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

  Hanaru brought a scan of the system from the Ancient’s maps and added all the scans from his scouts, overlapping the two. The Empire hadn’t moved much towards the inner border of the nebula; presumably because they didn’t yet need the resources of the third asteroid ring. Hanaru saw that there were only a few patrols moving around there, and seemingly in set patterns.

  Hanaru looked over the data one more time, a plan forming in his mind.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Occupied Shara Daim territory — Har Kaleras sector — Bloodbringer

  Ten Shara Daim Legions exited the trans-space and entered the system. Immediately, Anessa used the new c-board to send a message to all of the ships in her First and Second Legion.

  “Move away from the rest of the Legions. Power up weapons, load missiles, and raise shields. Be ready to skim on my command,” she ordered, and closed the channel. She looked at Garaam, who shook her head.

  “They are not close enough for passive sensors to see them yet,” Garaam answered Anessa’s questioning look.

  “Prepare to go to active scanners,” Anessa ordered. The active scanners would allow them to see far farther than the passive light sensors could, but it would also reveal her Legions to their intended target. The Erasi fleets that were supposed to be traveling through this system would detect the tachyon scan immediately. Hopefully the Erasi were unaware that two of her Legions had been equipped with the Empire’s skim drives and would be caught off guard.

  “All weapons ready. We can initiate the scan on your command, Kar Daim,” Garaam reported.

  Anessa opened a channel to Dai Sha Karoom of the Twenty-Second Legion. “Karoom, follow us as soon as we skim. Best speed. Be ready to join in the fighting.”

  “Understood, Kar Daim,” Karoom answered, and Anessa closed the channel.

  She turned to Garaam and gave the order. “Initiate the scan.”

  A moment later, the holo in front of the c-board that was connected to all the sensors in the Legions started filling up with up to date information.

  “There they are, two light minutes from the fifth planet,” Garaam reported.

  “Skim us!” Anessa said quickly. The Erasi would have detected the scan and would soon go to active scans themselves. Hopefully the skim would confuse them, as it seemed a bit confusing on scans, and would allow her two Legions to catch them off guard.

  As soon as Anessa gave the order, both of her Legions engaged their skim drives. In a heartbeat, both Legions had entered FTL. The plan had always been for them to drop out of FTL above the Erasi formation. Adrian had suggested that she might want to split her two Legions and catch the Erasi fleets from the sides in a crossfire, but Anessa believed that keeping her two Legions together would serve her better. She could give off a far stronger first shot and her two Legions would have much easier time defending when they were together. Adrian’s plan was good, but much better suited for the Empire’s fleets; they had drone ships that could help them soak up damage that Anessa’s ships couldn’t, not without losing far more lives in the process.

  “Exiting skim in forty-six seconds,” a Va Sun at the navigation console reported.

  Anessa was still amazed that they could travel through a system so fast. She had seen what one could do with this ability in Sol, when Adrian had used it to ambush them. And now she was about to do the same to the Erasi.

  “Exiting skim in fifteen,” the Va Sun reported.

  “Activate communication jamming as soon we are out. Acquire targets and fire as soon as you have them. Focus on their super battleships,” Garaam ordered over the c-board’s comms.

  “Exiting skim in five!”

  Everyone on the bridge watched the countdown, and as soon as it hit zero, they sprang into action. Both Legions exited at the same time; the Empire’s people had given them software that helped with the synchronization of the skims, and as soon as they exited, their scanner went off, getting far more detailed data on everything around them.

  Anessa checked her c-board and saw that the Erasi were completely unprepared. Their formation was loose, and their shields were down. As soon as her Legions locked on to targets, her ships fired. A continuous stream of missiles exited every one of her ships, crossing the short distance to the Erasi ships. Her capital ships opened fire with their main weapons and dark blue energy beams reached out from her ships to maul the undefended hulls of the Erasi; her smaller ships used their smaller versions of the same weapon to add to the carnage. The short-range plasma maulers of her ships each fired half a dozen contained plasma bolts in quick succession, before cooling off for ten seconds and firing again, scorching and eating into the Erasi ships.

  A great majority of her ships’ missiles passed almost unopposed to hit the Erasi warships; only several of their ships managed to bring their point defense online in time to do anything, but in the end, it wasn’t nearly enough. Shara Daim missiles were more powerful than their Erasi and the Empire counterparts, although they didn’t have as good of evading systems as the Empire’s or the Erasi missiles had. But it didn’t matter; with no real defensive net, the thousands of missiles struck the hulls of the Erasi battleships and super battleships, creating large craters in their hulls, which her particle weapons took advantage of. The Erasi warships were exploding at an amazing rate, with their losses after the first minute already climbing close to a thousand, and most of the destroyed ships being of their larger class.

  And then, sporadically across their formation, their shields came online along with their point defense. The Erasi tightened their formation and started fighting back. Anessa checked the c-board and saw that the rest of her forces were an hour away, and while her forces were still outnumbered, her initial attack had leveled the playing field as her two Legions’ attack had destroyed a large number of the Erasi heavy warships.

  She had the upper hand. Anessa led the battle from her c-board, shifting the focus of her two Legions as needed. And as the battle continued, it became apparent that the initial attack had shaken the Erasi enough that they were in a state of disarray. Their attempt at fighting back crumbled under the continuous pressure of her two Legions. Eventually they broke and attempted to flee, but by then the rest of her Legions had arrived. In the end, no message left the ambushed Erasi fleets, and no Erasi warship survived to bring word of what had happened.

  Chapter Fourteen

  October; Year 58 of the Empire — Shara Daim territory — Har Kaleras sector

  “What do you think about this?” Anessa asked the room.

  Adrian, Anessa, and her top Legion commanders Dai Sha Garaam and Dai Sha Karoom stood in a large room on board the Bloodbringer, which was in orbit of the recently retaken world in the first hub system Anessa’s forces had taken back. They had been planning their next assault when an Erasi scout ship had entered the system. Immediately, it had transmitted a message to the Bloodbringer, and after watching it, Dai Sha Garaam had called Anessa, Adrian, and Dai Sha Karoom to this meeting room to watch it as well.

  “We did hit them hard; they lost a lot of ships. It could be that they have realized that continuing this war would be far more costly than they initially assumed,” Dai Sha Garaam answered.

  “They have more than double our numbers as reinforcements,” Dai Sha Karoom added.

  “That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have changed their minds. We have fought them at a disadvantage from the start. And the threat of our and the Empire’s alliance might be enough for them to realize that it would cost them much to continue this war,” Garaam retorted.

  “More than possible is that they will ask us to surrender. They have arrived in Har Aras sector and must believe that we know about their reinforcements. We might have surprised them by our counterattacks, but I doubt that they think that they can lose,” Karoom said.

  “Will the Empire’s forces join in the fighting now?” Garaam asked Adrian.

  “My orders were to wait until their reinforcements arrive, so that we can be sure that
they don’t want peace. But I was also ordered to answer any diplomatic request. We need to at least hear what they have to say,” Adrian answered.

  “But?” Anessa asked, feeling that there was something that Adrian kept back.

  “The timing is suspicious. Until now, they have always stalled. Although, it is possible that they simply couldn’t deal until now. The message said that we would deal with an O’fa; as far as I am aware, they are the leaders of the Erasi,” Adrian answered.

  “We had never paid much attention to the governments of other races,” Anessa said remorsefully. “But we do know that these O’fa are highly regarded in the Erasi.”

  “Then there is the possibility that their stalling wasn’t in order for that fleet to arrive; they might not have been able to deal and have been waiting for this O’fa. If our assumption that these reinforcements arrived from deep within the Erasi territory, then they could’ve been sent here long before the Empire even met the Erasi,” Adrian said.

  “So you advise that we accept this invitation?” Anessa asked.

  “As long as the Erasi want to talk, I am bound by words of my Emperor. The Empire wants peace; if the Erasi will not be reasonable, we will make good on our promise of military aid, but all avenues of diplomacy need to be explored before then,” Adrian said.

  “And if they ask for our surrender?” Garaam asked.

  “Then we will abandon any further dealings with the Erasi and my ships will join yours,” Adrian responded.

  Garaam nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “The Erasi have a lot more ships than both of our forces combined, and you will still fight with us?”

  “Those were the terms of our alliance. We might not have been aware of their reinforcements, but we don’t go back on our word,” Adrian answered. “And with the technology we have shared with you, we only need to stall that fleet until we have a force capable of defeating them.”

  “That will not be that easy,” Karoom added.

  “No. You will lose a lot of worlds; they will push into your territory, killing and subjugating millions. But your territory is large. If we slow their advance enough, and protect your shipbuilding systems, we can win. But no war is ever certain; we could defeat them with far smaller numbers, or we could lose no matter what we do.”

  “Yes, that is true. Although I doubt that many other Dai Sha can see that,” Karoom said, turning to look at his Kar Daim. “These victories have made our Dai Sha emboldened; they think that we are far superior to the Erasi. You leading these battles has strengthened your rule, Kar Daim. But I fear that it has also reinforced their old beliefs, that we are superior to all others.”

  Garaam grimaced. “He is right, Anessa. I have seen it among the others. They believe in you now, but our victories have crippled the views we were trying to spread. Any loss will now hit us far harder.”

  “I couldn’t leave our systems in Erasi control,” Anessa said.

  “Of course not. I just want you to understand the state of your Legions. If you ask them to attack a force three times larger than ours, they will follow you, completely believing that they will win, that there is no way for them to lose,” Garaam clarified.

  “I have no choice now; it was either waiting for a stab in the back or showing that I am worthy of being followed,” Anessa stated.

  “The Dai Sha are behind you now, fully. But if we start losing, their loyalty will waver,” Karoom cautioned.

  “I know, that’s why we need to end this war quickly,” Anessa said, turning to look at Adrian. “I know that you want to prolong this conflict, to build enough forces to be able to defeat the Erasi with little risk. But it is not your worlds and people at stake. I can’t let this war continue; we need to find a way to end it.”

  Adrian sighed. “I understand. If that is your wish, then talking to the Erasi should be your first step. There must be a reason as to why they want to talk now. Perhaps they are planning something, or perhaps they truly want to talk; either way, you have no choice now.”

  “I am willing to talk with them, but you know my terms. I will not back down. Either they accept or they will pay the price,” Anessa said, then turned to Garaam. “What about this system where they want us to meet? Is there anything about it that might suggest that they are planning something?”

  Garaam turned to the holo and brought up the system in question. “It is an insignificant system, it has no resources, no habitable planet. The world they want us to meet on, Numvani, does have breathable atmosphere, and it is charged and almost constantly in flux, resulting in frequent storms. There is a massive storm raging across the planet at all times, which makes the planet unsuitable for life on the surface. They want to meet on the small island as neutral ground. As for the rest of the system…it has no trans-routes, no asteroid fields, only three other planets that are far away from each other, no moons—nothing that would suggest a trap. In truth, it is a perfect neutral ground; there is no place where they can make an ambush.”

  “Good. They said that we are to bring only one ship to the planet?” Anessa asked.

  Garaam gestured in agreement. “Yes, they wish to speak with you directly, which is odd, as the Erasi rarely deal directly with the rulers of other empires; usually all negotiations are conducted by emissaries. But then again, their message said that they will be sending an O’fa, who are as far as we know the leaders of the Erasi. I doubt that they will be willing to risk an O’fa to set up a trap,” Garaam said, then turned to look at Adrian. “The message did say that they don’t want your ships in the system; your FTL ability could be used to ambush them. Only one Shara Daim ship can go to the planet. And they are interested in speaking with you as well.”

  “I assume that both sides will bring only a single ship in the system?” Adrian asked.

  “Yes, and they will do so at the same time,” Garaam answered.

  “That suggests that they don’t yet know that some of your ships have been fitted with our skim drives,” Adrian said.

  “It does suggest that, yes,” Garaam said.

  “That is one more thing in our favor. Alright, I guess that we will be using the Bloodbringer?” Adrian asked Anessa.

  “Of course,” Anessa answered.

  “Alright, then,” Adrian said, and they started planning for the meeting.

  Chapter Fifteen

  October; Year 58 of the Empire — Sanctuary system

  Tomas sat in the meeting room inside his palace with his closest friends and advisors, the four people that together made the ruling council of Sanctuary system—Fleets Master Laura Reiss, Army Master Jack Gin, Minister of Science Hyeon Seo-yun, and Minister of Civil Service Nadia Wilson. They were in the middle of their weekly meeting concerning matters of the system.

  “The next agenda is Fleet,” Nadia said as Jack finished his report.

  “Thanks, Nadia,” Laura said as she stood up. “As far as the fleets themselves go, everything is fine. The increase in the Eurus shipyards is going according to plans, with four more yards going fully online in five days. I have taken the liberty of stopping the production on the Star-Guard Platforms Two and Three and moved the resources to the Star-Guard One, which is, relatively speaking, finished. We are going to be doing shield testing for the next month or two. And the resources that were supposed to go to Star-Guard Two and Three will be rerouted to the shipyards to increase our ship productions. Also, I want to increase the number of defense platforms around Sanctuary itself. With the prospect of a war with the Erasi, I want us to be ready. As far as everything else, there are no notable problems.”

  “We have been sending all extra platforms out to Sol and the Shara Daim; is it really necessary?” Tomas asked. “Sanctuary is well protected, but even if it wasn’t, it is very well hidden; you need to know its location in order to actually find it, and our trans-points are defended by the stations.”

  “It’s not an immediate concern, but I want you to have it in mind,” Laura added.

  “Of co
urse. Anything else?” Tomas asked.

  “No, that is all,” Laura responded.

  “The next on the agenda is sciences,” Nadia announced, and Seo-yun stood and started updating them on the status on several projects her people were currently working on.

  ***

  Seo-yun sat in her office relaxing and reading the scientific data from the sphere. It still amazed her just how much they had gotten wrong, how many theories and laws of the universe they had been outright wrong about or had simply misunderstood. And there was so much more in the data, knowledge spanning an incredible period of time, and she was only at the beginning. She had tried reading the knowledge the People had at their end, but frankly she couldn’t understand any of it. The terms and equations were alien to her, so she had started reading from the beginning, trying to understand the concepts that were the foundations of what the People had at their end. The Empire was doing the same, albeit slowly, as they were actually testing out and attempting to gain the full understanding and control over the technology and knowledge.

  Seo-yun was just reading a bit ahead. For example, she was currently reading about dimensions. Humanity had theories about other dimensions, and most believed that other dimensions were separate from ours. The metaphor used often was that each dimension was a floor in a multistoried building, each individual and isolated. The People believed—at least at the point she had reached to—that dimensions existed on a spectrum, overlapping each other. Hyperspace was a different dimension, one that overlapped the most with our own, which was why it was relatively easy to access.