War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (35 page)

Kirill picked up his comlink, eager to
finally hear some good news. He knew he had reached his daughter
before the Queen and had been waiting all day for this call.

"When will my daughter arrive?"

There was a slight pause on the other line.
"There have been complications."

"What do you mean, complications?" Kirill
clenched his fists. "Where is my daughter!"
"Unfortunately, we do not have your daughter. We were unable to
retrieve her successfully"

"Why not!" Kirill raged. "What stopped you
from getting her? I gave you everything you needed to capture her
and bring her here to me. What more could I do for you
imbeciles?"

"The Queen's man got to her first and killed
Giustino in the process. We don't know anything else right now. We
are slowly getting facts as they trickle in."

"Find out where she is now!" Kirill fumed. "I
want her brought here as soon as you find her."

The figure nodded. "We are trying, but the
Queen knows we are trying. She's putting up quite a fight now."

"Of course she's putting up a fight, she
knows I'm alive! Donnchadh's undoubtedly revealed everything to
her," he yelled into the comlink. "She knows the Deimos Brotherhood
is after the Throne and her daughter, but it doesn't matter! Adira
won't stop me from prying the Throne from her cold, dead,
hands!"
"She can't, but she is trying her hardest," the figure said. "She
sent out a message to the Council saying her daughter is safe.
There will be a meeting tomorrow. I will keep you informed of what
she goes over and if she reveals anything of importance."

"You say
if
, like you think she
won't."

The figure let out a deep breath. "I have a
feeling that she isn't going to reveal anything that will lead us
to her daughter. Ever since she captured Donnchadh, information has
been difficult to come by."

"Find out something anyway!" Kirill raged,
hanging up the comlink.

His plans appeared to be falling apart around
him now. Many years of careful and patient planning now seemed
irrelevant. Donnchadh had screwed up everything, all starting with
that stupid boy. His men had always been successful, carrying out
the most dangerous and unlikely missions with nothing but success.
They had all been tests for this moment, and compared to killing
the Queen, they were all extremely difficult. Donnchadh's failures
had led to all of this and it infuriated him that things could fall
apart so quickly after so much careful planning.

Now the Queen knew it was the Deimos
Brotherhood who was after her, and more specifically, him. Things
were much harder, but definitely not impossible. His plans were
falling apart, but they were still hanging together by a small
thread. The Throne was still his for the taking, he was sure of
it.

Nimesha should be calling in any day now,
informing him of Anlon's death and that would be one problem
erased. There were still others to fix, specifically Kanti because
the Queen would be a little more difficult than finding a girl.
That was, if he could find her after Giustino's failure. If the
Queen knew where she was, he had no doubt that he would eventually
find the location of the Princess. Until then, he would have to
wait and make sure that the failures were put to an end by whatever
means necessary.

"What did you have in mind for Orion,
Jahdiel?" Merikh asked her in his chambers.

"How many ships do we have at our disposal
again?"

"We have four fully manned fleets, all with
maximum firepower and fully loaded with fighters and bombers. We
have more than enough men to carry out multiple attacks on multiple
fronts simultaneously. If we decide to invade on the ground, we
also have more than enough crew for that."

"That's excellent," she said. "If taking over
Orion is what you want to do, you'll need every last one of the
crew in order to succeed. The Queen and her races won't go down
without a hard fought fight."

"Oh, we'll succeed no matter how hard they
fight," Merikh grinned. "We'll take over Orion one planet at a
time. They Queen may try as she will, but there will be no stopping
us from taking Orion from her."

"We have to start someplace easy," she
warned. "I have been absent for quite some time, they could have
gotten bigger and stronger fleets in my absence. Being over
ambitious may cost you ships and crew that you don't need to
lose."

"You don't sound sure that they've gotten any
stronger," Merikh sensed.

Jahdiel shook her head. "Adira is not a war
hungry Queen. She has never had a real threat posed to her, and I
highly doubt any have risen in my absence . Most of her efforts
have probably been directed towards keeping peace, not developing a
formidable military."

"Even if she did put together an army, she
has never faced an enemy like us. We are far superior to all of
these races in Orion."

Jahdiel ignored the comment. "She has never
faced much of any enemy besides small terrorist groups. The
Crodillians will catch her completely off guard."

"We will be the last enemy she ever faces,"
Merikh crossed his fingers. "At long last, we will have the revenge
our ancestors thirsted for."

Jahdiel nodded. "We will crush her, and her
followers, then we will rule Orion with an iron fist in her place.
Anyone that doesn't want to follow us, will be annihilated."

"I will get my men ready to attack right
away," Merikh started to leave the room. "Which planet does the
Queen live on?"

"No. We won't strike her home planet first,"
Jahdiel got up. "I want her to know who is going to crush Orion and
take her spot on the Throne before we show up at her doorstep."

"Is that hatred I hear in your voice?" Merikh
asked.

"She outcast me to what she believed was a
certain death. I want her to know exactly who has dethroned her and
ripped Orion from her grasp," she spat. "She labeled me as a
traitor, so I may as well live up to that label."

Merikh grinned. "I will alert the crew to be
ready to strike at a moment's notice."

"Good," She closed her eyes. "Orion will be
ours very soon."

Kirill tried calling Nimesha on her comlink
again. If it was true that Giustino had been killed in his attempt
to get Kanti, there was a chance Nimesha could still grab her, but
only if she started tracking soon. Silence was all he had heard for
days, which was not usual when she was on a mission like this, and
he felt like it was too long to stay out of contact. It was his
third time trying to reach her and he still hadn't had any luck. He
had a bad feeling that yet another one of his races had failed him.
What could've happened to her though? She was the best assassin
that he had.

Kirill slammed his fists on his desk. "This
boy is screwing up everything!"

Moran landed the small stealth craft at the
busy spaceport on Hermes only a couple of hours after leaving Gaea.
The spaceport was teeming with life from all over Orion. Ships were
coming and going every second and cruisers zipping through the sky
above them, only adding to the chaos of the spaceport. Moran took
the ship down and they all exited, immediately being absorbed in
the crowds of shuffling races.

Trade posts were set up right at the bottom
of the ramp entering Thermopylae. Makeshift tables were selling
things of all types from all over Orion, making it difficult for
Anlon to follow the group as he wanted to look at everything. He
had never seen so many races in one place, and had never seen
someplace teeming with so much diverse life. Past all of the
buildings and chaos in the distance, there was a sea of green
forest with trees rising hundreds of feet tall to encircle the
entire city.

"Keep close to me," Moran shouted, over all
of the spaceport noise. "It's not uncommon for young races to go
missing here in all of the commotion. Same goes for fancy
robots."

"Where is the ship?" Kanti asked, pushing her
way through the crowd to keep close.

"It's kept somewhere safe. It's hidden from
any thieves that may want to take it."

"Why here?" Kanti looked around. "There's so
many races and possible thieves roaming the streets. This would be
the last place that I would hide something."
"Planet of trade. It's an easy place to hide a ship and get it out
without attracting any attention. There are so many ships here, no
one could possibly keep track of which stay and which go."
"That was very smart. I wouldn't have thought of it myself,"
Camillus agreed with the reasoning. "I can see why the Queen
trusted Armino so much. He thought of everything."

"He was a smart man, thought of almost
everything. Hopefully his son turns out the same way," He winked to
Anlon, who was looking at one of the stands selling exotic meat
from another planet.

"Is everything from Orion traded and sold
here?" Anlon jogged to catch up.

"Anything, and everything, you can think of.
Races buy stuff here and then take it to other planets where it is
sold and distributed. There are also some places here where you can
buy black-market items and slaves, which is why I told you to stay
close. Kids like you are the easiest to turn to slaves."

"And the Queen doesn't try to stop it?" Kanti
exclaimed. "That's terrible!"

Moran shrugged. "She's tried, but she can't
stop everything that happens in Orion. It's a big Galaxy. Some
races just don't care what happens to them, even if they do get
punished," He pointed straight ahead. "That's where your ship is
being kept Anlon."

Anlon looked straight ahead at a huge
circular building in the middle of the plaza. The place looked like
a small Palace for visiting royals, but Anlon didn't see any royals
roaming the streets of Thermopylae. Other similar buildings were
around it that looked just as expensive, but its circular design
made it stand out from the rest.

They pushed their way through the crowds and
stopped in front of the building. There were makeshift stands set
up out front with traders selling things, but no races appeared to
pay attention to the building itself.

"This building comes with top of the line
security, so I'd be impressed by race able to get through and steal
the ship," Moran approached the doors. "If someone does happen to
get lucky enough to get inside, there's still more security to go
through until they can actually steal the ship if they know where
to look."

Moran stopped at the door of the building and
placed his hand on a scanner. A laser came down and scanned his
eyes before the door opened.

"Follow me," he led them inside.

Anlon and the others followed him into the
dark building. When they stepped inside, the roof retracted,
revealing the busy sky above and allowing light to pour in. Anlon
looked around the beautiful building made of brown marble floors
and enormous pillars. Pictures hung on the walls, many of Queen
Adira and other important figures dating back to Exodus Era.

Anlon turned when he heard Moran doing
something at a computer on the wall and turned to see what he was
doing. All of a sudden, the floor budged and they all looked to the
middle of the room where the floor was retracting in a circular
pattern to reveal an object levitating up.

A medium sized ship, a metallic black and
silver, had appeared in the center of the room. It took the shape
of a baby dragon holding its wings in at its sides. They had a
unique curvature to them, making them look almost life-like.
Cannons and guns were attacked on the wings, that had the ability
to be concealed, and revolving turrets were mounted on the top and
bottom of the ship.

"
Drako Mavros
," Moran crossed his
arms.
"
Drako Mavros
?" Kanti asked him.

"Black Dragon," Camillus translated. "It's
the name of the ship."