What War Had Wrought (Rise of the Empire Book 7) Read online

  What War Had Wrought

  Rise of the Empire series

  Ivan Kal

  Copyright © 2016 by Ivan Kal

  Art/Cover Copyright © 2016 by Nikola Nikolic

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Editor: Tom Shutt at Main Line Editing - http://www.mainlineediting.com/

  Contact the artist - [email protected]

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  Table of Contents

  Glossary

  Timeline

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Interlude I

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Interlude II

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Interlude III

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Interlude IV

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Interlude V

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Timeline

  November 2103 – A faction of humanity—Olympus—leaves to colonize a planet in a star system 600 light years from Earth.

  February 2159 – An alien race called the Ra’a’zani conquers Earth.

  May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their destination; they name the planet Sanctuary. They get involved in a conflict against an alien race called the Sowir. Ally themselves with the Nel of Nuva.

  March 2170 – Resistance from Earth contacts Olympus on Sanctuary, asking for aid.

  December 2171 – Olympus and Sowir Dominion make a pact of non-aggression.

  January 2172 – Olympus fleet arrives in the Sol system, engaging Ra’a’zani forces in the system. The battle for Earth results in narrow human victory, but the cost is the Earth. Ra’a’zani weapon makes the planet uninhabitable.

  March 2172 – Year 1 of the Empire – Tomas Klein, leader of Olympus, creates the Empire.

  December – Year 30 of the Empire – Sowir attack Nelus system, homeworld of the Nel. Empire breaks the non-aggression pact with Sowir by simultaneously sending aid to Nelus and invading the Sowir territory. Clan Leader Adrian Farkas overuses the Watchtower command interface, falling into a coma.

  January–March Year 31 of the Empire – Adrian Farkas wakes up and hears the telepathic beacon from the sphere left by the originator of the human and Nel races, unlocking all the knowledge and technology contained inside.

  March Year 36 of the Empire – Empire wins the war against the Sowir.

  Year 36–Year 54 of the Empire – Empire at peace, focusing on exploring, developing technologies from the sphere of the People, expanding their borders to reclaim Sol.

  June Year 54 of the Empire – Empire meets an alien race called the Erasi.

  July Year 54 of the Empire – Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas meets Dai Sha Anessa of the Shara Daim, the third race created by Axull Darr. Anessa attempts to capture Adrian; the fight ends in narrow victory for Adrian and his people. They take the Dai Sha prisoner.

  January Year 55 of the Empire – Shara Daim Elders recall all of their forces for an attack on the Empire, seeking the device left by Axull Darr.

  June Year 55 of the Empire – Lord Sentinel releases Dai Sha Anessa.

  August Year 55 of the Empire – The Empire defeats the Ra’a’zani, leaving their people abandoned on their worlds with no way of getting back into space.

  September Year 55 of the Empire – Three Shara Daim Legions attack Sol. Lord Sentinel defends, and defeats the invading forces, allowing Dai Sha Anessa and her remaining forces to leave Sol.

  December Year 55 of the Empire – Erasi invade Shara Daim territory.

  September Year 56 of the Empire – After finding out about a conspiracy by the Elders of the Shara Daim, Dai Sha Anessa removes them from power, taking the rule of the Shara Daim for herself, claiming the title Kar Daim.

  March Year 57 of the Empire – Shara Daim reach out to the Empire, inviting Lord Sentinel to their homeworld Shara Radum for diplomatic talks.

  June Year 57 of the Empire – Empire diplomatic task force is ambushed by the Erasi on their way to Shara Daim homeworld. One battleship is destroyed, but the rest of the taskforce manages to escape.

  July Year 57 of the Empire – The Empire and the Shara Daim reach an agreement, forming an alliance. The Empire obligated to help the Shara Daim against the Erasi invasion.

  November Year 57 of the Empire – A large Erasi force is detected at the border of the Shara Daim, more than one hundred fleets moving to reinforce the Erasi invasion.

  Prologue

  February; Year 58 of the Empire — Warpath system — Secret Base

  Emperor Tomas Klein stepped off the shuttle and onto the Warpath base. A Nel man was waiting close by, and Tomas made his way towards him. Once he was close enough, Tomas raised his palm to his chest and made a Nel gesture for greeting, which the man returned.

  “How long can you stay?” Clan Leader Isani asked.

  “A day. Jusan is covering for me at Waypoint. No one should notice that I’m gone,” Tomas responded.

  Isani gestured and led Tomas deeper into the complex. “You didn’t need to come in person, I could’ve updated you on everything at Sanctuary.”

  “More than a decade had passed since we recovered it; I need to see it in person,” Tomas said as Isani led him through a corridor leading deeper into the asteroid—a small planetoid, really. The walls were uneven rock, with lights mounted on the ceiling. They made their way past several doors and intersections, and eventually they stepped out of the corridor and into a large viewing room. Much like the similarly designed viewing rooms on Warpath’s Forge, an entire wall was see-through, and beyond it stretched a large cavern hollowed out inside the asteroid. Only this cavern was more of a large hole drilled into the side of the asteroid than it was a cavern. The ‘entr
ance’ to it was almost 200 kilometers in diameter, with the ‘cavern’ being some 300 kilometers deep and 200 wide, and it had to be, because of its purpose.

  The asteroid itself was on the other side of the system from the three asteroids that together formed Warpath’s principal city. It was also a secret known only to those working here, Tomas, and a few select people from Clan Dai Ven. And the Hand of the Empire, for there was no secret that the Hand wasn’t privy to and no place in the Empire that they didn’t have access to. The asteroids beyond obscured the view inside through the large entrance, and more large rocks had been moved in front of it to make it impossible to see inside the large cavern from anywhere else in the system.

  The two made their way to the end of the room and looked at the large cavern. A massive object dominated the view. It was 168 kilometers long and 76 kilometers in diameter at its widest. It was a ship, with a black-and-silver smooth, glistening hull. Its front was a six-sided pyramid with wavy sides that widened and melted at the back into a half sphere that covered the back end, making it look almost like some kind of an abstract teardrop.

  “Damn, it’s more impressive in person,” Tomas said.

  “It is, but wait until you see inside,” Isani said, and gestured for them to continue walking. They turned and exited the viewing room through one of the side doors, and entered a small landing bay with several shuttles arranged in a line.

  “You know, we could’ve just had my shuttle land in this bay,” Tomas commented lightly as they made their way towards one of the shuttles that was already primed and waiting for them.

  “You wanted heightened security. The same protocols apply for everyone,” Isani responded seriously.

  “Of course,” Tomas conceded.

  They boarded the shuttle and it took them the rest of the way. The large ship filled the shuttle’s viewers, and as they approached the back end of the ship, a portion of its hull seemed to flow away, the outer armor, leaving a smooth gray hull shaped like a circle maybe double the size of the shuttle. The pilot made his way directly towards that circle, and just as Tomas was about to question them speeding towards the ship’s hull, it parted in an iris-like motion with a soft blue light emanating from the inside.

  Once the shuttle passed the hull, it closed back behind them, and Tomas could see the inside of the ship. They appeared to be in a landing bay of sorts, one with several levels, and completely inside the ship. The shuttle made its way towards the top level and landed beside another Warpath shuttle. Tomas exited the shuttle and squinted with his eyes in the strange light hue.

  “I’m told that the lights here are a bit uncomfortable for humans; your eyesight is better than that of the People and something about this hue makes it harder for you to adjust, but you will in a couple of minutes,” Isani said as his secondary eyelids slid in place.

  “I’ll manage,” Tomas said, and stepped among the people moving around the bay. Most stopped and saluted once they recognized Tomas, and he returned their salutes with a nod and a smile. Isani led Tomas to a wall on the far side of the bay that had several markings about as large as a person on it arranged in a row. They approached one of the markings and it slid open in much the same way the ship’s hull had.

  The two stepped inside the cylinder-shaped chamber that was only two meters across and the wall closed them inside. Tomas noticed that the walls of the chamber conveyor were see-through; above them, he saw a tube-like route with a few openings in the sides of the tube, presumably leading to different parts of the ship. Isani approached a smooth black plate with silver markings on them and put his hand on one. Immediately, it flashed with blue light and they started moving through the tube. Tomas felt no acceleration; the quick movements of the walls and passages outside of their chamber were the only clue that they were in fact moving.

  Then, suddenly they were out in the open. The tube led their conveyor through the center of a large, spherical room. Tomas watched in amazement at the buildings and roads all around the walls of the room. There was even dark red vegetation and flowing water in between the buildings.

  “Incredible,” Tomas said. He had known about the city, but it was nothing like seeing it in person. It reminded him a bit of the Guxcacul underground cities, only he knew that gravity was bent here in such a way that all the ‘walls’ were always the ‘floor.’ “I think that I can understand now why they called this ship the Enduring.” He looked around at the strange spiraling architecture, admiring the technology, knowledge, and artistry of its creators, and that was when he noticed shapes moving on the streets. Using his implants, he zoomed in and looked closely at one of them, a smooth sphere floating about a meter above the ground, with several tentacle-like limbs trailing behind it. It looked almost as if it was made of liquid.

  “Are those…?” Tomas trailed off.

  “Yes, the maintenance units,” Isani responded as he joined Tomas at the edge of the conveyor. “We stay mostly out of their way. We have access to their controls, but we don’t want to meddle with it. Their programming is obviously still functioning properly.”

  Tomas nodded in understanding just as their tube reached the end of the room and plunged into another tunnel. They made a few sharp turns and then finally came to a stop a few minutes after. The front of the cylinder flowed open, followed by the iris-like movement of the wall, revealing a medium-sized room. They stepped inside and Tomas looked around. Most of the room was filled with workstations that obviously didn’t belong there—they were Empire technology, and all of them had cables stretched from them to the walls attached to seemingly nothing. A few of the workstations had cables leading to the middle of the room, attached to an ornate blue-and-black chair that seemed to be made out of thousands of thin spiral-like smooth branches melded into a shape of a chair.

  From previous reports, Tomas knew that that was the true heart of the vessel, the command hub from which a single person could command the entire ship. Only to date they hadn’t managed to use it successfully, not as it was intended to be used.

  “Have you made any progress?” Tomas asked, gesturing at the stations.

  “Some. We have limited control of the drives. We can move the ship, but any kind of advanced maneuvering requires a person in the chair,” Isani answered.

  “And you still haven’t had any success in making that viable?”

  “No. Anyone can take command of the ship from here, but they still can’t do it for more than half an hour, and they need to focus only on one thing at a time. The strain is too great,” Isani said.

  “Didn’t one of your reports mention a way for you to reduce the strain?” Tomas asked. He remembered reading that they were trying to implement a few tricks that they used in their Watchtower interface. According to the people working on this interface, the Empire’s Watchtower was both more advanced and inferior at the same time. This interface put all the strain on the user’s brain, while Watchtower used AI-guided computers and adaptive software to reduce the strain on the user.

  “We abandoned that; we can’t even begin to understand how this thing works, not really. The only reason we can use it is because of our genetics; if anyone other than a Nel or a human tried, they would’ve fried their brains. The only one that might be able to take the strain for longer is Adrian,” Isani said pointedly.

  Tomas nodded in understanding. Everything around him was so far ahead of anything that the Empire was capable of, so much so that it was laughable that he had thought that they might be able to tweak some aspect of the ship. This was the vessel of Axull Darr, his ship, his home. The labs on this ship were the true origin of Nel, humans, and Shara Daim. It had once been the People’s World-ship, a home to many, and as the People died off, it had become Axull Darr’s home. It was the pinnacle of their technological advancement.

  “So,” Isani said, “why are you really here?”

  “Because of Adrian,” Tomas said.

  Isani twisted his palm in a gesture of curiosity. “Are you going to finall
y tell him about this?”

  “No, I kept this from everyone for a very good reason, and you know that,” Tomas said.

  Tomas had learned the location of the ship a decade ago from Axull Darr. The copy of their ancestor had told him everything—about the thing they’d created, about how they’d failed, how they’d contained them, and most importantly, the locations of the People’s remnants, this ship included. And Tomas had asked him to keep quiet about it while he pretended to not know. Now Axull Darr had revealed a few things to Adrian, and Tomas still didn’t know why he had done that, but at least he hadn’t told him the other things.

  Tomas had studied the People, from Axull Darr’s stories and from records that Axull Darr made available only to him as the ruler of the Empire. He knew why they lost, why they couldn’t defeat their mistake. And he wasn’t going to allow the Empire to follow in the same footsteps. That was why the Empire didn’t copy technologies from the sphere, but learned and adapted and improved them to fit into their ways. They had been improving technologies of the equivalent level, of course—nothing like this ship. However, already there were breakthroughs, new paths that the People had never explored.

  The People were crippled, in a way, by the fact that they were alone for so long, the only intelligent life in the galaxy. They’d had no competition, no way to see paths different than their own. And by the time other life joined them, they were so far ahead of them that they didn’t bother to learn from those who had different ideas than them. They looked at them as children, a stance that was not very far from truth.

  Tomas had hidden this ship because he knew that if his people knew about it, they wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation. It was one thing to learn advanced technologies from records, to advance slowly with full understanding, and quite another to have the final goal in front of you, within reach with almost no effort. They would study the ship, copy technologies, jump so far ahead that they would’ve matched the People in a few hundred or less years. This ship was equipped with everything they needed. It could build materials that they could only dream about now, assemble ships smaller than their shuttles that could take on an entire fleet of the Empire’s ships of the line. They could have all the technology of the People in their hands.