by J. N. Chaney
J. N. Chaney
Copyrighted Material
Lost Heritage Copyright © 2021 by Variant Publications
Book design and layout copyright © 2021 by JN Chaney
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from JN Chaney.
www.jnchaney.com
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Book Description
A war is coming.
Kainos is not the planet Exodus Ark colonists thought it would be.
It is inhabited by the Volcuri, a once thriving race who fell victim to the First and now fight for their very survival.
With the Ark unable to travel, its people have no choice but to stay and ally themselves with the Volcuri... or risk certain death.
Kent and his team must return to the surface and embark on a new mission: find a way to defeat the Turned and stop the First from taking them all prisoner as mind-controlled slaves.
Their hope lies in the lost history of the Volcuri’s past, but they only have one clue.
The mountain holds the key to survival.
Series By J.N. Chaney
The Variant Saga
Renegade Star Series
Renegade Standalones
Orion Colony Series (with Jonathan Yanez)
The Last Reaper Series (with Scott Moon)
The Fifth Column Series (with Molly Lerma)
Resonant Son Series (with Christopher Hopper)
Galactic Law Series (with James S. Aaron)
Deadland Drifter Series (with Ell Leigh Clarke)
Ruins of the Galaxy Series (with Christopher Hopper)
Ruins of the Earth Series (with Christopher Hopper)
The Messenger Series (with Terry Maggert)
Starcaster Series (with Terry Maggert)
Sol Arbiter Series (with Jia Shen)
Exodus Ark Series
Cyborg Corp Series (with Chris Winder)
Wayward Galaxy Series (with Jason Anspach)
King’s League Series (with Jason Anspach)
Orphan Wars Series (with Scott Moon)
Sentenced to War Series (with Jonathan P. Brazee)
Standalones:
Their Solitary Way
The Other Side of Nowhere
Forever Family
Contents
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
Epilogue
Exodus Ark Key Terms and Definitions
How to stay connected
Connect with J.N. Chaney
Join the Conversation
Series By J.N. Chaney
About the Author
1
Black Shield agents do not fail.
Battle raged all around me.
The Exodus Ark was on fire. Emergency lights flashed. The klaxon ring of alarms screamed out and clashed with screams from the fighting and dying.
I took it all in, frame by frame, with a sweeping gaze. My HUD showed my magazine only had a handful of bullets left, but there wasn’t time to swap it out.
The Flux were closing in.
One of the crew—former crew, anyway—advanced at a loping run. His legs were twisted at the knee, making a strange angle. It looked like the hind leg of a giraffe or horse. Inky black spittle leaked from his mouth, and he reached out with hands that had developed hooked claws.
Black Shield does not show mercy.
I pulled my combat blade from its sheath on my hip and vaguely heard it slide free with a familiar metallic whisper. In the same fluid motion, I raked the blade over, then through the Flux’s neck.
Their head toppled over and fell to the ground, but I was already on the move.
I was surrounded. To my right, a little farther down the corridor turned battlefield, Mitch and Noah fought back-to-back. Mitch grunted in pain and went down on one knee. One of the Flux saw their opportunity and surged forward. Noah spun around just in time to catch it with a quick burst of firepower that turned its head into a gray mist. Unfortunately, this left his back vulnerable. Another of the Flux, this one well over two meters tall and sporting bony spikes for hands, lunged. I didn’t watch the inevitable or ponder what was looking more and more like my people’s inevitable death. My focus was on where to strike first for maximum effect.
All I had to do was what I’d spent my entire life perfecting: kill. The only difference now was that I couldn’t let the enemy touch me. Still, I’d been in worse spots before.
At least, I thought I had.
Black Shield agents are focused.
I let the momentum of my swing carry me through and went low this time, separating the legs from another infected crew member’s body.
“Hit the ground!”
At the sound of Tara Perez’s familiar voice, I dropped and spun. When I looked up, it was in time to see my second in command squeeze down on the trigger of her battle rifle. I had to smile despite the death and destruction being waged in the corridor. The woman was a lot of things, and one of them was deadly with a firearm.
Her target never stood a chance. The rounds that ripped into it also tore it apart. Rather than removing the head, Tara simply dissolved it. What remained of the Flux dropped to the ground and didn’t move.
She nodded once at me before we were both consumed with eliminating the enemy again. Together, we made quick work of the remaining Flux until it was just us standing there, the bodies piled up around us in a grotesque floor mural. I grimaced at the sight of two familiar faces with empty eyes staring up at nothing.
Noah Oliver, my team’s tracker, and Mitch Collins, the former team leader.
A Black Shield Agent does not need friends or family.
Mitch blinked and sat up. “Damn. They got me again.”
The carnage shimmered and disappeared, revealing four empty walls in one of the holo decks. I’d worked with AMI to pull footage of the First’s attack on the Exodus Ark and create a training simulation for personnel that had not been awake during the event.
Personally, I would have preferred to teach them with real experience, the way I had learned, but the risk was too great. That, and we didn’
t have any Flux alive on the ship. But mostly the first part.
Noah scowled as he got to his feet. “Me too. That’s the third time this week. There are just too damn many of them.”
The haze of war still clung to me, and I took a couple of breaths to clear the last of it away. An unobtrusive pressure on my arm had me glancing over to see Tara regarding me with a watchful eye. It was one of the stranger things, at least by my standards, that the woman did. Well, not just her. Civilian reintegration training had emphasized that most people didn’t mind, and even enjoyed, physical touch.
But I wasn’t one of them. In fact, I was barely getting used to tolerating it after a life of avoiding such things. I nodded slightly, just enough to let her know I wasn’t going to lose it and punch someone in the face. It had happened once since coming back up from the first excursion to Kainos’ surface.
While I’d come a long way from waking up to find the ship overrun by an alien enemy, there were still times when something unexpected could trigger my ingrained fight response. That had been the case when I was doing an intense workout one evening. All of my focus had been on the simulation, and I didn’t hear one of the crew come in. The man tapped me on the shoulder, and, on reflex, I’d responded by clocking him in the face.
For me, there had been no fallout. Being the Chief Mission Ward came with certain perks, but additional exceptions were also made when said Chief Mission Ward was still learning how to be part of society. The man’s broken nose had been set to rights with one of the now up and running healing devices, but whenever I saw him after the incident he rushed by with his eyes aimed at the floor.
Applause from above caught my attention and pulled me the rest of the way back into reality.
“Why are they clapping?” I glanced at my team for an answer.
Tara shrugged. “We didn’t die.”
I gestured at Noah and Mitch, who were now back on their feet.
“Okay, we didn’t all die,” she amended. “Ergo, victory. At least in the eyes of our students. That, and you’re kind of a hero. Closest thing to a celebrity we have on the ship. For them, it’s like getting to watch an action star in a movie.”
She said students but what she meant was Exodus Ark Security Crew. Most had been pulled out of stasis in an effort to build up a defense in case the First showed up. Roughly half of the roster had some kind of combat experience—soldiers, cops, ex-mercenaries. The other half had originally come on the trip with the assumption they would be dealing with peacekeeping and paperwork, not fighting.
That wasn’t the way it had gone, but it couldn’t be helped. Rodon Corp hadn’t anticipated just how hostile the situation they were sending us into would be. While the company had known about the possibility of alien life, they expected us to find nothing more than some ancient artifacts and possibly the key to more advanced technology.
Some of that story still didn’t add up, but it was low on my considerable list of worries.
Tara nudged me and thrust her chin in the direction of onlookers in the observation bay.
I didn’t see any reason for the nudge and frowned. “What?”
“I think they’re waiting for you to address them, Chief.”
“Oh. Right,” I said, unsure what to say.
None of my previous instruction, with the exception of Tara’s “people training,” as she called it, had prepared me for teaching. I didn’t see the point either. Black Shield agents learned first through watching, then by hands-on experience.
I had to remind myself that the Ark’s crew were not like me. It should have been easy, but unedited people required me to look through a different lens and I was still adjusting to it.
“Take note of why Collins and Oliver were KIA,” I began.
I never got the chance to say why though, because a voice in my ear gave me pause. “Kent, Chief Petty Officer Avery Garnett’s body has been released for eradication. Your presence is required for signoff.”
It was AMI, the ship’s command AI. Technically, her name was an acronym that stood for Artificial Mission Intelligence, but all of the ship’s major—and most of the minor—functions were in her capable hands.
I finished addressing the crew. “Study the playback and figure out where shit went wrong. Then, practice together with your squad leaders. I expect each of you to log a minimum of three hours of practice each day. The rest of your time should be spent learning all you can about the First. That includes the Turned residing on Kainos. Future sessions will test your adaptability to more unknowns.”
With that, I went to the nearest wall panel and blacked out the observation window. This wasn’t my first training session and my rules were clear. If anyone lingered, there would be hell to pay.
“I’ve got to go,” I informed my team. “St. John released Avery’s body. Since I was her direct superior, I have to sign off.”
Tara looked up at the observation deck, then back to me. “Don’t get started without us. I’ll check in on our proteges first and make sure they’re on track. Some were awake during the attack and know what’s at stake. The rest only have video feeds and horror stories to go by, so I want to make sure they’re not slacking off.”
“Good idea,” agreed Mitch. “Noah and I will come with you, then we can go to the funeral together.”
Funeral? It was just the body disposal process. Then again, the response didn’t surprise me. I was still learning just how sentimental people could be, especially when someone they were close to died. I recalled the training manual had explained funerals were common for any loss of human life.
Nodding briefly, I exited the training room more than a little appreciative to have the three on my team still. I might not have understood all the social cues, but Tara had been an invaluable asset when it came to navigating the world of humanity. Like thinking to check and make sure the crew was doing what they were told.
For me, that was automatic. Or had been. There were a few instances in the past few weeks where my decisions had gone against the orders I’d been issued, but extenuating circumstances drove each of them.
“Are you alright, Kent?”
AMI’s voice in my ear again. It was almost soothing in its familiarity. I preferred the AI to most people because her “thinking” was more like mine. Hyper logical and analytical versus emotional and empathetic. Then again, I guessed that said something about me, something that bothered me but that I couldn’t put into words.
“Fine, AMI.”
“Don’t forget I can see your face,” she continued. “Micro expressions. They say you have something on your mind.”
I smiled a little. Or, the corner of my mouth twitched, which was close enough. “You’re right. I do. Lots of somethings, as it happens. Impending war, trying to keep the colonists alive, Makin and whatever else he has in his bag of tricks.”
“Alright, no need to be testy. I’m only trying to help.”
I detected the slight change in her voice. Was that hurt I was hearing? Of course, like me, AMI had undergone major changes recently and was sometimes prone to odd behavior. When DICK had gone rogue, his behavior had been murderous. Insane, even. AMI’s systems were scanned rigorously to make sure she wouldn’t suffer a similar fate. The scans came back clear, but AMI still acted differently.
I decided to err on the side of caution even if she wasn’t going rogue. “Sorry. I have months, if we’re lucky, to train people who’ve never held a weapon for war. The ones who know anything help balance things a little, but there are too many variables.”
AMI didn’t respond right away. I thought she might have gone for good when she spoke again. “Yes, this situation is far from ideal. However, remember this. When overwhelmed, it’s easier to break things down to manageable tasks. The immediate of those would be laying CPO Garnett to rest.”
“Right. Funeral. Final ceremony for the deceased. I’ve witnessed a few but never been part of one.”
“Go in prepared,” AMI advised.
I grimaced. “I know. Humans tend to get emotional.”
“They do,” she agreed. “But I was speaking of you. Try to show a little emotion, for the sake of your team.”
“Huh,” was all I could think to say to that.
2
Death came for all of us sooner or later.
Sure, you could put it off with advancements in medicine, by tampering with genetics, or by taking pains to be careful, but in the end none of that mattered. Death didn’t care who you were, what you looked like, or if you were a super soldier. Or if you were just a regular one.
That’s what I was thinking about when I looked down into Avery Garnett’s eradication pod with AMI’s advice, such as it was, still fresh in my mind. And felt… nothing.
I had been present for her death, a moment that evoked plenty of emotion at the time. Rage, guilt at not being able to save her, helpless against an enemy that killed from within. For the past month, her body had been in a cooler unit to allow Dr. Rhys St. John access for his research.
In that time, my focus shifted. Death was fleeting, something that barely registered in my thoughts unless the self-preservation instinct kicked in. I just didn’t understand the connections people fostered that made them want to prolong the event. Black Shield soldiers were easily replaced and died how they lived—out of sight and out of mind. We didn’t mourn because that took up valuable real estate in one’s psyche and could lead to mistakes in the field.
