“He did what!”
Battle Commander Ritoru Dezain was not happy.
His hands absently crushing the life out of the young messenger’s throat in the executive gallery overlooking the bridge of his Brigantine was testimony to that fact.
“Ahhhsckkkk...” was the only sound the messenger could get out as he feebly struggled against the dual-Attuned grip of his Danshaku.
“Inform battle leader Yabana that—”
The loud crack echoed into the air as the boy’s neck snapping filled the audience room with silence. The rest of the attendants stared straight on at their posts, pretending not to notice the result of their leader’s careless violence to a fellow clansman.
At the sound, Ritoru’s wild eyes shifted away from the view port framing Yabana’s ruined Caravel down to what his own idle actions had done. A moment of shock passed over the commander’s face, stilling his hands. As if for the first time, he appeared to be seeing the boy he had forced to his knees by his momentarily out-of-control rage.
Looking into the messenger’s dying eyes, Ritoru sighed with futility and tilted his face to the heavens, appearing to all as if he was asking for help with his useless servants...
Then, the commander spoke quietly, “Never mind. I’ll tell him myself...”
The messenger’s body fell bonelessly to the floor as Ritoru straightened and righted his uniform. With his hands rigidly behind his back, he signaled an attendant from the side, who ran up as Ritoru looked back to stare again at the ruin of Yabana’s Caravel. Tiny specks of light—the Caravel’s escape pods, could now be seen gathering to be picked up by the brigantine’s transport ships.
“Inform battle leader Jian Tojaku that battle leader Yabana failed to wait for us before he launched his raid on the Hegemon-4...” Raising his hand to the view port to indicate that the destroyed vessel was evidence of his assertion. “And was obviously overwhelmed. We will immediately pursue the force that destroyed the Caravel. Tojaku is to join us. From there, we will be raiding the Hegemon-4 to pay for this... disaster.”
The servant bowed his head, slammed a fist to his chest, and raced out.
Ritoru walked over to the railing and called down into the bridge. “Helmsman Shiruba. Make contact with the ships pursuing the Caravel’s attackers. We are to leave immediately and join in their pursuit.”
“Ah, sir? Rescue operations for the Caravel’s clansmen are already underway. Estimates are forty-five micro-gyras to get all the clansmen aboard—”
Ritoru’s head snapped down, making direct eye contact with the lead administration officer. It was clear for all present to see that the wild look of abandon Dezain had just strangled the messenger with was back and in total control.
His voice strained as he attempted to maintain calm, biting out each of his words. “Call them back immediately! We will not be making space aboard my Brigantine for their pathetic lives. They couldn’t even protect their ship from one mundane assault craft!”
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The helmsman, a Cultivator but not yet Attuned, snapped his fist to his chest and spun away with a clipped, “Aye, sir!”
Tension filled Ritoru’s shoulders as he silently sifted through his thoughts and options.
It has been five gyras since Yabana launched his ill-fated and moronic solo attack. The Caravel is ruined. A complete loss. Its assault fighters are destroyed or scattered to the solar winds and its crew is a useless rabble without a ship to man.
Yabana had better have been killed by those mundane fighters. If I find him alive... the imbecile will find out what it feels like to wear his still-attached scrotum like a skullcap before he dies!
Ritoru took a calming breath.
It’s not too late yet. I can make this right...
I still have Jian and his Caravel. Together we can both track down and overtake the much slower Hegemon-4. We’ll stage a visible and obvious raid to acquire some of its low-hanging and valuable fruits. The blame will still fall squarely on the Kaizuko as planned, and I can recoup the value of my losses and then some.
The ruined Caravel had been a capital ship... And not even mine!
It had been on loan from that skin-crawling, Spiritually-risen dead, Kyon Shi! If Ritoru didn’t return value for its loss, Kyon Shi would likely take both of their ships and put him and his remaining junior commander Jian Tojaku through several fates worse than death before turning them into his shambling slaves.
I could go a long way to fixing this by knowing what of value was aboard the Hegemon-4 along with exactly where it is. Such information would allow his raiders to get in and out quickly.
A smile raised the cheekbones on his thin face.
In fact, there is a ship with a handful of soldiers currently on the run with just the information I am looking for, isn’t there?
Things might be looking up!
A good haul from the Hegemon-4 would keep Kyon Shi happy and stand Ritoru in good graces with the Savoy when he joined their ranks and advanced his Cultivation. There was no hope for growth with the Kaizuko. Even the Kaizuko’s Kotei only carried six Attunements. Ritoru was going to outpace that pathetic fossil. The incense and elixirs he had received from the Savoy had already increased his Meridian’s volume and Core capacity. Of his contemporaries in the Kaizuko, he stood at the pinnacle. His future was bright—
A two and a half meter image of Kyon Shi’s cowled and hooded desiccated visage appeared in the center of the brigantine’s gallery, more than interrupting Ritoru’s increasing optimism. The undead’s clouded and calcified lenses still managed to somehow pierce through Ritoru, locking him in place and freezing his thoughts. A cold chill ran down his spine as he was locked into immobility—unable to even paste the usual fake smile he reserved for his newly acquired Savoy liege.
“You have failed me concerning the Hegemon-4.” Kyon Shi’s dry voice rasped like kindling dragged over sandstone as green-gray puffs of rotted decay huffed out of his dead throat. Skin-on-bone fingers appeared under the rotting energy drainer’s face and curled into his dry palms. Gold-colored Essence began pouring out of Ritoru’s Meridians and into Kyon Shi’s crooked mouth.
Blinding pain filled Ritoru’s mind as his channels emptied and his Core’s dedicated Essence was broken down to feed the energy drainer’s irresistible pull.
Sensing his end... Ritoru found the strength to plead as tears streamed from his clenched eyes. “M-m-master! I have not failed!” Falling to one knee, he braced himself with one hand on the ground and tried to raise his head up. “I... I have the space marines that attacked your Caravel cornered...”
Essence continued to flow as another layer of Cultivation was eaten by the indifferent hunger of Kyon Shi.
“I will renew the attack against the Hegemon-4! I can still fulfill your wishes!”
The last layer of Ritoru’s Core degraded and fed his Meridians as the Kaizuko commander fell face down onto the deck plates. His body began to twitch uncontrollably as he spoke in no more than a halting whisper as his mind slipped into the yawning dark cavern surrounding it,
“If… you… will… only… allow… me… to… serve...”
Kyon Shi’s dead face remained expressionless as his right hand made an L shape with his thumb and index finger. Dark Essence flowed back into Ritoru. After a few seconds, the battle commander’s twitching stopped.
“You have until I arrive to set things right. Remember. The Savoy see all. Fail again, and you will receive no warning before I make you repay me as a spiritually risen slave.”
Ritoru stuttered, rising to his knees, head bowed, eyes still squeezed shut. “Wh-when can we expect you, my lord?”
“I’m in transit now.” Kyon Shi’s giant head disappeared, leaving Ritoru alone, huddling in a cold sweat in the center of the brigantine’s gallery.
The ragged breath of escaping his all too near death shook Ritoru’s quivering frame. The dark Essence flowing through his Meridians was not his own. He was indeed one step closer to the spiritual dead...
Ritoru swallowed with a dry throat. He would start with capturing, interrogating, and making examples of the space marines. They were going to pay more dearly than Yabana for this pain!