Safely back on Fi once more, John contacted Abzulon who had already graduated from the Military Academy with honors. Abzulon was a super genius, finishing his studies in half the time it took the regular geniuses of the Academy. He was twelve years old, though he looked much younger. During his time in the capital he had become a suave and refined person. There was nothing in his behavior to give away his tribal roots. John had been in constant contact with him, sending him funds whenever he asked for it and giving him advice. He had acted like a generous uncle to the boy. He had no doubt that his investment in Abzulon would pay him dividends.

He greeted Abzulon at the spaceport when he arrived. He was still dressed in his smart Academy uniform.

“You must be eager to see your father,” John said.

“Yes, but I’m curious, Lord Baron,” said the boy. “I was just about to get assigned to a ship as a lieutenant. Why did you want me back here on Fi?”

“You can gain experience here as one of my fleet commanders,” he said. “Do well, and in a few years I’ll make you grand admiral.” John had five fleets of ships now. Five battleships, twenty cruisers, fifty frigates and two hundred corvettes. The salaries he paid the crew members came to half his military budget. “Your fleet will consist of battleship Pikachu, five frigates and fifty corvettes for the time being. Your first mission will be to scan the Qualidru sector of my star system and look for any signs of an orc hyperspace beacon.”

“You’re expecting another invasion, my Lord?”

“I’ve confirmed that my enemies are planning to invade. As long as we get to the beacon before they launch their ships we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

Why did the warlocks want his waygate so badly. Was it something to do with the death elements on Planet Rifa, the world beyond the gate? Was there some ancient warlock heritage that had been lost on that planet?

He contacted Spiz, who was now a Field Marshall after the expansion of John’s forces. He was in charge of the ground forces on both Fi and Rifa, beyond the waygate. “Increase the number of teams exploring Rifa. Tell the Akiaska dwarfs that we’re looking for anything related to warlocks.”

“What’s this about, John?”

“I was given some information. The warlocks seem mighty interested in that world, and I want to know why.”

He went back to his room and meditated. His realm was now the size of a planet. He had transferred trees and plants into it, transforming elements into nutrients. The planet within his realm was now self sustaining and generating its own elements. It also generated energy. John’s aura reserves were now gigantic. He wasn’t strong enough to destroy a star, but he could maybe destroy a small planet if he wanted to.

John’s fleets could find no sign of the warlock’s hyperspace beacon. He had hidden it well. John’s search teams on Rifa however, yielded lots of artifacts. The Akiaska dwarfs had found and united five dwarf cities, and each possessed a number of mysterious artifacts which they handed over to John for a price. These things were useless to them anyway. John inspected the artifacts they brought back, but could find nothing special about them that would interest a warlock.

A few weeks passed. Then one day, the Spymaster contacted John warning him of an impending invasion. John ran to the command center, while putting his forces on high alert through his chip. His fleet commanders and grand admiral went to their operations rooms in the command center. They would command the fleets on the ground from Fi, where it was safe. John’s communications net was spread throughout the entire star system. There were rear admirals on the battleships just in case something went wrong with the communications link, which was very improbable. These links could not be hacked or interfered with, or so he’d been assured.

Twenty hours later one of his fleets found a fleet of orc ships heading towards them. John had not slept a wink, pacing up and down the room as he watched the orc ships get closer. The ships were heavily armored but few weapons were discernible. John’s ships began their attack runs. Missiles and warcraft launched, lasers bloomed like flower petals in a spectacular light show of red, fires burned and the orc ships shed metal like snakes shed their skin. The orc ships did not stop, firing back only occasionally. They seemed intent on only one thing. To reach Fi as fast as they could.

There were too many orc ships. About half of them made it through the net, and his fleets gave chase. John’s corvettes constantly harassed the orc ships, but the orcs just ignored them. Abzulon’s fleet, in a feat of remarkable maneuvering, managed to stall a quarter of the orc forces, but about four hundred orc ships made it to Fi’s orbit. John’s surface to space missiles fired at the ships, which were barreling through the atmosphere. These orcs were mad. They were going to crash land their gigantic ships on his planet. Metal debris fell from the sky, and many ships exploded. John had a feeling that most of the ships that had been destroyed or stalled by his fleets, had only a skeleton crew of five or ten orcs in them. The bulk were here, a hundred thousand feet above him. The warlock commanding them must have been a great strategist.

The orc ships crash landed, and John immediately deployed warcraft to search and destroy. Most of the ships, whether by design or luck, had crashed near the waygate. John left a quarter of his guardsmen in the city and set out with the rest to the waygate. The two fortresses there were already under attack, and had sent distress calls. John’s fifty war machines were picked up by special transport craft. They would fall from the sky when the transport craft were about five hundred feet above ground level, and surprise the orcs.

John’s fleets reached orbit and deployed marines to the planet’s surface. John could see the drop capsules hurtling down from the sky. He’d have about fifty thousand guardsmen in all, once they landed. He contacted Taromi the prince of the Akiaska dwarfs.

“Be prepared for an orc invasion. Defend the other side of the waygate as well as you can.”

“Orcs? Got it.”

He ended the transmission. His transport craft was just a few minutes away from the forts. Orc warcraft tried to shoot him down, but his own air force came in and destroyed the orcs with ease. Before they could reach the forts they were destroyed. Twelve large high demons were wreaking havoc among his forces. They were not like the weak high demons beyond the waygate. They were big enough to cause the ground to shake with each step. Some were shaped like red skinned humanoids with horns like a ram, some like wolf headed horses, and one like a tentacled blob floating in the air.

“Bring me over one of them,” John said. “Spiz, lead a team of thousand to the waygate and guard it.”

“With my life, John.”

“No. If it looks like you’re going to get defeated then retreat. It’s not worth your life.”

Spiz nodded, and John jumped off the transport craft. He activated his strength, stealth and speed circuits and covered his glaive with aura. He used the momentum of his fall to cleave through the blob demon. It screeched as it felt its life force leaving it. John immediately turned to face the other demons.

The Sleeping Goddess Inashta had taught him an especially deadly weave he called Thunder Steps. He weaved lightning, sound, light, darkness, wind and water around his aura shield in a certain pattern. Rainbow lightning swirled around him one way, and black lightning another. Vapor constantly rose around him, like a fine mist. Every step he took made the air roar. He ran at the second demon with great speed, cutting its wolf head from its shoulders. He was so quick that the air exploded behind him. He turned towards the third one and charged at him. Within a second he covered the half a mile distance that separated them and chopped off its head. In ten minutes he had finished all the demons. His aura reserves were low, but quickly recovering.

Spiz had been trying to call him for a while now.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We had to retreat from the waygate. The warlock was too powerful. He had about a hundred orcs with him.”

“Gather the team near the gate. I’m coming.”

“Anki,” he called the commander of one of his elite commando units. Anki belonged to one of the native tribes. “Come to the waygate with all your people.”

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

John took command of the thousand five hundred men and women gathered at the waygate and crossed into the other world. He could see metal debris lying all over the place, and the corpses of at least fifty Akiaska dwarfs. Prince Taromi was there, lying on the ground, barely holding on.

“Treat him,” he told the medical team. “And all the others you find alive. Everyone else, follow me.”

He was able to track the orcs. They were so big that signs of their passing was everywhere. The elements of death in the air also seemed to be especially concentrated in their path. Maybe the warlock had done something to attract them.

They followed the warlock’s trail for half a day. Many high demons stood in their path, much more than usual. Was the warlock able to take control of demons so easily and quickly?

John got a message that a new fleet was coming towards them. It was the son of the marquis whom he had killed. It seemed that the warlock and the marquis’ son hadn’t gotten their timing quite right. Hadn’t they planned for the orcs to come in secret while the marquis invaded openly? It seemed the warlock was too much in a hurry to stick to his original plan. What was driving him?

“Destroy their fleet,” John ordered his Grand Admiral. His admiral was an experienced veteran and the Empress had picked him out personally. John had faith in him, even though he’d failed to stop the orcs from landing.

John followed the warlock to a mountain. About half way up they found a passageway carved into the rock. “Helms down everyone,” John ordered. “Guns at the ready.”

“Lock and load,” said Spiz. Spiz was gradually learning John’s Earth lingo.

They walked through several tunnels. There were elaborate carvings on the walls. There were pearls on the ceiling that shone with white light whenever they detected a person twenty feet away. They finally made it to a large cavern, shining with red light. The warlock was standing in the center of the cavern, holding a strange golden scepter up in the air. He seemed to be performing blood magic. There were several orc corpses, their blood flowing in a circle around the warlock’s feet. The warlock was chanting something under his breath.

“You are too late,” he said in a gravelly voice to John. A second later a humanoid demon stepped out of the aether near the warlock and bowed. John shouted at his men to retreat. This was bad! Really bad! The warlock had somehow obtained the loyalty of a demon prince.