Enemies on All Sides (Maraukian War Book 4)
Page 39
“Mark, what can I do?”
Instantly, Moretti was linked in with Charles. “Moretti, can you reach in—see if your nanites can reprogram theirs with the right coding?”
“What will that be like?” he asked. His thoughts and movements were now so fast that he knew Zedra only saw a blur.
“I don’t know. It could be as painful as your own merge—it could be a thousand times worse.”
Moretti sat with his hands over the vat, but knew this wouldn’t be fast enough. They’d not merge in time.
“NO!” Mark’s voice echoed through the net, but it was already too late. Moretti dropped inside the vat with her.
He could still hear Charles in the back of his mind. His nanites instantly started to fight with those in the vat, their programming determined to make Moretti something he already was, but then again something that he wasn’t—something that Rimateus had wanted.
“Record all this, Charles, I might not make it.” Moretti pulled what was Sertoria’s body to his. There he focused and did his best to help calm her, and to help her process what was going on. She had ideas as to what it was to merge; they’d talked about it in the endless nights they’d gotten drunk, lying on top of the bed, waiting for things to happen. Now Moretti realized he’d liked her and her humor a little more than he thought. Zedra had been right.
“Mr. Moretti,” Sertoria said, “are you admitting you like me?”
Moretti was surprised she could feel or hear anything from him, but then he could see what was going on. Her brain was reforming; the neural pathways were working. Creating, merging. And then he felt her, all of her. The war around them was immense, and. The pain—nothing like it had been for him in his first stages. Then he realized he was also going through the organ and full body transplant at the exact same time as she was.
Her feelings were clear, though, and he didn’t fight it. The pain was evil and he felt consciousness ripping at his mind. “If we survive, I’m taking you to dinner.”
***
Zedra faced Damus, but he shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“Then we continue to cleanse this base.” She moved out of the room, making sure the door was secured at least behind her. The fate of Mr. Moretti and her optio was in the hands of others now.
“Any reports from Cassius?” she asked as they made their way into the back of the other rooms.
A woman in a white suit cowered behind a table. “Please, don’t!” But Zedra aimed true and fired. The woman fell to the floor and a couple of others started to scramble. Within minutes, the floor was covered with bodies.
“Zedra.” Damus nodded up ahead.
She moved to open the door. Pushed. Nothing. Damus helped her. When it opened, the stench inside made her gag. Moaning, screams, and more filtered through.
When she pushed again so that they could enter properly, Damus placed a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe I should go this one alone.”
“No,” she simply said. “I know what this base entailed. The monsters in here need to be put to sleep, forever. Rimateus is dead. There will be no one for them.”
Damus, however, stepped through first.
The room was more than she’d thought it could be. The part people in here, she’d no idea how they survived physically or mentally. Well, mentally wasn’t really an issue; when looking down into the eyes of a man half eaten, she could see he wasn’t there. “I thought they took all the dead bodies out, destroyed them?”
Damus drew his sword and quickly tried to kill one of them. The creature looked at him, almost grinning. But it didn’t die.
“What the fuck?”
Zedra put a couple of bullets into two by her right. There was nothing they could do; because they had no limbs, they couldn’t move, feed themselves. “Monsters.”
When she met Damus’s eyes, she saw his concern. “We can’t kill them?”
“That’s why they’re all shoved in here, like this.”
“Get a message to Cassius,” Zedra said. “Or you need to speak with Mark, tell him what we’ve seen.”
“I’m a little busy,” came the voice through Damus. “Wait for Moretti. He has your answer,” was all that came.
Damus shrugged. “The only solution is to wait on someone who entered the exact same hell as these things.”
Zedra stepped backward. “Then we must wait. No matter the transformation he goes through, he is the only one here who can finish this.”
***
Moretti’s conscious mind started to come around. He felt a body next to him and yet it was different. “Sertoria?”
Nothing.
He pushed himself up and out of the vat. Damus and Zedra waited for him. He dropped to the floor in front of them without a thought. Zedra had her sword out and at his throat. But, he saw it all in super slow motion. He didn’t react; he just noted how much “smaller” she was.
Damus coughed. “Some clothes, please. You’re giving me a complex.”
Moretti glanced down. There was a lot of difference to him. Quickly clothes formed around him and he spoke. “What’s with the death threat?”
“Mark wasn’t sure what you might come out of the vat like. We’re following orders.”
Moretti looked inside. He didn’t feel any different. In fact, physically, he felt better than ever. There was something niggling at him still. He turned to face the vat, placed a hand on it. “She’s still in there, but she’s not woken.”
“It’s the others we need you to deal with. Mark said you knew what to do now. We don’t. We can’t kill them.”
Moretti saw the distaste cross her face. The way her brow creased and her voice altered just slightly. She was much easier to read now. He liked this, this upgrade.
Charles’s voice was next in his mind. “I’m scanning over you now.”
Moretti didn’t like this and with but a thought he stopped it.
“Hey,” Charles said.
“I’ve got a job to do, Charles. You don’t want to be witness to this. I’m cutting you off. I’m all here.”
Moretti cut the link and turned to Zedra. “Watch the vat. I’ll start the process in that room.”
Damus looked at him. “Need—”
“No, you’re better not seeing this either.”
Damus frowned. “For Roma.”
Moretti left them with Sertoria and made his way through the base. He knew where they were. He could feel them—more than feel them, he could hear them too. Not only the screams; there were conscious thoughts. They were still people.
“Rimateus, you deserved to be tortured, hung, drawn, quartered forever for this. If I could kill you again, I would. Again, and again.”
Mark’s voice managed to get through to him. “Let me see them.”
When Moretti entered the room, Mark’s anger matched his.
“There is no peace for them. Finish it.” And he was gone.
Moretti knew Mark was still more than tied up in the Emarl system.
Moretti looked down at the half woman before him, her skin silvery, red, raw pustules of rotten flesh.
Her eyes met his, and she reached out to touch him. “Kill me,” she said. “Please.”
Moretti’s nanites flowed from him and into her, this time containing something different. Something that would devour everything here. He moved from bed to bed, and within moments the voices stopped.
He walked from the room knowing what was going to happen to everything in here: the nanites would consume everything; nothing would be left. It might take them a little bit of time, but as they consumed it, they would grow in numbers, consuming faster, then they would die.
Walking back to the room where Zedra and Damus waited, his thoughts turned to Sertoria. Inside the vat, he’d felt a lot of things. He also knew that if she was a monster, she’d asked to be destroyed too.
His only option was that. She wouldn’t wake fully. Rimateus and his scientists were hacks. Nothing more than frauds, they could never have made merger
s no matter what they thought.
“We must leave,” he said. “Let the nanites I’ve released do their work.”
Zedra looked to the tank and sadness crossed her face.
Moretti felt it, but he pushed his thoughts away, and gave them all the distraction they needed. “Now it’s time for the real war.”
Zedra cocked to her head to the side with a confused expression.
“What do you mean, real war?” Damus asked.
Moretti made for the door. “Under the rubble of the Maraukians, we found a signal, that we now know gives the Maraukians their orders. It’s about time we saw who was pulling their strings.”
Zedra nodded, her sadness fading, and for the first time, Moretti saw more than just the cold, detached look in her eyes. He saw a fire there, an anger that burned deep within her. One that asked for revenge and payment for those lost.
Thank you for reading! If you like the book, please rate and review! It really does help get the word out there and allow other readers to find this book!
From the Authors
Michael Chatfield
You can check out my other books, what I’m working on, and upcoming releases through the following means:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00WCAOQME
Website: http://michaelchatfield.com/
Twitter: @chatfieldsbooks
Facebook: Michael Chatfield
Goodreads: Goodreads.com/michaelchatfield
Thanks again for reading!
Dawn Chapman
Dawn Chapman has been creating sci-fi and fantasy stories for thirty years. Until 2005 when her life and attention turned to scripts, and she started work on The Secret King, a 13-episode Sci-Fi TV series, with a great passion for this medium.
In 2015, Dawn returned to her first love of prose where she revelled in the world of The Secret King, Letháo and First Contact, as an epic prose space journey over three generations.
This year her experience of working with others expanded. From Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, to LitRPG/Gamelit. Dawn’s built a portfolio of writing, consulting and publishing.
Website - https://dawnchapmanauthor.com/
You can follow Dawn on any of her public pages.
Author Facebook —
https://www.facebook.com/kanundra
Twitter Link —
https://twitter.com/kanundra
Amazon —
https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Chapman/e/B014A0RUBC
Many Thanks
Table of Contents
Enemies All Sides
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
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Chapter Ninety
Chapter Ninety-One
Chapter Ninety-Two
Chapter Ninety-Three
Chapter Ninety-Four
Chapter Ninety-Five
Chapter Ninety-Six
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Chapter Ninety-Nine
Chapter One Hundred
Chapter One hundred and One
Chapter One Hundred and Two
Chapter One Hundred and Three
Chapter One Hundred and Four
Chapter One Hundred and Five
From the Authors