Chasing the Jewelled Throne

  Chapter 17; Ebb Tide

  Finally Arin

  Arin had assumed the Regency when Mina had been captured. Vowing to avenge the hideous death of his sister, he now ascended the Jeweled Throne as the 64th Menzi in this line. In a move orchestrated by his mother, he continued to make overtures to even more of the Rebel war lords. He was proposing an end to the old Empire. If they banded together now with him, they might be able to combine their forces to defeat the Admiralty.

  From that point, they could form an independent confederation. At first, his proposals fell on deaf ears. The fringe War Lords simply could not bring themselves to trust any son of Aldo. To them, Arin, as long as he wore the title of the 64th Menzi Emperor, represented slavery. They didn’t trust the Admiralty either as Admiral Keeth’s side represented sudden death for them.

  Arin’s forces fought on alone. He led them well and, making good use of his mother’s wolf packs, often was victorious against greater odds. Again, he was able to reclaim much lost territory. Little by little, the Admiralty’s over whelming superiority of numbers began to turn the tide once again to the side of the Admiralty.

  General Z and Arin were winning their battles by using their wits. Turn about was fair play. Keeth felt that he could be as sneaky as the good General. He had created the perfect scene. What looked like a poorly defended out post was actually a well defended trap. Arin, wishing to appear to be as brave as his sister, led the attack.

  Unknown to Arin, he had been lured into a trap. His spies had discovered that a lot of fuel and armaments were being stored in a little base on Starion III. The armament piles were fake bunkers filed with Fleet Marines. Fake asteroids were filled with two-man blaster sprites. It was a great plan.

  Arin had not brought his whole fleet since this was not supposed to be a well-manned base. Arin had only brought his fastest ships trying for speed and surprise to carry the day. As far as the Admiralty could see, he had taken the bait perfectly. Actually, it worked better than the Admiralty had hoped because they had not expected the Emperor to lead the raid himself.

  The men floating around in the fake asteroids waited for their trap to spring. One day, it happened. Three months of boredom ended in a flash of reorganizing ship particles. Seeing the Royal Yacht come out of hyper right outside their little trap sent chills down the spine of the base commander.

  He hit the “all call” button, but he was already thinking just what he could do with the million credit reward. He watched as the battle was met. The trap was sprung with the first shot from the raiding party. False covers came off the floating asteroids and the attack sprites were every where at once attacking the Royal Yacht. Standing too close to a gun mount when it was hit, Arin was knocked unconscious. His face was badly burned.

  The Commander was first to board the Emperor’s Yacht, he was searching for the head of any member of the Royal Family. Who knows, maybe there are more royal heads here than just one. No royals were found, A quick thinking yeoman had thrown his cloak over the Emperor. He and a friend had hauled him to the Jump Tube. He beamed him over to the hospital ship just as the engine room took a direct hit. The Commander died screaming.

  A few of the raiders launched small flitters. Flying circles around the slower fake asteroids, they managed to fight their way out of the trap. They returned with sad news that the Emperor’s yacht had exploded and all aboard were lost.

  Keeth’s spy network was able to eventually find so many of General Z’s moles that his ability to run the Empire began to take on a new look. The Jump Tube system was even running properly. It had taken over five years to fix all the hidden bugs that the General programmed into its computers. This allowed the swifter transfer of troops and gradually this mobility was able to get the Admiralty’s forces the upper hand in close battles.

  It was just this ability that allowed the capture of Arin at Starion III.