by Jack Hunt
Reid reached for his sidearm but it was gone. It must have slid out when he took the fall.
On the floor above, Sophie kept her gun fixed on Kane as he held the chancellor.
“What the hell did my mother see in you?”
“A man. Unlike your father.”
The sound of Reid crying out in pain made Kane smirk.
“He was your best friend. How can you do this?”
“You have it wrong, I was his. Your father always had it laid before him. He had a foot in the door with SOSR, while I had to work for it. He rode in on the coattails of his father and they would have handed him this position if I hadn’t earned it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You haven’t earned it. You have to earn it every day by the actions you take. Turning against your own people. You don’t deserve shit.”
In an instant, Kenji twisted and knocked Kane back several feet. Kane fired but Kenji was too fast. It was what made the Echobi such good soldiers. Their agility was only matched by their speed.
Before Kane could fire another round, Sophie unloaded. A round struck him and he dropped the weapon, letting out an agonizing cry. He buckled over, gripping a hand now missing several fingers.
“Bitch,” Kane cried out before groaning and squeezing his bloody hand. Sophie kept her gun trained on him as Kenji moved away and went to Reid’s aid.
Kane slowly edged towards his gun on the ground.
“Go ahead, try me,” Sophie said. Kane winced as his eyes darted between her and the gun. Instead of trying, he slumped down. Sophie snorted. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Below, Reid was in a war for his life. Though he had fought the Echobi four years ago, it was easy to forget how good they were as warriors. No matter what he threw at him, Draskan would counter it and unleash his fury.
“For what you did to my son, I’m going to take you apart.”
He tossed Reid in the air like a rag doll. Reid soared and slammed into a cabin wall. He spat blood on the ground. Older than Draskan, slower and without a weapon he was liable to lose this fight. As he spat out a tooth and tried getting back up, his medallion dropped out from inside his suit. He glanced at it remembering his father, remembering Phantom and the words engraved… “May the waves taste your fury, may the ocean remember your fight.”
As Draskan clasped the back of Reid’s suit and yanked him up to waist level, Reid saw the blade in the sheath of Draskan’s armor. Before he could grab it, he was smashed down onto the floor and Draskan rained down blow after blow as if trying to snap his spine. Every hit was worse than the next. Then, as he lifted him for a second time, Reid scooped out the blade from Draskan’s sheath and just as he was about to slam him back down he drove it deep into his gut.
Draskan screamed as Reid twisted the blade. Released from his grasp, Reid landed hard and scrambled to get back to his feet. Draskan took a hold of the blade’s handle. The sound of hissing plasma was masked by his scream, as it burned his insides. Slowly he withdrew it from his gut.
“I’m gonna gut you like a pig.”
He lifted the knife and was about to rush Reid, when Kenji dropped down from above driving a blade into Draskan’s neck. Then in one smooth motion, he took off Draskan’s head with another blade. Reid gripped his side and watched intently as Draskan’s head rolled off his shoulders and hit the floor. Kenji stared at Reid for a few seconds before picking up the head and moving to the edge.
He cried out in his native tongue, then spoke in English. “Enough!” His voice carried over the vast crowd, echoing against the surrounding landscape. The noise from below continued for a minute or two until he repeated himself again, this time he raised the head of Draskan. “Enough! No more! There will be no more bloodshed!”
Reid gripped his side in agony. Pain shot through his back, and up his spine. His face was cut, and swollen. Blood dripped down from his forehead in streaks and masked his features in red. He looked out to see soldiers all over the square drop down to one knee, including the remaining militants. Down below, among the crowd, he saw Priest’s dead body. The only ones that had survived were Viper and Bulldog.
Sophie!
Reid moved fast up the staircase until he reached the level where she was standing and Kane was on his knees, gripping a bloody hand.
“Perhaps I underestimated you, kid,” Reid said placing his hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
“You wouldn’t be the first,” she said with a smirk before placing a gun back into her holster.
Reid looked down at Kane who wouldn’t even look him in the eyes. As much as he wanted to unleash his anger on him, he couldn’t help but feel as though it would be wasted. Death would have been too sweet of a release for him. It would have been too easy.
“You know, it didn’t need to end this way, Kane. Good people died because of you.”
He snorted then lifted his eyes. “Good people? You really are deluded. You don’t know the half of what is going on in the UEDF. There is a shit storm brewing that will make this look like child’s play. You might think you’ve prevented Earth’s demise but all you’ve done is delay the inevitable. Others will come and they won’t be as forgiving.”
“Let them. We’ll be ready. Until then, you will rot in the brig.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After he spent the better part of five days in medical bay, and wrestled with the knowledge that Ty “Woodpecker” Jones had succumbed to his injuries, an award ceremony was held on Earth to honor those who had given their lives on Drozleon.
Admiral Ramon stood before a stadium full of soldiers, spouses and children. He spoke of the UEDF’s resilience and strength, and its refusal to be intimidated by hostility. The crowd clapped and cheered with little understanding of what was sacrificed. They received the sound bite, the palatable version that made the UEDF look faultless. Reid stood beside a battle-worn group as they looked out at the faces of the grateful.
As promised, Viper and Bulldog were cleared of all wrongdoing, and were given the chance to continue in service.
The response? It was as Reid expected. They gave the UEDF the middle finger.
Though it was a time of celebration, the words of Kane lingered in his mind as he glanced at the admiral pinning a gleaming medal on the breast of Bulldog.
What had Kane meant? What was going on in the UEDF? How much of what was coming down the pipeline did the admiral know? Was there any truth to his words or were they just the lies of a desperate man peering down at a life sentence? A final attempt to stay in control of a future unraveling before him.
Kane received a life sentence for treason, and while it was appropriate, he couldn’t help wonder how his old friend had stepped off the path.
Perhaps he would never know.
His heart swelled with the pride only a father could feel as Sophie went up to collect her medal. She had come a long way in a short time. And if she continued along the path she was heading, she would make an SOSR in no time.
Reid’s eyes drifted outward to the front row where Katherine sat with her hands folded in her lap. Though she wore a strained smile, he knew there was an ache in her heart. Over the past week the UEDF had grilled her on her involvement. Though she denied knowing anything, Reid wasn’t so sure.
Katherine rose from her seat to take a photo. After returning and adjusting her hair, her focus shifted to Reid and for a moment they locked eyes.
So many secrets.
So many lies.
After a lifetime of service in the UEDF, he thought he understood how they operated but he had only scratched the surface. He knew that success and fear would soon become its downfall. It was only as strong as those who chose to remain transparent.
Could it be better? Of course. Would it? That was something only time would tell.
Off to his right Ambassador Powers appeared. She was dressed in a navy-blue suit. She wore a dark brown wig to cover up the loss of hair and her face still had the faint marks of the beating she h
ad endured.
“Lieutenant,” she said, falling in at the end of the line beside him. “Good to see you have recovered.”
“Likewise.”
She spoke in a hushed tone as the admiral spoke to the crowed.
“Does this mean you will consider my offer?”
Reid chuckled. “You don’t give up easily, do you?”
“Neither do you. You’re still young, able and have good instincts. It would be a shame to see them go to waste.”
“I don’t know. A lot of thinking goes into fishing.” He smirked. “And retirement looks real good right about now.”
“Well, the offer stands.”
Reid was up next. Admiral Ramon beamed as he extended a firm handshake and thanked Reid for his valiant efforts. They stood side by side looking into the cameras of the media as they snapped furiously trying to get the prize shot that would eventually appear on billboards all over Earth. No doubt he would see his mug shot alongside Viper and Bulldog in some recruitment material, somewhere down the line.
The UEDF was good at many things. Finding an angle, covering their asses and working the media were just a few. They were masters at giving the illusion that all was well at the helm.
But all was not well, and this operation had only served to reveal that.
If Kane had gone unnoticed, who else had?
He had already been contacted numerous times by the media for interviews but he had declined every one of them. He was ready to put his feet up, listen to the sound of water lapping up against a dock and sink a few brews. He longed to wake up late, go to bed whenever he liked and for once he wanted to be on the other side of the coin, basking in the safety that Earth’s defense provided.
He stepped up to the podium to address the eager listeners.
Camera lights stabbed his eyes. He squinted at the brightness. For a brief second he thought he saw Draskan in the crowd. As he squeezed his eyes shut and they adjusted to the light, he knew it was just the remains of a bad memory. It would eventually fade, as did all the horrors he’d seen over the course of his career.
Reid took to the microphone.
He cleared his throat and a hush spread over the crowd. He gazed around at the thousands of people who had come from miles to hear them speak, to take photographs and gain inspiration from what they had done. He looked at the future of Earth. All the soldiers that had survived war, all the recruits that had yet to experience their first. All the parents whose hearts would break, and the children that would one day aspire to be a part of the United Earth Defense Force.
Reid leaned forward.
He swallowed hard. “Thank you for coming. I speak on behalf of those who can’t be here today. Charley ‘Priest’ Ross, Ty ‘Woodpecker’ Jones, Joe ‘Skinner’ Visser and Tobias ‘Phantom’ Morozov.
“As you know, we are soldiers. Formed from the same cloth. There’s no glory in what we do. War is a necessary evil. We taste the grit of unfamiliar worlds and kneel beside good men as light wanes in their eyes. We fight in the darkest of places, see atrocities none should witness, and bear scars formed by the heat of battle.” He took a deep breath. “And though many years from now some will doubt the events that transpired, we know they are true for we’ve lived them.” Reid looked back at Bulldog and Viper before continuing. “We are here today to honor the fallen, so how do we do that?” Reid’s head moved slightly as the images of his team passed before him on the screen. His eyes drifted to Katherine and she dropped her chin. “It’s not with medals that will rust, or flowers that decay but by holding on to the memory of who they were.” He glanced out at the many unrecognizable faces. “Who were they?”
He cleared his throat again.
“They were more than just soldiers, countrymen, brothers in war. They were fathers, uncles, sons and friends.”
As Reid squeezed Priest’s rosary beads in his hand, his lip curled up.
“And though no one can truly convey the sacrifice they made, nor hope to grasp the depths of all they were, I can tell you this with all certainty. That even to their last breath, these men weren’t only brave and selfless but they were boldly and unapologetically… defiant.”
THANK YOU FOR READING
Defiant: (The Armada Series Book 1)
Valiant: Book 2 will be available soon.
A Plea
Thank you for reading Defiant: (The Armada Series Book 1). If you enjoyed the book, I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a review. Without reviews, an author’s books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. It also lets me know what you liked. You can leave a review by visiting the book’s page. I would greatly appreciate it. It only takes a couple of seconds.
Thank you — Jack Hunt
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About the Author
Jack Hunt is the author of horror, sci-fi and post-apocalyptic novels. He currently has one book out in the Agora Virus series, three books out in the Camp Zero series, five books out in the Renegades series, a time travel book called Killing Time and another called Mavericks: Hunters Moon. Jack lives on the East coast of North America.
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Also by Jack Hunt
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The Armada series
Defiant
Valiant (Coming Soon)
The Agora Virus series
Phobia
Book 2 (Coming January 2017)
Camp Zero series
State of Panic
State of Shock
State of Decay
Renegades series
The Renegades
The Renegades Book 2: Aftermath
The Renegades Book 3: Fortress
The Renegades Book 4: Colony
The Renegades Book 5: United
Mavericks series
Mavericks: Hunters Moon
Time Agents series
Killing Time