Ascension Origins: The Rise of Poliate, Part II
What a week it’s been! We just found out that our last novel, Jackal in the Mirror, has been named a finalist for the CLUE International Book Awards. The CLUE awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Suspense and Thriller Fiction, and are a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The #CIBAs). The awards ceremony will be held virtually on September 13th. We’re looking forward to attending via Zoom and hoping that we win 1st place. If you haven’t read it you’re missing a suspenseful read! Jackal in the Mirror is part of our trilogy, The Perils of a Reluctant Psychic. You can find it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RT31P67 or check our website www.2authors.com if you wish to buy it from Apple Books or Barnes & Noble.
On top of the wonderful news of our last novel being nominated, our next novel was released.
We’ve been anticipating this all year, and couldn’t be happier at being able to share it now. You can order a copy here.
For the last 5-6 months, we’ve been sharing mythology and history from our new novel. Discovering the stories of old most definitely add to the enjoyment of the current story.
Today we’re going to continue the tale of Poliate, a brilliant military minder who partners with Nestor and begins The Talderon Era.
But, before we do that, if you haven’t read any of these blogs/notes before on the world of Ascension, check out the links below:
We introduced the foundations and concepts of what led us to create this story here.
We also shared some ancient mythology from this universe here and here.
We had David, a pro VO artist, record himself reading The HallandaHall Scrolls, and we put some video to it here and here and here.
We introduced the main characters here.
We provided an overall history of The Incorporeal Fellowship, with Part II here and Part III here.
We shared the Song of Nestor, Part I can be found here, Part II here, and Part III here.
And most recently was Part I of The Rise of Poliate, which you can find here.
This history/mythology we are sharing on Poliate comes from a tome known as the Corpus Galacticum, a compendium of historical facts, accounts of unprecedented events, political stratagems, social and spiritual standards, and profiles of those who have made significant contributions to the known universe. These writings in the Corpus Galacticum are attributed to historians, astronomers, clerics, scientists, and also contain excerpts from the Galactic Ethical Conclave and the Annals of Inquiry.
Without further ado, we continue with Part II of “The Rise of Poliate”
PART II
LIBERATION OF PLANET KATHAYO
Commander Milbek immediately enhanced his special forces by adding a broad range of Minders who possessed varying levels of ability. This purposeful identification and selection of the differing Minding skills enabled Milbek to deploy his forces with strategic intent as to the specific missions he fashioned for each unit.
With his teams assembled, Melbek’s first military action was to liberate Kathayoh, a planet that housed a huge armory and other resources that he intended to subsequently appropriate.
He launched a preemptive strike on Kathayoh’s sizable outpost, which was crammed with enslaved soldiers. The outpost was laughingly referred to as The Pit of Inferno in reference to the deadly boiling swamp that surrounded it. The planet was controlled by a cruel and violent despot named Dilliak Strah, who also commanded a massive fleet of starships.
It is recounted that prior to the planned incursion, some Minders, fearful of sacrificing innocent lives, suggested to Milbek not to engage in direct combat. Instead, they proposed that a careful selection of high-level Minders simply invade the thoughts of the officers in charge of Strah’s garrison, and persuade them to surrender their forces without bloodshed. They concluded that such a victory could be obtained efficiently. But Milbek had studied the minds of a myriad of invaders, and understood that taking the garrison without incurring some casualties was unlikely, regardless of any Minding influence exercised. He pointed out that each species required different Minding controls, and Kathayoh was home to a myriad of species, which made it impossible for a simultaneous coordinated effort to influence their minds and actions. Once he shared his knowledge with those concerned Minders by linking his thoughts to theirs, each understood the immensity of the task before them and acknowledged Milbek’s wisdom and military acumen.
Milbek strategized a plan of attack on the garrison and the fleet, by assigning key Minders to command small divisions that would infiltrate and disrupt all operations on Kathayoh. It was a targeted tactic, creating a vortex of misinformation amongst Dilliak Strah’s individual enemy units. As the distorted intelligence spread, the enemy lost focus, and the orders from the tyrant Strah and his officers went essentially adrift.
In the end, although there were few casualties on both sides, the infiltration plan left Strah’s troops in complete disarray, and the garrison was taken in a mere three days.
The garrison command fell easily under the control of Milbek’s forces, and the military contingent surrendered without further incident. The tyrant Dilliak Strah was tossed by his men into the swamp, where he perished instantly.
Out of this confrontation a most encouraging development transpired. Every soldier living on Kathayoh had been abducted and enslaved to serve at the pleasure of Dilliak Strah, which resulted in no fidelity to the army they were mandated to serve. When Milbek informed the hapless soldiers of the Planetary Union’s objective for liberating the universe of tyrants such as Strah, each and every one volunteered to join Milbek’s forces. In a matter of hours, the army at his disposal grew from a mere three thousand, to over half a million. Every battlecruiser, starship and carrier on Kathayoh now came under Milbek’s command.
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We’ll be back with the conclusion in a few days. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to grab a copy of our new space opera.
~2authors
*image from psu.edu
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