by Richard Fox
“What are you doing here?” Hoffman asked, one eye on King as he spoke to the team, their faces growing longer by the second.
“You ever heard of an orbital assault that didn’t take casualties? I asked for reassignment to a combat hospital. I’m not a board-certified trauma surgeon, but I’m value-added in the operating room. Besides, I’m sick of backwater and safe assignments.” She raised her braced arm and flexed her fingers. “Bad enough I washed out of armor. I’m not going to finish the war shoveling manure in Louisiana.”
“Is that…Patton?”
“Brains and brawn.” She winked at him. “Do me a favor, don’t get dragged into my OR on a gurney. Don’t want to see you in a professional manner. Got it?”
“I can promise, but it won’t be up to me if I end up lying,” Hoffman said.
“You got that big doughboy to take care of you.”
“We take care of each other. Always have and always will.”
Masako patted the duffle between them. “Want some shut-eye?”
“You see my Marines sleeping?” Hoffman stood up, feeling aches and pains growing down his back and his legs.
He went to the loose circle his team had formed around King. Gor’al, Opal, and Steuben made for unusual additions to Valdar’s Hammers, but he wouldn’t trade them out for anyone.
“It true, sir?” Max asked. “We’re going to the main event?”
“We are. Don’t have much else in the way of details,” Hoffman said.
“So much for my plans to help out with Masha’s interrogation in Hawaii,” Garrison said, catching more than one raised eyebrow from his team. “What? A guy can hope, can’t he?”
“We need equipment and an operation plan,” Steuben said.
“Why?” Duke spat into a plastic bottle. “We didn’t have either and look how well we did back there.”
“Is that more Earth humor?” Steuben asked.
“It is.” Hoffman rubbed the bridge of his nose. “No rest for us this time, Hammers. Steuben, you still with us?”
“If you are going to kill Kesaht, then I will fight beside you until the last of them lie dead at my feet,” the Karigole said.
“I am not sharing a foxhole with him,” Garrison mumbled.
“If the Dotari Marines recall me,” Gor’al said as his quills bristled, “I will pretend a dog ate the message. That is an acceptable excuse for humans, yes?”
“Then we’re together.” Hoffman looked at Opal.
“Opal with sir. Always.”
“Always.”
Epilogue
Medvedev stood in a small room, his hands clasped behind his back, the satchel over one shoulder. Adams was behind him, one foot in a polymer cast.
“I hear them coming.” Medvedev turned his head to look over his shoulder. “Remember what to do. What I told you.”
“Of course, sir, but if I hadn’t—”
“That’s enough, Legionnaire. I was in command and that is the end of it.”
Doors slid open and two hulking guards in ornate armor and polearms filled the doorway. Medvedev and Adams went to one knee, right forearm braced over their thigh, the other fist to the ground. Cold crept into the room and Medvedev cast his eyes downward.
Frost bit into his ears and jawline as a pair of silver feet beneath a gray robe entered his field of view.
“You return,” Stacey Ibarra said. “But you return…missing something. Someone. Someone I needed.”
“The Akkadian Lilith still lives, my Lady,” Medvedev said. “The Terran Union is evacuating Eridu as we speak.”
A metal hand carved into a perfect facsimile of a woman’s reached under Medvedev’s chin but stopped short of touching him.
“Look at me, warrior,” Stacey said.
Medvedev lifted his gaze and tears froze in his eyes as he saw Stacey Ibarra’s perfect—but still—face clad in silver.
“You did not return with the Akkadian.” The words came, but her mouth did not move.
“No, my Lady. I have failed you.” Medvedev tried to look away, but a touch from a freezing fingertip kept his eyes up. “I cannot be forgiven.”
“It is my fault, my Lady,” Adams said. “I…hesitated when ordered to kill a Union Marine.”
“Adams,” Stacey said.
“You know me?”
“I know all my children. You were rescued from the gallows on Mars. Once a Strike Marine. The one you didn’t kill…you were close to him?”
“Once my team leader, yes, my Lady.”
“The order was wrong,” Medvedev said. “The Marine was honorable, had helped us defeat the Beast and saved all our lives. I countermanded the order. Had I not done that, Legionnaire Adams would have done as Masha wanted. Adams is of the Nation. She is true.”
“I believe you,” Stacey Ibarra said. “Would killing that Marine have changed the mission?”
“No, my Lady,” Medvedev said. “The Akkadian was treacherous. There was no way I could stop her from capturing Masha. I chose to abort, return with what I could.”
“And what did you bring me?” Stacey moved her hand from his chin to the satchel. A globe glowed within and floated out, levitating just over her fingertips, humming as a golden lattice formed around it.
“My, my…this is special,” Stacey said. “An ignition device. I can use this. Yes, the mission was not a total loss.”
“And a copy of the Akkadian archives.” Medvedev held up a data drive from the satchel. “Masha gathered all she could.”
“She died?” Stacey took the drive and her fingers molded into the access ports. Screens flashed across her exposed shell.
“Lesser Strike Marines would have killed her,” Medvedev said. “I believe Hoffman too honorable for that. Masha is a prisoner of war. The Union will murder her simply for existing.”
“And they will pay for that death a hundredfold,” Stacey said. “But Masha sent back some of what I needed. It seems the final task is at hand, and I must do it myself. Do you believe in fate, Medvedev?”
“I believe in you, my Lady.”
“And I in you, my child. You’re reassigned. I have something special in mind for you. Adams…will return to the Legions.”
Stacey left and heat slowly seeped back into Medvedev’s flesh.
Adams sniffed and wiped a sleeve across her eyes.
“I didn’t…I didn’t think she’d be like that,” Adams said. “So beautiful. So perfect.”
“She loves us,” Medvedev said. “We cannot fail her again.”
“If I’d shot Hoffman, we would have the Akkadian here for the Lady, wouldn’t we?” she asked.
“I doubt that. Hoffman would have honored the deal, you know that. You know him.”
“The deal was not for us to leave with the Akkadian. Masha was playing him along, and he fell for it. I failed the mission. Next time, I will not hesitate,” said the former Strike Marine. “If I must, I will kill Hoffman and all the rest of them. For the Lady. For our Nation.”
“For us all.”
THE END
The series concludes in GOTT MIT UNS, coming early 2019!
FROM THE AUTHORS
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Read THE EMBER WAR for Free
The Earth is doomed. Humanity has a chance. Read where the saga began!
In the near future, an alien probe arrives on Earth with a pivotal mission—determine if humanity has what it takes to survive the impending invasion by a merciless armada.
The probe discovers Marc Ibarra, a young inventor, who holds the key to a daring gambit that could save a fraction of Earth's population. Humanity's only chance lies with Ibarra's ability to keep a terrible secret and engineer the planet down the narrow path to survival.
Earth will need a fleet. One with a hidden purpose. One strong enough to fight a battle against annihilation.
The Ember War is the first installment in an epic military sci-fi series. If you like A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo and The Last Starship by Vaughn Heppner, then you'll love this explosive adventure with constant thrills and high stakes from cover to cover.
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EMBER WAR UNIVERSE SUGGESTED READING ORDER
The Ember War Saga: Volume 1
The Ember War
Iron Hearts-Short Story (BookHip.com/FCAZPA)
The Ruins of Anthalas
Vent Rats-Short Story (BookHip.com/FCAZPA)
Blood of Heroes
Earth Defiant
The Gardens of Nibiru
The Battle of the Void
The Siege of Earth
The Crucible
The Xaros Reckoning*
The Anvil-Short Story (https://www.scifireads.com/exclusivecontent)
The Kesaht Conflict: The Ember War Saga Volume 2
Schism-Short Story (BookHip.com/FCAZPA)
The Iron Within-Short Story (BookHip.com/FCAZPA)
The Dotari Salvation
Iron Dragoons
The Ibarra Sanction
The True Measure
Rage of Winter
A House Divided
The Last Aeon
Valdar’s Hammer
The Beast of Eridu
Ferrum Corde (Coming soon!)
Gott Mit Uns (Coming 2019!)
*The Terra Nova Chronicles (Read after The Xaros Reckoning)
Terra Nova
Bloodlines
Redemption’s Shadow (Coming Soon!)
