Chapter 62: Chapter 61 – Prelude to the End (1)

It took 2 months for Roxo to set up everything. He was always a patient hunter and was not about to rush things. When his fleet was ready, leading them into the Astropath, they knew once they emerged, it would be before the Gate of Kaltazar. Their fleet contained nearly 300 warships, and they were all armed to the teeth; half of them were his elite forces experienced in multiple skirmishes, following their leader for decades. He was sitting in the captain’s chair, looking over the reports of his subordinates, when the Shadow started to shake. He immediately looked up at his officers, but soon everyone realized not the ship was the one that shook. It was the whole Astropath. Their blue tunnel was slowing down, a phenomenon that they thought was nothing but a visual illusion. But no, it truly stopped ‘flowing,’ and soon, it broke apart, dropping out the whole fleet into empty space between star systems.

“Report!” Roxo shouted as his commanders and captains also contacted him, confused about what the hell was going on.

“We… we are not alone!” His officer said, and the image on their screen changed.

What they faced was a similar, giant fleet surrounding them. They had around 500 ships, and even if most of them were smaller, there was one that was enormous. It looked like a giant wedge facing the Shadow, overshadowing everything with its 20-kilometer-long length. The Veil and The Hammer looked like little specks floating next to it. Roxo could not believe what he was seeing. Ships of that size were unheard of; he even had a sudden feeling that it was just an illusion of some kind.

“That… dreadnought,” His man reported, trying to sound calm, but he was just as shocked as his captain, “Has locked onto us. They are not moving, neither do they firing, but we are locked on!”

“This is…” Roxo murmured, his heartbeat speeding up, realizing they were in a pinch. He already came up with some battle plans on how to proceed. Even with how to focus on that giant of a ship breaking out… all of it meant he would loosing many of his forces. Even worse, they were stranded. It would take him who knows how long to get back to a system with an Astropath. He already had a guess that that giant of a ship pulled them out from the Astropath. It had to be a lost, human weapon. So it also had to be the key to reentering an Astropath from here. He was increasingly sure this was a show of strength from their side, and they wouldn’t want to engage in a real battle. Or they would be firing at them as soon as they arrived.

What Roxo didn’t know was that he was half right. The giant ship was nothing but an empty shell. Even from the Neo-Hegemony’s side, few knew that. They thought it was a miracle that Mors Caminus worked on for decades, revealed only now. In reality, it was a hastily put-together shell of a battleship. Looking at it from the outside, it looked like a proper warship. The engines were there; if they scanned it, it looked like its integrity was solid, shields were working, and the weapons they could pinpoint worked. In reality, that was it. There was no crew manning it, not really. Only a handful of people, with Omega on its bridge, were running the ship. The inside was hollow, barely built in a way people could traverse from the engine block to the ship’s bridge.

Yet it worked. It did precisely what Omega wanted and drew their attention to it, missing the real threat. The hundred small, fighter-sized suits mixed into their fleet, ready for action. Mirian was excitedly piloting her own Suit, floating next to Sylen, prepared to take action if needed. They were the first batch of Suits of Ares, built by the Neo-Hegemony, mostly matching the performances of the Xanthe.

“I hope they took the bait,” Sylen murmured while Mirian chuckled, answering her via their comms.

“They did not fire yet. So I think, yes. Now let us see if we can negotiate something. They ought to look at us as equals now!”

On the Shadow, Roxo slowly leaned back in his chair, accepting the incoming transmission. It was who he expected to be when Omega’s image appeared on the screen.

“I will be honest; I am surprised,” Roxo said, looking into his eyes while watching his slightly smiling expression.

“I am happy to hear that.”

“Heh…”

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“Maybe we can start over our discussion?” Omega asked, crossing his arms.

“We can.” Roxo nodded, and his tone was also much more serious than when they first met.

“Glad to hear you are willing to take us as equals. I always found it weird some of your species only understood something when knocked on the head.”

“We are warriors first.” Roxo chuckled, not denying it.

“Well, I can give you the trophy of your life. No… the trophy of your entire species.”

“Hmmm?” He furrowed his brows.

“The data we gave you was not fake.”

“I am still not believing it.” Roxo countered.

“I know; that is why I am going to prove it to you.”

“Oh? Now you got my attention!”

As an answer, Omega concentrated, and most of the ships started to catch onto a signal. It was coming from their devices, designed to send out the signal to the Astropaths, opening them. Now they relayed back that dozens of such paths were resonating around them, and they could get a reading. It all lasted for a few seconds before everything went back to normal. Roxo was just about to ask what it even was when a new reading alerted everybody. Not far from them, an astropath was breaking apart. It was not a natural opening or ending; it materialized from nowhere and ejected out a silver ship. It was around 2 kilometers long from its tail end to its other, made out of completely silver. Even though nobody could get a reading of it, Omega could hear a familiar voice in his head just by looking at it.

“Finally found you!” Finis said, piloting his ship. He was unfazed by the hundreds of ships before him, only focusing on Omega’s presence, ready to kill him.

“I let you find me.” He answered as they communicated through space. “Because I will kill you right here and now.”