of “To Review Key Fleet Deployments”. He was making great progress with the training that the legionnaires were giving him, so it irked that the impromptu meeting interrupted his rhythm.
The training took place in a long-forgotten bunker complex situated near the outer districts to Cygnus City. It had been used as a defensive formation back during the Colonisation Wars when Gothica was still a power in the making and the homeworld needed to be defended as fiercely as every other. Now, there were whole sectors that stood in the way of the Empire’s enemies and its capital world, so the defences hardly seemed necessary.
Captain Ashdown had suggested the location to them, though the Dawntreader legionnaires had already found it. It didn’t surprise him or Ashdown much that the Guardians knew a lot more than they admitted to. It was becoming hard for them to underestimate Lucius and the others and the training Jun and the other Senators received had been the last thing they misjudged.
After what already felt like a hundred close combat drills, physical exercise and firearm lessons, the Senators were exhausted. Yet, they had never been healthier or stronger. In fact, most of them were claiming a mental improvement as well as a bodily one. They were all finding it difficult to make up stories to explain their physical changes to their colleagues, but fortunately none of them were questioned rigorously.
It had been a subtle art, but Lucius was teaching them not only how to fight as a legionnaire, but how to think as one too. As Jun arrived at the Senate House, he realised he was partly grateful for it. He hadn’t been seen involved in politics for a suspicious time, given the Senate’s preoccupation with war.
He was surprised that nobody had come looking for him, actually. The Seniors kept a close eye on every Senator and the Lord Governor kept a closer one on them. Jun was thankful, and he didn’t know who to, that his business had been kept to himself. Perhaps they thought he was doing something innocent with his time.
Nothing could have been further from the truth of course, but no one had to know that, especially the ranks of Senators he couldn’t trust with the facts. Apart from Ashdown, he wasn’t even sure if there was anyone else in the Guard that might be involved in all this. Jun felt uncomfortable that even though he was on the inside, there were still so many things he didn’t know about the group planning to kill the Lord Governor.
He walked up the stairs to the Senate House with the early morning sun catching the white stone and making it pearlescent. A pair of Senate Guard he hadn’t seen in weeks stopped him at the top, remarking about the way his gait seemed to have changed and how his body showed a lot more stature that it used to. As usual, he answered with “I’m exercising more”. Jun had smiled, but now they seemed disinterested and moved him on so he could attend the Senate meeting.
The fact was the Dawntreaders had been supplementing his training with a dietary regime that seemed to accelerate all the physical effects that accompanied its intensity. In some ways, Jun felt like he was one of those fictional heroes that was given a chemical concoction to turn into a superhuman overnight, though his capabilities were far less impressive and obvious. All the legionnaires’ aids did was to bring him to the same level as the Senate Guard, but no more.
“A human body can only take so much, despite what your fairy tales and myths say” Tariele had told him one day when it seemed like every cell in his body was about to burst from fatigue. He could have laughed, because it was completely unnecessary for her to have said it, but then Karhl had asked how it was then that twelve humans had become demi-gods overnight.
“That was completely different, because a far greater power made it happen. The Apostles were forged from the fruits of the Auranair’s death. We may have been c
reated by Her too, but we do not bear any of Her creative powers. We only have some of Her knowledge and the technology She gave us” Lucius explained, overhearing Karhl’s remark.
“Auranair? Is that what you called Vermillion, your deity? She was a goddess, why not use that term?” Jun asked.
By that point, all the Dawntreaders and Senators had gathered round in a group as though a story was being retold. “Auranair was Her title; it seems ungainly to refer to Her any other way”.
“But what does it mean?” a Junior asked, whose name Jun had yet to remember despite his efforts.
Lucius stroked his chin, trying to find the right words to answer him with. “There is no translation in your language, but the closest thing…is War Queen”. Then, with more confidence, as though saying the word had filled him with admiration for the memory of Her, he said “Yes, yes. She was our Queen, and we all loved Her”.
That conversation had stuck with Jun ever since. Perhaps it was because he had learned something more about the relationship between the legionnaires and Vermillion, who had created them, or maybe it was the emotion steeped in Lucius’ voice that struck him, but he was beginning to thirst for more knowledge about the legions. He could the other Senators were too.
Now, Jun walked through the hallways of the Senate House, his mind awash with those thoughts until he came to the entrance to the Great Auditorium. Again he was questioned by Senate Guard, but they too were satisfied with the security pass that he held and the answers he supplied when they asked where he had been recently and what he was up to. Though he hated to admit it, he was good at lying. It was part of the nature of his career.
When the doors to the Great Auditorium opened, he hesitated. Inside were the same rows of seats, the same podium at the centre that he had become accustomed too. The hundreds of Senators were also the replicas of those he had seen since he became a part of the Senate, but something was different now. He saw everything in a new light, because he knew everything would change if the conspiracy he was involved in came to fruition.
It took a Senior that recognised and approached him to force Jun out of his private world of thought and reflection. “Jun!” a white-haired, balding Senator called out.
Jun turned to see that it was Alex, his tutor. Every Junior had a Senior that was their own personal overseer, but the two of them shared a more flexible commune than most others did. As Alex came closer, separating himself from a heated discussion with the politeness that only a practised politician could effectively summon, Jun realised he was looking at him differently too.
Part of him believed that Alex saw the dangers of the Lord Governor like he did, even it wasn’t to the same degree. He wanted to share his concerns with his mentor, but he had no way of knowing how that conversation would end. Instead, he played the game that every Senator in the room was playing regardless of what their secrets were.
“Alex, it’s been a while” he smiled. “So, what do you think this is all about, exactly?”
Chapter 11
LOTUS CITY COULD have been anonymous. It could have been just like any other human city that Thanos had seen, but it wasn’t. There was something different about it, something important. He thought he could smell it on the air, as though the meaning of it was great enough to carry a scent.
“My Lord, the legion has moved in to secure the city. The Phantoms’ primary assault has been repelled, but we require reinforcements” Vulpus said, approaching him from behind.
Thanos already knew everything his commander had just told him, but he didn’t see the point in making her feel redundant, so he thanked her with a dip of his head. He was in his human form again after having saved the majority of the Erebos Defence Army that he could find in the city. Mysteriously, many of them failed to show themselves at all.
“They just disappeared, Lord Apostle” Albirreo, a young, nervous human soldier had told him after the battle. “Most of the citizens fled to the underground tunnels, but there have been no more sightings of the military whatsoever. One moment we were ordered to the walls, the next there was nothing but silence until the ambush…when you saved my life. I am forever grateful for that” he bowed to Thanos.
“They were taken” he replied after motioning for Albirreo to rise. “We do not know how and we can only guess as to why, but that is the fact…I am sorry for whatever loss that causes you”.
Thanos had seen the surprised look on his face. Somehow he knew it was because of the apology he made, not the news he gave. To most humans, the Apostles were truly gods and were revered as such. This far out in the Empire, where the Phantom attacks were greatest, the Black Guardians were practically holy. Only in the core worlds near Gothica itself did the mistrust fester without the truth to neuter it.
After saving Albirreo and overseeing the beachhead of the legions’ counter-invasion, Thanos had come to stand on the green, bushy hills that overlooked the city to the south. Here Vulpus had found him, watching as the Phantoms renewed their assault on the city walls, but against a foe capable of withstanding them this time. Like the battle had been in space above, this would soon turn into a meat-grinder where only the Guardians’ strategy and cunning could help them overcome the enemy’s numbers.
“Reinforcements are already en route from my sister’s legion. She has sealed the breach in our defensive line in orbit; nothing else will get through” he eventually answered the Commander.
She saw his expression as he spoke, one that belied his worried curiosity about the city. “What concerns you, my Lord?”
Thanos sighed and turned to her. She was his confidante, the only person outside his family that he could trust with anything from dark secrets to trivial things without fear of judgement or apprehension. “Doesn’t something feel strange to you, Vulpus? The enemy’s attack here seems rather…desperate, don’t you think?”
Vulpus thought for a moment, but she couldn’t find a reason to agree or know where he was coming from. “They are meant to slaughter their prey; they know nothing but haste and chaos, but there’s no desperation in that”.
Thanos nodded, knowing all too well the truth of that. He fought back the images of the places he had seen laid to waste before he and his legion were able to save them. “Yes, but today…this…there’s something more to this world. What information do we have on it? What is there of key interest and importance to the humans?”
Vulpus frowned. “Not much, really. It seems to be a standard world with a capital just like any other we’ve fought for. It has a military base, hospitals, residential districts, industrial estates, laboratories, factories, schools…I could list the similarities to every city we’ve been to all day, but I couldn’t name anything special”.
Thanos listened carefully, but he wasn’t persuaded from the hunch that he had. “We always accepted the Phantoms would want to destroy everything and leave Gothica for last, even if it meant coming this far east to get to the Empire’s outermost worlds, but there’s something else here, something they want to capture. This wasn’t just a sadistic trip for the Great Enemy, there’s a prize here He wants.”
Vulpus was unsure what to say, so she gave no answer. After a long while, during which Thanos turned back to look at the city as though trying to decipher the secret it held, he said “I need to speak with Dael. Tell him I want to see all the enemy’s movements and trajectories. There has to be something they’re aiming themselves at this time.”
Vulpus didn’t reply. She knew not to question the Apostle’s desires, even if she couldn’t make sense of them or agree with them. Instead, she put a hand to her ear and she activated her comms-device. She spoke into it, to a legionnaire whose attention she wasn’t interested in, but who could get the one she needed.
“Yes, Commander?” the voice asked.
“Avitus, tell Dael to come to my position. Tell him today he proves his worth as Recon Master”.
TEN MINUTES LATER, Dael arrived on the hill in a Thundertrack, the cousin APC variant of the Warho
und tank that sacrificed the tank’s powerful turret and side-guns for troop-space. When he stepped out, helmet held under his arm, he had two other legionnaires carry out a heavy orb and asked them to set it on the ground in front of the Apostle and Commander.
“Greetings” he smiled, a little too casual for Vulpus’ liking. They had never seen eye to eye precisely because he seemed to have a little too much humour for what his job was. She couldn’t deny his uses though, so she had never had enough reason to find a new Recon Master. Besides, the Apostle seemed to understand his nature and accept it, so she was trying to find a way to do the same.
“Dael, what can you tell us?” Vulpus asked, without seeing the need for polite chatter. Whilst they were up here, there was a battle raging for the city. Though Stormfalcons were constantly dropping reinforcements from the 73rd and 101st, it would be some time before the Guardians could repel the enemy indefinitely.
Dael was going to say something about the lack of friendly conversation to the Commander, but then he saw the expectant look on the Apostle’s face and decided to get to the matter at hand. He knelt down to the device that he had brought with him on the APC and pressed a series of buttons, activating an impressive holographic display that projected itself to chest-height. The three of them gathered around its light as it began to form into a map of the city.
“Initial Phantom forces moved against the city walls from the north and west” Dael began, showing the troop movements in red arrows. “However, there were several ambush sites towards the south-eastern parts of the city, near the industrial areas. Each was conducted primarily by the Phantom archetype that you fought, my Lord. The men are calling them Typhons” he went on.
The Deian War: Conquest Page 14