Interstellar Age



Now that Erich had privately challenged Emrys for control of the Germanic Star-Empire and had even threatened to wage war to accomplish this. Erich had become increasingly paranoid about his two wives who were living on Teutonia. For starters, he was spending an increasing amount of time outside the borders, in fear that Emrys might attempt to assassinate him.

And because of this Erich had now considered the idea of extracting his two loved ones, and his young son out of his homeland, and to the world where the Orcish clans were gathering with the intent of preparing for a Great War. 

While a world full of warlike barbarians was not the greatest environment for his son to be raised in. It sure as hell was better than having his child and wives be treated as hostages by Emrys. Thus Erich immediately contacted JT and informed the man to stop his pursuit of the surviving Sages. JT was shocked at first until Erich told him why he was making such a request. 

"JT... Erika, Kurt, and Ayumi are in danger so long as they remain in the Empire. Emrys has already taken one of my loved ones hostage, and I refuse to give him three more. So I need you to sneak into my home and extract my family back to the world I'm currently on. Once you have done so, I will reward you for your efforts." 

JT scoffed when he heard Erich say that he would reward him and immediately rejected the offer. 

"Forget the damn reward. I'd rather not get shot in the back of the head again... I'll do this for you, but you will owe me one because of it. I'm changing course to Teutonia now. I'll let you know once I have your family in hand, and have escaped from Imperial Space. JT out..."

After saying this, JT hung up on Erich and shook his head while expressing his thoughts out loud. 

"Waging war against the Empire, what the hell were you thinking, Erich?" 

---

It did not take long before JT's ship landed on the world of Teutonia. Luckily for him, the entirety of the GSE thought he was dead, and because of this, the false identity he used to gain access to the planet didn't immediately arouse suspicions from the authorities. 

Naturally, JT knew where Erich's home was. And because of this, he quickly made his way to the neighborhood. Where he noticed that there were several agents tasked with watching the mansion. In fact, the entire thing had been turned into a compound, where Imperial Security held Erich's loved ones as prisoners. 

Realizing that Emrys was already one step ahead, JT cursed under his breath. There was no way he was simply going to walk into his buddy's home and rescue his loved ones. But luckily for JT, few people were as familiar with the data systems of the Germanic Star-Empire, and thus he sliced into the nearest terminal and set off a red alert in another sector of the city. Which would draw away at least half of the Security Officers who were keeping a watchful eye over Erich's home. 

Once JT confirmed that indeed, half of the officers were called away, he then rerouted the footage of the security cameras in the immediate vicinity of Erich's home, as well as any other monitoring devices. Making the footage continue on a loop.  This ensured that there would be no trace of his daring rescue when he finally pulled it off.

With these things out of the way JT then pulled out his sidearm, and ensured that it was properly loaded, before scaling one of the neighbor's fences, where he covertly made his way across the yard, before finding himself face to face with the wall that led to Erich's home. 

However, simply hopping over this fence would immediately give away his position, and because of this, JT reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metallic square. It may not look like much, but once he pulled off the cover and placed it on the ground, the metallic sphere changed form into a small robotic drill. Which immediately began to dig under the fence, and create a tunnel into Erich's basement. 

This was, of course, a drone created by Tia and operated by her consciousness. One that had been previously given to JT and other members of Erich's crew, to ensure that they could eliminate the surviving sages, and escape from the pursuing authorities with ease. 

Oce the tunnel was dug, JT crawled through the dirt, before emerging on the other side, where he found himself in Erich's basement. He again wielded his pistol as he silently made his way through the halls of the beachside mansion. 

Naturally, there were plenty of armed guards on the inside. But they were completely unaware that their compound was breach, and thus, JT silently stalked through the halls, and effortlessly eliminated these men, who were not even as skilled as Star Marines. 

As a former WRAITH, and one who had served for close to a hundred years in that capacity, JT was easily able to make short work of the sentries without even alerting them to his presence. And once he had silently killed his way to Erika, and Ayumi, were held in a secured room within the estate along with the young boy Kurt. He saw that they were being guarded by two more hostiles. 

Both of which JT shot in the head with his integrally suppressed pistol before they could even realize he was there. The act of which caused both Ayumi and Erika to scream in terror, while Erika shielded her young son's eyes. 

However, JT raised one finger to his mouth and shushed the two hysterical women before informing them who he was. 

"Relax! I work for your husband! He sent me to rescue you! Now be quiet!"

JT then activated his NeuroLink, which sent a hologram of Erich out of his eyes and onto the table which sat between JT and the girls. When Erich saw that his family was safe and sound. He sighed heavily in relief before informing them of his plan. 

"Oh, thank god you're all okay. I knew I made the right decision, sending JT to rescue you. Follow him and obey his orders. If you do this, he will get you safely off world, where he will fly you to where I am currently stationed." 

As many questions as Erika and Ayumi had for their husband. They did not immediately give voice to them due to the precarious situation they now found themselves in. Instead, they silently nodded their head in acknowledgement of Erich's words before following JT out of the tunnel he had created. 

It did not take long after escaping from the compound for the local security forces to realize something was terribly wrong. And thus, JT and the others were forced to lie low, until they could get to the starport where his ship was currently docked. 

---

After several hours of lying low, and avoiding patrols and surveillance drones. JT and the others were finally able to make their way into the starport. Where they immediately made their way off world and set a course for the world where Erich was building his army. 

The journey was not as long as Erika or Ayumi expected, but once they were on the continental world, and met with Erich they immediately began to scold the man for doing whatever the hell it was that he did to warrant such a response from the Empire. 

"What the hell did you do, Erich? The government barged into our homes and told us we were under house arrest because you were a traitor to the Empire! A traitor! Despite the fact that I saw nothing about this on the news! Do you have any idea how worried I was?" 

Erich simply rolled his eyes before informing his wife of what he had done for Emrys to react in such a hostile manner. 

"The old bastard is fucking scared... To make a move against my family. It is simply unforgiveable. Perhaps I should give him a taste of his own medicine?"

Erich could tell this was not a satisfactory answer, and thus he scoffed before informing Erika of the truth. 

"I'm no traitor! I simply gave Emrys an ultimatum. The Empire is mine to rule by right. I was chosen for it! Emrys is a usurper, so I gave him ten years to get his affairs in order, and then to transfer power over to me. But the fact that he would use this as an excuse to imprison my wives and son. Means he has chosen the path of war. 

That's fine though. Now that the two of you are safe here with me, I can begin my preparations without the slightest worry. I'm sorry you both had to go through that. But the time has come to pick a side!" 

Never in their wildest dreams did Erika and Ayumi expect their husband to essentially declare war against the Empire in a bid to become the next supreme leader. And though they believed he was mad for doing such a thing. They chose to remain by his side.