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

had not gone out under his name, so it was possible that he had in fact fled the Temple.

The return messages were also visible, for no direct line of sight transmissions were being used…perhaps because House Atriark had never engaged in ship to ship fighting before and they didn’t think about encoding the message to hide them. It was rare between Houses, for the Gjardans were so powerful that they garnered a respect that made them prizes to be won rather than instruments of internal conflict.

But Yuen knew what was going on now. Before he had left he had requested that the Reignor explain his aura alteration, for it was disruptive. He did not feel like a normal Neofan, and Yuer wanted to know the reason for the change without challenging him. He’d already made his choice, but he wanted clarity going forward.

Plausious had given it to him in the form of a mind meld, which was something that only Neofan possessed. Of all the races they had encountered and cataloged, none had the ability to graft one’s aura onto another. It would be done forcefully as an overwrite or lightly as a way to inform someone of lessons learned beyond their years, and was rarely used given the vulnerability both methods required, but Yuer trusted Plausious, and he needed to know what he had learned that had changed him so.

The Reignor had agreed, and over the course of a few moments the light connection had taught him the lightside, bits of Plausious’s history since his ‘death,’ and his vision of the future where he foresaw the Neofan’s existence hanging by a tenuous thread. That last part was the reason for the alacrity, and why Yuer had brought his ship up to maximum burn. They had to act now, and any delay would snowball to their enemies’ advantage here and afar.

Yuer was now changed himself, and he could not go back. He could not unsee what Plausious had showed him, and as he had boarded the landing craft to return to the warship he saw others requesting the same of Plausious, with him repeating the delicate process with several of them.

It wasn’t a command or a rewrite, but it showed him how Neofan society was flawed, holding them back, and put them on the wrong side of history. It made him sick to think about it, so he didn’t try. The graft was meant to offer conclusions rather than data for analysis, and Yuer was not going to contest the Reignor’s knowledge. He was going to act on it.

And when the order came for three more Gjardans to rendezvous with the stalled two, he didn’t hesitate to give the order to attack while calling on all loyal ships to join him.

That was some time ago, and right now he was running through the corridors on his ship carrying a negation staff as multiple hull breaches had allowed boarders to get through into the outer shell, for the Gjardans were built with multiple hulls, almost as if they were ships inside of ships inside of ships. There were 7 of them, each with its own armor, shields, and weaponry, but the Essence reserve sat in the center, or near to there, for the internal components could be shifted about depending on which side the heaviest attack was coming from.

But the ship was designed for the crew to be able to move from shell to shell even when the defenses were up, so once holes were hammered into the outer hull, troops from the attacking warships were able to transmute into the outer shell, but no further. They’d have to physically pass through the interlock sections to get further inside, meaning possession of this ship was now being contested internally.

With the outer shell’s weaponry and shields mostly disabled or destroyed, the ship couldn’t use the others without discarding the outer shell, which Yuer had ordered not to do. The other ships would have to blast their way through it to get to the next shield, and it was obvious they had no intention of wasting the power needed to do that as the naval fight was continuing to escalate beyond 20 vessels involved. 13 were still loyal to Truven, 7 to Plausious, but only 3 of each were still actively battling at nearly full power. All the others were damaged, disabled, or had troops onboard vying for control of them.

And none of them had chosen to jettison their outer shells to continue the fight. Destroying a Gjardan was unthinkable, and the damage already done was something Yuer would never have agreed to if Plausious’s graft had not been given. And right now that gave him an advantage, for the enemy was very hesitant to fully fight, and that had allowed his 7 ships to go even with 13, but right now possession of his Gjardan was going to be won or lost with hand to hand combat, and that’s where he was headed.

The few exterior weapons left were still active, and he had given orders on what to do with them until they were destroyed, but all crew that were not essential to that operation were now being summoned to the armories to gear up to fight other Neofan…and that was something equally unheard of. There had never been a full civil war within House Atriark, but it looked like there was one now, for Truven’s allies were crazy enough to start one rather than submitting to the rightful Reignor’s return. Neofan law was on his side, but they didn’t care…and he knew Plausious no longer cared either, for as soon as he had the chance he was going to rewrite Neofan society in a major way that was going to destroy the past in order to save their future.

The Gjardan had professional brawlers onboard. All of them did, for just such a boarding action, but there was no