As soon as John got the news of Pular’s conquest of Tanis, he tried to contact the Empress and the Spymaster. He received two words from the Empress—‘Stay put!’ The Spymaster didn’t reply at all. John kept his fleets on high alert, constantly patrolling the area surrounding the hyperspace beacon.

Two weeks later a small fleet of ships entered the star system. It was the Empress. What was she doing here?

John welcomed her as soon as she landed on Fi.

“What has happened? Why are you on Fi?”

“I need a safe place to stay for the time being,” the Empress said. She looked haggard and weak. The Death Walkers standing by her side were as impressive as ever, giants encased in metal with guns that could tear through the hulls of starships. There were about a hundred of them in all, standing in attention behind the Empress.

“Why did you choose Fi? Our fleet is comparatively small, and our ground defenses aren’t the best. You could have gone to a loyal duke’s planet. He would offer you much better refuge.”

“My loyal dukes don’t have access to a waygate that leads to a world that cannot be assaulted from orbit.”

“So, you want to hide on Rifa.”

“It will be easier to guard a waygate than to defend an entire planet. As long as there is access to the root way I can carry on building my forces.”

What the Empress said made sense. Pular would be on the hunt for her, and nowhere was safe. Rifa was undoubtedly the most defensible spot in the galaxy. She was bringing great trouble to him. He doubted he could fight off Pular’s entire coalition force. How had Pular managed to fool the Empress anyway?

“How did Pular pull off such a surprise attack? The Spymaster must have been aware of it. Is he a traitor?”

“My Spymaster wasn’t omniscient. Pular built his fleets in secret and made many alliances that I had no idea of. When it seemed like he was on his last legs, he struck me with everything he had. My Spymaster paid the ultimate price to bring me warning in time to escape.”

“The Spymaster is dead?”

The Empress nodded. “He is, along with many of my Death Watch and my loyal citizens.”

John contacted Abzulon, while Luten escorted the Empress to her room.

“Abzulon, deactivate the hyperspace beacon.”

Half an hour later the hyperspace beacon was deactivated and John sighed with relief. Activating and deactivating the beacon could only be done manually.

Abzulon contacted him a little later. “Something’s not right, my Lord. I can feel it in my bones.”

“Double check everything,” John had the same feeling. There was something he was missing. He couldn’t think. He went to the botanical gardens to clear his mind. “Luten,” he hailed her. “Take the Empress and my family to the waygate and enter Rifa now. I sense trouble coming. Stay with them for now. I’ll contact Prince Taromi and inform him of the situation. Let Team Rose escort them, along with her Majesty’s Death Walkers. They should be more than enough protection.”

“Right away.” Luten was reliable. She would make sure the Empress was brought there safely.

John then contacted Prince Taromi and appraised him of the situation.

“We’ll defend our side of the waygate, Yohn,” Taromi said. “We owe you a lot. Your Empress and family will be safe with us.”

It was the other way around. He owed the dwarfs so much that he would never be able to repay them. They had been the backbone of Fi’s prosperity. Still, Prince Taromi’s skewed sense of gratitude worked in John’s favor.

“Spiz,” he called his Field Marshall. “Mobilize the ground units. Inform the tribes. I feel something coming.”

“Are you sure you can trust this feeling, John?” Spiz asked.

“Maybe not, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Think of it as a drill, if nothing happens.”

“Okay.”

What was he missing? What was it that was nagging at his brain? He hadn’t felt this tense for years.

Nothing happened that day. John went back to his house wondering if his instincts had been wrong. Abzulon was feeling the same way. There was definitely something amiss. A curfew had been declared in the city and only soldiers walked the streets. People would get fed up if this state of affairs went on, but John wasn’t about to lift the curfew until he felt everything was okay.

Just then, John heard a huge explosion. It had come from the botanical gardens. He jumped out from his balcony and flew to the gardens. Below him, he saw a crowd of men attacking Sher Khan with spears. They had used up all the ammunition in their guns already. Sher Khan was in his armor. One of his minders must have put it on him as soon as he sensed the attack coming. There were five corpses lying on the grass, mauled beyond recognition. John landed on the ground and pushed the attackers away with a burst of wind.

“Easy boy,” he said to Sher Khan. “I’m here now.” He turned to the others, “What the hell are you doing?”

The attackers backed away slowly. Spiz came running with a group of men behind him. “What’s going on?” Spiz demanded loudly. Spiz’s men were carrying what looked like giant metal spikes.

“We were just following orders.” the men said.

“Whose orders?” John demanded. These were not Pular’s men. John recognized them. He had interviewed one of them himself.

“His,” the man pointed at Spiz. At the same time, Spiz raised his hand and his men threw the metal spikes. Beams of light formed around John. He could feel his aura draining. What were these things?

“What are you doing, Spiz?” John demanded. “This isn’t funny.” Two war machines were dropped from the sky at that moment. It seemed like Spiz had planned this whole operation very meticulously.

“I thought you were dead, John. You should never have come back,” Spiz shouted.

“Pular bought your loyalty? You have no family, and I was paying you well. What did he offer?”

“Lordship of Fi, prestige and more money than I can imagine. You should have stayed dead, John.”

“So your oath to me meant nothing?”

“It meant everything,” Spiz shouted. “When you went missing, I saw nothing but a dismal future for myself. That woman you married was going to kick me off this planet, throw me away from everything we built together. John, we don’t have to fight. You can just watch what happens. I’ll plead your case to Pular. It’s too late for me to rescind my oath to him, but you can join his side, just like I did.”

John laughed. “He’ll kill me as soon as he gets the chance. Why don’t you do the deed instead and gain some merit for yourself?”

Spiz raised his hand and the war machines aimed their rail guns at John. “As long as you stay put, they won’t fire. By now, our teams would have taken over the command center and the fleets. You don’t stand a chance of winning.”

So, Pular had been one step ahead of the Empress the entire time. Aura swirled around John, like a purple cocoon. The war machines fired their guns but Sher Khan jumped in the way, protecting his master. Sher Khan’s armor couldn’t withstand the gunfire. John shouted in despair as he overloaded the aura draining spikes. He summoned Dark Rainfall that landed in a downpour, killing almost everybody. It avoided Spiz and Sher Khan.

“Silly boy,” John ran to Sher Khan’s side. “I had everything under control. Why did you have to butt in?” He stroked the tiger’s fur until Sher Khan breathed his last. Spiz, meanwhile, had escaped.

John took to the air and found Spiz just about to enter the command center. He landed in front of Spiz and flung him to the ground. He heard the sound of gunfire throughout the city. There were explosions coming from within the command center as well.

“Call off the attack. Then take your pathetic backstabbing face out of John City. Find a transport craft and leave. If I see you again I’ll kill you.”

“I can’t,” said Spiz. “I’m not in charge of the attack. One of Pular’s men is in charge of the entire operation.”

“Where is he?”

“Fort Sacred Tree. The waygate.”

John entered the command center. Within, he saw hundreds of his people dead. The attackers were trying to get into the fleet command room, but the blast doors were shut tight. John killed everyone there with chain lightning, and then contacted Abzulon.

“I’m outside. Let me in.”

The blast doors opened and John ran in. “What’s happening?”

“Half the fleet has defected,” Abzulon was looking pale. “Battleship Pikachu reactivated the beacon. More and more of Duke Pular’s ships are entering our space. I can’t hold them back much longer. Dwarf fleets as well as Atar capital ships have started entering our system as well.”

“We built many of Pular’s ships. Activate the backdoors and disable their AIs.”

“Already did. It’s no use. There are too many. I can buy you two hours, but that will result in total destruction of all the ships we have left.”

“Don’t do it then,” said John. “Have my fleets escape to my father-in-law’s territory. Let him take temporary command of them.”

Abzulon shouted out orders and nodded at John, “It’s done. Escaping into hyperspace shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good. Close the blast doors as soon as I leave and stay here where it’s safe. I have a fort to raze.” John could understand why the empire of Atar would get involved in this war, but why had the dwarfs come? Could word have gotten out about the Akiaska dwarf’s taboo bloodline?

John took off from the command center and flew to Fort Sacred Tree where the waygate was situated. He blasted his way in, and killed everyone who fired at him. He found about two dozen prisoners in a room and freed them.

“Who did this and where is he?” John asked the prisoners.

“The commander. He’s gone to the waygate.”

“With how many men? How many guardsmen are at the waygate?”

“About five hundred men were sent there yesterday on a training mission to Rifa. I don’t know how many he took with him today. There are thousand of us all together. Many of us were killed when we realized what was happening and stopped following orders.” John nodded and left. He heard the man shout from behind him, “long live the Empress!”

John murdered his way through the rest of the fort and reached the waygate. There he found the corpses of Team Rose, along with half the Empress’ Death Walkers and a few hundred of his guardsmen. Gun enclosures had been torn apart by the recent battle. They were now nothing more than scraps of metal.

Lin was still breathing, lying underneath one of the Death Walkers. John pushed the big Death Walker off Lin.

“What happened?” John asked. He squeezed his hand and called for a med team.

“Your guardsmen tricked us. Set up an ambush. We tried to contact you but it wouldn’t connect,” Lin took in a few ragged breaths and continued. “The Empress and your family are safe. The dwarfs destroyed the waygate from the other side. We bought them enough time to do it.”

“You did a great job, Lin. The med team will be here soon. Stay awake. Don’t close your eyes.”

Before the med team arrived, Lin was dead. John began to shiver with rage. All his friends were now dead, murdered by Pular. He examined the waygate. The blue light within was flickering on and off. He didn’t want to think what would happen to him if he stepped in. The Empress and his family were safe for the time being. There was nothing he could do here.

John then roared, letting out all his anger and frustration. He flew into space. He would kill them all!