Star Angel: Rising (Star Angel Book 4)

by David G. McDaniel

  He would deal with them in a moment.

  On the other side he squatted along the upper deck, put both hands under one edge of the turret and heaved. It tried to spin back but he held it, giving a mighty groan against its effort to twist and, more significant, the effort of its mountings to hold it in place. “Nnnnyaaaarrrr!” he strained and … POW! the whole turret came free, wrenching with a titanic tear of metal, screeching and moaning as he lifted and shoved it clear. It slid to the ground with a solid thunk and he jumped inside. In three quick actions he killed the crew and brought the machine to a halt.

  And was clear. Leaping from it into the air, arcing toward the squad in the field that had fired on him. So far the Kel seemed to have a military philosophy of either big or small, no mid-range units to be seen. All up and down the field there were either well-armed soldiers on foot, large hover tanks or aerial fighters. Maybe that was all they brought. At any rate it was making Zac’s job easier. The men went down like flies; the tanks were too slow to get good shots, and the fighters … well, so far they’d tried a few times to strafe him from above but so far no luck.

  Whoomp! he hit the ground among the squad even as they were scattering. One thing he’d come to learn about the Kel was that they were near fearless. Even in the face of his obvious power they did not flee. Neither were they stupid, and they seemed to be smart enough to at least try and get away when he got close—as they were doing now—but none of them fled outright.

  He swept them up as they fired on him from a full sprint, going in all directions to make it more difficult. The human forces were letting him be, as by now it was clear he was on their side. None fired on him, and where he ran across them the humans backed off at his arrival, allowing him to continue his rampage, perhaps not wanting to risk hurting this man—however unlikely hurting him might be—who was doing so much harm to the enemy.

  He swung an arm through the last Kel soldier, fresh spray of blood and gore flecking the layers covering him, and for a moment he stood there on the burning fields of war.

  He wasn’t tired.

  He looked himself over. Covered in charred ash, mechanical fluids, Kel fluids—their blood as red as any human’s—he was as wrecked as he’d ever been in terms of battle gore. The Earth pants were all but gone, only some few tatters remaining, the rest of him covered in the hell of combat. Hardly a patch of skin showed clear.

  He felt supercharged. Ready for so much more. Perhaps this was a catharsis for all that had happened till then, for all he’d lost.

  A fighter hooked over the distant trees. He heard it coming just before he saw it, flying fast and silent at low altitude, just above the hills. It soared out into the clearing and curved to a stop impossibly fast, going from hundreds of miles an hour to zero in a flash, to a hover, nose aimed right at him.

  It wasn’t a fighter, though. He saw that now. Something a little bigger, like a shuttle. It moved closer, closing the gap and coming to a pause.

  The way these alien craft moved was phenomenal.

  By then he realized if he was going to run he should’ve done so. By the same token, if they were going to fire they, too, probably would’ve done so.

  Were they coming to bargain?

  That hardly seemed possible.

  Landing struts unfolded and the combat shuttle touched to ground. A ramp dropped beneath it; Zac bunched his fists and held position.

  At least that was his plan, his last command to his legs before he saw what walked out, for as it did he took a step back, legs betraying him. Expression, he was sure, betraying him, mouth falling open in shock before he could regain his composure.

  It was Kang.

  The yellow demon walked clear of the shuttle, fully out into the sunlight; standing in the green grass of the idyllic Spanish fields, surrounded on all sides by picturesque hills and scenery, tall forests under a blue sky. The wreckage of the alien tanks, the presence of the shuttle itself—these things, somehow, Zac could disregard. Somehow, despite their ugliness, he still saw the greater world around him. The greater beauty. But now …

  Now it all collapsed.

  All that beauty ruined. An abomination poisoned its very core.

  “Surprise surprise,” Kang said in his grinding, graveled voice. He grinned wide.

  Zac grappled for a focus, any focus, all his confidence flying far and away in that moment. Clearly Kang had survived their trip to space. He wasn’t dead after all. He wasn’t gone. He was right there and, from the looks of it, he’d been picked up by these Kel and—it could be only this—had somehow joined them. He wore a black uniform of some kind with insignia that looked like theirs. He’d just gotten off one of their shuttles. There were no more Kel forces rushing in to face Zac now that Kang had arrived. Suddenly it was just the two of them.

  Kang had obviously requested a private audience.

  As Zac thought on this the ramp retracted with quiet solidity and the shuttle lifted into the air behind the beast with that same quiet power. Confirming it. The landing struts folded up, it hovered a moment more, slid backwards, turned and … raced away. Accelerating, quicker each second, the first sonic boom rocking back to pound the hills as it curved faster into orbit.

  Gone, off into the sky. Leaving Kang behind.

  A private audience.

  Zac closed his mouth. Clenched his teeth and balled his fists tighter.

  Kang sneered.

  And leapt.

  CHAPTER 21: THE BATTLE IS JOINED

  Bianca watched from one of the stations as Nani tapped through screen after screen, eyes moving back and forth, the glow of electronic information lighting the contours of her face. Her blonde hair stuck up here and there, strands falling across her eyes, an obstruction she seemed either unaware of or unwilling to pay attention to. Nani looked right through her hair as if it wasn’t even there. Bianca wanted to get up, walk over and brush it aside or somehow help, or at least rub her shoulders or something, but sadly could not find the energy to actually rise.

  She was exhausted.

  Neither of them were in very good shape. Nani, however, having lapsed back to her usual self, was once again so absorbed with the receiving and processing of information she didn’t notice.

  Over time she’d continued to bring them higher through the clouds, testing the limits of their detection. Nearer and nearer the outer edge of the Kel scanning abilities, just low enough to stay beyond the range of the enemy destroyers—which remained aggressively on station in high orbit over Jupiter—far enough for the Reaver to remain undetected yet high enough to monitor Kel battle frequencies; specifically those of the fleets surrounding Earth. Having achieved that perfect range Nani held, listening, connecting once or twice with Satori and Willet but only briefly, breaking the long silence, keeping everything in place and calming their rising fears the best she could. Reassuring them that the moment would come and all they could do now was wait. Satori and Willet were ready to make a run for it. Too much time had passed; to say they were stir crazy by then would’ve been an understatement. To say they all were would’ve been putting it mildly.

  But Nani kept them on task. The moment, she said, was not yet right.

  Between those isolated events she and Bianca took turns sleeping and spending time bringing Bianca up to speed on the Reaver’s systems. So far she was catching on. Running the ship was a lot like playing a video game, in fact, and Bianca had always picked up games faster than most. When it came to the operation of the ship, according to Nani, she was a natural.

  As Nani’s scans brought back more and more information they’d been getting a heart-wrenching picture of the overrun of Earth’s forces. All the armies, the navies—whole ships blown out of the water in single shots—everything Bianca’s world put out to stop the aliens was being smashed. News feeds told the story of the lead-up, now most of the Earth’s broadcasts were being blocked and the biggest stream of data they tapped came from the Kel themselves. Reports on their channels of the various battle
s all over the world, taking on the strategically positioned Earth forces.

  Her world was being torn apart.

  “Wait,” Nani paused; pulled back from her screen. Tap-tapped to a different screen. Bianca watched from across the way. The bridge of the Reaver was quiet. They’d turned off the audio. Dozens of images from Kel feeds floated on the view dome; outside and beyond that a maelstrom; the furious clouds of Jupiter swirling along as the Reaver, in turn, held fast among them. A slight howl could be heard through the hull, tiny interruptions in the deathly calm of the bridge. More of a distant moan, actually, like being in a basement during a storm or something. Nani said at that level the atmosphere outside was howling along in rip currents of hundreds of miles an hour. The Reaver took it all in stride, holding position as directed, but the force of the winds was not to be denied. The great warship still shook from time to time; a dull vibration as the engines coped with sudden, violent changes in force. Like being in the middle of a hurricane-scale F5 tornado. Or worse. If Bianca thought about the power at play, on both sides of that struggle ...

  “Hold on,” Nani was intent, trying to find what she was looking for. Bianca finally found the energy to get out of her chair and, once on her feet, went to stand beside her.

  “It’s Zac,” Nani was almost breathless, tapping and expanding an image as Bianca’s mouth fell open. And there, on Nani’s screen, in one of the magnified images, one feed among many streaming in from the Kel war machine, was video of a battle on the ground and there, running across the field was …

  Zac.

  Bianca’s mind raced.

  “Where’s Jess?” she crowded closer, “Can you see Jessica?” leaning over Nani’s shoulder, peering hard at the image. Jess had to be down there too. Jess! The thought of finding her, after all this, sent her heart soaring. The war, the invasion, the alien threat, the end of the world … none of that had any place for her in that moment.

  Jess!

  Then Kang came into view.

  “No!” Nani blurted, Bianca too in the same breath.

  And there he was. Down there, running at Zac even as Zac ran at him. It was hard to make out details but it looked as if Zac was recovering after having been thrown, or vice versa. Either way, the two were heavily engaged.

  Nani’s voice quieted as she watched. “I guess now we know what happened,” she said, eyeing the yellow, horned monster. “And how the Kel got here.

  “They must’ve picked him up along with the Icon.”

  Kang and Zac struck in an impact of bodies and a shredding cloud of dirt and grass.

  “Jess has to be somewhere nearby,” Bianca insisted. Locked onto that one thing. Only that. She looked up, at the dome, at the other images all over the place; back down at this one, harder, trying to see what wasn’t there. Kang and Zac tore into each other, no sound on the small video. A crazy battle of super hero and super villain, tearing up the land as the indestructible force met the immovable object. It was insane.

  Bianca swallowed. “We have to go. We’ve got to get them.”

  “Yes,” Nani agreed. “Time to move.”

  Bianca stared at her; Nani stared back, eyes just as wide. The moment had finally come.

  They were terrified.

  **

  There was no doubt Kang was still stronger. Zac had been getting used to his own, newly increased strength, but with that first impact was forced to admit Kang remained superior. Zac’s additional might was not enough.

  Worse, he had no more will to go on.

  Last time they fought Zac may not have been as strong, but he came into the battle with a surge of determination. Filled with purpose. Last time he did it for Jessica, he did it for Anitra, for everyone, meaning to rid the world of the monster that posed such a threat. If he died then he did it for her. For them. Now Jess was gone. Everyone he cared about, gone. It was just him and the world was overrun and the Kel would complete their invasion whether he beat Kang or not and Zac could never fight them all and the hopelessness had him in its grip once more. If Kang didn’t the Kel would eventually find a way to bring him down. Kang, shockingly, had returned, was alive, and the whole thing was finally over.

  All of it, over.

  And so, unlike last time, Zac no longer knew why he fought. All his fervor, all his will to make a difference … nowhere to be found.

  Kang bellowed from across the field, an animal thunder that resounded from the hills. He’d just thrown Zac, before that Zac threw him—specific events of the clash a blur. Kang was charging and there was nowhere to go and Zac set himself once again, as yet unable to give up though he struggled mightily to do just that. A deep, weary desire to roll over and just die.

  Kang hit, Zac grabbed him and tumbled backwards, the scaly beast gripping him hard, ripping across the ground and into the trees, a tangle of superhuman limbs fighting for purchase. It was the battle on Anitra all over again.

  Only this time there was no one to save him.

  **

  “Mark all targets,” Nani’s voice was rising, hands and head in motion as she snapped her attention between views, tapping controls and bringing the Reaver online with Earth—which was now dead ahead. They’d rushed from Jupiter to the Earth in a flash and the entire Kel fleet was now spread out before them in their sights.

  “Got it,” Bianca identified and locked enemy craft, hands shaking, nerve volume at maximum and going past redline; doing everything Nani showed her in their training over the last however long they’d been waiting, biding their time deep in the clouds of the gas giant. Now they were out and they were here and these threats before them were real. She kept telling herself it worked the same as in the simulations. Just like a video game, she made herself believe it, working desperately to find calm, to adopt the right, stabilizing point of view. All she could hope was that, if this ended up Game Over, it would happen so fast there would be no pain. In the meantime she played to win.

  “Don’t fire unless I say,” Nani told her. “I’m going to try a feint.”

  The Earth was growing fast. Bianca was still reeling from the quantum transition. Jupiter would’ve been years away by any method known to Earth engineers, yet the Reaver popped out of the swirling clouds only moments ago and, with a flip of the quantum drive, was now squarely in view of the Big Blue Marble and turning on the speed. The Kel destroyers waiting in Jupiter’s orbit followed as expected—no way to avoid that—popping out behind, but that no longer mattered. The Reaver was rushing the blockade too fast to be stopped and would be long gone before the destroyers could do anything about it.

  Bianca felt her lips tighten in a grim expression. They were getting Zac, they were getting Jess and they were, finally, getting the hell out of here.

  The comm beeped and Satori’s voice was in the room.

  “We’re clear of the water and overland.”

  “Converge on these coordinates.” Nani fed them to her.

  Satori had been contacted as they left the cover of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Nani blasted a message with the updates and told her to get to that field where the Kel were beaming live feeds of Zac and prepare for boarding and departure.

  Satori was on her way.

  “Protect yourself,” Nani instructed. “The fighter will outgun and outmaneuver everything on-scene. Shoot your way to safety if you have to, but stay alive until we can join up.”

  “Understood.”

  “We’ll be on-station in three.” The Kel fleet was now close enough to see on visual. Bianca swallowed as she watched them out the domed viewscreen, a lump rising in her throat. Suddenly that spectacular view of everything made her feel vulnerable, exposed. It was an illusion, of course, but it felt too real.

  The Kel started moving. Breaking up and preparing to intercept the sudden and unexpected arrival of the Reaver.

  Nani cut left. “They're going to fire on us.”

  “Should I shoot?” Bianca’s heart was now all the way in her neck.

  “Not yet.” Nani ta
pped in furious concentration. Then: “Hold.” And the Reaver hooked and poured on the speed—as if it hadn’t been hauling ass already. Nani had apparently been holding back and the Kel fleet now shot suddenly to the right, hard and away, out of sight all at once and …

  The Earth was upon them. That fast. This must be the feint. The screen glowed white-hot and they were hooking again and abruptly they were angling in over the water far below and, before Bianca could fully process the extreme change of location and the ungodly rate of speed, they were on fire and blasting back toward land. Ultrasonic atmosphere rocked the hull with shuddering waves of force, a fireball streaking out miles behind. Bianca spared a glance to the rear of the dome, seeing the colored streaks of fire stretched into the distance, curving to mark their path.

  In a momentary state of awe she touched the console before her, looking down at the floor of the mighty ship that bore them.

  Damn!

  **

  From the cavernous quiet of her throne room Cee listened as Voltan described the progress of the invasion, most of her attention trained on the separate, live images of the battle between Kang and the overpowered human. The dark-haired man had been making short work of the Kel armored units prior to that, itself a fascinating thing to watch—it was utterly amazing, in fact—and now Kang had demanded to be dropped so he could finish his battle with this unusual specimen of humanity. Cee had not seen Kang in action, though she had full reports of the results of what his strength could do, and so watching this man which he engaged, this Horus, who seemed to be just as strong, consumed her. What he was able to do to the Kel armored units …