Imperium Knight Chaos Rising (The Hunter Imperium Book 6)

by Timothy Ellis

  Or some fighters. I couldn’t figure out why they hadn't brought fighters down to use for breaching walls, but maybe they hadn't figured out how yet since we’d never used them that way, or theirs were unflyable in an atmosphere. The other thing they were not doing was sending down missiles, and that was even more mystifying. Although they could have already, and the shielding held them out because they couldn’t get them to hit the walls at all. Still, small mercies and all that.

  On a signal from Willow, we moved forward, coming out of the trees firing. We formed a two sided wedge, and pushed out in front of the wall fires, aiming to spread right across the main wall on the forest side of the city. We had enough guns to space like we had last time, with a dozen swords between each gun.

  At the same time, the wyvern began attacking from the other three sides, their bulk squashing plants as they walked forward, and long plumes of fire coming from their mouths to burn those outside their reach. In their wyvern shape, their scales protected them.

  The Trixone heavy weapons soon gave up firing at the wyvern, and instead turned their attention to us. But spaced along our line were knights not doing any fighting, and I noticed for every heavy pulse coming our way, a small shield appeared in front of it well away from us, preventing it from hitting anyone. A few pulses made it through, but I noticed it was when our fire and theirs were in the same basic place, which made me think the shield wasn’t going up if it was going to prevent our fire going out. So unlike ship shields which let our own pulses through, these were a barrier in both directions.

  It took me a while to be sure, but it was definitely knights throwing up the shields. Which seemed to indicate they were some kind of mage, and the city shielding was simply a larger version, perhaps done by a number of knights acting together. I knew our mages had their own personal shields, but I’d never seen them projected so far away from a person before.

  An idea began to form in my mind, but it was interrupted by the need to concentrate on where I was firing. While the wyvern were impervious to my pulses, deliberately allowing them to hit a wyvern was not likely to go down all that well. No-one liked friendly fire.

  A hundred odd guns, and several hundred wyvern didn’t take too long to clear the entire area, and Lasencion shifted back to a man shape when we met in the middle. Most of the knights departed immediately for the wall along the ocean side of the city, along with a hundred or so wyvern.

  “That went well,” said Lasencion.

  “The other cities are still fighting,” said Sim. “With none of our guns, they had to make use solely of fire and big feet. But they should also be attackers free within the hour.”

  “What next?” I asked.

  “There are more transports inbound. They might drop troops on top of us next.”

  I sighed, wishing I could do something about the fleets in orbit. Sim shook her head.

  “Don’t even think about it, George. There’s ten whole fleets up there now. Even if Scimitar was battle worthy, we’d never survive that fight. Probably not even make it into orbit.”

  She broke off, and looked up.

  “Oh shit no!”

  “What?”

  “They’re all pointing their guns at us.”

  The sky above us went white.

  A shield appeared above the entire killing ground, and all the remaining knights were driven to their knees. For the first time I saw actual pain on Willow’s face. But it was short lived, and replaced by determination and gritted teeth. She forced herself back to her feet, and one by one the others did as well.

  The bombardment continued, and I marveled at how a scant dozen knights were putting up a shield which could hold out ten fleets worth of ship gun firepower. It didn’t seem possible, but it was happening all the same.

  “Why us?” I asked Sim.

  “Because we had the guns, and the only normal sized soldiers?”

  “How long will they keep this up?”

  “Who? The plants or the knights?”

  “Both.”

  “I don’t know. To either.”

  I looked at Willow, and she was looking stressed now.

  “Incoming missiles!” bellowed Sim.

  Willow looked at me, with a resigned look on her face, and followed it by a rapid look at the rest of her knights.

  At the last moment, she looked back at me, and smiled.

  Thirty Five

  Something solid sent me flying.

  I found myself flat out on the ground, suit in full protection mode, and half buried in shredded plant matter. It took me a moment to figure out I wasn’t dead. Another one to gather myself up into a sitting position.

  I looked up.

  The shield was still there.

  I looked towards where Willow had been, and froze.

  She was a dragon.

  An absolutely huge fucking DRAGON!

  I gawked at the size of her. She was fully four times the size of the wyvern, and shaped rather like a Chinese version, long and skinny, with a huge head, four legs, and a long tail. Her wings were fully extended making her seem twice the size her body was. She was looking up.

  When I was able to drag my eyes from the sight of her, I saw the other knights had all changed into dragons as well. Each was a different colour, and when I looked back at Willow, I realized her scales were now the same colour as her hair had been.

  Sim was ginning. So was Gor. Lasencion was looking amazed, and more than a little threatened. Some of his people were now backing away from their larger cousins. A few fled back into the trees.

  The bombardment continued. Knights came back from the ocean side of the city, ordered wyvern to give them room, and shifted into dragons as well. As each one shifted, I could literally see the shield intensifying, and the hits from pulses and missiles rising into the air above us.

  Sim started laughing.

  “What?”

  She popped up a screen showing a close up of the wall nearest us. The entire top of the wall was a solid mass of short people, all glued to the spot, with almost identical expressions of awe. Although some of them were closer to terror.

  It took me a moment to figure out why Sim was laughing.

  There were a lot of clothing stains visible, both wet patches and brown.

  We stood there until the bombardment finally stopped. The dragons waited to see if it would resume, and when it didn’t, began shifting back into tall people dressed in armour. Willow was the last. She took a look around before walking over to where we were waiting.

  “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “Sorry for what?” asked Gor.

  “Sending you all flying as I shifted.”

  “Unavoidable,” said Sim. “Don’t give it another thought.”

  Willow was looking at me.

  “No harm done,” I said. “I needed a lie down anyway.”

  She smiled. Lasencion wasn’t.

  “I fail to see why you needed our people, when yours are…”

  He ran out of words.

  “Really big?” suggested Sim.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “You could have handled all of this without us.”

  “And left you out of a good fight?” Willow laughed.

  “Humph. There is that. It’s been a long time.”

  “Longer for us. I haven’t shifted like that in centuries.”

  She looked early thirties. But as a dragon, I could readily believe she was centuries old. She cocked her head slightly.

  “We’re being recalled by the king.” She looked at Lasencion. “You too, and your top lieutenants. Although they better shift first.”

  Before long, we were back behind the wall, and on our way to the top of the city again.

  The guards stopped us all at the top, and we waited. Sim was still grinning, so I assumed the delay was for bathroom visits and clean clothes. When we were finally allowed in, only Willow, Sim, Gor, Lasencion and two of his lieutenants, and myself, made it all the way to the throne room. And this
time, we were divested of our weapons again.

  The king looked like a serious king for once. The foppery was gone, as was the sword and any semblance of being a warrior. He wore similar robes to his wife now. The rest of the court looked much the same as before, although most had wet hair.

  The guard at the door, who was the same one who’d shifted earlier, bade us all wait, but pointed to Lasencion and his companions, and waved them forward. The king stood, as they approached.

  “Please identify yourself, sir.”

  “I am Lasencion, elected leader of my city. We long ago did away with any sort of kingship.”

  “And these?”

  “My bodyguards.”

  “You feel the need for them here in my thrown room?”

  “Hell no. They appoint themselves when they think I might need them.”

  The king looked at both of them.

  “Do you still feel your leader needs protecting here?”

  “No, majesty,” said one of them. “But three is a suitable delegation number for presentation at court.”

  This brought smiles out on a few faces. The king remained serious, and looked back at Lasencion.

  “We thank you for your assistance.”

  He looked serious enough, and Lasencion nodded his acceptance of the thanks. The Queen tapped her husband on the shoulder. He didn’t bother looking at her, but appeared to be bracing himself.

  “On behalf of my people, we formally apologize for any harm to your people in the past. We didn’t know, and we gave in to our fear. Can we start again, in the spirit of battle forged comrades?”

  “We can. Once our planet is safe, we can have our diplomats forge a treaty.”

  “On that note.” He waved Willow and I forward. “Fleet captain, I assume these creatures will keep coming as long as they remain above our planet?”

  “Count on it, majesty.”

  “What can you do to help us now?”

  “When I have a ship capable of space, I can send it in search of my people. But this may take weeks or months, depending on how far away we are. We would need to hold until then. Once they know where I am, and the situation we face, they will send a relief force fairly quickly.”

  “Now they know what our true defenses are, will they not leave?”

  “We’ve never seen them leave before. We’ve no idea why they want this planet, but all past history suggests they will just keep coming. The worrying thing is, they can and do adapt. They are already updating the armour on their soldiers, and with a few more defeats, I expect them to come up with something which will protect them from energy weapons.”

  “Why haven’t they already?” asked someone in the first rank of seats.

  “We can only guess. Most likely it’s because they’ve never really faced any serious resistance before. Their stinger has been all they needed in the past, and it’s only been since they encountered us on planets, that they’ve faced a ground force which couldn’t be killed with a swipe, and which has put an effective counter in the field very rapidly. But they have innovated in space quite effectively, and it’s only a matter of time before they hit a planet expecting them, and achieve better results.”

  “You paint a bleak picture,” said Lasencion.

  “Indeed,” agreed the king. “What can we do?”

  “We take the fight to them,” said Willow.

  Thirty Six

  “Grace, wake up.”

  I stirred, but although I’d heard the words, I wasn’t sure if I was awake, or had dreamed hearing them.

  “GRACE!”

  I bolted upright.

  “What?”

  A flat pic of Jane’s face appeared on the wall I was looking at. Chaos had returned to our own space so I could get a decent sleep this time.

  “Jane?”

  “I think I’ve found George.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Two oh seven.”

  Now I knew why my brain wasn’t in gear. In spite of flaking out early the evening before, I still felt exhausted. I shook my head to throw off the cobwebs, but it didn’t work.

  “What did you say?”

  “I think I’ve found George.”

  “You only think you found him?”

  How was that possible? Jane knew everything. Or nothing. There simply wasn’t any ‘think’ with her.

  “Get up Grace. Have a shower and some food. By the time you finish, Chaos will have you rendezvousing with Fearless. I’ll brief you all when you’re together.”

  “Do we have time for that?”

  “I don’t know. But better you’re awake and fully functional before we do anything. I’m waking the girls now too.”

  I slid my legs over the side of the bed, and sat there for a moment.

  “You have five minutes, Grace.”

  I jumped up, and stalked into the bathroom. A very quick shower later, undies from the dispenser, and shifted into uniform, I found Nut on my dining table eating from his own bowl. The butler put my fav hot breakfast in front of me, and I wolfed it down. Nut was licking my plate before I made it to the door, on my way up to the bridge.

  I ran straight into Amanda outside the door, and we both went down. BA pulled her up, and Alison did the same for me. The rest of the girls were behind them, their grav chests left in a group where they’d obviously been moved to by Tanith or another mage. Tanith himself appeared next to them, and started towards us.

  No-one said anything. We all had the same serious expressions, and I turned for the bridge and started running again. They followed me, and we all made the bridge together in a rush. Chaos beamed us a grin as we entered, and sat. Jane was waiting for us, her head and shoulders appearing as a hollo on the console.

  “Where’s George?” demanded Amanda.

  “I think he’s a long way from here, well over in Ralnor space.”

  “You think?” asked Alison.

  “Why don’t you know?” asked BA.

  “Give her time to explain,” interrupted Aleesha.

  “I just lost one of my jump drive equipped freighters. It was destroyed so fast, it didn’t even get a comnavsat launched. I’ve been having close calls in Trixone occupied systems, so I guess this was inevitable. They’ll have been plotting the appearances of the freighters by now, and probably have any fleet at a jump point on hair-trigger in case I appear.”

  “George?” demanded Amanda again.

  “For a brief moment, and I mean we’re talking about microseconds, the freighter picked up the presence of another comnavsat around a planet at the extreme range of the ship’s sensors. It wasn’t long enough for a connection of any sort to be made, and we don’t have a link to it now. The planet itself is orbiting away from the jump point, and by the time we get there, the comnavsat will be further around the planet, so even if we jump in there, we won’t have contact immediately.”

  “But it has to be George,” said Abagail.

  “Or Scimitar.”

  Everyone looked pained for a second. It was very possible Scimitar had survived, but George hadn't. It didn’t bear thinking about though.

  “Any sign of Scimitar in orbit, or anywhere else in the system?” asked Aleesha.

  “No. The snapshot I received showed the system is swarming with trees though, so if Scimitar was in space, I doubt she survived.”

  “How big is a swarm of trees?” asked Agatha.

  “Trees don’t swarm,” muttered Alana.

  “There are fifteen fleets at the jump point. Three more an hour in, with dozens of transports.”

  “And at the planet?” asked BA.

  “I don’t know. The ship was destroyed too fast. Could be they only just arrived there, but why the overwhelming force?”

  “George,” said Tanith.

  “Even George couldn’t stand against that sort of firepower,” said Amanda. “Scimitar wouldn’t have a chance against even five fleets alone.”

  Scimitar hadn't had the major upgrade Claymore did. And withou
t fighters, shouldn’t have taken on more than two fleets on her own. It was why the Wayward fleet tended to operate offensively as a full fleet. So no one ship would get overwhelmed.

  “He had Pangbornd with him,” added Tanith.

  “Could he jump a ship as big as Scimitar on his own?” asked Alison.

  “He never has before, but I couldn’t until I was pressed to try it. He was powerful enough I suspect, but he had no experience doing it in combat.”

  “We don’t know they’ve been in combat already,” said Alana.

  We all knew that was wishful thinking. But it silenced us. Nut jumped up onto the console, gave me a look as if asking why all these people were here, and jumped up to the top of his tree. The rapidly changing view outside caught his attention for a few moments, before he flopped down, and went to sleep. Amanda broke the silence.

  “Let’s assume Scimitar is intact, and George is alive. What’s the plan?”

  “I’ll have to leave that to you,” said Jane. “You’re about to be too far away for live conversation. Chaos will keep me up to date. Good luck.”

  And she was gone.

  Thirty Seven

  “Why haven’t we had orders from Jon?” asked BA.

  “He took a diplomatic mission to Ralnor,” answered Chaos. “He’s down on the planet, and not even Jane wants to interrupt him.”

  “What’s he doing there?” asked Alison.

  “Treaty negotiations, apparently. The Ralnor want access to our rift network so they can send troops from key planets to any planet in their space needing troops, as soon as we link it to the network. Since we don’t have enough troops, Jon thought it a good enough idea to pursue. But it has a lot of issues to work out first. It’s daytime on Ralnor, so he’s missed a lot of sleep too. So when he does get out of the meetings, he’s not going to be doing much more than crash.”

  “Are the Ralnor troops any good?” asked BA. “I can’t see any evidence they are.”

  “I would assume their homeworld has elite troops,” said Alana. “Probably all their major worlds. Remember what we’ve been seeing are just frontier outposts.”