Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1)

by N. D. Redding

  I could feel the Technomancer’s shadow within the bot. Flashes of memory, feelings of anguish and horror, a deep, horrifying sadness… Who knew how long he’d been trapped within that familiar. It could be years, decades, and even centuries.

  I shuddered at the thought. Fucking Aloi. The Federation would never allow this! Everyone was just a tool to the Aloi, even their people were tools, but even worse, it was by their own choice.

  I sent in 15% more cells with the sole mission of burning out the cerebral module. The nanites tore through the protection and then shut down what was left of the mind trapped within the assault bot. The shell of the dead Technomancer fell to its knees and then hit the ground with the torso and head. Millions of dead nanites sprayed the entrance of the chapel like a heap of ash stirred by the wind.

  I stood up and ran toward the door where I saw Leo holding the last standing Cantari at gunpoint while Layla was already pushing the package out of the chapel. I walked up to the last Cantari and smashed my fist into his ugly lizard face. Blood sprayed the threshold and frame of the door. I smacked him again and again as Leo and Layla watched. I hadn’t noticed the tears that ran down my cheeks as I bloodied my knuckles on the Cantari. It was only when Leo warned me about us getting caught that I remembered we were on a mission.

  You should always hate your enemy. That’s what we were taught and what I never managed to sincerely accept. I said I hated the Aloi because you did hate the people that beat you, shot at you, and, in my case, killed you. But there was always something missing. I couldn’t hate the whole race no matter how nightmarish they looked or how strange and inhuman their practices were.

  What about now? When I saw what they did to that Technomancer, I felt nothing but unrelenting rage for them. How wicked should one be to enslave a man’s mind within his own familiar and then force it to fight his kind? That was beyond a cultural misunderstanding and the very definition of evil.

  I finally heeded the call but finally understood one very important thing. The main lesson I learned after coming to this place was that I hated them with all my being. I hated the Aloi more than I hated anything else. It didn’t matter to me anymore what the objectives were going to be, my mission would always be eradication. This I swore by the nanite bones of the dead Technomancer I saved.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go.”

  Just as I was about to move out, the fingers of the Cantari who I bloodied a moment ago curled around my ankle. I turned around ready to push my boot into its hideous face when he uttered a single word.

  “Why?”

  “Don’t you dare ask me, scum!” I growled.

  “No, human, please. Why take the skald?”

  Layla took me by the arm and pulled. We had to go as the alarms went off within the chapel. I hadn’t neutralized the whole security network in my confusion. Shit! We were exposed.

  “What’s a skald?”

  I couldn’t help myself as I wanted to know what this was about. I didn’t trust Urgon’s story one bit, especially not anymore.

  “The one who lives a story,” the Cantari muttered as bubbles mixed with blood formed on his lips. The translation was always murky when it came to the Aloi as the real-time translators we were all born with, never managed to connect all the linguistic bridges.

  “It deserves to be told.”

  “You only deserve to suffer, Aloi!” I cursed and stomped my boot on his skull. It cracked and spilled his brain all over the black marble floor. I stared at it, sick to my core, but I could think about it all later when we were safe, so we ran.

  We moved through alleys to the pickup point, pushing the hovering-crate in front of us. Sirens resounded from afar, closing in on the chapel. My heart raced in equal measure from the rage, the sorrow, and the disgust. What’s more, I wasn’t so sure anymore if I wanted to hand the skald, whatever it was, over to our Takkari patron. The mission was easy enough, but it had shaken me to the core.

  Urgon’s men waited for us, all ready to do battle if we had a tail. One of his Orros from the office, an Oolan’Jin, and an Oshamian all sat inside one of those capsule-like cars that speeded around Instormia.

  “Put the package in the back,” the Orros said surprisingly eloquently.

  “I want to see what’s in there,” I replied. Leo and Layla looked at me in shock with a big why on their faces.

  “Urgon wants the package as is. Now come on, the police are coming,” the Orros urged me.

  “I want to see what’s in the package, or you’ll return with empty hands,” I snapped and then leaned into the car’s window. “Maybe even without any hands at all.”

  I knew threatening an Orros was a stupid thing to do but I had lost all composure a while ago. He must have been the smartest Orros of his generation because he just sighed, looked at the ceiling of his car, and spoke calmly.

  The crate was a 6x6-foot freeze-box. That alone wasn’t suspicious as the new bioengineered silk producer was probably in hibernation. It was safer to transport it that way, at least that’s what I told myself.

  When I opened the container, however, I was completely struck by what I saw. Instead of a grown, or at least half-grown Aloi, there was a sort of cocoon frozen in one big solid block of ice. There were writings inscribed on the cocoon, Aloi of course, religious probably but also unreadable. They very much resembled the Aloi writings from the mountains.

  “What is this thing?” I muttered and closed the lid. Lost in thought, I stared into the distance for several seconds until the Orros interrupted me.

  “Can we fucking go now?”

  I nodded and stepped away from the car. What the hell was going on? Was I hallucinating things now?

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked. My hand was still on the crate.

  “What do you mean?” the Orros asked. He could have almost fooled me, but I wasn’t born yesterday.

  “Destroy the dead-switches.”

  What passed for his eyebrows rose into his forehead and was followed by a massive grin. “So you knew?”

  I nodded. “Ever since I woke up in the hotel.”

  He nodded and handed me a tablet.

  “Disable it there and destroy the tablet. You’ll feel a small shock coming from your implant along with a message on your INAS.”

  I did as he instructed, and my INAS really did show me the disturbance.

  “Tell your boss if he ever pulls something similar again, the next time he sees me will be when I wake him from his sleep and gut him like a fish.”

  The Orros didn’t speak and just nodded again as I closed the crate. He sped down the road, leaving a trail of blue light behind.

  “Boss,” Layla whispered. “Can you tell us what’s up with you tonight?”

  “He’ll tell us when we’re out of here,” Leo replied in my stead.

  I didn’t want to spend any more time in Instormia, and if they had our faces, it wasn’t even a possibility. I was sick of the place, the way everyone pretended there wasn’t a war going on, that we were all friends, and that we didn’t have each other at gunpoint not even one hundred miles away.

  I was sick of Urgon Feyn and his lackeys, the dirty, poor, rundown streets of the outer layer, and the over-the-top wealth in the absurdly rich center. I wanted to get back into the fray, to be among soldiers and people of discipline, order, and dedication. But most of all, I wanted to paint Detera white in Aloi blood. I was a soldier and I wanted to go to war.

  We made our way back to the airport where I sent out a call for pickup and pulled up my INAS as we waited. I hadn’t even realized that according to Federation metrics I had turned to a Tier 5 Technomancer. I must have missed it in the rush fury, which only made me even angrier.

  I was pretty happy with my situation, but my excitement wasn’t so much about the title as it was about the fact that I was finally getting my third bot. The joy of that realization almost eclipsed my anger as Buzzard and Bucky were about to get a third sibling.

  “So, are
we going to talk right now or?” Leo asked, staring at me intently. When I didn’t respond, he shrugged. “Who says we need to have it, right, sir?”

  When we hit the base, the last thing I’d expect to see was for everything to be in an uproar. Soldiers were running around in all directions, alarms for deployment reverberated throughout the base, and officers yelled at their charges.

  A legion of Titus Mechs slowly made its way into Zero Base just as we were landing. The giant bipedal machines of death were the Mark 2 mechs only used in vast battles where their giant cannons could be used to maximum effect. So, whatever was going to happen, I could only imagine for it to be a massive battle. Great. More points, more glory, and more gear.

  What was going on, though? And worse, will I get the chance to summon my third familiar before I got sent off into battle?

  I immediately made my way to Lilian’s office instead of Tailor’s. The man lost some credibility with me since Instormia, though I wouldn’t dare tell him. There was too much clandestine shit surrounding the captain and it made me uncomfortable. Besides, I wanted to see my new familiar. As in right the fuck now.

  “Oh, look, you’re alive,” Lilian said coldly without getting up from behind her console.

  “I need to summon my new bot. Got a spare room?”

  For a moment, she just looked at me. I guess she expected an apology or something, but I wasn’t in the mood. There was going to be an offensive happening any moment now, and I had to edit my payloads before I went out.

  “Room 2 is free,” she replied before returning her gaze to the screen.

  “I need to pick the bot first, though.”

  “Then pick it out. You know the drill. Go to the console, choose it, get the approval, and download the specs.”

  I did as instructed and opened the menu. Getting an advanced familiar wasn’t like summoning the basic ones, no; this should have been accompanied by fanfare and cheers from all sides.

  There were several different types of assault bot to choose from, but I already knew what I was going for. Still, I scrolled through the types of bot, studying them for any possible changes. The first was a Bipedal Martial Assault Bot for those Technomancers who liked to get in your face. Next up was the Quadruped Brachiaton for the jungle Technomancer that needed his bots to climb trees. The third option was again a Bipedal model, the Camo Bot which was good for assassinating individual enemies, but not so good in a real battle. Fourth up was the Quadruped Rhino Bot, which was basically a tank on legs, and finally as icing on a cake, the Quadruped Battleseeker.

  I entered the second room and started the holo-program, then put my palm to the ground and began the summoning process. Four columns steadily grew from the ground up and expanded steadily, creating a canopy that would intermesh into the body of my bot. This thing’s legs were almost as tall as me, and that was in its ordinary walker mode. The siege mode was even more impressive.

  The nanites finally took their prescribed form and came together in a magnificently barbaric monster that would lay waste to entire armies one day.

  A strangely familiar sensation rocked my body. It was almost like a drug, one far stronger than anything humanity could come up with. A surge of power accompanied the state and the familiar finally made his first step.

  The Battleseeker Assault Bot had but one simple purpose: pure and utter destruction. It wasn’t an elegant or sophisticated bot, but it sure as hell was a dangerous son of a gun. A beast of war. Then I got it. I was going to rename him as Beast.

  I left the simulation with a joyful expression I wanted to hide. Lilian barely acknowledged me, and now that my excitement over the bot had somewhat subsided, I decided to give us another shot.

  “Hey, Lilian, look,” I said as I moved toward her. She looked up from her console and into my eyes.

  “Hey back, stranger.”

  “Stranger, huh? I guess I deserved that one,” I muttered. There was this situation back in my previous life when I fucked up similarly, and ever since then, she called me a stranger until we made up a year later. I wasn’t looking forward to repeating the same mistake.

  “Yep. So, what is it?”

  “You know why I’m here, and you know why you’re here. We picked this life, more or less, and we have to deal with the consequences. I hate that you compare me to other soldiers that left you, but even those were your choices. If my mind is not in the game, it will be spilled on the floor. I wish we could have a good time together while we are alive. That’s all.”

  I poured my heart into those words, but I didn’t expect much from her. I was completely content with us ending things but I would prefer a different outcome. Her face took on a milder expression though, and I knew I was getting somewhere.

  “I may have overreacted, but I care about you, Rick. And to be honest, I don’t even know what we fought over last time. I’m just tired, I guess.”

  “Good, good. Then we can spend some time together again? Maybe tonight?”

  “Tonight? Are you mad?”

  “Oh, right. The uproar.”

  “Exactly. Did you see the base out there?”

  “Yes, sure, sorry. No, not today.”

  “Good, I already thought the last mission cost you your brain.”

  I chuckled at that and spread my arms. She got up from the chair and took a step toward me, just as Layla screamed at me over the INAS.

  “Sarge, is this really the time? Tailor wanted to see us five minutes ago! And he’s got Winters with him!”

  Winters? Damn it, I just couldn’t catch a break.

  “I’m coming.”

  “Now, Sarge!”

  I turned to Lilian and hugged her tightly. Her smell washed away the stench of Instormia in a second. She didn’t stay like that for long—wasn’t a hugger, I guess.

  “Go, Sergeant Stavos.”

  “Fucking Winters,” I muttered.

  “Sergeant Stavos!”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  I turned toward the door where Layla now stood and was rolling her eyes at me.

  “Don’t you do that, soldier. I’m your superior officer.”

  “Sure thing, sir,” she smirked and fell in line with me as we strode out the engineering bay. The ground shook as the thirty-foot-tall mechs trudged around the base. “Sarge, please.” Layla said smiling. “Something big is coming.”

  “Sure is, soldier. And we’ll probably get close enough to smell it.”

  14

  I stared at Leo as he bit down on his lower lip and closed his eyes in slight fear. Another one of our dropships exploded in visual range. Two Aloi fighters buzzed overhead by leaving a trace of destruction in their wake. One of our fighter escorts picked up their trail and a dogfight ensued.

  “Leo, open those goddamn eyes!” I yelled in frustration. “This is what you came for!”

  “It’s raining hell out there, Sarge,” Layla said almost thoughtfully as she watched through the open hatch of our trembling dropship.

  More fighters detached from our formation and went after the incoming Aloi ships. At this point, there were hundreds of ships in the air, but the number was quickly diminishing on both sides.

  A skyscraper-sized piece of a Commonwealth Federation Star-Eater battleship dropped from orbit and crashed several miles from our part of the battlefield, shaking the continent. The second half dropped farther away, exploding and leveling a mountain range. Several more massive explosions followed as there was detrium in that place. You could smell the sweet scent as it burned away. The blast wave it caused slammed into aircraft from both sides. Several fighters and dropships crashed after losing power in their engines and exploded in a fiery death.

  “How are we looking?” I asked the pilot.

  The man was furiously concentrated on squeezing our dropship through the rain of missiles, anti-air weapons, fighters, and spaceship debris.

  “Bad,” he hissed through his teeth, barely acknowledging me. I swallowed. Sure, I could read a radar as well as the
next person, but the pilot had more knowledge about the readouts, and if he said we were fucked, then I believed him.

  A barrage of massive explosions shook the earth far ahead of us.

  “Was that the enemy line?” I asked no one in particular.

  “What the hell was that, Sarge?” Leo asked.

  “The mech legions are making headway,” I replied, hoping I wasn’t spouting bullshit. “But I recognize that sound,” I added. “I’ve only heard it once before.”

  “Oh? When was that?” Layla asked as she tried to peek through the aircraft slits that passed for windows.

  “The day I died. It’s the sound of a Primal Cannon going off.”

  “So they’re real?” Leo whispered. “Aren’t they supposed to be super expensive?”

  I nodded.

  “The Mark 4 mech ‘DonnerJack’ is the only one that can carry such a behemoth, and I remember seeing one earlier at the base.”

  A bright flash struck the aircraft and forced the shutters to close. It was quickly followed by a massive blast wave that sent us tumbling, but the pilot knew his job. He quickly reverse-thrust us backward and then forced the aircraft back into the air.

  To my surprise, no one had screamed or let out a pitiful sound, so I went on with my explanation for Leo’s benefit.

  “They shoot weaponized detrium in the form of a massive shell. The damn thing cost as much detrium as a one-way trip back to Persei Prime!”

  The big guns were finally out, which was a glimmer of hope for all of us. If they were ready to throw away detrium, it meant they were pretty sure of this campaign.

  “Hold tight!” the pilot yelled as new Aloi anti-air shells peppered our formation of troop carriers and escorts.

  “This is a shit plan!” Leo cried as Layla huddled up to him. Fear was present on her face as well, but the girl really knew how to keep her cool.

  “Shut it! You pussy!” she hissed in his ear. “Mommy’s here!”

  I chuckled inwardly and shook my head, but he was right. It was a shitty plan made by a shitty plank maker: Winters. That mission briefing with Colonel Winters and Captain Tailor the day before had been wrought with bad ideas. As soon as I entered Winters’ improvised stateroom, I knew they had bad news. The colonel was pacing up and down the room with his hands behind his back but stopped the moment he saw me.