Star Force: Temple Wars by Aer-ki Jyr (books to read in a lifetime txt) 📕

it will compel you to attack the light. The Neofan are not as dark as others, but we are still tainted, as I was before my betrayal. I no longer am. Those who wish to follow me into the small chance of a future we have left, you may do so without reprisal for past actions. We have no time for such things. Those of you who do not wish to follow this path, you will leave this galaxy and not return until such a time as you are willing to set aside what you believe it means to be Neofan and learn to become better.”

“The rest of you who choose to do neither. Those of you who will stay and resist my return to power. I have no time to coddle you as Star Force would. I must act swiftly or our race will be destroyed. And like this arrogant scum,” he said, gesturing to the decapitated female, “if you do not join me or leave this galaxy, you will meet your doom.”

“It won’t work, Plausious,” Fero said sadly. “The old days are gone. We are now scared of contact with outsiders, and any who do not share the proper safety measures are purged. They will not follow you,” he said as the barges began to drift in closer to the platform.

“And what of you, Fero?”

“I had to watch you die once. I won’t watch a second time,” he said, turning his back on Plausious and walking to his barge alone, leaving the wounded guards where they lay as the other barges began making contact and disgorging their troops.

“So be it,” Plausious declared, warning the Ren’mak telepathically that this was the moment they had planned for. “I’ll take you all on…”

7

Fero didn’t look as he drifted away on his barge alone. He heard the pops and hisses of Essence combat going off behind him, but his gaze held firmly ahead. He couldn’t save the former Reignor from his fate now, and he wished that Plausious had been wiser than just charging his way in here making ludicrous demands. His exile must have truly driven him crazy, but his killing of the Overseer was a blessing in disguise, for she had been a rope around Fero’s neck for some time now and he was glad to be free of it, if only temporarily.

The Diem would replace her with another, but that could take a few years. Until then he would hold command of this Temple without having to be second guessed…but what the former Reignor warned about was resonating within him. He felt like the Neofan were on the road to destruction, but having it plainly stated was still a shock. The debacle of the Temple invasions had made many question Truven, but the Diem were stepping in to silence any dissent and Fero was off better keeping quiet than drawing their ire.

Reignor Plausious had never been so capricious, and Fero secretly wished he was back in command of House Atriark…but there was no way he could survive the troops Fero had brought with him. He would have been remiss to bring any less than overkill, but a part of him still didn’t like this, and that’s why he wasn’t staying to see it through to the finish.

His barge had gone far enough he could no longer hear the sounds of combat, but he could still feel the telepathic screams when someone was killed or gravely injured…and there were many of them, which meant the Reignor must be putting up a good…

Fero shook as a shockwave hit him as the sound of an explosion rang in his ears. He turned back, seeing a huge plume of smoke rising from the platform. None of their weapons were capable of that, and nothing in the platform itself could be detonated with such force.

What had just happened?

Fero swung the barge around and began heading back, sensing more combat within the smoke, but as he got halfway there he started to notice it lifting to reveal a few Neofan on their knees with a fist raised over their head in a statue pose…which was the sign for subjugation.

They just knelt there silently as the rest fought, perhaps unwilling to fight the former Reignor for their own reasons. That would have to be dealt with later, though he wouldn’t execute them. There had been far too much of that going on lately, but disobedience wouldn’t stand under the scrutiny of the Diem, and Fero would be the one punished if he didn’t deal with this.

More telepathic screams were heard as the fighting continued, then they abruptly stopped. Fero telepathically searched for Plausious, expecting that to have been his last moment of combat, but the lifting smoke revealed quite a different story.

Dozens…no, hundreds of Neofan were kneeling with their fists raised, and in the center of them all Plausious still stood, with his retched avian Hadarak flying over his head, as the bodies of the fallen littered the broken pad that now had 5 distinct thin smoke plumes rising from the previous detonation points.

And around those points were many burn bodies.

Fero stopped the barge before he got there, and instead looked at Plausious across the wide gap, seeing only a tiny silhouette, but he was close enough for a proper telepathic conversation.

What do you hope to gain from this? Plausious asked Fero. You should have known I would not come unprepared.

What did you do to them?

You did not come quickly, so I made some alterations to the landing pad. The survivors are wisely relinquishing combat. Are you?

I did not want to fight you, but this is not a winnable scenario. You can’t take on all of us in the Temple.

I gave you a chance Fero, and I give you one again. Serve me as you once did.

That would be a