by Voxley, Vi
It was grating on his nerves. On the one hand, the Host was giving him a rare opportunity to shoot him out of the sky and be done with him. It wasn't like the hive mind to put itself in danger like that, but maybe it was as tired as they were. On the other hand, as a Brion, as a warrior, Ryden could take no pleasure from that victory. It wouldn't be a victory for him, merely for the guns in his command.
"Shoot it down," he ordered, his voice dark and somber.
There were affirmatives. He and Stavor watched as the small vessel twisted and turned away from the shots fired at it.
"Damn it, how hard is it to get one little ship?" Stavor growled.
Ryden was about to say the Host was probably messing with the minds of the shooters when he noticed something that made his blood run cold in his veins.
"He's not going to the Enor," he said. "Prepare a fighter for us. Now!"
"What are you talking about?" Stavor glowered beside him. "Where else is there to go?"
Ryden felt his valor squares pulse more furiously than they ever had before. The hive mind was playing the last card it could, dealing him its last insult, the worst one yet. It made sense, of course. The hive mind must have understood that its own vessels were incapable of breaking through Ilotra's defenses and its protectors.
The hive mind had no intention of giving up; it had simply decided to raise the stakes. It had realized that its only option was to take the one ship that could deal the destruction it needed.
Aria. Aria is there.
Ryden turned away from Stavor, marching toward his own fighter. His warriors fell in line after him, their valor squares beaming a raging red.
"It wants the Conqueror."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Aria
Oh boy. Oh man, this is so bad. So bad.
Aria was the first to admit that her grasp on military tactics wasn't the best. In fact, it wasn't good at all. She couldn't even play chess.
But even she could see the danger that the tactical situation could go from generally favorable to complete shit very fast, and very soon.
She had called for her guards as soon as the Clayor flagship took aim at them. Joya had patiently explained to her that the Conqueror could easily take a full barrage of missiles if it needed to. It couldn't withstand the onslaught forever, but it wouldn't need to. The Brion ship had guns too. It was far from defenseless. The only problem lay within their closeness to the moon.
The Conqueror had tried to keep itself between the Enor and Ilotra, but it wasn't an easy task. The other ship was much faster and smaller. It didn't pose a risk to the moon on its own, while the Conqueror had to keep its distance. It left the two ships in an awkward dance, with the Enor trying to get into firing distance while keeping away from the Brions.
The reason why the captain of the ship hadn't already given the command to blow the Clayors to pieces was that the debris would fall on Ilotra. Thousands of tons of burning metal falling on the fortress would be disastrous. Until they were left with no other choice, the Conqueror simply kept the enemy away.
Aria frowned, hearing that.
"This entire time those on Ilotra have been dying," she said.
Joya gave her a hard look. "They'd simply die faster if we destroyed the Enor. We must trust the general to kill the hive mind. He said not to let harm come to Ilotra. We obey."
Her words stirred up a tinge of pain in Aria. She knew Ryden was only acting in Ilotra's best interests, but it was painful to see from above. On her monitors, the damage had been pieces of data and statistics, but up there... it was the sight of a suffering world.
"I see you don't agree, but this is for the best," Joya said.
"I know," Aria nodded. "But I don't have to like it."
Looking down on the Union's battered, burning, dying fortress, Aria didn't envy Ryden. In his place, she wouldn't have been able to make the tough calls he did. She was thankful for his presence, the fact that he could make the decisions, but above all things she wished it was over already.
Aria didn't know how much more death and destruction she could take. She was a natural builder, a creator. To see Ilotra being torn down piece by piece was hurting her in ways she couldn't have even imagined.
That had all been before the Clayor ship had left the moon and Joya had received word that the hive mind was coming. For them. For the Conqueror.
That had changed things considerably. Aria was wondering if there was any safe place left for her in the entire galaxy, or maybe she had a magnet in her that attracted trouble. The general was coming too, right on the hive mind's heels, to put an end to the enemy once and for all.
He sounded mad. Aria watched Joya's features pale, listening to her general. It was clear he wasn't going to leave anything living in his wake.
No wonder, really. We've been fooled and fooled and fooled by that bastard. I wish I could kill it myself. But Ryden has a better punch, I bet.
Judging by the sound of his voice—the guttural growls so deep Aria struggled to understand him—Ryden was fed up. Her Brionese was meant for political occasions, to conduct diplomatic negotiations. Half of what the general was telling his crew went right over her head. Helplessly, she looked at Joya, who was now smiling a little.
"What did he say?" she asked.
The female warrior shrugged, a vicious smirk on her lips. Aria noticed that during Ryden's speech to his warriors, Joya's valor squares had begun to glow on her long, lean neck.
"It doesn't translate well."
Nope, Aria thought. It's an old joke. Nothing ever does translate well from Brionese. No one else has a sense of humor like that.
"Basically, the general said that he will tear the Conqueror apart to find the hive mind. That he'd rather see it go down in flames than surrender it to the enemy. That if the Clayors thought to make his ship their tool, he's going to make it their grave."
Aria couldn't help smiling a bit too in response to that. She was in terrible danger and so was Ilotra, but for some reason it was comforting to hear that Ryden was still Ryden. And hearing him, if only his voice, made Aria instantly feel safer.
One of the most dangerous creatures to ever inhabit the galaxy was coming her way, with the intention of killing her and everyone else in the system before the day was done. But on its heels, another came. Maybe even more dangerous than the first. She felt her heart beating faster, saw Joya hide a grin, but could no longer bring herself to care about the image she portrayed.
It was time to admit what she'd known for a long while now, actually. That she was completely, hopelessly in love with the general. And that it was long overdue that she stopped feeling so goddamned helpless in battle, and start helping instead of being in the way.
"All right," she said. "Let's go."
Joya's expression changed at once. The warrior tensed up, giving her a warning glare.
"Go where?" she asked. "The general gave firm orders to keep you safe. We should stay here and let him handle the hive mind."
"If we stay here, we'll be dead very soon," Aria protested.
Seeing that Joya was about to say something, she added quickly, "I'm not telling you to abandon me, only that we need to go somewhere else."
The warrior looked torn. Aria could understand her dilemma. She'd already seen the fierce Brion loyalty in action. For them, certain things were unthinkable, and disobeying her general ranked very high in that list. Unfortunately, that also meant that a lot of other things were taboo for them.
"Look," Aria explained. "The hive mind knows about me. I tricked it once and now it hates me. Only I no longer have anything to offer to save my life. Not to mention it knows I'm the general's gesha. That means the Host will kill me on sight and you too. It is backed into a corner. All it wants to do now is hurt us as badly as it can before facing Ryden. What do you think is the best way to hurt him?"
"To kill his fated," Joya said at once, with conviction that scared Aria a bit.
She had been hoping her logic was cor
rect, but Joya was confirming her biggest fears. That she was, indeed, the presumed target of the Host. It would come looking for her.
"So," she concluded. "We have one of the most intelligent minds in the galaxy after us. Where would it look for me first?"
She saw the flash of understanding, finally, in Joya's eyes. The warrior opened the com link in a hurry, ordering a guard unit to their location and—if she was hearing correctly—giving a ship-wide order to hide her at all costs. Aria didn't like the sound of that one bit, but if her being alive was the one thing that would make Ryden fight better, she was willing to accept it. She prayed no one would die for her. Not now, not so close to the victory.
Because if Ryden fell, the victory would be the enemy's.
Now for the harder part.
"We should go to the ship's core," she said.
"Absolutely not," Joya argued. "That will most likely be another priority target. Why leave one for the other?"
Aria took a deep breath. She knew that it would not be easy, but it was something that had to be done. Whether Ryden would approve of what she was about to do to his precious ship or not, there was no other way. Convincing Joya would be hard, and every other step on the way even more so, but Aria had made up her mind.
She wondered if the single-minded stubbornness she felt, the righteous knowledge that she was doing the right thing, came from the general. It sure sounded like him. Pushing forward with a difficult task despite knowing that almost everyone you met would oppose you.
Aria felt a new appreciation for the general, one that had nothing to do with the other kind of feelings she had for him.
Preparing for the worst, Aria looked the proud, loyal warrior straight in the eye and said:
"Because we have to sabotage the Conqueror."
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ryden
Had the fighters always been that slow?
Ryden felt like he'd been staring at his warship for hours now, never getting closer. As minutes ticked by, his agitation only got worse. The small compartment where he stood with his closest warriors seemed cramped, literally made tighter by the overwhelming emotions of its occupants.
The general paced the small space like a trapped animal in a cage. Every second that passed was another moment the hive mind could possibly spend on the Conqueror without him there. He had to protect his legacy, his ship, even his warriors. Aria.
His thoughts were dark. Watching Ilotra burn from above, the general felt that he'd held back with the Host before. Ever since he'd got there, all he had been thinking was that he needed to win. It wasn't until everything stood on the edge of a blade that he realized that there had been a flaw in his thinking. Every future he imagined, every plan he made, they all had one thing in common.
Him winning, him triumphing over the Host and the Clayors.
The Host, even in his new form, wasn't a match for him, but Ryden lacked the powers it possessed. After all that they'd learned about the hive mind during the last weeks, he still couldn't be entirely sure that the Host didn't have anything up its sleeve. There was always the looming danger that it had hid something from its opponents. Always the possibility that it would trick him.
But it already did, Ryden thought.
It had made him forget. It wasn't important that Ryden win, it was important that the Host died.
He had been holding back. It was not a mistake he planned to repeat.
It didn't surprise Ryden one bit when the bridge reported that the Clayor ship had breached the Conqueror. The Host would have had no trouble distracting the gunners long enough to find a landing deck. That was the problem with vessels the size of the flagship. Smaller craft were almost impossible to prevent touching down. There was simply too much ground to cover and protect.
Usually it wasn't a problem. Anyone who wanted to attack the Conqueror with a ship that small was clinically suicidal. Right now, they had an enemy crazy enough to try that.
Ryden hadn't tried very hard to try and stop the Host from reaching the flagship. It was taking command of the ship that he was going to prevent.
Shooting an enemy down hadn't sat right with him, even if anyone could have been able to resist the Host's mind tricks.
No, it had to end with a fight between him and the Host. Ryden couldn't say how, but he knew that with absolute certainty. Like he'd known about Aria, even if thinking about her was difficult right then. She was his gesha, his one and only, forever. Had the fates given him Aria for one glance before he died, or was she a sign that he'd survive the upcoming fight?
Was she a consolation or a prize?
Ryden felt himself grinning. Come what may, Aria was always a prize to him. The one he'd be willing to die for.
***
The first step on the Conqueror's deck was like coming home. Ryden allowed himself a quick dash of relief, mixed with sentiment, something a general only felt toward his ship. The Conqueror sang beneath his boots, humming, growling, aching to be released exactly like he was.
Ryden would have liked nothing better than to give in to that call, but he was done with letting his fierce temper get in the way of decision-making. All his commands had to be correct now.
"Report," he told the captain who'd come to greet the general.
The man fell into quick march alongside him. Out of the corner of his eye, Ryden saw his most trusted warriors join him, those he'd left aboard the flagship in case it needed to venture deeper into the system, ones he knew he could trust.
"The Host is here," the captain said quickly, the displeasure clear in his tone.
Ryden knew what he felt. As the commander of the army, the general himself was rarely on the bridge. It wasn't like him to lead from the safety of the Conqueror. Captain Hastien was the closest the ship had to a pilot, if that term even fit a vessel too large to pass more crowded areas of space. As much as Ryden loved the ship, Hastien was practically connected to it. Without actually being infused, it was the nearest thing to a symbiosis.
"I know," Ryden snarled. "It's better this all ends here."
The captain nodded grimly. He was a warrior too and his instinct was the same—a true victory was only the one where your own hand struck down the enemy.
"We have been trying to locate him," Hastien went on. "But it's been..."
"Difficult."
"More like impossible, General. The Host does not want to be found."
"Have you secured the bridge, the armory, the core?" Ryden went on, ignoring the last comment.
"Of course."
"What about my gesha?"
When Hastien didn't immediately answer and instead an embarrassed silence hung in the air, Ryden stopped so suddenly that the captain almost ran into him.
"Where is Aria?" Ryden growled, every syllable etched with threat. "If you let anything happen to her, I will personally strip you of your skin before I strip you of your rank."
Warriors around them tensed up, a few backing away. Hastien stayed in place. The valor squares on the captain's neck pulsed danger, danger, danger, but Hastien wasn't put in his position by accident. He looked Ryden straight in the eye, squared his shoulders and reported in a hollow voice.
"We have been unable and unwilling to determine her location, General. We know she is accompanied by Lieutenant Joya and her unit. They left your quarters before the Host arrived. Before they did, Joya broadcast a message across the ship, telling everyone to cover their tracks. We believe they went into hiding."
The air around Ryden was thick with anticipation as the general stared his captain down. Hastien waited without further comment, showing he was willing to accept whatever punishment Ryden deemed fit.
"If the Host had harmed her, we would already know," the general said at last.
Hastien almost visibly relaxed. Of course it was visible to Ryden, who could read the man's every emotion and guess most of his thoughts through the crystals still pulsing wildly on his neck.
"Should we track them, General?" Ha
stien asked.
It was madness to say no to that. Ryden felt his entire being rebel against itself. He'd known what it would do to him to find his fated, but like all the others, he couldn't have imagined the ferocity of the bind. Every nerve in his body was screaming to charge, hurt, kill anyone who threatened Aria, but none of those plans would have done her any good.
Some men—lesser men by Ryden's standards—had said that it was inconvenient for the recognizing to happen in the middle of a conflict, because it clouded the judgment of the man.
It was true. Ryden could sense the urge to respond with mindless violence so vividly it nearly burned, but he pushed it down. He wouldn't have changed anything about Aria or whatever followed the moment when he'd known she was his. The only thing he regretted was not being sure from the start.
Yet it took considerable willpower to shake his head.
"Negative, Captain," he said.
To the surprised look on Hastien's face, he sternly added, "To look for her now is to signal the Host. We don't know if it's after her, but we must not give it a reason. If we search, it will only make it easier for the Host to follow. The best chance we can give her is to not draw attention to her."
The captain nodded, understanding. Ryden wished that he could instill that confidence within himself as easily. To leave Aria like that was unthinkable, but he wasn't given another choice. In a way, being away from her gave him more freedom to fight without distraction in order to kill the Host.
It was a shallow comfort in the face of losing his new reason to live.
Ryden raised his gaze to the warriors gathered around him. He opened the com link to address all the warriors aboard through their crystals without alerting the Clayors.
"My brothers and sisters," he said, allowing his deep voice to carry across to every member of his crew. "The last battle of this war begins. It will end today. We must not, under any circumstances, let the enemy take control of the Conqueror. All of you have only one task now. Find the Host.
Try to delay it, drive it into a corner. Just like the Conqueror stands between the enemy and Ilotra, you must stand between the Host and the bridge. No matter the cost, the Clayor hive mind must die tonight."