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Chapter Summaries (Dregs of Empire)

Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution

This novella is expected to be read after Ashes of Man, and as such, the summaries below spoil that book.

    Chapter 1: The Prison Planet

    Locations

    Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Hightower

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Four guards beat Lorian Aristedes in a white-walled room of the hightower above Belusha, which broke at least one of Lorian's ribs. Reeling from the pain, Lorian recalled his sentencing on the part of William Caesar for high treason for helping Hadrian Marlowe escape from the brig aboard the Tempest with the help of Bassander Lin and the Prince of Jadd Kaim du Otranto.


    "“How do you answer these charges?” Caesar himself had asked the question, seated on the camp stool they had set out for his makeshift throne.

    Lorian had answered with his customary lip. “Unrepentantly, Honorable Caesar.”

    That had sealed his fate.

    On a floating chair passing from medica to his cell, Lorian looked out on the planet Belusha more than a mile below. The frigid surface of the planet was dotted by oil rig towers in a frozen plain with ice-crowened mountains in the middle distance. In the sky, a lattice work of mirrors reflected the light from a sun onto the surface of Belusha, where he could barley make out the prison camp of Downwell, his final destination.

    Chapter 2: The Duke

    Locations

    Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Downwell

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    A boot belonging to a dark-faced man named Duke jabbed at Lorian's broken ribs, jolting him awake the next morning. Duke helped Lorian get up and confirmed that Lorian has two broken ribs on his left side. Lorian shared his history as Hadrian Marlowe's commander, but was met with a shake of the head and no recognition of the Hadrian's name from Duke.

    “Call me Lorian,” he said. “I was a commander in the Imperial Red Company, under Hadrian Marlowe himself.”
    Duke only blinked at him.
    “The Hero of Aptucca?”
    The other man shook his head. “We don’t get word from outside.”
    “The Halfmortal?”
    Nothing.
    Attempting to get a sense of time, Lorian asked what year it is only to learn that prisoners are never told the year, although Duke did confirm that William Caesar XXIII of the House of Avent was still emperor. Duke then led Lorian down some white-walled halls to a locker room with thermal suits colored prisoner scarlet, which he helped Lorian don. Duke taught Lorian how to use the rebreather system as he told him of his prison assignment in the motor pool.

    The two exited the locker room onto the surface of the planet, into the average low temperatures of -16 centigrade, where Lorian remarked again on the mirrors redirecting sunlight to the surface, the so-called Emperor's Eyes. His gaze then turned on the orbital lift tower stretching from the surface into the upper atmosphere where he had been the prior day in medica. Lorian dreamed of climbing its nanocarbon cables hand-over-hand to escape the prison planet, a feat he knows is impossible.

    In the motor pool, Duke introduces Lorian to Bhaskar, a mechanic with a grizzled beard. Bhaskar asks Lorian why he is on Belusha, perking up the heads and ears of three others in the motor pool. Lorian tells him "High treason," which elicits laughter from Bhaskar and the rest of the motor pool. Lorian presses in, saying he was the tactical officer aboard the Tamerlane under Captain Otavia Corvo and Commandant Lord Hadrian Marlowe, whom the motor pool mechanics call a myth and propoganda. A klaxon wails signaling a shift change, and Bhaskar and his pod leave for meal time.

    Chapter 3: A Man's World

    Locations

    Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Downwell

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Lorian continued his work in the motor pool and recalled Duke telling a story of a group of prisoners from 2,000 shifts (approximated to be 10 years) ago who found weapons on their salvage run. They staged an insurrection of Perigee camp, only to be carpet bombed by the guards. Lorian started a conversation about the possibility of escape to which all the motor pool workers scoff.

    Gowan and Hari, two of the motor pool workers, struck up a conversation about Outborn, prisoners who had left the camps to live in the barren frozen wilds of Belusha. Hari exclaimed that Duke believes they are real, but the others were non-plussed. Digging in his heels, Hari asked if the others heard about an attack on Farside that killed more than 30 Martians and took all the women from the camp. Gowan believed the story to be a falsehood. Hari turned to Lorian for his opinion, to which Lorian said he'd never seen them.

    Tensions rose among the crew as insults began to fly. Hari threw a spanner that missed Lorian's head, and Hari referred to Valka as an extrasolarian machine-witch. Lorian corrected him that she was Tavrosi, which sent Hari into another disparaging insult about Valka.

    “Tavrosi?” Hari spat. “That’s twice as bad. Always wondered why His Radiance didn’t burn those fuckers off the map. Can’t imagine being so desperate for ass I’d fuck a machine!”
    Lorian launched a spanner hitting Hari in the face, adding fuel to the fire of argument. Hari said he'll kill Lorian just before Duke stepped in to end the fight between the two of them. Duke told them he'll string them up naked in the cold if they don't stop their fighting while on the clock.

    The next day, Lorian volunteered to take Hari's turn to clean-up the shop, which smoothed things over. On a later shift, Daud, a rig crew member. requested that Lorian repair his crawler by the next day, a timeline Duke told him is too ambitious. Daud told him to take it up with Damian, and he and his crew leave. Duke rallied the team for double-time repairs and told them to organize who is getting food for the long night ahead.

    Chapter 4: The ParaCoita

    Locations

    Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Downwell

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Lorian and his crew began work on Daud's crawler, having identified it had a broken fan and cracked radiators the needed replacement. As a result of this radiator issue, damp air made its way into the air ducts and formed into ice in Belusha's harsh conditions over time, and now the vents required welding on the inside. Due to the tight space, only Lorian was large enough to do the job.

    Crawlling through the air ducts, Lorian dropped kicked open a vent and dropped into one of the crew dormitory chambers. Looking back up at the vent, he recalled his time crawling through the ducts of the Tamerlane to reach Hadrian when he was under isolation during an Inquisition during events found in Demon in White.

    Broken out of his trance, Lorian heard a banging noise, as if someone were trapped somewhere in the crawler. Following it to a locker room, and carrying the arc torch he was to use for welding the vents, he cut off the padlock sealing one of the lockers. Inside, he found a young girl, no more than 15 years old, who was bound at the wrists and feet with tap covering her mouth. Lorian immediately knew she had been raped repeatedly and brutally.

    Trying to reassure her, Lorian cuts off the binding around her ankles, but the girl kicks him. She tried to run but fell to the floor, clearly weakened by her captivity. Lorian removed her gag, introduces himself and learns that her name is Tamara. She told him her mother sold her to the crew and that even the Martian guards were complicit in her captivity, a story that also confirmed for Lorian the existence of the Outborn. Filled with ire toward the crawler's crew and its Martian guards, he told Tamara he would go find help, but by the time he returned with Duke and Gowan, she was dead in the crawler where he had left her.

    Chapter 5: The Way of Things

    Locations

    Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Downwell

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    The overseer's took Tamara's body away and told the motor pool to get back to work. The crawler crew didn't even get a slap on the wrist, an injustice Lorian decided shoudl be taken into his own hands. While continuing work on the crawler, Lorian detached a plasma cutter, and took a long thin driver with him into the crawler, giving the team the impression he was working on something to get it up and running.

    Outside the crawler, Daud asked Duke about the progress on the crawler. Duke explained that the girl that was discovered set them back, and Daud's rage began to rise. Meanwhile, inside the crawler, Lorian finishes his modification of the plasma cutter while muttering a prayer.

    Lorian offered a whispered prayer as he crept from the ladder into the hold. “I invoke the universal sound and the One Pure. Grant me courage and clarity, that I might know right conduct. Unite my deeds with Wisdom. I offer this prayer to the Knight Galahad. I invoke . . .”
    Daud commented that Wormy, the nickname he has given Lorian, wasn't supposed to go in the crawler and says he'll kill him. From the top of the ramp on the crawler, holding the plasma cutter, Lorian provoked Daud to come closer to him rather than Duke. Once in range, Lorian pointed the plasma cutter at Daud and pulled the trigger, unleashing a violet lance of plasma that cut Daud's legs out from under him. Lorian stepped forward as Daud writhed in pain on the ramp, and raised the plasma cutter to Daud's head. He fired one more time, exploding Daud's head.

    Duke, Gowan, Urgo, Hari and the rest of the motorpool were stunned. Duke asked him why he did it and Lorian said it was for Tamara. Daud's men were enraged, but before any of them took action, a klaxon blared. Guards flooded into the motor pool telling Lorian to drop his weapon. Lorian obliged as they beat and bound him to haul him away.

    Chapter 6: The Traitors

    Locations

    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Downwell

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Vaclav Carter, the highest ranking official on Belusha, asked Lorian if he denies the charge of murder for killing Daud. He said it was justice and did not deny it. One of the jurors called for him to be killed, but Vaclav examined Lorian's file, which directed that Lorian may not be executed or flogged for his crimes. In addition, the rest of his file was redacted.

    Curious, Vaclav probed Lorian about his past and why his file may be redacted. Giving away little, one of the jurors, revealed to be Lorcan Breathnach called Lorian a traitor. Lorian explained how Hadrian Marlowe did not commit regicide, which fueled a verbal battle between Lorian and Lorcan, which Vaclav ultimately put a stop to.

    Vaclav probed further, asking Lorian if he believed Hadrian is "the One Reborn," to which Lorian said, "No." The questioning, Lorian began to realize, was actually a trial for Lorian to join the jury and have a higher station on Belusha, but he would have none of it. Lorian continued to antagonize Vaclav while also explaining Hadrian's miracle on Perfugium in which he shattered the glass behind a Cielcin prince on a holograph, which ultimately killed the Pale creature (described in the climax of Ashes of Man). A hush fell over the jurors but Lorcan was nonplussed and continued his verbal rout.

    Lorcan told Lorian that Hadrian has been found in Jadd and that he was "living the good life" with wine and women. This plunged Lorian into a sense of dispair that his sacrifice to save Hadrian was for naught. As the exchange between Lorian and Lorcan peetered out, Vaclav ordeered Lorian to be put on ice in the Tower for a century before he is brought out to work again. However, Lorcan calls for Lorian to be placed in one of the other camps, either Snowhead or Farside. Vaclav obliged.

    Chapter 7: Farside

    Locations

    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Snowhead
    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Farside

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Seven years later, Lorian reflected on his two years spent at Snowhead where he sorted scrap. After those two years, he was shuttled to Farside where he became a scavenger, sourcing circuit boards and precious metals from ships purposely crashed onto the planet's surface by the Martians in orbit. Dispriting him most was the thought that Hadrian had given up the fight to retire to a country villa on Jadd, where he took in the pleasures of wine and women. It wore on his psyche.

    Many were the nights Lorian lay awake in his cell, or in his suit in the back of their crawler, staving off the cold, staring at the roof above him.
    Standing upon one of the ship wrecks during a salvage run, Lorian removed his mask and breathed in the Belushan air until he felt hypoxia at which point he returned the mask to his face. Daru, one of the members of his salvage team, called for him to assist Jeff with salvaging some parts from inside the ship because the entryway was too large for any of the other men. Inside, while feeling beneath the final circuit board during his salvage in that cramped space, he found a plasma burner with a broken fan, which he stowed inside his coveralls. He couldn't shake the feeling that this discovery was some sort of divine providence.

    During dinner in the crawler on the way back to Farside, Lorian grabbed a bowl of porridge and made his way outside on top of the gigantic trundling machine. He once again removed his mask to breath in the air while he ate the porridge, which had now gone cold. Jeff finds him and they strike up a conversation about the Outborn. Jeff and the other salvagers had confirmed the attack mentioend by Hari in Chapter 3, and Jeff explained atop the crawler with Lorian that the raiders only took women during the last attack. As the crawler pulled into camp, Jeff said Rand believes the Outborn are trying to grow their numbers to fight back against the Martian encampments on Belusha. Jeff left Lorian alone atop the crawler, and Lorian felt for the plasma burner, which he kept safe in his suit.

    Chapter 8: Outborn and Misborn

    Locations

    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Farside

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Out on another scavenging run, Fives complained about loosening a seized bolt, and yelled at Kellan, a newer member of the pool, for a plasma cutter. Another of the new members told him that the plasma cutter was back on the crawler and Fives threw a wrench at him, prompting Jeff to send him out on a walk. Jeff told Lorian to go get it and Daru volunteered to go with him. After several minutes, they made it to the rig, and began to gather the cutter when they heard gunshots ring out.

    Lorian and Daru, abandoning the plasma cutter, ran toward a nearby ship that sloped up like a hill overlooking the salvage area. In doing so, Lorian dislocated his knee and popped it back into place. Together the men watched as men in patchwork cloaks jumped off a long, narrow skiff and rounded up the salvage crew. Lorian deduced they must be outborn. One of the men asked for the leader, and when Jeff responded that he was, the Outborn captain asked Jeff if the whole crew was there. After an affirmative reply, the Outborn captain, wearing a helmet with a white hand printed on his face, shot Jeff in the face with a common slug gun. Enraged, Kellen ran at the Outborn to defend his leader, taking two slugs into his chest.

    The Outborn captain and his crew lined up the remaining members of the crew, and Lorian realized that Fives had still not yet returned. All in a line the captain walked down the ranks, and whne he said one was too old, an Outborn shot him dead. The Outborn captain asked Gared if there were any women in the crew, using the slug gun to intimidate him. When told no, he continued walking the ranks, culling two more from the crew for their age. Lorian wished he had repaired the plasma burner he found because he had a perfect perch to take out the Outborn, who chained the crew marched them onto the skiff and left. Lorian and Daru took cover in the ship that had been their hilly outpost until the Martians found them much later.

    Chapter 9: A Friend

    Locations

    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Farside

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Lorian could not get out of his head the deaths of Jeff, Kellen and the others over the months the followed the attack. Worse was how Fives blamed him for it. Once returned to Farside, the camp's commandant questioned them about the events, and the three were split up on different teams: Fives to a salvage crew, Daru to the kitchens and Lorian to the motor pool. Lorian would often stay after hours to find a way to repair the plasma burner, but he continued to lose sleep thinking about Jeff, who lied about the size of the crew and ultimately kept Lorian, Daru and Fives alive. Lorian's inner rage toward Hadrian for not continuing to fight and finding pleasure on Jadd also haunted him and his mind as it had during all the years since his brush with Lorcan Breathnach at his trial after killing Daud.

    Some time later, Daru tipped off Lorian to a plot to kill him while Lorian was building a still. Lorian brushed it off as yet another rumor, but Daru insisted that Fives, Cal and Vasu, three bruisers on Farside, would do so by finding him in the motor pool after hours. Unconcerned, Lorian revealed to Daru that in 12 more shifts, the guards planned to reassign every prisoner. Lorian's ambivalence, bordering on nihilism, continued, and only intensified Daru's frustration with him.

    “I’m not alone,” Lorian said, returning to his work on the machine. “I have you.”
    Daru howled, clapped hands to his forehead in exasperation. “You’re just not getting it! Fives wants to kill you. And it’s not just him. It’s Cal. It’s Vasu. It’s probably half the bruisers on base.”
    Lorian took Daru's warning to heart and stopped staying after hours at the motor pool, and 12 shifts later, as expected reassignments came through. Lorian, Daru and Fives were all assigned to Salvage Pod-17, news that burned with a fury between Five's eyes as Lorian's gaze caught his from across the yard in the Belushan tundra.

    Belusha Prisoner Serial Numbers

    • NO-11589: Lorian Aristedes
    • GN-34957: Daru
    • LN-55555: Fives
    • GN-24805: Unknown
    • NH-86333: Unknown
    • GK-19927: Unknown
    • LN-43248: Unknown
    • LK-56352: Unknown

    Chapter 10: Of Vultures

    Locations

    Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Farside

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Three weeks after the new prisoner assignments were drawn, Lorian's latest poddy, Dadan, called for the crew to speed up their salvage work to get to a fresh Legion salvage site in the Lynga Province. While sorting salvage on the sledge headed to that new scrap site, Lorian's self worth plunged once more as he continued to feel smaller and smaller every day. While sorting, he found some ytterbium crystal, and explained to Ram, Dadan's boytoy, that it is a time crystal used for long-term data storage.

    Focused on sorting and not realizing Ram had left, he looked up to find Fives holding a metal pipe and behind him Aldo and Yash, who bore weapons of their own. They claim that Lorian is an Outborn and as they approach to begin their assault, Lorian pulled out the plasma burner he found in the wreckage weeks earlier. He still had not fixed it, but the bluff was the best play he had to slow the altercation as he found a way to get to the cockpit of the sledge to drive away. They ask him if the Outborn have a way off Belusha as he made his final lunge for the door, but his angle rolled and snapped out of joint.

    Face down in the snow, the gun fell from his hand. Fives tried firing it to kill Lorian, but it simply clicked, so he resorted to kicking him in the ribs, breaking to of them yet again, and walloped Lorian in the head with the pipe. As the world spineed in Lorian's vision, a blur of red with a long spearlike weapon bolted toward Fives. Lorian heard the cries and bellows of the three assailants as his body went into shock and he struggled to breath. Now with some clarity of his sight, he recongized Daru had killed all three of them and saved him. Daru said Dadan and the others tried to kill him, but he escaped.

    Surprise and a better weapon. Most times that was all it took, even against superior numbers.
    Lorian told him they'll need to take the sledge out into the wilds. If the Martians found them and the dead crew members, they'd likely be reprimanded and killed, but if they could find any Outborn and pay them the salvage on board, they may have a chance at new life. Lorian got in the passenger seat and told Daru to drive. Chapter 11: The Cold

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > DelosBelusha > Meidua PrefectureUnknown > Saint MaximusUnknown > The Church Yard
     Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church CatacombsUknown

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    Lost in the frozen wasteland, Daru continued to press the pedal driving the sledge west. Lorian had destroyed the transponder so the Martians could not track them, and the two discussed how long their food and battery life would keep them alive. Once the battery of the sledge died, Lorian realized they could use their suits, which were charging in the sledge. Faced with this mortality, Daru asked Lorian about Hadrian coming back to life after being decapitated, and Lorian explained all he knew, including his perspective of the battle at Senuesa where Hadrian had killed 100 Cielcin warriors on his own and the Hadrian killed Cielcin General Attavaisa with his mind through a holograph.

    The conversation turned to religion and the afterlife, which Lorian said he has seen. Daru remained doubtful of that and asked Lorian why he was on Belusha. Lorian explained that he saved Hadrian's life, which ultimately meant he traded placed with Hadrian, who would otherwise be on Belusah.

    Some time later, Lorian awoke from sleep to the beeping of the sledge alerting him and Daru that only 5% of the fuel cell remained. Daru, after Lorian woke him, suggests they use a flare to alert the Outborn to their presenece, but Lorian shuts it down saying it would also alert the Martians. Eight hours later, Lorian struggled to sleep and looked at Daru next to him, welling in affection knowing that he may be his only friend in the entire universe. He grabbed the flare gun, opened the door and fired it at the sky. The battery said they had 138 hours and 52 minutes before they lost power, and the two made themselves as comfortable as they could on the sledge.

    Chapter 12: Princess of Thieves

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > DelosBelusha > Meidua PrefectureUnknown > Saint MaximusUnknown > In the Village Proper
     Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain ChurchUknown

    Characters

    Plot Summary

    When Lorian next woke, only 7 hours remained on the battery. Then he heard tapping on the hull of the sledge. Lorian initially thought that it was a trap, then realized it must be Outborn. Daru, at Lorian's insistence, opened the hatches on the sledge to reveal the spoils they had brought from the latest salvage. The two raised their hands in the compartment as a face came into view in Daru's window. Moments later, another came into view in Lorian's window.

    "We surrender!" Lorian said, "We want to enlist!"
    The reaver, armed with a firearm, on Lorian's side of the sledge wore a mask with slits and with an amplifier ordered Lorian to get out. He told Daru to stay inside, then Lorian got out himself to begin negotiations with the Outborn, noticing then a third reaver was on the bed of the sledge. During the conversation, Lorian learned the one holding the gun was named Ralla, clearly a born and bred Outborn, and the one on the bed of the sledge was Bevan. He also noted there were four more Outborn at the perimeter of the meeting.

    Lorian asked for the leader, whom the Outborn called Sachin. They told him Sachin is at Deepstone, and Lorian requested sanctuary in exchange for the spoils they had brought on the sledge. He also offered his knowledge of the Belushan camps and his legacy as a commander, which they could use to fight back against the Marians. After more negotiaions and the reveal that Ralla was a woman named Sarala, the Outborn relented to taking Lorian and Daru to Sachin, who would decide their fate.

    Daru came out of the sledge swinging a prybar after he was signaled to come out by Lorian, who calmed him down after the initial tussle. They bound Daru's wrist behind his back and gestured Lorian to move with a gun aimed at his back. Once on the Outborn skiff, Sarala removed her mask and Lorian's breath caught seeing her piercing blue eyes. He tells her he's the best thing the Outborn have salvaged, and she asks why that is.

    "Because for however long your people have been a menace to the Martians," Lorian said. "I can make you a threat.

    Chapter 13: The Subterrane

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper

    Plot Summary

    Chapter 14: Strategy and Tactics

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper
    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Yard

    Plot Summary

    Chapter 15: The Dregs of Empire

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin Starship

    Plot Summary

    Chapter 16: Knocking on Heaven's Door

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin Starship

    Plot Summary

    Chapter 17: Tower of the Gods

    Locations

    Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper

    Chapter 18: To Crack the Sky

    Locations

     Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper

    Dramatis Personae:

      House Marlowe of Delos

    Lexicon: A Note on Translation
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