Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Will do,” Whigli said.

  Destiny’s fingers interacted with the elevator controls, and a soft chime beamed, indicating one was on the way. “I’ll be suiting up down below if you need anything else from me,” Destiny added.

  “You’re going on this one?” Whigli asked.

  After the mix-up with the last operation? She had to do this. Destiny’s track record as of late had been less than impressive, not good for morale when you’re one of the highest-ranking field operatives left alive. Besides, she couldn’t wait to see the look on Jazz’s face when he discovered that the nineteen-year-old escort he was nailing was now an HLF commander, who was about to pull him out of the fire. “Is there a problem with that?” Destiny said. Whigli grinned at her, then shook his head. She grinned back. “All rightly, then.”

  … … …

  ►► Vancouver, Earth

  ► Sol System

  “Status report,” Ken demanded.

  Ken and Kasidey Hawke comfortably sat in their Vancouver high-rise EISS safe house. Their faces had a light bluish hue to them thanks to the light from the half dozen holographic displays around them.

  “HLF are deploying to LA,” said Kasidey. “Justin will be on the team.”

  “Good, good…let’s send an anonymous tip to the UNE there.” His hand brushed one display away while his other raised his coffee mug to his mouth to sip his hot drink. “Shit is goin’ down.”

  Ken fabricated a new hologram to appear in front of him. This one displayed the status of the cerebral control device secretly implanted into Justin’s head during the lap dance he got from Kasidey, an undercover EISS agent. Such a device had never been used in an EISS field operation, which filled Ken’s gut with intense anticipation. If this went over well, the need to send agents in to infiltrate enemies would no longer be necessary. Just implant one of these devices into their brains and control them at will.

  It’s just like a brainjack, only it works on anyone.

  … … …

  ►► HLF Headquarters, Northern Canada

  ► Sol System

  Destiny double-checked her load out for the upcoming mission. ePistol, two of them, and a Glock 19 hidden away in the back pocket of her blue jeans. A suit of Kevlar armor underneath her long-sleeve shirt, not that Kevlar would protect her very well versus magnetic weapons. However, having some form of body armor put her mind at ease by providing a false sense of security. Full combat armor isn’t an option, at least not for her. Destiny’s role in this operation was to roam the streets, in an attempt to make contact with Jazz and his companion while masquerading as a plainclothes civilian.

  The final piece to her outfit was applied, a Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap. It was Jazz’s favorite team and a reminder to her of the East Coast of North America—what it used to be like before getting wiped out during the invasion.

  Justin, Alex, and Tetsuya were the three lucky ones who were called upon to join Destiny in this mission. They stood in the armory with Destiny and grabbed their eRifles from the mesh lockup cabinet. She would have preferred to have had Vuyin on this mission, but this was LA, a UNE “yellow zone.” The fewer Hashmedai they travel with the better off they are, as the Hashmedai who live in LA are the ones the UNE knows and allows. Her three partners in this operation were also the ones who got to wear combat armor, as their role in this mission was to wait in the shadows in case things went sideways. The number of UNE and Radiance patrols seemed to have been increasing with every minute that went by.

  Whigli unexpectedly entered the armory via the sliding doors; Destiny quickly took notice of the smug glowing grin on his face. He said nothing as he entered and stood with the four, trying to hold in a chuckle. “Don’t tell me you’re our psionic for this,” Destiny said.

  “Apparently I am the only one available,” Whigli said, “unless you want to recall Dollon.”

  She smiled and shook her head; she’d rather he remain at the base to run operations in her absence. The two of them heading out to LA provided a chance to take a quick trip down memory lane. Destiny, Whigli, and Hannah all met on the streets of LA just hours before the Hashmedai command ship was blown up in Earth’s orbit. It was also that fateful day that Hannah unveiled her mysterious gift of predicting events, for she was the one who knew where to find Whigli and knew that he was injured.

  “Let’s move out,” Destiny ordered. Whigli entered his psionic trance, and his cybernetic implants illumined with glowing light. A bright blue light flashed—and the occupants within the room vanished.

  … … …

  ►► Los Angeles, Earth

  ► Sol System

  Jazz sighed when seeing another security checkpoint farther up the street. All cars and pedestrians were forced to proceed through some kind of scanner. It reminded Jazz of airport security stations back in the day before aliens were known to humanity. In any case, there was not a chance in hell Jazz and Veloshira were going to make it past that thing, even in stealth. They lacked psionics needed to bypass a device such as that. Time was running out, the two were forced to reenter stealth, meander across the streets, and pass the armed authorities who had started to walk the sidewalks with everyone else. Battery power consumption was becoming an issue once again; they needed to find a place to stay and get a better idea as to where they needed to begin and plan their mission. The duo made a quick 180-degree turn and walked in the opposite direction of the checkpoint. All I want is access to a damn good hotel…

  … … …

  “Over there,” Alex’s voice transmitted over Destiny’s earpiece.

  Destiny was on the sidewalks of Los Angles as planned while the rest of her team remained on the high-rise rooftops above. She discreetly pivoted her face from left to right, while allowing the thermal overlay scanners within her sunglasses to perform their task, picking up Jazz’s heat signature. “I don’t see anything,” she whispered back to Alex.

  “Coffee shop, to your right, next to the intersection,” Alex transmitted.

  She faced the area in question, a small coffee shop at the foot of a high-rise apartment complex. She saw nothing out of the ordinary—people went about their evening, cars parked, and a bus swung past. “There are a lot of people grouped there.” And it was that cluster of loiterers who made it hard for her thermal glasses to pick out who was who. “Wait.” A tall man and a shorter woman were kneeling next to the wall. They appeared to be wearing trench coats…trench coats that were giving off higher-than-normal heat and energy signatures. Best part of it? When her fingers lifted the glass away from her eyes, said individuals were nowhere in sight. She let lose a small triumphant chuckle.

  “Careful, there’s a checkpoint directly ahead,” Justin transmitted.

  Destiny lowered her glasses to cover her eyes. “He must have seen it and backtracked,” she said. The woman who was with Jazz tugged on his shoulder in a panicked manner as she began to move up the sidewalk…back toward the checkpoint…Why? Destiny shifted her face farther to the right; a UNE hover jeep pulled up and deployed four soldiers, and two Radiance rangers. A small remote-controlled drone with a dark-blue searchlight flew above them. “Fuck!”

  “‘Fuck’? What do you mean ‘fuck’?” Tetsuya transmitted.

  Destiny ran toward the coffee shop, as onlookers slowly dispersed after catching a glimpse of the armored soldiers and a drone sweeping the streets. “Detector drones—they know he’s here,” Destiny said. “Whigli, get everyone on top of that building next to Jazz.” The drone was fast; its searchlight zigzagged across the sidewalks and streets and closed in on Jazz and his friend’s location. “Wait for my signal,” Destiny said as she took cover behind a parked car and drew her two ePistols, one in each hand.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Tetsuya transmitted.

  She smiled and then said. “You know me.” the ePistols hummed as they powered on.

  … … …

  ►► Vancouver, Earth

  ► Sol System

&nb
sp; “Now?” Kasidey asked as she stood in the middle of the living room of the safe house condo suite. There was a large holographic window in front of her, displaying everything Justin could see from his eyes. Namely his fellow partners in crime as they looked down at the evening LA streets below them.

  “Wait for it; I want those two stealth units exposed,” Ken said while fingers slapped away two holograms. “When you take control, I want you to shoot Whigli in the head. Twice.”

  … … …

  ►► Los Angeles, Earth

  ► Sol System

  “Freeze! Stay where you are!” shouted a UNE soldier.

  The detector drone hovered above Jazz and his Hashmedai friend; the blue searchlight neutralized their stealth systems. All of the nearby by Radiance rangers took aim at the two alongside the UNE soldiers, sending civilians in the surrounding area to disperse screaming in terror. Now or never, Destiny thought, seeing how the remaining enemy forces in the city would be alerted to this shit show any second now.

  She stood up from her cover, and her dual ePistols unloaded a furious assault of bullets, leaving behind two streaks of shockwaves in the air. All heading toward the drone. Blue rippling waves protected the drone and deflected all of her shots. Shields, of course; it would have shields. Why would it be any other way?

  Jazz and his Hashmedai friend took advantage of the newly created distraction and sprinted for cover, while Destiny laid down covering fire, forcing the UNE and Radiance group to hunker back as they reassessed the situation. A task they completed quickly, according to the holographic message that superimposed before Destiny’s eyes.

  “Warning, enemy target(s) have locked on!”

  Shit, they were targeting her. And Kevlar wasn’t going to keep her alive with their firepower. Her feet carried her across the street, while her hands returned to the previous task of dealing with the drone; its main gun was now active. What the fuck is taking everyone so long? Whigli should have teleported down by now.

  … … …

  ►► Vancouver, Earth

  ► Sol System

  Ken watched with fascination as Kasidey took complete control over Justin’s body. Her moves became his moves; her thoughts became his. If she moved her arm to the left, Justin did the same. It was like watching someone play a video game, only the body was the controller, and the character was a real person.

  Via the holo window, Ken saw Whigli drop to the ground in front of Kasidey as a barrage of bullets sprayed toward him. Alex and Tetsuya went berserk afterward; probably confused as hell as to why their trusted teammate just gunned down a partner and the only psionic support they had for their mission. A brawl started, and one of them knocked Justin’s rifle away. Kasidey entered into some kind of martial arts stance and unleashed kicks, punches, and throws that all forced Justin to perform the same task and forced Ken to laugh hysterically.

  … … …

  ►► Los Angeles, Earth

  ► Sol System

  The combined force of Destiny’s dual-wielding pistol fire and the plasma rifle barrage from Jazz and his Hashmedai friend took down the shields of the drone and then later the drone itself as it exploded into a fiery ball of melted metal and electronics. One threat down, six more assholes to go.

  Destiny sprinted toward her next target, an unarmed woman who was among the last to run away from the conflict. Destiny grabbed the woman and spun her around to face the UNE and Radiance threat. One of her pistols aimed up toward the bottom of the woman’s jaw, while the second aimed squarely at Destiny’s armor-clad adversaries. It was a rotten move, one Destiny wasn’t proud of in the slightest, but it was the only way to take the heat off her. At least Jazz and his friend had armor that could withstand being shot by projectiles traveling at a fraction of the speed of light.

  It was a Mexican standoff; UNE soldiers weren’t going to risk killing an innocent woman. And Radiance rangers were explicitly told to never bring any harm to humans except those in the HLF. They want to keep the image in the public that they’re the “good aliens,” after all.

  “Guys, where the fuck are you?” Destiny transmitted to her team, but there was no reply.

  “You don’t want to do this,” said one of the UNE soldiers to Destiny. “You’re outnumbered. You won’t get out of this alive if you resist. Surrender now, and I promise you, we’ll take you in—and not Radiance.”

  Destiny saw from the corner of her eye Jazz and his Hashmedai friend reenter stealth, and silently step toward their opponents like unseen ninjas. She smiled.

  “Go fuck yourself!” Destiny yelled to the UNE soldier.

  A new warning displayed across Destiny’s glasses.

  “Warning, target(s) locked on head.”

  “I’m a good shot,” said the UNE soldier, his rifle pointed toward Destiny’s face. “I will put you down in five seconds if you don’t comply!”

  Sweat began to roll down her face. All the while, Jazz and his friend walked behind the UNE soldier and his friends. He dropped some disk-shaped object on the ground and then proceeded toward the remaining soldiers and rangers as his friend did the same.

  Hurry the fuck up, Jazz.

  The UNE soldier began his countdown. “Five.”

  Fuck.

  “Four.”

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “Three.”

  Jazz still didn’t act; he remained in stealth, like he was sizing them up or something. Jesus fucking Christ, is that really necessary?

  “Two.”

  Jazz removed his plasma rifle strapped to his back and positioned himself behind the UNE soldier who was ready to shoot Destiny. “Fuck!” she yelled as the woman she held hostage trembled and began to cry and panic.

  “One.”

  Whatever the hell Jazz did, it launched the UNE soldier in the sky. Jazz’s cloak disabled, and his rifle aimed upward and released several bolts of green plasma, shattering the shields of the UNE soldier, with the last shoots vaporizing his upper body. Meanwhile, multiple explosions occurred, set off by Jazz’s friend as her plasma rifle bellowed. The explosions must have taken down the shields of the remaining targets as one by one; they fell backward, with plasma burns eating gaping holes through their bodies. Destiny kicked the woman she held down and ended the life of the last Radiance ranger as he tried to flee with her dual pistols. Her magnetically charged and accelerated bullets tore through his suit after a six-second nonstop volley, spattering his blood across the window of the coffee shop as patrons inside screamed in horror.

  Now that Jazz was fully visible, she smiled at him as he approached her with a puzzled look on his face. It looked as if he hadn’t aged much if at all since Destiny last saw him when she was nineteen. “We’ll uh, thanks for the assist,” Jazz said. “Whoever you are.”

  “Seriously? You don’t remember me?” she said and then removed her baseball cap. Her ginger hair waved in the wind while she smiled at him in the same manner she used to when he finished fucking her brains out back in the day.

  “Holy shit!” he said with a shocked voice when he finally realized. “Destiny?”

  “We’ve been waiting for you to return, Jazz.” The sounds of Radiance and UNE transports in the sky caused her to look up. As expected, someone radioed for backup, “Shit, we gotta move now!”

  The three ran back toward the building that housed the coffee shop, stepping over the partially vaporized bodies they had just dealt with. Meanwhile, Destiny repeatedly tried to raise her team up above them—no reply. Come on, guys. What is going on? Her answer came seconds later as Alex’s screaming body spiraled out of control from the rooftop above them to the ground below. The impact created a small crater in the sidewalk, shattering his shields, and killing him instantly.

  “What the fuck!” Destiny yelled while she knelt down to check the status of her fallen comrade. Blood gushed out from a massive wound from his now caved-in head.

  “I take it he was on our side?” asked Jazz.

  Destiny looked up towar
d the rooftop. She saw two men fighting. It looked like Justin and Tetsuya…but why? “We need to get up top now!” Destiny exclaimed.

  “Veloshira and I saw the entrance earlier,” Jazz said. “Follow us.”

  … … …

  ►► Vancouver, Earth

  ► Sol System

  “Holy shit, mate, you are fuckin’ them up!” Ken yelled as he saw Alex’s body tossed like a rag doll off the ledge of the building.

  Kasidey continued to put her black-belt training to use, thus forcing Justin on the other end to do the same. “Do I amuse you or something?” she said with a grin.

  “This is better than a fuckin’ sci-fi novel. Of course you do, mate!” Ken said. “Now just fuck this last bugger up, so we can report to HQ that this system works!”

  She ducked her head, avoiding a kick that was displayed on the holo window. “He’s good,” she said then arose with her fists extended out.

  “But you’re better.”

  Kasidey’s dazzling display of black-belt shadowboxing facing the holographic windows entered its final round. Tetsuya’s bloody face could be seen, and he didn’t have much strength left. The screen then flicked and glowed red as a loud bang exploded.

  “Surprise, motherfucka!” A voice said from the projection area. The screen began to recover…a glimpse at the night sky…Justin was lying on the ground. Something green and glowing was radiating off screen, and they heard the sound of metal being melted and pierced, followed by flesh burning.

  “What the fuck?” said Kasidey. “I’m losing the feed. Justin is dying.”

  Someone killed Justin, someone who wasn’t Tetsuya. Ken raced toward Kasidey as she moved her arms; however, Justin’s arms didn’t move. “Identify them! Identify them!” Ken cried out. “Do it, before we lose the feed!” Kasidey jerked her head to the side, causing the view from the holo window to move as well. The image of a bald black man wearing an armored trench coat stood above. His hand was placed on a plasma-powered blade that was thrust into Justin’s chest. “That’s it; get a nice look at ’em.”

  “Contact Dollon. Tell him we got an emergency.” Destiny’s voice was heard offscreen, and then the holo window vanished.