Sovereign Ascendant

The skies above Velos V churned with smoke, the scent of ozone and scorched earth thick in the air. Below, the mining colonies burned—a thousand years of industry reduced to ruin in a single night. From the cliffs where the Legion of the Eternal Flame had set their position, Gaius could see the swarm, a black tide of writhing, chitinous bodies surging through the valley.

They moved like a storm, too many to count, climbing over one another in their blind hunger for slaughter.

Dusk Crawlers. That was what the Imperium called them—an ancient, hive-minded species that consumed Qi-rich environments, leaving behind only lifeless husks. Their queens burrowed deep into planetary crusts, using the very Qi veins that made Velos V valuable as hatcheries for their endless offspring.

They were not intelligent. They did not negotiate.

They only fed.

Gaius tightened his grip on the reins of his mount. Umbra, his black warhorse, snorted, the single jagged horn on its head glinting in the fading light. Its muscles were tense beneath him, eager, waiting for the signal to charge.

Aulus rode up beside him, visor lowered, the crimson plume of his helmet streaked with dust. "We should be down there already," he muttered.

Gaius exhaled. "No. We wait."

"Wait?" Cassius, further to the right, grunted. "Wait until what? Until there's nothing left to save?"

Gaius ignored him. His eyes were on the battlefield below. The Imperial forces were holding—for now.

The 4th and 7th Legions had landed first, tasked with securing the primary Qi Stone mines before the swarm could fully overrun them. They had entrenched themselves around the mining settlements, using fortified positions to funnel the Crawlers into kill zones.

And yet, they were losing ground.

Gaius could see the bodies piled along the trenches, Legionnaires torn apart as the Crawlers pressed forward with mindless, suicidal persistence. For every creature cut down, three more took its place.

"Give me the order, and we break their charge," Aulus said.

Gaius didn't answer. He scanned the swarm, the rhythm of the battle, waiting, calculating. The swarm had weight, momentum, but it had no strategy.

They weren't thinking.

Which meant that whoever was leading them was.

His gaze flickered toward the ridges to the west. There—a shadowed cavern mouth, barely visible among the crags.

A command center.

A hive queen.

Gaius smiled. "We don't break their charge. We break their mind."

He turned to the Legionnaires waiting behind him—two hundred cavalry, armor gleaming in the firelight, mounted on warhorses bred for speed and endurance.

"We strike from the flank," he said, voice carrying over the sounds of battle. "We ride into their ranks, carve a path to their queen, and cut off the head."

Aulus grinned. "That's more like it."

Cassius laughed, rolling his shoulders. "Hope you have a good plan for when this all goes to hell."

Gaius smirked. "Stay alive."

Then he raised his sword.

"Legionnaires—ride!"

The ground trembled beneath them as they descended from the cliffs, hooves striking against stone and sand, picking up speed. The swarm below had no concept of tactics, no awareness of the danger looming from their blind side.

By the time they noticed, it was too late.

Gaius led the charge, Umbra surging forward with a burst of unnatural speed. The moment they hit the first line of Crawlers, his gladius flashed, severing mandibles and limbs, carving through chitinous bodies like parchment.

Aulus was at his side, spear lancing through multiple creatures at once. Cassius fought with a savage grace, using his beast bloodline's strength to crush exoskeletons beneath his strikes.

They plowed through the horde, the sheer speed and weight of their charge breaking the swarm's cohesion.

They carved their way toward the cavern, where the queen's aura pulsed like a rotting sun.

But then—

The ground rumbled.

Something was coming.

A second wave.

Gaius turned just in time to see them—more figures cresting the far hills.

Not Crawlers.

Orcs.

An entire regiment of the Bellum Empire.

Their war banners fluttered in the ashen wind, their massive war-beasts snarling as their riders prepared to join the slaughter.

Cassius cursed. "Those bastards were waiting for us to weaken ourselves!"

Aulus wheeled his horse around. "Orders?"

Gaius clenched his jaw. They could take the queen, but they wouldn't hold the field after that.

"Retreat!" he called. "Fall back to the cliffs!"

The Legionnaires turned, breaking off from the swarm, moving toward the defensive ridges.

But something went wrong.

Gaius felt it before it happened.

A shift. A wrongness in the air.

Then—the ground collapsed.

One moment, he was riding alongside his men, the next, the ground beneath Umbra's hooves caved in, sending him spiraling into darkness.

The last thing he heard was Aulus shouting his name.

Then there was nothing but the void.

—

He woke in silence.

Cold.

The scent of damp stone and something ancient filled his nostrils.

His body ached. His armor was cracked, his sword lost somewhere in the fall. But he was alive.

Barely.

Gaius groaned, pushing himself upright. Above him, the ceiling stretched high, stalactites like jagged teeth in the dark. The cave walls pulsed faintly, a sickly green glow radiating from deep within the stone.

Qi veins. The lifeblood of Velos V.

He was in the tunnels beneath the planet's surface.

And he wasn't alone.

Something moved in the dark.

A shadow. A shape.

Then another.

The whispers began—a chorus of clicking, alien and hungry.

Gaius exhaled.

He reached for his gladius, but his hand found only air.

No weapon. No light. No way back.

The whispers grew louder.

Gaius rolled his shoulders, shaking out the pain, focusing on the energy within him. Even without his sword, he had his cultivation, his training.

He was not prey.

The shadows lunged.

Gaius moved.

The first one came from his right. He twisted, dodging low, feeling the air split as claws slashed past his head. His hand shot out, grabbing the creature's mandible, twisting hard. A sickening crack echoed through the cavern.

The second came faster.

Gaius ducked, planted his foot, drove his fist upward into its throat.

A third leapt at him from the ceiling.

He rolled, grabbing a shard of Qi-infused rock from the ground, driving it into the thing's eye socket.

The cave went still.

He stood there, panting, bleeding, alive.

Then, from deeper in the tunnel, something stirred.

Larger. Older.

Watching.

Gaius exhaled.

"Come on, then," he muttered. "Let's see what else wants to die tonight."

And he stepped into the dark.