Free The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4) by Christian Kallias

suggested, he should probably just give her some space and time to process it all. He felt knackered anyway, so when he arrived in his quarters he let himself drop into his bed. Except his head never touched his pillow.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Chase landed on some soft, blue grass in the middle of the night, on a planet he didn’t recognize. That sent some light, cyan fluff flying all around and soon green, glowing fireflies came and grabbed the soft fluffy material his falling on the ground had sent flying upward.
    “Now what!” said Chase out loud.
    Then he saw a beautiful, blue-green ringed planet in the sky above him, with an asteroid field in front of it. Multiple light sources approached the planet. Soon what he could only surmise were ships started firing on the planet. First, small, orange-red dots appeared on its surface. Soon they grew in size and number. Chase felt very uncomfortable witnessing the attack without being able to do anything about it. But he didn’t even know where he was.
    “You’re on the third moon of planet Tyronis. It’s under attack as we speak by Argos’ Zarlack forces.”
    “Hello, Ares. You couldn’t have just appeared in my quarters?”
    “Wouldn’t have had the same impact as showing it to you now, would it?”
    “I guess not. What am I supposed to do about it though?”
    “Nothing. This world is already lost. There’s nothing we can do about it. Many other small and beautiful worlds and systems like this one will fall in the coming weeks. It’s unavoidable.”
    “If you want to say I told you so, be my guest.”
    “That’s not why I’m showing you this.”
    “Then why?”
    “We need to be aware of what Argos is doing and see how we can stop him.”
    “He tried to spare me.”
    “What? When?”
    “When we left Erevos.”
    “Yet the Iron Fire was destroyed.”
    “By the Furies weapons on the surface, not by his destroyers.”
    “What are you trying to tell me, Chase?”
    “I think there is doubt in him. I’m no longer convinced he is fully evil.”
    “I’m not sure I can give him the benefit of the doubt. With him having killed me and doomed my sister to eternal imprisonment.”
    “We’ll get Aphroditis out of there, I promise you.”
    “Chase, please don’t promise things you can’t guarantee delivering.”
    “Okay, let me rephrase that: I will do whatever is in my power to save her. Better?”
    “Yes. And I thank you for it. Still, Argos has to be dealt with, and I must say I’m surprised you are considering any other action but retribution.”
    “True. I still feel like killing him, but he could have finished us off easily, and he didn’t.”
    “He had given you his word.”
    “Yes, and he tried to keep it.”
    “I still don’t see what it changes in the large scale of things.”
    “I don’t know, but it bugs me. And my instinct is telling me that there is still good somewhere in him. I did feel a lot of fear emanating from him when we last met.”
    “Well, for the time being I think it’s safe to say he remains our enemy.”
    “I have no doubts about that either, don’t worry, Ares. What is it you wanted to talk about?”
    “Argos’ first target, Tyronis, is located near Erevos, and its asteroid field is rich in many valuable resources, including, but not only, quadrinium.”
    “So?”
    “So I think it’s clear the Furies are in dire need of resources. They will need them to rebuild their fleet.”
    “Rebuild?”
    “In the final days of the war, the coalition of worlds that defeated their armies destroyed their fleet. It had been a terrible battle that lasted for days. It took the combined forces of hundreds of worlds and thousands of ships to win that battle.”
    “So they are rebuilding it?”
    “That would be my guess.”
    “That means we have a short time-window to make sure this never happens.”
    “I think so.”
    “If you have to guess, how long do we have?”
    “Weeks I’d say. A few months at the most.”
    “Can I