Rise of the Diadochi

By Roger Ruffles

“Do not become so successful, that you fall into that trap that all the Emperors in history do time and time again. Absolutely any time that power and success can corrupt anyone .....”

“Absolute power will corrupt everyone successfully, every time,” James Gavain completed the saying, quietly.

This is the story of the Diadochi, the successors to the Emperors of Mars, and the families that fight for that old title. They would be the new Emperors of the Age of Secession, because in a tired and weary galaxy, the secessionists have finally given birth to their new masters.

One is an Emperor born inside the Shadow; something new and of the devil lurks in his soul, standing far too close to him. One is an Emperor born from the Shadow; he wants freedom, and his hybrid people shall have that liberty, even at the cost of everyone else’s.

And one is an Emperor born outside of the Shadow; a man who did not want the title at all. It goes against everything he fought for, but in order to save his poisoned family, he will have to accept the position and become the thing he hated most of all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Ruffles
• Release date: Mar 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370319787

Roger Ruffles

I was born in 1980, in Cheshire.Despite that, I view myself as a Manchester lad, having spent most of my adult life in the city. I developed a keen interest in science fiction at a very early age thanks to a very popular time travel series on BBC1. This has led to a life-long interest in the genre, which continues to this day, proving that the licence fee is worth it after all. The appeal of science fiction, and fantasy, is in the escapism, the look at what could be, and the sheer imagination and suspension of belief it requires – and how despite its groundings in the far-fetched, real-life often comes to imitate the imaginings of those insane enough to love science fiction.I completed my first book at 15, and attempted but failed to get published. Looking back on it, this is probably more of a relief to those who like to read. It certainly allowed me to do more boring things, such as work, first in banking as an office junior, then in utilities in procurement, then manufacturing and latterly construction in commercial roles. It's more logical than it sounds written down.Writing is and always will be a hobby first and foremost, a love and a way to express. An escape from reality, whilst holding a mirror up to all that is good and bad in the world. I hope you enjoy reading my books, almost as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Book preview

Prologue

Nearly two hundred years into the future

After the Age of Secession began

The Legionnaires came to attention as the old man approached their position from further down the corridor, shuffling along with the aid of an old-fashioned walking stick and obviously disdaining to use the travellators running at his side. In truth, he was more middle-aged by today’s standards than in his twilight years, being nearly two centuries old, but he looked much older. The years and his often-times debilitating illness had not been kind to him.

The two Legionnaires, in their heavy crimson armour and bearing the mark of the Ist Red Legion, gave the full Imperial Salute which had not changed for longer than the Vindicate Empire had been in existence. Right hands clenched into a fist slammed into one of the two heads of the double-headed eagle on their left breast-plate armour, then the arms extended out in a vicious swipe, palms angled and hands flat, scything the air. They then bowed their heads, and fell to one knee with a ceremonious crash that the man almost fancied would crack the expensive blood red-lined marble under their feet.

they nearly shouted in unison. In the classroom beyond them, the chatter and noise of the children became suddenly hushed.

So formal today, the old man said, a characteristic but tired smile upon his lips. He coughed, the sound harsh and cracking. You must be new?

We just returned from war in the north, Lord Harley, one of them responded, without using the datasphere, after it was obvious his comrade was not going to reply.

Ah, with one of the Emperor’s other children, then, Harley nodded. You’ll find this boring in comparison. With you being so formal, I assume He Himself is in the Palace. He did not wait for the reply, just hid his resentment, and entered the classroom.

The children were watching the door, and some of them broke into smiles as he entered. It appeared he was becoming a favourite of theirs, with his stories and tales of the Age of Secession and what had followed. They were all noble children, some placed here willingly and others less so he knew, but he found he had developed a great fondness for all of them. There was something refreshing in speaking to them, and he found his own hardened attitudes mellowing in their presence. Whatever their forebears had done, just like in his own lineage, they were innocent and unburdened by them, and there unfortunately the similarities ended.

As if to hammer the point home, the statue of his father James Gavain was visible out there in the red dust and destruction of Mars, the wreckage of the Vindicator battlecruiser broken and shattered behind it.

So, my children, he said, a teasing smile upon his face as he lowered himself into the old-fashioned seat he had ordered brought from his quarters for the day. Of what would you like to hear today?

We want to know the end of the story, one of the more precocious of the children whined, in a voice that grated on the man’s nerves.

Yes, tell us about the Rise of the Diadochi, one of them insisted.

Who were the Diadochi? a really young one asked.

Everyone knows that! But why were they called the Diadochi? another demanded.

Hush, the old man held his hands up to appeal for peace. Be quiet then and let me answer your questions – and tell you the story. He waited while they fell quiet, and then began.

"The Age of Secession was a time of suffering and strife, of terrible wounds as families were torn asunder, planets were smashed and solar systems were left burning in ruins. Old Houses were falling and new forces were forming, some of which would become the foundation of the societies and political factions that would survive for centuries afterwards. The people who rose to become the leaders, and tried to form these new nations and new ways of living for the people, were called the Diadochi. It was a name taken from the olden times, referring to the early leaders who rose after Alexander the Great died, and people fought over his Empire of Macedonia. Millennia later, in our modern age and the Age of Secession that followed the deaths of the True and False Emperors, the Diadochi came to mean all those that formed their own great political states from the ashes and the ruins of the Red Empire of Mars, the Empire that gave them their birth.

And this is the telling of the story of some of those people, the rise of some of those leaders who called themselves Emperor and became known as the Diadochi, and how in particular, one man became the best hope amongst all the surviving secessionists. His name was James Gavain, my father, and this is the story of the Rise of the Diadochi.

Chapter I

Nearing the sixth year

Of the Age of Secession

I now have learn’d Love right, and learn’d even so, As who by being poisoned doth poison know

– Sir Philip Sidney, a keen militant of a faction known as Protestant, circa eleven to twelve hundred years BE (Before Empire)

The type-III cargo-freighter CSS Celeste rested close to the sun of the deserted star system. The star system was unnamed as it was uninhabited, given instead the single designation of YD-1004. It was east-north-east of the Gulf of Medusa, the homeland of the Vindicatus mercenaries the freighter had escaped from.

It was a powerful sun, with a large gravity footprint, and the Celeste was well within that sphere of influence. The sun roiled and boiled, belching out angrily powerful waves of solar energy. The cargo-freighter was built upon familiar Cervantian-designed lines, its circular rear facing up from the ball of the sun, solar panels extended fully to maximise the capturing of that energy. Cargo-tanks hung from under the semi-circular hull, locked in place, with the solar sails extending outwards like four large wings. It was recharging its jump initiation capacitors ferociously fast, determined not to linger any longer than it had to in this system.

The solar sails, also sometimes referred to as sun catchers, were pulling in the expelled power from the star with efficiency. The CSS Celeste had its running lights on, and was visibly powered, making no attempt to hide its presence. They were even broadcasting their identification tags in the form of its shipping papers, showing it as being a mercantile vessel registered to Cervantia, although with their own recent pirate activity they were in danger of having it revoked by the splintering Interstellar Merchants Guild.

They thought they were alone in the solar system, being sufficiently far enough away from the Web of Deepspace stations the Vindicatus used within the Gulf of Medusa, and they appeared to be wrongly assuming they had escaped.

the scanners officer announced, addressing the Lieutenant-Commander who commanded the ship.

Lieutenant-Commander Davud Shires tried to emulate Lord Gavain’s legendary impassive bearing when on duty, but failed, his mental voice tinged with the tension of excitement across the restricted datasphere.

The VSS Yellowjacket frigate, loaded with the new Vindicatus navvies and Marines of cybernetic biomorph origin, was assigned to the Eighth Special Squadron of the Sixth Home Fleet. It was part of the forces sent after the renegade cargo-freighter, the squadron of frigates fanning out and jumping into likely systems. Lieutenant-Commander Davud Shires was proud his ship had been the one to discover the location of Silus Adare’s escape vehicle, and now he was about to witness the next successful step in his mission.

the scanners officer sounded relieved.

Davud Shires nodded as he stood, placing his hands on his hips. he said, addressing them all. His frigate was already on red alert, all hands at battle stations.

replied the navigations officer.

the scanners officer said.

Lieutenant-Commander Shires ordered.

the mission control officer corrected respectfully, shaking her head.

Shires nodded. He could not help but smile slightly, despite his attempts to remain professional, as he whispered, Silus Adare, we have you.

The man who had been an Admiral in the Vindicatus Mercenary Corporation before he betrayed them, smiled with his thin-lipped mouth, the trimmed, square-cut goatee beard twisting. His eyes narrowed as he read the information being displayed before him through the borgite datasphere.

the crewman began.

he said levelly. There was an unholy glee in his voice as he said,

he dwelt on the word.

There was a person stood at the side of his command chair. It was a biomorph, in its natural state, completely indistinguishable from the rest of its kind, apart from a new armband it wore as a sign of its allegiance. The Faceless Assassin at his side was featureless, with only sockets where its eyes should be, slits for its nose, and when it spoke its mouth appeared unnaturally, the skin parting as molecules unbound themselves. It was humanoid in form, but it was so heavily genetically engineered and bioartificed, it bore only a passing resemblance to the humans it had been created from.

Silus, do not get carried away, the Faceless Assassin warned. You only partially succeeded in your mission. I would be within my mission parameters in killing you now, and taking the information we want you to volunteer. Your survival is optional.

How reassuring my new paymasters are, Silus Adare laughed. Very well, we will just warn them then. He looked away from the Faceless Assassin, focusing on the datasphere and the crew again. he said, CSS Celeste, and when they are engaged, we strike them in the rear.>

He smiled even wider. He was going to enjoy this.

Realspace was torn asunder as with a series of brilliant flashes of white light, the Vindicatus squadron translated from hyperspace. The five ships appeared almost instantaneously, in a precise pyramid formation with the cone pointing towards the sun, their lines blurring sickeningly. With a stomach-churning distortion of reality that would be unsettling for any watcher, the shapes of the ships coalesced and snapped back into their normal parameters.

The ships drifted forwards at attack speed, propelled by the power of their acceleration pre-jump. After a few seconds, power began to return as the generators came online, and the propulsors suddenly ignited. Shortly after the engines, shields came up, flaring into being around their forms.

Silus Adare demanded.

a crewman replied.

he said, glancing at the Faceless Assassin stood at his side. It reminded him of when he had served the Federation, a long time ago now it seemed. He had made a career out of treachery.

The Vindicatus ship in the lead was the brand new AF-class battlecruiser, based on a combination of old Red Empire of Mars Praetorian designs and Third Empire technology, with some Vindicatus research thrown in for good measure. The lettering which appeared on its hull, as the Identity Friend or Foe broadcast began, read ‘VSS Fury’s Vengeance’. The battlecruiser had Praetorian Guard lines, with the warp accelerator struts underneath running alongside its main body at an angle much like the older V-class, but it had an additional strut half the length of the ship, running along the top hull and emerging from an odd bulbous section to this ship that was not common Praetorian design at all. This third half-strut had nothing to do with jumping technology, but instead served an altogether different purpose, just one of the many nasty surprises it had been invested with.

Its forward weapons batteries opened, and it began to fire as soon as it had the power to do so post-jump. Ruby-red turbolaser beams hammered towards the Celeste cargo-freighter, aiming at difficult angles. The battlecruiser was avoiding firing at the bridge of the freighter, thinking Adare was still aboard it, but aiming instead for the engines.

Torpedoes left the forward launchers, the super-fast projectiles crossing the divide at an amazing speed. They sparkled as their powerful engines launched them onwards, guidance subframes arcing the torpedoes in a curve to dip underneath main body of the cargo-freighter. The first strike of the torpedoes slammed into the shields of the heavily modified cargo-freighter, but destroyed them with their upgraded warheads easily.

The Vindicatus ships abandoned formation, two strikecruisers above accelerating rapidly and drawing ahead of the main position of the advancing squadron. They were designed for speed, and the VSS Eradication and VSS Exterminator were new AE-class ships-of-the-line. They too carried the extra half-strut emerging from the unusual bulbous section above their angled, wedge-shaped elongated hulls. Whatever its purpose, it was not used as the ships advanced rapidly. They lay down long-range turbolaser fire, and then the Eradication began to launch strikepods at the CSS Celeste.

The other two ships did not add their fire, the cargo-freighter hopelessly outmatched. They merely fanned out, to be able to intercept should the pirate ship masquerading as a civilian freighter attempt to make any sudden movements on new headings. The VSS Celtic Warrior AC-class strikecarrier was a special Vindicatus variant from the model used by the Federation, but the X-class VSS Xanthosis was identical to the Third-Empire destroyer-transporter X-class it belonged to. They completed a squadron built to be multi-functional and multi-purpose, for special operations such as this.

Their mission was to stop Silus Adare, the man who had poisoned Lord Gavain’s two youngest children.

Silus Adare asked.

a crewman replied.

Adare ordered, watching with eager eyes as the tactical holo-map before him tracked the Vindicatus ships, moving closer to the deliberate lure of the cargo-freighter.

Eradication have landed,> a mission control specialist aboard the VSS Fury’s Vengeance announced.

the weapons control officer reported.

the Captain in charge of the squadron and the AF-class battlecruiser ordered.

Evan-Lee Ramirez Gavain glanced at Captain Anzar. He had his father Lord James Gavain’s athletic form and thinness, but was perhaps slightly more photogenic than the decidedly average-looking hero. He was an accelerated-growth simulant, matured quickly to young adulthood physically to be the heir to Lord Gavain’s throne and based purely on James Gavains and Juan Ramirez’s genetic code, spliced together by the bioartificers.

Evan-Lee Gavain commanded. He was angry, displaying it openly in a way one of his fathers never would. Luckily his sister had been cured of the poisonous agent she had been infected with, which Adare and whoever his employers were would not yet be aware of, but his younger baby brother Harley Gavain was already dying back in the Dark Heart Artificial System.

General Viktor Vantanik, who technically was the ranking military person present and as such was sat in the flag-chair on the bridge of the Fury’s Vengeance, suddenly spoke. The taciturn General said,

Captain Anzar queried.

General Vantanik replied.

Evan-Lee paused, using the brains he had been born and augmented with. Logic led him in only one direction. he said, grudgingly.

Yellowjacket reports they saw nothing out of the ordinary when they arrived,> Captain Anzar pointed out.

Vantanik said,

As he spoke, he was interrupted by someone shouting on the datasphere,

snapped Captain Anzar.

Evan-Lee breathed in deeply, knowing what that meant. An interdiction mine created an artificial gravity well, which would disrupt any ship attempting to jump in or out of the system. The position of the mine had been deliberately placed behind them, so as they advanced towards the sun and the cargo-freighter, they just moved deeper within its effective range.

Vantanik snapped.

the mission control specialist said.

Adare commanded gleefully.

The rear shields of the Fury’s Vengeance were struck by the torpedoes, launched from long-range. The ships which had fired had been partially chameleonically fielded, but the origin of their launch became obvious as they also fired turbolasers. The ships were presenting broadsides, the long lengths of their sides, so more weapon batteries could fire upon the rear of the Vindicatus ships.

The Fury’s Vengeance battlecruiser easily shrugged off the strikes, and reacted with the superior agility of its next-generation design. It turned quickly and sharply, using powerful lateral propulsors and gravity suppression fields to facilitate a turn an older generation V-class ship would not have been capable of.

As it yawed sharply around, it came to bear with its broadsides on the long-distance targets, and fired.

CSS Celeste is empty of all but drones,> mission control said.

General Vantanik ordered calmly.

Captain Anzar snapped.

a data-tactical officer said.

Evan-Lee Gavain muttered, absently, as he focused on watching the developing battle.

comms suddenly said.

snapped Vantanik.

Captain Anzar commanded.

The lead pirate ship was an ex-Praetorian Guard V-class battlecruiser, the only one the attackers appeared to be using. Its colours were simply jet-black, neon red running lights suddenly appearing as it dropped its chameleonic fields, and they were providing the only dash of colour apart from the stylised dark grey metallic-and mechanical-looking skull emblazoned on its prow. Despite the modernisation of the symbol, there was no doubting what the skull denoted.

The pirate ship had launched a second wave of torpedoes, and was still materialising into the visual and detectable spectrum as it fired its long-range turbolasers. The long beams stabbed into the Vindicatus Fury’s Vengeance with viciousness, and quick precision only beaten by the waves of torpedoes.

There was another battlecruiser before the V-class battlecruiser, but this of House design, its fluid design and almost sculpted lines marking it out as Calamarite Confederacy in origin. It looked almost too beautiful to fight, but as it released its hail of fire in a vicious opening broadside the truth was revealed. Calamarite cruisers, whilst not as technically advanced as Praetorian Guard-designed ships, were approaching their level of superiority in terms of firepower. The broadsides hammered into the still-turning Fury’s Vengeance.

As the Vindicatus strikecruisers rolled around quickly, reversing course by turning sharply, more pirate ships became revealed. There was a star-carrier, this Nacrimosan in design, its distinctive elongated X-shaped body as otherworldly as the Nacrimosan Collective borgites themselves. It was built for functionality, and could absorb huge amounts of punishment. It fired devastating broadsides, focused again on the Fury’s Vengeance as the most powerful target, but did not launch any of its starfighters or starbombers.

Two pirate destroyers were revealed, along with two smaller lightcruisers, completing the large squadron of outlaw ships, all in their jet-black colouring. The destroyers were both wedge-shaped Nihima Corporation Carnivore-II class ships, not belonging to any particular state, and they were designed for such long-range engagements and planetary bombardments. One of the lightcruisers was an OutWorlds Alliance A-Zu Industries Type VI Raider-class, and the other was a SCroW Mk4 Millennium lightcruiser from the struggling Co-Operative Shipyards of Jjar. The two lightcruisers came round, ready to form a protective screen in front of the destroyers if need be and react quickly to any threat, whilst adding their firepower to the fight.

General Vantanik leaned forwards in his chair, beckoning Evan-Lee over to him. The son of the Mercenary Lord pursed his lips, but approached the senior commander in his father’s military forces. Vantanik said quietly,

Evan-Lee took advantage of his heredity to ignore the General’s rank.

Celtic Warrior to advance, with the strikecruisers,> Captain Anzar was saying, relying on their great speed.

Vantanik explained sadly,

the pirate communications officer said.

Adare just grunted, then spread his hands wide as he shrugged. he growled,

As he leaned back in his chair, he gave a grim smile of satisfaction. His plan had worked. He knew they had placed a tracker onto the cargo-freighter he had used to escape Dark Heart, and that they would follow him here. The point of today had been to do them a little bit of damage, as a slap in the face, another twist of the knife, and then to leave. He had to stick to his larger plan. He had more important things to do than fight Lord Gavain’s soldiers, such as meet his paymasters.

he said, after thinking. He was watching the holoprojections, showing the heavy fire his mismatched squadron of differently-designed ships was throwing at the technically superior and more advanced Vindicatus mercenaries.

Out in space, the pirate ships continued to fire, but began to drop their shields. At first it seemed like a nonsensical move to make, to abandon your glittering, protective defences in the middle of a battle. Then it became apparent what they intended to do, as their pylons and supporting struts began to glow with energy. Their jump initiation capacitors were all engaging, almost in unison, warp accelerators preparing to fire once the warp fields were in place and ready to ignite.

came the warning.

Captain Anzar slammed a fist into the arm of his chair.

said General Vantanik,

Evan-Lee demanded.

General Vantanik commanded quietly, on a private link, as he stood up.

Evan-Lee demanded.

Vantanik was speedily crossing the bridge, heading for the turbolift, not even looking back as he answered.

Captain Anzar said quietly.

Vantanik turned around, and pointed at Evan-Lee Gavain where he stood inside the turbolift as the doors cycled shut. he said, the devotion clear in his eyes.

As well as settling an old score with Silus Adare, he thought privately.

The red warning lights flashed, and the ship shook as it took another powerful barrage of fire from the pirate ships. General Viktor Vantanik ignored it, the cybernetic biomorph racing across the weapons battery station. He was still in his dress uniform, but he would change inside the new stealthpods they had designed. One of the stealthpods lay in the launching chamber where a torpedo normally would, the pod in the same dimensions of a torpedo and smaller than the larger strikepods, but still able to carry a squad of ten people and no more in closer confines than the strikepods usually afforded.

They were less intrusive than strikepods, able to land on a target without the obvious signs of arrival that a strikepod would betray itself with. The chance to use them was now, Vantanik knew as he strapped himself into the jumpseat of a stealthpod, whilst the pirates had lowered their shields before jumping. The casing was being shut by the on-board subframe computer in control.

said a cybernetic biomorph.

Vantanik used the datasphere.

Anzar replied.

Vantanik felt the sudden pressure force him back into the seat before the anti-gravity fields inside the pod kicked in, relieving the sudden acceleration upon his body. The stealthpod was being ejected out of the torpedo launch tubes of the weapons battery, joining the glittering wave of torpedoes launched from the Fury’s Vengeance.

the helms officer confirmed.

the navigations officer said.

a data-tac officer reported.

Adare ordered.

We land on the surface of the pirate battlecruiser in four seconds, be ready! Vantanik shouted to his people inside the stealthpod. He did not want to use the datasphere this close to enemy sensors, wanting no chance they could be detected as unlikely as it was at this speed and with the ferocity of the battle outside.

One of the stealthpods has been destroyed, General, someone said sadly. Lucky shot, it was hit by a stray turbolaser beam.

Danger of the job, General Vantanik replied, matter-of-factly, knowing he was chasing after Silus Adare with only twenty highly-trained commandoes, besides himself, against thousands of pirates, or possibly privateers if they were indeed working for another nation as he suspected. For the Mercenary Lord!

The stealthpod, chameleonically field to hide its existence and disguised as a torpedo in case it was discovered, had been slowed down in the last few seconds while they were speaking. Amongst the devastation being wrought on the enemy hull, and against the background of real torpedoes exploding against the metametal plating, the stealthpod gently latched onto the battlecruiser.

Adare snorted as he gave one last look at the holoprojections of the Vindicatus ships. Later, once he realised that Evan-Lee Gavain had been on the Fury’s Vengeance, he would rue the decision not stay and engage the Vindicatus. At this point in time, however, the evil man merely relaxed in the captain’s seat, happy in the knowledge that his plan had worked, and he had outsmarted the mercenaries of Lord James Gavain.

He felt the lurching pull on his stomach, as they left realspace and made the translation into hyperspace, a kick as they suddenly went from travelling at sub-light speeds to faster-than-light. They left their Vindicatus pursuers far behind them; so he thought.

Vantanik closed his eyes, feeling the lurch of the jump to hyperspace.

He exhaled gently. He had half expected to die, but that was what people like him were bred for. To take risks, and to lead from the front.

Well, people, he said, looking at the team before him. We’ll be stuck here for a few days to week’s transit-time.

There’s more comfortable ways to travel, one commando said.

A few weeks with you, another said. Probably months by the time we’re done. That’s just all I frikking needed. There was some gentle, muted laughter, which only served to incense General Vantanik.

We are the best of the best! Vantanik corrected with characteristic sharpness. We do what no-one else can! We follow Adare, we take from him the secret of what he poisoned Lord Gavain’s children with, and then I - personally - will slit that bastard’s throat.

Captain Anzar stood, and walked across the bridge to where Evan-Lee Gavain stood. He was looking with saddened eyes at the holoprojection, unable to hide his feelings in the way that his famous father, the Lord Gavain, would have done. The holoprojection floating before them all in the centre of the bridge just showed empty space.

Captain Anzar said, quietly.

Evan-Lee blinked. He was not used to be referred to as ‘Lord’, surrounded mostly as he was by people who knew him. He realised also this was the first time he had ever been outside the protective sphere of Vindicatus territory. It both terrified and excited him, even though right at this precise moment he felt more anger at having failed to stop Silus Adare, and determination that he was going to catch the renegade who had betrayed his family so grievously.

he asked.

Captain Anzar replied gently.

Evan-Lee Gavain looked at the Captain Anzar, sizing him up. The short man was an accelerated growth borgite like him, a vat-born simulant generated not from copying existing genetic material but from the artificially-generated complex mathematical programmes mastered by the bioartificers. His brown eyes looked at the son of his Lord, with nothing but loyalty, and a determination to support the Gavain family. Evan-Lee saw nothing but loyalty, and it gave him hope.

He steeled himself. Anzar had been bred to be a naval man, a post-Praetorian Guard. Evan-Lee himself had been bred to be more than a warrior, he was to be a leader. It was time to show that leadership, in the face of failure, for the sake of the people who needed to be led.

*

On Mars, in the Red Palace itself, the Mercenary Lord James Gavain was wearing the armour that had once belonged to Lord Ahrlan Tibermann. He had demanded it be cleaned of the blood, and repainted in the crimson red and black colours of the Vindicatus, but otherwise the bespoke, heavily ornate and powerful armour was better than anything he had ever chosen to wear. He had not thought something like this would suit him, but somehow, it fitted better than the ex-Praetorian Guard suits of armour his Marines wore.

He was a Lord, a new House Lord no less, and some among his people were already referring to him as Emperor. He found it difficult to deny despite his outward protestations, as his territory expanded rapidly and he tore the Federation apart. Nearly six years ago he had been a Commander, lost and confused in the aftermath of the civil war that had ended the rule of the False Emperor. Now, he sat on the very throne that the False Emperor, and the True Emperor Gavain had originally fought to avenge, had themselves ruled from.

Despite the possibilities of all that could go wrong, and the apparent success his people were forging for him, there was one thing truly wrong in the world of James Gavain at the moment. It was the knowledge of what the arch-traitor Silus Adare had done to him and his family. His eldest son Evan-Lee chased after Silus against his own will, whilst his much younger son Harley suffered with dreadful pain at his poisoning, his daughter Julia luckily saved from the virus without Adare’s knowledge.

he finally commanded of the attendants around him. They were all military personnel, some of whom had been with him for a very long time, before he had created his Vindicatus nation in Dark Heart and in the odd instance before he had even become a Loyalist fighting against the False Emperor.

Lord Gavain self-administered some chemicals into his bloodstream, and a neural inhibitor implant to control the pain. He had been inside a ship that had crashed into a planet, after all, and he was lucky to still be alive. He had received battlefield medical attention, and then better hospital complex bioartificery, and now he was trying to recover from his most recent battle whilst directing a war on a massive scale.

He leaned back in the Red Throne, his eyes having gone from their normal steely grey to a deadly, icy blue. He managed to dominate a room, ignoring the fact that he currently sat on the most recognisable throne in the colonised galaxy, most often just through the sheer iciness of his outward demeanour when he was in public. It hid the warmth of a sometimes cautious and protective, yet powerfully minded person inside, but there was precious little of that in his heart right now as the holoprojectors activated and the pre-recorded image of the hated arch-enemy Silus Adare coalesced into being before him.

Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, grinned Silus Adare, the dark eyes failing to hide the psychopath’s sheer evil. It was perhaps most truly evil that he would stop at nothing, and feel absolutely no regret about committing the most heinous acts. "I do not know whether it was on your orders, or the orders of somebody else within your command, but you or your people have made a grievous error most recently. I said, do not follow me. And your people tried to follow me, Jamie. I have just slapped them in the face and shamed them outside the Gulf of Medusa, for being so stupid and provocative in trying to track me.

"You will most likely trace the source of this transmission eventually, but I will be long gone when you do. I strongly advise you not to continue in your attempts to find me, or send anyone else after me – although, of course, I fully expect you to try. It will be to little effect though. I have poisoned both your son, Harley, and your daughter, Julia, and I alone hold the keys to the fast-acting mutating biological agent I have infected them with. In case you are wondering, I strongly advise you to sneak into your general broadcasts the genetic sequencing in both children, because I will still give you the key. I’ll provide the coding at the end of this day to generate the antidotes they need to keep them alive for another seventy-two hours at least. This is despite you trying to track me, or kill me, or torture me – whatever your people intended to do.

"Why will I still do this? Because for the moment, I need your children alive, Jamie. I need them alive so I can blackmail you into doing what I, and the people I am working with, want. And what do they want you to do, I hear you ask? Well, Jamie, for the moment, believe it or not you are doing it. Continue your war against the StarCom Federation, James Gavain, do them serious harm. Eviscerate them. For the moment, our goals are the same in that regard, but be aware – the time will come where we ask you to go against what you want to do.

"But all that is in the future. For now, leave me alone, keep sending me the mutative patterns in your children, and I will keep sending you the next antidote sequences. Continue your war against the Federation – and be ready, for when we ask you to continue fighting against new targets and new people, this time for us and yourself.

Until then, Mercenary Lord James Gavain, good bye - for now.

Chapter II

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor Mars two masters

– attributed to Alexander the Great (note by Keifer Letrands, Chief Imperial Historian of the True Emperor’s Clerks of Records : it is believed that the original quote referred to Earth, not Mars, as Alexander the Great pre-dated space travel by some several thousands of years!)

The triple star system of Fomalhaut, approximately twenty-five light-years away from Earth or Mars and therefore within the one-jump range of modern faster-than-light technology, was large and complex. It was a failed quintuple