The small transport started moving towards one of Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede. Adrian turned on the screens showing the outside, letting her see a massive closed shipyard orbiting the moon. Then the transport stopped a few kilometers away.
Aileen glanced at Adrian inquiringly, but he just pointed at the shipyard. She watched the screen and noticed that almost its entire side started to open up. Aileen watched open-mouthed as a massive ship exited the hollow seven-kilometer-wide and eight-kilometer-tall shipyard. The transport started moving towards the ship as it exited the shipyard completely. Its front had a blunt arrow look to it, almost as if someone had cut its sharp point off. The rest resembled the Vanguard ship Harbinger, only somehow sleeker and more menacing-looking. She used her implant to calculate its size based on that of the shipyard, and found that it was about 3200 meters long, 2300 wide at its widest, and 1000 tall at its tallest point.
The transport made its way to the ship’s hangar and landed inside. Adrian motioned Aileen to follow him out, and they exited. After they stepped onto the ship, Adrian turned to her and spread his hands wide.
“Welcome to the Sentinel ship Veritas,” he said.
Aileen looked around and saw people walking around or driving small grav-cars loaded with cargo. She turned back at Adrian. “Sentinel ship?”
“Yes. Eventually, I want every Sentinel operating outside of the Empire, commanding a ship just like this one,” Adrian said proudly.
Aileen looked around at the people, studying them closely and noticing that they were all dressed in Warpath colors. A few even had insignias on their overcoats designating them as adepts or masters.
“Come,” Adrian said, and led her and the two wolions to the lift. They went up to the command deck and stepped into a large, spherical room with half a dozen people sitting in chairs with holograms floating around them. At the end of the room was a large, round holo table, but there wasn’t anyone there at the moment.
“As you can see,” Adrian said as he led her to a dais that held a larger chair, “I took some inspiration from the new Fleet command ships. Only with a few improvements,” he said as he took a seat in the chair.
Immediately, holo screens appeared on his right side, with details about the ship’s status.
“We are ready to go, Lord Sentinel,” said one of the people below as he turned in his chair.
“Good, skim us to the trans-station,” Adrian said.
“Do we even know where we are going?” Aileen asked.
“Yes.” Adrian nodded. “We have explored all the trans-lanes leading out of and into Sol. But as we don’t know the exact location of Ra’a’zani space, only the general direction, we will be taking a trans-lane that is going in that direction.”
Aileen turned toward the large holo suspended above the people in the chairs and watched as Veritas sped from Jupiter to Venus in barely a minute. The ship then moved inside the trans-lane.
“You are free to transfer, Navigation Handler,” Adrian said. And within seconds, they left Sol. Adrian turned to her. “Now that we are underway, let me show you the training facilities,” he said with a wicked glint in his eye.
Something must’ve shown on Aileen’s face, because Adrian quirked an eyebrow, then made an unfamiliar Nel gesture. “You didn’t think that you were going to skip training today, now, did you?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
April; Year 54 of the Empire – Veritas
Aileen dropped to the tatami hard, the force of her fall rattling her through the Sentinel suit. She rose to her knees quickly and tried to block a kick to her head, bringing her hands up to block at the last minute. Adrian’s kick pushed through, throwing her back to the floor and causing her to roll until her back struck one of the training pillars in the room and she stopped.
Shaking the blow off, she managed to get up to her feet before Adrian reached her. He led with a series of punches that she could only partially block; glancing strikes hit her shoulders, helmet, and chest. She tried to get her own punch in, but every time she thought she saw an opening, Adrian punished her for attempting a counterattack. He was pummeling her, pushing her backwards until her back was against the wall and she no longer had anywhere to go.
His attacks never slowed; the only thing that she could do was defend. Fists rained on her at an amazing speeds, far faster than anything an unaugmented human could possibly achieve. Seeing no other way to free herself, she turned her palms towards him and fired of a kinetic blast that pushed him back. She tried to press her momentary advantage. Stepping forward, she attempted a side kick to Adrian’s side—only her attack never connected. Her leg froze a breath away from Adrian, and a moment later she was thrown to the side.
She twisted in mid-air and landed on her feet, only to be knocked back by a kinetic blast several times more powerful than her own. As she was flying backwards and towards the floor, she felt as if something grabbed her, suspending her in the air momentarily. Then, a force pulled her back. She managed to turn her head enough to see Adrian jumping at her before he hit her with an elbow to the chest in mid-air as he was pulling her towards him telekinetically.
Aileen smashed into the floor, denting it from the force of the attack. Her suit protected her from most of it, but she was still in pain and could barely move. Once she had mastered the basics of the two beginner psionics, as Adrian liked to call them—telekinesis and kinetikinesis—Adrian had gifted her a Sentinel suit. As she was staring at the ceiling of the Veritas’s training room, a helmeted head moved into her view.
“That is what you get for using psionics in a hand-to-hand-only spar,” Adrian said calmly through his suit’s speakers.
Aileen didn’t have the strength to respond, so she remained silent and tried to regain her wits. She’d known, of course, that the moment she used psionics Adrian would respond in kind. Not that he actually needed to use them. Aileen was still much weaker than him; the one kinetic blast she’d fired had almost drained her entire reserve.
Ever since Adrian had taken over her training in full from Clara and Meifeng, he hadn’t spared her at all. In fact, he was much harsher with her. He still pulled back, but even then, he was leagues ahead of her. She had never really believed in all the stories that people in Warpath had told about him. She’d thought that he was good, but not that much ahead of the other Sentinels, especially with the fact that he was rarely seen training.
But sparring with him had served to teach her just how wrong she’d been. The way he moved and anticipated the movements of others was perfect. His technique was fluid, always adapting and never predictable. Every part of his body was a part of his arsenal; he used everything to fight. And his punches were much stronger than hers ever were. It wasn’t that he had greater physical strength; they were about equal there. It was that when he moved to attack, his body reacted in perfect synchronization, every muscle moving perfectly to execute a much more powerful attack.
Aileen had learned so much from Adrian. So many of her beliefs about hand-to-hand combat, he had shattered. And she knew that she was improving at a much faster rate now than when she’d still been in Warpath.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Aileen said once she recovered enough.
“You always have a choice, Aileen. Sometimes losing is preferable to breaking the rules,” Adrian said as he reached down and pulled her up, his helmet withdrawing back from his head. “We had agreed on fighting without psionics; you chose to use them even though you knew that it would make no difference. Tell me, why did you do that?”