Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion by Christian Kallias

*
     
    Argos sat on his
throne, pensive, when he heard the hiss of his pet snake from within the jar
next to him.
    “Soon. I still
have work to do now,” said Argos towards the jar.
    He brought a holo-display
to life and placed a call.
    “Good day,
Master.”
    “How’s the
subject?”
    “Vitals are
strong. Nothing to report.”
    “Have you made
the preparations I’ve requested?”
    “Subject is ready
for transport.”
    “Very well. Make
sure everything goes perfectly; I don’t have to tell you what would happen
otherwise. I’ve dispatched twenty warships to accompany you to your
destination.”
    “Absolutely,
Master. Thy will be done.”
    Argos terminated
the communication and flicked the video away. He then brought up a security
bulletin. It showed his picture on a warrant, and apparently he was worth thirty-five
million credits alive and forty million dead. That made him smile.
    The Datalight
Thieves Corporation didn’t like the fact that once his engineer was done with
their help cracking the Olympian’s communications encryption, he’d had them
blown up. Argos despised DTs, so he’d never had any intention of letting them
live, whether they succeeded or failed at their task. As for the warrant, he
found it funny. As if there was any bounty hunter in the galaxy capable of
stopping him. In any case, it brought attention to him, and perhaps that’s what
he needed for the next part of his plan.
    Now that his
brother Laiyos’ resolve had been destroyed beyond repair, he would be easier to
manipulate. Argos wished he didn’t need him, though. That last fight had been a
close call.
    “I can’t believe
how strong he has become. I really need to tread carefully next time.”
    Argos’ pride was
what had been wounded most during their last encounter. Not in a million years
did he imagine his brother would take the upper hand in that fight. It was
unexpected to say the least. Ares had obviously trained him well. His own fight
with Ares, however short and decisive it had been, clearly revealed a skilled
and trained warrior. Qualities he must have passed along to Laiyos. But there
was something else, something more, about Laiyos. Argos wondered what that was
and how he had missed it before.
    But by now he had
no doubts that his brother would be spiraling down into oblivion. He had heard
of his fighting on Ponos One, and he had no doubts that his spirit was crushed.
It had been so simple to deceive him, though. But what had sealed the deal was
when he controlled Sarah’s mind, making her tell him to shoot her ship.
    The irony was
that she had given him the idea. Her trapped consciousness had suggested it to
him so many times, to have her killed. That was the beauty in all this.
    Now Argos needed
a plan to strike back at the Earth Alliance. They were increasingly becoming a more
powerful annoyance. Their new technologies were ahead of those of the Zarlack
fleet that had once given him a serious edge in battle.
    But they seemed
to be growing their new alliance faster than he ever could have anticipated. At
least he had acquired some technology upgrades when he was controlling Sarah. Like
cloaking. It had proven difficult to cloak a warship, but adapting the tech to
the Dark Star proceeded without major issues. If his engineers could
find a way to cloak a warship, even for a minute, he could strike at Earth and
they wouldn’t even see him coming.
    Argos knew he had
to make a statement, some sort of show of force, and the sooner the better. His
new shipyards were already churning out new ships and he still had more forces
at his disposal than the Alliance, even if that snakehead of an emperor joined
them.
    That one I did
not see coming , he admitted to himself.
    But the Obsidian were
immaterial to his long-term plans, and the Alliance would soon be dealt with,
with the help of his brother no less. He couldn’t help but smile.
    Soon all he had
worked towards in the last decade would come to fruition. It had been a