Evan Currie - Heirs of Empire

“The rumors of a coup are true,” she said. “We don’t know much, but we know that our father died that night … as did our older brother. We’ve been running ever since.”

“Well … damn.” Mik felt as though he needed a seat, but there weren’t many places to sit in the vault, and frankly he was scared of what he might be sitting on if he tried.

They’d all known that something had happened, something bad, of course. The empire didn’t make a habit of waging full-scale battles in the middle of populated places for no reason. Few had guessed that the most unbelievable of the rumors, that a coup had succeeded, would be the truth.

Mikael glanced at his sister, reading the look in her eyes when she looked back.

They’d lost their parents to some damned power play so far above their heads as to be entirely out of sight.

It felt almost worse, knowing that, than it had when they’d been in the dark. At least in ignorance they could pretend that there was some greater meaning.

“Careful with those,” Mira Delsol said as she walked the aisles.

The men checked the crates they were manhandling into a hand truck. “Are they dangerous?”

“No. Fragile. Those are server blades,” she answered, “backups for key data normally held only in the palace servers. Corian would murder every soul in the region for just one of those. Do not damage them.”

“Yes, my lady.”

The operation was moving swiftly, as she’d planned and hoped, but Mira wasn’t going to be happy until she and the Andros were well clear of the region. With a refugee camp in the area it was only a matter of time before the empire’s forces were turned in this direction, and the fact that the guards above wouldn’t be checking in anytime soon just upped that clock significantly.

The stores and other gear they were gathering, however, would make the risk worth it.

Since they had time, they’d also take a fair chunk of the regular stores from the depot above. Most of it was hopelessly outdated, but it would sell well on the civilian market or even to one of the pocket kingdoms that existed around the periphery of the empire. Many of those were technically Imperial provinces, but they were so far from the capital that they were effectively independent entities.

They were always slavering for Imperial military tech as well, even if it were massively outdated.

No one built gear like the empire used to.

“Sire.”

Corian looked up from the reports of his private pet project, noting for the first time the aide who’d stepped in and waited by the door.

“What is it?”

“You asked to be informed of any regimental redeployments?”

Corian grimaced but nodded. He didn’t want to waste time with such matters, but as things were he needed to know where every regiment of the legion was operating. “Who and where?”

“Colonel McReady is taking the Bulls north to the Kiran Sector, sire.”

“Kiran? What’s up there?” Corian asked, frowning.

The name meant something to him, but he couldn’t place it.

“Most recently a refugee camp from the last set of battles with the rebel legions,” the aide answered swiftly.

“Ah.” Corian nodded. That was where he’d heard the name recently. It was basically the backwater of the empire, very little of value and of no strategic importance. He’d thought that they had elected to leave them be for the moment. “Why is the colonel taking his legion and support there?”

“Two reports, sire, or rather one report and one report that wasn’t made when it should have been,” the aide answered. “First, we have reports of a skimmer matching the Andros Pak in the area. It was discounted at first as an unlikely event given the region …”

Corian nodded. There would seem to be little reason for Delsol to take the Andros there on the surface of things. “And the report that should have been made?”

“The local supply depot had a minimal garrison,” the aide answered. “They’re overdue to check in. No contact can be established.”

Corian scowled.

That didn’t make any sense. A depot that far north wouldn’t have anything of value to Mira, just outdated military equipment. The sort of things you could get on the black market across the empire for bargain rates at best. Going that far out of their way to raid a worthless depot made no sense.

Unless …

His eyes widened and he let out a vile oath, shocking the aide who was used to his former emperor being calm, even under fire.

“Sire?”

“Send backup for McReady,” Corian ordered.

“Sire? Why … ?”

“She’s Cadre,” Corian snapped. “We’re all entrusted with the location of one or more special cache locations. No one knows them all, but we all know some of them. The ones I knew of were decommissioned after I was …”

He left that unfinished, not wanting to discuss his court-martial.

Instead he just waved it off. “Suffice it to say, if there’s a cache there, I want it.”

“Yes, sire. I’ll have the Leo Francas moved to backup the Bulls.”

Corian nodded, calling after the man as he started to leave. “And have the Caleb Bar prepped for flight.”

“Yes, sire.”

Corian turned back to the map and couldn’t help but smile ruefully.

“You are a credit to your emblem, Cadrewoman Delsol,” he said finally. “Even after I’ve beaten everyone else, you’re still haunting my steps.”

“William.”

The Cadreman looked up from his work, trying to track the location of the Scourwind heirs again as the uniformed legionnaire slipped into the room.

“Kell.” He smiled. “What is it?”

“An answer to one of your questions, and maybe something important,” the woman said. “The Cadrewoman you’ve been asking about appears to be Mira Delsol.”

“Delsol?” William straightened up. “I had thought her dead.”

Indeed, once Corian showed up again, given what they knew of how the man operated, it seemed likely that Delsol’s body had sanded over somewhere in the Great Desert. The fact that the woman was not only alive, but also one of the major causes of his headaches—and, admittedly, Corian’s as well—was, well, surprising.

He barely had time to parse that, however, before Kell went on. “Corian just ordered two legions to the north. He seems to believe that she’s raiding a little-known supply depot out there,” Kell said, appearing to be confused. “Not sure why. I checked the inventory. There’re a few small fortunes’ worth of antiquated gear, but nothing worth the effort and risk she’d be taking.”

William closed his eyes. “It’s a Cadre cache.”

“What?”

“She’s not raiding the depot. She’s raiding the cache hidden under it,” William said with certainty. “I need the location.”

“It’s here.” Kell handed him a data shard. “I don’t know what you think you’ll be able to do with it, though. Corian has sent two legions, William.”

“I can’t let him get what’s in that cache,” William said, shaking his head, “or any cache. I destroyed … Never mind. Thank you, Kell.”

“You never have to thank me for this, William. I’d better get back.”

He watched her leave, considering his options for a moment, and then gathered up his belongings and rushed out, heading for his skimmer.

Crates of supplies, armor, weapons, and enough Imperial dinars to purchase a small warship were quickly moved to the lift center and then carefully shuttled up to the surface and out to the staging point. The lift was the bottleneck in the system, slowing their efforts considerably, but even so Mira was cautiously optimistic about how things were proceeding as the vault room was swiftly emptied.