Behold … a Black Wraith Rising: Where It All Began, Part One

By J. Allen Clary

After the Jadra Warriors defeat their enemies on Jadus II, the planet Jadus I is stricken by thirty deadly years of civil war, destroying millennia of culture and advancements, and reducing the population from billions to just millions of half-starved inhabitants. When the fighting finally fades, the planets population struggles to rise from the ashes of destruction, rebuilding itself and its civilization over the course of another fifty years. Whole once again, Jadus I is a force to be reckoned with, a power unmatched across seven galaxies.

The people of Jadus II, however, have not forgotten the destruction they endured at the hands of Jadus I. Prime Chancellor Samin Bladen of Jadus II, a greedy and sadistic ruler, initiates a new war of conquest. When Prince Kadan Gladden of Jadus I follows in Bladens footsteps, however, Kadan inspires the rise of the most powerful enemy the worlds of the seven galaxies have ever faced: the Black Wraith Empire, a force that threatens the freedom and lives of billions. Although the Freedom Alliance forms to fight back, the only real hope may rest in the hands of a group of space pirates.

In this science fiction saga, the first in a series, the power of an evil empire grows as a group of unlikely allies struggle against that evil might.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491748770

J. Allen Clary

J. Allen Clary currently writes full-time; he has written nineteen books in a little over three years. The parents of two adult sons, he and his wife of thirty-three years live in Pueblo West, Colorado.

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BEHOLD…A BLACK WRAITH RISING

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, PART ONE

Copyright ©2014 J. Allen Clary .

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-4876-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-4877-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015903213

iUniverse rev. date: 4/16/2015

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

MY WIFE HAD A DREAM.

Out of the blue I started writing my first book. I was depressed. I have no idea what prompted me to start writing. Two weeks after I started writing, my wife told me about a dream she had, two weeks before I started writing. She dreamt I became a writer. She inspires me even in her dreams!

In war there is a beginning, a darkest hour, a turning point, and the end. Caught up in all this are the innocents. They always suffer the worst of war. Let’s pray to our gods they remove war from our world forever.

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CHAPTER 1

THE WAR WAS DEVASTATINGLY destructive to the once well advanced world.

The only technology the humanoids had left to use after thirty years of uninterrupted war were their weapons. Some weapons flew. Some weapons crawled along the ground. But the most abundant weapons were the hand-held weapons called Palmers. These weapons were small, but quite deadly.

The standard infantry Palmer fires a 12.5mm projectile that travels around 3,800 feet per second. That’s almost three quarters of a mile. Thirteen NFL Football fields in one snap of a finger! The Palmer has a range of up to…two minutes? Minutes instead of distance? Heh, heh, heh! On a planet, that’s about 152,000 yards, or about 86 miles…if nothing interfered or got in its way. Out in space, it has a range of about 10,000 yards. Not bad for traveling through space. It’s a negative 523 degrees Fahrenheit out in space. Or, if you want it to sound a little warmer, negative 273 degrees Celsius.

The Palmer shoots a chemical round which burns for two minutes, and then turns into ash. You can set the Palmer for a full two-minute burn time, for hard targets. Or, for one-second burn times for humanoids. Pull the trigger and the humanoids are quite perforated and completely cauterized…instantly. But it has its drawbacks. The weapon has a tendency to shut down due to overheating when fired too rapidly. On the positive side, however, they have yet to find anything it can’t eventually burn through.

The Palmer is a very effective weapon in the hands of ground troops. But out in space, in large numbers…they are far deadlier.

The Quadpod is a very effective weapons platform that is impervious to most conventional anti-armor weapons. The sole reason the Quadpod has hung around the battlefield for so long a time. This deadly ground crawler is hard to destroy using aircraft because of its ingenious design. But on the ground, with Palmer in hand, it’s not so hard to kill anymore. Protected by four inches of case-hardened deflective armor, the Quadpod is an excellent weapons system. It is armed with a host of 20 and 40mm Palmers for combating ground troops, as well as aircraft. The Quadpod fires an energy beam projectile round which can take out most anything sporting light to medium heavy armor. Once the targeting system has a target painted, the target is as good as dead. Once locked on to the target, there are no misses. It is the only ground-based weapon around, besides the Palmer, capable of bringing down aircraft.

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It was a horrendous clash of death and destruction. Just a few short months after the mighty Jadra Warriors of Jadus I laid waste to Jadus II, the Jadra Warriors were on the fight again. But this time, the fighting was against each other. What started out as a small, minor dispute between two districts, quickly escalated into a global civil war. The conflict turned into one side of the world fighting against the other side of the world, right against wrong. But who is right…and who is wrong?

It was a bloody, brutal, nasty, thirty-year war, leaving the Jadra Warriors and over a thousand years of legend…shattered forever!

It didn’t matter anymore what started it all. Jadus I is now at war with herself and she is quite deadly at it. It was a real struggle to stay alive. Their cities, once so beautiful and majestic, were laid to waste, turning their once proud, architectural achievements into dust. Almost everything they worked so hard to achieve over the last five thousand years was left in ruin, or just flat out laid to waste. With a world population that once proudly boasted billions of humanoids, the planet was now down to just millions of half-starved inhabitants, scattered across the world the inhabitants called Jadus I.

The war had been a brutal, deadly conflict that had cost the inhabitants of Jadus I dearly. And because there were no industries left in its wake, all the Jaden clans scattered about the planet had to be extremely careful with whatever weaponry they had left. Because of this caution, the Jadens became very adept at salvaging the weapons left behind by their just defeated foe. Yet salvaging these parts was not always easy. The sounds of battle carried far. In some cases, the victors were forced to leave behind, the battlefield and whatever weaponry they were recovering at the time. The sudden emergence of a fresh, newly arriving enemy, drawn on by the sounds of battle, prompted this unexpected retreat.

But slowly, over time, the death and destruction that ruled Jadus I began to sporadically fade away until suddenly, the sounds of war could not be heard in great volume anymore. Small stands of trees and other plant life began to grow out of the trampled ashes of the once proud cities, restoring the breath of life. And out of the trampled ashes of this worldwide conflict, rose five of the more powerful districts. The only districts still completely intact.

The Appeonese (A-Peon-Ease) lived in the District of Appion, a huge chunk of territory containing millions of square miles. The cities the Appeonese built were once the pride of the planet in architectural achievement. So beautiful, so majestic, so magnificent, the Appeonese architecture drew in visitors from three different galaxies…but those achievements were quickly, and brutally shoved into the past. The power of Appion was reduced to a scattering of small wooden made strong points, and roadblocks. The Appeonese had control of the largest land mass, but their control was shaky at best. Appion had plenty of Jadens to defend with; they just didn’t have enough weapons to go around. They needed industries to make more weapons. So, while Appion defended; she struggled hard to rebuild her shattered lands.

The Shynese (Shin-Ease), once an ally of Appion, are now at ends with the Appeonese over something too ridiculous to remember. Their lands are located to the west of Appion in the District of Shynesia (Shin-Easia), a smaller version of Appion. The rest of the five realms were located almost halfway around the world, defending against any who came near them.

The Dashsians are the strongest of the five clans, and they were as determined as Appion to rebuild their cities. Located halfway around the world from Appion, they control the second largest land mass. The Dashsian’s recently crowned leader, Nechin Liownden IV (Lee-Own-Den), was tired of the death and destruction that ruined Jadus I. A death and destruction that claimed his entire family. His father, King Nechin Liownden III, a sagacious and powerful leader, commanded the mighty Dashid Jadra Warriors. He was killed early on in those thirty years of conflict, defending Supreme Guardian Lathen, the not so wise leader of Jadus I. They both died that day. To King Nechin Liownden IV, it was time to start over.

King Liownden IV is a product of his father. He took his father’s teachings and leadership examples to heart, so he tried to lead as he felt his father would. He was very successful in that endeavor. Therefore, thanks to the leadership of King Liownden IV, their enemies were a bit hesitant about attacking the District of Dashidian (Das-Hid-E-In). Those surrounding realms were only able to maintain control of their lands because the Dashsians were too busy rebuilding their destroyed cities. Let the others do as they wish!

The Talarians (Tala-Ree-An) are located to the northwest of the Dashsians in the District of Talari (Tala-Ree). House Hamrendon was located southeast of the Dashsians in the District of Hamrendon. Although all of the districts had a few Quadpods and Star Blazers, they used them sparingly, and only in self-defense. To lose any of those weapons might give their enemies an added advantage that could mean destruction for the less advantaged Jadens.

Throughout the course of the next twenty years, the Jadens worked hard to rebuild their ruined cities. New industries began to rise out of the ashes, and along with those new industries, a new hope began to grow as well. Two of the districts, Appion and Dashidian, became trade partners and allies over those twenty years, sharing what they knew with each other. They were also fast becoming very close friends. Although thousands of miles apart, they quickly over time, realized they both had the same goal in mind: a world free of war!

The other three realms were a few years behind the two allies in rebuilding because they were too busy trying to expand their borders. But they did manage to come to an understanding. They chose one Lord King to rule the three regions. King Koev of the Talari district was chosen Lord King…but there was no power behind the crown. Nothing major could be done without the approval of all the different House leaders. King Gladden (Glay-Den) of House Hamrendon, seeing his chance, started planning the demise of Lord King Koev, and the takeover of the Talari and Shynesian territories.

CHAPTER 2

IT WAS A SHYNESIAN, Hamrendon conspiracy filled with promises of glory and riches. So what else is new? King Gladden wooed the Shynesians by stating this promise: Join me, and you will rule the Appeonese! It worked! The Shynesians were waiting for Gladden’s perpetrators to arrive so they could guide the assassins to the kabo (house), where King Tassir of Shynesia was secretly staying. Once there, it was up to Gladden’s raiders to kill the king. King Gladden’s squads were wearing captured Appeonese military uniforms!

Following the king’s death, the Shynesian puppet loyal to King Gladden would then step into the limelight and take over as leader of the Shynesians. But King Tassir’s death had to be confirmed first. The whole of Shynesia was then to be handed over to King Gladden under the pretext of we need your help! That was the arrangement, and it worked! It’s one of the last steps in King Gladden’s efforts to become absolute ruler of the three districts.

‘Once I have complete control of all three regions, I will then be able to combine all the resources of the three districts, and build up an army strong enough to defeat the Dashsians. And then, Jadus I will be ripe for the taking!’ The Talarians lost their king the day the Shynesian conspiracy began its rise to success.

King Gladden arrived at the Talarian capital city of Ralais with a large contingent of troops, just a day and a half after Lord King Koev mysteriously died. King Gladden’s reason for the troops was to help the Talarians keep order in their lands. Two days after King Gladden’s arrival, a new Talarian king was crowned. King Koev II. The kings own son betrayed his father because King Koev II loved power a lot more than he loved his father. But he got careless.

King Koev II didn’t realize he’d been deceived by King Gladden. King Koev II didn’t realize he’d been tricked into signing a decree which put King Gladden at the helm of the Talarian district upon the new kings death….The newly crowned King Koev II didn’t see the sunrise the morning after signing the directive. Or any other morning thereafter!

Within a year, King Gladden was the sole ruler of the three realms. Within three more years, King Gladden had ruthlessly expanded his borders, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind what he was hungry for.

King Gladden was still behind in his rebuilding, but he managed to bring up his strength in Star Blazers (fighter and ground support aircraft) to a total of 150 combat aircraft. Not enough to overcome the Dashsian force. But enough to keep absolute control of his newly acquired territories. Now it was time to build up his ground forces.

The Appeonese and Dashsian leaders followed the events leading up to King Gladden’s takeover of the Shynesian and Talari districts. It was the ruthless way in which he conducted those takeovers that caught their undivided attention! They were also aware of his fast-pace military buildup of air and ground forces. This began almost immediately after the takeovers occurred. And because of those sinister takeovers, the two allies quickly formed a mutual aid defense pact. They called that mutual aid agreement, the Appedian Alliance. The name contained a piece of both parties as a symbol of their unity.

Communications had been restored to their pre-war status of fifty years before. The two allies were now on the verge of launching their first Battle Blazers as well. What used to take months to communicate between the two territories, now only took seconds. But as hard as they tried, they couldn’t keep King Gladden’s spies from stealing that communications technology or the plans for the Battle Blazers. It was now an arms race between the Appedian Alliance and House Hamrendon.

King Marto Deanus V is the son of an Appion Jadra Warrior known worldwide as the Predator. King Marto Deanus IV earned his title in many battles many times. He is ruthless in battle. But he was also a very just and wise king. And yet, he too died in battle fighting his fellow Jadra Warriors. He left behind only one son. King Marto Deanus V.

King Marto Deanus V had two sons and a daughter. His daughter married the oldest son of King Liownden (Lee-Own-Den). King Liownden’s daughter married the youngest son of King Deanus (Dee-Ann-Us) which, between the two marriages, anchored the Appedian Alliance strongly, and insured the Appedian Alliance would remain strong for the next seventy years or so.

The marriages were not arranged between the two allies, but as it so happened, Princess Novena Noria Deanus, married Prince Danis Steen Liownden, and Princess Stelyn Delor Liownden married Prince Thaner Dallen Deanus. It was a very confusing intermingling of Royal Families to say the least. Now, not only was the Appedian Alliance strong, the two kings formed a very strong, and close friendship with each other. The sons and daughters of the two kings followed in their father’s footsteps, forming their own bond of friendship which now, could only be broken by death.

Prince Garin is the oldest of King Deanus’ sons, and will be first in line for the crown when King Deanus leaves the realm of the living. Prince Garin is also a bit impulsive, and he tends to let his emotions get in the way of common sense.

Prince Dallen, the youngest son, will take over command of all the Appeonese military forces. Prince Dallen is more like his Father; he’s a thinker. He plans things out before he acts.

Princess Noria is also like her Father. She is strong willed, and very much the fighter. She is also a thinker, a planner. But she has one problem. She is shorter than her brothers. This was a problem when they were growing up. It still is. And they outnumbered her as well.

Although the Appedian Alliance had House Hamrendon’s forces outnumbered two to one in ground and air combat units, they were still hesitant about attacking King Gladden. They’d just spent the last thirty years rebuilding a lot of what the previous war destroyed, so they didn’t want to see those thirty years of hard work wasted because of a hasty decision. They were hoping King Gladden would die of old age before he could launch his attack against the Alliance. It was for this reason they kept the arms race going as a deterrent against aggression.

King Gladden married, but he didn’t honor his vows. Why should I? I’m a king! Even so, his wife still blessed him with two sons. Despite his infidelities. The oldest son would take over power when King Gladden died, so the king began grooming Prince Dorian to continue the plans he already started. By the time Prince Dorian was eighteen, he had become quite the ruthless leader, like his father. And like his father, he thirsted for the domination of the whole of Jadus I. Especially the destruction of the Appedian Alliance!

The arms race continued throughout the following years, as King Gladden tried to catch up to the strength of the Appedian Alliance. Hampered by the lack of specially trained and experienced technicians, this was a bothersome worry for the king. He knew through his spies that the Appedian Alliance now had somewhere in the neighborhood of about 500 Star Blazers fully manned and ready. They also knew about the fifty Star Blazers already retro-fitted for space travel. King Gladden had only 300, and not one was up-graded for space.

King Gladden also knew that the Appedian Alliance had roughly fifty Battle Blazers fully equipped, and ready for battle. And he just recently found out that the Appedian Alliance had twenty Battle Blazers upgraded for space travel, and they were already in orbit above the planet. House Hamrendon could only bring ten Battle Blazers to the table, and not a single one of them was space worthy.

Where King Gladden had a slight advantage, was in the ground troops. But without control of the air, his ground troops would come in a poor second. Without air superiority, his close to 900 Quadpods, wouldn’t make much of a difference. Not with the Appedian Alliance having over 1,200 of the versatile attack vehicles.

It was time to do something about that imbalance of air power, and that’s exactly what King Gladden set out to do. The raid on the Dashid Battle Blazer ship-building complex was almost perfect and undetected—almost!

Prince Dorian led the incursion himself, and carried it off with almost no hitch. But he didn’t count on the death before dishonor loyalty of the engineers he was sent after to abduct. They were almost to the lightly armed trooptravelers when one of the senior engineers suddenly bolted, pushing the panic button on his hidden comm link. He didn’t get very far before he was brought to the ground.

The silent alarm went off in the DBB complex security control room, and suddenly the darkness surrounding the outside area of the Dashid Battle Blazer complex was bathed in bright lights. Before he was able to make good his escape, Prince Dorian lost three of the twelve engineers he was ordered to abduct.

On his way out of the city, he lost one of his trooptravelers to a Quadpod. Twelve of his troops plus the three engineers, died in that explosion. But he did manage to escape with the rest of the kidnapped aerospace engineers. Although he lost three of the techs, only one senior space engineer was killed. The other two were only assistants. So he still had three senior engineers to advance his father’s intrigues. If they refused to co-operate, he had six Dashsians he could torture in front of the senior aerospace techs until they did co-operate. Prince Dorian learned the lessons from his father quite well indeed.

Prince Barlon stands about six foot two. His hawkish features and narrow eyes gave false evidence to his seemingly calm manner. Inside he is the grandson of a Jadra Warrior. It is in his blood. And his blood is about to heat up.

Prince Barlon was head of security at the time the silent alarm went off. His first thought was that one of the senior techs had triggered the alarm by mistake but that notion quickly changed. He saw a large group of strangers moving into the shadows towards what appeared to be trooptravelers. He wasn’t sure because what he was looking at were just vague outlines in the shadows, just outside the range of the security lights.

Immediately, he sent an FOF Dashsian ID inquiry to the three trooptravelers. He didn’t receive the correct response. Quickly, he turned the master control key to the right, instantly arming the Battle Blazer complex defense system. Once activated, the defense arrays covering the eastern half of the complex failed to arm, and only half of the defense weapons on the western side responded. What’s going on?

When activated, a signal was automatically sent out to the Quadpods patrolling the outskirts of the city, putting them on full alert. They had standing orders to engage any and all targets not responding correctly to the Dashsian ID inquiry. This action resulted in the one trooptraveler being destroyed. The two remaining trooptravelers turned on their jammers after seeing one of their trooptravelers explode. With their jammers engaged, the trooptravelers were absorbed into the clutter showing up on the Dashsian tracking screens. This, along with the darkness of night, finally allowed the Prince Dorian led force to make their escape.

King Gladden was ecstatic over the news he received from Prince Dorian. He wasn’t too pleased over the loss of the trooptraveler, but the fact he still possessed three of the four senior aerospace techs, made the loss of the trooptraveler a little easier to digest. ‘Now, with a little time, I will finally have my space worthy combat aircraft!’

The second half of the mission was yet to be carried out. An elite five-man team was left behind, hidden. Their mission is to kill the spy King Gladden had planted in the Battle Blazer complex. It was a sudden, fear of Prince Barlon induced decision, just before they made their escape from the Dashid Battle Blazer complex. The spy very suddenly outlived his usefulness. That he had done an outstanding job creating a hole in the defensive perimeter, and shutting down over half of the defense system, didn’t matter. Directing Prince Dorian to the quarters of the technicians mattered even less. King Gladden knew Prince Barlon would launch an investigation to find out how they got to the technicians, and why over half of the weapons system failed to work. The king also knew Prince Barlon is top-of-the-line in his field…‘Prince Barlon will find my spy and make him talk!’

King Gladden wasn’t ready for a confrontation with the Dashsians quite yet, and he also knew that without positive proof of who was responsible, King Liownden wouldn’t attack. So the spy had to be killed before he was captured and interrogated. It was a last minute decision to kill the spy, a very sudden last minute decision.

Shortly after mission end, King Gladden started breathing again. He, at last, received word that the spy had been eliminated. His death had been confirmed by video link, transmitted from on-sight. A trooptraveler was then sent to the pickup location to retrieve the five-man team and bring them back to Hamr (Ham-R) City, the capital of House Hamrendon, and then from there, on to Hamr Palace for their debriefing.

It was a well designed raid that was a highly successful operation, planned by Prince Dorian. King Gladden was very proud of his son. He was now convinced that his oldest son could carry on where he left off, the total destruction of the Appedian Alliance and the complete conquest of Jadus I. ‘Who knows? Maybe the conquest of Jadus II might be the next step. Just think, the complete control of two whole worlds. Ha! What a conquest that would be!’ King Gladden was smiling when he left the planning room to meet Prince Dorian at the landing pad.

Hamr Palace is amazingly stylish and beautiful. Built on a rise in the heart of Hamr City it stood out, glimmering brightly in the sunlight for all to see. Built by the backs of those he conquered, its green, gold, and red domes spiraled upwards towards the heavens, and left no doubt about whose ego inspired its creation.

Prince Barlon was not a happy Prince. Four of their best aerospace engineers were taken along with their assistants, and then they find another technician murdered in his quarters. ‘This whole thing stinks of Gladden!’ It was an exhausting investigation that very quickly proved to be a waste of time, and another head shaker.

Prince Barlon stood looking over what remained of the trooptraveler, puzzled. There was not a marking on it anywhere. Looking at the bodies, he found nothing on their uniforms to identify who they belonged to. But he did recognize his three engineers. All he could do at that point was shake his head, baffled. Prince Barlon knew in his heart House Hamrendon was responsible for what happened. He also knew that without positive proof; his father would do nothing about it.

He was still puzzling over the failure of the defense system. Almost immediately after he returned from the crash site, he started testing and retesting the system. But no matter what he thought of. No matter what idea he tried out. He could not get the weapons system to malfunction as it did during the raid.

And then suddenly it dawned on him. It was such an obvious and easy answer it eluded him for over twenty minutes! ‘There is nothing wrong with the weapons system! The defense system was deliberately shut down at just the right time, and at just the right places!’

It was not a very heartwarming revelation! The defense system could only be shut down from the inside. To Prince Barlon, this meant they had a spy in their midst. Prince Barlon was dumbfounded! ‘The dead engineer security found in the tech quarters, could he have been that spy?’ The more Prince Barlon thought about it, the more he was convinced King Gladden was behind all of this treachery. The problem now was how to convince his father that House Hamrendon is the culprit.

Security around the capital city of Dashid was doubled. They now had Star Blazers patrolling the skies for the first time. Prince Barlon had all of the engineers moved to new, undisclosed locations where they would be safe when they were not working at the weapons complexes. It appeared House Hamrendon’s aggressiveness was beginning to escalate. Because of this latest aggression, Prince Barlon asked for a meeting with the king.

The meeting lasted for over an hour and a half. All of King Liownden’s offspring were there at the meeting. They listened to what Prince Barlon had to say about what he uncovered during the investigation, and also his conclusions. Everyone in the Dashid Palace conference room was in full agreement with Prince Barlon’s conclusions, except the king.

In Appion Palace, the House of Deanus was listening to the meeting over the video comm link. Even King Deanus’ offspring were in agreement with Prince Barlon’s assessment…but not the two kings. The two kings still had the recent thirty-year war of destruction fresh in their minds. They were a bit hesitant on pulling the trigger again.

CHAPTER 3

TWO DAYS AFTER PRINCE Barlon’s meeting with the two kings, another raid was staged. But this time, it was against the Appeonese complexes. The results were not as favorable as the raid against the Dashidian complex. In fact, the results were pretty dismal. The Appeonese security forces were ready and waiting when the foray occurred.

Everything happened exactly as the first raid. A hole in the security perimeter was created, and the complex defense system was shut down. Just like the last time. But that’s where all similarities ended. Prince Dorian wasn’t leading the incursion this time. Yet it wouldn’t have made any difference even if he had been. The Appeonese technicians were being moved to a different location every other day when they left the complexes. But on this particular evening, they were kept inside the complexes on a hunch…a gut feeling Prince Garin had. As it turned out, his gut was right.

When King Gladden’s squads reached the new tech quarters, they found them empty. What they didn’t know was their video jammers were rendered useless, so they were being watched by the Appeonese security forces. When the commander of the raiders discovered the tech quarters were empty, he immediately knew something had gone wrong. He then ordered his men back to the trooptravelers. As he was leaving he turned to the Appion conspirator and killed him.

The Gladden squads didn’t make it back to their trooptravelers. They were met halfway to their trooptravelers by a large contingence of Appeonese security forces led by Prince Dallen. Realizing they weren’t going to escape the area, the raider force commander flipped the switch on his detonator, and the trooptravelers exploded with a tremendous blast. The Appeonese reaction was immediate. Within minutes, the entire raider force was dead except for its leader.

Prince Dallen walked up to the wounded enemy leader to question him, but before he could get close enough to stop the captain, the wounded enemy smiled, and then popped something into his mouth. Less than a minute later, the raider force commander was lying dead on the ground. Again, the investigation found nothing positive that would point to the Hamrendons as being the culprits to the raids. Prince Dallen was frustrated with the inaction of the two kings. All of the Royal young-bloods were convinced King Gladden was responsible for the incursions, and all of the Royal young-bloods wanted to do something about it, but not the two kings. But father! Who else has the means and technology to pull something like this off?

By now, the kings of the three houses were starting to really show their ages. King Gladden was the oldest of the three kings by several years, but his thirst for more power kept him feeling younger than he actually was. King Gladden’s rise to power was along the same lines as his quest to control the three realms…ruthless and brutal. He brought up his two sons to be the same way…cunning and ruthless.

When King Gladden was in his seventies, and much to Prince Dorian’s displeasure, the king looked like he would still be around in his eighties. This was something Prince Dorian didn’t like, or want. He was thirsting for power now! Not ten or twenty years from now. He wanted to quench that thirst now; before he ended up like his father…too old to really enjoy it.

Prince Kadan, the youngest son, was also thirsting for power. But he knew as long as his father and his brother remained alive, he would just be a sideline spectator, watching while others enjoyed what he wanted. He did have some power. He had control of the entire security force command. But he didn’t want some of the power. He wanted all of the power…absolute power! He wanted what his father had control of, and what Dorian was going to have once his father was dead. Something he will never receive if Dorian remains among the living. So Prince Kadan began planning the demise of King Gladden and Prince Dorian.

Prince Kadan’s quest for absolute power wasn’t from a lack of love for his family. It was because his mistress, absolute power, demanded this course of action. But before this could happen, he had to secure the loyalty of the troops. It was going to make things a lot harder without the troops backing him up. So, until then, all he could do was bite his tongue and bide his time. After all, killing Prince Dorian will be a lot easier once his father is dead. The fight for absolute power between King Gladden’s two sons was now under way. How it would end was up to the two brothers.

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King