Starck's Lament (The Shadow Wars Book 11)

by S. A. Lusher

  STARCK'S LAMENT

  –A NOVEL OF SCI-FI ACTION–

  Book #11 in

  The Shadow Wars

  written by

  –S. A. Lusher–

  cover by

  –M. Knepper–

  editing by

  –Sarah Lusher–

  Dedicated to my grandmother,

  Loretta Stone, for always being kind

  to me and taking care of my sister and I.

  Table of Contents

  FOREWORD

  CHAPTER 01

  CHAPTER 02

  CHAPTER 03

  CHAPTER 04

  CHAPTER 05

  CHAPTER 06

  CHAPTER 07

  CHAPTER 08

  CHAPTER 09

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  EPILOGUE

  DEATHLESS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  FOREWORD

  What you are about to read is the eleventh novel in The Shadow Wars series. Technically speaking, this is a stand-alone title, (what is to be the final stand-alone title in the series), as it introduces the final new protagonist, Eric Starck. If you wish, you can read this book without reading any of the others. However, I do highly recommend that you return to the beginning and read all of the books in order not only for full enjoyment, but since the next book in the series will feed back into the main canon, which absolutely will require reading all previous titles.

  You can start here, with the first book, Necropolis.

  If you've already read Necropolis 1, 2, & 3, Absolute Zero, Ceaseless, Syberian Sunrise, Snowblind, Quarantine, Rogue Ops Rising, Countdown & Necropolis 4, then thank you for reading this! I hope you enjoy it, as well.

  For the sake of convenience, here is a list of all titles in The Shadow Wars in the order in which they are meant to be read.

  -Dead Ice [Companion]

  -Dead Skies [Companion]

  -Necropolis

  -Necropolis 2: Endurance

  -Nerves of Steel [Companion] (Bundled with Necropolis 2)

  -Necropolis 3: Annihilation

  -Absolute Zero

  -Blood & Tears [Companion] (Bundled with Absolute Zero)

  -Ceaseless

  -Syberian Sunrise

  -Snowblind

  -Quarantine

  -Rogue Ops Rising

  -Countdown

  -Warm Memories [Companion] (Bundled with Countdown)

  -Laid To Rest [Companion] (Bundled with Countdown)

  -Necropolis 4: Terminal

  -Small Acts of Kindness [Companion] (Bundled with Necropolis 4)

  -EB-303 [Companion]

  -Alone? [Companion]

  -Starck's Lament

  -Deathless

  -Outpost 88 [Companion]

  -The Blind War

  -Lethal Cargo [Companion]

  -Into the Void

  -Saturate

  CHAPTER 01

  –Distress–

  Despite the raw terror coursing through his veins like a straight dose of live-wire electricity, Eric's hands were steady.

  “Any day now, Starck!” Sergeant Mathers called.

  “Working on it,” Eric replied tightly.

  All around him, the world trembled and shook. Somewhere nearby, a mortar shell collided with the earth and a fine wave of dirt settled over him and the panel he was crouched in front of. Sighing, he leaned forward and blew the dirt out of the panel he was working on, cleaning it out to the best of his ability. If these were different circumstances, he would have taken the time to pull out and clean each piece and part individually. But there was zero time as it was. Mortar shells and other terrors were being rained down from above.

  Behind him, he could hear the wild shouts of his companions, covering his ass while he worked to get the defense cannon back online. The situation looked pretty shitty. He and his squad had dropped into the city to keep the insurgents from taking it. It was important, a support colony for a shipyard in a crucial system. Things had been looking like shit from the start. The enemy had arrived in bulk and while the Galactic Alliance troops had better hardware, the People's Liberation Militia had more men and sometimes that was enough.

  Eric and his squad had been forced back to a temporary outpost that had fallen and been left abandoned. With all the fighting going on and the hectic chaos that engulfed the colony as both sides fought for control, it was their best option for staying alive and creating some kind of resistance. But that wouldn't mean shit if he couldn't get this fucking cannon online. It would deal with the immediate threat and give them some breathing room. Unfortunately, it was malfunctioning and he was doing his damnedest to get it functional.

  “Starck!?” Mathers called.

  “Almost got it!” Starck yelled back, raising his voice to be heard over the screaming, furious psychosis of battle that surrounded them.

  “Now, Starck!” Mathers snapped, real panic slipping into his voice.

  Behind him, someone screamed, it sounding louder than all the others. Had to have been one of their own. Starck ignored everything else, blocking out the frenzied sounds of battle, focusing wholly on this singular task.

  He tore out a loose circuit and grabbed a fresh one from his pack, fitting it into place. That should do it...he hit the activation button. Nothing happened. Eric felt his whole body go cold. If that wasn't the problem then he'd have to spend at least five minutes searching for another one and they didn't have five fucking minutes-

  With a sharp, electric pop and surge of power, the display lit up.

  “Got it!” Starck called, standing up and hitting the auto-fire button. That did it. Above him, he heard the almighty roar of triple chainguns spitting out a couple hundred rounds a minute, chewing up armor and flesh alike and, above that, the occasional deep thrum of a missile launching into the sky to collide with a mortar round and blow it up midair or to take down an enemy vessel. A series of cheers went up and Eric heard the men open fire with a renewed vigor. He snatched up his own rifle to join them and spun around.

  The outpost was situated on a rise of land in someone's front yard. Overhead, the night sky was alive with a hazy pall of smoke and a thousand different lines of tracer fire, lit by a backdrop of constantly shifting and flaring bombs and mortars. He saw his squad and the stragglers they'd picked up, situation at the barricade surrounding the cannon, holding off the incoming insurgents. Beside him, Mathers stood, a big, fearless grin on his face.

  “Goddamn good work, Starck, now let's get to it!” he snapped.

  It was the last thing he ever said.

  Right before Eric's eyes, the man was hit by a mortar round, disappearing into a fine vapor of so much free-flying pink mist...

  * * * * *

  Eric gasped awake, snapping straight up, heart hammering in his chest. For a second, he could see nothing at all and he felt his panic begin to rise up and consume him. But then his eyes adjusted and he realized that he was in a room, his room, and a dim light from the time display on his nightstand allowed him to see the familiar landscape of his living quarters. Eric took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to relax.

  He made himself lay back down, still trembling with adrenaline from the nightmare. Well, not actually a nightmare. A memory, really. As he rested his head on the pillow once more, Autumn shifted beside him. He glanced over. She was facing away from him, the blanket partially off of her, her bare, smooth back looking vaguely alluring in the dim light. For a moment he considered waking her up, asking her for sex, (she almost never declined), but he wasn't sure he could get it up right now. He wa
s too rattled.

  For a moment, Eric closed his eyes and simply laid there, trying to relax his pulse. It had been a while since the war. He'd lived to see its end and had come out the other side intact...well, physically intact, that was. Emotionally, mentally...those scars were still healing. He wasn't sure if they ever fully would. He'd already been in the Marines for a year when the Systems Wars broke out. It had been a hard, three-year slog, but he'd made it through to the end. When it was over, he'd chosen not to renew his contract.

  And he'd been drifting ever since then, drifting now for three years.

  Autumn shifted again, then rolled over. Her eyes were open. She smiled sleepily at him, realizing that he, too, was awake. Her black, shoulder-length hair was splayed across her face, standing out in stark contrast to her pale skin. When he'd first gotten to know her, she'd been tanned, but being in space so long had turned her quite pale. Her green eyes caught what little light there was available and in the dim glow of the clock panel beside them she looked ghostly and beautiful. She reached out and ran her fingers across his cheek.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “I thought I heard you talking in your sleep.”

  “Yeah...I'm fine. Just nightmares,” Eric replied.

  She frowned. “I'm sorry, honey. I know how much those fuck with you.” She propped herself up on one elbow and leaned forward, pressing her lips, warm and wet, against his forehead. “Ugh,” she said, and he realized she must be looking over the top of his head, at the clock. “It's almost eight. We should get up.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Eric agreed. He couldn't sleep anymore if he tried anyway, but he knew Autumn very much liked her slumber and didn't have any of the problems drifting off. She was typically asleep within five minutes of finishing their usual nightly sex. He envied her. He usually laid around in the darkness for at least half an hour before finally slipping into unconsciousness. Eric pulled the blankets back and sat up. Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, he stood up. Shivering slightly, as the deckplates were cold, he moved over to the light switch and flipped it onto its lowest setting. Even still, he winced slightly.

  “Ugh, I wish you'd get a carpet in here or something,” Autumn complained as she stood up, shivering as her feet touched the floor.

  “It helps you wake up,” Eric replied.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” she murmured.

  They'd had that exchange so many times now that it was almost as much a morning ritual as brushing his teeth or taking a leak. Eric yawned, stretched and rubbed at his eyes. He followed Autumn, both of them equally nude, into the bathroom. While Autumn moved to get the shower started, Eric took a look at himself in the mirror. He wasn't sure why he did it, though sometimes he thought that he might be checking himself for fresh wounds, since he often had some kind of nightmare related to his time during the war.

  Eric thought he was still in pretty good shape. Not quite as pumped-up as he'd been during wartime, but his muscles were still clearly defined enough beneath his dark skin. He was glad that he didn't have to worry about going pale out here in the deep space. Silver eyes stared back at him and they still had that faint glow to them. Even after five years, Eric's eyes creeped him out a bit. He'd gotten implants while in the military and at the time he'd thought a silver sheen over his eyeballs would give him a bit of dramatic flair.

  He didn't exactly regret it now. They did still look nice and they helped give him perfect vision, though they still needed time to adjust to the darkness. He'd often thought about getting an upgrade, since there were all sorts of crazy extras and bonus features out there, everything from infrared to x-ray vision, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to go under the knife again. That first time had been creepy enough. Just the thought of someone cutting his eyes out and replacing them with implants was just...ugh, it was horrible.

  “You coming babe?” Autumn asked, already in the shower, her voice muffled slightly by the closed door and the fact that she must be brushing her teeth.

  “Yeah, just a minute,” Eric replied.

  Now that the terror had passed, he was starting to feel a little horny. Even after four months, being around Autumn naked still got him going pretty quickly. Given that he had morning breath, he hastily brushed his teeth, rinsed and spat, then joined her in the shower. She was a visage of a beauty. Almost as tall as he was, she had a thin, lithe build, small but very functional muscles packed onto her trim frame. Her hair was even darker now, plastered to her skull. She seemed to sense his gaze and turned to look at him, favoring him with a thin smirk.

  “I know that look,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Is that a yes?” he replied.

  She respond with actions, stepping closer to him and embracing him, kissing him deeply. He wrapped his arms around her.

  * * * * *

  He was just lacing up his boots when the shipwide comms clicked on. Captain Marco Peltola's voice came down from overhead.

  “Everyone, we've picked up a distress call. Report to the bridge.”

  Eric glanced over at Autumn, who was doing the same.

  “Someone dropped the ball,” she said.

  “And we got the call,” Eric murmured in reply.

  He finished lacing his boots up, making them very tight, as was his habit, and then he stood up. Taking a quick step into the bathroom, he checked himself over. He thought he looked half-decent in his dark blue jumpsuit. It was standard attire for his job. His job now being Search & Rescue. It was the latest in a long line of occupations, though this one was definitely the best, (although a lot of that probably had to do with Autumn), and he'd been at it for four months now. It was decent pay, he liked the people he got to work with and the work itself was generally satisfying. After all the people he'd lost during the war, it was nice to save some.

  Eric frowned briefly, glancing at his head and beard. He kept all his hair pretty much shaved, though now there was a good layer of stubble. He briefly considered shaving again, but there really wasn't time.

  “You ready?” Autumn asked.

  “Yeah, coming,” Eric replied.

  He turned away from the mirror and followed her out into the corridor. As they stepped out, Eric nearly bumped into Seth. Not that it would have affected the man. Their main man for all things related to security was a behemoth. Easily six and a half feet tall, he came from a small colony of Egyptians that had struck out on their own decades ago to make a living. According to Seth, they had done quite well for themselves after finding a huge seam of minerals not far below the surface near their colony. He'd been a miner since he was sixteen and after about a decade of that, he went into the business of protection.

  “Time for another challenge, am I right?” he asked as he saw Eric.

  “Definitely,” Eric replied, smiling despite himself. There was a very simple joviality and kindness to Seth. The man was a study in duality. On the one hand, if ever Eric had met anyone that fit the description of 'gentle giant', it was this hulking, beefy man standing before him. On the other hand, Eric had seen Seth fight and he had absolutely no compunctions about putting down hostile targets. He was damned good at it, too.

  Seth was the kind of man you wanted watching your back.

  The three of them moved out of the cramped corridor that granted access to the living quarters. Eric wouldn't exactly call their vessel tiny, but it would never be mistaken for luxurious or roomy. As they left the dormitories and stepped into the main corridor of the ship, they were joined by another of the crew. Ronnie Burrows was the ship's engineer. He was there to make sure the ship itself continued functioning, while Eric served as the primary engineer when the team was away from, on rescue missions.

  Though they both served as back up for the other.

  Ronnie was a grim, gloomy man in his early forties who also had the extreme pale pallor of deep space and kept his head shaved like Eric and Seth. The man never seemed to get enough sleep, as there were always dark bags beneath his eyes. He looked kind of...haunted. Eri
c had never really gotten a straight answer out of him as to why he was so gloomy and pessimistic all the time, but, despite that, he was a decent enough person to have to share space with. Besides the relentless pessimism, he didn't really have any bad habits or annoying tendencies.

  “Someone fucked up again,” he muttered as the quartet strode down the main corridor of the vessel towards the bridge.

  “That's what we're here for,” Autumn replied.

  “Yeah. It's a kickass job,” Seth said, grinning broadly. “We get to go in, look badass, rescue some people. It's great.”

  “Uh-huh,” Ronnie replied sourly.

  They came to the bridge and stepped through the door as it opened for them. The rest of the crew was already there, studying a large display screen. Eric scanned them all briefly. Their commander, Captain Marco Peltola, stood before the screen, scrutinizing it intensely, arms folded across his chest. If Seth was a man you wanted watching your back in a fight, then Captain Peltola was someone you wanted leading you into battle. He stood several inches taller than Eric's five foot ten height and had a good, solid build, looking distinct from his mixed American and Middle Eastern heritage. They'd had a a dozen and a half rescue missions together at this point, and so far the man hadn't even come close to losing his cool.

  The final members of their crew, Jensen, the pilot and Amanda, their primary medic, were already on the bridge. Even in their four months together, Eric hadn't really gotten to know Jensen, though he had an idea that no one really knew the man. He was a silent, trim guy with a neat beard and a crewcut, and he rarely spoke to anyone. Amanda, on the other hand, he'd gotten to know probably about as well as he was going to. She was, in some ways, like Ronnie. Though she struck Eric as less of a pessimist and more of a grim realist.

  She was of average height and weight, blonde haired and blue eyed, and he didn't think he'd ever heard her make a joke of any kind. She was always in the infirmary, always studying up on new medical techniques and discoveries. Amanda struck him as the kind of person for whom there was only the call of career.