Chapter Eleven

“We are moving six centuries that just arrived to the southern fortress,” officer Rolando informed the pilot of the black tree. They were currently viewing a general ground layout map that took the floor space of the command room. Since for whatever reason the pilot of the black tree could not leave his suit of war the command room had not roof, instead the canopy of the giant tree covered that space.

Officer Rolando had been assigned as an information specialist for his outstanding ability to gather and organize data as well as vocally present it. The officer had been assigned a whole division for himself consisting of nearly three hundred students spread throughout the quarantine continent constantly relaying messages between the military officers and units.

“Legionnaire Caesar took quite a beating a few days ago when a shock force of great trees struck his fortifications,” the officer continued.

Inside the room was a holographic representation of Legionnaire Caesar himself and legionnaire Gustavo and their officers. For the moment each of the legionnaires had incomplete legions that were constantly being fed a steady supply of fresh meat. The black tree pilot lead the smallest of the legions, it had been split to begin the conception of the other two legions and while it too was constantly being fed to bolster its numbers his particular legion was constantly being sieged and blocked off.

Many had looked down on Gustavo when he was named a Legionnaire because of his ties, he was the third son of elder Noah, and while they respected the pilot of the black tree everyone believed that Gustavo had been “sold” the position. It was common knowledge that the elder had hosted the black tree for a while and had lead the forces that brought him out of the quarantine zone nearly two years ago. Gustavo, however, quickly displayed his leadership abilities having conquered nearly seven Great Spires with barely two Decades and four Centuries.

“While it is clear that we are winning,” legionnaire Caesar interrupted, “I believe that we are going about this the wrong way. A little over two dozen Great Spires have fallen to us and still we have managed to capture none of them alive, they choose to crush their own cores before surrendering it to us. Winning land is not enough.”

“I agree,” the telepathic voice of their general concurred.

“How do you propose we take a Great Spire?” Gustavo asked. “No matter what we do we can never get close enough to them for someone to bond with it.”

“We make a larger version of the gravity railgun and use it to fire a shaped tree,” He replied. “It will take time to make this happen, but if we can do this and fire the shaped tree with a clansman inside just at the right speed to overwhelm the Great Spire and survive the impact then he’ll reach close enough proximity to proceed with the bonding. I suggest we do this in a concerted effort with at the minimum of three targets lest they develop countermeasures to this tactic.”

“This will leave us vulnerable to the great trees,” Gustavo pointed out. “There are at least seven hundred still battle functional and that is just the ones we know of. On the defense and blitzkrieg we can take them, but in a divided advance...we are going to pay heavily for it.”

“I have a plan,” Caesar said moving towards the map bringing a laser pointer out of his pocket. “First, we have to leave the forts as one and then…”

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“Elder Noah of house Geno here to present his request for acquirement of new tree adaptable engines,” an automated voice relayed to the fourteen patriarchs currently attending the meeting via holographic projection.

“Recently I received word from the black tree that they have managed to capture two Great Spires and attempts to capture more are being made,” the elder said to the leaders of the family. “If we hurry now we can have a strong standing fleet once more, I won't request reinforcements from the Fortino family to protect the two Great Spires already under our command. Those two are currently being morphed so that they may be moved to the Tree of Night Academy in Gran Domingo. That is where the captured Great Spires will be moved to and by protected by the academy. But, without the family’s backing, those Great Spires won’t ever reach the stars.”

“Moving it to the academy is just a way for this black tree person to gain more power,” patriarch of the Notorio spat. “It is an outrage that this be allowed!”

“Yes,” Fortino’s patriarch nodded. “He must be identified before we can answer your request.”

“He’s currently on the quarantine zone,” elder Noah stated. “Reaching him, even finding him, will take days and maybe even weeks to get a message to him. The family will gain much more from aiding him. I beg you to consider the benefits of having a standing fleet as quickly as possible, too long have we been forced to watch others grow as we dwindle. We were once a glorious force, now other worlds, other human worlds hold more power and significance than our own! I have read the history of our people, this is not what we should be, long before now we should have conquered other worlds. Lord Fortino should be a System Lord not just a Planetary Lord.

“We must take the chance we are being presented to start our growth anew. The academy is gaining more and more power as more and more of the family attend, but in the end it will all be for the glory of the family. Have you taken the time to visit the academy? I don’t know what you have heard, but this black tree pilot is not one we should receive with apprehension. Did you know that he has resurrected the long lost skill of Forced Growth?”

“Forced…!” Fortino’s eyes bulged. Many of the patriarchs that actively participate in the mercenary ventures of the family also reacted strongly with surprise.

“Yes my lord,” the elder nodded. “That is why I ask you to approve my request and use the family credits to buy the required systems for the Great Spires.”

“Indeed,” the lord nodded closing his eyes as he regained his composure. “This individual is dangerous if left alone, we do not know his intentions, and if he can bring back lost arts then we MUST know who he is as soon as possible and what his intentions are.”

“Then the request my lord…?” the elder asked.

“Approved,” lord Fortino said. “But, we must speak with him as well. Send word to him, have him brought to the nearest communication’s complex as soon as possible.”

The elder was dismissed but the patriarchs remained.

“Forced Growth!” patriarch Cantor exclaimed.

“I know,” patriarch Fortino nodded. “We must have our armies learn this skill.”

“We can circulate them,” patriarch Notorio offered. “There are many unused units at the moment, we can have them come home and attend the academy then rotate them with active duty members.”

“But we should also send instructors to learn this skill,” patriarch Cantor added. “This way we can spread the skill farther and faster.”

“Send them,” patriarch Fortino agreed. “Send as many as you can spare. Long have we suffered because of its loss, but now our forces will not be slowed in its growth as we wait for time to grow our trees. Send as well as many students as you can spare, if I am correct, these great spires that they have captured will provide the family with thousands more seedlings.”

“It gives me shivers just thinking of what this represents for the family,” patriarch Luziel trembled visibly as a wide grin spread across his face.

The Luziel line had long ago been known for their ability to fight in space, they had been in command of the three Great Spires. To think that their ancient purpose would be revived once more was incredibly thrilling and satisfying.

Patriarch Cantor, Bueno, Fortino, Filia, Felixiz, and Notorio were all leaders of fighting family branches, Forced Growth was about the most significant skill lost to them.

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The doors to the vault slowly opened after Alexis dialed the correct code on the dial of the door, she was bringing up packages that were delivered to the library this morning. There had been a letter addressed to her with directions as to what to do with the packages, most of them were core pieces though some were tomes.

Since the headmaster’s departure she had been tasked with delivering certain packages to certain locations usually just within the library. The headmaster had also taught her how to forge tomes for him, basic tomes, since he would not have the time to forge them. After forging a set amount of tomes she would ship them out back to the headmaster.

“In here,” she said as her sapling approached. It was already ten feet tall and browning, its bark no longer a soft green.

The sapling was carrying the packages in its hands and set them down as directed.

After setting the packages down Alexis went ahead and started to unwrap them to set them up as needed inside the vault. Her sapling in turn took to the middle of the office and started to mold itself into a forge for forging the books Alexis would be sending to the headmaster.

Organizing the things only took a few minutes, she had it set down to a system so placing everything in order went quickly. After that she started making the tomes, the letter had instructed her on the number of tomes needed. The sapling looked like a ribbed sphere where in its interior Alexis dumped shovel fulls after shovel fulls of spent cores. The telekinesis she molded the cores into leaves and book covers designing them as the headmaster once showed her.

It was a time consuming task, but once it was over she was free for the rest of the day.

The academy had started to become more and more lively ever since the new transfer students arrived. The military part of the academy got full real quickly with mercenaries from the many branches of the family and the remaining empty rooms in each of the dorm buildings were filled quickly by students from other academies, some of which were offworld on stations and colonies controlled by the family.

Alexis’ position in the academy had been drastically elevated when the headmaster had left since she was the only capable of opening and entering the headmaster’s office. There were defenses inside the office designed to keep everyone but registered individuals outside. Since the sapling shares Alexis’ soul it was automatically registered and allowed entry. The reason why this gave her power over the student body was the fact that the seeds passed only through her hands. All the seeds the black tree had ever produced were inside the vault and all the new seeds she was constantly receiving from the battlefront entered the vault as well.

She didn’t let the power get to her though, while many of the students treated her like a queen she didn’t act like one. It was not in her nature to draw attention to herself or hold herself above others.

Students still won the seeds as they had been doing so before, by entering the arena and challenging for the right.

Many of the new soldiers that entered the academy from the other mercenary groups had caused many problems though, the transfer students weren’t much of an issue. Since the legion under the headmaster was new many of the regular soldiers felt the need to test them out, though most if not all found that the strength of a legionnaire was above standard. Considering that they were all very powerful psions their fights tended to look more like battles on a field of war and they were epic.

A disciplinary committee was formed to keep the academics in line taking in the strongest of the oldest students, those who were around from the beginning of the school. It was a small army of policing force numbering into the hundreds and they all moved in teams of five to ten.

Considering that Alexis had received some personal lessons from the headmaster she had been invited to join this committee but she turned them down. There were far too many tasks already on her plate that it would be too much to handle if she was worried about maintaining academic discipline as well. Not that she was interested in being part of a policing force.

She was at lunch after she spent a few hours making tomes, normally she sat by herself though mostly by choice. Many had approached her several times trying to make friends with her, but they were mostly interested in her personal connection to the headmaster. Today was one of those few days that no one approached her, normally her normal seat would either have one or two people sitting there already but it was empty today.

She sat and ate while going through her notebook which listed her schedule and responsibilities. Her attention was completely focused on it that she did not realize four other people took a seat opposite of her. They were soldiers of the Fortino mercenary army.

“Hello,” the only woman among the four greeted Alexis surprising her.

“Oh...uh...hi,” she returned the greeting.

“I’m Albany,” she introduced herself. “This is Stan, Rorick, and Daniel.”

“Alexis,” she said introducing herself. “Do...can I help you?”

“Yes,” the woman nodded. They were all trim and fit with black uniforms and gold insignias marking them as officers. The woman was particularly different, she was blonde and pale while the other three had the telltale signs of their latin blood. Alexis, too, was a rarity, not many redheads existed in the family. In fact her mother was not of the family and it was from her that she got her appearance. Her father is a retired mercenary and had met her mother during a two month break on Acapulco, an ocean world that was very popular for tourism and its floating islands. “Students have told us that you are...the headmaster’s helper?”

“More like errand girl,” Alexis sighed.

“Well,” the woman continued. “I’m really interested to know about your headmaster and as it is I can’t reach him but you know him so what can you tell me?”

“Nothing much,” Alexis shrugged. “He likes his privacy, even I haven’t seen him.”

“But you are or at least were around him a lot,” the woman insisted. “Surely you caught a glimpse of him at least and probably even talked to him.”

“Talking is not a problem,” Alexis sighed brushing away her hair, it tended to cling to the front of her face since she never bothered with keeping it out of her front, and showed them her unstaring eyes. “Seeing is a whole different issue.”

“Oh...I’m sorry,” Albaney apologized. “I didn’t know you...I mean you never seemed to have trouble with...that.”

“I can get around well enough,” she said. “While I cannot see with my eyes he taught me how to see with my mind. Unfortunately even in that way I cannot see him. As far as telling you about him, all I can tell about him is that he is special. He didn’t talk much to me but whenever he did he spoke like he knows things, like things we will never know. It’s strange really.”

“Well I heard that you have access to his office,” Albany continued. “Could you bring us there?”

“Sorry,” Alexis shook her head. “Only I can enter the office, anyone else gets turned around. I don’t know how to let anyone else in either, he didn’t teach me about that stuff.”

“I see,” the woman nodded and as one they got up. “Well thank you for talking with us and giving us a bit of your time. Have a good day.”

Alexis watched them walk away with a crease of worry, but decided to ignore them and finish up her lunch so that she could head over to the river and root her sapling.