The Unseen War

Chapter 16

Earth Year 3010, December 23rd

Thirty-four Months after the Attack

It had been forty days since Sia, Mitsu and Qhil had escaped. The food was minimal, the only reason I was being kept alive was because of Faucheur. I had heard Otath's name mentioned once or twice but I doubted he would be willing to face me. Qhil had started to say something while he was being rescued, Otath's betrayal was probably what he was trying to tell him about but he had been in too much of a hurry to listen. It would all work out though, Mitsu and Qhuten would learn about it and they would be able to take the proper precautions. It all made sense though, Faucheur had knowledge that he shouldn't have had without someone giving it to him.

I kept my spirits up as best as I could, some nights I couldn't sleep because of the pain. Faucheur would let his soldiers do what they wanted to, and they believed I was a traitor. They definitely didn't mind letting me know what they thought about me. The amount of times they would come in was a lot lower now, but whenever the cell door opened I expected Faucheur or a beating. I wasn't sure which one was worse.

Most of the time Faucheur would ask me the same questions, as if he was hoping for a different answer. He would ask me for the Taggon clearance passwords, which I didn't even know. They had all been programmed into the ship or else Qhil had been with me. There were several drugs that were used, none of which seemed to make Faucheur happy. I wasn't always able to remember what happened when I was drugged, but I could always tell when Faucheur was angrier than before.

I knew why they hadn't killed me, Faucheur still needed me for the Voidstorm Guardian. It was a lucky thing that Otath betrayed us. The fact that the Guardians were DNA encoded made the three pilots who existed rather rare. Faucheur might not have believed me if he hadn't already known. Admittedly, if the Guardians were made on earth, it probably would have been designed differently. Qhil and Qhuten had more sneaky skills than I had given them credit for initially. The one piece of information that I was holding onto was the fact that the Central Pods could be switched out for the Proto Guardian and the Mobile Guardian. I wasn't sure if Qhuten had made an entirely new Central Pod for Mitsu to take the Proto Guardian, but I knew that it had worked.

Late into the night of the 23rd, Faucheur came with his ultimatum. He was more calm and collected than I had seen him before, which gave the room an edge that hadn't been there during any of the previous interrogations. He sat down across from me and folded his hands.

"Do you know any Dilail?" He started by asking.

I gave no response, any question like this didn't depend on an answer.

"Well a beast supporter like you would just love to know that we are just entering Elvara's orbit. The beasts here are usually solitary and separated from any other race. It only makes sense with the disgusting way they absorb their nutrients. They're more like plants than like people. I wonder what they could hope to do against Otath and the Taggon weapon?" He gave a small smile.

I felt sick to my stomach. Faucheur was planning on attacking an entire race because I hadn't told him what he wanted? No this had probably been his plans longer than I had been a prisoner. He was just flaunting it to taunt me. I let my anger settle and tried to look broken. I doubt he would buy it, but he might be willing to wait longer to start the attack.

"The amount of trouble those Taggon beasts have caused me is immeasurable." Faucheur said without even acknowledging me. "The Dilail will be the first to pay, and when the East has taken control of Elvara, we can move forward with taking control of other beasts."

A steady takeover of the OtherWorlds? It sounded like this plan had been in effect for many years. You don't just make that up as you go. My biggest question was when the attack on the earth had been decided and who had decided it? I felt like Faucheur would have been throwing that in my face from the first day of interrogation if it had been him.