Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2)

by Ivan Kal

  “If you can afford it, sure,” Aiko responded. They had agreed that they would try and get as many things as they could, but not until the FTL comms appeared. They didn’t know how far the bids were going to go, but they didn’t want to risk not having enough, and they did have a sizable amount—enough to buy a lot of tech.

  The holo changed, and the first item appeared above the table: a handheld weapon, looking like a heavy assault rifle. Kane read through the specs and was impressed. It was a laser gun, but it needed special power cartridges which he knew had to be specially made from the specs. As he read through more he learned that it was the main weapon of a star nation some thousand light years away from here, meaning that one would be hard pressed to find the cartridges. The bids reflected that fact, and in the end, it was sold for less than a hundred credits.

  The next was a small shuttle, which wasn’t anything impressive. Kane and Aiko settled in for a long night. They knew that there were going to be a lot of items being shown over the next few hours.

  ***

  The FTL comm systems came up almost two hours later, and immediately the bids started coming in. Kane and Aiko took a few moments to read through the available info. It told them that the item contained both a receiver and an emitter, and that it was in perfect condition. It was an golden opportunity, and Aiko put in their first bid. Already the number had climbed to over a hundred thousand credits, which was about the amount they had paid to Jaquil for the system-defense network.

  And the number was still growing. Kane could see Aiko getting nervous as the bids kept getting bigger. They were still good, but the amount wasn’t showing any sign of slowing down. Kane was so focused on the holo that he nearly missed the slight tremor in the ground. He frowned and looked at Erika, who noticed as well.

  Aiko noticed him looking around. “What is it?”

  Kane didn’t respond; instead, he listened. Then a few moments after they heard an explosion and felt a tremor. “There is fighting.” Kane stood up and walked over to the door where Imari stood with her gun drawn. From behind the doors he could hear the commotion outside—weapons fire and explosions.

  Kane turned back to look at Aiko. “I think someone crashed the party.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kane readied his magic as he tried to listen through the door, but he heard nothing but chaos.

  “Do our comms work?” he asked.

  Imari shook her head from behind her helmet. “We are being jammed, no signal is getting out.”

  Aiko walked over with Erika. “Did one of the guests attack?”

  “There is no way of knowing without going to check it out, but whoever it is they are most certainly here for the items being sold at the auction,” Erika said.

  Kane nodded, then looked at his second in command. “Erika, you are with Aiko—keep her safe. Imari, we are going to check things out and help if there is a need.”

  “Wait, you can’t go! You don’t have your weapons or your suit!” Aiko said immediately.

  Kane winked and pulled one of his sleeves back, showing her what was hidden there. “I have my magic. That’s more than most others here have.”

  He walked over to her and pulled her in for a quick kiss. The last few months had been a true gift. They had spent more time together as just themselves than they had ever before. They’d had had fun, lived as normal people—well, maybe not normal, but close.

  But now it was time to get back to his real life.

  He gestured for Imari to open the doors and the two of them stepped out. Imari took the lead and Kane took cover behind her. They walked past the other guest rooms. Most were closed, but a few had people peeking out. Once the guests saw the two of them, however, they quickly stepped back in and closed the doors.

  Suddenly, a large explosion rocked the mansion, nearly making Kane lose his footing.

  “Most of the weapons fire is coming from outside, in the direction of the hall,” Imari reported. Her CES suit could analyze the sound and give them a better idea of what was out there.

  “Let’s head to the hall then,” Kane said, and they took a corner back to the hall they’d been received in.

  They reached the large ornate double doors, only to find them broken into smoldering pieces.

  There, inside the hall, a small war was being waged.

  Just inside were Norvi’s security, each wearing combat suits and firing their rifles at an enemy on the other side of the room. Among them was Captain U’koll, shouting orders, and keeping her head down. Portable barriers were deployed in front of them, providing the security forces with cover. To the side of the room, he noticed a single person hiding behind one of the pillars. Norvi was holding his stomach and trying to keep himself as small of a target as possible as weapons fire kept him pinned down. Kane saw dead security guards all around the room—some had obviously tried to get to their master, but had failed.

  The end where the enemy was keeping cover was filled with dust and smoke, and Kane couldn’t see much other than silhouettes. Then a purple beam punched through the smoke to hit one of Norvi’s guards who had left cover to try and get to his boss, and the large Trell fell to the ground with a hole in his abdomen.

  Kane felt dread seep into him. He recognized that beam.

  “Imari, full shields forward! Get their attention,” Kane ordered as he formulated a plan.

  Imari nodded as they both ran forward to the security force’s cover and slid next to several of Norvi’s men and Captain U’koll. Their sudden appearance startled them, and a few weapons turned their way before U’koll waved them off.

  “What are you doing? You need to get back to your room until we handle this situation,” U’koll told him.

  “Trust me, if you are fighting who I think you are fighting, then you are going to need all the help you can get,” Kane said.

  “You know who they are?” U’koll asked, surprised.

  Kane narrowed his eyes at her. “I do. I’ve fought them before. You know, too?”

  U’koll hesitated a moment before confirming his suspicions. “I’ve had a few run-ins with them before. Boss’s orders are to avoid them at all costs, but that isn’t always possible. I barely got out alive when I couldn’t…and I’ve lost good people to them.”

  “I need you and your people to open fire on my mark. I’ll go and get your boss.”

  He could see her hesitate. “We’ve tried that already. They stay behind their cover and take down anyone who peeks out. They’re just buying time, they must be after the items in the vault.”

  “I’ll get to him, I promise. You just distract them. Get my bodyguard a proper weapon,” Kane said.

  Imari holstered her handgun as she was given a pulse rifle by one of the guards. U’koll nodded. “I’m not responsible if you die,” she said.

  “All right, ready?” U’koll nodded again, and Kane waved for Imari to get ready.

  “Now!” he yelled.

  Imari rose to her feet first, firing with her pulse rifle. The enemy returned fire immediately, but their purple beams splashed harmlessly against her shield. Kane knew that that spellscript would drain her power cell quickly, so he stepped back and put some room between himself and everybody else, then pointed his arm in the direction of the pillar where Norvi was hiding. The hidden spellslinger on his left arm activated. It didn’t have a power cell, and so Kane had to power it by himself. He steeled himself for the drain and activated the spellscript in the spellslinger. He blinked across space, came out of the blink close to the pillar, and before the enemy could target him he jumped forward and got into cover next to Norvi.

  “What?” the crime boss said, looking at Kane incredulously.

  “You all right?” Kane asked.

  Norvi glanced down. “One of those beams grazed me. I will survive, if you have a way of getting us behind cover.”

  Kane glanced back to the security forces. He knew that a blink back would come short of the cover, but he still had to do it, even though
he wouldn’t be able to use much more of his magic. At best he had a dozen more spellscript uses. His body just didn’t have enough energy to sustain continued magic use, not without a power cell.

  “Hold on to me,” Kane said and grabbed the alien, lifting him up. Norvi grunted in pain but did as Kane asked.

  Kane pointed his hand in the air and triggered the blink. A moment later they were in the air, along with pieces of the pillar that had been caught in the blink’s range. As they started to fall he reoriented his arm and blinked them down behind the cover. They appeared behind it around a meter above the ground and fell down hard.

  Captain U’koll was there quickly, dragging her boss just to the cover. Kane followed, and saw that the rest of the guards had all gotten behind cover as well. The enemy wasn’t advancing; instead, they seemed content to sit and wait.

  “I see that I have underestimated the value of your gift,” Norvi told Kane as he looked at him appraisingly. “It seems that many things can be achieved with this new technology of yours.”

  “Yes, beyond what you can imagine,” Kane said.

  Norvi glanced at U’koll, then back at Kane. “They must be after my vault,” Norvi said.

  “You think that they are here because of the device? I know how we found out about it, but I doubt that anyone else knew,” Kane said.

  “Only a few, but that which they are after isn’t really all that important. The fact that they are here is,” Norvi said.

  “How did they get past the orbital defenses?” Kane wondered.

  U’koll grimaced. “We got no warning before they hit us. A single assault ship just appeared above the mansion and took down the defensive turrets, and then they landed troops.”

  “They could have some stealth system which would allow them to get past the orbitals. I doubt that they want to reveal themselves yet; this must be a single strike mission. Go in stealth, attack, take what you need and leave,” Norvi said.

  “The station will have noticed the attack by now. We will have help soon,” U’koll said.

  “They were already at the vault by the time we realized what was happening. They won’t be here for long,” Norvi told them.

  “We need to stop them,” Kane said urgently.

  “I don’t see how we can. Their suits have shields which we are unable to take down,” U’koll said.

  “They can be taken down, it just takes a lot of continuous firepower. You need to instruct your people to focus fire on one of them at a time,” Kane said, looking around. There were four guards, as well as U’koll, Norvi, and Imari and Kane. Eight people. He didn’t know how many the enemy had, but the last time they had sent an assault force they had sent a single scout ship with a dozen soldiers. He didn’t think that they would have sent more, not when they believed themselves so superior. “All right, the vault is beyond those guys, I assume?” Kane nodded toward the other side of the hall.

  “Yes,” U’koll said.

  Kane nodded then turned to Imari. “Lightning spell—drop the ceiling on their heads.” Turning back to U’koll, he said, “Close your eyes and put your hands over your ears, now!”

  U’koll frowned, but Norvi told her to follow Kane’s lead. Imari waited for all of the guards to follow the instructions and then pointed her hand to the ceiling above the enemy positions before triggering the spellscript in her spellslinger. Even with his eyes closed and his ears covered, the result was terrifying. Lightning shot from her hand, blowing apart the ceiling. The light burst even through his closed eyelids, and the resultant thunder shook his body.

  He opened his eyes and blinked away the pain, then assessed the situation. Debris and rubble had fallen down on the enemy, every window in the hall had shattered, and the walls had sprouted cracks, but everything else was silent. He grabbed a rifle from one of the dead guards and jumped over the cover along with Imari, as a dumbfounded Captain U’koll took a second to follow with her guards.

  They reached the rubble just as one of the Val’ayash tried to dig itself out. Imari pointed her rifle and fired, and the Val’ayash’s shields, already drained from the falling rubble, collapsed on the first shot. The rest of the guards arrived and cleaned up the survivors. Blue blood seeped out of the Val’ayash around them.

  U’koll and Norvi looked at Imari with strange looks on their faces, and Kane walked over to them. “We need to move if we are going to stop them in time,” Kane told them.

  U’koll looked at Norvi and something passed between them before he spoke. “Go. Leave one of your guards with me, I’ll only slow you down.”

  They gathered and U’koll and her guards led the way through the mansion. The six of them exited the building and entered a long courtyard. Illos’s moon was shining in the sky, and the lighting from the mansion kept everything illuminated. The rubble of the mansion’s defenses covered the courtyard, and on the other side of the yard they could see the Val’ayash ship: a dart-like vessel of the same class as the one Kane and his team had encountered before. Next to it was a large metal building, and two Val’ayash carrying crates and two more standing guard.

  Kane and the others immediately took cover and hid from the Val’ayash.

  “We need to be very careful. Their shields are powerful, but focused fire will bring them down,” Kane said.

  “Can your bodyguard do what she did before again?” U’koll asked.

  Kane glanced at Imari. He knew that she had to have drained her power cells a lot. Keeping a shield and soaking up so much weapons fire had to have taken a lot in the first place, and then there was the lightning spell. But she nodded, which meant that she still had some power left. “As a last resort, yes.” Kane didn’t want to risk having their best asset out of the fight if things went wrong.

  U’koll thought about it for a moment, and then spoke. “Then we go in hot and catch them off guard.”

  Kane agreed. They sneaked around and got just a bit closer, taking cover behind the rubble of the defense tower. They pointed their rifles at the two Val’ayash who were keeping guard and fired. Their focused fire quickly brought their shields down, and one of the Val’ayash fell before he could even return fire. The second one opened fire even as his suit melted and flowed around him, solidifying in front of him to create a makeshift barrier. Kane knew how hard those barriers were and let it be. Turning instead to the two who had dropped their cargo, he resumed firing.

  Kane pointed his hand and blinked across the distance and behind them. Before they even knew that he was there, he got close to the crouching Val’ayash and triggered the spellscript. He blinked to the side, taking half of the Val’ayash’s body with him, then turned around, raising his rifle to fire—but he didn’t get the chance. The other Val’ayash turned, pointing with weapons that had formed on his forearms and opened fire. Kane activated his shield and jumped forward, crossing the distance as purple beams splashed against his shield. He activated the burst spellscript and slammed the butt of his rifle against the Val’ayash’s chest with his enhanced strength, throwing him backward and out of the cover of the crate.

  U’koll and her guards took advantage and opened fire, just as Kane fired from the front. The continuous fire turned the Val’ayash’s shields quickly from ripples of yellow to dark orange, and then the shield collapsed and their fire scorched and then burned through its armor.

  Imari blinked to the last remaining Val’ayash behind his cover just as Kane returned to the cover of the crate near him. Kane knew that to create that cover the Val’ayash’s armor changed shape, leaving the enemy unarmored. Before he had a chance to blink and help her, however, more weapons fire came from inside the building leading into the vault.

  Five more Val’ayash were walking out, firing their weapons.

  Kane saw a glint of blue in the dark of the building, and then someone was standing next to him. Kane looked at the man wearing a CES suit in confusion for only a moment, but then on instinct he triggered his shield just as the figure opened fire. The rail-gun slug from the R
S-7 rifle smashed against Kane’s shield and nearly cracked it open.

  Before the figure had a chance to open fire again, Kane pulse-fired, splashing a short beam against the figure’s shield.

  The figure took a step back and then jumped to the side, before rolling across the ground and coming up to fire again. Kane’s mind was working tirelessly as he put the pieces together. The person in front of him couldn’t be there—there were only three CES suits on the Prometheus, Erika and Imari were wearing theirs, and his could only be worn by him.

  As Kane evaded another round he noticed the repairs on the armor, noticed their locations. For a moment he thought that there could be a Val’ayash inside, but their bodies were shaped differently—they couldn’t fit. Only a human could wear that suit.

  And then he knew.

  “Kovac,” Kane said. “You died. I saw you die.”

  The figure paused, then tapped its chest and spoke through its helmet. “The healing spellscripts are much better than advertised.”

  Kane couldn’t process the fact that his squad-mate, his subordinate, the rookie he had been tasked with teaching, was still alive and trying to kill him, working with the Val’ayash.

  “Why are you with them?” Kane asked. He could understand him being a prisoner, but he was here fighting with the people who had nearly killed him.

  “I have no choice,” Kovac said, almost sadly.

  “Everyone has a choice,” Kane responded.

  “You don’t understand. We should’ve never put these things in our heads. The implants can be used for far more than what we thought. I cannot disobey.”

  Kane felt a shiver pass through his body at Kovac’s words. The bio-implant which everyone used so that they could understand one another, a remnant of the Zhal’Qash, was technology that they didn’t understand. Kane remembered how he couldn’t read or understand the Val’ayash language, how his mind hadn’t even been able to process it, and how the Val’ayash commander Antaris Truthspeaker had used his technology to remove the block in the Zhal’Qash implant in Kane’s head, to allow him to understand the Val’ayash language. Those on Earth had feared what more the Val’ayash could do. This was the worst-case scenario.