What War Had Wrought (Rise of the Empire Book 7) Page 24

  “If Ullax dies before you come back, I will not wait,” Doranis said.

  Aranis kept his eyes locked with Doranis for a moment. “Agreed. Once Ullax passes through the Sha, we will begin the purge.”

  *** END ***

  Excerpt from Rise of the Empire book 8 — Hand of the Empire

  Prologue

  Year 42 of the Empire – Sanctuary

  Jacob Kelly, the former leader of the Earth Resistance, woke inside his cell just as the lights turned on. The word cell was a bit misleading, as the rooms he had been living in were nothing like what the cells on Earth had looked like. His permanent residence consisted of three rooms: a small bathroom, the main room, and a training room. The main room held the bed he slept in, one chair, and a desk with a computer terminal. The training room was twice the size of the main room, with enough room for running and a couple of weightlifting machines. And it had been his entire world for more than twenty years.

  In the time since he had been imprisoned, Jacob hadn’t seen another person. He received his food and water through the slits in the wall, and over the years he had become convinced that the entire process was automated. The computer didn’t have access to any network; he could only access files already on it, which were a large library of books and a writing software which he tried to use but eventually dropped.

  It had taken him a long time to make peace with his sentence, and even longer to come to terms with his crime. When the fleet that had come to Earth’s rescue returned to Olympus—or the Empire, as it was called by then—Jacob was put on trial for his crimes in the Sol system. He was charged with treason and mass murder. Both charges were true, and Jacob had elected to admit his guilt and accept the sentence from the Empire. He had withheld information concerning the Ra’a’zani, which had indirectly led to the destruction of most of the Empire’s fleet and the death of almost the entire population of Earth. That action weighed heavily on him, but at his sentencing, it was made perfectly clear to him that he was not on trial for that crime.

  After the Sol system had been won, Jacob had taken control of an old Olympus ship and fired on the mining installations in the Mars asteroid belt, killing thousands of humans who had been brought there as a slave workforce. He had done it because he’d known that those people could not survive without the support from Earth, and that the Empire’s fleet was in no shape to take care of them. He’d known that they would try anyway, and in doing so would endanger the survivors from Earth. So he’d done the thing that ensured the survival of the remnants. His punishment was imprisonment rather than execution. He had been put through the immortality treatment, which stopped him from aging, effectively making his imprisonment unending.

  He knew that what he had done was monstrous, but to his mind, it was also merciful. He had spared the Empire from having to choose—a slow death for everyone, or survival of the few. It was a terrible choice, but Jacob had made it fully expecting to be put to death for his crime. And yet he still lived. In a way, it was a far crueler punishment, because Jacob was not a monster. He felt the weight of all those whose lives he had taken; their screams and accusing eyes haunted his dreams every time sleep came.

  There were times when the guilt became too much, when he could not bear it anymore, when he was tempted to end his life. But every time he contemplated ending it, he remembered those accusing eyes from his dreams, and he knew that he didn’t deserve an easy way out. He would take his punishment; he would spend eternity inside these three rooms.

  Jacob got up from the bed and started going through his usual routine, bathroom-training-breakfast. After he finished in the bathroom, he went to the training room for his morning routine. He didn’t know if it was really morning, but he did have a clock on one of the walls which showed that it was 06:20. The lights in his rooms always turned on at 06:00 and shut off at 22:00. So he used those times for night and day.

  And then when he was finished with his routine, something happened. The wall in the main room slid open, and Jacob was looking at a figure, the first living being he had seen in decades. The figure was dressed in a black armor suit that covered its entire body, with a dark blue coat over it. There was a symbol etched on the armor’s chest, the back of a hand with an open eye drawn on it.

  Jacob stared in shock as the figure approached him. Then, as it stopped in front of him, a voice spoke out of the armor.

  “Jacob Kelly, I am here to give you a choice. You can stay in these rooms, spending eternity here as punishment for your crime. Or come with me, and start atoning for the deaths you caused, by serving the people of the Empire.”

  Jacob’s heart pounded in his chest. He looked at the figure. He knew nothing about what the choice meant. But he did know that he owed it to those he’d killed to do something more than simply survive in an endless and pointless existence. He steeled himself, and gave his answer.

  ***

  Year 112 of the Empire — planet Thorsius; Clan Gudólfr territory

  Nkiruka held her brother’s body in her arms, his lifeless eyes pointed upwards, staring into nothingness. All around her, chaos reigned. People were covered in dust, blood, and debris. Nkiruka closed her brother’s eyes, the movement bringing her attention to the gash on her arm and red blood flowing over her dark skin. Somehow, the pain seemed far away, insignificant compared to the horror in front of her. A few meters away, she saw the body of her caretaker, the person that had raised Nkiruka and her brothers and sisters. Around her were the bodies of her remaining siblings.

  Her family group numbered seven. All were born from the progeny centers, all had different biological mothers and fathers, and yet they were a family, raised in the progeny programs by their caretaker. And now, on the day that they had finally reached their maturity, when they were to set off into life to find their paths, their lives had ended. Nkiruka looked at the faces of her family; their bodies somehow didn’t seem real, their shapes twisted, red, and ugly. Her mind couldn’t reconcile the mangled flesh with faces she had grown up with.

  The courtyard was filled with the dead. Wails of those still alive echoed all around her, mingling with the cries of pain from those injured but still alive. Then people wearing armor with the symbol of the Hand of the Empire came. One of them gathered her up and took her to a med-car, which carried her to the hospital. Her mind was still filled with the images of her siblings and her friends as the medical personnel put her to sleep.

  Hours or days later, Nkiruka woke dazed from the drugs, hearing voices of people talking just outside of her room.

  “I can’t believe that this is happening here,” a female voice said. “This is Gudólfr territory, not the damned occupation zone.”

  “I know, but ever since the Emperor allowed those from the occupation zone to join the Clans as individuals, we’ve been having an influx of people. And with all the resentment that the Erasi left behind, it was bound to happen,” a male voice spoke.

  “The Lord Sentinel should’ve just destroyed them all.”

  “You don’t mean that. They are people, like us. Only a small percentage have turned to terrorism.”

  “I know, but seeing kids dead, it gets to me, you know?”

  “Me too. The Hand will catch them, they always do.”

  “Yeah, but there are too few of them, they don’t always get them in time.”

  “Maybe…go…if…” The voices grew muffled as the people walked away.

  Nkiruka gazed at the ceiling, thinking about what they had said. She and her brother had wanted to join Clan Warpath together. They had been preparing for the tests, and now she couldn’t imagine doing that without him.

  One image kept showing up in her mind, one of people dressed in armor moving through the wreckage—Agents of the Hand. There were too few of them, the voice had said. Perhaps Nkiruka could join them, find and punish the people that had killed her family.

  ***

  Year 563 of the Empire — Colony world Santis; Clan Kazalir territory

&n
bsp; Vasily was dying. Blood spilled from his stomach as he sat propped against the rock where his murderers had left him. He was so stupid. He knew that he was stupid. He should’ve listened to Robert when he told him that they should wait for the Hand, but no, he’d wanted to be a hero. He’d grabbed his hunting rifle and gone after the pirates. So stupid. And he had even convinced Robert to come with him, and now his lifeless eyes glared accusingly at him from the forest floor. The pirates had played with him, forcing Vasily to watch as they had broken all of his limbs before finally killing him.

  And now, Vasily was going to die on this backwater planet alone in the forest, and probably feed some animal after. He shouldn’t have agreed to come here, not to a world so close to the occupation zone. He’d wanted excitement, and starting up a new colony had seemed like a good opportunity.

  He heard something coming, and dread gripped him. He knew that he was going to die. His legs were broken and his stomach was cut open. However, he did not have a desire to be eaten by an animal while still alive. The noise came closer and closer, until finally he could see what it was. It did not look like any of the animals from this world he was familiar with. It stood upright, with large wings spreading behind it and a black bone-like carapace growing out of its skin to cover most of its body. Its head looked eerily similar to that of a human.

  “Help,” Vasily managed to rasp out. His mouth was dry and his voice cracked.

  The being stepped closer and knelt in front of Vasily. One of its hands moved toward him, and two fingers pressed against his wound, making him hiss in pain. The being pulled his hand back and looked at his blood on its fingers, and Vasily saw the blood seep into the fingers. Then its completely white eyes turned to Vasily, studying him.

  “I am sorry,” the being said with emotion, and Vasily felt a pressure build up in his head. For a moment, it was as if he was not himself, as if something was taken from him, and then it was gone. “I am sorry, Vasily,” the being said again, its voice sounding familiar, and its body started to shift. The carapace retreating inside its body, his wings curling and collapsing on themselves, his features changed. And after it was finished, Vasily was looking at himself.

  “Your wounds are too great to fix, but your death and your life will help my need,” the other him said. His hand moved over Vasily’s chest and started glowing with orange light. “This will hurt only for a moment.”

  Vasily felt heat, and pain only for a moment, and then there was nothing.

  Thank you for reading!

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  Rise of the Empire series

  Olympus

  Sanctuary

  Out of the Ashes

  Warpath

  Inheritance

  Onslaught

  What War Had Wrought

  Glossary

  Cast of Characters

  Empire

  Adrian Farkas-Reiss — Human; Lord Sentinel of the Empire; Dal A’sha to Kar Daim Anessa of the Shara Daim.

  Tomas Klein — Human; Emperor of the Empire.

  Seo-yun Hyeon — Human; Minister of Science; Tomas’s partner.

  Laura Reiss — Human; Fleets Master of the Empire; Adrian’s adopted mother.

  Nadia Wilson — Human; Minister of Civil Service.

  Aileen — Human; Sentinel of the Empire

  Oswald Mein — Human; Commander of Fleets.

  Nair Hakeem — Human; Fleet Commander of the First Fleet.

  Johanna Stern — Human; Fleet Commander of the Third Fleet.

  Gotu — Nel; Administrator of Sol system.

  Isani — Nel; Leader of Clan Warpath.

  Jusan — Nel; Leader of Clan Dai Ven.

  Shara Daim

  Anessa — Kar Daim of Shara Daim; Dal A’sha to Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas-Reiss.

  Garaam — Dai Sha of the First Legion.

  Karoom — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Second Legion.

  Horas — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Fifth Legion.

  Arisak — Do Sun to Dai Sha Garaam.

  Erasi

  Hanaru — Gatrey; Weaver of the Erasi.

  Garash — Uvaramo; Ancient of the Erasi.

  Valanaru — Gatrey; Ancient of the Erasi.

  The People

  Axull Darr — Ultimate ancestor of the Human, Nel, and Shara Daim races.

  Ullax Darr — Axull Darr’s twin sister.

  Waiss Gast — Best friend of Axull Darr.

  Races

  The People — The first intelligent race in the galaxy.

  Human — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Earth to evolve. Founding members of the Empire.

  Nel — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Nelus to evolve. Founding members of the Empire; former members of the Consortium.

  Shara Daim — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Shara Radum to evolve.

  Guxcacul — Arthropods, subterranean; former members of the Consortium; Members of the Empire.

  Sowir — Aquatic and land based race; former members of the Consortium; Members of the Empire.

  Trivaxian — Members of the Empire.

  Furvor — Members of the Empire.

  Uvaramo — Members of the Erasi; formerly called Loraru; former members of the Union.

  Gatrey — Members of the Erasi.

  Ssarath — Members of the Erasi.

  Ships

  Empire warships

  Empire Fleet — Empire fleets consist of 1200 drones, 400 cruisers, 100 battleships, 10 dreadnoughts, and 1 command ship, for a total of 1711 warships. In addition, every fleet has 289 auxiliary vessels, which include: repair ships, construction ships, ammo ships, military transports, and stealth scout ships; for a total of 2000 ships.

  Drone-class warships

  Appearance — Uneven boxes.

  Size — 760 meters long, 380 wide and 180 tall.

  Weapons and defenses — High-powered lasers and kinetic turrets, missile launchers. Railgun point defense, shields.

  Cruiser-class warships

  Appearance — Resemble sleek talons.

  Size — 1000 meters long, 300 wide, 500 tall.

  Weapons and defenses — Low-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Battleship-class warships

  Appearance — Overlapping carapace-like plates, turtle shell shape design.

  Size — 2000 meters long, 1200 wide, 550 tall.

  Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, plasma turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields, shimmering field.

  Dreadnought-class warships

  Appearance — Arrowhead design.

  Size — 3000 meters long, 2000 wide, 700 tall.

  Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, plasma turrets, ion turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields, shimmering field.

  Command-class warships

  Appearance — Arrowhead design.

  Size — 4200 meters long, 3000 wide, 1800 tall.

  Weapons and defenses — Low-powered proton beams, drone control teams. Laser point defense, ability to power both the shields and shimmering fields at the same time.

  Shara Daim warships

  Shara Daim Legion — Shara Daim Legions consist of 800 destroyers, 600 cruisers, 400 heavy cruisers, 180 battleships, and 20 super battleships, for a total of 2000 warships, plus another 150 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 2150 ships.

  Destroyer-class warships

  Appearance — Pillar shaped.

  Size — 850 meters long, 200 meters diameter.

  Weapons and defenses — Low-powered
particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Cruiser-class warships

  Appearance — Pillar shaped.

  Size — 1100 meters long, 400 meters diameter.

  Weapons and defenses — Low-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Heavy cruiser-class warships

  Appearance — Pillar shaped.

  Size — 1400 meters long, 600 meters diameter.

  Weapons and defenses — Mid-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Battleship-class warships

  Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

  Size — 2400 meters long, 600 meters diameter of the pillar, 1400 meters wide middle part, 800 meters tall middle part.

  Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Super battleship-class warships

  Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

  Size — 3500 meters long, 800 meters diameter of the pillar, 2000 meters wide middle part, 1000 meters tall middle part.

  Weapon and defenses — High-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Erasi warships

  Erasi Fleet — Erasi fleets consist of 1000 destroyers, 500 light cruisers, 300 heavy cruisers, 120 battleships, and 30 super battleships, for a total of 1950 warships, plus 120 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 2070 ships.

  Destroyer-class warships

  Appearance — Saucer shaped.

  Size — 800 meters diameter, 120 meters tall.

  Weapons and defenses — Low-powered particle beams, missile launchers. Laser point defense, shields.

  Light cruiser-class warships

  Appearance — Saucer shaped.

  Size — 1200 meters diameter, 200 meters tall.