The Crucible- The Complete Series

by Odette C. Bell

  I gritted my teeth, sweat virtually pouring off my face as I kept swerving and dodging amongst the craft.

  I wasn’t joking. If I ever made it out of this, I’d have a headache for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t be able to sleep for weeks, either. Flashes of the tunnel wall and speeding land crafts would be seared into my mind as if someone had burnt them right into my brain.

  Through all our desperate fighting, we managed to take down four of the ten craft. The incursion team, however, had already killed six of my people.

  That was a thought that would haunt me when this was over, but for now I had to push it back and concentrate on the fight.

  “You’ve got two coming in behind you,” J’lax suddenly warned me over the comm, “and you’re spewing enough smoke to fill a planet. Get off that cruiser before it throws you off.”

  I didn’t answer. Instead I hunched further over the controls, angling my head to the side as I concentrated on the massive soldier to my left. No matter what he did, no matter what he dodged, he always kept his head angled towards me, his opaque helmet fixed on my form.

  “Shepherd,” J’lax roared, “get off before you’re mincemeat.”

  J’lax shifted his craft around, angling it towards mine. It was clear he was slowing down for me to jump on board.

  Not yet. Not yet.

  Maybe Williams was right about me. I definitely wasn’t a god, and I certainly wasn’t the best, strongest, most capable recruit the Star Forces had ever produced. What I was, however, was a man who looked for opportunities. Find the right opportunity, and you can bring down an entire planet.

  “Shepherd,” J’lax screamed, his voice reverberating through my helmet.

  I clenched my teeth and waited.

  And waited.

  The massive soldier angled his blister craft towards me. His body was too large to hunch over the controls properly, and rather than rest there with his forearms flat against the stabilizers, he stood, his body apparently unaffected by the pull of gravity that made it through the blister craft’s inertia shields.

  “Shepherd!” J’lax roared as he brought his ship right up close to mine. “Jump.”

  Now.

  Now.

  I jerked backwards, brought my gun around, and shot the central stabilizer right in the middle of the control pad.

  I had half a second to turn and throw myself off the blister craft and onto the back of J’lax’s cruiser. Then my craft started to spin.

  This high-pitched whir split the air, growing more and more earsplitting as the ship span faster and faster.

  I’d once been on a blister craft when the central stabilizers had malfunctioned. I’d almost lost my life as the craft had spun out of control.

  It wasn’t my life I was aiming for this time.

  J’lax had managed to catch me by the arm and pull me onto his cruiser, and we both turned in time to see my spinning blister craft twist out of control and slam into two of the oncoming enemy craft.

  Under ordinary conditions the blister craft’s shields would have been able to deal with the impact, but as my own craft span faster and faster out of control, it was too much. The two enemy craft were knocked off balance and sent slamming into the walls of the tunnel. The impact obliterated their shields, and both exploded.

  Just before my craft could slam into the wall of the tunnel and destroy itself too, it caught another enemy craft, and sent that pitching into a fatal spin as well. Then finally it slammed into the wall and exploded in a cascade of sparks and ice.

  The resulting explosion slowed down the remaining blister craft, except for one.

  Out of the cloud of destruction, one of the craft shot towards us. The one with the massive Mancor soldier.

  J’lax let out a whoop. “Goddamn, yeah, you’re a crazy bastard, Shepherd.”

  I didn’t reply. Instead I positioned myself on the back of the small craft, flattening my body against the rounded chamber that held the engine, and lifting my gun. I started firing at the remaining crafts as J’lax expertly maneuvered between them.

  Though I’d never tell him, my estimation of him had shot through the roof. He was arrogant as hell, but he clearly knew how to fight.

  In another few seconds, the ice gave way to sand.

  We were nearing the hangar bay.

  There wasn’t much time left to stop the incursion.

  Despite my small victory, I was now more desperate than ever.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale

  Annabelle Williams was breaking me free. She’d already pumped the drug that was keeping me suppressed out of the room, and now she was working on the shields.

  I could barely move, but I could move enough to track her movements, and I was awake enough to wonder what the hell she was doing.

  Why was she breaking me free? Surely she believed the resistance’s assessment that I was a risk?

  But soon enough, I got my answer. With a frustrated sigh, she stood back from the shield controls for a few seconds, then turned sharply on her heel to face me. I was now awake enough that I could appreciate the exact quality of her gaze. Lost and frustrated, on the verge of defeat.

  “I won’t go back there,” she suddenly stuttered, and I watched her shiver, the move so pronounced it was a surprise it didn’t push her off her feet. “I won’t go back to that monster,” her voice shook even harder.

  And I understood. Everything. I’d once thought I was alone out here in this vast and soulless galaxy. But I wasn’t, was I? Professor Axis had played with the lives of thousands.

  “Just sit tight,” Williams said again, her words snapped and hard to pick up as she turned back to the controls.

  I could feel it now – a little of my power returning to me. I still didn’t have nearly enough control to use my abilities, but they would return. Eventually.

  “We’re running out of time,” she admitted through a choked swallow as she shifted her gaze over her shoulder and locked it on a panel across the other side of the room. “Shepherd won’t be able to hold off the incursion team much longer. They’re only four minutes away from the hangar bay. I won’t go back to them,” she suddenly mumbled as her voice dropped once more, “I won’t go back to there,” her words strung together in a frightened jumble. “Whatever happens, you have to promise me that you won’t let them take this ship, that you won’t let them take us,” her words faulted, cracking from her throat like bones under pressure.

  I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t move, couldn’t say a word, but at least I could stare at her, even though my gaze was so bleary I couldn’t pick up her features.

  I would honor her request. I was done fleeing from the Star Forces; it was time to fight.

  It was time to fight.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  We were only a minute from the hangar bay.

  We’d managed to pick off all but two of the blister craft. Maybe that sounded impressive, but it wouldn’t count. Even if one of those advanced soldiers reached the hangar bay, they could punch their way into the Ra’xon.

  “Shepherd, we need five minutes,” the Captain was patched through to my comms, her commanding voice echoing through my ears.

  I shunted to the side, just as a blast sliced over my left shoulder.

  “Woo, that was close,” J’lax called from over his shoulder as he maneuvered the craft to the left to dodge another barrage.

  My armor was singed in several places from where we’d been unable to dodge attacks.

  It felt like an electric shock had gone off between my ears.

  Nobody was designed to endure this much stress for this long.

  “We’ve got to hold off those soldiers for five more minutes,” I spat at J’lax.

  “I got the Captain’s warning too, but this is going to be a hell of a fight.”

  Or, more likely, a blazing defeat.

  There was sand piled up along the sides of the access tunnel now, and here and there
I could feel the heat blasting around me through the cracks in my armor.

  “We need to shake this asshole off,” J’lax suddenly spat as he narrowly dodged another attack, shifting the craft to the left just as we were almost rammed into from the right.

  I didn’t need to ask him which asshole he was referring to.

  It was the Mancor.

  Though I couldn’t see the guy’s face, I knew what his expression would be. One of total unbridled hatred. The kind of enmity you only ever saw in those who had wiped away their compassion for good.

  There are those in this world who will tell you true evil doesn’t exist. Good and bad is circumstantial. Find yourself growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, and you’ll have to trade your morals for survival.

  But that wasn’t the full picture. Circumstance could only ever go so far. The mind could go further.

  If you wanted to be evil, if you wanted to wipe away every scrap of decency and empathy, you could. You could flick a switch in your mind and turn everybody else into an enemy.

  That’s what this guy had done.

  We were rapidly coming up on the hangar bay. We had 45 seconds until we reached it. 40 seconds now, 35.

  I concentrated on trying to disable the two remaining blister craft.

  I didn’t get the opportunity. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Mancor warrior sped away. At the exact same time the other blister craft shot towards us. Head-on.

  There was nowhere to go.

  It struck our vessel, and both crafts went spinning out of control.

  Again, my hands thought faster than my brain. I latched hold of J’lax and wrenched him from the controls, throwing the both of us off the vessel just in time.

  Both crafts locked together and span straight into the wall, exploding on impact and sending out a cloud of debris.

  J’lax and I struck the ground so fast that we rolled for 30 meters before we stopped. My armor was literally torn from my body. But it did what it had to, and cushioned me for as long as it could until finally I came to rest.

  Somehow I was still alive, and I heard J’lax choking by my side.

  I could have lay there, staring up at the ceiling forever, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

  I couldn’t.

  No time. There was no time. I twisted around on my stomach, drove my hands into the floor of the access tunnel, and pushed up.

  I groaned, every muscle protesting as it felt as if they would tear away from my bones and tendons.

  At first I thought J’lax had lost consciousness, but then he twitched, and he too forced himself up.

  We stood there and stared at each other.

  Then I turned, so sharply that a massive section of my leg armor simply fell off.

  My armor was now shot to pieces. It could do nothing more for me. I’d lost my guns too.

  As I glanced over at J’lax, I realized he was no better off.

  Without a word, we both began to push ourselves forward towards the hangar bay. “We have to make it,” I stuttered through a breath.

  “We won’t,” J’lax said, voice faltering.

  “But we’re so close.”

  “Were at least 3 km away,” he admitted.

  My heart sank, so quickly and so completely I lost it to the depths of space.

  But before I could lose all my hope, J’lax latched a hand on my arm and stopped me. “My comm is still working. I’m getting a message from the Captain. Shit,” he suddenly swore, “that Mancor warrior has already reached the hangar bay. He’s overcoming our defenses. He’s gonna make it inside the Ra’xon.”

  It felt as if I’d been cut off at the knees.

  There was nothing I could do. It was over. It was goddamn over. We’d lost.

  “Prepare for transport,” J’lax suddenly said as he locked a hand on my arm, “they’re beaming us aboard. Come on, we’re their last hope.”

  I stared at him as a transport beam lanced through the wall to our sides, its kaleidoscopic colors locking onto us.

  The fight, it seemed, wasn’t over yet.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale.

  It happened. In a split second. The shields surrounding my hospital bed flickered out.

  I heard Williams gasp with excitement and turn to me.

  Then she rushed to my side.

  She wasn’t scared. Instead she locked her hands onto the edge of my hospital bed and stared down at me.

  It took a few bleary seconds before I could fix on her face.

  “I’m going to give you a dose of 78 to get you back on your feet,” she warned. “This is going to be painful,” she added in a soft voice.

  Yes, it would be. 78 was always painful.

  I watched her rush over to a hospital bed. She grabbed up the med pack, shuffled around inside it, then ran back to my side. She paused, an electro needle held above my chest.

  I watched her wince, probably in remembered pain from whatever she’d had to give herself a dose of 78.

  Her moment of hesitation passed though. “Sorry,” she said. Then she did it. She plunged the needle deep into the center of my chest.

  My body locked the second the 78 hit my bloodstream. I convulsed back and forward, back and forward, twitching hard on the bed, thrashing so much I almost fell off.

  Then it passed. Finally. The convulsions subsided, and I lay there.

  A second later, I twitched my hand.

  I watched Williams smile, the move practically exploding over her face as she shifted back then jerked forward. “Can you get up? Can you move?”

  I didn’t reply with my words. Instead, slowly, painfully slowly, I managed to curl a hand into a fist. It was weak, with the grip of a newborn baby, but I still managed it.

  I still managed to move.

  She let a breath through her clenched teeth, and I watched her close her eyes for a few seconds. Then she jerked them open and nodded at me. “We need to get you on your feet. You have to help us fight. The incursion team have already reached the hangar bay. There’s no way the Ra’xon is going to be able to take off. In a minute or two, they’re going to break their way inside. And then…” she didn’t finish her sentence.

  She didn’t need to. I had enough experience to know exactly what the incursion team would do to us.

  I tried to push myself up. I managed to get halfway before my muscles buckled. Williams snapped forward and grabbed my shoulders before I could fall back down to my bed. Then she looked right into my eyes. “Alyssa, I’m counting on you. Everyone is. You have to stop them,” her voice broke with emotion again.

  I looked right into her eyes.

  There was a time not so long ago when I’d been unable to connect to anyone. A time when I had been consumed only by my own pain.

  But now, slowly, I was starting to feel it – a sense of connection. First towards Shepherd, then towards this ship, now towards Annabelle. We shared a story, and more than that, a goal. A goal to wipe this galaxy clean so that once more we could have a peace worth living.

  With Annabelle’s help, I managed to sit.

  She looked relieved, then the red alert klaxon began to blare again.

  Though the alert had never subsided, the noise had. Once people realized the ship was under attack, they rarely forgot it.

  But for the noise to begin blaring through the ship once more, it could only mean one thing.

  “They’re on board. The incursion team have broken in,” Williams said.

  It was true. They had. And now it was up to Williams and me to stop them.

  …

  Lieutenant Commander Nathan Shepherd

  They transported us to the primary transport unit. It was in the center of the ship. Though the Ra’xon wasn’t my vessel, I knew enough about her design to realize it would take a five minutes’ sprint to reach the bridge.

  We streamed out into the corridor, and I grabbed a passing ensign. “Report,” I snapped.

  “That Star Forces soldier somehow has
all our shield frequencies. We can’t stop him. He’s already breached the ship. He’s heading to the bridge.”

  I paled. In fact, it felt as if all the blood drained from my body and pumped right out onto the floor.

  “Come on,” J’lax said as he latched a hand on my arm and pulled me forward.

  We were both worse for wear, bruised, bleeding, and unarmed. Then again, even if we were armed, there were few guns that could take on that soldier’s prototype armor, especially if he had access to the Ra’xon’s shield frequencies.

  No doubt it was another gift F’val had left the Star Forces.

  If we ever got out of this, all of the Ra’xon’s security systems would have to be overhauled. They would have to reprogram new defense protocols from the bottom up.

  If we got out of this.

  If we got out of this.

  I kept pushing my body harder and harder, ignoring every stab of pain and fatigue.

  The Star Forces soldier would be going to the bridge for two reasons. To chop off the head of our captain, and to gain access to the primary systems.

  From the bridge, he would be able to take control of the entire ship.

  We had to stop him.

  …

  Alyssa Nightingale

  It was getting easier to move, but I couldn’t concentrate. Though the compound 78 had pushed past most of the effects of the medication that had subdued me, I needed time to adjust.

  I didn’t have time to adjust.

  Williams had me by the arm. She pulled me out of the med bay and was now pulling me through the abandoned corridors of the Ra’xon. It seemed that everybody else was mounting a defense to stop the Star Forces soldier.

  You’d think a ship as well-equipped as the Ra’xon would be able to do it, but that would be underestimating the soldiers from the Enforcement Unit. Not only did they have armor that the rest of the Star Forces didn’t have access to, but they were also provided with the flaws of every ship in the fleet.

  This man would know our every weakness.

  “Come on, Alyssa, come on,” Williams kept calling to me as she virtually dragged me along.

  It was getting easier and easier for me to walk on my own, but I couldn’t concentrate. I could at least call up a little of my power. The majority of it, however, was kept locked away from me as my mind fought off the final effects of the drug.