The Deian War: Conquest (24 page)

   “Looks like we get to open the front door ourselves” Olympus muttered, the microphone in his helmet distorting his voice slightly.

   Sabre was the first to touch his armoured feet on the platform itself and he could immediately feel the effects of space on his armour. “Everyone activate your mag-locks - we don’t want to find ourselves floating towards that door with only our hopes to guide us there”.

   Lupus had already done that, but he was glad that the Commander was ever-conscious for the safety of everyone else. There was nothing hostile out here a
part from the cold of space, but that didn’t help improve the mood of this intensely militaristic place.

   “If you have any prayers to make, best say them now” Tiars said. He was the main pilot, the same that had flown the drop ship for the Apostles on Noiran when they first fought together. Though Olympus had admonished the pilot deeply for what happened that day, despite the lack of control he had over the Apostles’ actions, Lupus welcomed the pilot back into his position without a second thought. Now, with his levity, Lupus was gla
d he had done it. It seemed to improve the disposition of everyone bar Olympus, who seemed to hold a personal grudge against him.

   “
Pfft
,” Olympus answered. “Like there’s a point to prayers anymore…”

  
Lupus knew Olympus didn’t mean what he said with any real depth, but he could still detect the mournful tone of the Vice-Commander. He chastised himself for all-too often forgetting that the legionnaires had lost the Auranair too, not just the Apostles.

“Cut the chatter” Lupus decided to say
, intent on driving the topic of Vermillion and the other gods away from their minds. It was time for them to focus on the present.

   As they m
ade their way over to the hatch he kept to the rear of the formation, Calla at his side. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed it before, but he found it strangely symbolic that she was the only white figure amongst a group dressed in black. Perhaps the depths of space, which was the backdrop to the majority of their view, helped to make it all the more obvious. He wasn’t sure what it actually meant, but he felt like it was just another reason why he had fallen in love with her; there was no-one else like her, she was unique.

 
They walked behind the legionnaires side by side, their relationship apparent through their gait despite the way they marched with the same discipline as the Guardians in front of them. As they reached the door that waited for their arrival, something itched in his gut. Something was probing his instincts, setting them off like wildfire until he couldn’t help but turn around.

   The only thing on the platform other than the Stormfalcon w
ere the huge cargo containers that were used to ship supplies across The Shield and the even larger cannons that were designed to protect the Empire from its foes. There was nothing living out here apart from them and yet…he had seen someone when he turned, but now when he glanced again, they had disappeared completely like they had been just a figment of his imagination.

   “What is it?” Calla asked, seeing that he stopped
before the others noticed. The legionnaires turned a fraction later to see what had caused his delay as well, but when he answered he used a channel that was exclusive to him and her. He wasn’t entirely sure why he felt the need, but what he was about to say made him feel mad and he wasn’t willing to let the legionnaires see him in the same way.

   “I thought I saw someone
…out there…on one of the cargo containers” he confided. It still sounded crazy to him, so he had no idea what Calla would think. Would she assume his troubled sleep was finally getting to him in evidentially detrimental ways, or would she gracefully listen to him like she had always done?

   “Who
, Lupus? A man, a woman?” Calla asked. He was glad that, as usual, she didn’t doubt him. She was concerned, but only because she believed him.

   “I’m not sure…but they were right there
…and now they are gone like the sharp cry of a sudden breeze” he answered.

   After a
moment, when it was clear he was either imagining things or that the mysterious figure wasn’t going to come back any time soon, he turned and ordered the legionnaires to find the way to open the access door. When they did, he followed them inside and waited for the Admiral and his men to come to them and open the inner hatch after the first had closed behind them.

   When the Admiral arrived and greeted them, Lupus was a little surprised to find himself still preoccupied by what he had seen out there on the platform. He could not deny his senses; he had seen someone, he was certain of it. The thing that disturbed him was not that he had seen them, but that they had been sitting on the cargo container in a relaxed
, comfortable way, their legs dangling over the side like they were watching him.

   Their posture had been so
calm that it was as though they had been expecting to see him on the platform at precisely that moment in time, like they knew he was always going to be there. That very idea, he didn’t like to admit, was deeply unnerving. 

TIBERIUS WASN’T SURE if he could condone any of it. What they were doing may have been through direct orders from the Apostle, but that didn’t make it any more moral. It didn’t make it right. As he stood and watched his legion carry out their duty, he tried to escape the memories of what happened when they first began this task.

   Some of the humans had screamed. Some yelled at them in dismay and denial. Others tried to run and only the few were willing to listen. Sooner or later, they were
all made to hear the legionnaires out. They had no choice, because the 375th had their city surrounded. There was no escape from the angels that were supposed to be benevolent and had instead come in force like monsters.

   “We have come to take you to a
safer
place” Tiberius tried to reassure them after the crowds were gathered in the city square. Tens of thousands were there, for it was only a small city in the outermost reaches of the Pantheon Sector. The sparse population, one that would not be easily missed, was the only reason this world was chosen by Hydra. It didn’t make Tiberius feel any better, though.

   “We’re already safe! The war is thousands of leagues from this world!” someone in the audience cried.

   Tiberius wore a genuine look of compassion and honesty on his face. “No, you’re not. Nowhere in the entire galaxy will keep you free from the war. Eventually the Phantoms will devastate every planet, even if they find you until last.”

   “
Kidnappers!
” someone yelled.

   “Where can you hide us, then? What
trust should we have in you when you let one of our worlds be destroyed in the very first fight you had?” a previous voice asked.

   Another joined in. “We
’re not going anywhere, Guardian! It’s high time you earn your title and either protect us or leave us alone!”

  “
You cannot take us by force!” yet more protested.

   Tiberius shook his head in shame. They hadn’t wanted to come here and steal these people away without their consent, but he had to explain the situation and gauge how the humans would react to the simple truth that the war would find them. Safety was only guaranteed if they did as the Guardians told them. The only way to survive was to abandon their lives and leave everything behind.

   Now, the Commander had to use his last card. It felt like cheating the humans, as if he was about to trick them with an offer that was impossible to refuse. Everything about it was unfair, because he knew no human could turn it down, but there was nothing else he could do to get them to go with the legions.

   “Show them where we will bring them, Tiberius. It is the only thing that will help you to take them without rebellion and death” the Apostle told him back on Hydron
before he left for the profane mission.

  
I can’t tell if this would have gone better with you here or not
, Tiberius thought. Despite his doubts, he put them aside and asked the legionnaires of his command echelon to come forward. They joined him on the speech stage, the same that was usually reserved for the city’s governmental announcements and carried with them a small, unimpressive looking box.

   Tiberius saw the distrusting look on the sea of faces in front of him. The only thing that made him feel able to continue was that ultimately, they were doing this for the right reasons. The legionnaires set it on the podium that he was using and the audience was silent in anticipation. He knew that if he waited much longer, they would start to scream and shout again and he would miss his chance to do this with even a hint of a clean conscience.

   Reluctantly, he pressed a series of activation buttons on the box and a second later it exploded into life. He couldn’t be certain how it worked, but the captivated looks of the city’s people told him that it did. What they saw now, projected into their very minds to create a perfect memory of it, was the heaven made real that humanity had dreamed about since its birth.

  
After witnessing its actuality, each and every human on that world let the Guardians take them with open arms, willingly, like it was the rapture that every religion their race had ever endorsed teased them could happen to the worthy. Yet, instead of only a select few being chosen every man, woman and child, whether they were young or ancient, was going to a place they never dared to hope existed.

   It still didn’t make Tiberius feel any less guilty about it.

THE WHOLE PROCESS took a day by the human planet’s standards. The 375th had only come with one ship, the Blackstar
Leviathan
. It was Hydra’s own, the icon of the legion. The vessel was vast, almost the largest of its class bar the
Luminon
. Its insides were just as complex as the Hydra’s House, with every corridor and bulkhead designed in mutual respect for the purpose of defence and integrity. Even the medical and hangar bays were constructed with one thing in mind; survival.

   The ship was indomitable, a fierce be
ast that blended into the darkness of the void. If the Astral Titans had brought more ships, they would have been noticed more easily by the sentries that the Empire had stationed throughout the sectors. Using the Blackstar alone allowed for a level of stealth that a fleet couldn’t offer.

Fortunately, the
Leviathan
was so massive that holding the population of a city in its depths was hardly a problem and that was the reason it was chosen for the mission. All it required was the proper logistics and the expert organisation of the legion members to get the humans on board in an efficient and timely manner.

   Tiberius stood on the bridge, watching the view screens as they showed the last of the Stormfalcons and Ironwroughts ferrying the final passengers to the ship. He wondered what the humans thought of their vessels. Were they impressed, intimidated, or were they so stupefied by the visions of Apollia that they hardly noticed the grandeur of the Black Guardians’ space-faring craft?

   The Commander couldn’t say which of those possibilities the case was for certain, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. What did it matter what the humans thought? He had a mission given to him by the Apostle, nothing else mattered. No human opinion or directive could override or change that.

   He turned to the Blackstar’s captain, who always seemed stronger-willed than himself. “Tiergan, was that the last of them?”

   Tiergan looked up from the data reams coming from his throne, disinterest plain on his face. Was it really that, or was the Captain trying to remain stoic in the face of the wrong that they were doing? “It was” he answered.

   Tiberius wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t elaborated. What more was there to say? He nodded and turned to the view screens to have one last lingering look at the planet they had harvested of its inhabitants. He wouldn’t allow himself not to memorise the way it looked. This was an event that would change things
in ways he couldn’t yet anticipate. He refused to let himself, in the future, look back and wonder where they had taken all these people from and where they really belonged.

   “Then it’s time for us to return to Hydron” he replied. “Let us hope that the Apostle is satisfied with what we’ve done
, because I could never sanction this alone”.

   Only then did Tiergan show some compassion. “This task
was never going to bear satisfaction, Tiberius. It is what it is; we have to come to peace with that or it will destroy us”.

   Tiberius turned to regard the Captain, to try and see th
e sensitivity and wisdom on his face, but by the time he did Tiergan was back in stone-mode. “Prepare for jump” he said. A moment later, the Blackstar
Leviathan
departed from the world it had left deserted, never to return.

***

HYDRA SMASHED HIS fists into the innocent wooden table that sat square in the centre of the PTH deep in the depths of his fortress. Here, he should have been safe from his enemies. Here, he should have been threatened by no form of foe. His walls were impassable, the defences impenetrable.
Nonetheless, he was under attack.