He watched the enemy battleship being pummeled into scrap, with areas being opened to space while it still refused to die. Then, finally, several missiles and energy beams punched deep enough that the ship bulged and exploded in a blinding flash of light.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Veritas
Adrian watched as the Fortunate blew up, while the Inglorious still fired at the enemy battleships, with its shields almost failing. He glanced at the timer, seeing six more minutes. If the Inglorious survived for six more minutes and its drives were still operation, it would be able to get away.
Adrian watched on the holo as the minutes ticked away. The Inglorious was fighting, firing all of its weapons and even managing to take down one of the battleships’ shields, scoring a couple of hits on its hull.
The timer entered the last minute, just as Inglorious’s shields failed. The Inglorious’s Ship Master started firing kinetic weapons at the battleships, forcing them to move to evade and buying him time. The timer hit zero, and Adrian held his breath as he watched the holo. Then he saw the Inglorious enter the skim, and he heard a cheer from his crew.
The Inglorious was leaking atmosphere when it entered the skim, and it didn’t have time to orient and point itself towards Adrian; instead, they went in the opposite direction. But that didn’t matter; they would exit the skim beyond the hyper-barrier, and from there could escape the system.
Adrian watched the Erasi forces. They had remained in space, and Adrian knew that the Inglorious entering the skim would have messed with their electronics. That was why Empire’s ships always engaged the skim away from stations and ships that weren’t entering it, as creating a skim field protected the ship inside.
Adrian kept Veritas on the same course for a few minutes, scanning actively for the Inglorious to drop out of the skim. Then, a minute later, they appeared on his holo and he opened a channel. They were outside the jamming field now.
He was greeted with the hologram of the Ship Master with a sad expression on his face.
“You made it,” Adrian said.
“We did.”
“Set a course for Sol through hyperspace. It will take you longer, but it will eliminate a chance that you will be ambushed along the way. Send a report for the Emperor informing him of these events, and give a copy to Master Gotu at Olympus Mons.” There were no relays between the Shara Daim and the Empire’s territory, so it was actually faster for them to go to Sol than to try and send a message from here.
“Yes, Lord Sentinel. We will need to do some emergency repairs, but we will manage it before the Erasi arrive, if they choose to pursue us.”
“Good luck,” Adrian said, and closed the channel. He then ordered the Veritas to the rendezvous point with the shuttles.
Several hours later, after they had picked up the shuttles and settled the people on board, Adrian sat with Va Dan Reisi in his office. The Veritas had entered hyperspace, and on Reisi’s advice had taken a slight detour to Shara Radum.
“The Erasi really don’t want us talking,” Adrian commented.
“It seems not,” Reisi said.
“Tell me, how is it that this Kar Daim of yours managed to get your people to reach out to us? I believe that that goes against everything you believe in.”
Reisi looked uncomfortable. “Most of us don’t know what to believe in anymore. The Kar Daim showed proof of our history, of what the Elders were in truth. We… our beliefs are compromised, based on lies. But we still believe in strength. And we follow strength.”
“And the Kar Daim is strong?” Adrian asked. “Was the Kar Daim chosen from among you?”
“No, the Kar Daim killed the Elders and took the rule of Shara Daim by the right of blood and death,” Reisi said, and Adrian detected a touch of fear in his voice, the same fear he had heard in Sol. And he understood, this Kar Daim had somehow taken the rule by force, and was formidable enough to terrify the Shara Daim, who were all warriors. People that looked down on all others with no fear.
And he was going to meet and negotiate with this person.
“This might not end well,” Adrian said through his implant.
“You are just now figuring this out?” Iris said.
“I guess that willingness to talk is a big deal, but this Kar Daim might be even worse than their Elders.”
“Well, you can’t change your mind now, so why bother worrying?” Iris said.
“You’re right,” Adrian said. He just hoped that he and the Kar Daim could agree to some kind of deal that didn’t involve ‘blood and death.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
One month later — July; Year 57 of the Empire — Shara Radum
The Veritas moved through the Shara Radum system slowly, following the path given to them by the Shara Daim. The system was a large one—fourteen planets and more than two dozen moons, with two distinct asteroid belts. The space was filled with satellites and stations. Ships moved all over in an organized fashion. Every planet and many of the moons had colonies, or at least some kind of facilities built on them. The asteroid belts were filled with movements, and large stations stood close by as ships from the belts moved back and forth.
And large armed stations stood in seemingly random spaces around the system, but Adrian knew that those were trans-entry points into the system. Defensive platforms stood in orbits of nearly all the planets, and some even close to the stations guarding the trans-points. Thousands of warships patrolled the system; all were of an unfamiliar make, but seemed equivalent to the Shara Daim heavy cruisers. Adrian knew that those were the Shara Daim system guard; they served almost the same function that the Clan guards served in the Empire, policing and protecting the system.
But in high orbit of Shara Radum were the real warships, ten Legions that orbited the planet. Twenty thousand warships, almost double than what the Empire had in total, and it was barely one fifth of their true numbers. And yet the Erasi feared an alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire. It was laughable. If the Erasi only knew the true numbers of the Empire, they wouldn’t have been so worried. But then again, the Empire did have a slight technological edge in military technologies. Just giving the skim drives to the Shara Daim could be enough for the Erasi to lose.
Adrian watched as Veritas slowly settled in the orbit of Shara Radum, and then he and a group of five warpath Sentinels he had brought back from Sanctuary all trained in use of the Sha, wearing their Sentinel armors, joined the Va Dan Reisi on his courier ship for it to transport them to the ground. He debated taking Akash and Sora, but he decided against it, he didn’t know anything about what was going to happen, and he didn’t want to antagonize anyone.
Once the ship landed they were guided to a large domed building, once inside they first used something like a cart to move faster through the building, until they reached a set of large ornate doors.
“The Hall of Ages,” Reisi said as they walked up to the doors. “No one outside of the Shara Daim had ever walked through it, and even for Shara Daim it is a great honor, one that few have been given.”
Adrian kept silent. His followers were asked to leave their weapons, and they did, as Adrian had warned them beforehand that that might happen. Then they entered the Hall of Ages. Instantly, Adrian was struck with the sense of history and awe. There were paintings and murals over all the walls. Tall pillars rose to the domed ceiling, each with gem-embroidered cloths that stretched around them. Some of the images showed things that were clearly events in the history of the Shara Daim, but Adrian didn’t have the opportunity to take a closer look.