Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) by Ivan Kal Read Free Book Online

us. So tell me, what has changed, what made you risk your stealth ship?” Jennifer Williams asked.
    Jacob again looked around the table, and then after a moment of hesitation answered, “Last year my people made contact with Olympus.” Shocked looks meet his words and immediately a chorus of questions erupted, “How? When? Are you sure?...” Jacob raised his hands and the others calmed down. Not all of them were old enough to remember Olympus, only a few of them were born while they still had the life extension technology, but all knew about Olympus. The Resistance was good at keeping records of the past, all of their remaining knowledge and history was kept by them.
    “We found an Olympus ship, left hidden in the asteroid belt. Its purpose was to watch Earth and contact us should we ever unite as a species, since we obviously didn’t it remained silent. The sole occupant of the ship is an Ai - an artificial intelligence. The Ai led us to the ship, it only did so because the Resistance was finally united. If we had remained fractured it would have remained silent.” Jacob said.
    “That is great Jacob, but a single ship left behind isn’t Olympus.” Oliver Eldritch said.
    “No, it is not, but the ship is equipped with faster than light communications, and we have made contact with Olympus leader Tomas Klein.” Jacob said.
    Surprise, then elation and hope shone on every face at the table. “Will they help us?” Anissa asked.
    Jacob nodded. “Yes. They are far away. More than six hundred light years. I sent them everything we had, all the information we gathered since they left. And I asked them for help. Their response came six months later, they have agreed to help us. They will send a fleet of ten ships, or rather they have already sent it. It will arrive in about a year. The fleet itself will contact us when they pass the halfway point, the communications would be shorter then and will allow us to plan better. They will deal with the Ra’a’zani ships in the system, and it’s up to us to fight on the ground.” Jacob said, he felt it was better to just lay down everything, rather than to feed them information slowly. He knew it was a lot to digest, but he also knew that they had to.
    “If they can handle the ships in the system, I’m confident that we can take them on the ground.” Akulov said seriously, “Our biggest obstacle are those ships. The Ra’a’zani are arrogant, and they had conquered us when we were at our weakest, they don’t know what we are capable of. Our biggest problem will be to convince people to rise up.” He said, looking around the table. “They are scared, they all remember what happened the last time we tried to fight. And the majority of them don’t know anything about the past, they can’t imagine that we can fight back and win.”
    Jacob nodded. “I agree. We need to convince the people, to make them believe that we will win.”
    “Weapons will be a problem. We have very little left.” Eldritch said.
    “That won’t be a problem.” Jacob added. “The Olympus ship had fabricators, and we have since then made a few more, I brought a couple here. With them, we will have weapons.”
    “The greatest Ra’a’zani weapon is their control. There are barely three thousands of them on Earth, and yet they rule. If even a fraction of our people rose up we would have beaten them by now.” Williams said.
    “Yes, but our people are afraid. In a single generation they managed to erase most of our past. Of course we did a lot of the work for them with our war, but our people know only what Ra’a’zani want them to know. They hear about the Resistance and immediately they remember the deaths of more than a billion people. Ra’a’zani made sure that everyone saw what happens when we try to fight. And don’t forget the thralls. Their number is at least six thousand.” Jacob said.
    “Not to mention the ships in the orbit. Even if we did defeat them on the ground, their