Ghosts of Lyarra (8 page)

Three
Orbit of the Guild World Ryas

Once she had been skirted away from the Council and reunited with her assassin guards, she was ushered to her personal shuttle that would take her back home to Ryas. The temple - or what remained of it after the attack - was now compromised as she struggled to wrap her head around what had just transpired. It had taken every ounce of her will to stay put at her station, even though all her senses screamed for her to run. Never before in her long life had she been that scared, and now that that part was over she was left with more questions than
answers.

She thought she had all the answers; knew all the players in the game before she played her hand. But now there was a late joiner and he was the wild card in all of this. Could it be she had overlooked a simple detail? Could she have made a mistake after so long of being
careful?

No; everything had been planned to perfection! Her entire life was dedicated to this task and every step had been painstakingly planned before being taken. Nothing had been missed, if anything the coming of the Harbinger had done little but aide her cause. She had rolled with the new development and even used the epic sacrifice to further her means. A weapon of enormous proportions had been lost to the darkness of space and with it she had been able to place the blame for it squarely on the Empress. Up until a few minutes ago she had been in total control; enjoying the last few torturous moments of her adversary’s reign as her grip on the throne spiralled away further and further. But now, there was this new development and it threatened her
directly.

It knew of her plans; knew of her intentions and meant to undermine everything she had worked for. This was her birthright at stake and she had planned far too long to let it get away from her now. She had to know more; who was this unknown assailant and why had he turned his ire on her? She noted it had mentioned an intrusion into his home and began to think. She had given the go ahead to thousands of missions by her assassins; it could be any of those in which he had been
attacked!

Taking a deep breath, she did her best to compose herself. It would serve no purpose to let the help see her in this state. Someone of her stature had to remain in control at all times, even in the face of adversity. Holding back all the nervous energy that flooded her body she looked on at the news vids that continued on the explosions at the temple. He had struck with no warning, a slap to her face that would sting for some time to come, but worse yet he had left the threat of another attack. He had threatened to take from her everything she sought after and that was something that just couldn’t happen. The Throne of Light was just within her reach and she would not lose it
now!

—
Lyarran Vessel Dark Light; Imperial Shipyards of Thsin

Lyxia left the holo-chamber in silence; still stunned from the events of the Council meeting. The entire staff of the Ops Control stared in anticipation of an order, but as the Council of the Dark Light sank into her chair none came. Instead, she began to replay all that transpired in an attempt to make sense of it. In a flash, an unknown being had declared war on the Empire and for the first time none of her training or instincts could help
her.

Looking up at the view screen, she could see the commotion about the docks as all available ships disembarked to the inner system to track down the assailant. All rules and procedures went out the window as each ship tried to leave at the same time; all in a rush to bag the bad guy and become the newest Imperial hero. Near collisions and hulls scraping were all about them, but again Lyxia gave no orders to join the fray. In her mind there would be nothing to find; anyone that could walk into the den of the Forgotten and raze their home to the ground would be gone by the time the explosion happened. They were dealing with a new type of enemy; one none in the fleet had encountered
before.

“Computer.” She called out after an agonizing long
silence.

“
How may I assist you, Council
?” the ships VI droned back in
response.

“Cross reference the incident on Ryas with any known happenings in the Imperial database. I need to know how to fight what we don’t know how to
fight.”

“
Processing.
”

“Fleet Com is wondering why we aren’t moving yet.” Onai spoke as the quiet in the room had finally been
broken.

Holding up her palm to both silence her friend and signal to not respond to Fleet Com, Lyxia chose to wait for her inquiry to be answered
first.

“
There are no instances that correlate with the events of today, Council. There are no cases of this type of strike against the Empire in its long history
.” The computer
answered.

“Dig deeper; try searching data uploads from individual worlds from their history books. I want to know what I don’t know and I want to know it
now!”

“
There is a resemblance in the historic files of a few worlds, of such activity. A few planetary members have had some type of threatening activity to prompt change in governments or military regimes. In fact, one world has a long history of such savage
attacks
.”

This peaked Lyxia’s attention immediately. Finally she was getting somewhere with this god forsaken
machine!

“Which planet?” she asked as she stood up from her slump in her
chair.

“
Terra Sol. The humans have a long history of violence to evoke change throughout their records
and
……”

“Onai, set course for Terra Sol and engage jump drives as soon as we are clear from the shipping lanes!” Lyxia barked out. “Get those damn mooring clamps off my ship and get this thing
moving!”

“What about Fleet Com?” Onai asked as she began to carry out her
orders.

“Tell them if they want to sort through the ash and debris for nothing to be my guest, but we are on our way to find
answers.”

—
Geneva, Switzerland; Earth Council Headquarters

It was a scene out of the past for Sara; memories of terrorists laying claim to their horrific artistry still rang fresh in her mind from before the Husk had reshaped the world. To her, that was what this being was; a terrorist. But the question of who was the attack against was one that confused her more than anything. Although mildly rattled by the display of anger, the scene had left more questions than fear in the Council for
Earth.

Those around her in the Council had been horrified as if none had truly experienced something like that. In fact, Sara wondered how the Empire had become as large without any type of social resistance as it grew. There had been such fear in the eyes in the room, and the terrorist had preyed upon that to prove his point. Here, behind the massive arrays of PA Cannons Sara felt safe, but also took little consolation in the fact that this thing had attacked the very home of the temple assassins; creatures that the entire Empire seemed to fear. If that hadn’t dissuaded him then the cannons would do little to do so either. She wondered what and who this thing was after and to what lengths it might go to get it. She remembered the terrorist attacks around the world and how determined some of those groups had been to get to a desired result. Times before the Husk were full of angst and unrest; not that these times were much
better.

In the last five years the Earth had been transformed; no longer the scared and self centered civilization it used to be. The rebuild of the lost cities of the planet was now underway, yet it was clear the emotional scars would not heal as fast as the physical ones. Humanity had gotten up after an immense beating and showed its collective fortitude in doing so as they continued on in life. They had built an extreme shield in which to fend off any other attacks, but behind their defenses they were still as afraid as they had been when the Husk had landed. There was much anger and hate built up towards anything alien; old habits and prejudices were difficult to let go. Now the planet was almost divided in its beliefs, and that division showed on how the rebuild progressed around the
planet.

Europe, Asia, and Africa showed the most progress in the rebuild, and along with an influx of population from the west, these parts had grown into the more refined part of civilization. Old cities such as Rome, Paris, and Berlin were repaired of any damages and became new homes for many of the world’s displaced population. New lives were carved out in the defence industry and the new political scope; through the endearing nature of these people the Earth, was able to move forward towards a better future. Enhancements in technology were more prevalent here; gifts from the Empire to help bridge the gap of trust that still existed. It was here the tourism industry thrived; it was the Eastern world that reached out to embrace all the new things to be discovered with the partnership of the Lyarrans. Aside from Moscow, which was a desolate wasteland of death where nothing would grow or survive, the Eastern world was happy and
thriving.

The remains of the continental United States, Central and South America were the opposite. Here, the full might of the Husk had been unleashed and almost sixty percent of the population had been decimated by the attacks. Here the line in the sand had been drawn and here the hate still burned white hot. The clean-up and rebuilding had been slower to proceed here; the crews of Lyarran workers had constant barrages of violence to impede any major progress. After time, the Lyarrans had given the task over to a newly trained crew of humans; but even these crews faced resistance and hatred. So the western shores of the Americas lay barren; cleared of the debris from the attack, but yet to be rebuilt in any way. Miles and miles of the coast were empty; reclaimed by the sand brought by the ocean waves. The East coast remained buried in rubble; only the dead had been removed, as the clean-up had been abandoned before any signs of progress could be made. Once proud cities like Philadelphia, Boston, and New York were left in shambles in comparison to their former glory. There was life here, but not of the quality of the Eastern World. Here the scars hadn’t healed one bit; here wounds stayed open and raw as if the Husk were still in full attack
mode.

But not all of the west was bad; mid America thrived under advancements from the Lyarran partnership as farmland and research facilities grew and prospered. In the battles, many Husk corpses had been saved from the Ifierin purges and were now being studied in great detail. Cities grew and flourished here, a stark contrast to the former world that saw riches and success in the hands of those on the coasts. Though all this success and growth was happening, there still showed the shadows of resentment towards anything not
human.

It was this division that fueled some of the political strife that slowed much of the advancements the planet sorely needed. Sara had hoped the Husk would galvanize the forever divided cultures of humanity - and for the most part it had - but there was still much work to be done to unify Earth as one voice amongst the stars. It was this constant that kept her worn down and forever tired; the planet needed her as a voice for all of them, united or
not.

But it was not all good times coming from transforming the world to mesh with the Imperial ways; many things were slow and hard to change. Earth had been rocked to its very core, and the physical damage ran much deeper than that of death and wreckage. The Empire only helped in the clean-up and rebuild from the attack, but not from the economic and emotional damage done. An economy driven by global stock markets no longer existed; Wall Street lay under tons of rubble just as the economy it ran did. A monetary system that was grown over hundreds of years had collapsed, and in doing so the survivors were left to learn a new and alien one with little or no assets. Those with wealth and power, who had stashed themselves away in safety before the Husk attack, now emerged with none of what kept them
safe.

It was here that Sara saw trouble early, and with diligent work with the new government they had emptied out the global vaulted reserves of gold and other precious metals and mortgaged this with the Empire to restart a dead economy. At the time it drew the ire of many detractors to her appointment, but as the days passed it showed to be a wise and calculated move as gold was scarce everywhere and it gave the planet a leg to stand on in this new economic nightmare. They had used these funds to stabilize the planet, and used the surplus of funds to purchase state of the art mining technology to harvest the system’s bountiful resources. This was the part of the financial move that paid off a hundred fold, because what they found in one of their mining expeditions would help drive the planet to new
heights.

On Jupiter’s moon Io, a find of monumental proportions was discovered. In the flows of the ever erupting volcanoes lay entire lakes of molten liquid gold! The moon known for being one of the most violent places in the system turned out to be the saving grace of Earth. This was the true reason for the Jovian ring of Pa cannons; not as an extra layer of defense for the planet but to ward off any pirates to the largest claim of gold found in the galaxy! It was this find that enabled Sara to enact a way to help fix the emotional damage done by the
Husk.