by L. E. Thomas
Invasion
A Star Runners Universe Novel
L.E. Thomas
Contents
Invasion
Become a Star Runner!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Become a Star Runner!
Sneak Peek at Star Runners (Book 1)
Also by L.E. Thomas
About the Author
Invasion
A Star Runners Universe Novel
Copyright © 2019
Shadow Max Publishing
* * *
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the Publisher. Brief quotations may be used for inclusion in articles published for noncommercial use including written news articles and reviews.
* * *
For permission
requests, write to [email protected], addressed
“Attention: Permissions Coordinator”
* * *
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
* * *
Edited by Annie J at
www.just-copyeditors.com
* * *
Cover art and design by Jeff Brown
jeffbrowngraphics.com
Created with Vellum
Become a Star Runner!
Earn your wings! Join the Star Runners email list!
Why? Get a chance for free stuff, the latest
Star Runners news, early offers for new stories in the Star Runners Universe, exclusive discounts on books and more!
I want my wings!
For Reau
Chapter One
"We have to go!"
Nat Hodges looked up from the digi-glass projecting the latest report from Atheron. His father stood in his bedroom's doorway, sweat glistening down his slender face blotched with red spots.
"What's going on?"
Lunging forward, Kad swiped the glass from his son's hands and grabbed the teenager tight on both shoulders.
"You have to trust me," he said, plunging his fingers plunged into Nat’s shoulder muscles. "We have to leave." His face tightened. "Where's your sister?"
Nat shook his head, his mind struggling to catch up after a long day of lessons. "I don't know. She hasn't come home yet."
His father's lips parted as a distant explosion rumbled. The old Oshua Overlords action figures from Nat's childhood rattled where they lined the bookshelves. The star of the team, Fredricks Von Braun, toppled onto the floor, his plastic helmet spinning around on the wood.
Releasing Nat from his vice-like grip, Kad hurried to the window and swept back the curtains. The afternoon sunlight beamed through. Nat squinted as he joined his father, his eyes fixated on the sight of the Oshua Capital, Greeva, in flames. Tracer fire streaked the air, filling the air above the skyline with laser blasts.
"But ... what?" Nat breathed, unable to say more.
Fighter jets of some kind soared across the cityscape, crimson laser blasts spitting from the wings. Bombs fell. Emerald laser fire sprayed skyward across the bay, missing the attackers. They pulled up as a tall plume of smoke and flame shot into the air, their horseshoe shape glistening in the sunlight. A concussion wave rippled through the buildings. Fires raged in the streets of Greeva.
Kad draped his arm over his son's shoulder. "We have to leave."
"Who are they?"
"Doesn't matter. Let's go."
"What should I bring?"
"No time for that." He typed into his phone and placed it to his ear, his face turning a shade of red. "Damn it. Network's still busy."
As Kad tried the phone again, Nat stared out the window. Incredible red beams shot down from the blue sky in the distance, clouds sweeping away from the immense energy. A mushroom cloud appeared over the horizon, rising into the atmosphere. More blasts fell, pounding the ground on the far side of Greeva Bay where the military base stood. He spent most of his life dreaming about serving on the base now burning on the horizon. He couldn't move. It was as if the window had a magnetic pull, drawing him to the chaotic scene unfolding in his hometown.
His mind raced in a desperate search for answers.
"Did they finally attack?" he asked, remembering his lessons of the Oshua-Ceroq wars of both his grandfathers.
"It doesn't matter," Kad said, pulling him from the window. "We have to go!"
When Kad released him, Nat stood at the foot of his bed looking over his bedroom. Bookshelves were lined with old collectibles he didn't want the other seventeen-year-olds to know he still had and history books filled with action tales of mythical heroes of Oshua. Over his bed hung a full-color poster of the colony on Atheron, the place his parents had promised to send him on vacation for his eighteenth birthday. He sighed. They had moved him here when he was just a baby. His sister, Tressa, remembered their first house. He didn't.
"Nat!" Kad barked from downstairs. "Come on!"
Taking one last look, Nat hurried out. Kad saw him following and spun on his heel, thrusting open the coat closet with his free hand. He plunged inside, grabbing the heavy coats they had used on their ski trip last winter.
"What are you doing?" Nat asked just as another explosion—closer this time—rocked the foundation of the house. Picture frames rattled, the fine dishes in the dining room rumbling.
Kad pulled out two silver coats and tossed them to Nat. "For you and your sister."
"But where are we going?"
"No questions now!" He raised his index finger toward Nat. "You have to trust me."
"But who are they?"
He turned back to the closet and pulled out two more coats. "It doesn't matter now. All that matters is your Ma and sister. Understood?"
"But—"
"Enough!"
"How could those attackers send laser blasts from the sky?"
Kad grabbed the keys to the car from the hook near the garage door. "They must have a battle station in orbit, or they sent that attack from Atheron."
Nat gasped. "They've attacked Atheron?"
"I don't know," he said, gesturing toward the vehicle with the top down as he tossed the coats in the backseat. "I was at work when I heard the news. Most of us left right away."
Nat climbed into the front seat, his mind still struggling to comprehend what was happening. "I don't understand. If it's not Ceroq, who would attack Oshua?"
Kad's brow lowered as he pounded the garage opener to make the operation faster. The old pulley slowly raised the door.
"It's not just Oshua," Kad said.
Nat blinked. "What do you mean?"
"It's Tarrafa."
He shook his head. "The entire planet?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"That's what the news said." He paused, staring through the windshield to the garage wall. "Atheron was struck first. The enemy came for Tarrafa soon after, demanding a planetary surrender."
Nat swallowed. "What happened?"
"Oshu
a and other nations refused." He looked at him. "Then they attacked, and I came to find you."
Nat looked at his coat. "Where are we going?"
"Grandpa's cabin is two hours away," he said, slamming the car into reverse. "We get Tressa and Ma. Then, we get out of town."
Before Nat could respond, Kad slammed on the gas, the wheels squealing as the car moved into the light and down the driveway. The road filled with panicked neighbors and discarded luggage. Weaving through the vehicles and pedestrians, Kad accelerated through the chaos. The Beezles next door stood immobile on their front lawn, husband and wife staring into the sky with mouths agape. The Franklins herded their three young children into the van, the youngest boy jumping with excitement and pointing toward Greeva. Mrs. Franklin scooped him up and tossed him into the van. Nat followed the boys' stare.
Two more enemy fighter planes zipped overhead. A pursuing Oshua copter appeared to the South, its repeating lasers filling the sky with green bolts. The enemy fighters broke formation, splitting into opposite directions. Forced to choose, the Oshua copter banked to focus its fire on one of the enemy fighters.
But they were too quick.
The second fighter, flashing across the sky so fast that Nat struggled to keep his eye on it, moved in behind the copter. Two seconds later, the fighter blasted raging crimson fire, laser bolts obliterating the copter's tail. With its stabilizer in flames, the copter twirled in a fiery spin to the ground. It exploded at the far end of the street, engulfing four homes in the cul-de-sac in a wave of flame.
"Da!" Nat screamed, watching the fighters streaking across the sky at impossible speeds.
"I see it!" he barked. "Put your seatbelt on!"
Nat did as instructed, yanking left and right as they drove like madmen through the neighborhood. Two vans blocked the street ahead, families hurling valuables into the back.
But Kad didn't slow. Instead, he accelerated.
Bracing himself, Nat gripped his seat with both hands, wondering if his father had lost his mind.
Kad swerved left and hopped the curb. The car bounced onto the immaculate lawn, spinning grass and dirt into the air. The engine roared as he created trenches in the yard, tearing through dirt and grass. He turned right and brought them back onto the road.
Nat turned around, sure the homeowners loading the van would be screaming at the destruction of their front yard. Instead, they kept piling their vehicle as if nothing had happened.
Kad took a right at the end of the road. "We have a full tank. Should be enough to get us there."
"You're going to the school first?"
He nodded, gripping the steering wheel tighter. "After that, we get your Mom."
"But that's downtown!"
"I know!"
Nat twisted around in the seat, looking back toward Greeva. Two skyscrapers burned. A copter, flames wrapping around the tail, crashed into one building. The highway between them and the city clogged with traffic. Hundreds fled the chaos on foot, sprinting across the Bay Bridge and climbing over stopped cars. Screams echoed over the cacophony. To the left, an enemy fighter dropped low over the ocean, flying fast for the bridge. Glancing back to the surging crowd crossing between traffic, he clenched his teeth.
Two missiles dropped from the fighter's wing. A half-second later, they ignited and shot toward the bridge. They struck the primary foundations of the ancient structure—the path to so many celebrations of his youth when his family would head into town to watch the Overlords play or for Ma to see the opera. Stone and fire swirled together. A shockwave rippled from the foundations, disturbing the surrounding water, and the bridge hovered for a terrible, deadly instant.
And then it crashed. Support beams buckled and squealed under the strain as the structure split down the middle. Vehicles and people fell. Steel, blood, and bone came together, falling into the blackwater of Greeva Bay.
“No!” Nat shouted, thinking of his Ma downtown with no bridge route to make it home.
Kad glanced in his rearview mirror, his eyes bulging. Shaking his head, he focused on the traffic. "We have to get to your sister."
"But what about Ma?"
Swallowing, Kad lowered his gaze and said, "She'll have to fend for herself right now."
"You can’t—"
"Enough, son!" he snapped, wiping his cheek. "You and Tressa are what matters now! It's what your Ma would want."
Leaning back, Nat folded his arms over his chest. He felt sick. He wanted to vomit. His teeth chattered as a shiver shot through his body. A few minutes ago, he was preparing to do his homework. Now, his world burned.
They turned on Fadra Avenue, the main road leading to Tressa's academy. Cars and trucks sped over the highway, swerving around slower vehicles and ignoring traffic regulations. A hovering hyperbike shot between a pickup and a sedan in a red blur. The front fender clipped a bumper, and the driver soared into the air, skipping across the pavement like a doll. The nearby grocery store lot looked like a street fight. Men and women struggled, filling their cars with food and water while fighting off would-be thieves. A toddler sat in a parking space, face drenched in tears, streaming as her tiny body shook.
Kad didn't slow, speeding through a traffic light. They missed striking a woman on a bicycle by a few feet.
Nat watched in stunned silence as his world came apart.
More laser bolts flashed to the distant west, raging across the afternoon sky like lightning. Everywhere he looked, the air filled with the invaders. Different, larger ships descended from the heavens. Shimmering hulls glowed in fire and smoke as they fell toward the surface. Bulky rectangular vessels, smaller than the others, rumbled through the clouds in packs, providing a stark contrast to the sleek shape of the fighters.
Sitting up straight, he tried to shake the confusion from his mind.
It was all really happening. It wasn't a nightmare.
He watched as artillery fire from Oshua bounced harmlessly off the larger vessels as they turned to land outside Greeva. The smaller ships set down on the rocky beach across the harbor near the smoldering remains of the military base. Squinting, he saw the doors drop and figures spill out onto the sand. A fierce firefight raged on the beach, but he couldn't see details, only laser fire and smoke.
"There it is!" Kad yelled, thrusting a finger toward the academy and ripping Nat's attention away from the scene in the distance. He breathed, "Oh, no."
A twisting line of cars spilled out into the road. Vehicles clogged the academy parking lot. Many had their doors still open, abandoned in the river of steel.
"What are we going to do?" Nat asked.
Kad dug into his pocket for the phone and tossed it to him.
"Try your sister again," he said, spinning the wheel toward the curb in front of the academy. He placed his hand over Nat's chest. "Hold on!"
The car collided with the curb, hard, and bounced into the air. The seatbelt dug into his shoulder. Kad gave it more gas, the tires ripping through the academy's front lawn as he drove toward the main entrance. Two students with faces blotchy and wet with tears, scattered and screamed as they drove past.
Turning to the phone, Nat dialed Tressa's number. "No calls are going through!"
"Try again!"
He did. "Still nothing."
Kad slammed his fist on the wheel. "All right," he said, rising in his seat and peering through the academy's windows as they drove. "Do you have any idea what she'd be doing right now?"
"She doesn't talk to me, Da."
"Think!"
Nat shook his head. "Try the auditorium or—"
"Wait!" Kad pointed to a hyperbike near the grand staircase of the main entrance. "That's Viper!"
Nat frowned. "Who?"
"The boy that took her to the assembly!"
The memory flashed of Tressa's dance. The weird dude with the glowing cobalt eyes and fiery orange hair had driven a hyperbike when he’d picked up Tressa for the event. It had been his older sister's first date with a boy who could dri
ve. "Viper" left with his hands slithering over Tressa's body. Nat's stomach turned.
Kad didn't wait for an answer. He yanked the wheel toward the staircase, accelerating through the grass and slamming on the brakes so hard the restraints dug into Nat's chest.
Viper scurried up three stairs, his jaw hanging open and a phone dropping from his hand.
"The hell, man?" he screeched, his voice cracking in a high-pitched wail. "What are you doing, freak?"
"Hey!" Kad yelled, jabbing his finger toward Viper. "Where's Tressa?"
The unnatural blue in his eyes grew brighter. "Who?"
"My daughter!"
"Oh, right, yeah, don't get smashed, man. Okay? Just chill the—"
"Is she here?"
Viper stepped down the stairs, his hands trembling. He looked around as if he expected to get arrested, oblivious to the invasion crashing around them. He glanced at the street and thrust his fingers into his mouth, chomping on the nails.
"Don't get cheesed, man, but I left campus earlier to get charged," he said, hissing in a laugh like air releasing from a tire. "She said she'd see me after when—"
"What class was she in?" Kad pressed, looking to the towering plumes of smoke rising into the air.
"Ah, right, lessons and stuff." Viper scratched his head. "Dunno, man. I dropped out last quarter to work on my bikes. Think she said she'd be working on her art project or something like—"