Ivan Kal - Onslaught

Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion walked into the meeting room on board her flagship the Soulsworn. Around the table were seated twenty-two other Dai Sha. All were there as holograms, comm-ing in from their ships that were around Garaam’s Legion. Garaam took her seat at the head of the table and looked over the other Dai Sha. There was an air of unease among them, and it had nothing to do with their upcoming battle and everything to do with the changes on Shara Radum.

A part of Garaam still couldn’t believe what her friend had done. They had known each other since they were children, and Garaam knew that Anessa had always believed in the Elders unconditionally. She had honed her skills for the sole purpose of serving and one day becoming an Elder herself. That devotion was why Garaam had never told her friend about the little cabal she and several other Dai Sha were a part of. Their group had had members across the Shara Daim, from every position, people who believed that there was something wrong with the Elders’ rule, or people that didn’t agree with the Shara Daim policies against other races.

Garaam herself had had dealings with other races, and she had seen honor among many of them. Yet according to the teachings of their Elders, they were not equal to Shara Daim. Now she knew that that was a lie constructed to use the Shara Daim for the Elders’ purpose. So when she and everyone else in the Shara Daim had received the message that contained the proof against the Elders, she had rejoiced, until the last part of the transmission, when all had learned that the Elders had been removed from power by Anessa and that she had taken the title of Kar Daim along with the rule of the Shara Daim. The transmission didn’t mention how she had taken the power, but soon enough the word had gotten out. Anessa had killed them all, and if the word was true, she had done it in a very brutal way, all by herself.

Anessa had demanded obedience from anyone who didn’t want to challenge her, drawing back to the old laws and customs of the ancient Shara Daim. And a part of Garaam was elated, while a part was horrified. The cabal had wanted to oppose Anessa; they didn’t want to replace the Elders with someone worse, and in their minds, Anessa was somehow even worse. And Garaam would have agreed with them if it had been the Anessa from before her return from imprisonment. Before, she had been a zealot, believing blindly in the Elders and their teachings. Now Garaam had seen how different she was. She was more open-minded. The fact that she had killed the Elders told her how different she truly was; Anessa of before wouldn’t have defied the Elders for anything. Garaam didn’t know what had happened to her, but something had changed her.

So Garaam had counseled the cabal to accept her rule. She had told them that Anessa was different, that she wouldn’t allow what the Elders had done to happen again. And thankfully they had listened, and had given Anessa a chance. And already the Shara Daim had seen the beginnings of change. She had shared everything, put all the secrets out there for people to know. She focused the entirety of the Shara Daim to defend against the Erasi. Already Garaam had heard about talks of changing the ways things were done. The teachings in the schools were being changed, children no longer taught that Shara Daim were superior to all. And she had assembled teams of the smartest people the Shara Daim had to offer in order to make them better.

Slowly, in these past months, Anessa had gained allegiance among the Shara Daim. Not from everyone, but most. Some truly believed in what she was doing, while others were too afraid to do anything. Garaam and the cabal had had a dream of wise, strong, and truthful leaders that worked for the Shara Daim. But she knew that that was just a dream; the Shara Daim were not a people that would follow just anyone. They needed someone strong and powerful, someone who could instill fear into their bones and loyalty into their hearts. They needed Anessa to bully and force them to change, and Garaam would do everything in her power to help her friend.

The first part in doing that was to stop the Erasi advance. Garaam focused on the Dai Sha around her and spoke.

“Our mission is simple,” she said calmly, reaching out with her mind and keying the telepathic interface on the table to bring up a hologram of the Shara Daim territory. “The Erasi must pass the Var Gares system if they want to take and hold the Har Aras sector. Their forces in this sector number at around thirty of their fleets, the equivalent of thirty of our Legions, with the forces in the Har Kaleras and Har Nara sectors numbering fifteen each. That brings their confirmed number in our territory at sixty fleets,” Garaam said, looking at the Dai Sha.

Garaam had twenty-three Legions at her command to defend the three sectors; the last nineteen Legions that Anessa had ordered to the front would arrive in two months’ time. Then Garaam would have forty-two Legions to defend, plus the system guards—the same number that the Elders had planned to send against the Empire. The Erasi had obviously planned for this attack for a long time; their attack had come at three different sectors at the exact time when the Legions were out of position.

“The Erasi forces in the Har Aras sector are divided into three forces; eight of their fleets are guarding Var Tero, which they are using as a staging point. All their supplies arrive there, and it is where their fleets resupply. The other two forces, each eleven fleets strong, are currently on their way to two of our systems that they plan on taking next,” Garaam said. When she said that the Erasi were taking a system, she meant that they were moving inside, destroying any infrastructure, and then leaving. They were only actively taking systems that had strategic value, like Var Tero.

“We could move and take Var Tero back. That would deny their fleets resupply. But I don’t intend to go there just yet. Our first target will be here”—Garaam pointed at the system—“Var Harsi. That is where the biggest Erasi force is moving to attack, and we can get there just after they attack and pin them against the defenses. We will have the numbers advantage, and I believe that it is more advantageous for us to take out as many of their ships as we can now. As soon as they figure out that we have moved back in, they will start grouping more forces. Lowering their numbers now will give us an advantage,” Garaam said.

“But we will be leaving our other systems undefended,” Dai Sha Barask said.

“We need to cut their numbers now while we still can. After we take this fleet, we will be splitting our forces in order to defend as many as possible. And already the guard flotillas from our other sectors are arriving to bolster the defenses,” Garaam said. They had no hope of reaching the Har Kaleras and Har Nara sectors in time to help any of the systems that had already been attacked. Had the Elders sent the Legions to defend immediately, they might’ve had a chance of defending every sector, but for now they could only stop the Erasi in Har Aras. Once the reinforcements arrived, Garaam would be free to send more Legions to the two other sectors.

“Are there any questions?” Garaam asked, and no one spoke up; they already knew that this was the best plan they had at the moment. “Very well, then, we are off to Var Harsi.”

Two months later — May — Shara Radum

Anessa sat in the room that she had turned into her office, inside the palace. A lot had changed since she had taken over. She had turned the palace into a hub for the government. She had created a group of advisors, both military and civilians, and she had daily meetings as they slowly adjusted some laws and started the transformation of the Shara Daim. For now, things had been going relatively smoothly. No one questioned her rule—at least not publicly—and she had the support of the military with the Legions and the system guards. The fact that they were under attack and on the defensive had made everyone compliant. But probably the greatest help to her rule was the support from Vallar Havasse; she had influence in many civilian areas, but it was her advice that was the most useful.