Rebirth (Rebel Wars Book 2)

by Michael Andrews

  “Alice, calm down.” President Tate said, as if attempting to predict the process of her thoughts. He seemed taller, a bit stronger than before as if the confidence he felt had caused his body to grow. He set the bloodied cloth onto his desk and stretched his neck until it made a slight popping sound. Three guards were within the room, the rest had been dismissed. Clara, the President’s lovely personal assistant sat at his desk, running the program that was integrated into poor Charles. “This was necessary, I assure you. Any weakness within the Rebellion must be sniffed out and removed before it grows malignant.”

  “I am calm. Remember? I am nothing more than a gun, point me at a target and I will destroy it.” She said, amused that the President’s heart was racing. He was afraid of her response, and she figured that if she had been the old Alice, then he’d have plenty of reasons to be afraid. That wasn’t the truth anymore. “What did you call me in for, it seems you have this handled.”

  “Of course I do, he isn’t the problem. My daughter, Lorelei, has resurfaced after all of these years. She not only abandoned humanity and our cause, but has destroyed much of her own humanity as well. In a sick effort to become more like them, she has undergone surgical procedures to change herself from the little girl I knew to becoming a Corporation woman. In fact, she has taken herself a Corporation husband, and that is where things have gotten difficult.” He said, looking up at the screen for a moment before back to Alice. “She was on her way to another section on a diplomatic mission for her husband, Section Commander Darvin when her vessel was attacked by some privateers. Charles here is a merchant employer of these privateers. They use gunboats to steal merchandise and money from anyone they can, and this looked like a rich party. Turns out after kidnapping her, killing her guards and blowing up one of Lorelei’s escort ships; she confessed to her true identity and begged for her life. Humanity is my whole purpose for fighting and living, and yet it seems we’re still disgusting animals.” He spit the words onto the ground.

  “Killing, robbing, and psychological torture not out of our purview, hmm Robert?” She said, the cold logic in her voice worse for the President to hear than a hateful sarcasm would have been.

  “President. And yes I understand you may not like what I have done to Charles here, but it seems that the methods they used against my daughter were less pleasant than I’ve done here. She may have abandoned me, but she is still my flesh and blood. Regardless, they have her right now in a station not far from here, and I am sending a man to extract her now.” He picked up a short knife from his desk and held it up to the light, looking over the blade with a diligent eye.

  “Again, you are avoiding why I am here. If you are not sending me to extract your daughter, then why am I here?” She said, moving with a little more speed than intended to close the gap between her and the President. The guards raised their weapons aimed then towards her chest. She looked back at them with no actual movement from her body. The President raised a dismissive hand towards the guards, who lowered their weapons.

  “Don’t be idiots, or I’ll have you removed from my detail. If she wanted to kill myself or anyone else in this room, there is nothing you could do against her. You might as well have toy guns.” He scolded the guards, who exchanged looks, shrugged, and holstered their weapons. “Alice. I have you here because I need a favor. Extracting her from pirates is easy enough for the agent I’ve hired. However, what I need from you is far more dangerous. It seems that Section Commander Darvin has sent a vessel to communicate with the ship in orbit of Cydrak, The Eldritch Glaive. There is a woman there serving as a ward of the Glaive’s commander Reinholdt until they have finished finding the weapon they were sent to obtain. You will have to break through their hold of the planet on your way in, and probably again on your way out. I want you to capture the emissary they have and bring her back to The Tower.” He said.

  “And what will that accomplish besides making sure that my team dies?”

  “Oh, they won’t die. I’m sending you another squadron of men and you’ll have Project backing you up. His expertise will be necessary. As to why, because this particular Corporation man holds a large section under his command and is notoriously ruthless when it comes to capturing human slaves. The power he wields dwarfs Corporation HQ’s power at times, simply because he is closer and has more resources at his disposal. If we are to succeed in extracting my daughter he will want her back at all costs, and things will become a lot harder than they already are. I’m not willing to give her up now that I will soon have her. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. You plan on using the emissary to find a way to get to him and unseat him from command of his sector, therefore taking it over and increasing our reach.” She said, grabbing the knife from his hand. It was so light it was as if it wasn’t there at all, an amusing fact to her. She threw the knife straight down into Charles, the blade penetrating the jugular of his neck. Blood poured quickly as his body seized, Clara let out a surprised scream and frantically tried to record the data she’d already taken. The President let out a loud sigh and turned his back to Alice, the guards looking helpless even as one of them rushed to try to save Charles’s life, a fruitless effort.

  “I suppose that’s better than killing all of us. You know exactly what I want now. I’ll have Project outfitted with the data on the woman you’ll be taking for us. The Eldritch Glaive is extremely well equipped and the mission will be about as suicidal as the one you’re already doing. But I need you to survive. I have faith in you, even if I’m not pleased about you killing Charles here. I don’t know what he did to you.” Robert said, his laughing tone dark and dangerous. Alice hadn’t seen him like this and wasn’t even certain he had such a sinister side to him, but here it was laid bare for her to see. She left the room with no care for goodbyes, there was a lot of work to do. At least she now had Project with her, and that meant she may actually get to set foot back on the Tower.

  The Stormbreaker was filled with engineers, technicians, and soldiers. A couple of trained medics rounded out the crew of her stolen transport ship, with Andreya no longer amongst them. Alice stood in the command room of her ship, looking out over the new faces amongst them. Steven had been killed during her assassination and they’d replaced him with a woman who seemed far too old to be piloting the ship, but she came with a list of recommendations longer than Alice had ever seen. The woman’s name was Yegret, and she was nearly 50 years old with over 30 years of experience behind the console of a ship. Alice wondered if there was a point in which experience began to fade away from being impressive and change to be a liability. She deserved a chance, and her record spoke for itself at any rate. Lisa was nearby at the science station, a console equipped with all of the ship’s sensor readings and other tools. She looked nervous, the chair where Milly had been gunned down hadn’t been replaced, only fixed. The bullet holes had mended, but Lisa would never forget that they had been there.

  Lisa’s spun-golden hair hung below her waist, controlled by a series of ties that kept it neat and out of her way. Her figure was shapely but slender, and her face was pale from lack of sunlight. That was okay to Alice, the woman was needed for her brilliance not for her physical abilities. She was capable of writing programs faster than anyone save for Project, who could simulate multiple programs at the same time. For a human, she would go down in history for her ability to speak programming languages as if they were her native tongue. In many ways, she was a deity in the virtual world and could match any other programmer she’d ever met. Her work-station had been modified, giving her full access to the ship’s functions and relays. She sat down at the console and started typing away, her lips pursed with concentration as she entered customized macros and other programs to help her serve Alice the best way she knew how.

  Alice took her position in the chair across the room from Lisa, her metal body easily supported by the sturdy seat. The controls for the cannons were neatly arranged within quick reach of her hands, though she hadn’t used th
em since she’d taken on this form. The cannons were designed to be controlled independently of the ship and when brought online were carried off to the sides by highly durable tendrils so they could be rotated and aimed in whatever direction Alice pleased. This was important due to the nature of combat in space, with ships moving at incredible speeds in different orientations, aiming was a difficult task. Project had upgraded the basic honing potential of the projectiles to make sure each shot fired would have the greatest chance of hitting its target. In space it didn’t require much force to break a hull and send a ship into chaos, and though Alice’s ship had re-sealable bulkheads and kinetic dampeners installed she felt that it was best to take the enemy out before letting them take her down.

  Fiora’s Paladin team brought their equipment aboard and stowed it into the drop-pods in preparation for land-fall. Alice reasoned that getting the Stormbreaker to drop into the planet’s atmosphere was the best way to perform the operation, but she wasn’t sold that it would be possible to break through whatever was waiting for her on the other side. The drop-pods were the next-best thing and had served her well in the past. She hadn’t caught but a glance of the new Paladin Officer, but Fiora seemed different to her. She wasn’t certain what it was and wasn’t sure it even mattered but something seemed different about the way she carried herself and the way the armor fit around her. Her small squad of six said nothing through their fully armored helmets, making their way through their preparation process. When they were finished, Fiora sent a greenlight to the cabin of the ship, and Alice started launch preparations.

  She hadn’t briefed the crew on her new mission from the President yet. She knew that she would eventually need to, but part of her was still processing the idea of disobeying the order. She didn’t like the idea of the Rebellion being such brutal torturers because the ideology was wrong. Isn’t that the type of thing they were fighting again? Alex had never been a fan of torture as it was the ideology that might made right, and though violence was part of the war they fought, that sort of brutality was never something she agreed to. As her mind pondered her body went to work executing the procedures to remove them from the Tower. The ship hummed to life and broke from the tower, gaining distance as the engines spurred up to full power. Lisa sat back in her chair, looking more nervous than focused and Alice wondered if it was the idea of being back in space or the fear of what the next few days would bring. Last time a Tillman had left with her, she’d only made it back by a prayer.

  “Lisa. Are you okay?” Alice said.

  “Yeah. I just don’t like the idea of leaving the Tower. I have a lot of work to do. “She said in a distracted tone.

  “Your knowledge is key out here. We’re going to a strange world to make allies and bring back their technology. Even with all the progress we’ve made, DNA manipulation is still limited. Aren’t you excited to see the results?”

  “Of course I am. I just…I have a feeling we’re going to war again.” Lisa said.

  “Well you’re not wrong. But don’t worry. I promise to keep you safe.” In Alice’s previous life as a human, she’d have hated saying such words. She hated promises because she felt that absolutes were a terrible thing to say because they couldn’t be guaranteed. Nothing in science, nature, or religion was promised and there was nothing anyone could do about that. That was the only thing she could ever promise was that she would do her best, but nothing turned out the right way every time. She looked over to Yegret, who was busy plotting a course. Some of the other technicians looked over at them as they worked, but they were focused on their own jobs. Alice hadn’t gotten to even know most of their names and she didn’t care to. That was less names she would have to remember to count amongst the losses she knew she’d endure.

  “Alice. Don’t make promises. Just…do your job and let me do mine.” The middle Tillman sister said. Her tone was off, and it seemed to Alice that she wasn’t trusting her. Alice didn’t know how to interpret the lack of trust and filed it away under something to be noted but not dwelled on. In her current state she did a lot of dwelling, and Project had told her that it wasn’t good for her. The A.I. had secured himself away aboard the ship, but hadn’t spoken to anyone. Alice had told her that she’d gotten permission to have him aboard and the A.I. had been quite pleased. She wondered just how much of a sense of adventure an A.I. could have, and assumed it was just as much as she was allowed to have. It would take a few days of travel to get to the outskirt of the planet, and Alice would spend as much time as she could continuing to plot away at the data she’d pilfered from the Tower’s systems.

  She counted a total of 24 soldiers and Fiora’s Paladins all equipped with advanced tools and weaponry. The armor on the soldiers was rudimentary and basic, painted crimson with the marks of the Rebellion on the surface. Alice was the only one aboard the ship that was properly armored for a Corporation assault, but she doubted she was properly armed in the way these men were. The standard Rebellion weapon was a slug-thrower that shot high-velocity anti-armor rounds to break through regular Corporation armor and damage any apparatus’s they may have equipped. Apparatus’s were the one tool that brought fear to any Rebellion soldier as they varied with the abilities they granted the wearer and mimicked the powers of super-human myths. The super-hero fad had started in the late 20th century and never faded from human memory, growing more popular especially as everyone moved in to space. The hope of finding a hero to save them from themselves was never far from mind, and now with the invention and creation of apparatus’s they had true-to-life superheroes.

  Only a few humans had been able to get them, but those that had were legends to the soldiers and were able to clear battlefields on their own if the need arose. President Tate had put out a cautionary tale to any Officers that relied on troops equipped with such that they were nice to have but the war wasn’t going to be won on the backs of one well-equipped person. Alice had agreed with him fully on that remark, remembering her own time as an apparatus wearer. Much of the same abilities her suit had granted her had been implemented in the drone body she wore now, but the extra immunity to human vulnerabilities gave her a further edge. She knew that her body would break down and be destroyed when the time came, but she doubted that it would happen in battle. The thrill of fighting a worthy foe was no longer one of her concerns and she wasn’t interested in any honor for slaying such a foe either. She needed to get a job done, and she was going to do it.

  The days progressed with almost no interesting occurrences, leaving Alice much time to herself. Lisa had begun work on another project she had found in the Library’s database and had given Alice no information as to what that was. Alice had only asked once and found that Lisa was not willing to discuss it with her, so she asked Project to find out for her. Project dismissed the request and told her it was nothing important and Alice had dropped the subject though she was quite aware that last time such a project had been started it was her new body. She left it alone and moved on to work of her own, categorizing the known Corporation Commanders and Officers placing them in the appropriate files. She had found that the Commander of the Battlegroup over Cydrak was named Azhulhand and that he was paired with the Fleet Commander Reinholdt. The two of them were a devastating pair and Alice wondered just what she was going to do to deal with them.

  The two of them had spent most of their career over Cydrak, breaking away from it to handle other disputes. The efficiency in which the duo destroyed their enemies allowed them to go right back to Cydrak without missing much of a beat. Stationed at one planet and yet they still managed to be responsible for countless successful raids and defenses. The Rebellion ships and soldiers that had encountered them were either destroyed or captured with little effort and they never allowed any of them to escape. The Eldritch Glaive was a ferocious vessel much larger than her own and the only hope Alice was able to find in escaping its wrath was a direct dive to the planet’s surface. She had talked it over with Lisa and Yegret, and the extreme danger in th
e maneuver was decided to be optimal over engaging the Glaive. Exiting out of faster-than-light and jumping straight into the planet’s gravitational pull would be incredibly stressful to the ship’s hull and engines, but it was more likely to survive that over an engagement with the masterful vessel guarding the planet. Lisa had warned them that the Glaive was equipped with enough sensors that the likelihood of them performing the maneuver unopposed was unlikely, but it still had a better chance of success than the other options.

  The decision was left to her like all important decisions were, and she made the plan to drop into orbit straight out of FTL and hope her ship didn’t rip apart. The astrometric data in the Library for Cydrak was limited and Lisa’s expertise with her programs did little to help predict the odds and after hours of discussion they decided the odds weren’t going to help them anyways. They were just going to have to try the maneuver and see what happened after that. Being disintegrated in space was starting to look like the outcome they could anticipate the most and Alice looked forward to testing their odds out. She’d never had much of the scratch-ticket-lottery luck and was willing to see how everything came together or busted apart. She orchestrated some meetings with her crew, trying her best to remember how to raise morale and failing stupendously. The best results she could hope for was keeping them faithful and full of hope, but many were more depressed and stressed after she left them. Fiora flat out refused Alice permission to speak with her troops and urged her to leave the motivation of people to people, not her. The rebuke left Alice with little desire to try to be an inspirational leader and instead caused her to spend more time holed up in her quarters away from everyone. She continued to play with the data and formulate new, more dangerous missions for her to undertake after they finished what they came to do. Every time she planned a new mission it was with a new crew and a different ship, like disposable razors she no longer needed everyone and everything was cast aside. She wondered how long it would take for them to fabricate her a new body and if it was possible to move her, she liked the idea of existing forever if she could. How else was she going to be able to destroy the Corporation in its entirety?