Imperium Knight Chaos Rising (The Hunter Imperium Book 6) Read online

  Imperium Knight Chaos Rising

  By Timothy Ellis

  The Hunter Imperium, Book Six

  Copyright © 2019 by Timothy Ellis

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.

  The author is Australian and the main characters in this book are of Australian origin. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contents

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty One

  Thirty Two

  Thirty Three

  Thirty Four

  Thirty Five

  Thirty Six

  Thirty Seven

  Thirty Eight

  Thirty Nine

  Forty

  Forty One

  Forty Two

  Forty Three

  Forty Four

  Forty Five

  Forty Six

  Forty Seven

  Acknowledgements

  A Message to my Readers

  Also by Timothy Ellis

  Read series in this order

  The Hunter Legacy Timeline

  One

  “George.”

  “I know who you are.”

  He ignored the hand I was holding out.

  “And I know what you are,” he went on.

  “And what am I?”

  As Jon, our beloved Imperator, was want to say, this guy was pressing my buttons. Big time. I put a big grin on my face, and let my hand drop.

  “A glorified limo driver.”

  My grin widened. Sim threw me a quick glance, and a front end view of Scimitar popped up where he could see it. The titan turret looked aimed at his face. The shipyard bay around the ship somewhat took away a bit of the menace.

  He was on my bridge though, and I’d be damned if I’d let him insult me on my own ship.

  “Maybe for this test, perhaps.”

  My grin was still there, and I wasn’t going to let this git goad me into hitting him.

  “Why is this ship blue?”

  Sim threw me another glance, but I ignored her.

  “It’s not blue. It’s Tardis blue.”

  “Whatever.”

  Okay, so not only a pain in the arse, but one who hadn't bothered learning the basics about other Imperium members before shooting his mouth off. Everyone knew what a Tardis was. At least, anyone worth knowing did. But then, he was from a different world. On the other side of the galaxy. And black.

  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t give a rat’s arse what colour anyone is. The twins have pinky white skin which is always tanned brown. BA and Abigail have a chocolate colour, Alison is blonde white and never tans, and Aline is part Japanese. I love them to death. Skin colour is not one of my issues. I’d met and friended some of the white witches from Karn, and the orange pilots now coming through the training system from Naranja.

  This guy was from Kelewan, and his skin betrayed this. Jon calls their colour void black. But it wasn’t his colour which was pissing me off. It was his attitude. It was also black. I’d met a few of them so far, but of all the Imperium members, his people were currently doing the least for the war effort. As far as I could see anyway. I knew a few were on planets blasting fire at plants, but compared to the number of Karn sisters doing the same job, and more, they weren’t pulling their weight. In my humble of course.

  “What colour should a warship be then?”

  My voice was starting to show a bit of pissed-off-ness.

  “Grey.”

  “Well that’s my whole point.”

  “What is?”

  “Blue is not grey.”

  “Obviously.”

  No sense of humour either.

  “Everyone knows the Imperator’s ship.”

  “Why?”

  Also clueless.

  “It’s bright red.”

  He shuddered.

  “And everyone knows Dreamwalker’s ship.”

  “What a strange name.”

  I was thrown for a second. I was expecting him to ask what colour Dreamwalker’s ship was. Grey. And everyone in the Imperium had seen him fight the ship. Everyone in the Imperium had seen Jon fight his ship.

  Which is why I’d had mine painted blue. I didn’t want to be mistaken for either of them. Ego. Perhaps. Ignore.

  I shifted gears.

  “It’s a call sign.”

  “Ah. A limo handle.”

  My grin died, and my lower jaw flopped around on its own. It took a moment to regain control, and I made a serious effort to put the grin back up, and managed a smile instead.

  “Would you like to know my limo handle?”

  I let him open his mouth to say no, and shifted my suit before he could.

  His eyes opened wide, he floundered backwards away from me straight into a seat, and went down hard. My gorilla face looked down at him, now with my grin fully back on. I hadn't done this in all too long now. I’d forgotten just how funny people’s reactions were when I turned into a full gorilla, hair and all.

  I bared my teeth at him, and he cringed.

  “What are you?” he demanded, not bothering to try and pick himself up. “Some sort of shapeshifter?”

  As far as we knew, there weren’t any. Those of us who’d widely read the last six hundred years’ worth of fantasy novels had actually been looking for them as we met new species. So far, nada. Tigers, Roos, and short humanoids seemed to be it. Oh, and homicidal plants.

  “Something like that. I take it you’ve never seen a gorilla before?”

  “A what?”

  I shifted back to my normal uniform. It was also blue. And not hairy.

  “Gorilla. Back where we came from, we’re an apex predator.”

  Maybe laying it on a bit thick, but what the hell. He deserved it. I deliberately didn’t give him any idea it was just a suit change. If he didn’t think non-black humans were deserving of some respect, maybe an apex predator might.

  “Are there many of you?”

  “Apex predators?”

  “Yes.”

  I laughed at him.

  “You’ll just have to find that out the hard way.”

  A wicked thought crossed my mind.

  “What do you change into?”

  He was picking himself up now.

  “I’m a mage. We don’t need to change into anything.”

  “I know you’re a mage. They told me one was coming. Is that all you are?”

  He bristled, in the way only arrog
ant people can.

  “It’s all I need to be.”

  His tone told me I needed to back off a bit. I knew a lot more about him than he had any idea I did, and he was quite capable of moving me out into space abruptly, and letting me freeze to death out there. Except I wouldn’t, but it would be a waste of time getting back. Sim would need to come get me with an SR droid.

  “Are you going to introduce yourself?”

  Which is what I’d wanted right from the start.

  “Pangbornd.”

  “George.”

  “I know,” we both said together.

  “Have you two quite finished comparing dick sizes?” asked Sim. “We do have a job to do.”

  I took my seat in one quick movement, all business again.

  “What’s our status?”

  Pangbornd sat in the seat he’d just fallen over. A screen popped up, and the three of us looked at it. A rotund man in his fifties was just straightening up from where a box was sitting on a console. There was nothing special looking about the box. But it was.

  Special with a capital S.

  “I think we’re done here George,” said Bob Derr, the shipyard manager. “I can’t tell you if it’ll work or not. But it meets all the specifications.”

  “Thanks Bob. Are you and the design team coming along for the ride?”

  “Hell no. Jon took me out once, and someone shot at us. I’m not doing that ever again.”

  He was grinning, and I’d heard the story a number of times. I matched his grin.

  “Well, you better get off my ship then. Pronto.”

  “I will, since you put it that way.” His grin died and he was suddenly serious. “Good luck with the test, my boy. The box is connected as per the design. But I can’t do anything about the rest of it.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” said Pangbornd.

  He’d led the development team for the magic part of this project, but I did find it odd he was the only one staying on board for the first test.

  Then again, we didn’t need anyone else.

  I’d been the Alpha team’s tech tester for years now. It was only logical my ship would be chosen for one of the most important breakthroughs in human history. And even though Pangbornd was a pain in the arse, he was a master mage, and had done the actual magic for the device. If something needed tweaking on the device itself, Sim was quite capable of doing it. So the three of us were all this history making trial needed.

  Bob waved, and the screen vanished.

  I buckled myself into my chair, having long since learned the price of not doing so when you were about to do something new. Pangbornd looked at me, settling back into his chair, but not bothering. He wasn’t quite sneering.

  The navmap popped up, showing the Haven system, and the system on the other side of its one jump point.

  We waited for Bob to leave the ship, the mage showing impatience to be getting on with the test. After what was only minutes, Sim turned to me and nodded. I nodded back.

  Holographic heads began popping up on the console. There were a lot of them, since the captains of just about every ship we had were all interested in this test. Imperator Jon was in the middle, and I nodded to him as well. He nodded back.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen,” I said in my imperious voice. “I give you, the first ever jump drive.”

  On the screen, Sim had the rear view up, showing Scimitar moving out of the shipyard bay. On the nav map, a green dot appeared in the next system, as Sim selected a position on the other side of the jump point, but away from the down jump lane, where it was safe to appear.

  “You have a go,” said Jon.

  “Sim?”

  “Yes George?”

  “You may jump the ship please.”

  “Jumping the ship. Aye.”

  She made an elaborate gesture of putting a finger on a non-existent button on the console.

  Everything went black.

  Two

  Scimitar vanished.

  Cheering erupted all around me, and I could see the same thing from almost all the hollo faces displayed on my main console, cheering coming through the channel being held open across the entire fleet.

  The jump drive had worked. The first attempt at a true tech-magic device had finally provided us with the long elusive jump drive.

  Or had it? I found myself frowning, without having begun the cheer I’d also been ready for.

  Jon looked worried. Jane looked like she’d swallowed a frog.

  “Fuck!” said my boyfriend Chris, who being blind, and tech augmented, probably had the entire nav map in his head.

  The jubilation began to die down as people recognized the discordant exclamation.

  “What?” asked Amanda, sitting in her normal place on the left of the empty helm position of Fearless.

  I shot a glance at Jane, sitting next to Amanda in her normal place. All eyes went from me to her.

  “George is gone,” she croaked, generating amazed looks from everyone, since no-one had ever heard her croak before.

  Jane, an AI, having an emotional response wasn’t the weirdest thing. Jane, having the exact same response from three different ships at the same time, making it a triple echo, was.

  “What do you mean gone?” said about a dozen people more or less at the same time.

  “Scimitar jumped just fine,” she said, voice back under control.

  “But she never reappeared,” added Chris somberly.

  He’d know, almost as fast as Jane did. Both of them were wired up to be able to access any comnavsat in our network instantly. Chris was blind, and Jane had supplied him with tech to see with. It gave him access to a lot more than the rest of us could see. Jon looked grave.

  “Are you sure Jane?”

  He was looking towards the Jane on his own bridge. Everyone on mine was still looking at the Jane on my bridge.

  “Scimitar is not anywhere on our nav map Jon, sorry. And before you ask, there’s no sign of wreckage appearing anywhere either.”

  Jon shut his mouth, apparently having been about to ask exactly that.

  “Maybe it’s taking longer than we expected,” suggested Admiral Bentley.

  All eyes on my bridge went to the mage sitting on the other side of Aleesha, who was in her normal seat to the right of the empty helm position. The mage shook her head. Which confirmed what I’d thought. Magic jumps were more or less instantaneous.

  “So where is he?” asked Aleesha.

  There was silence.

  “Bob?” asked Jon.

  All eyes went to the hollo of Bob Derr, the shipyard manager. Scimitar had just emerged from a repair bay when the drive had been activated. He shook his head.

  “Nothing here, my boy. If there was debris, as if the ship broke up, I’d have said so already. There is nothing to indicate the ship was ever here. And given the bright blue George had the ship painted, you couldn’t miss it if you tried to.”

  There were a few chuckles, and one or two mumbled ‘Tardis blue’ comments.

  “Anyone have a guess what happened?” asked Jon, his eyes on someone else on his bridge, probably his own pet mages.

  There was a very pregnant pause.

  “If I had to guess,” said a voice I thought was Tanith, “I’d say too much power used for the jump causing a major overshoot.”

  Chris was nodding. I knew he’d had a part in suggesting the development of the jump drive, so he probably had a good idea of what was involved with it. Or not. It was hard to tell with his face, having so much of it covered in a mask.

  “So he’s fine, just somewhere beyond our space?” asked Alison.

  “We have to assume so, yes.”

  Tanith didn’t sound very sure. No-one wanted to suggest Scimitar had simply vaporized. But Tanith’s voice suggested he was thinking it.

  “In which case,” added Jon, before anyone could say anything else, “he’ll find his way back to us as fast as he can identify where he is, and plot a course back.”

/>   There was more silence, broken finally by Jane, again in triplicate.

  “Oh, that’s not good.”

  “What?” asked about twenty people at once.

  “The Trixone are here.”

  “Which here?” asked Jon.

  “All four entrance systems to our space.”

  Up until Chris had discovered a backdoor a week or so before, there’d only been three ways into Imperium space. We had all three well protected. The backdoor not so much, but it was protected now. Fearless was still over one of the planets he and his band of merry flyboys and girls had discovered, and protected from the plant’s offensive. The problem with the fourth system was it had two entrance points, not one.

  A screen popped up with five systems displayed on it. Multiple fleets were in each system already, and heading towards the jump points into ours. As we watched, another fleet jumped into each one.

  “George will have to look after himself,” said Jon. “All titans prepare to be redeployed. As soon as you see a rift, go through it. I’m going to put one of you behind each of our battlestation clusters as a failsafe. The systems you’re in at the moment will just have to make do without you now. Let the local Ralnor commander know you’re being recalled. It’s not as though they didn’t know this was coming, but the plants have moved faster than we’d hoped.”

  He paused for a moment.

  “Everyone else keep doing what you’re doing, but everyone is going to be moving very shortly. Those loading troops need to get a move on.”

  “Moving it,” said Amanda, quietly giggling.

  You can promote a marine to Colonel, but the beach bunny inside will always giggle. I envied her sometimes. It was why I wasn’t such a good marine, and better being a crazy pilot. But I’d never say that out loud.

  “Everyone back to work,” ordered Jon, and the channel dropped, taking with it all the hollos.

  The bridge of Fearless was silent for a long time.

  “Fuck that!” exclaimed BA.

  Three

  It wasn’t passing out black.

  And the black only lasted a moment.

  The shipyard was gone. The hollo’s were gone. In fact, everything was gone.

  Light was streaming in through the normal windows, and the light was really bright. I looked at Sim, who was wearing the sort of expression you get when someone kicks the shit out of you without any warning. The mage was staring out the front viewscreen. The HUD was gone. The normal status icons were gone. All the little things which showed power was flowing correctly through the ship, were gone.