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  The cheers sparked a shower of confetti as the ballots were thrown into the air. There was no need to count for the rebels had made their choice.

  “Fight, Fight, Fight!” The chant made it past the lines, even to the Imperial command post.

  Chapter 19

  The myriad of stars turn around the galactic central point like a swirl of iridescent diamonds giving definition to the darkness. In turn the darkness defines the shape of the light, a three armed disc constantly turning dragging its inhabitants through time and space. Through much of one arm a new darkness has established itself, though this is not the darkness of space itself which is really an absence of any visible light, this is an existential darkness of the very soul. A darkness where life is cheap and men are bought and sold like cattle and are rendered equally docile. The expansion of this darkness is rapid like the spread of a virus through a stricken body. The lights of its passing are in stark contrast to its underlying evil. The light of civilisation is carried forth at an astonishing pace, faster than any democracy in human history. Carried forth on the wings of fire, a fire fuelled with the very bodies of any deemed to be dissenting voices in the Holy Empires multitude.

  The centre of this empire is in the Sol system, the birthplace of man. The third planet out, a small island in the Northern Hemisphere, just off the North Coast of a major land mass. To its left is an ocean to its right a small sea before a vast connection of two continental plates. Its climate is temperate fed by a current from the other side of the ocean near the equator to its verdant shores. This tiny island used to be the hub of the planets economy and invention and now is again. It is now also the centre of a vast ecclesiastical network which is centred on a major temple in the centre of a sprawling metropolis in the South East of that Island. The temple in the past was the centre of another religion of this planet, the Temple was once known as St Paul’s but is now simply known as The Temple. Its location used to be in the centre of a large Sea to the South East of its current position in a City called Rome, which now no longer exists. Rome is now a vast network of ruins populated only by the dregs and outcasts of the vast theocracy that controls not only this planet but the entire Empire. They scavenge and steal from the ruins and from each other in a struggle to survive. This is the breeding ground of all dissent and disease that has ever plagued the Empire. Soon this threat, or minor irritation as it could be more accurately classified as, will be removed as will its inhabitants. Not for the Empire the mass invasion of a dissenting area, the costly occupation and the cost in lives to its military forces of a protracted occupation. Not even the mass invasion and slaughter or enslavement of the populous to regain control.

  A bright flash of light sears the eyes and the air is ripped from the lungs as the inward shockwave hits. Soon the flesh rips from the bodies, burned from the bone in an instant, the ash torn away by the howling gale as the unvoiced screams of agony die in infancy. This is the first few milliseconds of Imperial Cleansing. The Ruins are now decimated, ripped apart by the outward bound shockwave shattered into dust and the dust blown ever outward by the force of the explosion. The noise only just begins to manifest itself a deep rumble growing ever louder. Akin to thunder but growing, ever increasing until the ear cannot take the pressure and ruptures to a blissful silence with only the pain of the ruptured drum to occupy the aural area. As the eyes re-adjust from the burst of light at the start of this process, the horror of the vista assaults the senses, not only the lack of any sign of life but the awful silence and the impression that although even the land is dead there are remnants in the dust. These remnants evidence the fact that once life existed here and was rudely extinguished. A fragment of girder here, a piece of wall that somehow survived the holocaust there and on that broken wall the mind shocking outline that screams into the mind for an eternity. As the eye travels round the ruined city the other hints become easier and easier to see, more and more faint outlines on the surviving masonry and as we take our leave of this ravished landscape the screaming of the mind continues until it too wishes for the blessed peace that those poor souls now endure, for anything is preferable to remembering what happened in this place, in our names.

  The pain was indescribable as the blast wave of fear and pain washed even past the defences of the construct. The construct raised its head and screamed in agony, even in its partially completed status the consciousness was forming, strengthened by the influx of memories and experiences of those washed away in the tide of heat and pain. Whilst the anguish was overwhelming, a peace was discovered as acceptance and forgiveness was discovered. The light was astounded as this discovery had not been initiated by itself. Within the mass of conflicted emotions there was another, a like light slowly asserting itself, whilst it would not be able to guide the construct as the light itself could, it could make subtle changes. The light had an ally, gained from the destruction that had so wounded it.

  Mya could not comprehend the light that encompassed her; it swirled and eased her pain as she felt the love that had been felt for her from the members of Calidius Squad. Their sorrow that she would be hurt, although saddening, brought her peace, for she knew that she was loved and cared for. She accepted this emotion as part of her as it floated by. Even those who had not been influential in her existence, now past, shared this compassion and warm toward the memory of what she had been. This too she accepted and eased the suffering of guilt these shades held that they had been complicit in her pain. She felt something else too, another presence, bewildered yet warm and comforting, a sense of observation that was not in the least threatening. It was not a feeling she could place from her earthly experiences but it was akin to that of a parent caring for a small child, who could not understand the experience. As the consciousness lost its inhibitions and drew all the threads she could sense together it became her and she became it, in this she was reborn. From the fire and ashes of the nuclear blast that had ripped her from life she found a new existence, one of joy and love, though surrounded by pain. The rebirth, allowed her to understand the nature of the shadow that surrounded the construct, seeking a way in to destroy it, to destroy her, to destroy them. She called upon a light within her to keep the shadow at bay, for she felt it grow stronger with each passing unit of time. It pervaded this new perception of space, time and alternate planes, yet it could be held in check by remembering and reliving the experiences she had shared with those who had cared and protected her. Cocooned in this safety, howsoever fragile she slept and relaxed into her new form, their new form, rising from the radioactive ashes to achieve a new form, similar to one that had come before, though she knew not when.

  Investigator Celeris strode through the corridors of the Capital Sol Invictus, her head alive with the fire of the deaths she had witnessed. She would have been more satisfied if, instead of pushing a mere button, she had been able to swing the nuclear flaming sword herself, carving the lives from those who so offended her. She was, however, rankled by her strict orders to return to the capital and not divulge the details of the rebellion to anyone. She had been paraded through the streets to acclaim, she was offended by such accolades for she was a mere servant of Sol Invictus and it was to him the honours should be attributed, for had he not shown her the way? Then blinding pain, but for a brief second as the madness drew back its veil and she saw what she had done. Then the darkness claimed her and she knew in whose service she had been for all this time. The betrayal seared more than the bullet that had passed through her brain.

  As her eyes dimmed the vidfeeds changed. Images of Balbus, Curtius and Lieutenant Gratius were shown in wreaths of victory, hailed as heroes. Credited with holding back the tides of the unholy with their lives they were more than just men. The Empire had usurped even their memory, sullied that one act which had been holy and righteous.

  In a Spartan room, the like of which could only be obtained with wealth and power, two men sat watching two vidscreens. One showed the crisp clear and polished propaganda that was even now b
eing etched into the minds of the populous as part mythology and part truth. The other showed the grainer image of a female form clad in the black of the Investigator branch slowly bleeding out into the street, crosshairs centred on the wound in her chest.

  “It is regrettable, she was a great asset. Skilled, compliant to our objectives and utterly loyal.” Muttered the dark haired man on the left.

  “True, but she was also completely unstable. Look at what she managed to spark in Rome. It should have been a quiet, methodical operation, not a wholesale slaughter followed by what can only be described as an almost apocalyptic event.”

  “The slaughter was on our orders.”

  “Yes, but the psychology of the situation should have been taken into account. The Black Guard were supremely suited to the task, but to involve the Imperial regulars? That was the mistake. They should have been kept at distance. They had not been conditioned for such tasks. The Empire could not have survived a rebellion of her own. We learned the lessons of the past to avoid such issues. Did not Rome tear itself apart with her own troops towards the end before the inevitable collapse?”

  “True, so we steal from the Romans again. Shall we too fiddle as the Empire burns?”

  “That is what the Seven Thousand legend will halt. The unity with the Empire even unto death will serve to unite and control like nothing before it. This is why the Investigator needed to be removed. Her madness lay in her belief that she was chosen by Sol Invictus himself. Do you really think she would have stood idly by whilst we hailed the rebellion she fought against in his name as the saviours of the Empire and the chosen of Sol Invictus? No, and the revelation of the truth would have caused havoc, coming from an Investigator, speaking against the Empire it would have spawned a rebellion on every world. The Empire would have torn itself apart.”

  “So what of Celeris?”

  “We can still make use of her, we shall hail her too, in a way. She shall be the darkness that we can bring. ‘Unite with the Empire and you shall be heroes, like the Five Thousand. Defy us and we shall rain death and destruction upon thee, like Celeris incarnate. Thus she shall serve, as she could not do in life.”

  The Darkness laughed at the cocoon which shielded the scraps of the Five Thousand from such revelations sparing them the pain of their defeat. For they could do nothing so confined. He turned and his attention focussed on amassing more power so that even this sanctuary of the light would be burned from all existence.

  The light enveloped all with one whispered message for all they had endured, this last crumb of each of them.

  “Not in vain. It was not in vain.”

  Addendum

  For such an act of atrocity one would imagine the birth of the Empire in Death, Fire and War. Not so, it was a peaceful following of modern principles of Peace mixed with the old imagery of one of the Christian Church’s precursors Sol Invictus. The movement was born out of distaste for the many religious disputes used primarily as an excuse for money, power or simply the age-old human pleasure of killing another human because of something his great-great-great etc. Grandfather did to your great-great etc Grandfather and vice versa. The Leaders of this world in the Twenty-First Century, political and religious, had come to the realisation rightly or wrongly, that humans have always killed other humans: human still kill other humans and that humans will continue killing other humans and there was sweet FA that they could do about that. They then proceeded to continue along their normal policies with giving a crap about which country was invading which, unless they were directly involved. The followers of Sol Invictus somehow played upon this much as a master pianist tickles the ivories for his favourite performance piece. Their message of non-violent resistance and unrelenting forgiveness somehow broke through. Perhaps it was their willingness to include other faiths and listen to their point of view that helped set them aside. Given that much of the historical records of Sol Invictine religious rights had been destroyed by the Early Christian Church, which was scared of competition, this gave the new worshipers the freedom to make much of the faith up as they went along. They had no ultimate religious book that they had to use to justify their beliefs. They believed what they wanted and added pieces here and there as they saw fit. It stole some of the wind from an evangelical preacher’s sermon trying to draw attention to the evils of this new movement when all they did in response to his cogent points was to adopt them into their own religion. Soon the world had converted, apart from the few that clung to the old religions out of a sense of tradition, fear or real belief in the tenants of their religions. Soon all war had stopped, there was no point we were all one. In 2067 a minutes silence was held all over the world to mourn the dead of all the wars ever held and a mere 3 months later the world leaders all signed a firm declaration of realistic disarmament. This was not just a salve to be broken, nor did it by virtue of its subject matter only apply to the nuclear powers. This was a declaration of total world disarmament. The security forces were to remain armed but only to act as a last resort and to be completely independent of the Countries of the world. Gradually all laws came into sync and the stage was set for one world as a state. It was a glorious time for mankind. All the hope expressed over the years in our poetry and philosophy had come to fruition in this one seemingly perfect society. The Empire had been born not of a bloodbath or cataclysmic natural disaster but a bloodless coup, the gentle opening of a flower that may have been in the ultimate dreams of Ghandi.

  As the reforms of the Empire continued to improve the lot of the common man, the conditions on the earth grew more cramped and the raw materials for this life grew scarcer. It was at this point that colonisation of the rest of the solar system was mooted. Earth now almost drained of all its natural resources would be wholly given over to the expansion effort and thereafter used as a residential zone and solar energy plant (in the more inhospitable areas). Plans were immediately drawn up to save the various animal and plant species that had survived the laissez-faire period of government that had predated the Empire. They were assigned areas to be treated as planetary parks while the rest of the planet was given over to its new purpose.

  With the Empire thriving, the Archdeacon, who ruled the theocracy, gave a short pointed speech, which set the stage for all that was to come. It focussed on the blissful age of enlightenment that had come into being as a result of the religious beliefs of the Sol Invictines. How everything that we now came to treasure, peace, ecological security and joy in scientific discovery, was based on the Faith. The capital letter was justified. In one move all other religions became frowned upon, they had been the route cause of all evil Every atrocity ever committed could be traced back to some religious justification or act or perceived act. It was, the Archdeacon said, imperative that all now embrace to share the Faith as this would eradicate the possibility of war or violence, which could not and would not be tolerated. All who had not converted were misguided, a poor lost few, and should be “encouraged” to join the fold. Overnight the non-believers were relegated to a second-class life and were deemed to be emotionally irresponsible and could be trusted with only the simplest jobs. From there it was a small step to creating a ghetto so they could attain happiness amongst their own kind. Mankind has been through this path before, many, many times. This time was different for one simple reason. The justifications were not based on fear or envy or greed or any combination of them. The justification was that they could not function in the new world order and thus we must allow them some confines so that they could pursue their flawed ways as they saw fit. Of course once they were behind walls the Temple could do as it wished.

  So the new Century started with the Theocracy in charge of all things; everything was run by doctrine and belief. Enforcing this was the Investigators, a crack force chosen as children to make up the security forces elite. They were trained in all forms of personal and in many cases impersonal violence. They had the power to kill on suspicion, for if it was not right for the Inquisitors to do so then Sol
Invictus would not have placed the suspicion there in the fist place. Trials were held frequently so that “Justice” could be seen to be done.

  About the Author

  Martin Allen graduated from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in 2003 with a Law LL.B (Hons) Exempting L.P.C. Degree. He has worked in many different areas of the Legal Sector and built up a wealth of experience.

  Martin enjoys reading and writing Science Fiction but has taken the time to wrote a few Legal pieces, one of which is available in E-Book format through Amazon (The Prosecutor's Fallacy: The Reliability of DNA and Fingerprint Evidence).

  The Phoenix Series is a Science Fiction series set in a world where a Theocracy has come to power. "Phoenix: Penitence" is a short story set in this world. The first Novel "Phoenix: Rising" charts the rise of a new interpretation of the theological teachings of this Empire and the lengths this Empire will go to protect itself from it. The story is told from the point of view of an Imperial Investigator caught in the middle of the Empire's manoeuvrings. The Prequel, Phoenix: Ashes tells the story of the Seven Thousand, part of the mythology of the Empire in Phoenix: Rising and tells their story.