They knew where the ships were, had a way of detecting them that the Erasi didn’t know about. That, coupled with the way they had manipulated both the Erasi and the Shara Daim, told him that they were far more dangerous than he and his superiors had initially believed. Now they had an excuse to pressure his people at a time when they couldn’t afford to split their attention. Even with the numerical advantage over the Shara Daim, the Erasi couldn’t afford to split their resources to deal with the Empire, not yet anyway. Which was why the ambassador in Sol had been instructed to mend the fences and stop any attempt at information gathering, at least more invasive ones, and the stealth ships had been pulled back.
They couldn’t afford to antagonize them, not now when the Shara Daim had apparently changed their minds. After their defeat in Sol, most of the Legions had turned around and set a course for the invaded sectors. Hanaru still couldn’t account for why the Elders had suddenly changed their minds. Before Sol, they had weighed the attack on the Empire of greater importance than the invasion of their own systems. Something had changed, and Hanaru would find out what in the end—he always did.
He read the other reports; the First Legion was heading in the direction of Shara Radum, while the Fourteenth and the Seventh headed towards the Har Aras sector. He didn’t know why Dai Sha Anessa was going there, but something about that made him suspicious. He had wanted to get teams in place to monitor the First Legion’s Dai Sha closely after her return from the imprisonment by the Empire, but his superiors had denied it, and they had allocated those resources elsewhere.
Dai Sha Anessa’s interaction with the Empire was important, he knew it; he just didn’t know in what way. There was something about the Shara Daim and this Empire that he was missing, but there was no way for him to find out, not now. The invasion was under way, and his superiors wanted him focused on tracking the movements of the Legions. And Hanaru was always an obedient subordinate.
Chapter Twenty-Five
One month later — Jun; Year 56 of the Empire — Warpath
Adrian pushed with his legs and jumped forward through the air. He was stronger now after the upgrades; his legs pushed him two meters off the ground in an arc. He dropped on the ground several meters in front of his starting point, both of his hands coming up with extended palms outwards. A moment later, orange balls of plasma launched from both of his palms, four from each palm in quick succession, as he moved his arms in between each plasma shot to hit a different target.
After he was finished, he heard someone whistle in appreciation from behind him. He turned to see Master Hayashi walking towards him. Adrian smiled at his first true teacher and walked over to him.
“That’s something else,” Master Hayashi said, indicating behind Adrian.
Adrian turned and glanced at the eight targets that had meter-deep craters burned in them and were still smoking.
“Yeah, but that is about as much as I can manage. I don’t have enough for even one more plasma ball now; eight seems to be my limit at the moment,” Adrian said.
Hayashi smiled. “Always wanting more, eh, Adrian? Are you going to teach me how to do that?”
“You need the new upgrades for it,” Adrian said.
“A shame,” Hayashi said as he grabbed one of the balls on the floor telekinetically and whipped it at a target. He too had gone through the first original treatments, one of the few people that hadn’t been part of the groups that were getting them, but once he’d learned the basics from Clara and Meifeng, he had decided to leave the school and improve on his own.
“So what do you need?” Adrian asked.
Hayashi stepped back, faking a hurt expression. “What? I can’t visit my best student?”
Adrian rolled his eyes. “You never come to just visit.”
Hayashi grinned like a five-year-old. “I guess that I don’t.” He composed himself and took a deep breath. “I was thinking about becoming a Sentinel.”
Adrian looked at his old master in surprise. “Really? Why now?” Adrian had offered him a place among the Sentinels a long time ago, and he had refused.
“I’m bored,” he said.
“Bored? Aren’t you teaching martial arts? That’s what you’ve always wanted to do.”
“Yeah, but that will change soon enough. Once the Sha becomes widespread, we will have new martial arts that incorporate those abilities. And I might have the Sha now, but I don’t know nearly enough to teach it. Perhaps later, once things settle and find new balance. For now, I think that I should go out there, see what I find,” Hayashi said.
Adrian nodded. He understood his teacher’s point of view. “Well, of course. You know that you’ll need to study; Sentinels need to be versed in diplomacy and xenology.”
“Of course,” Hayashi said. “I’ve already started classes on diplomacy.”
“Well, then, as soon as you finish, you can go to Clara or Meifeng for them to test you,” Adrian said. “You didn’t really need to ask me, you know. Anyone from Warpath can take the tests.”
“I know, I just felt like I should,” Hayashi said.
Adrian nodded. Hayashi had been Adrian’s teacher since he was kid back on Earth. Now things would be different; Hayashi would answer to Adrian. “I understand.”
“Good,” Hayashi said, relaxing. “So how about a little sparring match?” he said mischievously.
Two days later, Adrian looked through the giant window looking over the Forge. He saw hundreds of shuttles moving from one dock to the other and to the outside of the massive asteroid. Dozens of yards were filled with hulls in various stages of construction, but his eyes were drawn to one that was closer to him. In that particular yard lay Veritas, undergoing some small upgrades to its systems, and an overall maintenance check.
Adrian felt the presence of someone approaching him. His eyes glossed over as he drew the Sha, accessing an ability he had discovered after his latest upgrade. An image of his surroundings formed in his mind, and he could see everything from the floor and glass to people walking around. Only he couldn’t really see features, it was more like shadowy impressions. One of those shadows reached him, and Adrian turned to look at him.
“Isani,” Adrian said, looking at the Clan Leader of Warpath. In his eyes, his image was overlapped by shadows, and then as Adrian let go of the Sha, Isani cleared.
“Adrian, what do you think?” Isani asked as he turned to look at the Forge.
“It’s impressive, but there is still a lot more room to grow,” Adrian answered, indicating the empty rock walls.
“Yes. Hopefully one day it will become something truly unique. I read your report on the resin assembling pools; they are fast,” he commented.
“They are, but we still can’t manage to build anything more complicated than a shuttle,” Adrian said.
“A few of my people looked it over; they think that you might have success if you utilize them to build parts that you assemble later,” Isani said.
“We thought about it. It’s pointless; this is supposed to increase our construction times tenfold and replace the fabricators. If we do it in parts, it is just as efficient as our current-gen fabricators. No point in doing it that way when we gain almost nothing.”