by M. R. Forbes
“Negation. I won’t let—”
A loud crack sounded to Hayden’s left, and Max’s head snapped sideways. The bullet blew a massive hole in it, spraying gobs of the gel-like material that composed the Intellect outward. Max collapsed to the ground.
Hayden turned his head toward the shooter, eyes narrowing when he saw Bennett standing there, behind the wreck of a car, one of Hayden’s revolvers in hand.
“Don’t just stand there!” Bennett shouted. “Vyte is waiting for you.”
Hayden lunged at Krake. The Axon began spinning to face him, while Bennett swung his gun in Hayden’s direction.
He never had a chance to pull the trigger.
Bullets ripped into the car Bennett was standing behind, punching through the metal and tearing into the clone, taking him down.
Hayden charged forward, rushing Krake like a raging bull. Sheer willpower kept him up on his damaged leg. Sheer determination drove him at his enemy. The world ceased to exist around him. He didn’t see Nathan pushing through the vegetation on his left or Caleb approaching from the right. He didn’t feel anything except rage.
Krake continued to turn, raising its hand to fire an energy blast at him.
Hayden was already reacting, reaching down and hooking his damaged hand beneath the belt full of microspears. The augment’s fingers were missing, so he couldn’t grab them. The elbow was damaged, leaving his shoulder motion limited.
It had to be enough.
He yanked as hard as he could, tearing the belt from his waist and flinging it forward. The spears, dislodged by the sudden movement, tumbled free—thirty impossibly sharp points spinning toward the Axon.
The maneuver took Krake by surprise, one of the spears embedding itself in its palm, and causing a misfire that burned the Axon’s hand to smoldering ash. The rest of the microspears continued on their trajectory, a swarm of angry bees about to sting.
Krake turned away from the needles, too slow or too afraid to raise his shields. The lethal weapons sank through its Skin and into its flesh. Hayden was right behind them, the maneuver more effective than he had even hoped. He had his good hand around Krake’s throat before it could recover. He lifted it off the ground, turning to Nathan and the remaining Centurions.
“I don’t need to be the one to finish you off,” Hayden said to Krake. “Just so long as you die.”
He squeezed his hand, crushing Krake’s trachea before throwing the Axon forward. The Centurions didn’t hesitate to start shooting, their rounds drawing both blood and gel.
Krake hit the ground, shuddered and quit moving entirely.
60
Hayden
“Max,” Hayden cried out. “Max!” He stumbled forward and fell, crawling the two meters to where Max lay.
The Intellect didn’t move.
“Sheriff,” Caleb said, coming up beside him. The Marine looked almost as bad as Hayden felt, his face pale and sweaty, his body shaking beneath the Skin. “We have six minutes until the enemy ships arrive. We have to get out of here.”
“Max?” Hayden said again, resting his hand on the Intellect’s chest.
The Intellect remained still. And silent.
Caleb put his hand on Hayden’s shoulder. “Come on, Sheriff.”
Hayden nodded. “The portal.”
“What about it?”
“You know what. We need to go through it. That was the plan.”
“Sheriff, we’re in no shape to—“
“That was the plan,” Hayden pressed. “Krake was the gun, but he didn’t pull the trigger. Vyte did. I’m not letting him get away with this. With any of this.”
“Sheriff,” Nathan said. “We have a problem.”
Hayden turned to see Nathan kneeling beside Krake. He had opened the duffel, revealing random pieces of junk where the interlink should have been.
“Where’s the interlink?” Jesse asked.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Hayden said, staring at the garbage. “Krake killed Nat for the interlink. I thought Vyte needed it.”
“Vyte does need it,” Caleb said. “Which is exactly why it isn’t here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe Krake was originally going to bring the interlink through the portal. But the plan changed, probably because of Max.”
Hayden glanced at the fallen Intellect. “Max?”
“It’s only a theory, but Max calculated that we had a twenty percent chance of success with his help. Twenty percent sounds low, but it’s probably a lot higher than Vyte was comfortable with, especially since we had already managed to survive the xaxkluth attack in Sanisco. So he told Krake to redirect the interlink somewhere else. Probably somewhere one of the incoming ships can pick it up.”
“But Krake still came here,” Jesse said.
“Krake had to come here,” Caleb said, “or we would have known something was off. Think about it. Once Krake leads us here, the best case for Vyte is that Krake is on Proxima, Hanson kills us all, and everyone who’s managed to fight back against him is dead. Worst case, we’re standing here trying to work it all out while the interlink is headed off-world and out of reach.”
Hayden took a few seconds to consider the theory. The pieces fit better than he wanted to admit. He shifted his attention to his glasses, looking for Rico on the network. He needed to tell her to hurry to their position so she wouldn’t be left behind.
His jaw clenched when he discovered she wasn’t linked. “Has anyone seen or heard from Rico?”
“Negative, Sheriff,” Nathan replied. “Drake is missing too.”
“Drake didn’t make it,” Hayden said, his gaze drifting to Bennett’s corpse. He sighed in dismay. “Bennett would have had to leapfrog Rico to get here.”
“Do you think he killed her?” Nathan asked.
“Pozz,” Hayden replied, though the answer was sour in his mouth. “Just like he killed Max.”
“Clones can’t just decide to turn traitor and murder one another,” Jesse said. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“It can if the enemy has access to the cloning equipment,” Spot said. “And if that’s the case.” She shook her head. “Who knows how many clones were altered.”
“It just gets better and better, doesn’t it?” Caleb said.
“Parabellum, this is Stacker,” Nathan said. “We need immediate pickup. We’ve got four minutes to get the hell out of here.”
“On my way, General,” Isaac replied.
All eyes turned to Hayden, looking to him to tell them what to do next. His shoulders slumped in response, and he struggled to keep his composure. Even though they had won the fight, even though they had destroyed Krake, what had they really accomplished? The interlink was gone, getting further and further out of reach with each passing second. And they had no way to locate it.
Natalia would have had his head for giving in so easily to despair. She would have said this wasn’t the Sheriff Duke she had married.
And she would have been right.
He pushed himself back to his feet, turning to face them. His leg was still on fire, but he ignored it. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said, his voice firm. “Caleb and I will—“
He stopped speaking when he sensed movement behind him. He looked back just as Max sat straight up.
“Requirement,” Max said. “We take Krake.”
“Max?” Hayden said with a smile, a wave of relief flooding through him. “We thought you were dead.”
“Apologies. The attack damaged my neural pathways. I required time to reroute and reset. As I said, we require Krake’s cortex. I may be able to recover the data stream containing the fate of the interlink.”
“You mean read his mind?” Spot asked.
“Pozz.”
“How quickly?” Hayden asked.
“Unknown. It depends on whether or not the cortex remains viable.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“We’ll require another plan. Hahaha. Haha.”
“The portal,” Hayden said. “That was our plan. The interlink is worthless if we don’t know what to do with it.”
“Max was supposed to come with us,” Caleb said.
“Impossibility. I’ll open the portal for you, and close it behind you. General Stacker, you’ll carry Krake. I’ll carry the portal.”
“You want to take it with us?” Nathan said.
“Pozz. How else will they return?”
Max stepped over to the portal. He touched its base, and a projection appeared in front of it—a series of alien symbols floating in the air.
“The destination coordinates are already set,” he said. He tapped a symbol on the projection, which turned green.
Hayden felt the charge in the air as the portal began drawing power. A chill washed over him, and the view past the frame of the device was replaced with what appeared to be a small, dark storage room.
“Where is that?” Caleb asked.
Hayden shrugged. “Wherever it is, it’s where we’re going.”
“With one arm and one leg?” Caleb said. “No offense, Sheriff, but you look like hell.”
Hayden smirked. “No offense, Colonel, but so do you. My leg will heal. And I only need one arm to kill Vyte.” Hayden turned to Nathan. “Nate…”
“Go,” Nathan said. “Find General Haeri. Unpack Card’s head, figure out how to kill these bastards and get back here. We’ll have the interlink by then. I promise.”
The Parabellum appeared overhead, descending on the other side of the spheres near the dead remains of the reaper horde.
“That’s it,” Hayden said, facing the portal. “Caleb, it’s just you and me.”
“Roger, Sheriff,” Caleb replied. “Let’s do this.”
Hayden limped forward, bending over and retrieving one of the microspears on the directly in front of the portal. He tucked it in his coat pocket as he straightened up, sparing one last glance back at Max. The Intellect nodded in encouragement. Hayden had no idea what they were going to do on the other side or how they were going to do it, but he was determined to get it done.
Whatever it took.
“Sheriff, wait!” Spot said.
Hayden found her near Bennett’s remains. She had picked up Hayden’s revolver from where Bennett had dropped it and tossed it to him. He caught it in his good hand, slipping it into its holster.
“Thank you kindly,” he said.
Then he looked back at the portal.
And stepped through.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading Isolation. Since you made it this far, I’m guessing you enjoyed the book, and the series so far.
AWESOME!
The next book in the Forgotten Vengeance series is called Damnation, and it’s coming soon. Want to know when it’s available?
mrforbes.com/damnation
New to the Forgotten Universe?
Forgotten Vengeance is one of a growing number of series based in the Forgotten Universe, and contains characters whose origins are fleshed out in earlier novels. You can get a breakdown of series by chronological order, published order, and main character at mrforbes.com/forgottenuniverse.
Want to know when my next book is out?
If you’re enjoying Forgotten Vengeance, I’m sure there will be more to come that you’ll also enjoy. Sign up for my mailing list and be one of the first to know when I have a new book out. You’ll also have a chance to participate in giveaways, get discounted books, and continue to support my work.
BONUS: get a free short story, exclusive to e-mail subscribers.
mrforbes.com/notify
Reviews
Reviews are so important to us authors. We rely on readers like you to help provide social proof to other readers that our work is worth picking up (especially for the first book in a series). If you think I’ve earned a ‘tip’ for my work on Forgotten Vengeance, please consider dropping a review on Amazon for Invasion and/or isolation today.
mrforbes.com/reviewinvasion
mrforbes.com/reviewisolation
Thank you again!
Cheers,
Michael.
Forgotten Universe
The Forgotten Universe is still growing! Whether this is your first series in the universe or your fourth, there may be more books featuring your favorite characters - Sheriff Duke, Caleb Card, John Washington, Nathan Stacker, and more that you haven’t met yet.
mrforbes.com/forgottenuniverse
Other Books By M.R Forbes
M.R. Forbes on Amazon
mrforbes.com/books
Forgotten (The Forgotten)
mrforbes.com/theforgotten
Some things are better off FORGOTTEN.
Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him.
That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content.
Until a malfunction forces his Engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.
Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.
Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.
The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.
Until now.
Deliverance (Forgotten Colony)
mrforbes.com/deliverance
The war is over. Earth is lost. Running is the only option.
It may already be too late.
Caleb is a former Marine Raider and commander of the Vultures, a search and rescue team that's spent the last two years pulling high-value targets out of alien-ravaged cities and shipping them off-world.
When his new orders call for him to join forty-thousand survivors aboard the last starship out, he thinks his days of fighting are over. The Deliverance represents a fresh start and a chance to leave the war behind for good.
Except the war won't be as easy to escape as he thought.
And the colony will need a man like Caleb more than he ever imagined...
Earth Unknown (Forgotten Earth)
mrforbes.com/earthunknown
A desperate escape to the most dangerous planet in the universe... Earth.
Nathan's wife is murdered. The police believe he's the killer, and why wouldn't they? He's a disgraced Centurion Marine pilot, an ex-con, and an employee of the most powerful crime syndicate on Proxima.
The evidence is damning. The truth, not as clear. If Nathan wants to prove his innocence and avenge his wife, he'll have to complete the most desperate evasive maneuver of his life:
Steal a starship and escape to Earth.
He thinks he'll be safe there. He's wrong.
Very wrong.
Earth isn't what he thinks. Not even close. What he doesn't know isn't only likely to kill him, it's eager to kill him.
If it doesn't?
The Sheriff will.
Starship Eternal (War Eternal)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)
mrforbes.com/hellsrejects
The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.
Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected Marines in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.
Not for long.
The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.