Chapter 35: Battered Prowess — Part 3
“What’s worse is a new Coalition General has entered our space and successfully destroyed our supply caches at the border. Normally we could fall back for repairs and send assault forces in cycle. At this time, that cycle of assault has been broken. We’re penned in and crippled along that leg of conquest. This General is more powerful, cunning, and determined than any we have come across to date.” Riley said. “I have studied her tactics, and admit that there are few who match her for wartime strategy.”
“And what is the name of this brave new General who dares strike into my territory?” Grison asked, growing impatient.
“Shadow, Lord Queen of the Storm Clan, and Leader of the New Chran Order.” General Riley said. “The Chran, it appears, have accepted her as their General and Empress Mother.”
“Her title is longer than mine.” Emperor Grison’s face became a mask of pallor. “I’ll handle General Storm and her toy soldiers personally. Secure Cinder, Harden, and Lathe at all costs. My personal armada will route her out and restore our reserve line.”
General Riley saluted, and Grison cut communications. The boy stared absently at Emperor Grison, as if seeing right through him. The Emperor didn’t have to ask what the boy was thinking; he voiced it in a whisper. The boy, however, felt it important to express his conclusions.
“You have no soul, Emperor. Do you really think you can defeat a member of the Storm Clan as lacking as you are?” The boy asked.
The Emperor backhanded the page, and blood trickled down the boy’s face, but he didn’t move, bow, or fall. Turning away, the Emperor dismissed the boy’s impudence as stupidity resultant of youth. He had never been able to kill the boy, despite the temptation. On what rare times the boy spoke, his words were always hateful toward Grison, and though Grison killed without a second thought almost anybody he grew angry with, something about the boy stayed his hand. Grison had a battle to prepare for, and centuries of scores to settle against the last member of his oldest enemy. The Storm Clan would fall to the Grison Order. Shadow of the Storm, and the threat she represented, would die by his hand, and his Order would rise against all who opposed him. He would see and taste battle first-hand, for the first time in nearly a thousand years.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have sent North to the Front line.” Shadow said, worried about changes in her current events.
The wave of ships on her sensors swarmed like a cloud of bees, their numbers more vast than Shadow could ever have expected. Shadow knew that her Chran allies and Coalition supporters were heavily outnumbered, and that there would be little hope of holding the position through even the first wave of the attack. The blips began to grow in numbers, and the Mercy’s computer kept count until it was pushed beyond its capabilities. Shadow did a rough estimate, and worried. Over 10,000 enemy ships worked their way through twisted space, about to run into her disrupter mines. Tens of thousands of small fighters flew out from those ships, ready for war. The first group would work to disable the mines, which wouldn’t take long, nor cause tremendous long-term damage to the enemy war machine. Shadow and her fleet had already attacked and destroyed several supply points within Grison’s Order, but even without supplies, ten thousand warships could turn the tide for the Coalition and its Union allies. The approaching armada outnumbered her troops four to one. The fleets of the Order outnumbered all Coalition and Union vessels around them by nearly three to one.
“Shadow, our swords are glowing. Something doesn’t feel right.”
Shadow looked down. Her phase sword was glowing dimly, a sure sign that phase technology was rapidly approaching. “They’re using phased psionic technology. Probably for pulse deflectors and weaponry. This isn’t good.”
“Not at all good.” Ferret said. “Phased technology is superior and dangerous. And we’re the only ship in this sector carrying even a small batch of phased metal.
Shadow clicked her tongue, as if making a dangerous decision. “Give me a field battle any day.” She said. “Open hailing frequencies. Tune the internal pulse deflectors to phased energy. Get a signal through to Vertigo at Cinder. Tell her the enemy’s got superior firepower in the second wave. Tell her we need the support of every available fighter and war ship as soon as Cinder’s front is secured.”
“Our sensors have been retuned to detect phased frequencies.” Didi said. “I’ll be damned if every ship there isn’t lit up solid.”
