Ambrozy had been keeping a tight lid on the communication back to the capital on Llapus. He had ordered – or advised, since he was a benevolent holy man – that they should keep quiet about the Major's death so the leadership back at the base would not get cold feet and pull the plug on the operation. They were aware of the loss of equipment at the start of the mission but otherwise they had no idea about the troubles the expedition had been experiencing on so many occasions. The reporting had been minimal, since they didn't want anybody to pick up on and intercept constant messages that went between Llapus and Dolustea and then get nosy about what was going on. But once back with the first shipments of the priceless ore, the deceased Major's companions would get the picture and become very suspicious about the cult-like change that had happened with the expedition and the sudden importance of a volunteer grass-roots operator, a nobody who was suddenly trying to be somebody. Ambrozy wondered if they would go so far as to court martial some of the young officers, at least to send a message and make a scapegoat of somebody, but it was clear that his own involvement was very dangerously going to be cut short once they were back on Llapus. He would probably be thrown in a cell, at least put in house arrest and interrogated for months on end. The stories that he had told the men about his visions and the role they were supposed to play would reach the ears of the leadership and that would really put a permanent nail in his coffin. After all, the only ladder Ambrozy had managed to climb after all this time was to become a chieftain of an archaic village, the real world was out there waiting for him. As he saw it, his only chance would be to try a coup of some sort and fast, bank on the support he had from the men of the expedition and try to create a faction of his own. And even if that would prove short, he had Yuri.

Oh, Yuri! What a marvel that his young savior had turned out to be! He and everybody else could have only looked at his feat with their jaws dropped on the day they were getting rid of the underground animals bothering the mining site. Not a bullet had to have been fired to support him, as he had sliced through all the ferocious beasts the cursed earth had spit out to protect itself. Ambrozy had thought that he would have killed a few and danced around the slashing claws in an impressive display of bravery and skill before jumping out, but the ceiling for Yuri's psionic abilities was just rising up and up, probably to heights that had never been witnessed by anyone in the recorded history. There had not been a scratch on him and his stamina had seemed limitless. Ambrozy suspected that Yuri now could produce a psionic field to protect his body, there was otherwise no explanation how he had made it through such an inhumane ordeal. Now if ever the men of the expedition believed that they had been sent on a holy mission with a divine protector to guide their way. This had been a resounding success to validate Ambrozy's authority.

He almost believed that he could take over the capital of Llapus just by siccing Yuri on them, but he could not lull himself with such a simplistic plan. After coming back to the village from the battle with the animals Ambrozy went to see Yuri in his lodgings in the evening and he had just been sitting on a crate without a shirt on, hanging his head, pouring sweat by a bucket full and hands shaking so violently that he could not hold a cup to drink from. Ambrozy noticed the multiple empty packages of both downers and uppers found here and there on the floor. Apparently Yuri had been having a different view of what Ambrozy had meant when he had advised him to “take a couple of pills.” If Yuri would be in a state like this after a fight that had taken about forty minutes, he could not be relied on for long stretches of time. Maybe he had reached that psionic peak through the use of this drugs, as they have enabled him to function beyond his normal limitations? For now, it was impossible to know. The next day Yuri had been more functional, pale as ghost and quiet and unfocused, but eating with a great appetite and walking about. The men looked at him reverently wherever he went.

A bunch of the red menicite had been excavated now, almost two tons. It needed to be refined somewhat but it was not a demanding process and could be done back on Llapus. The reports from the base had been positive about the building of pulse ray, which was as expected since the weapon technology itself wasn't that complicated and demanding, indeed it was something that could have been build a century ago, but the weapon had made no sense without an energy source that could power it. Now it was possible with this type of ore. Ambrozy looked at the black rocks that really did shimmer a bit from its cracks, a dim, reddish glow.

Despite every problem and obstacle the expedition had faced, everything had gone according to the planned schedule, which was an absolute miracle. The time for first shipment would be in a week, and the plan was to go back on Llapus in this ship. If Ambrozy would not take the initiative immediately there and waited around on Dolustea, he would be done for. He had only a very short window to strike the iron that was now hot.

“What we need to understand...” he said to the young officers solemnly in a scheduled meeting. “Is that your superiors on Llapus may not have the best interest of the empire in mind. Such an opportunity that this weapon provides brings too much temptation into the selfish minds that wait there. There may be a time very shortly when we will have to make a stand to do what's right. I trust that you are all with me and will help me to realize the destiny of the empire.” He looked around the room and saw only devoted faces. Ambrozy realized that he had good odds with this gamble.

The voyage back was uneventful, and Ambrozy had decided to take back most of the fighting men of the expedition. If the aboriginals would revolt on Dolustea, the mine could be taken back easily when they would send more soldiers and weaponry back for the next shipment. He needed as many loyal people he could get and decided to lay low as long as he could. Ambrozy spent most of the time on the ship looking after Yuri, pepping him up and taking part in the meditation sessions he had with Oktai. Slowly but surely it seemed that the hermit's anxieties were finally taking the best of him, and he had no other pillars to lean on than a religion he barely knew and pills that could be found in a military medic's pouch. Ambrozy started to replace some of the medicine he gave to Yuri with regular vitamin tablets without telling him, to wean Yuri from the stuff a bit. Yuri didn't seem to notice and so far the placebo was working. Now, if ever, the hermit needed a handler.

Once the ship landed on the harbor of Llapus 884, Ambrozy sneaked away with Yuri without meeting any of the leadership. He had told the young officers to keep quiet about him and one of them had provided an apartment for Ambrozy and Yuri to hide in. They would come to meet him to bring news several times a day. The tropical heat of Llapus hit Ambrozy like a ton of bricks and it was like walking back into a previous life, so distant did his sojourns feel in this distant land.

The apartment wasn't big, there were two bunks, a table and a small kitchen. It was close to the wall around the city and the view from the window wasn't much, just the brick wall of the apartment building opposite of them. They were brought food and Ambrozy waited for the news anxiously, pacing around in front of the window. The door opened in the late afternoon and one of the young officers walked in.

“Well? How are things here?” Ambrozy asked impatiently. “The pulse ray is apparently functional, sir, but a lot of the commander's time has been going into the suppression of the locals and dealing with the rebuilding Anegend after the debacle of the android attack.” the officer answered as he stood in attention. “Oh? And what's wrong with the locals?” Ambrozy asked. “Regular rioting and sabotage, sir, it always happens. Sometimes they aren't so active, but there are periods when they become a real nuisance. Now is one of those periods: they've tried to bust into several of the armories to get access to high-powered rifles and other weapons, but so far their attempts have been thwarted. However, these operations have made the commanders very worried, since they indicate a very real attempt to seize their power. There has been street fighting and skirmishes in the slums now for months now, as they are trying to smoke out the rebels.” Ambrozy rubbed his chin as he listened.

“What about the androids? Have they been causing trouble after the incident at Anegend?” he asked. The officer shook his head. “They destroyed everything there, but afterwards they returned to their normal patrolling rounds. What had triggered the attack, apparently, was an old communications frequency the miners at Anegend had suddenly switched to use after some trouble they had been having with their receivers: the regular frequencies didn't work anymore due to some techical problem so they switched up to something we don't normally use. As the unlikeliest luck would have it, this must have been something that had been used with the androids all those years ago and they responded to it. There is no way that anybody could have known.” He then paused an looekd apologetic. “They are already asking about you and want to speak to you. Someone talked. I'm sorry, sir. I doin't know how long we can hide you here.”

Ambrozy sat down and held his head with his hands, trying to think. He had even less time than he had originally thought. Something needed to be done immediately, stir the pot so that he could slip by and do away with his enemies. He needed to create as much chaos as fast as he could. The gamble was greater than he had anticipated.

“Do you or any of your comrades have access to any of the armories here? Can we get explosives?” he asked. “Of course, sir. There is one actually very close here, we are authorized to access it.” the officer said. “Get the chief engineer here, I need to ask him questions. What I need you to do is get crates of rifles and ammo, then just dump them into the slums unguarded. Set up explosives anywhere near the gates between the inner city and the slums, if you can do so at the gates themselves, better yet. Then start blowing them up after the rifles have been delivered into the slums. Bring some of the soldiers from the expedition here armed and someone who can lead us to the conference room or wherever the leadership meets up. Start doing these things immediately.”

The officer didn't show any signs of hesitation, just saluted Ambrozy and left. Now everything was up to the loyalty and competence of the men of the expedition. Ambrozy knew that he was asking a lot, but everyone knew the trembling that was going through the crumbling galactic empire and realized what was in store for them, no matter how things would turn out in the end. Ambrozy could very easily skitter into slums for safety if nothing he had ordered would happen, but then his small chance to have any sort of power would wither away. What else could be the ticket that the location of the red menicite had been? To whom he would turn next? When would he even be able to get away from this backward rock if it turned out that all had been in vain? He would need to start from the absolute beginning, even further away than he had been when the escape pod had landed into the jungle all those months ago. There had only been a sliver of hope, an insignificant chance to succeed, but he had survived by the skin of his teeth many times already. For how long will the luck hold out? He could only push it as far as possible and see for himself.

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Some time went by and then the door opened, it was the chief engineer, carrying his computer as always. Ambrozy's mood improved. At least some of the things he had ordered were happening. “Sit, my friend. Did you hear about the case of the android attack? Why they had suddenly attacked Anegend?” he said. The engineer put the computer on the table and sat on a chair, wiping his sweaty brow, also not being accustomed to the heat anymore either. “Yes, yes I did, a peculiar case, very dreadful. There was just no way to know, you see...” he said, but Ambrozy cut him short. “Do you know what frequency it was? Can it be used in this city, on some device?” The engineer blinked, a little flabbergasted by the question. “Well, yes, there is nothing peculiar about it, it's just a regular function of our communications system, sure it can be used.” Ambrozy pressed on. “Can you access any of the communications towers in the city with that machine of yours? Do you know where the androids are now?” The engineer stammered a bit, opened the computer and started looking. “The movement of the androids is now carefully monitored, yes. As for the communications, I can produce any frequency through any of the nearest communication centers, that's how our system functions.” Ambrozy nodded several times impatiently. “Start using that frequency then, as loud as possible or however the hell you are supposed to say it in technical jargon. Find the androids and get them to move to our direction. The soldiers here are bound to notice and they will try to intercept them as quickly as possible.” The engineer looked at him with his eyes wide as saucers, but Ambrozy had little patience now. “Just do it. These are exceptional times we live in. We all have to play our part!” Distraction had worked with the filthy animals on Dolustea, so why not here? The door opened again and Ambrozy could hear the steps of several people. Familiar faces of the expedition showed, trying to find space in the small room. “Good, good, you have come. Are you armed?” Ambrozy asked, and the soldiers nodded and one of them opened his jacket to show a pistol tucked into his pants. Ambrozy smirked and glanced at the engineer who was now focusing on his computer. Ambrozy felt a shudder of excitement go through his body and he squeezed his hands into fists. This could work! He had a chance.

Ambrozy turned towards Yuri, who seemed to pay little attention anymore towards his surroundings, just gazing at the floor without listening to what others were talking about. “My friend, it looks like tonight we will have to fight. Are you up for it?” Yuri looked at Ambrozy, his eyes showing that the person previously behind them had gone somewhere far away, but a certain seriousness came to his face and he nodded. Now they only needed to wait more.

Hours went by and it was getting hot in the apartment with so many people inside. One of the soldiers fried up some meat patties on the small stove and everybody ate in silence. “The androids are now on the move, the are about seventy kilometers away from us but the soldiers are taking notice. There's talk in the communications to gather up forces to intercept them if they haven't changed their direction in two hours. They haven't yet figured out that someone is using the dangerous frequency.” the engineer said as the day turned into evening. “I used a coded channel so they wouldn't notice.” he added, looking a bit troubled as he said it. It looked like he was trying to shoo away the doubts in his mind about what he was doing, but Ambrozy thanked him for his work. “We all do what we need to do.” he assured the engineer. Two more hours went by.

Then the windows rattled and the floor shook. The night sky was already showing a plethora of stars, and a glowing hue could now be seen far beyond the apartment buildings. Soon more of such lights came about and like a rumble of lightning could be heard. It was just like that day in the imperial capital when Ambrozy's journey had started. He got up and turned towards the soldiers. “Gentlemen, now is the time. I am in your hands. Take me and the sentinel to where the commanders are.” he said, and with serious looks on their faces the soldiers stood up too. The sirens from multiple emergency vehicles could be heard from the streets and the floor was shaking more strongly with each additional explosion. The bombers had done their best.

They exited the building and jogged along the streets, people in the cafes and bars around them looked panicked and as others fled inside their apartments for safety, some were just frozen on the streets in disbelief of how bad the rebellion was getting. They had to run for a long way, apparently no one had come to the apartment with a vehicle of any sort, and Ambrozy was quickly running out of breath as this was the first time in a long while where he had run without the help of an exoskeleton. But the adrenaline aided him and fueled his determination.

They ended up in front of a huge building with wide stairs leading to the front door, but they went through a side entrance without anybody asking why and who they were, being too confused and worried about the chaos unfolding just outside in the slums. Up more stairs they went through many, many corridors, until there was a room with two guards standing next to the door with tense faces. Without saying a word, two of the soldiers in Ambrozy's group sunk knives deep into the guards necks and they could only flail and gargle in surprise and disbelief. Others barged into the room pistols drawn, and the old officers Ambrozy had met before the expedition watched down the barrels of the guns with their faces turning white. One of them started turning red instead of white, an old man who Ambrozy had not seen before got up from his chair and started yelling out of frustration. “So you were the rebel leader all this time! You traitorous bastard, you took our men and turned them into a cult of your own! Emperor reborn, what trash!” Ambrozy didn't bother to correct him, instead he nodded to his men who nodded back, aimed and fired. The shots were deafening inside the conference room and the old men slumped in their chairs and fell against the table as bullets pierced their bodies and shattered their skulls, painting the walls and floor with splatters of blood and red mist. There was shouting in the corridor and screams of panic, and many running feet were coming towards the room. Ambrozy nodded to Yuri and the new sentinel unsheathed his sword and ran to meet them. Soon more yelling could be heard, now screams of pain and terror.

There was one old man left, trying to escape by crawling on all fours under the table, sobbing out fear of death but dressed in civilian clothes, and he cried pathetically as one of the soldiers pulled him out by his feet. “No, no, no, please! I'm not one of them, I'm a scientist! I always looked after the downtrodden, I encouraged the building of the sewer system into the slums, please! Don't kill me!” Ambrozy frowned at this babbling, remembering that the sewer system of the slums was nonexistent and barely functional. “A scientist, you say? What kind of a scientist?” he said, and the desperate old man kept sobbing. “I was in charge of building the pulse ray, don't kill me, please...” Ambrozy was intrigued and something caught his eye at the window behind the crying scientist. A towering cannon was pointing towards the sky, so huge that it could be seen rising behind all the buildings, and tubes were running up to the base of the cannon, pulsating with deep and bright red light, ominous against the dark sky and the glowing fires the came from behind the city walls. “Wait, is it functional already? Did you load it up with the ore straight away? You didn't have to refine it?” he asked in surprise. The scientist stammered his answer from the floor. “Refining isn't completely necessary, no, we need less energy to get the reaction going when the menicite is refined, but otherwise it works fine. The commanders wanted to see immediately if the ray would be functional, that's why they had it loaded up...” Ambrozy's eyes widened. “So you can shoot with it? Right now?” he said with a rising voice and the scientist curled up even more. “Yes! Yes, it works, just don't kill me...” he whimpered.

Ambrozy's mind started racing. Anything could happen in the city and the pulse ray could be broken or taken over by somebody, maybe there would be problems with getting more shipments of the ore from Dolustea, so he could not be sure that he could fire the weapon anytime he wanted in the near future. The whole point of the weapon was to send a message, show that the owner was a force to be reckoned with and any provocations would bring death and destruction! That message needed to be sent, that was the machine's purpose, and that purpose was Ambrozy's purpose. He had not come this far for nothing. Ambrozy pointed at a phone on the desk. “Do it. Make the call and order the pulse ray to be fired. Shoot at the imperial capital, the city is so big that getting rid a part of it isn't the end of the world.” The scientist looked at him like he was completely mad, so Ambrozy kicked him. Squealing, the old fool wormed to the phone and did the call. “Yes, it's me, now listen...! Ready the weapon and aim at the coordinates X-176, X-779, Z-416... Yes I know where it is! Do it or they kill me, then they force you to do it anyway!”

Ambrozy realized that there was a door to a balcony, and he opened it and peeked outside. Two vehicles crashed into each other at the street, catching fire as their fuel tanks ignited and another one steered to the left to avoid them, losing control of the car and hitting a lampost instead, the driver's side crushing like a can and nobody got out, pedestrians on the street were running around in panic. Bullets left tracer marks in the horizon of the night sky and by the looks of it, the inhabitants of the slums had broken into the city. Then the tubes attached to the pulse ray started to glow more and more vividly, the pulsating of the color becoming more frequent. Over the walls blue energy beams could be seen shooting into the sky, and Ambrozy now knew that the androids were not far away.

There was a packet of cigarettes on the table, a fancier brand than the regular soldiers used to smoke. Ambrozy took one and a soldier gave him a lighter. Ambrozy had stopped smoking when he had started studying at the temple since it wasn't allowed he always got caught, the odor of tobacco being always too distinct. As he inhaled the smoke and remembered how much he had enjoyed it before, a still moment of silence evolved around him before a blinding red light filled the room, the city and the whole world.

It was his empire, his and no one else's.