Frontline

“The key difference between the Empire and Imperium is that the Imperium conquers in the name of subjugation. All they absorb are studied, and once their value to the Imperium is determined, given a place in their massive machine where they are expected to stay, regardless of their own wants and opinions. When a world joins the Empire, every being is given the choice to determine their own path within the brave new world which they have become a part of.”

-Excerpt from The Newcomer’s Guide to the Empire

As the ship flew back towards the base, the fog gradually began to dissipate, so that by the time they had reached their destination, Ansaria could see a crowd of people gathered on outside the compound. The ship landed in the courtyard, and as soon as the door opened, the sound of cheering filled the small craft. Ansaria and the others saw the survivors of the colony whooping and celebrating, hugging each other in sheer joy that their ordeal was over. The few remaining troops were keeping the crowd at bay so that they did not swarm their returning rescuers.

Kiryu extracted herself from the mob and came towards the ship, with Solemn following close behind.

“As soon as the fog started receding, we figured you all must’ve been successful,” she said. She peered around Ansaria. “Where is the lieutenant?”

Ansaria motioned to Alvara, who came forward bearing the Goreman’s weapon.

“I’m sorry, lieutenant,” said Ansaria.

Kiryu gently took the weapon from Alvara’s hands. Ansaria could see the pain in her face, but Kiryu swallowed hard before speaking.

“Was it a good death?” she asked.

“We couldn’t have completed the mission without his sacrifice,” said Ansaria.

Kiryu silently looked over Goreman’s weapon for a few moments before speaking again.

“What will you do now?”

“We still have our own mission to complete,” said Ansaria. “And the first step in that is getting Solemn back home. After that, we’ll be able to get back on track.”

Unless we’re too late.

“Once we’re in space, we’ll send a distress call to the nearest Imperial outpost. They should have a relief fleet here in a couple days.”

Kiryu nodded, and then raised her hand in a salute.

“Thank you for your help here, sergeant,” she said. “And good luck to you on your mission.”

Ansaria returned the salute, as did her troops behind her.

“We’re glad we were able to help, ma’am,” she said. “Let’s load up, troops. Governor, that means you, too.”

The squad trouped back into the craft, and Ansaria turned to regard Kiryu one last time before the door closed. She was staring at the cannon in her hands with hurt look on her face, and Ansaria said a silent prayer for her and her fallen CO. When the door fully closed, the starhopper rocketed upward into the atmosphere and away from the planet.

Ansaria had never imagined she would see an impatient mech, and yet Solemn’s temporary housing was giving off all the vibes of someone waiting to unwrap a present right in front of them. He kept walking up and down the cramped ship, glancing out the window before checking the ETA with Slog. After the twelfth time of this, Ansaria was sure Slog was going to deck him one, governor or no.

Ansaria decided to distract him from his constant waiting, at least for a few moments.

“So what will happen when you add that component to your set up, Solemn?” she asked.

The anxious bot stopped pacing long enough to answer her question.

“With this device, I will finally be able to completely split my consciousness from my physical body. What exactly will happen, I’m afraid I don’t know, though I do not believe any one will be in any danger once it happens.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

“I have run a thousand simulations of the event, sergeant,” he said, in a slightly haughty voice. “It is highly unlikely something will happen to threaten you or your squad. The only one in any real danger is to myself; if something did go wrong, it would only most likely result in my death.”

“Well, that’s comforting…for me, at least.”

“Indeed,” said Solemn, before turning to look out the window again.

When the ship finally landed on Myrthal, Solemn could barely wait for the hatch to open before disembarking. He rushed back into his lab with Ansaria and her squad following a short distance behind him.

By the time they reached the lab, Solemn was already at work affixing the component to the equipment next to his emaciated corpse. When that was done, he moved over to the device that his bot had come from. He turned to them.

“Just in case things go…wrong, I just want to say thank you, to all of you. I doubt I could’ve survived on Brakka on my own, let alone recover my missing piece.”

“Just doing our duty, governor,” said Ansaria.

He nodded to her, than stepped into the bot container. The room thrummed with energy once again, and the next time he spoke, Solemn’s voice reverberated throughout the room.

“Ah…so good to be whole again. I can only imagine how I’ll feel after this.”

The blue glow intensified, and the equipment next to Solemn’s body activated. Figures and status updates flashed across the monitor. The equipment let out a small beep, and the room began to shake. Ansaria and the others struggled to keep their balance as the whole lab rumbled with telekinetic energy; Ansaria briefly wondered if the shaking would cause an avalanche outside.

The blue glow began to intensify again, this time to such levels that Ansaria was forced to shield her eyes. The whine of power building up began to fill her ears. She could feel the very air vibrating with power. She called out to Solemn, but she could barely hear her own voice and the disembodied consciousness did not respond.

Just as Ansaria began to wonder how much longer this could go on for, she and her squad were suddenly overwhelmed with a single, all encompassing, outside thought:

VICTORY!

With that, the glow, the rumble and the steady whine of power building up reached a crescendo. Ansaria felt her senses being inundated when suddenly, everything became still and quite.

Ansaria lowered her hand from her eyes. The lab was still, aside from some dust drifting down from the high ceiling. The ever-present blue glow was gone, leaving only the outside sunlight to illuminate the room.

They tentatively made their way over to Solemn’s body. Alvara checked the monitor.

“The body is still alive, but there’s zero brain activity,” she said.

“He did it,” said Slog in a slightly awed voice. “The bastich actually did it.”

Ansaria felt that their observation had only confirmed what the voice in their head had told them. Solemn was gone, free from his body.

“Where do you think he went?” asked Alvara.

“No clue,” said Ansaria. “But I hope he takes care of himself out there. The universe is a dangerous place; even for a free-floating consciousness.”

They all turned to the window as a mechanical sound came from outside. A hanger on the west side of the building was slowly opening. When it finished, a large, sleek craft with wide wings was revealed, colored in the pervasive Mrythal colors of blue and gray.

“Looks like he kept his end of the bargain,” said Ansaria. “Let’s move it out, squad, we’ve got an empire to save.”