Review: Forest of Stars by Kevin J Anderson

*BEWARE OF SPOILERS*
This is the second book in the Saga of Seven Suns.
This was a good book, even if a little repetitive in places. The plot between Jora'h and Cyroc'h was possibly the most intriguing of all of the threads, and one that is actually closed at the end of the novel. Anderson is brutal in this book, brutally murdering characters throughout. The existence of the Verdani, Wentals and Faeros adds more unpredictability in the epic war, especially with the Faeros: it is implied that they are extremely treacherous. We find out what the Klikiss robots are all about; a great agenda, which you could see coming from a mile off. The characters were great, with a lot of changes in the five year gap between this and Hidden Empire. Initially, this gap is daunting; not much seems to have happened in these years, and none of the characters seem to have changed in that time. The EDF's battle against the Hydrogues is starting to get a bit stale by the end of the book; the reader knows that the EDF will be defeated and when it happens over and over, it starts to lose impact. Although, Adar Kori'hn's sacrifice near the end of the novel helped to pave the way for a kamikaze tactic for the EDF to use against the Hydrogues. Unfortunately, the EDF have no idea what the Klikiss Robots have in store for them...
King Peter has an interesting and dangerous plot, which I really enjoyed, especially his contrast to the HANSA Chairman and love for his new arranged wife.

FOREST OF STARS

+Continued great characters
+The new players in the war
+Most of the plot threads are intriguing and great
-Repetitive in places regarding the EDF
-Predictable plot with the Klikiss

6/10

Thanks for reading! The next review will be the third book in the Saga of Seven Suns, Horizon Storm. I just finished that, and I can tell you, it was great. Expect the review at the weekend.

Review: Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson

*BEWARE OF SPOILERS*
This is the first book in the Saga of Seven Suns.
 This was a great book. From the start, the pacing is brilliant and all of the plot elements are put into place. The "strange" spheres that emerge from Oncier  at the very beginning of the novel sets up for the fearsome and terrifying reaction of the Hydrogues. There are a lot of different plot threads and a lot of characters. The characters are all unique and none of them get blurred at all, unlike in some other novels. The plot is great, even if some characters arcs get a little predictable about half-way through the novel, especially the Colicos's predicament with the Klikiss robots. While I never expected them to die, I did suspect that the Klikiss robots knew a lot more about their past than they let on, and that they would stop the Colicos couple from finding out whatever they had done.
Unfortunately, while the death of Ross Tamblyn was a huge catalyst of the novel, I felt absolutely no emotion at that point.
The Ildirans are mysterious throughout, and the Worldtrees of the Therons moreso, although these mysteries are pretty much revealed throughout the second novel. Pretty much every relationship is changed throughout, most rather dramatically, especially Raymond Aguerra, a young street-urchin-type, whose family is murdered and he ends up becoming King of the Terran Hanseatic League.
But the Hydrogues and their ruthless attacks on Humans and Ildirans alike are the best parts of the novel. Anderson really captures the desperation and helplessness of the situations that the Hydrogues create. This is made even worse by the manner of their introduction; they destroy four moons when they first appear properly, and the foreshadowing there was great at building the tension when the Hydrogue Warglobes (great name!) finally make their full appearance, sacking human colonies.

HIDDEN EMPIRE

+Fantastic characters
+The Hydrogues are great
+Mysteries, mysteries everywhere
+Develpoment of character and relationships
-Ross Tamblyn's death

9/10

Thanks for reading! The next review will be the second book in the Saga of Seven Suns, A Forest of Stars. I just finished that, and I can tell you, it was great. Expect the review at the weekend.

Review: Ultimatum by Simon Kernick

*This review will not be as in-depth as the previous reviews*
*BEWARE OF SPOILERS*

"Ultimatum" is the sequel to Kernick's previous novel, "Siege", both of which are pretty great. Although it can function as a stand-alone novel, it is best read after reading "Siege". Else you may be asking questions such as "Why is Tina back on the force?" and "Who the hell is Fox?". These things are explained briefly, but it may leave a reader dissatisfied with the explanations, especially if they've read any other of Simon's books with Tina Boyd in them. Speaking of Tina, I felt her character was toned down somewhat, even from her appearance in "Siege". I'm not sure why this was, and I'm not complaining; it made her, to me at least, more compelling and likeable rather than some super-cop who won't follow the rules. There is still an element of that in there, but it is very much subdued. The villains of the book are pretty great and can be legitimately terrifying at times.
However, there are a couple of negatives. The name of the super-secret "evil organisation" was the oh-so cliched "The Brotherhood". This literally made me cringe, and I couldn't take it seriously without imagining either Marvel's "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" or DC's "The Legion of Doom". Also, the target of the terrorist attack was pretty obvious, due to the constant references to the Shard. While this can be disappointing, it does build tension really well. And the fallout of this disaster is amazing, with a section devoted to the destruction of part of the Shard and the damage control.
Overall, this is a pretty good book.

Ultimatum

+Great characters and relationships between them
+Plot twists everywhere
+ Everything you expect from a Simon Kernick book
- "The Brotherhood"
- Obvious target

8/10

Thanks for reading, and apologies for this shorter review; it has nothing to do with the book, just my  current workload. The next book review will not be, as said before Prador Moon by Neal Asher, but Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson.

Review: Hellhole Trilogy So Far by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert

*This review combines "Hellhole" and "Hellhole Awakened" by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert.*
*This review will not contain a review of Hellhole Inferno, as it has not yet been released at the time of writing*
BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

These novels tell the tale of General Tiber Adolphus and his battle to gain independence from the oppressive Constellation and it's ruler, Diadem Michella.
These books are brilliant. In my mind, there are very few negatives, and I can't understand why these books are criticised as much as they are. Characters are fully formed, with a strong sense of morality, even if they are different from the norm. I have not, at the time of writing, read any other of the authors' collaberative work, so there will be no comparison to their other works.

Hellhole begins with the final battle of Adolphus's first rebellion with Percival Hallholme, who uses a dishonourable tactic to defeat the General. Diadem Michella, after Adolphus's surrender, exiles him to a planet in the Deep Zone, dubbed "Hellhole".
Ten years later, and Adolphus has a thriving colony and network with other DZ worlds, much to Michella's surprise, who thought he would die out there. Soon, colonists stumble upon Slickwater, which contains the "souls" of the ancient Xayans, who were wiped out by an asteroid strike, aside from four who survived in a reinforced vault. Meanwhile, Antonia arrives on Hellhole, trying to escape her old life. When she arrives, she forms a relationship with Devon. Soon after, they immerse themselves in the Slickwater and become true lovers.
Meanwhile, the Diadem's assistant, Ishop Heer discovers that he is descended from a noble family who was disgraced 700 years previously. He goes on to take revenge on the families who disgraced his family. This sets a chain of events which results in the Diadem's daughter, Keana, ends up on Hellhole, and ends up in the Slickwater and becomes a "Shadow-Xayan", along with hundreds of others. Adolphus enforces the network between the DZ worlds, allowing independence from the Constellation. This pisses off Michella and she wants to wage war on Hellhole to get them back. Hence, Adolphus sends a Xayan and a small team of Shadow-Xayans to Sonjeera, the capital of the Constellation, to treat with Michella. She kills them all to stop this "alien disease".
 This ends in a cliffhanger, which was annoying; I hate cliffhangers when the next book isn't immediately unavailable.

Luckily, Hellhole Awakened picked up on this in an amazing way.

Percival's son, Escobar, is sent to battle Adolphus. Unfortunately for them, Adolphus carries out a plan which leaves them stranded in space with no way to get to Hellhole, seemingly. Adolphus is pretty pleased with that, until the Black Lord Riomini devastates the world, Theser, before moving on Hellhole. Adolphus persuades the Xayans and Shadow-Xayans to use their Telemancy abilities to stop Riomini's fleet and cripple the Constellation. Meanwhile, Escobar's crew are malnourished and dying. Many have to be killed for others to survive, and some revolt and are killed. The large burst of telemancy used to stop Riomini attracts "unwanted attention" and two asteroids head for Candela, which must be evacuated using Adolphus's military haulers. Unfortunately, at this time, Escobar's fleet finally arrive at Hellhole. However, his crew are dying of famine, so they surrender in return for supplies. Escobar refuses to surrender, and he and his crew put a virus on the ships Adolphus has captured which renders them useless. While Adolphus accepts their "surrender", Escobar's associate, Gail Carrington, kills Antonia. Devon kills Gail with his telemancy. He takes Antonia to the Slickwater to try and heal her, but they both drown in it. However, Percival Hallholme has been sent to Hellhole in light of his son's failure and he arrives shortly after Escobar's surrender and Adolphus's ships are being screwed over by the virus Escobar put on them. Luckily, Adolphus has a trump card; the telemancy from the Shadow-Xayans destroys the weapon on Percival's ships, forcing him to flee. The asteroids destroy Candela, which I personally expected to be diverted by the Xayans into Percivals ships, but oh well. When the Xayans are questioned about the asteroids and how they seemed deliberate, they reveal the existence of the Ro-Xayans, who wish to kill the other Xayans to stop their bid for Ala'ru, their one goal in life. There's more going on back with Ishop and Michella, including an assassination attempt on the Diadem by one of the noble families and Ishop's bid to revive his family name, which goes horribly wrong.

 And it's left on that cliffhanger, meaning I have to wait until September for it to be resolved.

Hellhole

+ Brilliant characters, with a sense of their own morality and values
+ The Xayans are pretty awesome, and contain huge elements of mystery
+ Devon and Antonia's relationship is a nice change of atmosphere from the dystopia around them
+ Ishop's quest
- Lack of focus on other DZ worlds, although they are very important to the plot

8/10

Hellhole Awakening

+ Brilliance of Hellhole continued
+ The Ro-Xayans and possibility of a new threat
+ Escobar's desperate situation
+ Tension building is masterful
- Less focus on certain characters (Keana for example)

9/10

Trilogy so far: 9/10

Thank you for reading, the next book review will be a departure from sci-fi and will be on Ultimatum by Simon Kernick. The next Sci-fi book review will be Prador Moon by Neal Asher.

Review: Neal Asher's "The Owner" Trilogy

*This review combines "The Departure", "Zero Point" and "Jupiter War" by Neal Asher.*
BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

This trilogy, in a nutshell, tells the tale of how Alan Saul, dubbed "The Owner", tries to escape the bounds of Earth and its dystopian society and oppressive rulers, the Committee.
For the most part, it is fantastic, especially "Zero Point", of which I can find barely any problems with; in my opinion, this is the perfect realisation of Asher's work and his writing prowess. "The Departure", for me anyway, started out confusing which made me not want to read on at first. However, when you realise what's going on, and that Saul has completely lost his memory, it really is worth it. From here, we see Saul trying to piece his previous life back together as he fights against the Committee and the brutal Inspectorate, trying to find his torturer, Political Director Smith. This brings him into contact with Hannah, a character who struggles to accept what he has become. Nonetheless, she helps him and the rogue AI, Janus. Unfortunately, Janus dies midway through the novel, which was disappointing but necessary.
As Saul hunts for Smith, his journey takes him to Argus station, a giant space station at the centre of a vast satellite network, and resolves in a series of beautiful combat and strategic scenes, which are some of the best Asher has written. The intensity and emotions of the characters are captured truly and seeing Saul kill his torturer was quick, yet oh-so satisfying. From there, Saul captures the surviving members of the Committee, including Chairman Mesina (more on that later), and drops most of the Argus Network onto Committee bases on Earth, effectively crippling the government.
Meanwhile on Mars, the area the cover depicts is in trouble. And this is the aspect of the book I dislike; Var Delex. I hated this character. Not because she is boring, as she certainly is not, of for the events around her, although they do go on for a bit longer than necessary, but just her attitude and changing personalities. Later on in the trilogy, it is revealed that she is Saul's sister, so this may explain the personality defects; Saul too was emotionally crippled. However, I am leaving my criticism of the Mars plot firmly in "The Departure", mainly because it was much better in "Zero Point", as was the character.

Moving on to "Zero Point", we see a new character enter; Serene Galahad. Easily the best character in this book (not so much in "Jupiter War"), she has a power complex and she is prepared to do anything to get it. Using her custom-made virus, the Scour, she wipes out huge portions of the human population, and blames it all on Alan Saul. This alone would not be enough to make me enjoy her character more than that of Saul or Professor Rhine; it is her fascination with nature and restoring Earth to what it once was. To do this, she needs the Gene Bank which is, you guessed it, aboard the Argus Station. Sending her faithful bodyguard, Clay Ruger, and a team of soldiers to Argus, she orders them to kill Saul and get the Bank.
Meanwhile, Argus isn't faring so well. Saul collapses into a mini-coma whilst trying to expand his mind beyond human capacity, which lowers morale across the Station. Hannah is fretting over near enough everything as it falls apart. But, before Saul slipped into his mini-coma, Professor Rhine gives Saul plans for a "Rhine Drive", which makes space exploration travel possible due to moving faster than light. Commissioning this to be made, the machines Saul commands quickly get this underway. However, going around the station are the two clones of Chairman Mesina. These are great characters, and I enjoyed them throughout, especially Alex, so I was glad that he survived.
This all resolves itself nicely. Saul wakes up before Clay arrives in The Scourge. Clay tries to board Argus, but it doesn't quite work out that way. Clay reveals to the captain of the ship, Scotonis, that Galahad is responsible for the Scour, but not before Saul is able to hack into the implants that contain the plague and set them off, killing most of the crew. The Scourge returns to Earth, mission to kill Saul failed, but Saul did transfer the Gene Bank to The Scourge as a bargaining chip. After that, Saul gets a call from Var, revealing that they are siblings and that she is in trouble. Saul goes to Mars to save her before her oxygen runs out, leaving Argus in the hands of Hannah.  

Finally, we move on to "Jupiter War". This was a brilliant book aside from Var's character. After Saul saves everyone on Mars, he moves them to Argus and scavenges what he can from the base there. Alex, the Mesina clone is captured, but Saul lets him go under a measure of faith. Alex soon infiltrates a group of Mesina-loyalists who wish to assassinate Saul. Hannah and the other doctors get to work on a "human backup" project, which worked with Saul's mind before he went comatose in "Zero Point"; this essentially grants eternal life. This makes for some interesting drama, especially when Saul reveals his big plan: to leave the Solar System and begin a new life among the stars. Some crew members aren't too pleased with this, understandably, but Saul offers them a choice; they are free to return to Earth. Commanding his machines, Saul recreates Argus into a form a Spacecraft and gets as far as Jupiter before things start going wrong.
Serene Galahad is pretty pissed; Clay failed his mission. So she recreates a Rhine Drive and sends three warships with a "vortex missile" to engage Saul. Meanwhile, Scotonis is planning a suicide run on Galahad, wishing to crash The Scourge into her base, detoning all of the nuclear warheads on board. Clay doesn't want that, because it means that thousands, maybe millions will die. Instead, he arranges for a meeting with Galahad to discuss the Gene Bank, where he should be able to tell the world the truth about the Scour. It doesn't work, and he is soon carted off to a torture cell, but not before he could tell the truth. In the end, her new bodyguard burns her alive and that's pretty much that.
The three ships eventually catch up with Saul, and as Argus sustains pretty heavy damage, it crashes on one of Jupiter's moons. Luckily, by that point only one of the three ships is left. After sacrificing the Rhine Drive in a sneaky, yet brilliant, tactic, he defeats all three of Galahad's troops. Fixing the Rhine Drive, and creating another, better drive, he finally leaves the solar system. But, while all this is happening, Alex stops an assassination attempt on Saul, but the rebels kill Var before Saul kills all of them. Var is a constant pain through this book, and is always undermining Saul which throws Argus into jeopardy all too many times. But, while Saul believes himself to be free of emotions, just before the entire crew of Argus are cryogenically frozen for the long journey, his subconscious controls the machines to rechristen the Argus as the VarDelex. A lovely ending for a brutal series.

The Departure
+Solid plot
+Brilliant action sequences
+Saul, Smith and Hannah are great characters
-Var Delex and the Mars plot
-Difficult to get in to

7/10

 Zero Point
+Great plot
+Serene Galahad
+Var is better this time around...
- But I still hated her

9/10

Jupiter War
+Brilliant plot
+Lovely ending
+Serene Galahad gets what she deserves
-Var Delex; I cannot stress how much she annoys me in this book, more so than in the other two

8/10

Series Whole

8/10

A cracking read, would definitely recommend for fans of Sci-Fi

The next review will be for Hellhole and Hellhole Awakened by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert; they're pretty good.

Emergence: Chapter 8

Strom was forced back in his seat as the Stinger gave a throaty roar and did away with the bonds of gravity. The titanic Crushers, more of them still moving towards the bridge, seemed like ants; albeit ants that could fight back. Even the skyscrapers did not look so imposing as Strom grew level with their highest floors. Curtains were drawn in many that he could see, but some buildings had had their entire top floor obliterated, yet few were too much worse. One, Strom could see, was leaning to the left, bricks and glass running down its underside as though it was crying.

To his side, Strom could see Olaf and Ilisa, each piloting their own Stingers. Olaf caught Strom looking and saluted mockingly. Strom chuckled; Olaf could never take anything seriously, unlike his sister, who simply gave him a brief nod and a reassuring smile.

And then they met the Reapers.

Larger than the Stingers, the black Reapers were just as fast and twice as dangerous; even the black colouring helped them disappear into the night. Thermo-locking missiles were mounted on the wings of both craft, but the Reapers also had a chain-gun under the nose-cone; these deadly weapon fired large, nail-like bullets, which detonate their deadly interiors seconds after impact; ideal for destroying aircraft. Reapers were not tools of defence, only indiscriminate killing machines.

Strom swerved, two thermo-missiles narrowly missing their target. Strom looked at the screen to his right; it showed a view from the rear camera. The missiles stopped in mid-air, before turning and darting back at Strom. As they drew closer, Strom veered to the left. The missiles shot past, but Strom was on them now, and fired his own. The four missiles collided and detonated together, flames billowing backwards in the air. A Reaper darted past Strom, its tail-fin scraping the Stinger's wing. Inside, Strom caught a glimpse of the Xaosian inside, who glared back with black eyes.

A crackle of static came over the radio, before Admiral Fairns's voice said, “All pilots, come in. We have orders from President Yuki to engage The Dominion. This attack is of paramount importance; the Xaosians have threatened to ignite the Sea of Oil. Our ODS is near enough depleted and destroyed. Forget Tapal, forget your families, forget your friends. Here, we fight for our planet. Up there, I want you to fight for yourselves; I want you to win, and if – I say if – we lose, we lose kicking and screaming all the way. Forget honour now; we fight for our lives. I will be taking to the air myself soon, leaving the ground forces in the command of General Trexor. Begin your assault.”

In the Stinger's cockpit, Strom pulled a lever, and the cockpit was airlocked; nothing got out, and nothing got in. Instead, plant-based filters changed the carbon dioxide he exhaled back into oxygen to be inhaled again; perfect for space flight. Following Ilisa, Strom shot upwards. As he got higher, the cockpit turned cold, so he flicked the switch which activated the solar-powered heaters. The heat coming off of the small pads on his seat relaxed his body, as if he was in a warm bath. But his mind stayed resolute as the Stinger was slung into a higher form of darkness.

For a moment, Strom felt weightless before the gravity compensators adjusted themselves. There were few Reapers up at this height; most were in Raan's skies. Instead, twisted and burnt spirals of metal floated in front of him, slowly turning like gears in a broken clock. Strom weaved in and out of the ruins of the ODS until finally he saw it.

The Dominion.

Only visible by the Solus's reflection in its solar panels, The Dominion was a sight to behold. A wedge-shaped slice of pure darkness and, judging by the number of gun emplacements, a machine of destruction. As the Stingers converged on the Flagship, its hull was lit up with the smallest of flashes; merely the impact of the missiles on the behemoth's force field, which acted as an invisible, thicker hull; it could be breached, eventually. Flashes illuminated the gun emplacements as they fired; hulking, cylindrical constructions, there were four smaller cylinders on both its left and right, with a command centre at the top. Strom briefly saw three Xaosians in one such command centre, as the smaller cylinders fired their deadly cargo, recoil only affecting them slightly. The cannon-fire did not cause the Stingers that were in its path to explode, or at least, not in the conventional way; normally, explosions are associated with flames and crashes, but in space, neither of those things can happen. Instead, the Stingers are simply forced apart by the impact of the explosive shell, before the explosion scatters them in every direction. No sound, no flames, no collateral.

As the cannons fired again, a Stinger near to him was caught in the missile's path. The nosecone was forced back into the cockpit, before it shattered and the remains of the pilot were ejected forcefully. The nosecone, still being forced backwards, crushed into the back of the craft, which began to disintegrate. The wings came apart, as did the tail fin. The ammunition and cannons came loose from their riggings and floated away from the ship, where the nosecone had finally emerged from the rear of the Stinger. Then, the missile exploded, and the pieces were scattered like shrapnel, which cut into the nearby Stingers. Strom shoved the joystick to the left, and the Stinger rolled like a ball to the left, narrowly avoiding a large chunk of what appeared to be part of a the Stinger's wing.

Strom fired on The Dominion, missiles storming towards it. But none hit the flagship, detonating just meters from the hull; the forcefield still wasn't down. Strom flew along the length of the flagship, peppering it with the thermo-locking missiles. Small explosions flashed briefly as they hit the forcefield, blending in with hundreds of others. Stingers were forced apart all around him and he would see the pilots float out, clutching their throats as their breath was stolen away. Some, Strom recognised; most, he did not. Just nameless faces that he may never forget, eyes begging for help and mercy from anyone who could. But no-one could deliver.

Strom came across one of the functioning cannons of the Orbital Defence System. The tubular object had two solar panels jutting out of it, with an antenna-like dish on the end of it. Poking out of the centre of the dish was a long, slim cone with a rounded top; this was where the ammunition was fired from. Hundreds of small explosives dwelled inside the satellite, all on a chain-fire belt. Thanks to the belt, they were shot at extremely high velocities and, due to their small size, were excellent armour-penetrators. What struck Strom, however, was that it wasn't firing. He stopped his Stinger next to it, engaging the craft's gravity-locks. Pressing a button under his seat, a small compartment behind the seat opened. Inside was a standard-issue spacesuit, designed for short excursions into space. As it was standard issue, it shrank or grew to fit any shape, size or species. Strom wriggled into it and put the helmet on; it was too big for him and his head seemed lost inside it, but the airlocks closed around the suit's collar as he plugged the helmet into the Stinger's oxygen supply.

He opened the cockpit.

Even through the spacesuit, Strom felt a breeze as air was sucked from the craft. He drifted off of the seat, and quickly grabbed the side of the cockpit to steady himself. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm his breathing. This won't be like before. The memory of before only made him think of falling, drifting, dying. Olaf can't save me this time. He remembered his friend's hand, grasping his own. At that point, Strom could barely see, but he took the hand which flailed in front of him before being crammed into a Stinger and passing out. Strom's heart raced as he thought about it, but then he remembered Fairns's words: “we fight for our planet”. Gulping, Strom rose from his seat, going into a crouching position. His hand shook as it gripped the edge of the seat. He noticed that, unconsciously, both hands were gripping tight, and that the rubber supports on the seat had split slightly. Breathing in, he pushed away from the seat. Drifting forwards, Strom flailed to try and grab the satellite. His fingers touched the side of it.

And slipped away.

Panicking, Strom flailed once more, heart speeding up. This was just like before, just as he feared. But with no-one to save him, he was as good as dead, lost in space, just one of the corpses that he'd seen floating in the endless void.

The oxygen cord snapped taut and Strom stopped with an abrupt halt. He let out a deep breath, which he didn't realise he had been holding in. He swam through space, as if doing the breast-crawl. Drifting slowly back towards the satellite, Strom realised that he had worried for nothing. Last time, before, he remembered that the cord had snapped; he relied solely on the backup oxygen supply in the small cannisters embedded in the suit.

Approaching the satellite once more, he put his hand out, slowly and carefully this time. He felt the touch of cold metal through the spacesuit's gloves as his hand clasped a ridge on the side of the Orbital Cannon. He dragged himself closer, painfully slamming his body into the metal surface, making him wince as his ribs erupted with pain again.

The satellite was larger than he had expected when he had first seen it; it was close to the size of a small house, obviously to house all of the ammunition as they did not get serviced often. Clambering along it, Strom searched for an access panel. The panel would not be large, only big enough for an arm to fit in and fix any software faults; the satellites were controlled completely by a special AI, which would sort and fix any mechanical failures. With the solar panels powering it, the AI would never go offline. Hence, the only reason for the cannon not firing would be a failure within the AI, which should be fixed by rebooting the system.

Strom barely felt the groove of the access panel through his gloves, but he knew it was there; perhaps the absence of sound heightened his sense of touch. He considered this as he thought never would've been able to feel that normally.... He wrapped his fingers around the edges and slid the panel open. Inside was a small screen with a touchscreen keypad. Strom entered the numbers 7719: the reboot code. The screen went black, before some white text came up saying “REBOOTING”. Beneath was a bar which was slowly lengthening. Strom nodded, satisfied with the job he'd done. He pushed himself off of the satellite, towards his Stinger. Pulling himself into the seat once more, he closed the cockpit and sealed the airlocks again before quickly stripping off the spacesuit. Disengaging the gravity-locks, the craft began to move again and Strom steered it away from the Orbital Cannon while he slowly counted down, nodding to each number.

Just before he reached “one”, the cannon fired.

A barrage of missiles tore into The Dominion's forcefield, flashes exploding like miniature stars in the space around it. Strom veered towards the flagship, as did many of the other Stingers, and they rained fire down upon it. They flew the length of the ship again, and still more and more Stingers were destroyed, but The Dominion was untouched. Strom pulled up, ready for another swoop when he saw part of The Dominion's hull splinter.

“The forcefield is down!” yelled Admiral Fairns over the speaker. “Concentrate all fire on The Dominion!”

A surge of adrenaline rushed through Strom as he turned the Stinger around, ready for another bombardment. A missile narrowly missed his ship and destroyed the orbital cannon he had just fixed. Strom felt a pang of annoyance at the fact that all of the effort he had gone to repair it was now for naught; it had helped bring the forcefield down, but now it was useless. He looked back at The Dominion just in time to see two huge panels at the bottom of the ship slowly slide away from each other. Out of the ravine that was left behind emerged a semi-spherical device, with a cylindrical object in the centre. The device was covered in solar panels, which slowly lit up one by one as it absorbed the Solus's light. With a sudden panic, Strom knew what was about to happen.

A deep growl came over the speakers; a Xaosian voice. “You ignored my warning.”

The Dominion's Earth-Scorcher fired on the Sea of Oil.

Emergence: Chapter 7

With the cold metal railing in his hands, Foton leaned over the balcony; a large semi-circle that jutted out of the Spire not far from its pointed peak. From here, Foton could see to the edge of New Orbus and to the dusty stone ruins of Orbus beyond. He looked down to the streets surrounding the Spire. There were landmobiles on the grey roads, their anti-gravity generators negating the need for wheels. Foton disliked landmobiles; they didn't have the sense of freedom that aeros had. The aeros had full 3-Dimensional movement, within certain bounds; they were to go no higher than 1500 Standards due to aerospace regulations. Sometimes, Foton wished he could forget his responsibilities and just fly, free of society's restraints and the bounds of gravity.

Foton moved along the balcony, his arms gliding along the smooth metal railing. From this position, he could see more of the parks that been specially grown for this metal hulk of a landmass. While he could not see the people in them, he knew that there would be children there, playing together under the watchful eyes of their parents; this wasn't like Raan, where children were brought up by Raisers. Further away, Foton could see the ten biodomes, each mimicking the average climate of one of the other planets in the Twelve, aside from Oblivion. This allowed New Orbus to grow food and host animals from all of the planets, not having to rely on trade in case of emergency. These were huge, each the size of small towns or large villages; the populace were not running out of food any-time soon. These were guarded by a collection of orbital systems, which Foton could just about make out from his viewpoint as a group of silver dots in the sky. But these were no-where near as well protected as the Anti-Gravity generator that suspended New Orbus above the surface of Orbus. Not only were they monitored by a stealth-orbital system, but their locations were kept a secret, with several decoys. Each had a mag-pulse generator, to repel high-speeding metal projectiles, and the thick, dense casing should be enough to repel orbital cannons. From his viewpoint, Foton could see one of the decoys; he knew where the real one was. These were giant cuboid buildings, stretching almost 1000 Standards into the sky; unmissable, but necessary to house the hulking machinery within.

He started as a sound disturbed him. Turning, he saw an Irinian woman walking towards him. She was tall, but not as tall as Foton, and very slender. At certain angles, her skin had a faint silver shimmer; metal fibres were inserted into Irinians' skin at birth to protect against the planet's weather. Running along the left side of her face, stretching from eye to her ear, before travelling down to the side of her mouth was an Irinian Augmentation, or Aug for short. “Foton,” she said, bowing her head.

“No need to bow to me, Teriva.” Foton said, smiling. “What brings you here?”

“I came to see Tahkshi,”Teriva said. “You're his bodyguard, where is he?”

“He's gone to talk to someone.” Foton answered solemnly. “Have you heard about Raan?”

Teriva sighed. “Yeah. And still my sister refuses to come to the capital.”

“Maybe Arias doesn't want to pledge her armies in a war that may only last a few days,” Foton suggested, “although the Xaosians are pretty serious; they're not gonna give up.”

“Exactly.” Teriva agreed. She ran a hand through her black hair. “I only came here to Tahkshi, and now I'm a political mediator.”

“Tell me about it.” Foton said light-heartedly, “I'm practically an ambassador for Prauw.”

Teriva chuckled, twisting her mouth as if trying to hide her smile. “I never knew you were from Prauw.” she said, folding her arms. “I always assumed Raan.”

“Wha', and talk like this, ma'e?” Foton said in a Raanian accent.

“Wow...” Teriva said, “You should be an enemy of Raan for that accent! And I meant the wealthier parts.”

“Nah, Prauw. It's not the best place, but it's simple.” Foton stated.

Teriva nodded, “Simple's good.”

They fell into silence for a moment, before Foton's pocket emitted a high-pitched squeal. He pulled a com out of it and pressed the button in the centre. “Foton here.”

“I know,” came the voice of Lord Tahkshi, president of the Empire of Twelve, “otherwise your com wouldn't be ringing. Can you pick up Devilclash and meet me at Buun's com-room?”

“Why?” asked Foton, annoyed at Tahkshi's sarcastic comment.

“Because Buun would be a good ally in our war with the Xaosians.” Tahkshi said.

“Alright then.” Foton said, before glancing over at Teriva. “By the way, Teriva's here.”

“Is she?” Tahkshi's voice sounded more enthused now. “Pass me over please.”

Foton mentally grinned as he passed the com over; one mention of Teriva would suddenly make Tahkshi polite. Teriva began talking into the com, but Foton ignored her; it didn't matter to him what they were saying. There was a sudden giggling and Foton saw Teriva's cheeks redden. She waked over to Foton, still talking into the com. “Love you too!” she called into the com, before passing it back to Foton, who raised an eyebrow; she was acting like the child she would've been thirty years ago.

“So, the Buun com-room with Devilclash?” Foton affirmed.

“Yeah, see you soon.” Tahkshi finished, before the com began to buzz; the call was over. Foton pushed the com's button and the buzzing stopped, before replacing it in his pocket.

“What are you doing now?” Foton asked Teriva.

“I'm going to wait for him here.” she said, leaning on the balcony's railing. “You should probably be going.”

“See you later.” Foton said, turning away.

He walked into the Spire, before entering an elevator, which took him down to the penultimate floor. From there, he went into the Tracking room, where he went over to the central computer and placed his thumb on the pad in front of it. This checked his thumbprint against the one on the database, whilst monitoring his pulse to make sure that there was one, or that he was not panicked or coerced into opening the system. A red light turned green and the screen turned on, displaying a map of each of the Spire's floors, all of them covered with blue shapes. Each blue shape was a bodyguard, all of whom had chips implanted in them; in Devilclash's case, it was attached to the Hive-Stone rather than in the neck. The Tracking room's purpose was to allow Foton, as the chief bodyguard, to find and track the other guards. He brought up a search box and typed in “DEVILCLASH-pyr”. She was on the seventh floor, standing in the main hall. Foton sighed; the Buun room was on the floor below the one he was on, nowhere near the seventh. For a moment, he wondered why Tahkshi hadn't just commed her as well, but then he remembered that Devilclash couldn't carry a com with her all the time. On the way out of the room, he spied the old building-com; this allowed him to communicate with everyone in the building, or on one floor, at once. He dusted it off and plugged it in, before selecting Floor 7 from the menu. He cleared his throat, before saying, “Devilclash, please meet Foton outside the Buun com-room. Repeat, Devilclash to the Buun com-room.” He watched Devilclash's dot move towards the nearest elevator. Foton smiled and nodded, before walking out of the Tracking Room and moving towards the stairs to the floor beneath.

Twelve doors set in a circle greeted him as he arrived on the com-floor. The door he had came through and another door led to stairs, spiralling in opposing directions; one up, one down. The other ten doors led to separate com rooms; one for each of the Twelve, aside from New Orbus and Oblivion. One to Foton's left had “BUUN” engraved on a plaque attached to it. Pressing his ear to the door, Foton could hear Tahkshi's soft and soothing “political voice”.

“Should you really be listening?” came a rasping voice.

“Devilclash,” Foton said, turning to see the Pyrkagias. “You got here quickly.”

She began to walk over to him, but her feet didn't touch the floor; they never did. “D.” Foton asked, “Why do you bother to do the actions? Or even look human?”

“The Primary recommends it, so that we can fit in.” Devilclash said, “It doesn't work though, people still tend keep away from us. Also, I think it's a nice form.”

“It is.” Foton admired the Pyrkagia; powerful, immortal and somewhat graceful. For a swarm of bugs, anyway.

The door to the Buun com-room opened and Lord Tahkshi emerged, his red and gold lord's robe billowing behind him. “Foton. Devilclash.” Tahkshi acknowledged them both with a brief nod.

“Why did you want us, sir?” Foton asked.

“Well, Foton, I'm pretty sure you know your job description; you're my bodyguard, and you will guard my body.” Tahkshi said. Foton bit back a retort. “And you, Devilclash; partially for the same reason, but also because of your species. The Pykagian Primary refuses to talk over coms; we have to go to Buun to ask for his help.” Tahkshi turned to Foton. “I'm assuming you've never been to Buun before?”

“You assume wrong.” said Foton.

“Really?” Tahkshi said, his voice going higher-pitched in his surprise. “Good. Nixiin has the ship ready for us, so can you two go there now? I'm going to see Teriva quickly.”

“You had better be quick.” Foton said, his deep voice becoming more of a growl.

Tahkshi ignored him and walked away at a brisk pace.

Devilclash turned to Foton. “Have you really been to Buun?”

“Yes.” Foton said. “I wouldn't lie to my client.”

“But you hate him.” Devilclash stated; not a question, but an utterance of fact.

“Not hate.” Foton said. “Distaste, but not hate.”

“So, why'd you go to Buun?” Devilclash asked.

Foton paused for a moment, before looking at Devilclash and saying, “Fancied a change of scenery.”

She gave Foton a strange look and said “Okay then.”

He nodded, before turning and walking to the stairs heading downwards, knowing that she didn't believe him.