Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

“Three Erasi ships were hiding in the storm, two super battleships and an unknown. Is Kar Daim—is Anessa alright?”

“Damn, yes, we are… all on the shuttle. I would’ve skimmed the shuttle to orbit, but with you engaged in combat, we can’t risk the Bloodbringer losing its systems from the skim,” Adrian said. “You need to cover us, we will execute a combat landing.”

“I’m already moving towards you.”

“Good, see you in a bit,” he said, and closed the channel.

Garaam watched as the shuttle rose through the atmosphere, speeding towards her ship. The Bloodbringer slid in place to shield the shuttle as it approached, and took on the fire of the three ships, returning fire as best as it could. She didn’t worry about the first warship; it was behind the curvature of the planet and couldn’t fire directly, and its missiles would arrive after the shuttle had already landed.

“Load three salvos, high yield, programmed to fly wall formation towards the storm and explode four hundred meters from the Bloodbringer. Fire on my mark, and be ready to lower the shields for the shuttle’s landing,” Garaam ordered. “Contact the shuttle crew, warn them that we are about to move at full thrust. They need to compensate for our position.”

“Yes, Dai Sha.”

Garaam knew that the Erasi were aware that she would need to lower the shields in order for the shuttle to land, and she was certain that they were waiting for that moment.

“Salvos loaded, Dai Sha.”

Garaam watched the c-board, and the shuttle, waiting for the right moment.

“Fire missiles!” Garaam ordered. “Navigation, stand by for full thrust.”

The missiles exited the crossing space quickly, and just before they passed four hundred meters, Garaam shouted, “Engage full thrust!”

The missiles exploded, creating a curtain of fire inside the atmosphere of the planet, and obscuring the Bloodbringer from the Erasi ships’ targeting systems. The Bloodbringer lurched as its engines pushed it forward, and Garaam felt herself slam into her chair as the ship’s dampeners fought to keep up with the sudden thrust.

The shuttle approached, and the Bloodbringer’s shields went down, allowing it to pass. Erasi fire struck through the curtain, most of it missing but some striking the back end of her ship.

“Impact! Hull breach in section three, decks seven and eight. Shields are back online. The shuttle has landed,” a Va Sun reported.

“Turn us towards open space, be ready to skim to hyperspace border on my signal!” Garaam ordered. Their shields were starting to drop below fifty percent, and Garaam knew that they couldn’t take much more of this.

As her ship was turning and trying to get away from the planet, the curtain cleared, and Garaam glanced at her c-board, seeing two of the Erasi super battleships fully out of the storm, but the third ship was still in it, and already what she could see it was much larger than any of the Erasi super battleships.

“Energy buildup from the unknown Erasi warship!” a Va Sun reported.

Before Garaam could ask for an elaboration, the Bloodbringer shook, and lights in the room dimmed and fluctuated.

“Hull breaches, sections four, five, and six, decks nine through fifteen and seventeen through twenty-one!”

“What was that?” Garaam asked, as she saw that their shields were still online and at forty percent.

“Unknown, Dai Sha! The energy weapon passed clear through our shields!”

“Are the skim drives ready?” Garaam asked. She looked at the visual sensors and saw the massive Erasi ship. Two turrets were now visible as they just left the storm—the weapons that had just hit her ship.

“Fifteen more seconds, Dai Sha.”

“Target every weapon on that ship!” Garaam ordered, and all of Bloodbringer’s fire switched to attack the massive Erasi warship.

“Energy buildup from the Erasi ship!” Garaam glanced at the visuals and saw light emanating from the two turrets.

“Skim us when ready!”

“Skim in three, two, one! Skimming!”

The Bloodbringer entered the skim, and Garaam released a sigh of relief as they managed to get away in time.

“Get us to the Legions. Engage hyperspace when ready.”

Three days later — November; Year 58 of the Empire — Erasi Devastator End of Hope — Numvani orbit

Garash looked at the recording of the fight in the Numvani orbit, trying to see if there was anything that he would’ve done differently. He had nearly killed the commander of his ship when he’d learned that the Shara Daim warship had escaped; the only reason he hadn’t was because he wasn’t in any shape to do so. He cursed himself for giving Weaver Hanaru all of his stealth ships; if he’d had even one near the Shara Daim warship, he could’ve destroyed it before it entered FTL. He glanced at the stump of his hand, covered in healing gel that would close the wound. He could’ve started the process of having the hand regrown, but doing so would require him to be put to sleep for the duration of the procedure, and he couldn’t do that now.

Seeing the stump brought another bout of anger to the surface. He had been defeated, had actually been in the danger of losing his life. He glanced at Valanaru, who was standing across the table from him.0 The plan to take out the Shara Daim and the Empire’s leaders was hers, and it had failed spectacularly. The only reason Garash hadn’t turned on her was because he’d agreed to the plan, and because Valanaru had left the planet as injured as he. Garash could see that her fight with the Human had taken a great toll on her, a thing that he hadn’t believed possible, yet it was clearly visible. She looked sickly, unnerved, and every once in a while, he could see her body twitch uncontrollably. And the only answer Garash had received from her concerning her battle was her telling him that the Human had been a mindbender, a thing that he hadn’t even considered possible. None of the information they had gathered about the Empire suggested such level of power in any of the three categories.

“How did we not know that the Shara Daim had the Empire’s FTL technology?” Garash asked angrily. The fact that the Shara Daim possessed the FTL technology of the Empire was the only reason why they had managed to escape. “Your Weavers assured me— you assured me that they did not possess it.”

“I have read the agreement of alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire,” Valanaru said, slowly, as if she had trouble finding the words. “The agreement clearly states that the Empire will not share their FTL technology with the Shara Daim.”

Garash grunted, “Yet they obviously did. Your Weavers should have known.”

“You understand nothing of how spying truly works, nor do you understand the difficulty that the Shara Daim present. They are near impossible to turn, and we can’t insert our agent anywhere without them standing out. We must rely on pieces of communications we manage to get.”

“And we were wrong about their strength,” Garash said harshly.

“We underestimated them; there was nothing to indicate that the Empire had mindbender-level telepaths,” Valanaru said.

“Both the Kar Daim and the Lord Sentinel were far stronger than what we had believed them to be. I almost died.”

“As did I,” Valanaru added.

“I should’ve never allowed you to convince me to use Weaver tactics,” Garash said, looking at his stump again. He was barely containing his anger. “There will be no more of that. As soon as we get back to the fleet, I am taking it straight into Shara Daim territory.”

“We underestimated them once, Garash. Do not do so again,” Valanaru cautioned.