Chapter 14
“Greeny opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, he couldn't quite focus his eyes.
“"'Bout time you woke up." Came a raspy and forced voice from a few meters to his right. Greeny tried to get up but the pain in his chest threatened to make him pass out again, so he gave up the effort. He slowly turned his head towards the voice.
“"Narses?" He asked, a look of horror on his face.
“"Yup." Narses replied, simply.
“"By Müller's ghost! What happened to you?" Every inch of the mans skin was heavily scarred and burned, he had no hair to speak of, each of his hands had several digits missing and his legs now stopped above the knee. Greeny would not have recognized him at all except for the fire in his eyes. He, like Greeny, lay on a surgical table.
“"I could ask the same thing to you. Last I checked you had just been executed. Although I must admit, as I was lying here, I did begin to wonder if you were alive, and being tortured like I was. I didn't expect to ever see you alive again." Narses said, some of his words were almost incomprehensible grunts to Greeny.
“Greeny grinned "Like a little thing like death would stop me." Both men laughed, and both quickly dropped into coughing fits. When Greeny stopped coughing, he turned to face Narses.
“"Are you going to live?" Greeny asked, although his voice sounded concerned, his face was emotionless.
“"I…don't know." Narses replied. He looked at Greeny "I hope so, I want that damn pirate to pay for what he did to me, and to Earth."
“"He wins at every turn." Greeny said, failing to hide the emotion in his voice. "And now it seems that the Hive have joined him." Now Narses grinned.
“"Ah, but they haven't, he conquered them. But not in the same way he is trying to conquer us. It was a bloodless conquest. But it gives us an opportunity to defeat almost all of his army in one swoop."
“
“S117 sat down in his seat, he didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. Every known Council survivor was here, minus Narses who was still in the medical area and there were also about three dozen officers present. Doomlord sat in a corner conversing with Armageddon, who had recently teleported down from his ship. He had been forced to retreat after a disastrous battle above Terra that had killed two of the other Councilors, he had then returned and set up a hard line communications network in the Imperial City, allowing the Terran army to talk to each other, and allowing Greeny to set up this meeting. Greeny walked out to the front of the room and faced the crowd.
“"The way things are going the Empire will be lost." He said simply, several of the younger officers looked as if they were about to say something, but Greeny silenced them with a look. "The surface is lost, and the skies are too. However, we have found a weakness in Cold Fires army that will make it easy to destroy. Not many of you will know where we are, in fact, this place is so secret that it doesn't even have a name. It is the research and development headquarters for the entire Terran Empire. Fortunately it is so secure that Cold Fire and his people never managed to get in here, or else it is quite possible that many of us would be dead already. Anyway, Cold Fire wasn't created here, he was created in an even more secure facility in England. I didn't know about it because it was ordered by Taveius, when he was Emperor, to be classified and forgotten about. I am not going to go into the whole story of how Cold Fire escaped, but I will give you some background of his story."
“"Emperor Taveius had become obsessed with finding a way of lessening Terran casualties in ground assault missions. He ordered a group of scientists to create a super soldier, using all the best features from whatever races they wanted. So that is exactly what they did. They genetically altered both the Cold Fire we now know, and seven other specimens to be the ultimate soldiers, they had the strength of a Genus, the speed of an Orfine, the regenerative properties of a Slah'ke, etcetera. But the important thing is that they gave them the Hive's ability to have a collective consciousness, only it was much more powerful than the Hives." Greeny stopped and thought about his next words.
“"Cold Fire is a fool, he told Narses about himself, and how he was controlling the Hive. I guess he wanted to use it as revenge on Narses, to make him realize that it was our own fault that we are being destroyed, but all he has done is give us the information we needed. Since the end of the last Hive war we have been working on ways to disrupt their collective link, and one of the devices here will do exactly that." He pressed a few buttons on the large data screen on the wall behind him and the screen filled with images of a large machine.
“"This device," he continued "is designed to disrupt the chemical processes that control the Hive mind. It is far too large to be put in a ship, so we had one built here on Earth. It has never been tested on a wide scale, but I am confident that it will work."
“Armageddon spoke up "Then what?" He asked.
“"Then we reclaim the Empire. Cold Fire killed Womble, he tried to kill me, and he has killed millions of your brothers and sisters. We will get him. Any questions?…No?...Good, let's go." Greeny said.
“
“"You are not Emperor." Dennis said simply, as he approached Greeny, who was searching through stacks of old armor to find some that was suitable for him. Greeny stood and turned to Dennis. Dennis suddenly feared for his life. But Greeny merely shrugged.
“"Has the device been turned on yet?" Greeny asked. Dennis nodded.
“"You are not Emperor." Dennis said again, but this time more aggressively. Greeny put down the chest plate he was inspecting and sighed.
“"They don't need to know that, Dennis. The news of my death was fairly widely known but the news of another being appointed was not. I can't take the chance that someone will resist me being re-appointed. You tell anyone, and I will kill you." Greeny said, his voice level the whole time.
“
“"Is it done?" Greeny asked.
“"Yes." Doomlord replied, "Let's go to the surface and find out if it worked." Greeny nodded and picked up the long sword that Cold Fire had stabbed him with. Despite the fact that the wound had been completely healed in the medical bay earlier that day he still felt a small amount of pain when he held the sword. He ignored it. He stepped onto the lift and felt it vibrate as they moved towards the surface. The door's slid open with a hiss. Greeny felt the cold air bite at his face as he looked around. It had taken only a few minutes for the Terrans to notice that the majority of the Hive were either standing perfectly still or going mad and already the population was fighting back with whatever was at hand. Greeny smiled.
“
“Cold Fire's eyes widened. "We need to get out of here Captain." He said to Darius.
“"Sir?" Darius replied, confused.
“"Just find us a ship, any ship!" Cold Fire shouted.
“"Yes master." Darius said, obediently.
“"Emperor!" Said S117. "Communications are back online. We can talk to the Empire again!"
“"Ok." Greeny said, only half listening to what S117 had said.
“"What about the Hive?" S117 asked. Greeny looked at him.
“"They are far more trouble than they are worth, kill them all." Greeny said. S117 hesitated.
“"Yes Sir." He said at last, bowing at Greeny. Greeny responded by giving him a half salute, then he walked away. A few moments later Dennis caught up to him.
“"Sir" He said saluting.
“"What?" Greeny said impatiently.
“"Cold Fire has escaped; his ship took off about an hour ago. But the ship he took has no hyper drive. He must still be in Sol, unless he has access to a hypergate." Dennis said, avoiding eye contact with Greeny. Greeny swore and lashed out at the nearest wall.
“"I am going after him." Greeny said anger filling his voice. Dennis' eyes narrowed.
“"You will abandon the Empire?" He asked rhetorically. Greeny didn't respond.
“"Y'know, I went back to the Imperial Monument." Dennis said, "I saw what Cold Fire wrote on your pedestal 'Greeny - The Pirate'. If you leave now you will be exactly what it said."
“"Fine." Greeny growled loudly, "If that is what it takes to bring Cold Fire down, so be it."
“Dennis stared at him angrily "You have your Empire back now, your foes are dead, Cod Fire is running, chances are we will never see him again, and you want to abandon the Empire!" He said quickly, just before he turned and marched off.
“"It's not enough!" Called Greeny after him. "It's not enough…" He repeated to himself.