Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

“We already knew most of this. We gathered that they didn’t want you to leave and trigger a war before they were ready,” Gotu said.

“Yes, they didn’t even try all that hard to find us. Although it would be near impossible to do so had they tried; there are too many people and different races on Tarabat. And the Erasi are not really in control, it is more a balanced chaos that runs itself. They are only overseers that get involved when someone breaks their contracts,” Aileen said.

“I’m sorry that we didn’t try to find you,” Gotu said remorsefully.

“I understand, you couldn’t have known that some of us survived,” Aileen said. “What do you think about Jurr’s offer?”

“I will relay it to the Lord Sentinel and the Emperor, but I believe that he might get his wish. Clan Leader Isani told me to expect a ship to come to Sol tomorrow, one headed to Kaleras. I am to put as many adepts and Sentinels on it as I can, as reinforcements for Adrian.”

“That includes me?”

“If you want to only. I will not force you just after you came back.”

“No problem, I’m going. Those bastards have to pay for the deaths of my crew.”

Gotu and Aileen waited in the Olympus Mons command. According to the comms from Sanctuary, the ship that was supposed to make a stop in Sol before heading to Kaleras was about to arrive. As they waited, one of the Adjutants approached Gotu.

“Administrator,” he said, “we are detecting strange readings from the Sun.”

“What kind of readings?” Gotu asked.

“Fluctuations. We are not sure what they mean,” the Adjutant said, and then another spoke out, “Administrator, we are detecting something coming out of the Sun!”

“Show me!” Gotu ordered, and the holo switched to show the Sun, and a massive object lifting out of the Sun’s corona, its shields clearly visible and blazing blue.

“Administrator, we are getting a communication request from the object—it is Clan Leader Isani.”

Gotu glanced at Aileen, his Nel face clearly showing shock.

“I’m guessing that is the ship we were waiting for.”

A long time ago

Axull looked at the devastation before him in shock and confusion.

“How could they have done this?” Waiss whispered, almost as if he was afraid to speak in the presence of such needless death.

“I don’t know,” Axull answered.

“We gave them everything, showed them the wonders of the universe. And they… they did this?” Waiss’s voice broke at the end.

“They wanted more,” Ullax said while holding Waiss’s hand.

“What more could they have possibly wanted?” Waiss asked. Axull could feel his friend’s pain, could see how betrayed he felt. Axull shared that pain as well. Waiss trembled, his wings curling at his back. “We taught them, we uplifted them—everything that they are is because of us! And they repaid us by doing this!” Waiss pointed at the window and the remains of the World-ship and the combined fleets of three different species spreading in front of them.

“We held things back…” Ullax said.

“Of course we did!” Waiss said. “You don’t teach a child the most dangerous things you know! You teach them responsibility, you build on their knowledge over time. Were we supposed to give them the keys to all of our accomplishments? They were not ready, nor are they worthy, as they have just demonstrated.”

“Waiss is right, this is not our fault, they made this choice,” Axull said.

“We gave them intelligence, brother,” Ullax said.

“And they chose to misuse our gifts,” Axull argued.

“We need to act now. They cannot be allowed to use what we taught them to harm another of the People,” Waiss told them.

“They have lost almost all of their ships in order to destroy the Nova,” Axull said. “They are still far behind us.”

“Which is why we need to act now. They were always good students, and we have given them too much,” Waiss added.

“We will. They will be punished for what they have done, I promise you that, Waiss,” Axull said.

“You are not planning on wiping them out?” Ullax asked hesitantly. Among the three of them, she was the one who had been the closest to the three races they had uplifted. They were her children, in many ways.

“No, but they don’t deserve what we have given them. If they want to join us as equals, they will have to do it on their own, without us to guide them,” Axull said, and turned to look at his attendant standing behind them. “Tell the command team to get the Enduring underway. We need to reach Aus Alar as fast as possible. And tell them to call every World-ship in the area and order them to meet us there as well,” Axull ordered.

“Right away, Grand Exatt,” the attendant said, and exited the viewing room.

“What are you going to tell the council?” Ullax asked.

“The truth. They are unworthy of what we have given them and need to be struck down,” Axull answered.

“We are going to fight them,” Ullax said, distraught.

Waiss put his arms around her and pulled her close. “They forced us to do this, Ullax. Don’t forget that. We only wanted to help them, and they repaid us with the death of a World-ship. They did not deserve our gifts.”

December; Year 58 of the Empire — Kaleras system

Adrian stood and watched the round holo-table in the middle of the command center onboard the command ship Gallant. The Erasi ships had been coming into the system for several minutes now, and their numbers kept growing. Adrian regretted not attempting to lay a trap for them, but there was just no way for him to have known exactly where they would’ve exited hyperspace. The Erasi would enter the system unopposed. He was watching them from several monitoring drones that had been positioned all around the system, almost in real time. But what worried him was that they were two days late, according to their calculations. Which could only mean that they had made a short stop somewhere before coming to Kaleras, and he had some idea why that might be.

“That is a lot of ships,” Iris said in his head.

“Yeah.”

“Think that you can win?”

“There is always a chance.”

“Want to know what percentage I give you?”

“No,” Adrian scoffed at her mentally.

“Suit yourself,” she puffed.

Adrian shook his head and turned his attention back at the holo. He and Anessa had planned the defense as best as they could, but both of them knew that none of their plans would survive the contact with the Erasi. The best they could hope for was to reduce the Erasi numbers enough that they would have difficulties taking the rest of Shara Daim territory quickly, buying time for their industry to build up enough forces to defeat them eventually.

They had also debated whether Anessa should command from the Bloodbringer or the Gallant, but in the end, the Gallant just wasn’t feasible. The Empire’s command ships didn’t have the systems that supported use of telepathy for command, and there was no time for her to learn how to use the Watchtower interface. In the end, they had decided to be on two different ships, with Anessa in the overall command of the defense, as it was her territory and she had the most forces.

Then the Erasi arrivals slowly tapered down, and the computers calculated the final count of the Erasi ships. Two hundred forty-seven thousand six hundred sixty ships, with the auxiliary ships whose presence meant that they planned to stay here until they had taken the system. The Erasi still outnumbered the defenders, but after Adrian’s attack, the advantage was smaller. The Shara Daim had around one hundred thousand warships, with another seven thousand five hundred auxiliary ships, and Adrian had around twenty and a half thousand warships with three and a half thousand auxiliary. Together, they commanded almost one hundred thirty-two thousand ships, but were still outnumbered almost two to one.