Four days later – Sowir shipyard
Platoon Leader Sahib Adin cursed himself for the hundredth time as he charged an enemy with his mono-blade. He stabbed the seven limbed alien through the top of its body hoping to impale its secondary brain and kill it instantly. They had found out early on that if the secondary brain still functioned the agents would keep fighting. As he pulled his blade back and threw the alien of himself he again cursed his luck. As soon as the Exploration Fleet finished with the Furvor his platoon was recalled and sent to the Second Fleet as the most experienced unit that the Empire had.
Which was true in a way, his platoon had fought the Sowir thirty years ago on Nuva, and then they fought the Furvor on Trivax. And because of that he was now moving through the Sowir shipyard hacking and slashing at countless waves of the enemy. They couldn’t use high powered weapons both for fear of puncturing the hull, and because the Emperor wanted as many Sowir facilities intact.
The Empire had far better building technology with their fabricators, but most of the Sowir shipyards had once belonged to the Consortium, and while they were not as good as the Empire’s they would still be an enormous asset in their expansion. The plan was for the Empire to absorb the Sowir territory. Which in itself will be a colossal undertaking that will last years, as the Sowir territory was almost double the size of the Empire.
Sahib climbed back to his feet checking his HUD for any damage to his suit. When he saw none he turned around and looked at the situation. Loca was just now finishing the last of the Sowir agents, she hit it with her shield and then shot it with her low velocity hand gun several times killing it.
“You were supposed to be in front.” Sahib told her.
“They rushed me, and I might be strong but when a dozen of these bastards jump you, you pull back.” She said defensively.
Sahib shook his head and sighed. Fighting had been gruesome. The Sowir agents fought like mindless beasts, which in a way they were. Fighting them wasn’t really hard, once they start a fight they don’t back off. The intel they got from the Third Fleet and Sanctuary indicated that the true Sowir can issue general orders to their agents from afar, but that for more delicate and intelligent control they need to be close. And there had been a few instances where the Sowir followed their agents in battle. And those skirmishes were always much more dangerous than when they just let them loose.
Most of the people that the Empire lost, died when they were fighting Sowir in direct control of their agents. Another additional danger was their mind ability. They couldn’t take control of the human or Nel mind, not like they did with their agents. But they could distract, and in battle even a moment of distraction could prove fatal. And the more they fought the better the Sowir got at it, at least those that survived the engagements with the Empire soldiers.
The only upside was that the Sowir weren’t really fighters, without their agents they were easily subdued. The orders were to take any Sowir they could prisoner, but not at expense of lives. Which was now much harder as the Sowir no longer moved around the station without their agents. And the only way to reduce the effectiveness of the agents was to take out the Sowir controlling them.
Sahib motioned for Loca to follow, and the two of them continued to follow the map on his HUD. His platoon was given the mission to find and recover any remaining data from the Sowir computers in the inner ring of the shipyard. Which was mostly free of the Sowir, save for the few that were left behind as proven by the attack a few minutes ago. The Sowir had destroyed most of the computers and data when they pulled back towards the center of the shipyard. The Empire had control of the outer ring and troops were now pushing inside the center.
But Sahib’s superiors hoped that some were overlooked. The Empire had equipment able to interface with the Sowir computers as the ones they used were still Consortium technology, this entire system was in fact one that belonged to the Nel before the Sowir took it, and the Empire knew everything about it from Nuva.
Sahib had split his people into teams of two, and each team was checking a different area. Sahib and Loca arrived at a doors that were blown inward, probably by the initial assault by the Empire’s troops. They stepped inside, their suits lights illuminating the room. In one of the corners Sahib noticed a small flashing light. He motioned for Loca to keep watch as he went to check it out.
He came close to the terminal and retrieved a device that looked similarly to a datapad from his back. He used the connector on his device to plug it into the Sowir terminal, then waited as the software accessed and translated everything in standard. A few minutes later the device pinged and Sahib looked down.
“Jackpot.” Sahib said.
“You got something?” Loca asked.
“Yeah, it looks like this was the office of a Sowir who was overseeing the construction of specially requested items. Hmm… Alright, if I am getting this right this shipyard wasn’t only building ships, but also any kind of specialized equipment.” He kept scrolling through the lists and reports. “Aha. I found the list of requests by priority. It appears that they were trying to figure out how to build a digging machine? Something for work underground, that could create tunnels big enough for their troops to pass through. But was also silent, and fast…” Sahib said.
“Why would they need that?” Loca asked.
“Don’t know. Let me see if I can – Ah, here it is. The product was supposed to go to a planet designated as Guxaxac…” Sahib said.
“Wait, that planet’s name is familiar. Where did I hear that name?” Loca asked.
“That’s the Guxcacul home world.” Sahib responded.
“Why would they need something like that there?”
Sahib kept quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t know, let me copy the data. We should get this back to the tech guys, maybe they can get something more out of it.”
Chapter Twenty Six
January; Year 32 – Sanctuary
Consciousness returned slowly to Adrian, his eyes opened and immediately closed as the bright light from the window shined right into them. It took him a couple of tries to get them fully opened and to be able to take in the room he was in. It looked similar to the hospital room he was in at Warpath, except that the window meant he was on a planet. Slowly he managed to raise himself to a semi sitting position. His movements alerted the beast lying on the floor on his left side.
Sora raised her head and jumped up immediately once she saw his eyes open. She released a loud roar and pushed her head on his chest. Slowly Adrian reached up to pet her behind the ears.
“Hello to you too.” He managed to say hoarsely.
Then the door opened and a person walked in.
“Adrian!” Laura, his adoptive mother yelled out and quickly walked up to him and gave him the hug.
“Hey…” He said weakly.
“I’m so relieved that you are awake!” Laura said when she finally let him go.
“Yeah, well, so am I.” Adrian added softly, “What happened?”
“I commed the doctor, let’s wait for him.” Laura said evadingly. “How are you feeling?”
“Surprisingly I feel great, my throat hurts a bit, but other than that everything seems good. Better than the last time.” Adrian said. He saw Laura look at him strangely, and he could see the worry in her eyes. “How long was I out? What happened with the fleet? I assume that we won as I am not dead.”