Hiei of Alesia

Chapter 10

General Hiei

Hate burned inside of Hiei like nothing that he had ever felt before. A boundless hate fueled by his limitless rage that burned deep within him. Abandoned by his own kind, to die alone in orbit around a black hole. That is what they intended him to do. They made one mistake however. The place that would be his death was an abandoned research facility.

As Hiei approached the ship he activated the cloaking device and moved into position, behind the engines. Tapping a few buttons, he dropped the cloak and brought the neutron lasers online. Before the ship had a chance to react, Hiei had taken out their propulsion and was close enough to the hull that he was flying under the now raised shields. He used the thrusters and flew the nose towards the ship firing constantly causing an array of blue and red sparks to fly off the ship with each impact. As he approached the front of the ship he maneuvered up continuing his barrage even as passed over the bridge.

When Hiei was on top of the ship he couldn't believe his eyes. Painted on the hull was the word 'ANGELAN'. He paused for a moment in shock before new found hated surged through his body like a storm of unending fury. They used his own ship to suppress his home. They would pay for the injustice. He switched weapons and launched the grappling hooks at the ship sending the EM through frying most of the electronics. He had them where he wanted. They were at his mercy and on backup power. For the time being at least.

Hiei opened a comm channel and said in a cold calculating voice that scared even himself, "Moros. Surrender your vessel or all aboard will die."

A familiar voice responded back, "Hiei! What the hell do you think your doing!"

"Amann," Hiei asked the man who answered back.

"No. It's the tooth fairy."

As much as Hiei was sure that this couldn't be his old friend he couldn't stop himself from replying, "you never paid me for the last tooth you took."

"Hiei get on this ship now!"

Hiei disconnected the grapplers from the hull of the Angelan and made his way to the launch bay. While exiting his craft he set the engines to remote self destruct and grabbed the remote detonator, hiding it in his back pocket. He was fully prepared to kill everyone on board if it wasn't Amann. He was even prepared to die himself if necessary. Rounding the corner, he caught a glimpse of his old friend heading his way. He would have gotten a better view but the lighting in this area wasn't entirely stable due to the backup generator being damaged by his attack.

As Amann approached Hiei called out to his old friend, "you seem to have an electrical problem."

"Gee I wonder who could have caused it," Amann replied before punching Hiei in the face as hard as he could.

Hiei looked up at Amann with anger yet his gaze was met with just as much hostility and fire. Before he could speak Amann motioned for him to follow. As they made their way to the bridge in silence main power was restored and the ship headed back towards Alesia.

"It's been nearly 3 years Hiei," Amann said coldly.

"3 years for you, barely a week and a half for me."

"Time distortion… That's why that facility was abandoned."

"Where's Moros?"

"Patience Hiei."

"Patience can wait. I want vengeance."

"You have not the strength to beat him. He is more then 3 times your age and twice as powerful."

"I have strength enough."

"Pride cometh before the fall. Remember that."

A wave of energy Hiei could not control blasted out of his whole body, pushing Amann back a few feet. While Amann was happy to see his old friend alive and well he had to calm the man down somehow. Amann sent out a wave of telekinetic energy meant to throw Hiei into a wall, but Hiei seemed to grab it and throw it into a nearby console in one smooth motion. Amann threw three more telekinetic waves at Hiei but he deflected the first two the same way he did before. As the third approached, Hiei caught and wrapped it into a tighter ball, containing it with his own energy.

Hiei threw the ball at Amann, but Amann dodged the energy ball. The ball exploded with a shockwave as it hit the wall behind him which broke through the hull and air began to rush out. An emergency shield was raised to contain the breach. The main lights dimmed and emergency lights began to flash in alarm. In the chaos, Hiei charged Amann as though he were holding an invisible blade. Amann parried with his own invisible weapon. Hiei swung down and to the left and followed through by going down and to the right. His weapon was not met with another but rather by air as Amann dodged both attacks and kicked Hiei in the chest, sending him flying back.

Hiei used his spare hand to avoid impacting the ground with his head and landing on the ground with both feet in an aggressive charging stance. Before he could begin his charge Amann thrust out both hands and sent a constant sonic wave of energy at Hiei. Hiei couldn't move for he had to focus all his energy into a telekinetic barrier from Amann's powerful assault. The stream of Amann's assault was deflected all around Hiei by the barrier. Yet occasionally a piece of Hiei's willpower would falter and so would a piece of the barrier. The shield was slowly breaking apart as though made of glass and a flashing light was destroyed by one such chunk of the barrier.

With a little push Amann shattered what was left of Hiei's barrier sending him flying back into the door. As Hiei slumped down onto the floor, Amann approached and held out a hand. Hiei looked away disappointed. He had lost. If he couldn't even beat Amann how was going to defeat Moros who had over 200 years of experience?

"Hiei, please stop. Moros can wait. Your people need you."

Hiei looked at Amann for moment then nodded and took the man's hand as he got to his feet.

Amann smiled as he said, "Shall we go home, General?"

"General?" Hiei asked in confusion.

"Our people are in disarray. We need someone strong. An old war hero that everyone will expect to run the military forces that are forming. You will join my inner circle of military officers that will command our military. The Alesian Accords have been signed with our newfound Drow allies, who live on Alesia."

Hiei was taken off guard.

"The Drow? They are isolationalists, distrustful of outsiders. They barely tolerate Lanteans here."

Amann smirked.

"Yes, they are. I was...persuasive to the Drow."

Hiei grunted in amusement.

"I'm sure you were."

Amann smiled.

"Quite. Now, I have founded the new political entity that is the Alesian Empire. The Drow have agreed to be part of that entity, but with a say on the council. A permenant seat is granted on the council for a Drow member. Their princess actually. They wanted more of our technology, and we wanted their alliegence."

Hiei shook his head at the political babble.

"You always did have an eye for politics Amann."

"And you used to always be able to control your anger."

"Times have changed."

"That they have."

As Hiei walked towards the front of the bridge he felt a trickle of something warm and wet run down his cheek. Reaching up towards the source, he felt a sharp pain and quickly pulled his hand back. Blood. He was bleeding. When his telekinetic barrier shattered a fragment must have cut him. Amann was always a step ahead when it came to matters of ascension and the powers that one acquired while on the path towards it. Yet, he was also a step behind when it came to matters of strategy.

The trip back to Alesia was mostly uneventful after Hiei got on board, though it took significantly longer then normal. They had to wait for engineering to fix the damage that Hiei had done to the engines. Even then it was only a partial fix and they had to run at only a quarter of their usual speed. Along the way Amann told Hiei about what had happened since they left Atlantis. All 50,000 of those exiled were forced to settle on Alesia. Moros had also recalled the city ship.

The first year was the worse. Some of those that left on principle managed to leave with a few military ships. They used these as temporary housing while they slowly built a new city from scratch. Yet there was simple not enough room on the ships and many people had to live outside. Several died from the various animals that inhabited the planet while others died from disease. In the past they could cure most diseases, yet medicine was hard to come by. But most of the casualties were from the biting cold winter that Alesia was famous for.

After the city was built, power was a problem. There simply wasn't enough zero point cells to go around and making new ones was proving problematic. It wasn't until about a year ago that they have managed to perfect their method of creation. After that they began working on large scale ships for combat and protection. The Angelan was the first to be constructed of a new line of large battleships. The ship was on its maiden voyage when Hiei showed up. No one was expecting him to be able to escape, yet Amann had a feeling that Hiei would show up one day.

Once on Alesia Hiei was amazed by what he saw. The city was several times larger then it had been since he was last here. It was built large enough to not only house the people that had been exiled but several generations of growth as well. Not to mention the research labs, ship yards, and various other places that where added for people to pursue their given professions. In the southern court yard there was an entire legion of soldiers being trained. The first of the new Legions were being formed. Before he entered the city he was met by an acquaintance of his.

Looking at the woman he greeted her by saying, "Captain Renate."

She smiled and replied. "Legate. We use a different rank structure then the Lanteans, though I understand you are our new General."

"That's correct."

Renate turned around and grabbed a wooden box that a soldier was holding. She opened it and handed the sword that was inside to Hiei. It was the one that Moros had given him on his 37th birthday.

As Hiei was looking over the sword Renate told him, "We managed to steal that from evidence before we were exiled."

Hiei nodded and placed his hand over the hand guard. He closed his eyes and a small glow was seen all around him. When he removed the hand the hand guard no longer had the Lantean point of origin but rather the new Alesian eagle.

He looked up at the crowd that had gathered, raised the sheathed sword above his head and announced, "I am no longer Hiei of Atlantis. I am Hiei of Alesia."

His words were met with cheers and thunderous applause.

Their cheers subsided for a moment as Hiei slammed the sheathed sword to his chest and yelled, "FOR THE EMPIRE!"