In the vast coldness of empty space, a vessel cruised at moderate speed. It was several hundreds of millions of kilometres away from the nearest place of habitation, the Rima Prime Station. On board the ship were numerous people being ferried to a much farther destination, beyond their star system.
The cold steel corridors were filled with the sound of boots as many moved to and fro busily, an air of anxiety and depression hanging over them all. It seemed that this particular voyage was not at all welcomed. In fact, it was dreaded.
Somewhere in the middle of the ship was a mess hall where people gathered to eat and rest. There was a decent number of people there, all of them conversing over their meals. Even here, a place of rest, the air of anxiety did not dissipate. It was like dark storm clouds looming over them, waiting to strike down with ruthless lightning. With their brows furrowed, the soldiers spoke amongst themselves in hushed voices as though they were afraid of being overheard.
"Does anyone know why we're being deployed again?"
"Didn't you listen to the briefing? The frontlines were requesting reinforcements after a series of losses."
"Yeah, I know about that! That's not what I'm talking about. We were barely in our second month being back home and they're already throwing us back into that hellhole! Are they trying to kill us?!"
One of the soldiers could no longer keep his calm as he felt an overwhelming indignation and helplessness. He had spent many years on the frontlines in Torval, always under the threat of the enemies. He had sacrificed a lot of his life to protect Rima, manning their defense line. And just when he had finally returned home to be with his family for a well-earned rest, he was called back immediately. How could he not be angry?
In fact, it was not just him. Practically all the soldiers on board this ship felt the same. Due to the distance of the frontline from Rima itself, the army was always rotating their shifts every three decades. The sudden change did not only impact their morale, it also left little to no time for the soldiers to physically recover.
War is a cruel thing. It is a monster that haunts their every waking breath. Most of the people on board this ship had suffered from traumas that were difficult to treat. And to them, it felt as though they had brought that monster back home with them. The time that they should have been given to heal their minds and bodies had gone like the wind.
The malevolent claws of that monstrous nightmare had reached out from beyond the stars and trapped them within its tormented grasp, dragging them back into that cesspool of despair. There was no escaping it. Its putrescent essence seemed to leak from their every scar, leaving a trail for the beast to find them wherever they went.
"I overheard the commanders discussing the other day. They said the problem with the frontlines this time was unprecedented."
"Of course, it's unprecedented. We're losing ground and if it keeps going, the defense line would be pushed back."
"Yeah, but there's something really wrong this time. I heard... I heard that the ascendants have started joining the battles."
With the soldier's words came an abrupt silence throughout the mess hall. Even if he was talking in a hushed voice, they were all powerful people here who have survived in the frontlines for years. Their senses had been trained to pick up even the slightest shift in temperature, so hearing whispered words was not a problem for them. And it was because they heard those words that everyone fell silent. The atmosphere turned even grimmer than before as trepidation began gnawing at their hearts.
Ascendants, they were beings who have ascended the natural limits of their mundane mortality. It did not matter what race one belonged to because no matter how innately powerful a race is, in front of an Ascendant, they were like weeds on the ground that could be crushed underfoot. Rima had no Ascendants of its own which was why they had always been wary of the enemy Ascendants.
It had not been much of a problem before since the Ascendants had arrogantly decided not to join the battles out of dignity and pride. After all, what honour and merit would they gain by slaughtering a bunch of cattle? But now, things were different. Now, for some reason, the Ascendants had come to reap their lives.
By one of the empty tables of the mess hall, a lone man sat drinking a cup of tea in silence. No one seemed to have noticed him despite his conspicuous appearance. Uriah seemed to have melded completely with his surroundings as he listened to the conversations. His interest was piqued with the mention of Ascendants wreaking havoc on the battlefield. He did not quite understand the war situation yet, but from the clues he had gathered, this was unusual.
His thoughts lingered on it for only a moment, however, as he was not like the rest. He did not believe that the Ascendants would always remain hands-off simply as a matter of pride. This was the Pinnacle War. The only pride worth concerning was victory. Instead, what he was more concerned about was the identity of these enemies.
For them to possess a number of Ascendants, they must surely be quite a powerful force. If so, then he needed to meet them himself in order to deter them. After all, no matter how much he disliked war, he had no way of escaping it. He was the Origin of the Path of Reverie. He would not yield his Freedom to anyone. With a new course of action set, he shifted his attention back to the soldiers as he continued to listen. It was then that the silence was broken by another soldier.
"Has anyone seen the General?"
Only silence answered her. This was the troop that returned to Rima together with General La'ar Miars. If they were being deployed back to the frontlines because of the appearance of Ascendants, then surely the General would also be redeployed. And yet, no one has seen the General on the ship since they set sail.
The General was their only hope of resisting the Ascendants, after all he was the strongest among them. But if the General was not with them, then how were they supposed to fight back against the Ascendants? Amidst the silence, one of the soldiers eked out a hopeful query to try to raise everyone's spirits.
"Maybe the General is already headed there? I mean, the situation is already pretty bad. He definitely won't be waiting for us. He must have hurried to the frontlines already!"
"No.... I heard the commanders saying the General has gone AWOL. No one could contact or find him."
"Then doesn't that mean... we're being sent out to die?"
The quiver in their voices says everything about their current emotional and mental states. They all understood that without the General, the situation on the frontlines would not change no matter how many reinforcements they pour into it. The difference in power between them and Ascendants was simply unbridgeable.
Ascendants were more like nuclear warheads rather than people. They were weapons of mass destruction. What could they do against such beings other than die? It was as they said, they were just being sent to the frontlines to die. Uriah's brows furrowed as well as he found it strange that no one could contact General Miars. But before anyone could think more on that, an announcement rang out across the whole ship.
[Attention. We are nearing the Star Relay. Please take a seat and fasten your seatbelts. I repeat, we are nearing the Star Relay. Please take a seat and fasten your seatbelts. Prepare for warp.]
With those words, everyone on the ship quickly stopped what they were doing and took a seat. Those who were in the corridors went to the walls from which compartments opened up revealing small chairs that allowed one to somehow sit while standing. The seatbelts went over their shoulders and waist, keeping them safe and secure.
In the mess hall, everyone also immediately fastened their seatbelts in silence. Only Uriah did not bother with it. He finished his cup of tea and rose to his feet. Behind him, still seated on the chair was another him with seemingly no difference between them. This was the one who would journey to Torval with the soldiers to meet the enemies. Meanwhile the other body seemingly vanished from the ship.
Appearing outside, Uriah saw the ship lining up parallel to a rather large construct. It was the Star Relay that harnessed the power of the star nearby to propel the ship into warp speed without consuming the ship's own energy reserves. This was not only efficient, it was also very effective since the ship's energy would not have allowed warping such vast distances on its own.
Only the Star Relay could do it. Uriah marveled at the genius of this construct, but he also realised that this technology was not something that originated from Rima. If his guess was correct, then this must have been one of the things they had uncovered after resisting the first invasion on Rima long ago.
Uriah watched for a while until the ship had completely disappeared into deep space. He then turned around and stared at the star. And without hesitation, he moved toward it.