The Inquisitor burst into the room, right arm raised and palm flared—but she stopped when she saw Mesme encircling Cosime and Thelkt behind him. “Well, what do we have here?”
Eren shot her in the chest, knowing it wouldn’t do a godsdamned thing other than occupy her attention for a few precious seconds.
She swept away the plasma fire with a dismissive gesture, but as she did the ethereal light behind Eren dimmed in his peripheral vision. “Where are they, anarch? Where are your Human friends?”
Mnemosyne: We are clear.
Cosime: “Eren, you asshole.”
Eren sneered at the Inquisitor and brought the muzzle of his weapon up to his chin. “Zeus hang you by the entrails of your Primor.”
He pressed the trigger.
Caleb and Alex activated their Veils and sprinted the short distance to Thelkt’s residence. One of the larger free-standing structures in the vicinity, it was situated amid a tended garden. Caleb spared the brief thought that he bet Felzeor enjoyed frolicking in the greenery.
A Machim ground patrol rounded the corner of the main building, eighty meters across an open meadow. He ignored them except to ensure they’d continued on before he motioned for Alex to approach the doorway.
Alex: “Tapped in, probing defenses…there are definitely added security layers here. I’m inputting the passcode, and it’s asking for additional authorization. Why yes, I’m totally the Inquisitor in charge here, don’t mind me….”
The door slid open, and he exhaled.
Alex: “Don’t get too excited. I’m fairly confident that just set off an alarm somewhere.”
Caleb: “Then we hurry.”
He stepped inside and de-Veiled. The next instant a flurry of wings and claws descended on him from above. His arms rose to protect his face, but he didn’t strike out at his attacker. “Whoa, Felzeor. It’s okay. We’re here to rescue you.”
Faint lighting illuminated to paint the room in eerie shadows, and Felzeor released him to flap backwards, higher into the air. “Caleb? And Alex! Oh, my, what a surprise is this! Tell me of your adventures since last we met—”
Caleb chuckled in spite of the perilous circumstances. “We will, but right now we need to go. Land on my shoulder, and don’t fly away when weird things happen.”
“For certain, yes. Am accustomed to weird things happening.” The Volucri alighted on his shoulder as requested, claws gripping him firmly but not painfully. “What of Thelkt? He’s been gone for such a long time, and I fear for him.”
“Eren and Cosime are getting him out, don’t worry.” In the dark and unfamiliar surroundings, he couldn’t precisely visualize where the Siyane was. He grabbed Alex’s hand. “Let’s step outside, and from there I’ll transport us to the ship.”
She nodded understanding, and they moved out the door into the garden—
—a wall of energy slammed into his shoulder, knocking Felzeor off and him into the front façade of the residence.
Caleb: “Run.”
Floodlights activated to bathe the grounds in harsh light, and the Inquisitor from Helix Retention advanced on him.
He tweaked his left shoulder back into place and strode forward as he called upon his diati.
NECK
Her head jerked, but she halted the diati’s force before her cervical spine snapped. She growled at him. “What are you?”
“We covered this already, Nyx.” He stumbled from the force of a column of diati pressing in on him.
You are welcome here. Join me.
It absorbed into his skin, perhaps too subtly for her to notice, and he sensed the now familiar buzz begin to spread through his body.
The Inquisitor stopped mid-attack. “How do you know my name?”
“Your diati’s been telling tales.” He imagined her heart beating in her chest, beneath skin and muscle and ribs.
CRUSH
She gasped and doubled-over, but still she managed to fling her arm in a slicing motion through the air.
He felt his throat open up. His neck warmed with escaping arterial blood—but by the time the injury reached its end point, the artery and the skin covering it were knitting themselves back together. He blinked, forced his way past the bizarre and unsettling sequence of sensations, and readied a new attack.
A flurry of movement above them stopped him halfway through the motion. Felzeor swooped down upon Nyx to launch a vicious, multi-limbed attack of her face and head. Claws drew blood out of long, ragged gashes as she floundered to grab hold of her attacker.
As Felzeor’s rear claws thrust in toward her eyes, a burst of diati flowed out from her in an expanding bubble, and the Volucri went tumbling end over end through the air to disappear into the darkness of the abundant foliage.
If she hurt him, she wouldn’t merely be drained of power then die for a spell. She would suffer.
Nyx straightened up as Caleb closed to within a meter of her, and her furious, bloody glare turned macabre in the harsh, washed-out glow from the floodlights. How could he have ever seen his sister in her features?
“Who are you?”
“I’m the one who the diati obeys.” He leapt forward and grabbed her by both wrists. I welcome you. Join me.
He was ready for the flood of power, ready to take command of it and direct it according to his will. But when it came he reeled nonetheless. For all his recent training, he was unable to keep from feeling as if he was about to burst apart from the inside.
Caleb gritted his teeth and focused on the enemy. “How many times must I take your power from you before you stay down?”
“More times than this.” She closed her eyes tight, and a repulsive force flung them both through the air in opposite directions.
He landed hard on the ground, but he ignored the many twinges and at least one crack. The injuries they signaled would be gone by the time he stood.
He reached his knees in time to see her vanish from the far side of Thelkt’s terrace, fleeing rather than surrender the rest of her power to him.
He took half a second to check his status. As expected, no trace of injury remained. He obviously hadn’t taken all of her diati from her, yet it felt as if he’d taken more than the last time. He’d assumed all diati was equal, but this new influx seemed qualitatively different somehow, and he struggled to wrangle it under a modicum of control.
Caleb: “Alex?”
“Here.” She materialized a few meters away mid-stride, quickly reached him and grasped his shoulders. Her eyes and hands roved over his body in concern.
He scowled at her. “You never run when I say to.”
“Nope. You’re bleeding.”
“I was bleeding. I’m fine now.”
Felzeor swooped in to circle them in excited loops. “What a spectacle!”
“You’re okay? I was worried she’d hurt you.”
“I am a resistance fighter. It takes more than a little diati swipe to fell me.”
“Of course it does.” He laughed weakly and motioned Felzeor to his shoulder. “Let’s get back to the ship.”
Alex continued to peer at him in concern. “Can you do it?”
A new squad of Machim soldiers rushed out from the main building and made a beeline toward them. “I’m pretty sure I have to. Felzeor, hold tight.”
The Volucri’s rear claws landed solidly on his shoulder once again, and he wrapped his arms around Alex and directed his intention on a point beyond sight.
THERE
When he opened his eyes, the walls of the Siyane had enveloped them.
He sank into the couch for a single dizzy breath, then looked around to find the cabin filled by Mesme, a tall Novoloume man and a bleeding Cosime. “Eren?”
Cosime shook her head. “No. Stupid show-off.”
Alex sighed. “Again? All right. Valkyrie, let’s get out of here.”
‘Departing the surface now. Prepare for atmospheric traversal beginning in fourteen seconds.’
Felzeor vaulted off his shoulder to
flit between their guests. “Cosime, I’ve missed you so. Thelkt, are you uninjured?”
The Novoloume ruffled Felzeor’s chocolate and apricot feathers with a cautious smile. “I am well, though I suspect the rescue was most timely.”
“Good. I fretted. Have you met my friends, Caleb and Alex? And Valkyrie, too? They are quite the adventurous sort.”
“I have not.” He gently nudged Felzeor toward Cosime and dipped his chin in their direction. “Greetings. I am Thelkt Lonaervin, anarch spy for over a century and now, it appears, refugee. Thank you for the role you played in our rescue.” He gazed in interest around the cabin. “So the whispers are true—Kats, SAIs and Humans have come to join with the anarchs in a quest to save us all.”
Felzeor returned to Caleb’s outstretched arm. The Volucri leaned in to nuzzle his beak against Caleb’s nose while Caleb stroked his silken pelt. “What a grand quest it’s sure to be.”
11
SAGITTAE GATEWAY
MILKY WAY SECTOR 22
* * *
MOVING EVEN A REDUCED CONTINGENT OF AEGIS vessels through a gateway proved a maddeningly slow affair. Measured in minutes, true, but they were maddeningly slow minutes.
The automated defenses at the gateways weren’t much of a threat, but because the activations were monitored, they had only a small window of time before some sort of Machim force arrived at the origin gateway, then the destination one.
The portion of the fleet not participating in the mission moved to new staging coordinates simultaneously with their traversal, and the origin gateway would not be used again soon. Once the mission was complete, these forces would superluminal to the new coordinates as well. It would take time, but the time wouldn’t be wasted. When they regrouped, she intended for the next mission profile to be ready to go.
It remained early days yet, but for now the cat-and-mouse strategy seemed a reliable one. Without a home base or territory to defend, it was also an efficient one.
Miriam idly wondered what the aliens situated on the accompanying Sagittae Arx thought of the fleet of warships of alien-to-them design emerging from the darkness to pass through the gateway. Did they know there was a war on before today? Did they know the inhabitants of the ships were on their side?
The anarchs’ latest intel indicated the Directorate was publicly denying reports of any martial incident at the Provision Network Gateway, insisting the disappearance of the prominent structure resulted from the Eradication Order against the Katasketousya.
But the Directorate was not going to be able to deny AEGIS’ presence in Amaranthe for much longer. Now they were allowing themselves to be seen. Word would spread.
The Stalwart II emerged from the destination gateway just as the first wave of vessels initiated their sLume sprint to the target. Rychen’s dreadnought, the EAS Virginia, and its attached squadron were forming up ahead of her position in preparation for making the same sprint.
Sensors detected the presence of a substantial Machim formation a mere second before the enemy opened fire. Too many too quickly to have arrived after being alerted to the gateway traversal. They’d been here ahead of time, hidden and lying in wait.
Commandant Solovy (AFS Stalwart II): “All ships, battle alert. Hostile forces engaged. Attack at will under engagement rules Charlie Delta. Rear forces, continue through the gateway and engage on arrival.”
The initial volley from the attackers was concentrated away from the gateway; presumably they didn’t want to damage the colossal structure if they could avoid it.
Miriam wasn’t concerned about the gateway—and all intel indicated it was quite sturdy regardless—but she did cast a troubled eye toward the Arx off their port, where tens of thousands of noncombatants resided.
Commandant Solovy (Stalwart II): “Avoid firing on the Arx, and whenever possible act to protect the civilians inside. The gateway is a viable target, but get clear of it with all due speed to avoid collateral damage.”
She took a deep breath. “Thomas, I need numbers.”
‘Initial scans detect a substantial Machim force: 2,360 battlecruisers and 7,210 destroyers, plus an undetermined number of specialty craft and fighters.’
Nearly as many ships as they faced at the Provision Network Gateway—and she had brought far fewer. Any reinforcements she might call upon were now many parsecs away from the origin gateway and couldn’t get here in time to make a difference. Worse, with the Arx inside the perimeter and an inhabited planet in the stellar system, Rifter usage became severely curtailed per the Charlie Delta engagement rules.
She’d been caught unawares, and her best tools were hamstrung or denied her altogether.
The Stalwart II swung up above and out from the gateway as the battle was joined. She squared her shoulders, internalized the reality of the current situation and worked to focus on the tools she could use—then she realized her people were already doing that for her.
The SFS Medici and Bastian’s forces emerged from the wormhole firing the instant they reached normal space. The AEGIS 3rd Assault Brigade cloaked en masse, vanished for a moment, then reemerged behind the bulk of the Machim fleet. The concentration of fire diffused, taking some of the heat off of Rychen’s forces.
Two Sabres’ combined weaponry tore apart a Machim battlecruiser in a fiery explosion of energy and metal near the center of the evolving engagement zone. She should have brought more Sabres.
The bridge abruptly shuddered from the collision of laser fire against the shields, but the Stalwart II’s defenses were the best in the fleet. The fire hadn’t yet penetrated the shielding when another two Sabres shattered the attacking vessel, and she found herself glad she had brought as many of the glass cannons as she had.
Commander Lekkas (AFS MA-Primary): “Permission to saturate Quadrant Three with negative energy bombs?”
The hastily labeled tactical map designated Quadrant Three as the zone at the far edge of the engagement zone from the Arx.
Commandant Solovy (Stalwart II): “Granted. AEGIS 2nd and 3rd Assault, monitor your proximity to the designated zone.”
The stealthed Eidolons forwent precision to sweep across the battlefield and deposit their payloads as swiftly as possible. Ten seconds later—dozens of destructions later—menacing obsidian explosions began cascading in a swelling void through the battlefield, effectively splitting it in two and taking out a wide swath of Machim warcraft. Thousands, perhaps.
A detonation flared thirty degrees to port in the aftermath. It only caught her eye because the color and texture of the pluming explosions were unlike those created by any of her ships or, so far as they’d seen, the Machim vessels.
Commandant Solovy (Stalwart II)—Command Channel: “Thomas, I need a report on the activity in the northwest corner of Quadrant One.”
Thomas (Stalwart II)—Command Channel: ‘Machim fire impacted the Arx. Unclear whether it was the target. The damage appears significant but non-critical to the integrity of the structure.’
Admiral Rychen (EAS Virginia)—Command Channel: “It looked deliberate enough from here. They’re willing to fire on civilians just to cause a little collateral damage? Fuck those sadists. “
Admiral Rychen (EAS Virginia): “EA 12th (NW) Regiment, take up defensive positions around the Arx. Make the enemy shoot us instead.”
She frowned.
Christopher, what are you doing?
We came here to protect innocent people, aliens and all. We need to do it, and we need them to know we’re doing it.
He wasn’t wrong. She didn’t know who might be on the Arx, but the vast majority of the inhabitants were not the enemy. Civilian deaths in war were inevitable, but after so many died in the Metigen War she didn’t feel inclined to see more.
Further, the cold calculus of the propaganda side of warfare said that a bold defense of helpless civilians made a powerful impression, should those civilians survive the day to tell the tale.
The Machim forces continued to execute on their predictable
tactics, and her ships readily took advantage of this weakness the enemy displayed. AEGIS arrived outnumbered, but with adiamene hulls, creative maneuvering and arcalasers that made their wielders difficult to track even when not cloaked, they took out five Machim vessels for every AEGIS ship that fell.
The numbers evened out, then tipped in their favor, and Miriam breathed a silent sigh of relief. They had not come prepared, and it had almost been a disaster. Properly chastised, she would learn from the mistake, be grateful the cost wasn’t higher and—
Thomas (Stalwart II): ‘Eight Igni missiles launched from two enemy battlecruisers. Target is…the Arx.’
Commandant Solovy (Stalwart II): “Virginia, all vessels, get clear of the Arx!”
A massive blast roiled short of the Arx as a Federation frigate sacrificed itself by accelerating into the path of one of the missiles. A second missile impacted the AFS Montreal less than half a megameter from the Arx. The remaining six impacted the Arx directly.
Explosions rippled as the deadly antimatter weapons ripped apart nearly three megatonnes of habitat-grade material, feeding on themselves and the wreckage created to billow outward and consume nearby vessels and debris in a self-propagating chain reaction.
Visuals were impossible, so Miriam hurriedly called up broad spectrum scans in an attempt to determine what remained amongst the destruction. But by the time she was able to gain that information…nothing remained. The collision of matter and antimatter had annihilated everything it touched.
The Arx.
The more than ten thousand civilians occupying it.
An entire EA regiment’s worth of vessels and their crews.
The EAS Virginia and its 23,819 crew members, including Christopher Rychen.
Gone.
PART III:
TRANSCENDENTAL DISARRAY
“War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It’s peace that’s wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.”
— Lois McMaster Bujold
Aurora Resonant: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 3) Page 48