Arkana (ESS Space Marines Book 4)

by James David Victor

  The words “someone like him” ricocheted through her mind.

  That made it sound like her father was someone important in the Arkana world, perhaps a leader or general of some sort. It never occurred to her that her father might be a somebody in their race.

  Of course, it didn’t really change anything. She didn’t want to become part of them and fight against the ESS. She was willing to write him off along with the rest of the race, because that was what had to be done, but the sudden knowledge of him—even this little bit, were it true—was more than she’d had before. Maybe it was the fact that she knew she never would, in fact, meet her father that made her want to know more about him.

  No matter what, he made up half of what she was. She wanted to at least know...

  But still, she did not ask. She would not allow herself the luxury of indulging that curiosity.

  The Arkana stared at her, just as she stared back at him. She wondered if he would give up trying to poke holes in her mental armor, maybe just open fire again. Maybe he would tire of trying with words. It would in some ways be easier for her, and make the moment clean cut again. Yet the idea that it might happen that way made her sad, which planted a seed of doubt in her conviction.

  She had to keep reminding herself that he could be lying, using false words just as easily as true ones to try to get to her.

  Across from her, the Arkana pursed his white lips. “You shouldn’t feel too special, though.”

  Andy said nothing, but her brows did rise slightly.

  “I just mean that he hasn’t been known to keep his attentions limited,” the soldier went on flippantly. His grip on his gun, and his aim, never wavered, even as he gave a little shrug. “Anyone who takes his fancy...well, takes his fancy. We’ve done pretty well to keep to the shadows over the decades since we ended up in the far reaches of space, but he’s one of those who went in advance of our plans. Between human women and Arkana women, he’s left a trail of children over the years.”

  That would mean...she had half-siblings.

  Why the thought had never occurred to her before, she couldn’t say. It suddenly seemed incredibly obvious, but with everything that she had learned about herself, the Arkana, and the coming of a war... Well, her mind had been on things other than just how far that part of her heritage was spread out.

  “He knows of you, though,” he went on. “The traitor.”

  Andy knew that shouldn’t hurt, yet still somehow it did. She grit her back teeth together and wrestled with that desire to shoot.

  “Even so, he won’t be happy with whoever kills you,” he said. “No matter how inevitable it is that it will happen. You know that you hold no privilege anymore. You may be one of the lost ones that we tried to bring back into the fold, but now we all live with orders to kill you, if we can.”

  She wondered why he kept talking, then. Why didn’t he just shoot her? Could it be that if he brought her in alive, he hoped to gain some special reward? That theory seemed to bolster the likelihood that he was speaking the truth.

  Yet even if he was...what could she do about it?

  Chapter 21

  The stalemate didn’t last much longer.

  Maybe he saw something in her eyes that changed his mind. She did believe what he said, but it wasn’t going to change anything in what she did or how she planned to live her life. She was human, and she was a member of the ESS Marines. Nothing he said could change that, and that was her life.

  Whatever it was, he clearly decided that talking wasn’t getting him to where he wanted to be. She saw the slightest hitch in his shoulder, and knew he was about to fire.

  She threw herself to the side just as the energy discharge lanced towards her. It caught the very edge of her shoulder and burned part of her uniform away, but didn’t get much skin in more than an irritating blow. Andy brought her rifle back around as quickly as possible and got off a shot, but the soldier was already running towards a door behind him that she cursed herself for not having noticed.

  Her bullet bounced off the wall and lodged in a chair just as she took off after him.

  The door was starting to slide shut again as she reached it and punched her way through, the thing nearly closing on her as she did. It didn’t slow her down for long, but the door led to yet one more staircase. He was already at the top of it by the time she started at the bottom. She got another shot off, but once again, it missed and just bounced off the wall.

  She hurried up the steps after him, this time with far less caution than when she’d climbed the other two sets of stairs. A bolt of energy flew past her as she reached the landing, but this one didn’t catch her at all. She saw him turning back around and disappearing through another door, but this one let in sunlight through it and she knew that he was on the roof.

  Andy ran down the hallway and then paused at the doorway, swinging around a moment later with her gun up, but there was no shot coming in her direction.

  A slight alcove around the door gave her a little cover as she stepped out onto the roof, but as soon as she saw ahead of her, she knew she didn’t need it quite as much. He didn’t have his gun up now. He was standing very close to the edge of the roof, and she couldn’t tell if he meant to jump or thought that this would keep her from shooting him.

  “You know you can’t win,” he said. “We are born of your race, but we have grown beyond you. We know more and are more than any of you could ever hope to be.”

  Before she had the chance to reply or shoot, there came a loud crashing and banging from below. Someone was clearing out the debris that had blocked in the doorway and from the stream of Selerid that she suddenly heard rising, she knew it was her squad.

  “You can’t win,” the nameless Arkana soldier said again, just before he did...something.

  It was that same something that all of the prisoners they had tried to take did. No one in the ESS had figured it out, but he did it just then. It happened so fast that she didn’t have any time to react. The life fled his blue eyes and she saw just how vacant they were before gravity did the rest and pulled him off the roof.

  She ran over to the edge and looked down, seeing his body where it had hit on the pavement below...right next to her squad. They stared up at her for a moment and all she could do was shake her head.

  She knew she couldn’t spare any time to think about all of the things he had said, nor what he had just done. She turned and rushed off the rooftop, back through the door and down three flights of stairs. This time, she wasn’t moving with caution because she knew there wasn’t any other Arkana here. It had just been him and her, and now it was just her.

  By the time she reached the door she had originally come through, she found her squad-mates. They had cleared the debris and now she could step out into the street.

  “Report,” she said, trying to not sound as shaken as she felt.

  “There were no back entrances, Major,” Dan quipped, although his small smile looked forced as he said it. “I came back around and found it like this. I couldn’t move it by myself, but it wasn’t long before these three came up and we did it together.”

  “We captured the three that we were in pursuit of and left them restrained in a building on the other street,” Roxanna said. She was second in charge of Alpha Squad, so she had been the leader of her own sub-group for that short amount of time. “We’ll send someone to get them when this is over, but I somehow doubt we’ll find them still alive.”

  Andy looked at the body on the ground beside them. “I think you might right,” she said, forcing herself to be as cold and flat as she could. “I pursued him into the building and eventually onto the roof. He killed himself before I could do it for him.”

  If any of them wondered what had taken so long in the interim, no one said anything.

  “Have we heard from any of the other squads?” she asked. It would have been routed to her, but just in case it hadn’t been able to reach her, she was going to check.

  “No, Sir,”
Roxanna replied, confirming that thought.

  She nodded for them to walk with her and they did so, keeping weapons tight. As they walked, she touched her earpiece and called the others. Kavar reported that no more Arkana had tried to attack their position, and the 21st reported that after the initial breakthrough, no others had managed to penetrate.

  Andy then called the shuttle pilot.

  “This is Major Dolan,” she said. “Do you have anything for me?”

  “No, Sir,” the woman replied. She wasn’t a Marine, but she did defer to the detachment leader. “We have not had any further news from the ship as to their state, but I would assume that to mean the battle continues. I’ve been running sensor sweeps and there are no more Arkana heading to the planet. From what I can see, which is limited in distinguishing between the two, there are no new groups of soldiers heading towards Marine positions. Many are down, including Marines.”

  It was news to make a heart heavy, but it was also to be expected.

  As much as no one liked to think about it, this was war, and they were on the front line. They all knew that they weren’t guaranteed to make it back out. The fiery red wound on Jade’s arm, the cut to Roxanna’s neck, and the various wounds on Anallin were all testaments to that.

  “Thank you,” Andy said aloud. “Keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything else coming towards us.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They kept walking, and were partway back to their original position when Captain Valentine rang in.

  “Major,” he said, sounding strained. “Another group has broken through our lines, and I have Marines down. We were pushed back before finally breaking, and the enemy is heading towards the city’s power plant. What remains of my squad and second squad is moving to engage, but the group was big. We need reinforcements.”

  No rest for the wicked, as it was said. “Acknowledged. Hold on as long as you can. We are on our way.”

  Chapter 22

  She wasn’t willing to break all the lines and unman all of the positions, so Andy only called in two squads from her own 33rd. The 21st was already thin where they were and the 15th had taken heavy casualties. She ordered Beta and Delta Squads to move to the interior of the city and converge on the power plant and control center, which happened to house an annex building of the planetary sensor array.

  The definition of a most wanted target.

  Despite how much they’d already fought and the wounds they’d already taken, Andy and Alpha Squad hurried into the city. They were wary of every intersection and doorway they passed, but no Arkana were hiding in any of them. The enemy had a singular motivation, and they were racing toward it.

  When Alpha Squad came in sight of the target buildings, they saw a large mass of pale-bodied Arkana soldiers and a smaller number of black-armored ESS Marines. Andy could see Atad and Beta Squad—minus one—coming out of different streets, and neither group hesitated to rush into the fray. Some Arkana were fighting, while others were trying to gain entry into the building.

  Coming in range, Andy pulled up short to bring up her rifle. She targeted the first Arkana she could get that wouldn’t send the bullet through a Marine first. She took out one and then a second, while the rest seemed to shift. It was an ebb and flow of combat that put too many enemies in the way of her shots.

  Anallin managed a little better and took out a couple with superior sniper skills.

  Andy sought out another target, but whirled around at the last minute when she heard boots pounding the pavement. She didn’t know what made her realize they stood out from the other sounds, perhaps it was the sound of running, but she knew it was different and it was coming for her.

  As she turned, an Arkana soldier barreled into her. The pale woman didn’t appear to have any weapon and her immediate proximity made it impossible for Andy to use hers. Instead, she brought the weapon up and blocked with it like it was a polearm rather than a rifle. She pressed her weight into her feet, but the power behind the charge still made her slide back.

  Andy twisted the weapon suddenly, bringing it from horizontal to vertical with a speed that sent one end cracking into the other woman’s face as it broke her attempts to get a hold of Andy. The Arkana’s head snapped to the side and she spat blood on the ground, cursing in ways Andy had never heard before.

  Seizing the initiative, the major brought the rifle back a little—horizontal again—then shoved forward, hard and fast. It caught the other woman across the chest and sent her onto her back. Spinning the rifle around, Andy moved to take a shot but a long leg with a pale-colored boot flew up and around in a one-eighty that caught the rifle and would have sent it flying had it not been attached to Andy’s person.

  It was enough to throw Andy off balance, though, which was enough for the soldier to get back on her feet. Andy let the rifle slide down and to her back, bringing up her hands while the Arkana came at her again.

  The Arkana sent a kick towards Andy’s midsection and she jumped back, swinging her arm down to deflect the leg and to try to throw the other woman off balance. Just as the kicking foot hit the ground, Andy moved in with a right hook. It split open the other woman’s cheek, but she returned with a punch of her own that cracked against Andy’s chin and jarred her skull.

  She clenched her teeth against the feeling of reverberation, and brought her hands up in time to block a second strike. Shifting back a step, she put a little space between her and the other woman and then caught the next hit before it landed. Gripping the woman’s wrist tight, she pulled and pivoted. Andy drove her elbow into the Arkana’s head and then down into her gut, letting go as the soldier stumbled back, gagging.

  Andy spun back around and drove her elbow into the back of the woman’s head, sending her to the ground where she didn’t get up again.

  As she swung back around and brought her rifle up to aim into the enemy lines, she heard a cry behind her. She turned her head to see Jade gripping her side, staggering back a step. The girl’s face was contorted with pain and she couldn’t hold her rifle for that moment, but she had the presence of mind to pull her sidearm and return fire at the one who had injured her.

  Andy hurried to Jade’s side as the woman turned and fired another shot. “I’m fine, Sir,” she called over the sounds of combat, even as her hand remained against her side. “Just caught me by surprise.”

  “Whatever you say, Martin,” Andy replied. If Jade was still on her feet, then that was all Andy needed to know right then. She turned enough to put their backs facing one another and Andy took another sweeping survey of the fight.

  She lifted her rifle to take out a soldier that was flanking one of Beta Squad’s Marines, but before she could pull the trigger, a blast of energy hit the ground just beside her. She cursed and pushed Jade back, moving them away from that target zone as her dark eyes rushed towards where she felt certain the shot had come from.

  At the edge of the field, toward where one of the streets let out into the lot that these buildings sat on, was an Arkana soldier holding one of their rifles. He was one of the few not engaged in direct combat, probably because he was standing on the outside of the field of fire and so was less of an obvious threat to those on the inside.

  The gun was still up and even at this distance, Andy thought she could see the faint blue glow around the muzzle that suggested it was about to fire again.

  “Move!” she shouted, pushing Jade again in some instinct that she knew where he was going to fire next. And her instinct was right. She had moved them out of the way just in time to avoid being melted by that next shot. The rapid succession of dodges kept her grip on her weapon loose, but she brought it up tight now.

  She sighted down the length and put the Arkana sniper in her sights. She saw the telltale glow again and squeezed her own trigger fast, and first. The bullet shot through the space between them in a second. He didn’t move fast enough but did avoid a kill shot. Instead, her bullet hit his hand and he dropped the rifle to the pavement.
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  As he bent down to pick up the weapon, her second shot didn’t miss.

  Andy looked back towards the buildings, which were at the center of everything.

  This building and its doors and windows appeared to be particularly well-constructed and able to withstand attempts to tear it open. Although she thought that the Arkana didn’t look like they had been well prepared to physically break anything down to get in. Between these two facts, they hadn’t yet breached the power plant door, but she knew it wasn’t going to take much longer.

  “We’ve got to stop them from getting in,” Andy declared. “I don’t know what they’ll do, but I’m sure we won’t like it.”

  Chapter 23

  “If you have any ideas, Major, I’m open to them,” Jade said, sounding out of breath but determined.

  Andy didn’t have any ideas, though. At least not any really good ones. She had thought about trying to take them out one by one, but there was too much movement at the building and in between them for clear shots. She knew they would have to get closer, but a swath of battle stood between her and that objective. There was no easy way through.

  Suddenly, there was a purple figure beside her. What Roxanna had to say made it seem like her empathic senses suddenly were telepathic, but Andy wasn’t going to question it.

  “Access street,” she declared, panting slightly. “The Arkana haven’t found it yet—or blocked it off. I just barely caught sight of it, but if we can get to it, we can get around the main fight and get behind where they are trying to break in. Then we can flank the Arkana on both sides and close on them like a trap.”