ADAR ZAN’NH
Carrying the most advanced weaponry, the cohort of warliners arrived at Kuivahr. The Solar Navy wasted no time.
After they disengaged their stardrives, the deceleration was intense enough to damage some systems. Crewmembers had to strap down and endure the bone- and muscle-crushing weight, but Adar Zan’nh was desperate to arrive before it was too late. This time, he intended to deal the enemy a devastating blow, and he had the weaponry do to it.
His pulse raced, and his eyes focused to a razor-sharp intensity. He recalled how his heroic predecessor Adar Kori’nh had made the hydrogues reel at Qronha 3. Zan’nh meant to do a similar thing now: he would throw everything into the engagement, if that was what it took to stop further attacks. He wanted to make the Shana Rei fear them. He wanted to make the shadows hurt.
As the fleet hurtled toward Kuivahr, Zan’nh instantly spotted the huge shadow cloud, the terrifying black hex cylinders—and nearly a hundred robot battleships, all much larger and more fearsome than the vessels they had recently fought at the Onthos home system.
Well, he had superior weapons now, too.
“We arrived too late, Adar,” said his navigator.
Zan’nh held on to the command rail and shook his head. “No—we are exactly on time.” He transmitted to every maniple commander, every septar, every pilot of every warliner. “You have all been briefed, and you are prepared. Commence the attack without delay. Today, here, we will stop the Shana Rei.”
The main screen mapped out the positions of the hundred robot battleships, laid them out on a tactical grid, and identified targets, which were distributed among the 343 warliners. The grid also picked up an outlying blip among the enemy vessels, a smaller ship racing in an erratic course directly toward them.
A distress signal burst across the comm screen. “By the Guiding Star, are we glad to see you! This is Zhett Kellum and Patrick Fitzpatrick from the Kuivahr distillery. We’re the last ship to get away from the planet, and we have Prince Reynald of Theroc with us, as well as your Mage-Imperator’s daughter Osira’h. Request permission to come aboard—and you’d better make up your minds quick!”
The pursuing robot ships opened fire at the Roamer ship, but Zhett had managed to evade them, so far. Adar Zan’nh directed his warliners. “Intercept and protect that ship. Grant them sanctuary.”
Overlapping chatter appeared on adjacent screens. From the command nucleus of his own warliner, Tal Gale’nh sent an urgent message. “Adar, our sister Tamo’l is still down on the planet. Muree’n and I can sense her. And Rod’h … I don’t know.” His bleached face looked distraught. “He is in the shadow cloud somewhere.”
High-resolution images showed that the ocean world was almost completely encased in an ebony shell, and he felt cold trickle through him. This englobement was smaller in scale than what they had encountered at the Onthos home system, but just as deadly. All life on Kuivahr would be snuffed out.
Lurking inside their shadow cloud, the five Shana Rei hex cylinders showed no reaction to the arrival of the gigantic Ildiran fleet. They simply kept spilling out a rain of hex plates to seal the last gap in the enveloping sphere.
“Adar!” cried the comm officer. “We’ve retrieved the human ship. Osira’h and Prince Reynald are safe aboard.”
He felt a rush of relief, then he glanced at the tactical projection of space around Kuivahr. “Are there any other refugee ships from Kuivahr? We have to get them off planet before that shell closes.”
“No indications, Adar.”
His heart felt heavy. Whoever had been down there was surely lost—including Tamo’l.
As the robot battleships plunged toward the Solar Navy cohort, the grouped warliners continued on their course toward Kuivahr.
“Laser cannons,” Zan’nh said. “Target that black sphere and cut open a hole. That may give Tamo’l and her people a little more time.”
The first septa to reach the planet used high-intensity laser cannons like a hot scythe to chop at the obsidian shroud. The bombardment of coherent light was powerful enough to dislodge a section of hex plates, ripping open a hole in the shell and allowing light through again. The laser cannons continued to slice away, widening the gap—but more hex plates showered down onto the damaged area, like platelets forming a scab on a bleeding wound.
Zan’nh remembered how much effort they had expended in trying to knock apart the nightshade above Theroc or the huge Dyson sphere surrounding the Onthos system. The Shana Rei cylinders seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of dark material, and they managed to repair the shell as fast as the warliners could damage it.
The flagship’s science officer groaned. “Adar! The planet is gone. The sphere is complete.”
Kuivahr was nothing more than a jet-black ball orbited by two lost moons.
Adar Zan’nh set his jaw, knowing that was not a battle he could fight right now. He reached a cold conclusion. This would be a fruitless effort. He could waste the destructive resources of the entire cohort, ultimately for no purpose. No, he needed to do something more significant, and this might be his last chance not only to demonstrate hope for the Ildiran Empire and the Confederation, but to make the creatures of darkness reconsider this fight.
The black shroudsphere around Kuivahr healed itself, leaving no scars, as if nothing had happened at all.
The first robot battleship crashed in among the warliners, opening fire with enhanced weaponry at the nearest Solar Navy ship. All Ildiran shields were at maximum, but even so the bombardment cut through and damaged one warliner. Two other warliners were destroyed by the combined onslaught of the gigantic enemy ships. The black robots flew in like rabid animals, attacking everywhere—and more than three hundred Solar Navy warliners rallied to defend themselves. They hammered at the robot ships, but the enemy armor was stronger than expected.
Meanwhile, the Shana Rei hex cylinders hung inside their shadow cloud, motionless, while the robots fought for them. They seemed invincible.
Adar Zan’nh made his choice, and he announced how to direct his attack. “We can either try to scoop spoons full of sand from a beach, or we can make a difference. It is questionable how much effect our attack will have against the Shana Rei, but the robots are their foot soldiers—and we know that our weapons can destroy them. If we combine our forces, we can eliminate the robots entirely. Let us hurt the enemy there!”
The great Adar Kori’nh’s astonishing all-or-nothing gambit at Qronha 3 had sent the supposedly invincible hydrogues reeling and demonstrated an effective new way of fighting. Zan’nh could not hold a spark to the bravery of Adar Kori’nh, but he meant to do everything possible.
Tal Gale’nh and Muree’n appeared on the comm, their faces filled with despair. “Tamo’l is gone, Adar! We felt her … wink out.”
Looking flushed, Osira’h arrived in the command nucleus, followed by Prince Reynald and their companions. Osira’h struggled to keep her balance as she was buffeted by storms inside her mind. “Tamo’l was intending to evacuate all her people through the Klikiss transportal. Maybe she escaped. I also felt Rod’h reach out to all of us, screaming—but then Tamo’l went through the transportal, and I felt nothing more from her.”
Zan’nh turned to face the oncoming robot ships. “We will have one victory today, at least. Drain your laser-cannon batteries, unleash all your sun bombs, including the new ones—and turn them against the robots. Wipe them out.” He hardened his voice, knowing the risk he was taking. “If we save anything for later, there may not be a later.”
The warliners responded, and the space battleground around Kuivahr became a firestorm of destructive light, like the core of an exploding galaxy.