The Last Angel: Ascension - Chapter 39 Sneak Peek (Patreon)

Hi, everyone! I'm currently one half-finished scene (and possibly one additional scene) away from completing the initial draft of this next chapter. I'm aiming to have that done by or on this weekend, with the post-ready version by this time next week (knock wood). To give you an idea of things to come, here is a look at the opening section:

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“Noble Fleet Lord?”

Jirrico looked up from his work at his niece. She was standing in front of his desk, her crests partially engorged in anxiety. “Yes, Ichcit?”

“They’ve arrived,” she told him. There wasn’t any need to say what they were. There was only one arrival of any note expected today. “They’ll be docking momentarily.”

Jirrico set down his datapad, pushing it to one side. He placed both double-thumbed hands on the top of his desk. “They’re early,” he said.

“Yes, Lord. I informed you as soon as Station Control alerted me.”

The flag officer tilted his head in acknowledgment, though he didn’t look at his aide as he tapped into the station’s sensor and traffic feed, looking for one signal in particular. It was an Argosy Will of Winds-class courier, the fastest transit-capable ship in the Principality, possibly the entire galaxy, so fast that their transition systems burned out after only one or two uses, unlike the handful of transitions that most couriers could perform before ruining their miniaturized (and very expensive) transition systems. The courier had arrived in Kebrak Daun less than two days ago, and after transmitting its identification, had raced in-system to the massive naval hub of Temigen’s Regret, Jirrico’s base of operations for Kebrak Segment. The message it carried was too sensitive to be transmitted – not even the risk of a laser link was acceptable.

That the Principality, a nation three thousand years old, made up of dozens of species and thousands of worlds, should find its survival balance on the edge of a knife like this… fate had cruel ironies. Jirrico let out a long breath. It had been only three and a half months since he had sent his message to Argosy Nobility. The decision had been made much faster than he had thought it would be.

Either his superiors had decided to leap on the opportunity as soon as they could – or they were desperate enough that they couldn’t afford to dither, or they had rejected it out of hand. The scales of fate, Jirrico mused On one side was the Compact’s unceasing pressure and the increasing desperation of the Argosy to stem the grinding tide long enough to roll out their new technologies and hopefully counter the enemy’s offensives. Sundial was another weight tossed onto that side of the scale. Balanced against that was Chrysalis and the Rains of Oshanta. A computer designed to do nothing more than serve its people and only destroyed them… and a neverborn that had killed countless millions in two millennia of unrelenting war. A neverborn that might be able to turn the tide of battle in the single place it mattered most… The Principality would be giving it the means to do so, but in doing so they would be Ashaken, sharpening the genhali’s claws. In some stories, the genhali had rewarded Ashaken. In others, she had used those talons on him.

The last three months had seen an increase in Compact raids, enemy lancers striking at Kebrak segment and the bordering regions. Losses amongst the outlying systems were low, but rising and Jirrico was diverting more of his vessels to patrol and interception duties, weakening his system defence forces. He had sent requests for reinforcements, but there were only Noble Lords with more immediate needs. With Sundial looming, Argosy Nobility had promised support, but whatever they could send was either too little, or would be too late.

And we come once again to fate’s dagger, he thought. Chrysalis. The Principality’s name for the last remnant of a dead empire. It had stalked the Diamond Path for twenty centuries, leaving broken ships, molten wreckage… and shattered worlds, the Askanj-anj added silently as he remembered the Betrosha Nebula incident. The Principality had only ever tacitly supported Chrysalis’s actions – looking the other way from its occasional predations, or allowing it to recuperate briefly within their territory. They had never rendered direct aid to it. Anyone who thought there could be a permanent alliance between the Principality and a neverborn was naïve. Chrysalis was an intelligence made for war. Its rampancy would not be confined to the Compact forever. Sooner or later, it would be become a threat to all life.