by J. A. Scorch
"Sounds like the perfect time for me to take some leave," Garcia joked.
"Count me out," Teve said. "I'll be on the first ship back to Earth. Hopefully with some new Special Forces soldiers to help clean up the Zeal."
"I'm sure there will be plenty of volunteers. Our biggest problem will be controlling the output of Special Forces. Everyone will want a piece of this tech. We are human, after all."
"True, but I think it's time the MAF and the UEF become one. The Zeal will be back one day, and we need to be ready for that. Why bother fighting under two banners?"
Garcia laughed again, harder than before. "You and your brother crack me up with your black and white politics." She headed for the exit beside Teve. "One day you'll understand how complex and fragile the MAF and the UEF truly are."
"A soldier can dream, ma'am."
"Yes, they can, Sergeant," Garcia said as she slapped him on the shoulder. "Let's hope that one day your dreams come true."
Chapter Sixty-Eight
A few days passed by in the blink of an eye. Porter found his way on board the capital ship to get his nanites sorted along with every other infected soldier in the area. He had no choice but to allow the full abilities of the nanites to swarm his body and unlock all kinds of potential. His eyes turned purple as a result, but he would no longer have to worry about death coming for him within a few years.
The MAF secured every Zeal ship floating through space before something allowed them to wake up again. The Special Forces soldiers boarded each Cyclone and killed the aliens inside, sparing a few of them for the MAF science team to study back in the labs on Mars.
Porter still couldn't believe how Teve had managed to save everyone from death in such a short amount of time. Had his brother not risked his life and taken on the full impact of the alien device, the fight would have ended for humanity. He tried to push the thought away now that the war had swung heavily in their favor.
Nicole found Porter on Deck C with Briggs going over some tech reports on the Stalkers that made it back to the Andromeda.
"Here she comes, Porter," Briggs said. "Back from her transformation, by the looks of it."
Porter hadn't seen Nicole for more than twenty-four hours. He faced her and realized she had also allowed the nanites to enhance her body. She didn't warn him about the decision at all. "How do you feel?"
"Different, but also really good."
"I know what you mean. It's hard to explain, but you feel more alive."
"Exactly. I swear I could achieve anything."
Porter stepped in closer to her. "So why didn't you tell me about this?"
"I don't know. I figured you'd try to talk me out of it. Not everyone wants these things inside them."
"I second that," Briggs said. He had been quite animated about the whole process of people willingly allowing their bodies to be infected with alien tech.
"I probably would have," Porter said. "I can't help but worry about everything imaginable. Anyway, I understand why you did it."
"Thank you," she said before they hugged. "That's not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about. Can we go somewhere private?"
"Yeah, of course. Let's head into one of the slingshot stations. Much more private in there," he said with a cheeky smile.
Nicole pulled him along by the wrist toward the empty room attached to one of the launch tubes.
"Where have you been this last day? You can't tell me it took that long to get transformed?"
"It didn't. I did this a few hours after I last saw you. The thing is, it made me more in tune with my body. So much so that I discovered something I had no clue was there before I let the nanites in."
"Wait, are you saying ...?"
"Yes. I'm pregnant." Nicole was twisting her fatigues with one hand as she waited for his response. Porter stepped back a pace as his eyes popped out of his head.
"Wow. I'm the father, right?"
"Yes," she scoffed, slapping his chest. "Of course you are. Do you want to be the father?"
The question was the biggest one he'd ever faced in his entire life. He stared deep into her purple eyes and said, "Yes."
She practically leaped into his arms and squeezed him tighter than ever before. "I love you," she said.
"I love you, too," he replied. "Wait. What about the nanites?"
"It's okay. I checked with a doctor and got scanned. She said they were actually caring for the fetus like they knew the baby was part of me. It's still early days, though, but so far there's nothing to worry about."
Porter ran both of his hands through his hair. "This is nuts. First, we turn the war around, and now I find out I'm going to be a daddy. I need to find some cigars and tell everyone."
"Not everyone," Nicole said. "It's too early to be certain about all of this. You can tell Teve and Briggs, though. Just swear them to secrecy."
"Okay. I can manage that."
Nicole smiled again before she kissed him. They continued for several minutes until Porter had her up against a wall. She broke away from his grip with ease. "I have to go. We'll continue this tonight, okay?"
"You bet we will. I'll see you later." Porter watched as she left Deck C. He couldn't wipe the happiness off his face when he returned to Briggs.
"Was it that good?" his wingman joked.
"Better," Porter said. "Say, can you keep a secret?"
Chapter Sixty-Nine
The next few weeks flew by in a hurry. Teve headed back to Earth with several thousand new Special Forces soldiers. They all wanted to liberate Earth from the Zeal and would bring down a world of pain on the remaining aliens. Romeo, Red, and Pocket came along for the ride, heading back to the only planet they knew.
"Where will you look first?" Romeo asked Teve
"I'll start at the Atlanta base and work my way from there. Mish can't have gone far."
"All you can do is try," she said.
Teve nodded. "Hopefully."
They both settled back into their crash couches for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. The hundreds of drop ships all spread out to different parts of the globe depending on where the SF troops were needed. Teve's drop ship was headed for Central.
The vessel landed with precision on the main reentry pad. The four of them climbed down out of the MAF drop ship as it cooled down. Romeo was heading back home to see if she could find some of her family. Red decided to stick to the United States to help clear out the Zeal, and Pocket was going to leave the service altogether and travel the countryside like she had always wanted to do.
"It's been one hell of a ride, guys. Couldn't have done it without you," Teve said.
"You, too, Tower," Red said. "You are a good soldier to have around." The big Russian pulled Teve in for a hug before he left.
Romeo gave him less of a hands-on goodbye, as did Pocket. Despite spending the last year with the three, Teve never allowed himself to get too close to any of them. They had been brought together because they each were one of the rare soldiers that managed to survive the initial nanite infection. It was hardly something to bond over, not that he didn't respect or care about every one of them.
As Teve headed for the nearest transport he could find to take him back to Atlanta, a voice called out to him from behind.
"Did you think you could come find me and I'd take you back?"
Teve spun around to find Mish standing there, dressed in her SF fatigues. "You're here," he said as he rushed over to her. He didn't wait for her response. Instead, he picked her off her feet and held on tight. He didn't care if she hated him.
Mish wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him in the most inappropriate way a soldier could in the middle of Central Command.
"I missed you so much," she said.
"I missed you more, Mish. I thought I'd never find you. Why were you waiting here for me?"
She sighed. "I guess I heard the news about some tall jackass saving the day. I wanted to see this idiot for myself and thank him. I also wanted to say so
rry for not coming along for the ride."
"No, I'm sorry. I—" She silenced him with another kiss.
Teve pulled back to soak in the image of her smiling face. His hands slid down to her arms and felt the Zeal tech breaking through her skin. "Wait," he said as he remembered her nanites. "We need to get you up to Mars and sort these things out."
"I know," she said. "We'll go as soon as we've caught up. I still can't believe what you've done to save us all. I can't thank you enough."
Teve only thought of one thing to say. "I know how you can thank me."
The two found a supply closet in the base and took the time to reunite properly. Teve felt like he hadn't seen her in years. It wasn't until someone banged on the door that they stopped and got dressed.
When Teve came out of the small space, a pissed off lieutenant met his eyes.
"What in the hell are you two—" The officer cut himself off. "Wait, are you Master Sergeant Teve Porter?"
"Yes, sir. Sorry about this. It won't happen again."
"My ass, it won't," Mish said.
The lieutenant ignored her comment and offered his hand out to Teve. "Think nothing of it. Hell, take my office. Anything for the man who put a stop to these alien bastards."
Teve shook his hand and thanked him. "You said something about an office?"
Chapter Seventy
Several months went by on the Andromeda without incident. Porter and Nicole got to finally announce her pregnancy to the crew when there was no longer any option to hide it from Command. When the pair got everyone together and made the announcement, no one was surprised.
"I thought we all knew?" Lieutenant Clay asked.
"You can't be serious?" Nicole blurted to the pilot.
"I mean, congrats guys. That's a big surprise."
Nicole laughed as she turned to Garcia. "I guess you also knew, ma'am?"
The commodore smirked. "Of course I did. You think you can keep anything from me?"
The two shared a laugh as Garcia congratulated them formally. "If the baby is anything like its parents, it'll be one stubborn soldier. Well done, guys. I'm proud of you."
Porter pushed through the cheers and pulled out some champagne from a box. "Enough of this sappy stuff. Let's drink. Well, those of us who can drink," he said, winking at Nicole.
"I'm happy drinking plain water. I don't want our baby coming out like any of you drunks."
The group of ten or so MAF pilots and soldiers celebrated into the night, enjoying each other's company without the stress of war hanging over their heads. Reports from Earth indicated every last alien had been wiped out including the hybrids.
When Porter finally went to sleep that night, he dreamed about a future with Nicole. They hadn't decided if they would continue to serve on board a battle carrier when the baby came or if they would head dirt side to Mars or Earth. That was a conversation for another day.
Porter woke up the next morning to see Nicole already walking around their new shared quarters keeping herself busy with command duties. There was a lot to be dealt with after the defeat of the Zeal. The acquired ships in the MAF's possession—the capital ship, in particular—were being stripped apart and studied for future technology. If humanity had any hope of holding on to their tiny section of space, they would need to keep building up their defense systems in case the Zeal ever returned.
"Holy hell," Nicole said as she read a report.
"What? Please don't tell me anything bad," Porter said as he shot up on his palms.
She glanced over at him. "No, it's something good, I guess."
Porter let out a sigh as he fell back down into the bed. "Tell me."
"The scientists have begun to work out how the Zeal are capable of traveling faster than light. They think it might be possible to reverse engineer the technology and implement it into our own ships. If successful, they are saying we might be able to take the fight to the Zeal home world and put an end to them once and for all."
"Damn," Porter uttered. Thanks to Teve's knowledge of the Zeal, their home world's exact location was known to everyone in the fleet. The aliens came from a system some four plus light years away in Proxima Centauri.
"Exactly. We could hit them where it hurts. Let them feel the pain of losing the people you love."
Porter sat up and put his shirt on. He moved over to Nicole and placed his arms around her waist to cuddle her and the baby. "Let someone else deal with that. We've got our own future to worry about."
Nicole twisted her neck around and smiled out of the corner of her mouth. She let him lean in and kiss her softly on the lips. "You're right," she said as she put her tablet down. "We've got better things to spend our time thinking about, like a name for this little guy."
"Guy? How do you know the baby will be a boy?"
"Just got a feeling, you know? I can see the mini-man now, flying Stalkers across the stars and kicking butt."
Porter chuckled. "A pilot, you say? Poor guy. At least give him some hope."
"Hey, he could do worse," Nicole said with a smile.
"As long as you teach him, he couldn't screw it up," Porter said. He stood tall and headed back to his bed to finish dressing for the day. He would have twelve hours of training drills and dummy runs on MAF drones ahead of him. Despite more than half of his personnel on board having nanites running through their veins like him, the brass still demanded every pilot and soldier was ready for anything. Although Teve assured Command that the Zeal had broken their backs losing the last battle, no one could truly let their guard down. The constant threat of another invasion would be forever stuck in the back of their heads until the Zeal were erased from the universe.
As Porter headed for the door, he looked back at what he now had. Nicole and his growing child were his future. The war would forever stain a large chunk of his memories, but he had to move on if they were ever going to make it.
"Have a good day," Nicole said as he opened the hatch.
Porter gave her a smile as he gripped the bulkhead and gazed upon his family. "I'll see you both, tonight."
THE STORY CONTINUES IN…
Refract (Reclaim Series, Book 3.5)
Click the below link to read the next book in the series:
jascorch.com/get-refract/
To receive a free prequel novella to Reclaim titled React, click the below link to join my mailing list:
Join the list!
As a member of my mailing list, you will receive access to exclusive content and great offers.
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading books 1 – 3 and the bonus content. I hope you’ve enjoyed the Reclaim series so far. For more information, check out my website below:
jascorch.com
Like me on Facebook:
facebook.com/jascorch
If you enjoyed reading this box set, please consider leaving a review on the Amazon store.
This will help others discover my work and get my name out there.
Thank you again for taking the time to read.
J.A. Scorch
Copyright © 2017
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
www.jascorch.com
BOOK 1: RECLAIM
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
/> Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
BOOK 2: REFUSE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve