Legion in exile, p.14
Legion in Exile, page 14
“Largely as predicted, Sir,” his aid confirmed nervously. “More and more planets have thrown in their support with the Libation forces.”
Jaol permitted himself a small smile, “Excellent. What of the other Polities?”
“They appear to be redeploying to their border worlds near the Cluster.”
“Excellent, just as predicted then,” Jaol said. “Thank you, Ensign.”
“Yes sir,” The woman responded, already backing out as she recognized the dismissal for what it was.
Jaol knew that things were proceeding apace, faster than predicted actually, but that had always been a risk. The particle cannons would be enough to shift the balance of power in the Galaxy back to where it belonged, but it was not where Terra’s true strength lay.
Soon.
He knew that soon the Galaxy would see true strength, and he would ensure that they never forgot it.
*****
Nova Cali, Antares Cluster
“Pay him what he wants. I want that IFV under our control and being torn apart by our best people by week’s end.”
“Yes sir, I understand… what about the pair in question?”
Silence followed that question for a time.
“Do they seem to be Imperial infiltrators?”
“No. Refugees.”
“Then see what else they can offer. Any debrief on Imperial tactics will be useful if the young man is as skilled as you believe, but other than that… leave them be, but…”
“But?”
“Keep tags on them, Mr. McIntyre.”
“I understand. They’ll want a hyper capable ship, something solid… and armed, of course.”
“Not an issue, we’re currently refitting hundreds. Letting one go won’t affect our order of battle.”
“Very good, Sir.”
*****
ISV Vanquish, Extra-Galactic Space, Point Nine Four LY Above the Galactic Plain
Kier watched the screens as the unidentified ship turned and immediately went directly to jump space, leaving the Vanquish’ shuttle along as it slowly crossed the void back to the bay it had left from.
“As soon as they’re back on board, make for the Fleet assembly coordinates, maximum Jump.” he ordered.
“Aye Captain. Coordinates already in the computers.”
It didn’t take long before the shuttle was back on board and everything was sealed up tight, at which point Kier gave the final clearance and the Vanquish followed the mystery vessel into the void, heading back to the Galaxy.
He was waiting as patiently as he could, until Sylban reappeared on the Command Deck.
“Well?” He demanded.
“Well what?” Sylban shrugged.
“What did you learn?” Kier groused internally; he did not need this at the moment.
“Oh, many things,” Sylban said casually. “Many interesting things even.”
“Such as?”
Dying Gods, this man is the most irritating fool I’ve ever had to deal with, Kier thought as he ground his teeth.
“Nothing that need concern you just now, Captain,” Sylban smiled at him, though for once the smile seemed less certain that it always had been before.
Kier wondered if that was something that should worry him.
Probably, but it’s good to see any chink in that bastard’s smug armor.
Sylban didn’t seem to notice his ire, however, and merely nodded.
“I believe I’ll be retiring for the moment. Let me know when we’re ready to rejoin the fleet, would you?”
Kier had to physically stop himself from grinding his teeth as the infuriating man turned and strode off the deck again.
*****
Sylban walked quietly through the decks of the ship, not looking at or greeting anyone along the way, until he reached his own quarters.
Once inside, with the door locked and the room scanned… twice… for bugs, he let out a weary breath and slumped at the spartan desk that sat against one bulkhead.
The lamp over the desk cast a harsh light as he took a small memory storage crystal from his pocket and set it there in front of him.
It’s exactly what I needed, he thought as he stared at the rubberized coating that protected the crystal from damage. But when to use it?
He knew too well what was coming, and how deeply important timing would be for best effect.
Sylban smiled slowly through his weariness, however.
Despite the unexpected nature of certain events, everything is falling into place.
*****
Chapter 15
Nova Cali, Antares Cluster
Eryn was surprised by the speed at which the local government was able to move, though he supposed that with the war effort ramping up it was somewhat to be expected.
“Are we certain this is the right move?” Jinsha asked softly after he’d handed over the security codes to the IFV.
“A little late to ask now,” he said with a smile. “But yes, I believe so. We made out better on the deal than the Cali taxpayers, I promise you.”
“That’s not what I meant… I…” Jinsha looked confused and torn, leaving him to guess quickly at her concern.
“It feels wrong, selling technology to an enemy of the Empire, yes I know,” he admitted. “Technically, we’re traitors now.”
She winced, looking away.
“It’s a line, and we crossed it,” he said simply, not trying to shelter her from the decision though he supposed that he could, if he pushed. Jinsha was unlikely to accept that, however, so he didn’t bother. “It doesn’t matter, under the law, that they tried to kill me and do worse to you… but law has never meant all that much to me.”
She looked at him, surprised, “But… you’re a Legionnaire.”
She said that like it meant something, and, to his surprise, it somehow still did despite everything.
“Yes, I was Legion,” he admitted. “I still am, deep down even. But justice always mattered more than the law, and what the Empire tried to do to you? That destroyed their moral right to lead.”
She frowned, “Overthrowing…”
“No.” he said quickly. “Not that. A coup is sometimes needed and, even being on the wrong side, I wouldn’t turn on the Empire for that. What Sylban said, when he recaptured you and… we fought…”
She sucked in a breath, wincing at the memory.
“Lord Jaol had… has… plans,” she said quietly.
“That. That is not the action of a leader. Imprison you, perhaps. Remove your family from power? Fine.” Eryn said before going on with a shake of his head. “But forcing you to have his heir? I’ll burn the Imperial Tower down around his ears before I allow it. Selling off an IFV to the enemy? That is nothing compared to the horrors I’d wreak on the Empire with my own two hands. I am a traitor to the Empire, Jinsha… but the Empire that exists now is not the one I pledged my loyalty to… and it is not the one your mother was going to leave to you either.”
Jinsha didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and he didn’t really blame her for it. It was a lot to unpack and, if he were being honest, he wasn’t sure he fully understood it himself. He just knew that he felt it.
Eryn returned his attention to the deal he’d just brokered with the locals, getting mentally prepared to start work on the new ship they had as well as determining to finally get to working on the data from the automatic search he’d completed the night before. Everything was just dropping onto him, it seemed, one right after the other, and Eryn could tell that he was becoming overloaded… burning out… but he didn’t know what else he could do but push through.
So focused was he on his own thoughts, Eryn almost entirely missed it when Jinsha spoke, and he had to turn back sharply.
“What?” he asked.
“I said it could be… again.” she told him, her voice a little firmer now, and clearer.
Eryn fell silent again, thinking about that.
“Is that what you want?” he asked seriously.
It was an important question, and an important moment, he recognized. Jinsha had been beaten and battered, thrown down from on high as it were, but had fought back, nonetheless. Since escaping Sol, however, she’d curled into herself… the lack of a direct threat had given her time to recognize just how bad her situation, their situation, was.
He didn’t begrudge her that, though it was his strength she’d been leaning on. Trauma was a strange thing, and sometimes all you could do was ride it out until you managed to get your feet braced again.
However, Eryn knew that wouldn’t… couldn’t… last forever.
She needed to stand, or she might never again.
To her credit, he saw that she was considering his question seriously, which surprised him. He knew that the obvious, and easy, answer to the question was yes. Of course, she would want the Empire to be something she could be proud of again… but that wasn’t the question, not really.
Despite the wording, he wasn’t asking what she wanted… and she knew it.
He was asking… was she willing to fight for it.
Again, on the surface… an easy answer for many, but only those who didn’t really mean what they were saying. Saying you’d fight for something was easy. Fighting for it, that was hard.
He was glad to see that she wasn’t one of the people who threw out their pledge, their oath, as easily as rain drops falling from the sky… and as enduring.
When you pledged something like that, it should be backed with steel… not the empty air blown from a fool’s useless lungs.
“Yes,” she said finally, looking at him firmly. “Yes, it is.”
Eryn nodded, “It won’t be easy… it may not be possible. We’re two people right now, with a ship and little else to our names.”
Jinsha nodded, “I understand… but the option is what? Watch the Empire commit atrocity after atrocity? Watch a war tear the Galaxy apart while we do nothing? Could I do that? Could you?”
Eryn couldn’t speak for her, of course, but he knew that he was torn on the subject personally. The drums of war were beating, and he’d spent most of his life preparing for this moment in time… but, in his head, he’d always been in the Imperium’s ranks. Going against them, against his fellows from Earth… it left a hole in his chest, one he could feel the ache from.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly, looking away. “What I do know, is that you are my Liege. I will protect you as I swore to do, and my strength is your strength. Command it, and I will lay siege to the Imperial Tower alone.”
Jinsha couldn’t help but smile a little at that, the absurdity of it almost entirely overshadowed by the fact that he clearly meant every word.
“I would not command you to throw away your life, Eryn,” she said softly. “But to save the Empire, even if it is from itself? That I command.”
He nodded, “Then we have a great deal of work to do.”
Jinsha got to her feet, nodding, “I’m ready.”
“No, you’re not…” Eryn told her honestly. “But you will be.”
*****
The Nova Cali government had offered them their pick of some older ships that had been pushed through the refitting process in a rush over the last few days. Like most governments, Cali kept several ship hulls secured in mothballs out in some ship graveyard likely near a Lagrange point somewhere in the system.
Governments tended to build, and keep building, things like ship hulls even when they didn’t strictly need them for a number of reasons. Maintaining jobs in certain regions was worth a lot to voters, and tended to be remembered during elections, of course, but there were good reasons too.
Welding the armored steel used to put together a good starship, for example, was not a simple skill to pickup and no government worthy of the name was going to let its home-grown talent base just vanish, and thus force them to rely on some other government’s resources in case of need.
So warships got built, finished up inside, then were immediately sealed tight, usually with a pure nitrogen atmosphere to slow any sort of degradation, and were parked in the vast void. Out of sight, out of mind to the people who’d paid for ships that weren’t being used, but easy enough to reclaim as needed.
Cali had offered them one of those, a small, long range combat capable scout. It could be flown by one person in a pinch, but normally served a crew of five. Not exactly a heavy hitter, but more than attractive for the purposes Eryn had in mind.
Of course, they’d stripped most of the munitions from it first, though he’d gotten them to leave the weapons and launchers themselves intact. Two forward mounted autocannons, a gimble mounted Dorsal turret, and internal storage for interceptor missiles.
No ground pounder munitions, though in theory if he could find them, the missile racks could launch them.
The design was old, about as old as jump ships, or near enough, but the construction was relatively new since it was one of the first ones off the refit line and Cali was using a FILO (First In Last Out) queue in order to get the best ships into service as fast as possible.
Combined with a decent cash payday, they were as set as they could reasonably expect to be as soon as he finished installing an interface system for their implants into the damn thing.
Other than his Legion kit, the only other thing he took out of the IFV was a full copy of the troop hauler’s software package… incidentally wiping all the Legion resources within, aside from the backdoors, just in case.
So now, with Jinsha’s help, Eryn was crawling all over the ship and making sure that the sensor pods were wired correctly and had their firmware rewritten to respond to his implants while simultaneously ensuring that the vessel was ready to fly.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Cali government, exactly, but the ship had been built, mothballed, stored, and then refitted by, in theory, the lowest bidder.
Which, if it were true, he didn’t expect any real issues… what worried Eryn was the possibility that, rather than the lowest bidder, one or more stages might have been done by a company with ‘friends’ in the administration on a no-bid contract.
The lowest bigger might cut corners, but they still needed to deliver if they wanted to keep the contract. A no-bidder, on the other hand, probably didn’t have to worry about that aspect of things.
So, he was checking everything.
Most of it was brainless work, just installing software over and over again, then making sure it all communicated properly with the various systems involved. Nothing he needed to focus much active thinking on, which gave him time to review the data he’d grabbed from that random network access point… only a couple nights earlier.
God, it feels like it’s been so much longer than that.
It was as much public data as he’d been able to pull down concerning possible links to Jinsha’s family beyond SOL.
Unfortunately, most of the names she’d been able to give him had been confirmed by the simple means of finding death notices. Mostly accidents, at least according to public sources. Eryn expected that official and confidential investigations might be reporting something else, though.
However, it wasn’t entirely pointless.
“Jinsha,” he called.
“Yes?” The Empress of Earth asked instantly as she poked her head up out of a maintenance compartment, grease smeared across her face as she looked around for him. “What is it?”
He managed to keep a straight face at the sight, “Carmine, your brother, right?”
“Eldest, yes,” she nodded, eyes wide. “You… found him?”
“Maybe. I know where he was, and there’s no sign of any death report for him,” Eryn said. “Which doesn’t mean much given what happened with Michael, I’ll admit, but it’s a shot.”
“Mother didn’t speak of him in more than passing,” she admitted. “But she seemed… emotional when he was mentioned. I think something happened, but I never found out what.”
“Well, he was last reported on a border world near the Cluster’s edge along the Orion Arm,” Eryn said. “We can head there as soon as we’re finished here.”
“Alright, that sounds like something to do…”
Eryn didn’t push any more, knowing that she had been part of a large family and most of them were certainly gone now. Whether she was alone or not, he wasn’t certain they’d ever fully find out. Many of her family, both close and more distant, had certainly gone to ground by now and would never be found even if they were alive.
He had hopes for Carmine Conwin, however, because it was a name he had heard before… just not related to the Empress. If anyone could have survived the recent tumultuousness, it seemed to Eryn that it would be him.
“Ok,” he said. “Let’s get this finished so we can get started on the real work.”
That got him a smile, tempered thought it was by her emotion, and Jinsha ducked back into the maintenance section without a word.
Two of us, against the Galaxy.
It was absurd, depressing, and somehow it made him smile.
The Galaxy better watch out.
*****
“What are they doing?” Gordon asked casually, glancing at the screens they had monitoring the two they bought the IFV from.
“Maintenance,” the technical analyst said simply. “We had to bring in engineers from Bough Corporation, Lock and Heed, and a handful of others just to tell us that they’re going over the ship with a fine-tooth comb. I don’t think they trust us, Sir.”
Gordon snorted, “I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t trust us either. But seriously, that’s it?”
“They did replace all the software on board,” the technician admitted. “Which seems a little extreme, all things considered. If we wanted to spy on them that bad, you’d think he’d realize that we’d use a hardware solution.”
The tech paused, looking back, “We did use a hardware solution, right?”
“We did,” Gordon said, sighing. “He found and ripped it out first thing… including the two redundant ones.”
“Well, shit.”
Gordon just shrugged it off; that was part and parcel of dealing with people who knew the playbook really. Sometimes you could slip something past them, but most of the time they knew too well what you were planning even before you did because they had the advantage of knowing what they were up to and what sort of attention it might gather.
