Hand of the Empire (Rise of the Empire Book 8) Read online

  Adrian did however agree with Anessa in that they didn’t necessarily need the Krashin—they had enough forces and plans to take down the Erasi. There was another problem, however, in that it would probably take them a very long time to do so—hundreds of years at least, and time was an issue.

  “I received a report from Aileen,” Adrian said, and Anessa’s expression changed.

  “Did they agree?” she asked.

  “No. The Josanti League is refusing us passage through their territory,” Adrian said.

  “That…is inconvenient, but it has nothing to do with our plan against the Erasi.”

  “There has been an increased number of sightings, and I fear that the Enlightened might have pushed out of their containment, or are about to,” Adrian said.

  “That means nothing. We have seen no sight of the machine fleets, only scouts, and unless the Josanti League is far better at hiding things from us, the machine fleets must not have reached them.”

  “Yet machine scout ships are still watching our territory, and with increasing intensity,” Adrian said. The first black ship came through the Nelus access point just after the peace with the Erasi had been established. They came out, scaring everyone, scanned everything around them, and then disappeared back into the access point, exiting somewhere where the Empire couldn’t follow. The access points in Sol and Shara Radum had been placed there by Axull Darr, but the one in Nelus had been part of the galactic network, and they should’ve been able to use it to get to other points in the galaxy. Yet they had all been somehow locked, their codes changed presumably some time after Axull Darr left, but before he had built the two additional points. He had probably unlocked the Nelus one so that they could only use the three in the home systems. But while they didn’t have codes to exit through other access points, they did have their locations, and had since then found them and manually discovered the new codes for each point they had found, bringing the total number of the points they could use to nine across their territory and one outside of it.

  Since then the black ships had regularly visited the Empire’s territory. Their ships would exit out at the far edges of systems and scan, watch, and leave as soon as anything came close to them. At the time, the ships had been far more advanced than anything that the Empire had—they’d had no chance of catching them—but they had advanced, and eventually they managed to reach them. No black ship had ever answered any communications, nor had it broadcasted anything, ever. Eventually the Emperor ordered that they try and disable the ship, to try to find some answers. They did, but the ships were machines with no living things on them, only computers following programming. They caught one and opened fire, trying to disable it, but the ship was tough, and in the moment it became aware that it would be captured, it self-destructed. This repeated six more times before the Emperor ordered the ships to be left alone.

  The ships followed their programming to the letter, and the only way they could get any kind of an answer was to go to the source: the AI designed by Axull Darr’s sister which controlled the machine fleets and kept the Enlightened contained. The problem was that the last known location was on the other side of the galaxy, and to get there the Empire had not only to travel for a long time, but pass through territories of many other species. And now the greatest obstacle in their path was the Josanti League, which controlled a large part of the galactic core. A vast area, filled with resources and intelligent races. And they were refusing them passage.

  The increase in machine ships sightings worried Adrian. “I think that something is happening, and we need to make contact with the AI as soon as possible.”

  “The AI hasn’t reached out to us, not even once. Perhaps its programming forbids it, or it simply doesn’t want to speak with us, but what does this have to do with the Krashin and our plan for the Erasi?”

  “If there is even a one-percent chance that there is a problem with the Enlightened, we can’t get ourselves involved in a long conflict, which is what the conquest of the Erasi would be. We would tie almost all of our resources into taking over their territory. We can’t afford to do that, and the only race that stands a chance against the Erasi and has an interest in a war against them is the Krashin.”

  Anessa grimaced. “Even if the Enlightened have restarted their movement, they must be so far away that we have some time. The last time they moved was more than ten thousand years ago, and they moved…what? A little over a thousand light years, if what you learned from the Union databases is true. And we don’t even know why the Krashin went to war with the Erasi in the first place. The Erasi are known to use propaganda and deceit.”

  “You are right about the Enlightened; they are far away… I just don’t like knowing that there are beings dying, and we were created to stop the Enlightened.” Adrian sighed. “But, no—you are right, we have time still. They don’t know about us, and there is no reason to believe that they would change the way they have been acting for so long. Anyway, I am planning on going to meet with the Krashin myself, to try to establish contact.”

  Anessa raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure that you can get away for so long?”

  Adrian shrugged. “Hayashi is perfectly capable of taking over my duties. I won’t even be missed.”

  “When do you plan on leaving?”

  “In a month or two; I need to get a few things ready. And I sent in a requisition for a Sovereign.”

  Anessa tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “You think that you are going to need that?”

  “The Krashin use bio-tech unlike anything we have seen before, and we know next to nothing about them or their capabilities other than they are a match or better for Erasi. And if they had advanced at the same rate as the Erasi have in these last couple of centuries, then I want to be able to protect myself. I don’t plan on underestimating them.”

  Adrian steepled his fingers. “I want to establish at least some kind of a trade agreement, or at least an exchange for their tech. We could use that tech for when we meet the Enlightened. And there are three access points in Krashin territory, so if everything goes well, I can be back here in an instant. And if not, well…if you have confirmation that the Erasi are going to start their invasion, you can initiate the plan before my return.”

  Anessa nodded, her eyes calculating. “Very well.”

  Chapter Seven

  Colony world Santis—wilderness

  Jacob and Nkiruka walked behind their guide as they slowly moved through the pass between the mountains and down into the valley toward their destination.

  Taking Vas with them had proven to be a surprisingly good decision. Jacob’s first instinct had been to refuse the man when he asked, but he changed his mind. What Vas had said was true: they didn’t know anything about the planet and its dangers. And already his expertise had paid off. On the morning of their third day, they had stumbled on to the hunting grounds of one of the more dangerous local beasts, and without Vas they would’ve surely continued forward instead of going back and around. As they were stepping back, Vas pointed out to them the beast waiting patiently in the trees, nearly invisible—if they had continued forward, it would’ve attacked them from above. The animals didn’t yet know the dangers of attacking humans, and this particular species had claws capable of stabbing through armor.

  The rest of the trip had been less eventful, and two days later they had reached the pass. Now they were only minutes away from their destination—the place where the colonist was murdered. Once there, Jacob hoped that they would find clues to lead them to their hideout.

  “Here we are,” Vas said over their comms. He was wearing a combat suit, an older generation of military suits that had been sold to the clans after new ones had been put in use. Vas raised his rifle and slowly stepped into the small clearing.

  Jacob and Nkiruka did the same. Both readying their rifles, they stepped out of the cover of the trees, watching their surroundings closely. It was unlikely that the pirates were still present,
but they couldn’t afford to not be alert. As they swept the surroundings, Nkiruka deployed several watcher drones and put them in guard positions. They flew off in different directions and set up a perimeter as Nkiruka disappeared into the trees. Vas was standing close to a small boulder, his rifle pointed toward the ground, and as Jacob approached, he saw what Vas was looking at. The ground was red with dried blood.

  “We will find them and bring them to justice, Vas. I promise you that,” Jacob said.

  Vas nodded. “There isn’t even a body. The animals must’ve dragged it off somewhere.”

  Jacob remained silent, and after a beat turned around and studied the ground, trying to see if there were any tracks or anything else that could point them in the right direction. He scanned the ground with the camera on his helmet, and watched over the findings on his HUD. After several minutes, he gave up. There was nothing here that could help them. The ground was filled with animal tracks, and it had been a while since the incident.

  “There’s nothing here,” Jacob said out loud, and then he opened a private channel to Nkiruka. “Get back, we are moving to the next location.” She acknowledged, and Jacob turned toward Vas.

  “The next location was a bit further north, closer to the mountains,” Vas told him.

  “Lead the way.”

  ***

  It took them three hours to get to the next location, and immediately after seeing the clearing Jacob could see that it was a very good spot for unloading goods. It was a flat and large open space, almost a hundred meters across. It would accommodate even the larger shuttles.

  He opened a private channel to Nkiruka through his imp. “Secure the perimeter and get in position—here,” he said, marking a point on the other side of the clearing on his HUD’s map of the area. The same mark appeared on her map, as their suits were linked.

  Nkiruka nodded, then released seven drones that immediately flew away in different directions while she moved eastward, going around the clearing to the other side. Jacob and Vas set up positions and waited. Jacob slid his backpack from his shoulders and pulled out a scanning device. He pulled out its legs and set it up, pointing it toward the clearing.

  They spent several minutes in silence, watching both the clearing and their surroundings.

  “Their hideout must be close,” Vas commented. “I doubt that they would be willing to transport their cargo too far.”

  “Yes,” Jacob responded, “it must also be well hidden and inaccessible by shuttle if they are using this spot.”

  “You think that this is the pirate base of operations?” Vas asked.

  “No, there is not enough traffic in the system. I believe that this is nothing but a small depot. They wouldn’t want to carry any stolen goods directly to their base; they would use smaller depots to unload what they pirated and then have it shipped elsewhere later. They’ve always been smart. We have found several depots like this one before by following the pirate ships, but each time we assaulted them we would find nothing—all their cores were always wiped.”

  “Then what are you hoping to find here?”

  “If these are indeed pirates, I’m hoping that we can surprise them and find the data we are looking for before they wipe it.”

  “You don’t think that they will be ready? They must know that there is a colony on this world. They could’ve already wiped everything.”

  “If they are still here, they will most certainly be preparing to get out. If we catch them before they wipe the drives, and while they are distracted with packing up, we might have a chance to get what we are looking for.”

  “The location of the pirates’ base of operations?”

  “Yes,” Jacob confirmed.

  The scanner beeped, alerting him to its findings, and Jacob retrieved the data and put it on his HUD. There were clear traces that indicated that a shuttle had landed there within the week. And there was a trail leading northward into the mountains. Nkiruka interrupted his musings via their comms.

  “All clear. No sign of hostile presence…and I found something.”

  Jacob turned toward Vas, who was kneeling behind a tree trunk and holding his rifle at the ready. Jacob tapped him on the shoulder. “We’re clear. C’mon, Norr found something.”

  The two made their way to the other side, and found Nkiruka kneeling in front of a device in that looked like a canister. It stood about a meter high, with a wide base and three pillars dug into the ground. A panel was open, and several thin wires were extended from his partner’s forearm and jacked into the device. Before Jacob could ask what it was, Nkiruka raised her hand in a halting motion toward them as she kept her focus on the holos above her left forearm. From where Jacob was standing, he could see a graph and a prompt with long lines of code.

  About a minute later, Nkiruka lowered her arm and the wires unplugged themselves from the device and retracted back into her arm. She then turned to look at them. “There, I got it.”

  “What is that?” Vas asked.

  “It’s a guiding beacon,” Nkiruka said, and pointed upward. Jacob raised his head and saw a hole in the foliage. It was obviously not natural; branches had been cut and a hole had been opened up.

  “It has a tight-beam link with a satellite in orbit. I isolated the beacon’s functions and created a virtual dummy. It was in standby mode; I assume that it only activates once it gets a signal from the satellite,” she added.

  “Erebus didn’t detect anything in orbit,” Jacob said.

  “It’s in high orbit, and it too is in standby. It probably only activates once a ship pings it. Then the beacon guides the shuttles down here.”

  “Did you find anything else?”

  “I got into its records. I have the IFFs of the shuttles that passed through, and I compared them against the records we have of the pirate attacks that occurred in the last year.”

  Jacob nodded. For this mission, they had added the records to their implants for every recorded attack in the past three years. Most pirate ships were Erasi-built converted cargo or merchant ships, but from time to time there was a true warship among them: an older Erasi or even older Empire cruiser and, in one case, even a battleship. But the Hand had records of all the support craft that the recorded pirate ships were supposed to have.

  “And?”

  “We got one match… Here,” she said, and a hologram blossomed in the air above her forearm. Jacob looked over it and read the highlighted information. One of the shuttles that had landed here had been recorded as a support vessel for a pirate ship that was a part of the attack on a merchant convoy seven months ago.

  “Well, I guess we do have the right place.”

  “Are we calling in backup from the Erebus?” Nkiruka asked.

  Jacob thought about it. The intel they had suggested a small depot, and Vas had indicated that at least six pirates operated on this world. And they did have at least one satellite in orbit, so chances were they were aware of Erebus in orbit. They of course couldn’t know that the ship was there to find them, however. As far as they knew, they hadn’t been detected yet. But moving a squad here would take time, and Jacob knew that they had a very short window. If the pirates were still here, they would be getting ready to leave. With the colony established, they wouldn’t want to risk detection.

  They needed to act fast, and a group of soldiers moving through the forest was a lot less stealthy than just three people. Jacob turned to look at Vas—the man was young, but he did have military experience and his equipment was solid. They could do this if they acted fast and smart.

  “No—we proceed now. We brought enough equipment for this eventuality. The trail points to the mountains up north. I suggest that we follow the trail and see what we find.”

  Chapter Eight

  Sol—Olympus Mons

  Adrian’s eyes were closed, but he could see. In his mind he could see his surroundings in a full three hundred and sixty degrees around himself, all bathed in shadowy features. It was an ability that was rare even
for the People, the ability to perceive through the Sha—to see it, sense it, feel it. Sha was what held the universe together, every bond, down to even the most miniscule particles—quarks, leptons, atoms, all were held together by the Sha. It was the connective substance of the Universe.

  When “looking” through it, Adrian didn’t see his surroundings as reflections of light, but rather he saw the Sha; the more something had, the clearer it was. It was through this that he could distinguish his surroundings. For example, the air was less “dense” with Sha than the ground, which in turn was far less dense than living things; and of course when something moved, the Sha moved with it.

  Which was how he clearly saw the small ball flying straight for his back. The ball had a layer of Sha that to him looked like a smoke surrounding it, and a thread that stretched all the way back to the person-shaped shadow that had its arm pointed at him.

  Adrian sidestepped and turned, his arm striking out and pointing behind him at the ball that had just passed him. He clearly saw a thread shoot out of his arm and pierce the Sha holding the ball, enveloping it in his own. He kept his spin, dragging the ball as if on a string and shooting it back at its sender. At the midway point of its arc, he lashed out telekinetically, further accelerating the ball, which surprised his opponent—and yet just as he thought it would hit her, he saw the Sha in front of her move. The bonds that held the molecules in the air changed and hardened, and a shield flashed in front of her, stopping the ball in its tracks.

  Even before the ball hit the shield, Adrian pushed with both his arms in the direction of his opponent, sending a powerful kinetic attack at her. Sha rippled in front of him, transferring the energy through the air and striking the shield a moment after the ball. The shield, already weakened, broke, and the remains of his kinetic attack struck and picked her up into the air, throwing her across the room. She hit the ground hard and stayed there.

  Adrian approached, and stood over her.