Revenant Slaves Chapter 55: Chapter 54: Luna

Read chapter 55 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

The next few days on the ship passed in restless inactivity. The two Inquisitorial ships performed docking maneuvers so Ingram could come aboard with his contingent of knights. The ship was getting more and more cramped. Ingram and his retinue were given the larger hangar bay at the back of the ship, which they promptly converted into their armory. They were now on day 15 of their journey. Very little news was still traveling from the mining planets or from the rest of the system. Most communication relays had been destroyed, and there was barely any reliable word from Mortrum and its moons. The only information still flowing with any consistency was what the rebels controlled. Some of the Emperor’s loyalists also transmitted from time to time, and sometimes their data reached the ships intact enough to paint a grim picture of the current situation. As Luna attended yet another meeting of the Inquisitors, acting more as cupbearer and assistant to them in the same way Zuri served the High Inquisitor, she learned just how grim that picture truly was. Catastrophes were spreading through the whole system. The rebels had begun dismantling the Temples of the Living Flame — the sacred engines that powered human cities and civilization on many of the worlds humanity inhabited. Those same temples also acted as terraforming engines, forcing hostile worlds into forms suitable for human life. As more and more of them were shut down, the true nature of those planets and moons began to re-emerge. Mortrum was reverting to a caustic mass of volcanic violence. Its moons were faring no better. Some of the lunar cities had begun drifting away from the moons themselves as they rapidly lost life support and sections of their domes failed. On another mining planet, far from Mortrum, the world was reverting into a freezing hell. The heat from its distant star was nowhere near enough to sustain human life without the terraforming engines of the Living Flame. This was, in truth, the Empire’s worst-case scenario. It looked like a re-emergence of Ibrahim’s plague. This was how that plague had once spread through several star systems — planet after planet dying. Ibrahim’s blind crusade had led billions to their deaths before the Empire had finally severed the Gate networks to those systems and abandoned them. They had never truly believed Ibrahim had acted alone back then. One man could not possibly have spread destruction across so many different systems. And yet the myth of Ibrahim had taken hold, and the Empire had fed that myth. “Well,” High Inquisitor Azarea said at one point, studying the reports with open irritation, “this is catastrophic. The fatality index is going to choke on this system. Soon, the cost will be too heavy for it to bear.” Ingram spoke then, “The first time Ibrahim began dismantling the Flame temples, it had hurt the rebels just as dearly; we assumed they had learned the cost of their ignorance. It seems there is no accounting for human stupidity.” “Either that, or these are copycats too young to understand what their actions will cost,” Ingram finished. Ibrahim. The name kept echoing through the room. Luna still found that name unsettling. Ingram spoke then, with a calm that didn’t match the words that came out of his mouth, “Young or not, they have access to Soulcraft. That is the only explanation. We must purge the system. We can recoup the losses in a generation or two.” Azarea looked at him, then rubbed at her temple. “It is well that the Empire does not run on your brain, Ingram. You are ever the bloodthirsty hound.” Ingram smiled. “You are annoying me with your silence, Avraham. You must have some thoughts about our predicament. Please do weigh in?” Azarea asked Avraham, holding out her hand. Zuri stepped forward at once with a wine bottle and filled her glass. Azarea took a slow sip. Avraham nodded towards Luna, who stepped forward and began navigating through a terminal. Soon, a holographic display ignited in the middle