Xeno Reckoning: An Interstellar War Story (The Essence Wars Book 1)

by Paul Heingarten

  Wexan threw Selina a perturbed look. “You kidding? In just the last two years, they've gone from two or three cases in a month to four or five a week.”

  The problems with Lookers began with things as innocent as simple theft and public spectacles, as much as any theft was innocent, anyway. Jumping across dimensions allowed Lookers to bounce between locations hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Items like energy generation tech and weapons gave them plenty of theft options for sport, but the black markets sometimes requested more specific services, which brought on several cases of kidnappings and a slew of murders.

  It was on the tip of Selina's tongue to talk about her own run-in with Dimencrime and the Looker, but she held quiet. The last thing she needed on her first shift with a Mardak was even more doubt of her worth.

  When they stopped for cross traffic, Wexan sighed. “The hunt for Essence has never been stronger. At least the Nara were nice and careful to keep Essence hidden, or we'd be in for way more problems.”

  The only thing that could've possibly made life on Zormad worse than their current existence was the absence of Essence. The substance resided on Zormad, and every world in Ling Galaxy, as a source for life on its system. Essence was deposited on each world by the Nara since the dawn of Ling Galaxy as the life sustaining force and replenished periodically. The lack of Essence on a world meant its sure destruction.

  Selina noticed an open field to the right of their path. The area was littered with a series of tents, and she knew by the way they were set up that it was a temp hospital for housing Veculus patients.

  “What about Veculus then?” Selina muttered.

  “You tell me, Xeno. I thought your kind buggered us all up with that junk.”

  Selina shot Wexan a glare. “Think again, dude. You know that crud was here way before us.”

  Many other worlds in Ling Galaxy had a better lot than Zormad and her fellow downtrodden, and had managed a life of moderate to greater happiness. But worlds of drought and lack like Zormad left many of her residents wondering about the Essence and the true nature of the Nara, and just how this source of life of all worlds existed, while so much suffering did too. Furthermore, others believed the existence of Essence and its usage were handled wrong, and sometimes redistribution was necessary to allow those who had less to at least know a life without hunger.

  “You ever seen it? The Essence?” asked Selina.

  Wexan scoffed. “Nobody getting near Essence and living to tell about it, unless they're a Nara. Remember that good, Xeno.”

  While Essence was kept on each world, finding it was nowhere near as simple as canvassing the system. The Nara constructed a repository on each world for holding the Essence orb necessary to sustain life and keep that world intact. Locating this portal required the ability to shift dimensions, which made Lookers not only a threat to the lawful, but a tool for the nefarious.

  Wexan swung their vehicle up a tight curve around an abandoned warehouse. “We don't need to worry about Essence. Besides, there's enough Energy Tech theft to worry about. How about we make ourselves useful, keep an eye on the markets, see where that stuff’s turning up.”

  “You mean the ones outside of town?”

  “Mmmhmmm.” Wexan cast a slanted grin toward her. “You sound nervous. Think you can handle the rough types?”

  Selina wasn't about to let anyone push her, especially a Mardak. “I'm up for whatever you are; just get us there.”

  Wexan chuckled. “Now you're talking. So, Xeno, tell me about yourself.”

  “Why do you wanna know?” Selina's midsection tightened. Wexan's sudden probe felt more like an interrogation than just co-worker chit chat.

  Wexan's eyes narrowed. “Because we're partners. And one of us may have to save the other's ass. If that should happen and it's me, the more I know about your sorry Xeno self, the more likely I'll give a damn about saving you.”

  Selina shook her head and wondered how anyone from Earth ever got the bright idea humans would ever be accepted in a place like Zormad. “I was born after the relocation. About twenty years ago. My mom raised me. My dad, he wasn't around.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “The Railen killed him.” Selina's throat tightened with her answer. It was as much as she wanted to share with a Mardak for the moment, but truthfully it wasn't too far from everything she knew about her father's death. Like her fellow NewEarth residents, Selina had no idea about the conflict between the Railen and Omegans, other than it occasionally involved a close call for humans by one or the other. Selina knew both races were on a rampage to control Ling Galaxy, and on one occasion NewEarth found itself in the path of a Railen raid of NewEarth. Selina's father had led a group that held their own, though it later proved costly when the Railen returned for revenge. The reminder of that still stung, it always would.

  “Is that right?” Wexan's gaze lingered on Selina for a moment, then he eased their vehicle on further through the streets of Tas Ralong.

  Selina knew for her own sake anything she said, even if it was nothing at all, was better than verbal trips down her family history with anyone, especially a Mardak.

  Selina had begun a mental note of exactly how many minutes were left into their shift when the vehicle console sounded an alert. “Incendiary charge activated.”

  Wexan grunted. “Where? Get location.”

  “Scanning. Quadrant 87, approximate distance, 2.7 miles, ETA less than five minutes.”

  Wexan slammed the shift lever down. The engine at the front of their vehicle roared angrily as they shot ahead.

  Selina readied her pulse rifle. “Probably Railen; they've been rousing the Omegans lately.”

  “Maybe so. I'm gonna activate the tase net; see if we can pull them in for intel.”

  Selina shrugged. If it was Railen, she figured attempts at intel were as useless as painting a building with one fingernail.

  A few quick turns and there they saw the scene. A former industrial district, the far end of the street wrapped into a cul-de-sac bordered by a collection of high-rise buildings. Several disabled vehicles were scattered around the center of the streets. Behind them were two squads, one Railen and one Omegan, each of which held opposing sides of the street in an active skirmish. Blasts tore through the tall buildings on the side of the street and sent shards of steel and stone through the air along with wafts of dust that hung over the scene like tattered drapery.

  Selina ran a cursory scan with her Digivisor. The readout relayed a series of scans of the rubble scattered about the area as well as an assessment of the two groups engaged in a firefight of sporadic pulse weapon fire. Most important, Selina's HUD confirmed several building occupants aside from the brawling groups ahead of them.

  “We've got bystanders in at least one building ahead,” Selina muttered.

  Wexan eyed the scene for a minute while he munched his lip. “This is more than a simple extraction. We're letting the militia handle this.”

  The ground shook with a blast. Selina ducked low out of instinct. “The militia? What week are they getting here? That fight just broke out. Those buildings have people in them; we have to clear anyone we can to safety!”

  Wexan grabbed a handful of Selina's shirt and yanked her close. “Listen, rookie. You go out there, only thing you're gonna clear is a few pulse blasts into your body. Stay your ass here, I'm not filling out a lot of reports because you wanted to be a hero. This is a turf war; it happens all the time.”

  Selina eyed Wexan in disbelief.

  Wexan narrowed his eyes and continued. “Think you're the only one who lost somebody here? We've lived with this for a long time, understand? Just like we've put up with Veculus, and even you Xeno. In fact, we dealt with these brawls way before Xeno ever came here. Railen and Omegans are trying to see who can grab more land. I can't tell you how many of these I've seen in all my years of service. The Mardak Militia's way better armed for this, and you oughta know that.”

  Selina grit her
teeth. She picked up a pair of heat signals on the ground and sure enough, zoomed her viewfinder on two Mardaks huddled behind a transit station thirty yards ahead. She sucked in a deep breath and activated her armor. The nano metallic fibers wove themselves around her body in an instant, quickly fastened and became an airtight suit that included her visor. As she tapped the door release and leaped to the street, Wexan bellowed, “Get back here!”

  Selina hopped before she shot Wexan a glare. “Sorry, but I'm not here to sit on my ass. Circle back the way we came; I'll grab those stranded Mardaks out there.”

  “Get back here, now,” Wexan growled.

  Selina smirked and cast another glance toward the fray before her eyes met Wexan's most disapproving glare. “Double back; meet you when I grab them.”

  Wexan barked something in Mardak that Selina knew wasn't a term of affection toward her. She grinned and darted towards the transit station. Her visor readout indicated the thermal detonation was imminent, based on the intensity of the signature.

  Another blast shook the ground and knocked Selina on her belly. She looked ahead and saw she was just a few feet from the station, so she scrambled up and slid under the small roof to find two Mardaks. They were clearly dressed like lab workers of some kind.

  Selina activated her in-set translator so she spoke to them in Mardak and heard them in English. The Mardaks flinched at the sight of her but relaxed a bit when they noticed her Regulation uniform. “Hi there; want a ride?”

  One of the Mardaks, heavyset with stringy gray hair, replied, “Yes, please, help us!”

  Selina jabbed a finger back up the street. “My partner is that way. Head there, take a left at that first corner, and look for a Tas Ralong Sentry vehicle. I'll follow behind.”

  Not surprisingly, the two Mardaks needed no convincing and took off in a half quick trot. Selina crouched low as she jogged. A pulse shot seared the building slightly ahead of where the Mardaks ran, and Selina got off a few return volleys of her own back toward the fray behind them.

  They were almost to the corner when Selina's display sent another message. “Detonator activated, shelter in place.”

  The blast knocked Selina to the ground and sent a cascade of rubble down the street in their direction. She strained her eyes through the haze until she saw the Mardaks. They were on their feet but gazed back at her confusedly.

  “Keep going!” Selina bellowed. As she got to her feet, the dull thuds of pulse fire slamming into the ground sounded behind her. She looked and saw three of the Omegan squad had, for whatever reason, decided Selina was as good a target as anything. Maybe her rescuees were more than innocent bystanders after all.

  She was fifty feet from the corner, and when the Mardaks disappeared behind it, she juked on her path, avoiding the weapon fire that spread from one end of the street to the other. The barrage ripped into buildings but also portions of the roadway a little too close to Selina for her liking. “Wexan, need help asap, taking fire.”

  Selina rolled to the ground behind a disabled vehicle and looked up. The three Omegans were on foot about twenty feet away. Their reptilian faces twisted in snarls, their reddish eyes shot back a cold and heartless look toward her. She felt the Omegans weren't so much living beings as they were some kind of drones, commanded and set loose on the world like an infection. The Railen weren't much better, but it seemed they had some sense of reason in their heads, even though that reason was pretty twisted in itself.

  Selina activated her rifle and returned fire from behind her cover position. Her shots made contact on one of the Omegans, but it glanced off the armor, and aside from some stray sparks, they responded with guttural snarls of defiance.

  The power store on her weapon was low, but she remembered from her training about the incendiary setting on standard weapons. It exhausted the power store in a few quick blasts, but if you were in a back against the wall kind of situation, it was a handy option. Several shots from the Omegans punched into the busted vehicle and knocked her back a few feet. She activated the incendiary round and slid from behind her cover. She quickly got to a standing position and charged, her weapon aloft, and a stream of brilliant white beams shot toward the Omegans. The nearest one was sliced in two from the shot; the others kept their fire up but were silenced when the remaining rounds found their mark.

  Selina skid to a halt and tried catching her breath. She'd just looked at her handiwork when her HUD registered another alert, but Selina saw what it was without help from her tech.

  “Wexan, the Omegans have a hovercraft; move your ass or I'm toast!” Selina hollered.

  A few seconds later, she heard the familiar rumble of their vehicle. Once Selina dashed back and jumped in, Wexan pulled away.

  Their sentry vehicle careened back down the streets of Tas Ralong as a Militia Vehicle roared past them down the street for the rest of the mop up. As Selina connected her spent weapon up to the recharge console, Wexan activated the privacy screen between them and their passengers.

  “What the hell was that back there?”

  “I dunno, your usual skirmish between the—”

  “Not the fight. You and that hero stunt?” Wexan glared.

  Selina felt a lump in her throat. Her years growing up without a father had taken their toll on her but also fostered a fierce sense of action. Her joining the Regulation felt right to Selina at the time. She never thought long enough where her drive came from, but she figured at least part of her attitude was wanting to show she was like her father: proud, determined, maybe a bit stubborn. In a deeper part of her mind lay the wonder if the reason she kept so active was coping over the pain of her father’s loss, something she never addressed but had only endured so far. In any case, to Wexan, someone she'd barely known, she knew instinctively he neither needed nor deserved a full brief of her reasons, especially when she wasn't even sure of them herself.

  “It's called saving lives, Wexan. See these two behind us? If I hadn't grabbed them, they'd have been vaporized by the time the militia arrived.”

  Wexan jabbed a shaky finger into Selina's face. “You don't know who we saved; they coulda been the ones who started that mess. Hell, they coulda been trying to find Essence. Your little sortie was damned risky. Militia's got platoons of boots for these kinds of fights. They take the big threats, the invasions, things like that. We handle small stuff, petty thefts, maybe smugglers if they aren't too big a threat. You best keep that in mind if you want to live much longer.”

  Selina shrugged him off. She figured on one hand he had a point; that fight could've easily ended bad for her pretty quick. The pulse rifles they carried were for pacification mostly, not military grade tech for extended engagements. But something else in her knew there was no way she'd have let those Mardaks go without helping them. As much as Mardaks and humans hadn't completely gotten over their tensions, she still felt like they at least owed Mardaks for the chance to start NewEarth, and without more efforts at working together, neither race survived in the end with all they faced.

  They returned to the Tas Ralong Sentry precinct, where their next requirement was handing the Mardaks back for safe return to their residence once the militia returned an all clear for the area where the fight took place.

  Wexan and Selina escorted the Mardaks to the holding area for refugees. As they walked over, Selina caught a glimpse of one of them, the shorter heavyset one, as they looked back at her with a bit of wonder. She just figured the sight of a human was a little uncommon for them.

  But still, as they walked, she felt the Mardak's gaze still on her to the point she became uncomfortable. Selina stopped, her eyes locked on the Mardak.

  Wexan, after a few steps, also noticed Selina's stare off.

  “Move!” Wexan barked.

  Selina's eyes were fixed on the Mardak. “Gimme a minute, Wexan; I'm getting a vibe here.”

  Wexan padded up, a lingering growl under his breath as he slowly shouldered his rifle. Selina activated her translator again and peered into
the Mardak's eyes. “Is something wrong?”

  The Mardak chuckled a bit. “Pardon me, I don't mean to stare. We Mardaks have a tendency to study new people we've met, as our belief is in this grand universe we're all connected in some way. Pardon my rudeness, my name is Grisha Eld.”

  “Selina Ravencraft.”

  Grisha smiled warmly. “Suddenly a name makes one less ominous, no?”

  Selina's lips curved up slightly. “I guess.”

  “You're the first Xeno I've met. I understand your kind came from a distant galaxy.”

  “Yep. And we didn't bring Veculus if that's what you're thinking.”

  Grisha chuckled. “Oh, I'd suspect the Railen or Omegans of Veculus before the likes of a Xeno.”

  Selina nodded. “We're just trying to make our way and help where we can.”

  “As are we all. In any case, Selina Ravencraft, the truth of the matter is you and my brother Mardak over there risked your lives for mine today, and as such I feel obliged to show you some act of kindness.”

  With that, Grisha pulled at his cloak for a moment. “I've found something that you might deem useful. I believe the Omegans were looking for it when they attacked the Railen back where you found us.” With that he produced a slender device. The sliver outer coat of the item gleamed, even in the moderate light of the depot. It was shaped like a pistol with a greenish display at one end. He offered it to Selina.

  The device felt cool in her hand. She held it up and examined it in the light. Wexan noticed her with the item and blurted, “How the hell did you get that?”

  Grisha's eyes darted between Wexan and Selina, but he only managed a grunt in response. Wexan grabbed Grisha by his cloak and lifted him up. Grisha's eyes widened, and he let loose with a surprised whimper. Unfazed, Wexan leaned in. “That thing's contraband if it's what I think it is, so start talking.”

  “It was dropped by a Railen. I swear, I'd never seen it before!” Grisha protested.

  Selina held the item up. It could've been a pulse pistol, for what she knew. She felt a trigger where one typically would be. She held it overhead, pointed in a firing position and her finger slid toward the trigger.